Speaker 1: Hey everyone, I'm Bruce Bosi. Thanks for pulling up a
Speaker 1: chair today on Table for Two. We're back in my hometown,
Speaker 1: New York City, and I could not be more excited
Speaker 1: for our lunch at the Carlisle Hotel, a new location
Speaker 1: for the show, but a classic city spot that's as
Speaker 1: glamorous as they come.
Speaker 2: Do you eat here a lot since you live in
Speaker 2: the neighborhood?
Speaker 3: I do. I hear a decent amount I hear this morning.
Speaker 1: We're having lunch this afternoon with someone who might be
Speaker 1: one of the sharpest people I know. It just so
Speaker 1: happens that he's also incredibly funny. He's both the co
Speaker 1: anchor of Weekend Update and the head writer for Saturday
Speaker 1: Night Live. He's also married to arguably the biggest movie
Speaker 1: story in the world.
Speaker 2: You always need fries.
Speaker 3: Need needs an interesting word.
Speaker 2: You need I need fries.
Speaker 3: Are the absolute most addictive one from you.
Speaker 2: That's right, we're having lunch with mister Colin.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about growing up in Staten Island,
Speaker 1: SNL and so much more so. Pull up a chair,
Speaker 1: we grab a glass of rose and enjoy, because today's
Speaker 1: lunch is going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: Did you say a Caesar salad with lobster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whoa.
Speaker 1: I'm Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast Table for two.
Speaker 1: We're sitting with an incredibly talented man, funny man, smart
Speaker 1: man person. I have the luxury of calling friend mister
Speaker 1: Colin Jost.
Speaker 2: Welcome.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Bruce, thanks for having me. Like I only
Speaker 4: can't to hear that introduction now I'm waving. I just
Speaker 4: needed an ego list.
Speaker 2: You know, your wife was the first guest that's Table
Speaker 2: for two at Via Krorota way back when, so this
Speaker 2: sort of makes sense.
Speaker 3: As long as they do better than her, I'm happy.
Speaker 2: It's all about competition. She did good. Oh no, they
Speaker 2: tell you they damn it in the room, damn it.
Speaker 2: I have a feeling though.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna meet. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be
Speaker 3: friend everyone in this restaurant by the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So what I loved about with Scarlett and
Speaker 2: I bonded is we're all New York kids. Yeah, different burroughs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: growing up in Staten Island, what was that like?
Speaker 1: I mean, you lived on a block with your whole family,
Speaker 1: So family is very important to you.
Speaker 2: And how did that mold you? To the man you
Speaker 2: grew into.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, and obviously you have similar with your family.
Speaker 4: I mean it's and then when you when you have kids,
Speaker 4: you realize the value of that on a whole other level.
Speaker 4: You're like, oh my god, it's so nice the idea
Speaker 4: that you could just let them go out of the
Speaker 4: house and they would run to another house that your
Speaker 4: family's and you know, like your grandparents or your cousins
Speaker 4: are in. You know, that's so valuable and I kind
Speaker 4: of miss it now. I mean, I love growing up
Speaker 4: in sun Island. I had a great I found it
Speaker 4: very idyllic as a kid. You had lots of sports,
Speaker 4: you know, facilities, lots of parks. I was at a
Speaker 4: swimming pool like that was in the Great Hills area
Speaker 4: that I spent every single day of the summer there
Speaker 4: from I would get dropped off at eight am and
Speaker 4: I would leave at nine pm.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I had a lot of independence and autonomy. Like
Speaker 4: my parents would be there sometimes, you know, in and out,
Speaker 4: but you know, you were with a swim coach, or
Speaker 4: you were with other friends, or some parents would rotate
Speaker 4: keeping an eye on you. But you had a lot
Speaker 4: of room to operate and everything was there basketball courts,
Speaker 4: raquetball court I think you kind of ran around. And
Speaker 4: now when I think about that, being in the city,
Speaker 4: it's so hard to find that it's basically impossible, and
Speaker 4: especially with space where you could get into kind of adventures,
Speaker 4: so you could get into trouble, but not really bad trouble,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, like wandering the woods, but
Speaker 4: hopefully nothing weird.
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, it's a good balance.
Speaker 4: And stan Alan had that, and you could walk around
Speaker 4: your neighborhood and you'd see friends, and you'd see people
Speaker 4: you you know, parents of friends you knew, and it
Speaker 4: felt like a that's why my mom still lives there.
Speaker 4: My mom's been there her whole life, Like we grew
Speaker 4: up next to my grandparents. You just moved to the
Speaker 4: house next door, which is amazing, amazing, insane. First of all,
Speaker 4: it's like a sitcom setup. And also I keep thinking,
Speaker 4: now my dad, because if you think it's like for
Speaker 4: my mom, like, oh, how great for my dad, it's like,
Speaker 4: it's so weird that your in law just like walks
Speaker 4: into your house anytime of day. It's a full everybody
Speaker 4: else right right right, And but it's you know, it's
Speaker 4: a great I think it's a great way to grow
Speaker 4: up and and I loved it. And then there's a
Speaker 4: you know, it's also it's definitely an insular place. It's
Speaker 4: literally an island, right, and a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 4: some people commute into work, so they're all the I
Speaker 4: commuted into high school, so I was naturally there all
Speaker 4: the time, right, And then you just see other parts
Speaker 4: of the city and you get kind of you have
Speaker 4: an itch to go get into Manhattan and kind of
Speaker 4: see other stuff.
Speaker 1: The idea that you can sort of walk out your
Speaker 1: door and have your adventures and spend your summers there
Speaker 1: and have your buddies, but also have like your aunts
Speaker 1: and your uncles and your grandparents to like how informs
Speaker 1: you as a person.
