Speaker 1: The Craig Ferguson Pants on Fire Tour is on sale now.
Speaker 1: It's a new show, it's new material, but I'm afraid
Speaker 1: it's still only me, Craig Ferguson on my own, standing
Speaker 1: on a stage telling comedy words. Come and see me,
Speaker 1: buy tickets, bring your loved ones, or don't come and
Speaker 1: see me. Don't buy tickets and don't bring your loved ones.
Speaker 1: I'm not your dad. You come or don't come, but
Speaker 1: you should at least know what's happening, and it is.
Speaker 1: The tour kicks off late September and goes through the
Speaker 1: end of the year and beyond. Tickets are available at
Speaker 1: the Craig Ferguson Show dot com slash tour. They are
Speaker 1: available at the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour
Speaker 1: or at your local outlet in your region. My name
Speaker 1: is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy.
Speaker 1: I talk to interest in people about what brings them happiness.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this about me, but
Speaker 1: a few years ago I used to do a late
Speaker 1: night show and one of my favorite guests on that
Speaker 1: show was an actress who was just breaking through as
Speaker 1: I was doing the show, and she became a big
Speaker 1: star in a show called The Big Bang Theory and
Speaker 1: she was just fabulous and she still is. Please welcome
Speaker 1: the lovely Melissa Rownd shipperboy Melissa. Yes, do you are
Speaker 1: you doing a podcast yet?
Speaker 2: My own podcast?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: No, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not think I think you have to think. I
Speaker 1: think you're Yes, I've always thought, well, you're very chatty,
Speaker 1: you're very personable, You're nice, and you deserve money but
Speaker 1: clearly don't need it because you run a sick come again.
Speaker 3: But I would like to I'm glad you said this.
Speaker 3: Maybe this is in spray. I need to start it.
Speaker 3: But if I do, can I TM it at the
Speaker 3: end and say that Craig Furgerson told me to do this,
Speaker 3: and every day I.
Speaker 1: Think you probably can? Does TM mean take money? Tall man?
Speaker 1: Uh Tiddley maniac? I oh you above all the above.
Speaker 1: You look very well. I'm glad to see you look
Speaker 1: very well. I wasn't worried about you in any way,
Speaker 1: but but I was.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen you for a long time, so you
Speaker 4: since I did late night.
Speaker 3: It's been a very long time. Do you know that
Speaker 3: you were my very first late night show ever.
Speaker 1: Oh is that good?
Speaker 2: It's wonderful. It was such a wonderful exerience.
Speaker 3: I love doing that show so much, but I was
Speaker 3: and then I nervous at what.
Speaker 1: Point towards well, you know what I loved. I loved
Speaker 1: doing it. See this is why I used to have
Speaker 1: a podcast, because you're asking me things like going, well,
Speaker 1: I'll let me tell you about my career. I love
Speaker 1: doing it, and then I go board with it. And
Speaker 1: then when I decided I was going to leave, I
Speaker 1: love to doing it again.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, because there was an insight.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the last two years I did it. Well, you
Speaker 1: know this because you're an actor, right, if you you're
Speaker 1: still an actor. When you do a job as an
Speaker 1: actor or anykin performer, it's like a it's not forever job.
Speaker 4: You do it and then you're done and you move
Speaker 4: on to another show.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, and late night unless you jump, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the Supreme Court. You're there. You
Speaker 1: know you've got you've got to recuse yourself from late right.
Speaker 3: So then once you knew it was ending, was it
Speaker 3: a saber every moment feeling of this is going to
Speaker 3: be ending at some point, I see it ending.
Speaker 2: So I want to hold on to the memories while
Speaker 2: they're here.
Speaker 1: A little bit like that and a little more like,
Speaker 1: I don't give a shit now they can't fire me again.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun that there was such
Speaker 1: freedom in that, and there was about eighty months of
Speaker 1: that when I thought, Wow, okay, what are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: They're gonna get rid of me. I'm done now anyway,
Speaker 1: and it really felt good. When were you first thought?
Speaker 1: Do you remember?
Speaker 2: Oh goodness, that's a good question. I mean it must
Speaker 2: have been.
Speaker 3: Maybe like around two thousand eleven ish twelve ish.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 1: Does haway through the run?
Speaker 4: Well, you're doing Big Bang Theory the time, I think.
Speaker 3: I think it was the first late night talk show
Speaker 3: I did for a Big Bang And oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I remember going to the Century City Mall to get
Speaker 3: an outfit for it and practicing how I was going
Speaker 3: to sit in the dressing room and just so like
Speaker 3: if I sat down, I wouldn't show my business on
Speaker 3: like the chair, and that's important.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is important.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But you were so kind and you put me
Speaker 3: at ease right away, and I just I love that
Speaker 3: show so much.
Speaker 2: I loved talking to you so much.
