Episode 790 - Jennifer Coolidge
Marc:All right, let's do this.
Marc:How are you?
Marc:What the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fucking ears?
Marc:What the fucksikins?
Marc:What the fuck nicks?
Marc:What's happening?
Marc:My name is Mark Marin.
Marc:This is my podcast.
Marc:You're listening to it.
Marc:I call it WTF.
Marc:That's what it's been called since the beginning.
Marc:Even before, back before we even knew that it would become what it is.
Marc:There was a reason for it having that name.
Marc:And that reason dissolved away in terms of what the show was and turned into whatever it is now.
Marc:It's like a long time ago already.
Marc:Man, been a long time.
Marc:We're coming up on 800 episodes.
Marc:It's crazy.
Marc:800 unique episodes.
Marc:Never missed a Monday or Thursday to put new content into your head because myself and my producer and business partner, Brendan McDonald, are compulsive workaholic people that need to keep moving and keep doing it and staying on top of it and making new stuff.
Marc:It's what we do.
Marc:Speaking of new stuff, is everybody all right?
Marc:We okay still?
Marc:Are we okay?
Marc:Just remember, there's a difference between normalizing and trying to function.
Marc:Remember that.
Marc:No normalizing, but do try to function.
Marc:Please.
Marc:Don't give yourself cancer.
Marc:Don't start drinking again.
Marc:Don't start doing heroin for the first time.
Marc:Don't lean into the bad stuff that's annihilating.
Marc:Stay in the saddle.
Marc:Just make some space in your mind and your life to live it.
Marc:Look, but I'm just talking from experience.
Marc:Someone brought fucking donuts to my house this morning.
Marc:I stay the fuck away from donuts.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Because I know there's no end to that.
Marc:No end.
No.
Marc:to a donut when there are several more and stores in the neighborhood and around the country.
Marc:Right down the street, I got Donut Friend, the guy from Drive Like Jehu, Mark Trombino.
Marc:I believe he was the drummer.
Marc:He's got this donut place down there.
Marc:They make basically donuts filled with whatever you want.
Marc:It's all different shit.
Marc:So I had a meeting over here at the house with some people and some guy.
Marc:As a kind gesture...
Marc:Brings a box of varied donuts with stuff in them.
Marc:And my reaction is never correct in those situations.
Marc:You know, it's a nice thing the guy did.
Marc:There's several of us there.
Marc:And I'm like, why?
Marc:Why would you do this to me?
Marc:Why, why, why are you trying to kill me through either artery clogging or shame?
Marc:I don't want to strangle myself with my inner shame rope today.
Marc:But I hadn't eaten donuts in a long time, so I ate four of them.
Marc:And that's where I'm at right now.
Marc:I'm still kind of in the middle of the buzz.
Marc:So I'm going to try to.
Marc:But my point is, it does feel some days where I'm just sort of like, I don't know what's going to happen.
Marc:Let's just do all the bad shit that makes me feel good.
Marc:Why the fuck not?
Marc:But there are better things to do.
Marc:Stay in the saddle.
Marc:Take care of yourself.
Marc:Stay vigilant.
Marc:Stay focused.
Marc:I know a lot of people want to know how they can support charitable causes, which I think is good.
Marc:It's better than killing yourself with donuts.
Marc:Maybe a healthy mix.
Marc:Donuts and charity is good.
Marc:But there's a way to give support to organizations that are protecting people and protecting our freedoms.
Marc:And I'll tell you what we use here at the show.
Marc:And this is not a paid plug.
Marc:This is not something they asked us to do.
Marc:They don't know that we're doing it.
Marc:We just think it's a great tool and you can use it too.
Marc:We use charity navigator.
Marc:You can enter an exact charity or just search by keyword and they give you a very detailed breakdown of the best charities, including how much money goes directly to services,
Marc:And Charity Functions.
Marc:It's actually a really great site.
Marc:Charitynavigator.org.
Marc:And they have nothing to do with this show.
Marc:I want to make that clear.
Marc:And again, they have no idea we're giving them a shout out.
Marc:But they're important.
Marc:They're non-profit.
Marc:And they can help you help other people.
Marc:Help your fellow humans.
Marc:Feels good to give.
Marc:Today on the show, Jennifer Coolidge, the very funny actress Jennifer Coolidge.
Marc:You know her from a lot of the Christopher Guest movies, from American Pie, but she's definitely a memorable presence.
Marc:She's hilarious, and I was always curious to talk to her, so she's here today.
Marc:But speaking about busy, about doing stuff, about things done...
Marc:Glow, the gorgeous ladies of wrestling.
Marc:The show I did with Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin and a bunch of other people for Netflix is premiering June 23rd.
Marc:Seems so far away.
Marc:But I'm excited about it.
Marc:You know, I've done a little ADR work where I go in and redo lines or this or that.
Marc:And I see little bits and pieces of how the show looks.
Marc:And I'm very excited about it.
Marc:It's going to be a great show.
Marc:So look forward to that.
Marc:Netflix Glow on Netflix is premiering June 23rd.
Marc:Dig it.
Marc:I'll be in Ridgefield, Connecticut at the Ridgefield Playhouse tonight to hang out with you guys.
Marc:I'll be at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire tomorrow, Friday, to hang out and talk about things.
Marc:Get some laughs, hopefully.
Marc:Work through it.
Marc:Rise above it.
Marc:I'll be in Montreal, the Olympia de Montreal, on Saturday in the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on Sunday, which is sold out.
Marc:You want a little cat update?
Marc:I can give you that.
Marc:Buster Kitten is doing well.
Marc:I think he's somewhat of a genius.
Marc:I've decided that he's part Abyssinian cat because of his face and his ears and his long body.
Marc:He fetches and brings back what you throw, which is, I've only had one other cat like that, Fat Moxie.
Marc:And he also seems very thoughtful and on top of things and chaotic and a fucking pain in the ass.
Marc:Monkey and LaFonda, a fine deaf black cat, persists, exists, and seems to be eating well out back.
Marc:Scaredy Cat 2 is up front a lot now, replacing his predecessor, who tragically was hit by a car not long ago.
Marc:And that's what's happening in the cat land.
Marc:What am I reading?
Marc:What am I listening to?
Marc:How am I finding enlightenment?
Marc:Well, oddly...
Marc:I've been reading this book, Altamont, The Rolling Stones, The Hell's Angels and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day by Joel Selvin.
Marc:And it's fucking great.
Marc:Like it gives all the forces that converged on that concert where that guy was stabbed by the angels.
Marc:A lot of us have seen the movie.
Marc:A lot of us know the rough sketch of what happened.
Marc:But how the San Francisco was involved, how the dead was involved, how the hippie thing converged with the biker thing and the badass thing.
Marc:And then the stones just starting to emerge as the version of the stones that became...
Marc:The greatest rock and roll band, the biggest rock and roll band in the world at that time.
Marc:They hadn't toured the states in three years.
Marc:But it also there's something about all the different angles that are approached in this book and all the research that was done about the shifting.
Marc:of the sort of peace and love 60s into the just dark, evil, speed-driven chaos that kind of put the nail in that era's coffin.
Marc:But it's great, man.
Marc:Especially if you're a rock fan, especially if you want to know the whole story and how it worked culturally and just how jarring.
Marc:It was just crazy how that concert came to be.
Marc:It wasn't the plan, man.
Marc:So Jennifer Coolidge is fun, man.
Marc:It's fun.
Marc:She's right now in the cast of Two Broke Girls, which is in its sixth season on CBS.
Marc:It airs on Monday nights, but you know her.
Marc:You know her from a lot of stuff.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:This is me and Jennifer Coolidge.
Marc:you know you talk about stuff that's a downer and you like talk about your depression stuff like that but you don't act depressed i mean you don't well i'm a comedian so you know i've figured out a new language for it i mean i imagine that if you listen to a lot of funny people i mean if you just turn the knob a little bit you're like no this guy's sad and fucked up thank god he's got a good disposition chipper attitude about it
Marc:no i don't sound sometimes i can sound heavy-hearted but i i have uh i have i fight a fight against that when i feel it because you can feel it you can feel like it sort of drop out and it's like a fear thing you know like when i gotta travel i'm like i instead of like get depressed or freak out or i get full of dread but then i just i get i get angry and i get you know just crazy i go that way i try not to go to the oh god i don't like that i don't like that place right there like i don't know what's gonna happen
Guest:Yeah, that's me.
Guest:I'm just very, I go low energy where I just like, yeah, I flatline.
Guest:Do you?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Marc:But do you, are you able to, are there people that are able to get you out of it or how long does it go on for sometimes?
Guest:Oh, forever.
Guest:You've always had it.
Marc:You've always had the darkness pervading or around the corner or weighing down.
Guest:Yeah, I think what happens if... I heard there's a book written about the overly sensitive kid.
Guest:And I think that's who I am.
Guest:I think, you know what I mean, just a horrible way to live because...
Guest:So much of the stuff has nothing to do with you, and yet you feel every cricket in the room that can't get out.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:You're so busy feeling everyone else's feelings.
Guest:You're exhausted, and it's not even your stuff.
Guest:Right, and a lot of it you might be making up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You are so right about that.
Guest:I'm sure.
Marc:Look at that.
Guest:You're right.
Guest:You're absolutely right.
Guest:I projected all this stuff onto the cricket and he's fine.
Marc:Yeah, he's not even paying attention.
Marc:He might be as happy as he's ever been.
Marc:He might be having a good day that cricket.
Guest:Yeah, no, I was talking to Rachel.
Guest:She works for me in New Orleans.
Guest:Just this amazing young girl that is so much more capable than I am on every level.
Guest:And so it's just really she should be, you know, I should be her assistant.
Guest:And that's for sure.
Guest:But there's always time for that.
Guest:There's always coming.