Speaker 4: Well, part of it is like my fam my mom's
Speaker 4: side is mostly Irish, you know, it was there. A
Speaker 4: lot of them were in the fire department, and I
Speaker 4: think there's a the sense of humor that comes out
Speaker 4: of that was really important because it was it's kind
Speaker 4: of a dark you know, you kind of especially in
Speaker 4: the fire department, like there's so much life and death
Speaker 4: with it.
Speaker 3: But the people who.
Speaker 4: Work in the fire department are really warm and really
Speaker 4: and I think have a great sense of humor in general,
Speaker 4: you know, like I think, and I want to joke
Speaker 4: around and love the community and the camaraderie, right, And
Speaker 4: that's part of why they love their jobs, even though
Speaker 4: they're obviously very dangerous. And I think, and maybe that's
Speaker 4: the nature of dealing with a job that's really dangerous,
Speaker 4: is that you kind of have to joke around about
Speaker 4: it sometimes because otherwise you go crazy, you know. So
Speaker 4: that's definitely the community I was raised in of people
Speaker 4: wanting to wanting to have fun, and no one wanted
Speaker 4: to be serious or anything.
Speaker 1: So State Island sort of really became its own Burrow offshoot.
Speaker 1: Not a lot of people were going to Staten Island,
Speaker 1: and yet to me when I would go, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: this is like country, this is beautiful.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was literally real country until probably like
Speaker 4: the fifties or you know, there were huge farms, there
Speaker 4: were it's where people in Manhattan and Brooklyn had summer homes,
Speaker 4: believe it or not.
Speaker 3: Like there was a walk.
Speaker 4: My grandpa was a lifeguard on the boardwalk, and it
Speaker 4: was it was probably similar to really nice areas in
Speaker 4: the Jersey Shore, yea. And it had this thriving beach.
Speaker 4: There's still like beach bungalows in certain areas. And I mean, basically,
Speaker 4: I guess the water just got so bad that it
Speaker 4: was it became a lot less appealing that to go
Speaker 4: in the water. But it used to be that and
Speaker 4: now it's a lot more crowded. I mean, that's the
Speaker 4: biggest complaint for as far as and there's not the
Speaker 4: same you know, the population is now probably five to
Speaker 4: six hundred thousand, and it was back then in the
Speaker 4: fifties it might have been like fifty thousand or something like.
Speaker 4: It might have been a ten times growth with and
Speaker 4: it sounds the size of Manhattan basically the land area.
Speaker 4: So it's not so much it's like a third of
Speaker 4: the population, right, but still pretty that's still a lot
Speaker 4: of people.
Speaker 1: I mean, you love it so much that you bought
Speaker 1: a ferry? I did you and Pete Davidson bought a ferry.
Speaker 3: That's how much I invested in.
Speaker 2: What is there going to be a party on that?
Speaker 3: You're gonna be You're gonna be invited, don't worry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, I feel like that's out a lot. When
Speaker 1: I'm with Colin that I remind him like you do that,
Speaker 1: you own that. And when are we gonna.
Speaker 4: When is the party? Yeah, it's a great question. It's
Speaker 4: definitely going to start with a party. That's the one
Speaker 4: thing we know right. Everything in between is what we're
Speaker 4: figuring out. I'm very excited about the project. It's such
Speaker 4: a giant project that it's going to take time, but
Speaker 4: there's there's really good I think it's a great opportunity.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of good ideas that are already behind it.
Speaker 1: So and I love the fact that you guys made
Speaker 1: this choice, you both Staten Island guys, to preserve this.
Speaker 2: Part of history. It's like, you know, these things go away,
Speaker 2: you think.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it would have been sad if it was just scrapped. Yeah,
Speaker 4: maybe it might have been more financially viable to just
Speaker 4: use the stealing would and sell it, you know. But no,
Speaker 4: it was cool and it was the it was the
Speaker 4: actual boat that the ferry that I took every morning
Speaker 4: to school.
Speaker 2: What did your room look like? Did you have posters
Speaker 2: in your room? Like? What college?
Speaker 4: My room still looks exactly the same as it did.
Speaker 4: My parents have They just like maybe changed the bed
Speaker 4: from a twin bed to because it's like, who's going
Speaker 4: to ever go and see this twin creepy twin bed.
Speaker 3: That's all there.
Speaker 4: But it was, and it stick. It still is. But
Speaker 4: since I was probably a baby, it was baby blue wallpaper,
Speaker 4: I mean not wallpaper painted painted baby blue, which it
Speaker 4: was throughout my entire high school college. When I came home,
Speaker 4: it had animated looking poster of a penguin with sunglasses
Speaker 4: that said chillin' that I that I won selling magazine
Speaker 4: subscriptions that went up. There was a photo of me,
Speaker 4: like a caricature of me that was painted in Paris
Speaker 4: when I went with a friend in high school. And
Speaker 4: then it was just bookshelves with all these books of
Speaker 4: Russian history, economics, old English literature, poems, romantic poetry, Michael
Speaker 4: Crichton novels, Wow, and and a desk that I would
Speaker 4: work at in the closet with.
Speaker 3: Some clothes and that was it.
Speaker 2: That was it. I know.
Speaker 4: I didn't put up I never had a phase where
Speaker 4: I put up posters of things I liked. I never
Speaker 4: had a phase where I had like real stuff, Like
Speaker 4: I didn't build things and put them up, or do
Speaker 4: art or put it up, or just didn't do anything
Speaker 4: in my room like, I just like, I'm here to sleep.
Speaker 4: Then I go and I live my life and go
Speaker 4: to a school and everything.
Speaker 3: And I've never really thought about it.
Speaker 2: It's it's I just needed to like picture it.
Speaker 3: Because I didn't make a space. I just whatever was there.
Speaker 3: I just used for what I need. You know, I
Speaker 3: would read, I would write, I would sleep, and then
Speaker 3: I would leave.
Speaker 2: And it still exist and it's just probably the same.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's almost like about that, Yeah, should.
Speaker 1: You really because before one day someone your mom's like,
Speaker 1: you know what we're changing and maybe.