Speaker 1: Ah that See that makes me very happy because that
Speaker 1: was the idea. I always thought, if you host the show,
Speaker 1: you should maybe host the show like you host a party,
Speaker 1: like make sure everybody's got nibbles and dip and let
Speaker 1: them have a nice time. And he was to do
Speaker 1: cocaine in the bedroom if you can avoid it. So listen,
Speaker 1: tell me this because I mean, I'm interested in you
Speaker 1: doing night core because you're you're doing night cooret again.
Speaker 2: Right, doing night Court.
Speaker 1: Yes, and what I am fascinated by. First of all,
Speaker 1: I really like nightcore, and I really like Larry Kay.
Speaker 1: He's isn't he like a special human being?
Speaker 2: So so do you know him?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I do. He was actually a very early guest
Speaker 1: on Late Now, and he was on quite a lot,
Speaker 1: and then he stopped being on for a while. I
Speaker 1: don't know why, but I wasn't, you know, in charge
Speaker 1: of any of that. But and then he was back
Speaker 1: on later. I don't know, but he was always a
Speaker 1: favorite guest for me because he he's just very funny
Speaker 1: and very just a real gentleman, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's like a I loved him. But I remember that
Speaker 1: show was that the eighties, that show.
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm, yeahly nineties, and it was always a favorite
Speaker 3: of mine growing up. It was one of those shows
Speaker 3: I remember sitting and watching with my parents and a
Speaker 3: lot went over my head and there was a lot
Speaker 3: of like cover your ears to things that I didn't understand,
Speaker 3: and they, I mean, they got away with so much.
Speaker 3: But there was something very special about it. The comedy
Speaker 3: was very irreverent in a way that was unlike anything
Speaker 3: else on at the time.
Speaker 1: And I was always such as right, Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: a real It had a very kind of had a
Speaker 1: kind of like a different kind of a narcic vibe
Speaker 1: a little bit. It was naughty. It was quite a
Speaker 1: naughty show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and John describes it as, I mean, it was
Speaker 3: essentially vaudeville in so many ways. But the and John
Speaker 3: just obviously was such a standout, and getting to work
Speaker 3: with him has just been nothing short of a dream
Speaker 3: come true.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, I know he I've never heard a bad
Speaker 1: word about him. I've not got one myself. He's a
Speaker 1: lovely man. He He and I share a kind of
Speaker 1: similar early story as well, which is, you know, he
Speaker 1: was a little back in the day as well. I think,
Speaker 1: but not for a long time, A long long time.
Speaker 1: So did you grow up in your family? Are in
Speaker 1: show business? Here are they?
Speaker 2: They're not.
Speaker 3: I grew up in Jersey suburbs of Jersey. Father's an
Speaker 3: accountant and who worked as a legal secretary, and then
Speaker 3: she was home with my.
Speaker 2: Brother and I for a lot of my childhood. But
Speaker 2: very much like small town upbringing.
Speaker 3: But my parents were so wildly supportive of me choosing
Speaker 3: this career for a family that didn't have anything to
Speaker 3: do with it.
Speaker 2: We were always a very like.
Speaker 3: Musical family. My grandfather was a music teacher and my mom.
Speaker 3: My parents like loved going to shows and they loved
Speaker 3: loved the arts, but fight and they had no real
Speaker 3: connection to anything.
Speaker 4: Fascinated. I'm fascinated by that because I just had a
Speaker 4: conversation today for another episode of the podcast with Richard Kind.
Speaker 1: Who you know who is lovely lovely man?
Speaker 2: Love him? Last week?
Speaker 1: Oh he did?
Speaker 4: Was he on Night Court?
Speaker 2: He was on Night Court?
Speaker 3: He's he came to join us since the second season
Speaker 3: and he comes back in the third season.
Speaker 2: He's amazing. I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if he turns up for one episode, he'll be
Speaker 1: there for a season. A bit like you're in the
Speaker 1: Big Bang Theory. Actually you you commend for an episode
Speaker 1: of That's it. But he he was telling me the
Speaker 1: same thing about he got into show business as well.
Speaker 1: His family were very supportive, but they knew nothing about
Speaker 1: show business.
Speaker 4: And I wonder if that's why your.
Speaker 1: Family can be supportive, because they don't know how dreadful at.
Speaker 2: That is so true. I actually remember.
Speaker 3: Calling my mother from the back of the sports bar
Speaker 3: I was working at after you know, years of auditioning,
Speaker 3: and my parents were, I mean, they really were so great.
Speaker 2: They came to every one.
Speaker 3: Of my you know, community theater shows growing up. And
Speaker 3: my father I remember saying to me, there's no job
Speaker 3: security in anything, so just do what you love. And
Speaker 3: I had been out of work and just you know,
Speaker 3: trying to get work in New York City and doing
Speaker 3: stand up but doing theater and like laundromats, and I
Speaker 3: was working at this sports bar as my bread and butter,
Speaker 3: and I was so beaten down and I called my
Speaker 3: mom from the payphone in the back of the restaurant,
Speaker 3: sobbing and saying, why did you let me follow my dreams?
Speaker 2: This is terrible parenting. You never should have done this,
Speaker 2: I'm never going to work.
Speaker 3: I have nothing to fall back on because I majored
Speaker 3: in theater with a minor in musical theater.