Guest:Yeah, coming.
Guest:You've had a good run.
Guest:I mean, I don't even get a run.
Guest:I have like, I have someone, they're my assistant for one day and they decide that they're superior to me in every way.
Guest:And you know what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:There's nothing you can do about that because it just shows how smart they are.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They're like, oh my God.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I can get a handle on this lady.
Guest:well just feel i you know they i feel they feel better you know they they're like oh i can run this because she's not doing it she's not doing it but yeah i was on the phone with her and i guess you know i have this house in new orleans and she's down there and um i don't know someone uh someone want to use the house for a photo shoot or something and yeah um
Guest:And they were sort of after they sort of agreed to it, they wanted to change the price of it or whatever.
Guest:And I was like, oh, and I was like talking to her or whatever.
Guest:And she's just like, you know what?
Guest:We don't even need to have this conversation, Jennifer.
Guest:Just like, no, just say no.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Oh, and I'm like...
Marc:Well, that's the problem.
Guest:You know, try to take her down this long train ride or whatever.
Guest:And then she's just like, no.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just say no.
Guest:Like, it's just so simple.
Marc:And you were worried about putting the photographer out, I imagine?
Guest:Yeah, because I guess we'd had them one time before.
Guest:Yeah, and they're not even from this country.
Guest:I don't know them.
Guest:There's no relationship.
Guest:But somehow I go into this whole thing.
Guest:Oh, and he'll be sad and he won't be able to do that project.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:It's the same thing we were just talking about.
Guest:That's sensitivity.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But you're right.
Guest:It could be all wrong.
Guest:It could be like, you know.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:They'll probably get over it.
Guest:Oh, I think they're over it.
Guest:I mean, I don't.
Guest:Yeah, you're right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So sad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I guess there's self-importance in that too, in there too, right?
Guest:Where you like.
Guest:Yeah, I think so.
Guest:Where you think that you know what everybody's feeling.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And also I think there's probably like some sort of weird, it gives you the illusion of not really control, but at least a little bit of control.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It's probably pretty complicated.
Marc:I have it too.
Marc:You know, like you were coming over, I get concerned.
Marc:Yeah, I want to make sure the bathroom's relatively clean.
Marc:I straighten the pictures on the wall.
Yeah.
Marc:I don't want you to walk in and be like, wow, what the fuck is this?
Marc:Who is this guy?
Marc:I don't know you.
Marc:I kind of know you.
Marc:We have common friends.
Marc:I've built a relationship with you through your work, but that doesn't mean anything.
Marc:So I was nervous, and I assumed the...
Marc:Not the worst, but you never know.
Marc:I feel like it's good, though.
Marc:I feel comfortable.
Marc:You?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I would have to say that you give off the exact opposite, that you don't really... You know, you're kind of like, hey, come on in and... Well, what do you... I gotta... I mean, your bathroom is very clean, but I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised if it wasn't just because of how casual you're... Well, it's probably been worse.
No, it's been worse.
Marc:Here's literally what I go through sometimes when I have particular actors and actresses over is like, for instance, Annette Bening came over here.
Marc:And I don't know where I have her.
Marc:I idealize people.
Marc:I put people on pedestals, almost everybody in my mind, right?
Marc:So now I got to worry about the bathroom because Annette Bening's going to use the bathroom.
Marc:You're going to use the bathroom.
Marc:It looks fine.
Marc:It's a bathroom.
Marc:But here's what I always think when I have actors over.
Marc:It's like, they've shit in port-a-potties.
Marc:How are they going to judge my bathroom?
Marc:We're actors.
Marc:We've been in that horrible trailer bathroom.
Marc:We're grown people that have been around.
Marc:We've gone to the bathrooms in bad places for all kinds of reasons.
Guest:That's true.
Guest:I mean...
Guest:I would rather go out in the woods than those porta-potties.
Guest:I mean, if they were just like, Jennifer, the woods is over there.
Guest:There's something about like, there's like 12 of them in a row.
Marc:Yeah, the worst.
Guest:And they have like a window to the other person next door.
Marc:Yeah, you can hear everything.
Guest:You can hear everything.
Guest:And it's just like, how could anyone like feel...
Marc:Relax.
Marc:Exactly, not relax, but also there's no movement.
Marc:They've haunted me forever.
Marc:There's nothing more nauseating to me really than those things.
Marc:It's horrible.
Marc:It can ruin an entire... See, this is the horrendous obstacles people in show business have to hurdle.
Marc:Just like the realities of like, all right, I need to go to that port-a-potty.
Marc:Oh, the light's on in that one.
Marc:And I think the grip is in the next one over.
Marc:I don't really know him.
Marc:But now we're going to have a very intimate experience.
Guest:Also, you can't see the bottom.
Guest:And who knows if there's someone down there or not.
Marc:Oh, really?
Yeah.
Guest:Wasn't there like a horror movie where the guy was at the bottom of the port-a-potty?
Marc:Sure, there's a horror movie and it was also, I think, there was an Auschwitz movie where some kids hid in there.
Marc:It's not a good place.
Marc:And then there's that horrible movie with, it's not a bad movie about the miners.
Guest:Were they in the port-a-potty?
Marc:Well, it was just a terrible, brutal.
Marc:It was with that actress who was in Monster.
Marc:Oh, Charlize?
Marc:Yeah, Charlize was in it.
Marc:And her dad was a miner.
Marc:And then she wanted to be working the mine.
Marc:And she was a woman.
Marc:And then the guys were, you know, they were bullying the women.
Marc:And then one woman was in a port-a-potty.
Marc:So they turned it over with a tractor thing.
Marc:And it was terrible.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:I don't know why.
Marc:What's going on?
Marc:So we've established that we don't like porta potties.
Marc:I apparently will.
Marc:I'm able to use them if I have to.
Marc:My bathroom is nicer than that.
Marc:And that I give off the I'm pretty relaxed.
Marc:But, you know, I just want to make sure things are nice for people.
Guest:But just know if you did it or if you had a cleaning, they do it.
Guest:Just know your bathroom does look really good in there.
Marc:Well, thank God.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because I only have the one bathroom.
Marc:This is a small house.
Marc:That's the other thing.
Marc:I have insecurity about the size of my house when people come over.
Marc:Because I could probably be in a bigger house, but there's only the one bathroom and the two bedrooms, and there's no way to sneak away.
Marc:You're in there with my products.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Did you think I was going to lift maybe?
Marc:There's nothing to lift unless you need antifungal cream for athlete's foot or some medications of some kind.
Marc:Nothing exciting.
Guest:A friend of mine was telling me how he has this friend that had this snake named Violet that he kept in the bathroom and it was sort of coiled up next to the toilet and
Guest:And I just thought like, he was like, you'd get in the bathroom and you'd like sit on the toilet and he goes in and you look down and Violet would be staring at you.
Guest:A snake next to the toilet.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He said it was just that Violet had this look on her face like, I don't know.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And I just thought like, to me that like, you got to have like a snake next to the toilet to really bum me out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I did a movie once where the snake, the stunt snake, Peaches, it was like this movie with Jared Hess, and the snake was really good for the first part of the day.
Guest:And another guy had it around his neck, and then at one point, the guy I'm dating, and at one point it comes over and sort of like supposed to sort of mount my boob.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But somehow, Peaches got this weird look on her face.
Marc:The snake.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were like three quarters of the way through the day, and I was like, yeah, Peaches looks different.
Marc:There's something up with Peaches.
Marc:And my boobs are about to be involved.
Guest:Yeah, and I guess, I forget how it went.
Guest:Peaches didn't bite me, but it went...
Guest:A little bit sour.
Guest:And I just remember, like, you know, they have YouTube has all these videos of snake modeling things where it goes horribly wrong.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:So it can go wrong.
Marc:I didn't know those existed.
Marc:I don't know why I assumed they wouldn't.
Marc:I guess I never really thought of it.
Marc:But everything worked out with you and...
Guest:yeah i mean i yeah i didn't get bit or anything but i remember just how like it had you know you can look at the you can look his face got different halfway through the day you know he just started to look like well you know i've had enough of this and you know you don't blame them you know what i mean like it's it's not it's not what the snake signed up for he didn't sign up no this is not what life of a snake is supposed to be no no so how'd you end up going finding a house in new orleans why'd you choose there
Guest:Mainly, I don't know if I really would have discovered New Orleans if it hadn't been for my sister going to Tulane and I went down to visit her a few times.
Guest:Years ago?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was just blown away by it's sort of this undiscovered secret.
Guest:I mean, of course, more people, it's catching on so that more and more people are figuring out how cool it is.
Guest:But yeah, I really fell in love with it and became obsessed with it.
Guest:And every time I had a break on a job, I would go down there and look at real estate.
Marc:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Actually, I saw a house in the French Quarter that had never been messed with.
Guest:And it was, you know, just just so interesting.
Guest:And, you know, with the shutters and everything, everything.
Guest:And so I became obsessed with like finding something.
Guest:And eventually I found a house and I have it and I go down there on my, you know, I'll work like three weeks on here and then have a week off and I go down there.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And that works for you?
Marc:You're able to just walk right in?
Marc:Just like, you know, everything's there.
Marc:You got someone working for you down there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Got the food in the fridge when you get there.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it really brings you, like, peace and... Yeah, and it's sort of the opposite of here.
Marc:You know, it's sort of... I dream of getting out of here.
Marc:All it would take... Yeah.
Guest:But this feels... I feel like your house... I feel like I'm kind of away from the hustle and bustle.
Marc:Yeah, I don't enter the hustle and bustle much, but there's...
Marc:It starts to eat at you somehow, this city.
Marc:I'm not sure because everybody loves Southern California and L.A.
Marc:'s got this reputation.
Marc:And yeah, there's a lot of good things about it.