Speaker 3: Blow torch it's right, would it would be very very flammable.
Speaker 3: I'm sure. I basically have never eaten lunch in like
Speaker 3: twenty years.
Speaker 2: Really, I never eat lunch.
Speaker 3: I never I never go to it.
Speaker 4: Like, never sit and have a lunch unless it's a
Speaker 4: meeting or you know, something, very which is pretty rare.
Speaker 4: I don't have lunch. I don't sit and have lunch.
Speaker 4: I'll have I actually just don't even I usually know breakfast.
Speaker 4: I'd usually kind of wait, get to you know, with
Speaker 4: kids and everything, and then I maybe can get out
Speaker 4: of the house by nine or ten.
Speaker 3: I'll work out.
Speaker 2: Then I'll have a juice like a green juice or
Speaker 2: a coffee.
Speaker 4: And then I'll have an Usually I'll just have like
Speaker 4: an egg white omelet when I finish, after I finish exercising,
Speaker 4: and then i'm you know, I'm kind of good till dinner,
Speaker 4: but you know, of something on a go or I
Speaker 4: work in between, but you know, otherwise that's my next
Speaker 4: main meal.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: I mean you talk a lot about growing up and
Speaker 1: being overweight, Yeah, which I don't.
Speaker 2: It was hard for me to believe.
Speaker 1: Plus you're always so active on bicycles and then doing
Speaker 1: crew at college, I don't understand.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was a very It was like a paradox
Speaker 4: where I was. So I was playing five sports and
Speaker 4: I was gaining weight, and I think it was like,
Speaker 4: honestly a testament to how insanely caloric fast.
Speaker 3: Food was in the nineties.
Speaker 4: Yes, that I was able to maintain and even add
Speaker 4: weight despite constant activity, and my brother and I both were,
Speaker 4: like my brother was even heavier than I was, really
Speaker 4: and we were constantly eating like processed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a lot of.
Speaker 4: McDonald We would go to McDonald's. We would each get
Speaker 4: a full adult meal. Then my brother and my dad
Speaker 4: and I would like split a twenty piece nuggets for
Speaker 4: the table, and like you often would get like one
Speaker 4: other thing like a triple cheeseburger.
Speaker 3: To split out. And that's crazy, that's a lot. That's
Speaker 3: like each having probably three to four thousand calories.
Speaker 2: For completely casual one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we probably ate it all in about ten minutes.
Speaker 2: Nothing tastes better. And then you'd have dinner later that night.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, of course we weren't missing meals. I'm like, no,
Speaker 4: I should back off on dinner. They made a lot
Speaker 4: of dinner, you know, my parents did cook a lot
Speaker 4: at home, and then we had probably all the things
Speaker 4: that you now realize are the worst breakfasts, you know,
Speaker 4: like a bowl of cyrus, like bowl of sugary cereal
Speaker 4: with nothing else to wigger it in any way, or
Speaker 4: like a doughnut or a bagel, or all the things.
Speaker 2: That right now you realize it right exactly like.
Speaker 4: The But you know, of course, I think also at
Speaker 4: that time, no one was really thinking, certainly, no one
Speaker 4: in my orbit was thinking about nutrition or no.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, that didn't come until later.
Speaker 4: No, I got to I talked to Share the other day, okay,
Speaker 4: like three days ago. Why because she was maybe gonna
Speaker 4: come on and do something on the show.
Speaker 3: She basically was like I wanted to. You know, she
Speaker 3: was extremely nice.
Speaker 4: Last like last show because she was doing she was
Speaker 4: doing a show in Madison Square Garden and she was
Speaker 4: doing a probably jingle ballingall and we were kind of
Speaker 4: talking about Originally we were talking about having her come on,
Speaker 4: like introducing her as updated.
Speaker 3: She wanted to do something.
Speaker 4: Update, like saying, here to talk about the NBA's first
Speaker 4: ever in season basketball share, come on, just give really
Speaker 4: good basketball analysis of what's happening.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 3: I would have.
Speaker 4: And when I talk to her, She's like, I don't
Speaker 4: know basketball. I'm looking at these names. I don't know
Speaker 4: anyone that's in this thing.
Speaker 2: You're like, right, yeah, And then she would have made
Speaker 2: it funnier.
Speaker 3: It would have been, but I think it would have been.
Speaker 4: But also I'm sure she maybe it would have also
Speaker 4: been deeply unsatisfying for any fan of Shares. I don't
Speaker 4: it would have basically eliminated both those fans. But she
Speaker 4: was she was so I mean, I was so excited
Speaker 4: to talk to her, like, oh was she like was
Speaker 4: she like really very nice? And and and you know,
Speaker 4: I really wanted to figure something out.
Speaker 3: But it was hard.
Speaker 4: I think the part of it being alive is so hard,
Speaker 4: and so it's also such a scary thing, you know,
Speaker 4: but hopefully we will at some point. But she was
Speaker 4: she was really cool to talk to. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: one of those people you're like, oh, that's that's really
Speaker 4: she is.
Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on Table for two.
Speaker 1: Colin Joe's graduated from Harvard, where he served as president
Speaker 1: of the le gender humor publication the Harvard Lampoon. How
Speaker 1: did working at the Lampoon prepare him for Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 1: When you go to Harvard and you are, you know,
Speaker 1: writing for the Lampoon, which you know, they don't make
Speaker 1: it easier to get on that. It's you know, to
Speaker 1: become a writer, and it's kind of great that they
Speaker 1: kept a.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a hard process and a kind of a
Speaker 3: mysterious process, and and you don't know.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of things that kind of fuck with
Speaker 4: your head about it, and you don't know whether you're
Speaker 4: blowing it or you're doing okay. Like you know, there's
Speaker 4: no there's very little support or structure to what the
Speaker 4: advice is and stuff there. So and you realize you're
Speaker 4: just dealing with kids who are a year older than
Speaker 4: you maybe and maybe they're drinking during the day and
Speaker 4: maybe they're not totally in a great position to be
Speaker 4: giving advice also, right, So you're trying to go through
Speaker 4: this process. But it is a really you know, it's
Speaker 4: a great meritocratic writing process.
Speaker 3: You know, you're simmoning sketches.
Speaker 4: People are voting on sketches not knowing who wrote them,
Speaker 4: you know, which I think is kind of a cool thing,
Speaker 4: and theoretically just trying to find who is the funniest person,
Speaker 4: which is still subjective, but that's at least what their
Speaker 4: goal is. And it's you know, you have to write
Speaker 4: a lot to get in and when you're on you're
Speaker 4: expected to write a lot.
Speaker 2: So it's you know, that's wild.
Speaker 1: So do you feel and you also, you know, by
Speaker 1: the time you left you are at the top of
Speaker 1: the chain in that you know you're top dog there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and also now being you know, head writer and you've
Speaker 1: been head writer, and what is it about you that
Speaker 1: you feel gets you to that place? Are you highly
Speaker 1: ambitious that way? Do you?
Speaker 3: Definitely?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm definitely ambitious. I think the head writer
Speaker 4: part was a combination of things. Like part of it
Speaker 4: was just getting better as a writer. It's not a
Speaker 4: job anyone does. Like Michael Ja I loved him as
Speaker 4: a comedian and recommended him as a writer, but he
Speaker 4: came in like he had never written a sketch before
Speaker 4: in his life, you never written a single sketch. He
Speaker 4: was a great stand up and he but he'd never
Speaker 4: in a sketch.
Speaker 3: And then he just figured it out, like quickly.
Speaker 4: He figured it out and wrote and has written. Some
Speaker 4: of the best sketches that have been on the show
Speaker 4: are right, And so that's just like that, Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: obviously it's talent. And then also someone you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know what it is like willing themselves to figure
Speaker 4: it out or just being savvy enough to figure it out,
Speaker 4: you know, and which is kind of a miracle that
Speaker 4: someone can just do can come in and just figure
Speaker 4: it out totally. Like I didn't have any experience writing
Speaker 4: sketches really, but I would do, like in the Lampoon,
Speaker 4: you're writing stuff that's not always so dissimilar. And then
Speaker 4: I definitely performed some things with friends around the city
Speaker 4: that were kind of more in a sketch world. So
Speaker 4: it wasn't like totally and I wrote a packet, like
Speaker 4: I wrote a couple packets to try to apply and submit,
Speaker 4: which he didn't do. So it's he really went from
Speaker 4: like zero to one hundred successfully, whereas at.
Speaker 3: Least I had that, like I had gone to it
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 4: And then certainly it's ambition, like that was after I first,
Speaker 4: your first goal is to not get fired, right, You
Speaker 4: just want to be about have a chance to do
Speaker 4: it and enjoy the job and write things you think
Speaker 4: are funny and hope that they get on the air.
Speaker 4: And I was lucky that some things that I broke
Speaker 4: out on the air. And then the second year I
Speaker 4: came back and I had sort of an expectation of myself,
Speaker 4: like I should be able to write a lot of
Speaker 4: stuff because I wrote some stuff last year, and the
Speaker 4: second year, like I want to even set up the
Speaker 4: first five or six shows, like I didn't have anything
Speaker 4: in the show my second year, and I was like,
Speaker 4: oh no, like am I regressing?
Speaker 3: Am I bad at this now? Or like did I submit?
Speaker 3: And it just wasn't yeah, like yeah, you're in SNL.
Speaker 4: And and then at some point the second year it
Speaker 4: started clicking again. And I started getting stuff on and
Speaker 4: then after that it was like a build like years three,
Speaker 4: four five, where I started getting like something on every show.
Speaker 4: Then I started getting like two things on a lot
Speaker 4: of shows. Then I started getting like two things on
Speaker 4: every show, you know, on average at least.
Speaker 2: Just because did you figure out sort of the rhythm
Speaker 2: of it?
Speaker 3: I can. I got better. I mean, it's just getting reps.
Speaker 4: And you know, like I wrote, was writing hundreds of
Speaker 4: sketches a year, so you get better at it hopefully, Yeah,
Speaker 4: and then you and and then also there's lots of things,
Speaker 4: right like if you if you start getting sketches on
Speaker 4: the show, then probably cast members want to write with
Speaker 4: you more, or if you're helpful to cast members who
Speaker 4: are funny, that probably helps you also. And I was
Speaker 4: very lucky to work with people who are really fun
Speaker 4: to cast.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: If I started with Sadai, kis Andy and Kristen and Bill,
Speaker 4: which is essentially the best four, and that was the
Speaker 4: whole class. So I think that's pretty much like per
Speaker 4: capita of the best incoming class ever. I think, so
Speaker 4: with the exception maybe of the first ever ever, you know,
Speaker 4: but that's a pretty pretty incredible group and so I
Speaker 4: think I was lucky in that way, and I think,
Speaker 4: you know, I was. Then then once you once it's
Speaker 4: like years three to five or something, I think then
Speaker 4: I got promoted to like supervising writing position, which was
Speaker 4: was really just like you're getting a bunch of stuff
Speaker 4: on and we need to give you some title. But
Speaker 4: you're not a head writer, nor are you're ready to be,
Speaker 4: so you know, but you're somewhere in that you're in
Speaker 4: the mix of a new generation.
Speaker 3: Yeah whatever.
Speaker 4: Then you're just like more, you get into more the
Speaker 4: producesorial world of it. More, you're in more meetings with
Speaker 4: the producers, You're in more meetings with Lorne. You're getting
Speaker 4: the comfort of being around Lorn in a way too,
Speaker 4: because that's you know, because he goes from goes from
Speaker 4: being a guy you see in the hallway every so
Speaker 4: often I are scared to say hi to to he's
Speaker 4: asking your opinion on something, which is that's a big change.