Marc:But something eventually just starts to creep you out.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You know, it's hard to explain.
Marc:Like I lived in New York a long time and I knew exactly what it was.
Marc:I didn't get creeped out in New York.
Marc:There was just too many people right up on me.
Marc:And here, like it just gets to the point where you're like, I don't need this every day.
Marc:This guy is right next to my face, you know, because you're on the train or whatever.
Marc:But here, I'm not sure what it is.
Marc:The traffic really existentially bothers me.
Marc:I can't get around it.
Guest:Look, I don't like traffic, but there's other stuff that is actually a bigger bummer, I think, than the traffic.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:You said to me, it's a lonely city.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:If you're single, especially.
Marc:If you want to hang out with anybody, it's a big fucking ordeal.
Marc:You got to plan a week ahead.
Marc:It's hard to be spontaneous.
Marc:Like in New York or something, probably New Orleans, it's like, yeah, I'll walk over.
Marc:I'll meet you there in 10 minutes.
Marc:I can be over there.
Marc:Here it's like, oh, fuck.
Marc:So you want like seven tonight?
Marc:It's two now.
Marc:I should probably leave now.
Guest:No, you're right.
Guest:There's no spontaneity.
Guest:I was saying to Rachel in New Orleans, I was saying to her, it was like 8.30 on a Monday night, and I was like, do you think if we threw a dinner party tonight, anyone would come?
Guest:And she was like, she's always very positive.
Guest:She's like, yeah, I think yeah.
Guest:The next thing you know, like...
Guest:You know, we've assembled 10 people on a Monday night.
Guest:I don't think I could ever make that happen here.
Guest:No.
Guest:It just wouldn't happen.
Marc:Hardly anyone comes over here.
Marc:I mean, they would.
Marc:I mean, you came.
Marc:They'd come to talk to me on the mics.
Marc:How long have you been out here?
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:I came out here.
Guest:Oh, I don't know.
Guest:Like early eighties didn't work out.
Guest:Wasn't, didn't go so well.
Guest:I went to an acting school out here or whatever.
Guest:And then I left and I came back, I think 1990 and I've been here ever since.
Marc:Well, you know, you're a special person and you're very known and you have a certain place in the comedy hierarchy as being a uniquely funny person that does something that no one else does.
Marc:And it's a great thing.
Marc:So, like, I want to hear why it didn't work out because that sounds like a great story.
Marc:But I want to know, like, where do you come from?
Marc:Because I can't even identify.
Marc:Like, if I were to try to guess where you come from, I wouldn't even know.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Yeah, I couldn't.
Marc:To me, you're a person that just appeared here on the landscape of comedy in Los Angeles.
Marc:I'm having a hard time picturing you as a person in a place when you were younger.
Guest:Well, I grew up in Sweden, and I was a famous stand-up in Sweden.
Marc:No, you weren't.
Guest:No, it's boring.
Guest:I'm from Norwell, Massachusetts.
Marc:Where's Norwell?
Marc:I know Massachusetts pretty well.
Marc:I started my comedy career.
Guest:You went to BU, right?
Marc:I went to BU.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I think we're probably around the same age-ish.
Guest:Yeah, yes, yes.
Guest:I think we are, yeah.
Marc:So, okay, so then we're probably around, like, okay, let's go through it.
Marc:What's Norwell near?
Guest:uh it's on the south shore oh it is uh like going toward the cape it's right next to like cohasset oh really cohasset yeah do you grew up on the beach no it's just no we no actually we were on like a little a little like river my father my father and mother actually sort of got it right and actually picked a great beautiful little spot that yeah it was on a river and stuff but no i wasn't doing a comedy thing at all i was just kind of
Guest:really a lost soul for a long time.
Guest:Didn't really know what I wanted to do.
Marc:Driving around, drinking, smoking cigarettes.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Hanging out with guys.
Guest:I was Jennifer.
Guest:Jennifer.
Guest:Jennifer.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was like, yeah.
Guest:And I was just like, I have really bad circulation, so I'm always cold no matter where I'm at the beach and I'm cold.
Guest:So it was really the wrong town to be in.
Guest:And yeah.
Guest:I would stand at the bus stop, and I remember I was only seven years old, and I'd click my heels together, and I'd be like, God, please get me out of this town.
Guest:I'm so cold.
Guest:Didn't work, huh?
Guest:Don't go on here.
Marc:How many siblings you got?
Guest:Oh, I got a brother and a sister, and a sister is down there in New Orleans.
Marc:Oh, she lives there?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, she fell in love with a guy down there.
Marc:Oh, so you got family there.
Marc:That's nice.
Guest:So that's, yeah, and actually her house backs up to my house.
Guest:It's very weird.
Guest:She bought a house, didn't know that her house, it's a weird story.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Somehow she didn't know that her house backed up to my house.
Guest:Anyway, it does.
Marc:It's wild.
Marc:It just worked out that way?
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:So Boston is so specific.
Marc:That area, the South Shore, is so specific.
Marc:There's such a specific kind of person that I was in that area for six or seven years.
Marc:And there's a lot of, like, Jennifer.
Marc:Like, there's a lot of that.
Marc:Like, would you go get clam rolls and stuff?
Yeah.
Guest:that's all we did smoke cigarettes and and yeah and clam rolls lobster rolls no but i do like that new england i do i have to say there's something about like the new england guy girl that just like there's just like you say they they don't know how to edit and you felt like they were always answering honestly yeah everything that they're like
Guest:yeah, we're not going to stay here because it's just not fun at all.
Guest:Your house isn't fun at all.
Guest:You just always knew where you stood and everything like this.
Guest:And it's like, I think that's why, maybe that's why L.A.
Guest:is hard because, you know, I don't know.
Marc:You never know where you stand.
Guest:Yeah, I don't know.
Guest:It's such a guessing game here.
Marc:But yeah, you're right.
Marc:New England, and they're a little tough...
Marc:They're kind of hard to get.
Guest:Yeah, but pure.
Guest:There's something so like.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know what it is about the Bostonian lifestyle whatever that makes you so unable to schmooze.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Or something.
Guest:Right.
Guest:They don't have this schmooze factor at all or any way of like, it's sort of.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And they're all pretty, you know, I don't want to generalize, but I always met really good people, but they are kind of, you know, they're a little rough.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:You got to keep up.
Marc:You can't be too soft.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No, but they're very innocent in some weird way.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:There's a very regional feel to it.
Marc:It's very provincial, all that.
Marc:You know, a lot of people don't go away.
Marc:They stay there.
Marc:They don't, you know what I mean?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And when you go away and come back, they're like, what'd you do?
Marc:What'd you do out there?
Marc:Is it terrible?
Marc:Those people are fucked up.
Guest:No, you can go back there any time, even now.
Guest:It's all like that.
Guest:You can still party.
Marc:You can party any time.
Marc:Plenty of partying going on.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So what did you do?
Marc:Did you study acting in college?
Guest:I did, yeah.
Guest:I went to Emerson for a while.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But were you there with Dave Cross and those kind of people?
Marc:Was there anyone there that we know now?
Marc:Dennis wasn't teaching there yet.
Guest:I think Dennis was kind of a hot shot when I was there.
Guest:But I wasn't there very long, and I kind of fell in love with a guy at the school, and I got there.
Guest:That wasn't very good.
Marc:So when he left, it was kind of like... Not a good situation.
Yeah.
Guest:Well, just not, you know, I don't know.
Guest:I think it was time to, you know, look, I'd been in my, I spent my entire life in Boston and it was time to go, I think.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I thought, well, you know what?
Guest:I've learned everything I need to know.
Guest:I'm going to go to L.A.
Guest:and be an actress because, you know, you can study it all you want or whatever.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, and of course, I flew out here and I became, you know, went to an acting school out here.
Marc:Which one?
Guest:It doesn't even exist.
Guest:I guess it's in Hollywood now, but it used to be up in Pasadena.
Guest:It was called the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Guest:It was the only way I could really get my dad to help me out with- Moving and stuff?
Guest:Yeah, just living.
Guest:If I'm in a school, my father always used to say, Jetty, if you want to work on having a saleable skill, I'll always support that.
Marc:What was his saleable skill?
Guest:He manufactured plastic and fiberglass.
Marc:Just raw stuff so people can make.
Guest:Yeah, for like Boston Whaler, all that kind of stuff.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And your mom, what'd she do?
Guest:And she was really kind of a housewife.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But, you know, he, it's interesting because he ended up being this, you know, incredible environmentalist, you know, just so worried about the environment.
Guest:And, you know, he was like talking about global warming, you know, way before anyone else was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Sort of interesting that he started off, you know.
Marc:Was he still around?
Guest:No, no, he passed away last summer.
Marc:Sorry.
Guest:But he made it, he was like one month shy of 95.
Guest:Oh my God.
Marc:That's a pretty good run though, 95.
Guest:That is a pretty good, yeah, I mean, just think about like.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I think of like my life, I got like 40,
Guest:something year what 40 40 years to go hopefully i mean i mean of course i don't like if there's no way i'm gonna make you know not after all those clam rolls and cigarettes right no um no but you know i just uh you know who lives that long anymore i you know i mean i think it's really hard some people are well i don't know so people i think are living longer
Guest:They are, but I think 95 is hard to get there.
Marc:You've got to have the genes to do that, but maybe you got them.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:He did say to me that he said he thought the 80s were excellent.
Guest:He thought the 90s were overrated.
Marc:Overrated.
Guest:I think he thought the 90s were a little bit rough.
Guest:But...
Guest:But, you know, he even like, you know, when he got this sort of deadly cancer at the end, he was like, you know, I'm really, Jenny, I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.
Guest:I'm just very excited about the next.
Guest:I mean, I've never heard anyone say that.
Guest:I've just.
Marc:At any age.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I can't wait for that next.
Guest:He's very.