Speaker 4: And then you're getting and then over time it's like
Speaker 4: you're growing. There's a friendship growing with the person that
Speaker 4: you really like, you care about. So it's that was
Speaker 4: the build, but certainly there was ambition like that was
Speaker 4: once I got over the hump of being afraid of
Speaker 4: being fired like that was definitely a goal in my
Speaker 4: mind at some point was I wanted to be head
Speaker 4: writer because that was a.
Speaker 3: Lot of people that I looked up to.
Speaker 4: We were head writers like Jim Downey and Seth and
Speaker 4: Tina and Paulapel, and there were a lot of people
Speaker 4: that were like in that Michael o'donaghy back in the day,
Speaker 4: you know, people that were you adopted.
Speaker 1: It feels on Weekend Update when you and Michael sort
Speaker 1: of go back and forth. It feels like you write
Speaker 1: what he's going to say, Like when you do the
Speaker 1: and like he's never seen it, like you know, you'll
Speaker 1: see it pop up on the screen and then you
Speaker 1: shake your head and you smile like, Okay, I can't
Speaker 1: believe I have to say this? Is that how it
Speaker 1: goes down?
Speaker 4: Yes, Yeah, it's yeah, it's really it's it's it's both
Speaker 4: terrifying and exhilarating. Like it's kind of crazy. There's just
Speaker 4: not a lot of live television in the world anymore.
Speaker 4: So the idea that you're on live television and you
Speaker 4: have to say something you don't know what it is,
Speaker 4: that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: And it's not it's not usually gentle.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 4: So it's a very strange. Uh, it's a very strange
Speaker 4: thing and a but a crazy experience to go through.
Speaker 4: And and it's really fun. Like I'm someone who can
Speaker 4: also be really in my head a lot of times,
Speaker 4: you know, it's in a right ely way. I could
Speaker 4: be in my head and it definitely gets you out
Speaker 4: of your head. And there's times where things and I
Speaker 4: really like that when when there's when there's times where
Speaker 4: you just have to react, I'm probably better at that
Speaker 4: than when I'm thinking it through. But then you're like,
Speaker 4: I don't know how, why can't I get that normally right?
Speaker 1: Like I like, if you were anticipating it because you
Speaker 1: knew it.
Speaker 3: Then it wouldn't be the same.
Speaker 2: It's it's a brilliant as a viewer, it's a.
Speaker 1: Brilliant moment like that your weekend update together is when
Speaker 1: when when it goes there it's hysterical.
Speaker 4: It really just came out of I'm just kind of
Speaker 4: trying something and it was not Again, we didn't really
Speaker 4: have an idea for it, and then we just kind
Speaker 4: of tried it and it became that and you know,
Speaker 4: we'll see but it's always there's definitely a reminder to
Speaker 4: not be afraid of trying things, Like it's hard at
Speaker 4: our show because you really only get one shot to
Speaker 4: try something because it's at dress rehearsal. Like if it
Speaker 4: doesn't go well address rehearsal, it's pretty rare that it's
Speaker 4: going to still be on the air, right, you know,
Speaker 4: so it can go the other way. It doesn't well
Speaker 4: addressed and the not well at air, but it doesn't
Speaker 4: really go the other way.
Speaker 1: Who were the comics that you were heavily influenced?
Speaker 2: I was thinking about you.
Speaker 1: So when I was a young man in nineteen eighty nine,
Speaker 1: I was a page at NBC and that was a
Speaker 1: hell of a great job.
Speaker 2: So every weekend we worked SNL. We did tours during.
Speaker 1: The day and then you know, you had your break
Speaker 1: and then it was like boom. And I always with
Speaker 1: Stephanie Phillips, we had big curly hairs, very you know,
Speaker 1: late eighties or late nineties, and we would work the
Speaker 1: door at Studio H and it was it was like
Speaker 1: the power job. And my cast then the caste was
Speaker 1: Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson,
Speaker 1: who I just love John Lovetts, Dennis Miller, Mike Myers,
Speaker 1: Kevin Neelan and.
Speaker 2: A Whitney Brown.
Speaker 3: Wow, that's great. It was a good that's a great guest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a great. Yeah, it was a great
Speaker 2: I remember that.
Speaker 4: I know that writing staff was great too at that time. Really,
Speaker 4: so many great writers from that era.
Speaker 1: I mean it was a hell of a year and
Speaker 1: a half to be part of that and to be
Speaker 1: in those shows. And yeah, that was the year too
Speaker 1: that Gilda Radnadat and so like that was a whole.
Speaker 2: Thing in a moment.
Speaker 1: Who were the people that really influenced you from a
Speaker 1: comic standpoint? And were you always interested in finding yourself
Speaker 1: on the road and pursuing that.
Speaker 2: I mean, you also are a Russian literature ma, you're
Speaker 2: you know, you're also a writer.
Speaker 4: How did SNL SNL wise that that was what you're describing?
Speaker 3: That cast is the first cast that I have memories of.
Speaker 4: Oh wow, And you know, obviously loved Dana and Mike
Speaker 4: Myers and Jan Hooks, and I mean Phil Hartman was
Speaker 4: incredible and also from you know, like so I marry
Speaker 4: an axe murderer. I loved Phil Hartman's great in that too,
Speaker 4: and his work on The Simpsons, like I kind of
Speaker 4: was aware of that, you know, it's just his voice
Speaker 4: acting that was so funny. And when you know the
Speaker 4: Waynes World movies with Mike and Dana were. Those were
Speaker 4: like the early SNL people that I really loved then
Speaker 4: really big were really in my sweet spot in high school,
Speaker 4: I guess were which is usually when people's SNL casts are.
Speaker 4: It's like were Sandler and Farley, rock Spade, that whole crew.
Speaker 4: Those were like the sketches that I would re enact
Speaker 4: at school and stuff with my friends, Like even formally
Speaker 4: we would go do like assemblies and we would re
Speaker 4: create those.
Speaker 2: That listener about that because that's really funny.
Speaker 3: We did, Yeah, we did, like you know I did.
Speaker 4: I basically hosted a show in our class, which again
Speaker 4: now you realize teachers will do anything to not teach.
Speaker 4: They're like, yeah, you should do this, So I would
Speaker 4: host a show as Letterman. Letterman was a huge influence
Speaker 4: for me, and I would pretend to be David Letterman
Speaker 4: and I would read like his actual top ten lists
Speaker 4: that he was doing, Like I had books and books
Speaker 4: of top ten lists that I would read and pick
Speaker 4: out the ones I thought were the funniest, and then
Speaker 4: I would read them to my class, just fully steal
Speaker 4: his material, and then I would introduce it's kind of not.
Speaker 3: A bad hybrid format for a show.
Speaker 4: I would host it as Letterman, and then I would
Speaker 4: introduce sketches from SNL that we would also steal and do.
Speaker 4: So my friends and I, like a group of us
Speaker 4: Lenny and Mike Calcagny and Mike Bodner and Frank Berlin
Speaker 4: and Steve Paul mecI, we would go. We would reenact
Speaker 4: them in front of the whole in front of first
Speaker 4: it was just in front of our whatever seventh grade class,
Speaker 4: and then I guess we were good enough that we
Speaker 4: got moved to full assembly, so then we would do
Speaker 4: it for the whole school, which was kind of kind
Speaker 4: of cool. So that was that was like the first
Speaker 4: idea of performing or putting a show together in a
Speaker 4: comedy way, right, So that was like one track of things.
Speaker 4: And then it was really actors that I love, like
Speaker 4: Jim Carrey was huge, Robin Williams you know a little before,
Speaker 4: was big, and then Will Ferrell was was you know
Speaker 4: in both ways both SML and movies. Was big, and
Speaker 4: like when he came back to host when I was
Speaker 4: a writer, that was like one of the coolest things
Speaker 4: because he was a guy I you know at SNL,
Speaker 4: Like so many of his sketches were classics to me
Speaker 4: as a comedy nerd. And then you know, in Tina
Speaker 4: and Amy also like in an update way, those were big.
Speaker 4: I mean, Norm too and Tina Amy were you know,
Speaker 4: and Tina on the both writing and update side was
Speaker 4: really inspiring, like seeing how she did that and she's
Speaker 4: still like I think of her a lot when I'm
Speaker 4: writing sketches because a lot of the sketches she wrote
Speaker 4: were like really joke dense and they had a funny premise.
Speaker 4: They had got you know, good performance things, but they
Speaker 4: had a lot of like every line it feels like
Speaker 4: it was a joke and it's like a aiming for
Speaker 4: that I think is such a great thing, like to
Speaker 4: just remind yourself it's always better if there's more jokes
Speaker 4: and it's more everything is an opportunity for a joke.
Speaker 2: Is after something that you're born with or is that no.
Speaker 4: No, no, I mean I think some people are born
Speaker 4: probably with some inclination to joke around or some innate.
Speaker 4: Some people are obviously naturally really funny, and you know
Speaker 4: they're they're like even if they don't do comedy, they're
Speaker 4: naturally funny. Like some of my friends are lawyers who
Speaker 4: are really funny, or doctors who are really funny, and
Speaker 4: they don't even really think of it. I mean, I
Speaker 4: never knew it was a business. I never knew it
Speaker 4: was a job to go do comedy. Growing up, No
Speaker 4: one I ever met worked in any related anything to
Speaker 4: show business, you know, So I think beyond that, it's
Speaker 4: mostly learned. You know, you're if you're doing and what
Speaker 4: you're drawn to. So all I did, again, I didn't
Speaker 4: know it was a job. But all I cared about
Speaker 4: and really memorized and got into as a kid was comedy.
Speaker 4: You know, Sandler's albums I would listen to and memorize,
Speaker 4: like word for word, knowing every line from every movie
Speaker 4: that he did, that Jim Carrey did.
Speaker 3: That's just setting you down a path.
Speaker 4: Now you might you might be that path and never
Speaker 4: find the opportunity to be involved in making it. But
Speaker 4: I then I did, and that was then I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: this is a great way to do it.
Speaker 3: Because I used to love it and now I could
Speaker 3: keep doing it.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1: A typical week at Saturday Night Live is incredible stressful.
Speaker 1: There are new sketches to write and rehearse, costumes to design,
Speaker 1: and sets that need to be built. I'm particularly curious
Speaker 1: what's it like for Colin and the staff to work
Speaker 1: with a new host each week. Has there ever been
Speaker 1: you know, the host come and you see them and
Speaker 1: you're like, you know who they are, and then you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: like you get like I'm sure very surprised, like this
Speaker 1: push is actually really good, Like they actually get it.
Speaker 1: You know, when it goes either way, when it goes like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is just you know, not this is going to.
Speaker 2: Be really an uphill battle.
Speaker 4: This person it just doesn't have that, and it happens.
Speaker 4: It can happen different ways throughout the week. Like you
Speaker 4: can have a host who's not that good at the
Speaker 4: read through table, right like even maybe they're not a
Speaker 4: great cold reader. Maybe they're you know, their their process
Speaker 4: is more they're kind of reading it more straight, and
Speaker 4: they're just they're they're going through the character in their
Speaker 4: head because they know it's not the real time, you know,
Speaker 4: they're like more, they're more seeing the character in their
Speaker 4: head instead of performing it. Then yeah, like even or
Speaker 4: there's things like Melissa McCarthy when she hosted, she had
Speaker 4: pieces that she worked on, she wrote, and they were
Speaker 4: fully formed in her head, but she was kind of
Speaker 4: clocking in a different way at the table read, and
Speaker 4: you kind of have to trust, you know that, oh,
Speaker 4: that's going to be folk.