Marc:Got a good disposition.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and was just convinced that, you know, a really fun thing comes after this.
Marc:Yeah, maybe I hope he's right.
Guest:Yeah, I do too.
Marc:So you came out here and you were at the American Dramatic Arts School.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, and it just, like, you know, after the school, after my little stint at the school, I came down and moved on to, you know, first I went to Venice Beach and lived there and that was kind of a disaster.
Guest:And then... And you were like 20?
Guest:How old were you?
Guest:Yeah, I was like 20, you know, I was like... I was dating this guy and his...
Guest:brother's parrot was loose in his apartment so that like it didn't matter where you were in the apartment it would eventually just fly over you and like just you know dump on you yeah I just remember like being in this like
Guest:apartment in venice covered in like just parrot dung and thinking like this wasn't what i not the plan this wasn't what i had in mind but yeah so what did that guy do
Guest:He was a waiter.
Guest:We both were waiters at a restaurant in Venice Beach.
Guest:So then eventually I left with my tail between my legs.
Marc:It's funny that everyone has that first L.A.
Marc:Some people come here and they never leave, but I know a lot of people that came and that were spit out one way or another, either by themselves.
Marc:Because you come out here with this idea...
Marc:that you're going to do this thing.
Marc:And then you get out and you realize, like, it's very spread out.
Marc:And, you know, how do you get into this thing?
Marc:And where the fuck am I?
Marc:And then you just get defeated and you get a job and you have no idea how to make any headway.
Marc:And you end up just, like, drinking or in an apartment with a parrot.
Marc:And you, like, have that moment where you're like, this, this, fuck.
Marc:There's no way to get in.
Marc:No.
Marc:So you leave and you go back home?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they're like, Jennifer's back.
Guest:What is that parrot shit on your jacket?
Guest:No, but yeah.
Guest:So I came back.
Guest:Yeah, I came back and it was really depressing.
Guest:I remember I worked in this weird weapons lab.
Guest:It was like a photo lab where they did... I think it was called Raytheon.
Guest:And they make... I think they manufacture weapons.
Guest:But I couldn't believe that I went from...
Marc:parachet to weapons photos.
Guest:Yeah, and that was like, yeah, so that was, but you know, I don't know how I was able to turn it all around and went to Manhattan for a while and oh yeah, and then I went to rehab when I was like 27 and I think that really.
For what?
Guest:um for for booze no man well it was really actually cocaine oh yeah yeah so you're doing blow down on the cape no i went to manhattan and then we were doing a lot of it there oh really yeah and then it was like living the life huh yeah living the wow that was so glamorous so glamorous how long did it take for you to hit the wall
Guest:Um, well, let's see.
Guest:It was like, I think it was like a downhill ride from like 20 to 27.
Guest:I think it was kind of.
Marc:Oh, that's a pretty good run.
Marc:So you went to Manhattan, were you like 21?
Marc:And you were, what were you doing there?
Guest:Where were you living?
Guest:I think it was like 20, yeah, from 23 to like 27, I was just really just, you know, I worked at, you know, people know this story, but I worked at this restaurant called Canistels on 19th and Park.
Marc:Canistels, I remember that place.
Guest:And Sandra Bullock was like the hostess, and I was one of the cocktail waitresses.
Guest:And sort of interesting, the whole place was sort of, everyone was an actress that was waitressing.
Guest:And then, yeah, the shift would go from like 5 p.m.
Guest:till 2, and then 2, the night begun for a lot of us.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And New York enables you because everything's open to like four and then reopens at five.
Guest:Or it doesn't.
Guest:Yeah, stuff doesn't close too.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, so that was really.
Marc:Were you acting at all?
Guest:No, but I was telling everybody I was acting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, well, I'd be like, I was auditioning, so I'd be like, oh, yeah, I'm really close on this stuff.
Guest:Nothing.
Marc:Nothing.
Guest:But yeah, it just wasn't going well.
Marc:So how hard did you, what made you check into rehab?
Marc:Did your folks step in?
Marc:What happened?
Guest:Oh, I was so glad.
Guest:A friend of mine that lived a couple blocks away sort of saw, I think I went to the emergency room a bunch of times.
Marc:Thinking you were dying or with what?
Guest:No, I think I called him when I was always, I used to call him when I was in there
Guest:and say like, you know, I really blew it again, Stephen, you know, whatever.
Guest:But eventually, you know, it took, you know, I don't know, three or four times he was like, all right, I'm calling your parents.
Guest:And he did call my parents.
Guest:And my poor innocent parents from Massachusetts.
Marc:Drove up.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:They just had no idea.
Guest:And one time my sister said, I went to visit her down in New Orleans, and she was like,
Guest:Oh my God, Jennifer, your head is too big for your body.
Guest:And...
Guest:That's not nice.
Guest:But she was right.
Guest:You know, yeah.
Guest:I mean, you're just like someone like that actually knew you had the guts to say something.
Guest:But anyway, yeah.
Guest:So this friend of mine, Stephen, like called him up and said, you know, you got to come down here.
Guest:And so they, you know, put me in a rehab out in Minnesota and everything.
Guest:And I got sober.
Guest:And thank God for that because, you know, it was sort of life changing.
Guest:I kind of got my...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My act together.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's a horrible moment, that moment where you get so submerged in a lifestyle that you begin to think like, well, this is how I'm living.
Marc:Like you lose touch with how other people live and then you go visit somebody or somebody visits you and they're just sort of like, what the fuck?
Yeah.
Marc:And you're like, what?
Guest:I know, right?
Guest:But you know, the thing was, it wasn't, you know, I think it was like I was feeling sorry for myself because my dreams, my dreams weren't happening.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, but then, you know, how can you really pursue them when you're like, you know, partying every night?
Guest:And you know,
Guest:I, you know, Sandra and I weren't great friends.
Guest:We weren't like, you know, but I have to say she was like, she was actually doing it.
Guest:She was actually doing the life.
Guest:She was, she was actually like, I'd run into her at auditions and stuff, but she was, you know, she had it together.
Guest:She at 2 a.m.
Marc:She went home and prepared for her audition.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would just be like, well, let's see.
Guest:It's 6 a.m.
Guest:Should I go home or just go right to the audition?
Yeah.
Guest:Or where you go into an apartment building and everybody is going to their jobs.
Marc:Oh, the worst.
Guest:And you're like in your black dress, your high heels.
Marc:Walking out to a new day after you've been up all night is really one of the worst fucking feelings in the world.
Marc:I cannot watch a sunrise for any reason.
Marc:I just can't, even if it's pretty, I can't like that feeling of like not sleeping.
Guest:I know.
Marc:And just knowing like you're fucked.
Marc:No drug is going to help you.
Marc:You're just fucked for a day or two.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But it is weird too because I have such judgment about it now.
Guest:Like, you know, if I like...
Guest:You know, if I'm in a bathroom and someone is like, and I'm waiting to use it, and someone's like, you know, do you want me to leave a line in there?
Guest:You know, I love doing Legally Blonde.
Guest:You want me to leave a line in the toilet seat or whatever?
Guest:You're like, no.
Guest:No, you know, and you're like, that drug is awful, and it leads to terrible things.
Guest:Did you say that?
Guest:No, but I mean, you're thinking like, how could I have liked it for as long as I did?
Guest:Because it...
Guest:Like, you don't really get anything out of it except, you know, weight loss.
Guest:Weight loss.
Marc:You can drink more.
Marc:And for about an hour, it's spectacular.
Guest:It is spectacular.
Guest:It is for... I say 30 minutes is good.
Guest:You're 30?
Guest:30 minutes?
Guest:And then you're chasing it.
Guest:But it is weird that, like, I could have gone that long.
Guest:Because it's... You think I would have woken up one day and just said, like, this is so nowhere.
Marc:Oh, man.
Guest:And I...
Marc:When I was in Boston, man, I was working at like up in Coolidge Corner, you know, like a restaurant.
Marc:And I would work the shift for dinner.
Marc:And then I just remember like we all had to wear these polo shirts.
Marc:There was red and green polo shirts that said Matt Garrett's on it.
Marc:But then if you just went back and changed into your regular shirt, you could just go sit at the bar.
Marc:So like I'd work the shift and I'd change my shirt and I'd close the fucking bar.
Marc:and then blow all your money right oh yeah you just spend all your tips yeah at the bar yeah and maybe get a half gram of blow yeah and like and I was doing like it wasn't even New York I was doing blow in those towns where you grew up like I get jacked and go do stand-up and then drive around New England it was just like and you're probably funny that's the weird thing I felt I felt like I was never interesting or funny ever on that stuff I was very intense I think annoying would probably be a better word
Guest:Well, don't you think everyone's annoying when you're, if you're not doing it and you're sitting with a bunch of people that have done it, you're like, you are all so full of crap.
Guest:You are all so full of, and it's so nowhere.
Marc:Like it skeeves me out to talk about it.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I do too.
Guest:I just got the creep.
Guest:I just got the, like the.
Marc:Just those like all night sessions.
Marc:You're just hanging out with people because they have drugs, you know, like, and you're just talking to people and it's going nowhere.
Guest:It's going nowhere.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And then you don't feel time going by anymore and you're drinking.
Marc:It enables you to drink more than you could ever imagine.
Guest:Right.
Marc:And then all of a sudden it's like 4.30 in the morning and someone's like, should we get some more?
Marc:And you're like, yeah, probably.
Marc:What do you think is going to happen?
Marc:That was the other thing is what can you do below?
Marc:It's like any second something's going to happen.
Marc:Nothing ever happens.
Marc:No.
Marc:End up having horrible sex with somebody for too long.
Yeah.
Guest:I always thought that was weird, though, that guys would supply cocaine for girls to have sex with them.
Guest:I always thought for a lot of us girls, that's the last thing you wanted to do.