Speaker 3: She knows what she's doing.
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously she knows we're doing, but like in
Speaker 4: this particular sketch, she's got this all mapped out and
Speaker 4: yeah or sure or yeah or it's like, you know,
Speaker 4: whatever it is, there could be an element visually that's
Speaker 4: not really in the piece, but she knows in her
Speaker 4: head when she's performing it, or she knows she could
Speaker 4: figure it out. And those have been some of those
Speaker 4: sketches that killed the most and were classics for her.
Speaker 4: So it's it's it's that kind of thing. Or there's
Speaker 4: an actor that has their own process, like you know,
Speaker 4: you can be and finding it a little bit in
Speaker 4: a moment or trying to differentiate because you're reading, you're
Speaker 4: reading forty.
Speaker 3: Sketches right at the table read, so to.
Speaker 4: Be able to make a choice in all of those
Speaker 4: and that's something like actually, Adam Driver's especially good at
Speaker 4: at the table read, like he'll he makes a choice
Speaker 4: for all those pieces.
Speaker 3: And an interesting choice, and.
Speaker 4: The same way Will Ferrell does in a but you know,
Speaker 4: obviously he knows it in a whole other way, but
Speaker 4: he will, We'll find a new move for all of them.
Speaker 4: And it's really a kind of a miracle or maya
Speaker 4: you know, like my real will come back and to
Speaker 4: like have a different character wherever. It's like, it's really
Speaker 4: they're very yeah, they really are, and you know, so
Speaker 4: that and then there's hosts that are great at the
Speaker 4: table read because they're great readers. You know, if it
Speaker 4: was an audio series it would be great. But they
Speaker 4: are less performers in space, you know, so you're that
Speaker 4: other part doesn't add in as much as you thought.
Speaker 4: Some people have never done theater. Some people have never
Speaker 4: done live anything live, which is scary, yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: and then some people are it's it's also you're reading
Speaker 4: off Q cards mostly, which is a very hard thing.
Speaker 3: If you don't know that.
Speaker 4: It's you know, when I started an update, I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm very good at reading. I'm really very good at reading,
Speaker 4: and somehow I couldn't do it well at all. And
Speaker 4: I was like in my head, like, why.
Speaker 3: Is this so hard?
Speaker 4: You're like overly concentrating on reading, you know, and you're like,
Speaker 4: just let go of it, don't Why are you worried
Speaker 4: about being able to read in this situation. You're able
Speaker 4: to read signs on the street and just go just read,
Speaker 4: but it's intimidating when you're not used to that and
Speaker 4: let alone changes on the fly. Like Christopher Walking, who's
Speaker 4: obviously one of the best hosts ever. He when he
Speaker 4: posted you and you have things at the table read
Speaker 4: and and you always make changes between the table read
Speaker 4: and dress rehearsal because you're trying to make it better
Speaker 4: or tighter or whatever.
Speaker 3: A joke didn't work, you fix it.
Speaker 4: Christam Walker wun always be like no, leave it and
Speaker 4: you're like, well, no, we didn't got to fix this part.
Speaker 4: He's like, no, leave it, and you're like why He's
Speaker 4: like it's fine. He's like, it's fine. I'd rather I
Speaker 4: don't want it to changes. I'd rather find it figure
Speaker 4: it out as an actor, know the rhythm, have the
Speaker 4: comfort with material, not have all these changes and you know,
Speaker 4: that's another approach that I think really works for him
Speaker 4: and maybe would work more if we did that. But
Speaker 4: you know, the sometimes we get into it's easier now
Speaker 4: to make changes because technology has gotten better, you know,
Speaker 4: like you can type in things fast, but you can
Speaker 4: make it. But maybe that's bad in a way because
Speaker 4: the sometimes the actors are less familiar with the material
Speaker 4: and if they saw a joke the same twice, maybe
Speaker 4: it's not as good a joke, but they'd be able
Speaker 4: to find something in the delivery that would make it
Speaker 4: better than a new.
Speaker 3: Joke, right. You know.
Speaker 1: During the show itself, the live show, is it daunting
Speaker 1: to look over at Lauren and see his face at
Speaker 1: this point? Can you see in his face when because
Speaker 1: when I've gone to the show and I look at
Speaker 1: him and I swear, I'm like, I have nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the show'rving, I'm like, oh my god, did
Speaker 1: he like that?
Speaker 2: Did he not?
Speaker 3: It's a yes, it is still daunting.
Speaker 4: Or like when he even kind of shows up at
Speaker 4: a when you're rehearsing or something and he kind of
Speaker 4: drifts into the back of the room, you're just a
Speaker 4: little bit more on edge and you're you're second guessing
Speaker 4: the like joke about pooping pants that you have in
Speaker 4: and you're like, why did I do this? I wish
Speaker 4: I didn't have to do that for the first time
Speaker 4: in front of Lauren whatever it is. You know, like
Speaker 4: there's that kind of feeling. But you know, I've got
Speaker 4: you get over that to some extent because he just
Speaker 4: realize like he's seen a lot of bad stuff, so
Speaker 4: you know he's not and he's seen a lot of
Speaker 4: bad stuff get better, and he's seen a lot of you.
Speaker 1: Know, does he throw things out like if he sees
Speaker 1: it just maybe like like one of those passion by
Speaker 1: comments that oh yeah, oh okay, yes, yeah he does.