Guest:The minute you started, you were like, by the way.
Guest:i'm never we are doing and yeah like i i feel so incredibly not what you think i'm feeling i mean i just i don't want to i don't want to do any of what you think and the fucked up thing about that like that sex is like the guy's all jacked up you're jacked up your mouth is always dry everything dries out and then and then like if you end up doing it you know the guy it's like you know then you got to like try
Marc:try to fucking get it up and you don't even want to be fucking.
Marc:And then it's just like this nightmare of like, it takes too much effort and it just, you know.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But this is the great thing about, no, no, I know how you have the creepies right now, but let me tell you, this is what's great about it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:That you and I aren't going to, after this, go try to score a half gram of blood or an eight ball.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And like, you know what I mean?
Guest:Like I would, I think as an older person, that would be a real bummer to be,
Marc:Doing that still?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Guest:I mean, you know what I mean?
Guest:Because a lot of people, they discover it much later in life.
Guest:And they're like, oh, wow.
Marc:And it's still going on, right?
Marc:I'm so out of the loop.
Marc:I think it is, yeah.
Marc:I know.
Marc:Yeah, it definitely is.
Guest:I mean, there's two girls going.
Guest:Like, sometimes when I go out, you know, to a...
Guest:I don't know some you know even a restaurant sometimes when two girls go into the stall together it's like well you know I don't think they're brushing each other's hair yeah I mean it could be but I always feel like they're you know doing a bump doing a bump and it's just it's yeah I just you know like I said that's the good thing it's like I'm not that I'm really done with that it feels very far away to me but all right so you go to Minnesota and you clean up and then what you come back out here
Guest:Yeah, I came back out here.
Guest:Came back in 1990.
Guest:And thank God, I think people always say to me, do you have any advice as far as I can, and I think it's like, if you get in some program or some place where you're on a stage, I think that's the way to go, even if no one's going to the show.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Guest:But I went to the Groundlings, and that sort of changed my life.
Marc:So what year was that?
Guest:Like 90.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:So you auditioned to be in the Groundlings.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was doing it.
Guest:There was a little smaller thing.
Guest:It was called Gotham City.
Guest:It was on the East Coast.
Guest:And then I came out on a vacation.
Guest:I saw what the Groundlings was.
Guest:And I was like, oh, I want to do this show.
Marc:Who was in it when you saw it?
Guest:Julia Sweeney was in it and she did some amazing characters.
Guest:I think Kathy Griffin was in it.
Guest:I think a bunch of Lisa Kudrow.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:All I know is that I was like, when I saw those shows, I was like, this is what I want to do.
Guest:And then my timing was kind of good.
Guest:I was in, you know, we were all, it was like.
Marc:Did you take classes first?
Guest:Well, I was just finishing.
Guest:I only had like two to go and then I ended up in the Sunday company and the main company.
Marc:You mean the ones you took in New York counted?
Guest:Yeah, they counted a couple of them.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And then New York said I sucked and then the woman that I kept getting as the teacher was like...
Guest:I'm sorry, Jennifer.
Guest:I'm going to have to repeat you because you really don't seem like you know what's going on.
Guest:And she was kind of right because... What is repeat?
Marc:Oh, you had to take it again?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I think what she was picking up on, too, was like...
Guest:you know, if you get sober at 27, but you've sort of fried yourself, I think.
Guest:I couldn't, like, it's really a true story.
Guest:Like, you had to have, one of the first things you do on the ground is you have to be able to come up with some sort of activity while you're talking to someone.
Guest:And I'm not kidding, for the first, like, two years, the only, I'd be on a golf course and I would be stirring a bowl of batter with a spoon.
Guest:I'd be talking.
Guest:All I could think of was, okay, I got a bowl and a spoon.
Guest:Stirring the batter.
Guest:I could be on a ship and I'm stirring.
Guest:I'm not steering the ship.
Guest:I batter.
Guest:and uh why that one i don't know it was just uh and i couldn't i could never think of anything else and then uh so maybe that's why she repeated me a bunch of times but she's just waiting for you to change up the behavior maybe fry an egg yeah yeah please jennifer my god space work come on make something with that batter this year
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But then I guess they didn't know about that at the West Coast ground.
Guest:I only had one sort of... You were the batter girl?
Guest:Yeah, they had no idea.
Marc:So you brought the batter out here?
Guest:I did.
Guest:Yeah, and then it was really exciting times.
Guest:It was Will Ferrell, and it was Sherry Oteri, Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell.
Marc:Oh yeah, I've had a lot of them on here.
Guest:Yeah, really exciting times.
Marc:And how does it work?
Marc:You get the main stage show, or what?
Guest:Yeah, once you're in, yeah, once you're in.
Guest:The only thing I always think is that the Sunday show is so exciting because you didn't know if you were in.
Guest:And I think there's something so exciting when you're... Why is that?
Guest:How did the Sunday show work?
Guest:I don't know if anyone's told me that.
Guest:Well, you can get kicked out of it.
Guest:And so there's something really great about, like, once you're into the main show... Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I always felt like my material was less interesting because you're in.
Guest:They can't kick you out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I felt like when you're trying to win everyone over and get their votes, you're pulling out all the stops.
Marc:For Sunday.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So this cast decided who was in and out?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The actual cast, which is really scary because-
Guest:i had all my eggs in one basket i was thinking the batter basket yeah i had all my eggs in the batter basket i was like if this doesn't work out no because i was i realized this is what i wanted and um i wanted it more than anything and i was like i made all these deals with you know god yeah i did i really did i was like hey you can get me if i get into the ground i swear to god i will never ask for anything ever yeah this is what i you know yeah this is it this is it you wanted to be a comedic performer
Guest:I just wanted to be in that... I don't know.
Guest:I felt you could go to your crappy job and just... I don't think I was a great writer, but I had a really good ear for exactly what someone said to me.
Guest:And I always had these really condescending bosses, and I could remember exactly their wording and everything.
Guest:So I would just write it all down immediately and then just put it on stage at the ground.
Guest:So I got out all of my...
Guest:anger and everything by just recreating these you know people that made my life difficult really those were your characters yeah and it was just yeah i mean you just got you know it was something so freeing about doing the people that you felt like were you know torturing you you know and so those were how many characters did you create
Guest:Oh, you know, you create, I don't know, like 30, 40, 50 at the ground.
Guest:And then like, there's only like, I don't know, like there's probably 10 good things that you do or, you know, and then, and then you can save them later for, you know.
Marc:Do you remember some of them other than the condescending boss?
Guest:Well, you know, I babysat for a woman in Beverly Hills and she was very, very condescending and she was very anal about like,
Guest:things that i touched yeah that you know like my i had a paper plate and the kids had glass plates and everything that i touched had to be disposable i mean you know it was very strange but but you know but she was so eccentric that everything she said was so it was beyond condescending it was just like you know the you know like there was different water for the kids and there was for me it was like arrowhead was like for me and the
Guest:I don't know, the Evian was for the kids.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Stuff like that.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:It was just very condescending.
Guest:But, you know, if you can remember that stuff and then people give you credit and they say, wow, I love the, you know, I think you can really write.
Guest:And it's like, I really wasn't, I don't think that's what it was.
Guest:It's just recalling.
Marc:That was somebody I met.
Guest:Yeah, recalling stuff.
Marc:But you learned how to improv.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I don't think I was never the great, like no one ever went like, holy crap, Jennifer, that improv you did with Will Ferrell, I'll never forget how brilliant your lines were.
Marc:That was never, you know, I wasn't the... People always say that you had great timing and that you had a unique sort of approach to comedy.
Marc:I've heard a couple of people say that in here.
Guest:I mean, I think I was kind of different, you know, and I always have, my take is probably weirder than other people's on a lot of different things, but I was never the quick, I wasn't the ping pong ball that you couldn't see because it was going so fast.
Marc:Right, right.
Guest:I was always envious of those people, you know, that could just like, you know, rapid fire.
Guest:Like Kathy Griffin was always so rapid fire.
Marc:Yeah, but that's not you.
Marc:And like the fact that you sort of go almost the opposite direction is even funnier.
Marc:The amount of space that you can take in some characters is hilarious.
Guest:right but the problem is it's not even like a it's it's just i got nothing but yeah i know but that's all right i'm flatlining at that moment don't give me credit because it's like i just i have like i don't even have thoughts that's your style yeah yeah it's just you just go brain dead for a few seconds
Marc:And then you come back around.
Guest:See, I like that because when you say that's your style, it looks like it's a chosen thing.
Guest:I like that you assume I chose.
Marc:I don't know that anyone chooses their style.
Marc:I think the best thing that can happen is you come into yourself and you find your confidence in whatever the hell it is that you are and you just do that.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it's like, I don't know that anyone, people who choose their style, that doesn't add up to much.
Marc:It's like a gimmick.
Guest:Right, so it should be more called like accident.
Guest:Accident that you are able to utilize.
Marc:So did SNL ever come around?
Guest:yes yes they did they did yeah yeah and it was a very funny thing because what happened was we all flew out together who uh let's see it was i think it was me and chris katan i saw him last night oh did you yeah at the comedy store oh really he was doing some benefit show i was on i hadn't seen him in a while saw him on a plane once he seems okay
Guest:Yeah, he's a great guy, actually.
Guest:He was really, really nice to everybody, I thought.
Guest:Yeah, he seems like a nice guy.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I knew him quite well, too.
Guest:You know, we dated for a while.
Marc:Yeah, back in the day?
Guest:Yeah, the day.
Guest:Boy.
Guest:Back in the day.
Guest:No, but I have to say, he's one of those guys that you did, and if people ever ask me about him, I'm like, it was a really nice person.
Guest:It wasn't like, I don't have, usually you know your exes, you're like, ugh.
Guest:But he was really a really nice guy.
Guest:But we all flew.
Guest:I was like, me...
Guest:Sherry O'Terry, Will Ferrell.
Guest:I forget if Chris Parnell was on that first trip, but anyway, we all went out and auditioned, and I couldn't tell if it went really well, but there was a manager that actually Lauren led into the auditions, because he, I don't know how he got in, but anyway, he went, and he sort of reassured me that my audition went really well.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But then we got back and then we were all told, we all got word at the same time that we were all going to be on hold for like three months.
Guest:I had just gotten a new agent at this small agency and he was like, you know, Jennifer, I got that phone call from Saturday Night Live today and they want to put you on hold for the next three months.
Guest:Just like everybody else.
Guest:And he was like, and I think that's outrageous.
Guest:And I'm going to tell them that...
Guest:They either make up their mind today or we're, you know.
Marc:We're not doing it.
Guest:Yeah, we're not doing it.
Guest:We're not doing it.
Guest:You know, we're not doing it.
Guest:We're out.
Guest:He's like, yeah, he's like, yeah.
Marc:He's going to make his move.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Hardball.
Guest:Yes, he did the hardball move or whatever.
Guest:And, of course, everyone else agreed.
Guest:Everybody's people were just like, but my guy said no.
Guest:And then, of course, they were like, well, you know, absolutely not.
Guest:You can't wait.
Guest:We're not making a decision.
Guest:So that was that.
Guest:Then, like, two weeks later, I call my agency, and I'm like, you know, can I speak to Jeff or whatever?
Guest:And they were like, ugh.
Guest:Yeah, Jeff is no longer with the agency.
Yeah.
Guest:and I'm like he's not with the agency and then I find out from another agent he like he went into his like his family's meat business the guy who fucked your SNL up yeah I mean like well I mean it just just goes to show now this is where you know
Guest:you know, I was in my 30s at this point, but this is where, like, if I had just been smart, I would have just fixed this myself and called up and said, look, I had a crazy agent, made a bad decision.
Guest:But it's so weird how, like, you think everything is set, when back then everything was so big and dramatic, and you're like, oh, I just, I could have just, you know, I could have fixed that immediately and just said, yeah, I'm back in.
Guest:I'm back in, and you have three months to decide on me.
Guest:take your time yeah yeah but you didn't no because i because you know like so many mistakes i've made in my life but that just not having the guts to just you know they don't know what they're doing this a lot of these days i mean they're guessing too they're like no one knows like i think a lot of time we have to sort of take things into our own hands and just fix them oh absolutely sit around and be like and i hope it all works out yeah i hope
Marc:Well, you immediately surrender so much power to these representatives because you assume they know.
Marc:But a lot of times they're just trying to get their own traction.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And they're just like, you know, feeling their own way.
Marc:And then you just get you don't even know what they do when you're not there.
Marc:Like, you know, why didn't I get that?
Marc:Like, oh, you weren't right.
Marc:But they might have thrown you under the bus.
Marc:You never fucking know.
Guest:no yeah no you know plus people love i love how people get really confident they're like let me tell you how we're gonna do it yeah we're gonna tell them yeah we're gonna tell them yeah you are not gonna wait but then what happens is it's like it's their performance for the for five minutes yeah and then they're like i don't even know if i feel comfortable talking like this but it sounds right and then
Guest:But you know what I really want to do?
Guest:I want to go into the meat business.
Marc:The meat business.
Guest:And then you're like, ah, shattered dreams.
Marc:But anyway, it all worked out because... It's so funny because of all businesses, like that's the agent.
Marc:That's the guy who puts your career in, in the hands of that guy.
Marc:And it's like, the meat business?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Is it like it was just, it was that or the meat business?
Guest:Yeah, his family's meat business.
Guest:But I mean, you know, he...
Guest:You realize people, when you're an actor, a lot of people, they're the reason you get a job or you don't get a job.
Guest:Yeah, absolutely.
Guest:You're in their hands.
Marc:So what happens?
Marc:That never came back around, I'm guessing?
Guest:No, it didn't.
Guest:No, that's not true.
Guest:I think I flew in one other time and tried to take a meeting with Lauren.
Guest:There was one time I flew in just for a personal meeting.
Marc:How was that?
Guest:It was fine, actually.
Guest:I thought it went pretty well, but I don't know.
Guest:I think at that point...
Guest:I'd kind of lost my, I don't know, you have all your friends and everyone's trying to get into this thing.
Guest:I don't know, it's sort of, I feel like the moment had passed.
Guest:And so I went back to the ground and I was just doing some shows there and then Christopher Guest came to one of the shows and then my life sort of went that way.
Guest:And actually, I think in certain ways it was probably better for someone like me
Guest:I don't know if I could be like a Tina Fey where you're just writing these sketches for 18 hours a night.
Guest:Think of what she was writing all that stuff and creating it all and acting it.
Guest:I don't think I would have been able to... It might have crushed you.
Guest:I don't think I could have done it, to be honest.
Guest:I think I would have failed.
Guest:I don't think I would have... I think I wasn't... Maybe not built for it.
Marc:And you hadn't done... Were you doing little walk-on shit?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, actually, my sort of big break was I got an episode of Seinfeld.
Guest:And then that same day I booked Seinfeld, I got this series called SheTV, which was like a woman's sketch show, and that died very quickly.
Guest:But then...
Guest:Then I think, yeah, really Seinfeld started.
Guest:Then somehow I got American Pie and all of that stuff.
Marc:Do you think you were getting typecasted at some point?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:I mean, that's what happens.
Guest:You get like the 12 scripts on your doorstep and they're all the same lady.
Marc:The weird sexy lady?
Yeah.
Guest:I guess, you know, sort of, yeah, like trophy wife girls was happening.
Guest:And then, you know, Legally Blonde sort of helped me get a little bit out of that because she was sort of like, you know, sort of the loser girl.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not the, you know.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And that helped a little bit.
Guest:But, yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I think my biggest mistake is just not really just sort of making my own stuff, going that route.
Guest:I think I was always waiting around for people to give me a... Take care of you?
Guest:I thought I would just find that perfect... I think that's kind of a fluke.
Marc:I really do.
Marc:Yeah, well, it's hard because like, especially when like for me, cause I didn't, you know, I had a lot of, like I was around a long time, but it always seems that people have their ideas about you.
Marc:And if you don't have a strong enough idea about yourself, you kind of believe them for a second.
Marc:Oh yeah, that sounds good.
Marc:Yeah, I'm that guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I'm the I'm the angry guy.
Marc:Let me do that.
Marc:And then, like, for years, I couldn't understand why I didn't get anything.
Marc:It was because I didn't know what the fuck I was.
Marc:I don't know what you know what my skill set was really or what I was capable of or who I was.
Marc:I just knew I never fit into the boxes people put me in.
Guest:See, I wouldn't have really thought that about you.
Guest:No, you always seem so overly confident.
Guest:Sometimes I feel like you would go on people's shows and it would become your show.
Marc:Well, no, I can do that.
Marc:But I didn't have a strong sense.
Marc:Everything's very present to me.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I feel the urgency of the moment.
Marc:So like I would naturally do that.
Marc:Like if I'm on Conan or if I want something like I'm going to go, let's go.
Marc:I did.
Marc:There's no, there's no pausing that, you know what I mean?
Marc:There's, you know, I guess it's, I think it's confidence, but it's also just being in the present.
Marc:I'm not very calculating.
Marc:I've gotten a little more calculating lately, more along the lines of like, Hey, maybe you shut up now.
Marc:How do you like that?
Marc:It's okay.
Marc:It's not great, but I think it's a smart thing.
Guest:Do you like it better?
Guest:Do you like it better?
Marc:Yeah, a little.
Marc:Because I recently acted in something and I realized that I was right for the part, but I'd just done four seasons of playing me and then I took this job.
Marc:And I auditioned for it.
Marc:I taped myself on the audition just because I'm like, I can do this guy.
Marc:But the only thing I knew that was different, because I have a wheelhouse.
Marc:I think you do, too.
Marc:I'm not going to learn a Russian accent.
Marc:I'm not going to put on 30 pounds.
Marc:I'm not going to play.
Marc:There's things I can do.
Marc:And I know the limitations of my talent to some degree, but I knew I could play this guy, but he wasn't me because he wasn't neurotic.
Marc:He was a little bitter, but I had to turn off all that weird self-reflection, that dialogue, which is really sort of what I do.
Marc:And I had to shut it off for this guy.
Marc:And I was like, well, that's great.
Marc:Is that what acting is?
Marc:You just turn things off?
Yeah.
Marc:Or turn things on.
Guest:I think you're absolutely right.
Guest:I think to act, you do have to turn those voices off.
Guest:And it's really, really hard to do if that's who you are.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:Because that's what you think.
Marc:It is who you are.
Marc:But I mean, theoretically, you're supposed to be becoming someone you're not.
Marc:At least a bit.
Guest:Right.
Marc:You know, I mean, I've always been confident, but it was always driven by a certain amount of panic.
Marc:And I like talking to people.
Marc:Like if you see me on a show and it feels like I'm taking over, it's because like I'm so relieved to be talking to somebody like, you know, it's really that's the excitement.
Marc:It's like we're talking me and you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm usually thrilled, you know.
Guest:You know, that's what it is.
Guest:That's what it is about your stand-up and stuff.
Guest:It's like, you seem really excited to talk about something.
Guest:You seem very excited, but not in any sort of... There's nothing false about it.
Marc:Well, yeah, it's all very life and death for me.
Marc:It's not very well planned, usually.
Marc:And sometimes I'm disgruntled or aggravated, but I need the connection.
Marc:So if there's a connection there...
Guest:I guess you're, yeah, you're not insecure once you're talking.
Guest:That's what it is.