Speaker 4: He does, and he's judicious about it because he's part
Speaker 4: of it. Is at least for us with update, I
Speaker 4: think now at this point he probably knows that we're
Speaker 4: anticipating some of the things he might say in a
Speaker 4: good way, not like we're worried about what he's gonna say,
Speaker 4: but more like he's taught us some instincts that we
Speaker 4: probably sure so we're like, oh, yeah that if it's
Speaker 4: a joke that he's there rehearsal for and sees it
Speaker 4: bomb where he is pretty confident we're going to fix
Speaker 4: it with or or cut it, probably without him having
Speaker 4: to specifically say cut that horrible joke. So that but
Speaker 4: he's but he'll give like a you know, he'll just
Speaker 4: give like a small but important note about how you're
Speaker 4: playing a certain thing, or the tone or the aftertaste
Speaker 4: of a joke, like is that do you really want
Speaker 4: to have that the perception of this joke after the fact,
Speaker 4: or something you know, like if especially if it's about someone,
Speaker 4: like is it mean to that person? And I'm I'm
Speaker 4: very sensitive about that. In general, I'm not a person
Speaker 4: who likes doing things that are mean to people. I
Speaker 4: prefer to do it based on what things they do,
Speaker 4: like what a are actions, rather than about I don't
Speaker 4: like making fun of people's personal lives that it really
Speaker 4: does not maybe not like that, but but sometimes, like
Speaker 4: you know, I'll have a occasionally I'll have a joke
Speaker 4: where I'm like, I think even that person would not
Speaker 4: be offended by this joke, but maybe they would be.
Speaker 3: I don't know, who knows.
Speaker 2: You never know.
Speaker 1: I've had a wonderful lunch with Colin today. I know
Speaker 1: that family plays a huge role in both Colin and
Speaker 1: Scarlet's lives and as our time together winds down, I'm
Speaker 1: interested to know what Colin hopes to share with his
Speaker 1: son as he gets older and you talk about family,
Speaker 1: and family is very important to you, It's very important
Speaker 1: to Scarlet. I've talked to Scarlet about her family when
Speaker 1: we had lunch, and they're wonderful and as are yours
Speaker 1: down to earth. Is there something that you want to
Speaker 1: show your son You want to make sure he sees
Speaker 1: there's so much humor in your family.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's so much wit and so much intelligence.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that when you think of because when
Speaker 1: you become a parent, it's just everything changes.
Speaker 2: It just does.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that you I want to do this
Speaker 1: with Cosmo. I want to show him this.
Speaker 4: You know. One thing that's really important to with him
Speaker 4: is I take him swimming a lot whenever I can,
Speaker 4: you know, like pool or ocean.
Speaker 3: And he's he's only two, and he's he's a pretty.
Speaker 4: Good swimmer, actually, like he's almost independent swimming, which is
Speaker 4: kind of crazy. He's a smart he's a smart guy too,
Speaker 4: but he's a great such a bunch hit.
Speaker 3: But he I like that. I mean, the water is
Speaker 3: really important to me.
Speaker 4: And yeah, and it's always been something I just you know,
Speaker 4: I didn't love always the competitive part of swimming, but
Speaker 4: I did love being in a pool, and I'm very
Speaker 4: happy around water all the time. And that's something I'd
Speaker 4: like to share with him in different ways, you know.
Speaker 4: The first thing that came to mind was my grandpa.
Speaker 4: My grandpa just passed away, and he was he was
Speaker 4: a firefighter, His dad was a firefighter. And he's the one,
Speaker 4: my grandpa who lived next door, and he really helped
Speaker 4: to raise me a lot. And I'm really happy he
Speaker 4: got two years with Cosmo. In the years to come,
Speaker 4: even though Cosmo I'm sure won't remember that time, I'm
Speaker 4: excited to kind of impart elements of my grandpa in him.
Speaker 4: His middle name is my grandpa's name, and the spirit
Speaker 4: of a lot of the great things my grandpa. A
Speaker 4: curiosity that my grandpa really had, a friendly and outgoing
Speaker 4: of friendliness and ability to go talk to anyone and
Speaker 4: engage and really be curious about them, and a real
Speaker 4: joy and appreciation for life, like a deep gratitude feeling
Speaker 4: like you know what you would say late in life
Speaker 4: he would constantly say, like if I go tomorrow, I'm
Speaker 4: so happy, you know, like I don't you know, I'm
Speaker 4: not wouldn't be sad. It's all good, you know. And
Speaker 4: and that's like one of the one of the last things,
Speaker 4: like on his deathbed that he said to me was like,
Speaker 4: don't worry, I'm okay, and he literally said bye bye,
Speaker 4: like kind of funny in a joking way. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: that's the last thing. That's the last words that he
Speaker 4: said to me. And he died that like later that day.
Speaker 4: And you know, I think that's what I will hopefully
Speaker 4: in part and Cosmo, I don't know how much of
Speaker 4: it's taught versus in you, but you know, a gratitude
Speaker 4: in it, some kind of grace I think with with
Speaker 4: people is is a great thing.
Speaker 1: Well, that's a beautiful story and I think that, uh,
Speaker 1: I think it's a beautiful way to sort of wrap
Speaker 1: our beautiful lunch. And Colin, thank you, thank you for
Speaker 1: coming your mind. My family loves you. I love you.
Speaker 1: I love your family. And you know you're just an
Speaker 1: incredibly talented gift to the world. What you how you
Speaker 1: see the world and did you have this platform turn
Speaker 1: presented and you make people happy?
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure in any capacity, but especially with this
Speaker 4: lobster caesar salad and the second lobster that I ordered
Speaker 4: to go.
Speaker 3: Very generous of you.
Speaker 2: My pleasure.
Speaker 3: Ready that I'm going to have shipped exactly.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Thanks for everyone for pulling up a chair today
Speaker 1: on Table for two with Bruce Bosi and mister Colin
Speaker 1: Joys and We'll.
Speaker 2: See you real soon.
Speaker 1: Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: seven three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Bruce Bosi and Nathan King. Our supervising producer and editor
Speaker 1: is Dylan Fagan. Table for two is researched and written
Speaker 1: by Jack Sullivan. Our sound engineers are Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor,
Speaker 1: and Jesse Funk. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our
Speaker 1: talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for two's
Speaker 1: social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman,
Speaker 1: Uni Scherer, Kevin Yuvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kanter Graber. For
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