Guest:Cause you really like, you look like a little pea in a pod when you get going.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You look like you're having a grand old time.
Marc:If I'm connecting, but if I'm just, if I was just sitting here by myself, it'd be different.
Marc:But I also like, I don't, I don't know.
Marc:And it's weird.
Marc:I just went back to therapy today cause I'm going to need it.
Marc:You know, that my perception of me is not necessarily right.
Marc:You know, because you get these things in your head that you run in your head all the time.
Marc:And a lot of times they override, you know, decades of experience.
Marc:You know, they're just old, weird shit.
Marc:And like, you know, I think I'm very hard on myself and it's like I'm outside and even probably to myself, I'm much more confident.
Marc:I'm a little more grounded now.
Marc:You know, like I'm good at what I do, but there's a still party that's sort of like, I don't know what I'm fucking doing.
Marc:Yeah, you do.
Marc:Of course you do.
Marc:How could you not know what you're doing?
Marc:And I know on most days what I'm doing.
Guest:Well, thank God you're not like a brain surgeon or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or maybe they have those moments too, but I hope they have them for just... Yeah, you hope it's after the surgery.
Guest:But I like that you're as honest as you are about not knowing because I don't think a lot of people are honest about not knowing.
Guest:I feel like a lot of people you speak to on a daily basis
Guest:Really, you know, are pretty convinced they have it.
Guest:They have it all figured out.
Guest:The new president is a very good example.
Guest:Great example, yeah.
Marc:He's a genius.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:He thinks he's a genius.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But there's a lot of power to that in the way that, like, if you really think you're a genius, it's amazing how that can really...
Guest:You know, I have a couple smart friends that receive it as someone who really knows what they're doing.
Marc:Sure, that guy seems to know what he's doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, when you started working with... Well, the American Pie movies were a big hit for you, but I mean...
Marc:I've not interviewed Christopher Guest.
Marc:I've interviewed Michael McKean and Jane Lynch and Parker Posey.
Marc:I've interviewed people in his films.
Marc:But that seemed for you to be like he seemed to really understand your talent and how to let you do what you do.
Marc:He saw something.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, look, a lot of us wanted that... When we heard Best in Show was coming out, a lot of people couldn't get into that audition or whatever, but I think it's because he had come to the groundings.
Guest:I don't know how I really did get in.
Guest:Catherine O'Hara told me she had mentioned... I interviewed her.
Marc:She's great.
Guest:She's great.
Guest:And I think she said she mentioned to him that she'd seen me at the ground.
Guest:I don't know how... You never really quite get the scoop of how it all goes down, but I just think he likes women, which is...
Guest:you know not that common in the movie business where like a guy really wants to give a very big part to a woman yeah and um you know a decent part and like lets you improvise and stuff a lot of people are like you know jennifer just you know stick to the words here and right you know and this is someone that's like doesn't hand you a script and says just improvise so that was pretty cool and um and
Marc:Best in Show is the first one you did?
Guest:Yeah, and I didn't expect to get it, and then it was such a good experience, just the whole thing, just meeting those people.
Marc:Working with Jane.
Guest:And working with Jane, and Jane was really cool.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were hanging out in Vancouver, and it was like, there's something about making a movie outside of your element that makes it.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:It's like, quiet things down a little, huh?
Guest:It makes it 100% better, I think, to leave your own world.
Guest:So that was really cool.
Guest:We went up there and hung out for like six weeks or whatever.
Marc:So how many movies did you do with him?
Marc:Three?
Marc:Two?
Guest:Yeah, I think, what is it?
Guest:I had a very small part in Mighty Wind, and then, for your consideration, and then a very small part in the latest one, Mascots.
Guest:But he really, I think just working with him really helped things, and I'm forever grateful to that guy.
Guest:It's like him and Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz.
Guest:There's like four guys in town that really helped me out.
Guest:Because of American Pie, that was like four or five jobs.
Guest:Christopher Guest was four or five jobs.
Guest:There's like four guys in town that have sort of kept me in the business.
Marc:And you've been sober for all that time?
Guest:No.
Guest:No, I mean, you go back to drink, you know, you do, you know, I didn't drink for like 13 years, but eventually I did start drinking red wine again.
Guest:Came back around?
Guest:Came back around and, you know.
Marc:Stuck?
Guest:Now I'm snorting the red wine.
Guest:Oh, good.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, at least it's not Coke.
Guest:No, and yeah, so that, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I did go back to red wine.
Marc:How's that working out?
Guest:It makes you skinny, and it makes your skin really dewy, and it just makes you look better in every way.
Guest:Good, good.
Guest:I mean, it really improves your mind.
Guest:Like, I find that, you know, the more I drink, the more articulate I am.
Marc:Yeah, that's usually what happens.
Guest:Right?
Marc:Oh, yeah, all the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Nothing better than talking to someone who's had three glasses of red wine.
Yeah.
Marc:But the two broke girls, that's like a regular gig.
Marc:That's a real gig.
Marc:That's a big show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:How many seasons has that been going for you?
Guest:This is six.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:My God.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And you're like on every one?
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:Good gig.
Guest:That is an amazing gig because it's that dream job.
Guest:I wish I had a family because people always go like, now I can see my family.
Guest:And I'm like, who am I going to see?
Guest:Who am I running home to?
Guest:I have some amazing dogs that I like to see, but people are like, oh, thank God.
Marc:I got time.
Guest:Yeah, I like time.
Marc:Spend time with my... Oh, no.
Guest:Yeah, but...
Guest:You know, I mean, look, I have a pretty great life.
Guest:You know, it's pretty great, you know, especially, you know, I get the break of this town like you and I were talking about.
Guest:I get the break.
Guest:I get to go to New Orleans whenever this town feels too, like, you know, claustrophobic.
Marc:Are you enjoying yourself?
Guest:Yes, I am, I am.
Marc:Oh good.
Guest:I really am.
Marc:And did you ever do stand-up or you didn't?
Guest:I did, I did, yeah.
Guest:For like three years I went around and sort of.
Marc:Before Two Broke Girls.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, it was, yes.
Marc:And how was that for you, the stand-up?
Guest:I, you know, look, New Year's Eve, I went to see Amy Schumer, you know, because she was down in New Orleans, and I went to see her show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, like, I'm not, you know, just her gift for, her gift for just being.
Marc:Busting balls.
Yeah.
Guest:But just being so precise and just skilled with her words.
Marc:She knows her character.
Guest:And just how she tells how the stories all sort of weave.
Guest:I didn't have that.
Guest:And, you know, I was doing this weird sort of... It wasn't really stand-up, what I was doing.
Guest:I was telling stories and stuff.
Guest:And, you know, look, if you're telling stories to a crowd that's drinking a lot... So you do comedy clubs.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, which I don't know why my agent was putting me in these comedy clubs and that really wasn't where I should have been.
Guest:You go to, you know, Beth Lapidus gives you this amazing, you know.
Marc:Over at the Young Cabaret?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Marc:I saw you there.
Marc:You were in the audience one night.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I remember.
Guest:Yeah, you were great that night.
Guest:And then, yeah, but she would give you these great opportunities.
Guest:You get up there and everything.
Guest:And then you feel very funny.
Marc:Cozy room.
Guest:And you feel very funny.
Guest:And then, of course, you know, no one in Vegas wants to hear your story.
Marc:About your dog or whatever.
Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I think, yeah, for Vegas... Actually, I think Vegas is a weird animal, and that's sort of where it ended.
Guest:Yeah, it ended there, and I was sort of like, I really got to rethink this.
Guest:But I think... I don't know.
Guest:Is that like... You know?
What?
Guest:Do I, like, ever feel like I've just absolutely brought down the house?
Guest:Like, you know, is that what I think I should, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Well, it sounds like what happened was your agent's sort of like, well, people kind of know who she is.
Marc:Let's see if she can sell some tickets at comedy clubs.
Marc:So you go out there and you probably get some people who know who you are and then you get a bunch of people that just go to comedy clubs.
Marc:And then you're up against that sort of like, I don't get it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's hard.
Yeah.
Guest:And then they don't want to hear... This is the other thing.
Guest:And I would talk about how... Really, a lot of what I used to talk about is how I'm unable to fire anybody that works for me or just how my people that work for me feel superior and all that stuff.
Guest:Then you're like...
Guest:Then you're telling, like, five or six stories in a row of, like, just how inferior you are.
Guest:And people are like, then why did I just spend, like, 30 bucks on this ticket?
Guest:Like, you know what I mean?
Guest:If you tell every bad, dark story you have.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, people start to feel bad for you.
Guest:It's not the... Well, or they just, like, you're actually, you're unselling the show in this weird, like, you actually, I spend the whole, like, you know, hour and a half, like, un... Convincing them that you can't do the job?
Yeah.
Guest:i'm the wrong choice for tonight let me tell you how i am yes so you got out of that so i think yeah unless you know look i i think it also helped it has a lot to do with who's guiding you and who's you know i never really had any guidance on like i'd ask my friend to get together by a bunch of friends they'd all watch it and they'd be like it's fine you know it's like you never like you need that friend that goes get rid of that why are you telling that yeah
Marc:Your house isn't any fun.
Marc:You should have done it in situate.
Guest:Yeah, why are you in overalls?
Marc:What the fuck are you doing?
Guest:No, yes, if I had only had some of those Boston people.
Marc:To set you straight.
Marc:No one wants to hear that, Jennifer.
Yeah.
Guest:yeah where are those see that's what you're missing in Hollywood that's what you're missing the people that just give it to you straight and go like get rid of that that's not funny yeah it takes too long to tell that story you know I don't want to hear that you died at the end of the story
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:That's funny.
Guest:But I have to say that when I see someone doing what you do and what Amy does and Chris Rock and all these people, when people are on fire, there is nothing I'm more jealous about.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:It is what a gift.
Guest:And when someone's killing it, it's so... You just... Wow.
Marc:It's so... It's exciting.
Marc:And I like seeing it too, sometimes.
Marc:I like when I'm doing it more than I like seeing it.
Guest:But don't you like it when you just feel like you have the room?
Guest:Because I was there that night on Cab where you were... Certainly, I've seen you do other stuff.
Guest:I've seen you do Letterman and Conan and everything.
Guest:But...
Guest:And you kill on that, but you must know when it's going incredibly well, right?
Marc:I know when I'm connecting, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Doesn't it feel amazing?
Guest:It feels good.
Marc:Yeah, but I'm still hard on myself.
Marc:I'm sort of like, ah, that thing.
Marc:But I'll usually say it out loud now.
Marc:Like, I'll do a bit that gets a pretty good laugh, and I'll sometimes just, like, out loud go, like, Dad needs a little more, I think.
Yeah.
Marc:You mean in the moment?
Marc:In the moment you're thinking that?
Marc:No, I'll say it right then.
Marc:I'll be like, I'm hoping that a punchline will come up.
Marc:Like, I know it's funny as it is, but it doesn't really have an ending.
Marc:But thank you for being here for this part of it.
Guest:But see, this is the thing.
Guest:I feel like sometimes when you...
Guest:When I start to go where I'm like, uh-oh, this isn't going well, whatever, I go into a full-on panic mode.
Guest:And the weird thing is, like, I see, it feels sometimes on some of you, like, it's going to go wrong.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, I feel like sometimes when I'm watching you, it's like, I'm like, where is this going?
Guest:It's not really going.
Guest:And then you, like, do this amazing save, like, it was never going to go wrong.
Marc:Sometimes those are real saves.
Guest:Wow.
Wow.
Guest:those are the moments that's my style of improv like you know like oh this is going nowhere and then at the end of it just be like oh that didn't work well for any of us no but I really I haven't seen you have I haven't really seen you have one of those where it doesn't work out at all I haven't seen you have maybe you know I mean you can pull one up maybe I don't know but but I've seen it look like it's like you do I always feel like you sort of know where it is where it's going as opposed to someone like me who I never really know knew where I was going
Marc:I leave a lot of room for, I leave room now.
Marc:I'm not trying to get anywhere in terms of career-wise, so I know I've got a bit of an audience, and I like new things to happen.
Marc:I like whatever performance I'm doing to be its own thing.
Marc:So I have things I'm working on, but I'm so relieved if I can find the freedom of mind to just go.
Marc:And, you know, and that's how new things happen.
Marc:And that's how, you know, like real moments occur.
Marc:And I really, I live for those to have the freedom to do that.
Marc:And the only thing that stops that is fear.
Marc:But sometimes, you know, you have those runs with that stuff.
Marc:And like, I've got a relationship with my audience now.
Marc:Like I'll do a professional show, but sometimes I'll do like two hours and there will be moments where I'm like, you know, I'll do something and it's good.
Marc:And I'll just say like, oh man, I got to work on that one.
Guest:That's so nice.
Guest:That's so, I wish I see.
Marc:It's all right.
Marc:It's a work in progress.
Guest:No, I like that because it doesn't get any more honest than that.
Guest:It's just like.
Marc:Yeah, you know, and they, you know, it's like, I know that there are people like when you watch someone kill with an hour and I've done that.
Marc:Like the last special I did, like it was tight and I knew it had callbacks.
Marc:I knew where it was going to end and it all worked together.
Marc:And it was like, I rehearsed it and I did it and I worked it.
Marc:And that feeling of like, it's going to kill every time.
Marc:You want it to be killing every time.
Marc:I like that okay, but I like it better when I'm like, I don't know what's going to happen out there.
Marc:I like that better.
Marc:You do, see?
Marc:I do, but it is riskier.
Guest:That's why you're doing it.
Guest:That's why I couldn't, I just didn't, I couldn't handle that.
Guest:And I didn't like those people.
Guest:And if someone in the front row was not having a good time, I couldn't handle that.
Guest:I couldn't handle that.
Guest:You know, it's like that person, because I would never want to be like a hairdresser where someone goes, this haircut sucks.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I hate it.
Guest:And you know what?
Guest:I'm I'm going to cry right now.
Guest:And I'm I'm not I'm actually I can't go to school because this is so ugly.
Guest:You know, like I never want to be that person where someone says thinks I gave them a service that sucked.
Marc:But a lot of times, like, again, because, you know, I do the same thing and I did it for years and I had to do those rooms for a long time as an unknown comic.
Marc:You know, looking at disappointed people or looking at people that aren't laughing.
Marc:But a lot of times when you focus in on that dude who's sitting up front with the sad face, you know, your assumption is like, I'm not getting through.
Marc:But he could be sitting there going like, oh, my dog died today.
Marc:You don't fucking know.
Marc:And sometimes when I talk to Stuart Lee, who's a British comic, he is just... He used to be furious about it.
Marc:About that.
Marc:Like, you know, that he couldn't get through or that they were too dumb or they weren't getting him.
Marc:And he shifted at some point to sort of like, hey, you know what?
Marc:This probably wasn't the best choice for you this evening with me.
Guest:That's really brilliant.
Guest:Because, you know, there's nothing worse than when like...
Guest:You know, you go out on a date with someone and they just absolutely don't have any interest in you.
Guest:And then you, like, tell a girlfriend later and you're like, he didn't even look up from his dinner.
Guest:Like, you're like, he just, he had no interest.
Guest:And then the girlfriend always, there's always this cliche answer that girls always give other girls.
Guest:And they go, you know what, Jennifer?
Guest:He was just intimidated.
Guest:He was intimidated.
Guest:And then...
Guest:Then you're like, well, we can all go through our lives and just go like, this whole world is intimidated by me.
Guest:I mean, all these people that are looking down at their car keys right now are just intimidated.
Guest:But I feel like that's like, that's so easy way out.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:It lets you off the hook.
Marc:It's like, it still leaves you with your self-respect.
Marc:right yeah yeah i don't know you know like you know with audiences it's like who the fuck knows and then then it gets to a point where it's sort of like what's the worst that could happen they had a bad night out were they gonna tweet at me that i sucked you know like yeah you're right you're right yeah it's like that's the weird thing that you learn too like when you know because i'm friends with louis you did you were in putty tang right yeah i was in putty tang yeah
Marc:You know, I've known Louis a long time and you start to realize, you know, when you see these guys that are out there hammering away for big money, you know, big crowds, you know, that, you know, they can do an okay show and that's enough as long as the show's tight, right?
Marc:Like, you know, the part of the job is that, you know, you don't bomb, but some nights are going to be better than others.
Marc:And some nights are just gonna, the laughs are only gonna go up to here.
Marc:They're not gonna kill.
Marc:But you got them, and that's just the way that's gonna go.
Marc:That is really the worst feeling.
Marc:It's actually worse than bombing, is that when you bomb, you're like, oh, this is gonna be fucking awful for an hour.
Marc:But I know what's up, and that doesn't happen too often.
Marc:But when you get them laughing, but every joke is like a fucking uphill climb.
Marc:Like they never kind of cross to the level where you can just roll.
Marc:You know, it's just sort of like you put a lot of energy into a bit and it's just sort of like, okay.
Marc:I'm like, what?
Marc:Can you just roll it?
Marc:Can you just keep going?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's the most frustrating because then, you know, I have to go, I got to go out next week and, you know,
Guest:You have to do that.
Guest:You have to go do that.
Marc:Well, my hour is not so tight, but it's good.
Marc:You know, but it's like, you know, and usually like if I'm not tight, I'll end up doing like an hour and a half, you know, just so they get their money's worth, even if it was, you know, inconsistent.
Marc:I go through periods where the fear is gone, but then it's all sort of like, oh, I got to go do it.
Marc:I'm not afraid to be on stage.
Marc:And I know that I live up there, which was a great gift that happened recently, that there's part of me that's excited to do it.
Marc:But if I think too much about it, which I haven't in years, about what if it doesn't go good?
Guest:You really feel that.
Guest:You feel that.
Marc:Sometimes, yeah.
Marc:More lately.
Marc:Because I'm intimidated by the shift in the tone of culture because of the presidential election.
Guest:No, I know, I know.
Guest:No, I guess I understand.
Guest:I totally understand, actually.
Marc:And all the people are coming to see me.
Marc:But, you know, then like before, like, you know, it's like, hey, it's going to be fun.
Marc:But now it's like it's a feeling like like depending where you are, it's sort of like, thank God you're here because we're this is all of us.
Marc:We're all here.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Make us feel better.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Extra pressure.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's a big adventure.
Guest:This is what this will be.
Guest:This will be.
Marc:Yeah, that's an okay diplomatic way to put it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's definitely going to be a big adventure or a very scary ride.
Marc:Well, it's great to talk to you.
Marc:I've been informed that your ride's outside.
Guest:Oh, how do you do from reading the screen?
Marc:I just got to put the text up here.
Guest:Oh, thank you.
Guest:Thank you.
Marc:You feel good?
Guest:Yeah, thank you for having me.
Guest:It was really nice.
Guest:I'm glad you're doing okay.
Marc:It was.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:I liked meeting her.
Marc:That was nice for her to stop by.
Marc:I always wanted to meet her.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTFPod needs.
Marc:And, uh, guitar.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Huh?
Marc:What?
Marc:Okay.
Marc:A little.
Marc:A little.
Marc:I'm just, uh, sticking with the same setup, really.
Marc:I don't even want to talk about this guitar I'm playing now.
Marc:This is the best fucking guitar I've ever had.
Marc:It's pretty new.
Marc:It was given to me.
Marc:And I love it.
Marc:I don't want to betray it by even talking about it or saying its name.
Marc:... ...
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so so
Marc:Boomer lives!