Speaker 2: So there's literally which.
Speaker 1: That's that's stilen down. I'm doing down.
Speaker 3: I had nothing, and I was so freaked out, and
Speaker 3: she was sort of laughing and just saying, just keep going,
Speaker 3: just keep going.
Speaker 2: Be Okay, you must have.
Speaker 1: Been pretty young when you were doing that, because yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you were pretty young when you broke through,
Speaker 1: weren't you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I got big thing.
Speaker 1: I was twenty nine, I was Richard and I were
Speaker 1: talking about that's the time we have to break through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not kidding between like twenty nine and thirty three,
Speaker 1: if it's gonna happen, it's going to happen. About that, certainly,
Speaker 1: that's the way it was for me.
Speaker 2: Really was your first first gig? How were?
Speaker 1: I got sober when I was twenty nine, so that
Speaker 1: that made a bit of a difference. But also between
Speaker 1: between then and then going to like I was a
Speaker 1: phone down. I was falling down drunk when I was
Speaker 1: twenty nine, and but the time when I was thirty
Speaker 1: two thirty three, I was on the Drew carry show,
Speaker 1: and I know it's crazy. It was like a huge difference.
Speaker 1: But I remember thinking at that time, how long so
Speaker 1: you'd been out of college. I guess what six seven
Speaker 1: years something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was in New York.
Speaker 3: I went to college in New York City, and I
Speaker 3: was doing stand up pretty much the whole time I
Speaker 3: was in college, much to the chagrin of my conservatory teachers,
Speaker 3: like we're doing Shakespeare joining the day, you should not
Speaker 3: be doing stand up at night. And so I was
Speaker 3: doing that and then trying to get work after college,
Speaker 3: and I started writing this one woman show right when
Speaker 3: I graduated college because I was just trying to create
Speaker 3: work for myself because there really was just I auditioned
Speaker 3: like nine thousand times to be a victim on Law
Speaker 3: and Order, and I never never got Kaz.
Speaker 2: There was hardly anything shooting there.
Speaker 3: So I started writing this play for myself with my
Speaker 3: now husband, and it was so self righteous and boring
Speaker 3: when I still have something, it was awful. It was
Speaker 3: just about that phase whor you're graduating.
Speaker 2: College and you're like trying to make I'll get a
Speaker 2: black box and do it so bad. And and then.
Speaker 3: We saw Jenna Bush speaking on TV at the Republican Convention.
Speaker 3: We were like flipping channels and we saw it and
Speaker 3: she was about the same age as me, and she
Speaker 3: we read that she was going to.
Speaker 2: Be teaching public school and.
Speaker 3: She was talking with her sister and she had this
Speaker 3: one joke at the convention and she killed and she
Speaker 3: like turned to her sister and was like and she
Speaker 3: just had She was like very like, she nailed this joke.
Speaker 3: I was like, that's a really interesting dynamic that she
Speaker 3: had up there, that like of her sort of enjoying.
Speaker 2: Getting this laugh.
Speaker 3: And so we ended up combining my story with hers
Speaker 3: of she's meeting and at the time, she was in
Speaker 3: the press for getting DUIs, and so we thought, like,
Speaker 3: remember that, what if we combined this coming of age
Speaker 3: story for her while also spewing the.
Speaker 2: Bush presidency.
Speaker 3: With the story I was writing for myself, which was
Speaker 3: like individuating from your parents and trying to become adult,
Speaker 3: an adult, And so we wrote it that it was
Speaker 3: the night before she was going to start teaching and
Speaker 3: she needs to become this.
Speaker 2: Adult in one night. And so we did this show.
Speaker 3: It's called The Miseducation of Jenna Bush, and I did
Speaker 3: it in New York at the New York Comedy Fest,
Speaker 3: the New York Fringe Festival, and then that was sort of.
Speaker 2: What got me out to LA.
Speaker 3: We ended up doing it in LA and at the
Speaker 3: Aspen Comedy Festival and then sold a pilot about it
Speaker 3: to CBS. But it really was what got me out
Speaker 3: of waiting tables. At the time, I was still doing
Speaker 3: that the side, but that helped get me out to LA.
Speaker 1: It's interesting talk to me a little bit about stand up,
Speaker 1: because I actually didn't know you'd done stand up, But
Speaker 1: I think that's quite interesting because you were one of
Speaker 1: the people that could really hang in late night, right,
Speaker 1: and everyone that could hang has some kind of I
Speaker 1: think it's a kind of darkness. I think to be
Speaker 1: able to be able to ref and be that way
Speaker 1: stand up I think maybe not now because it's such
Speaker 1: an aspirational thing for young people because of tach talk
Speaker 1: and stuff, But it has.
Speaker 4: A kind of darkness. Do you have that darkness?
Speaker 1: Do you think? Do you have that?
Speaker 2: That's interesting?
Speaker 3: I think we all do in a way, and it
Speaker 3: just depends on how much you want to tap into it.
Speaker 3: But I definitely think I was always a kid that
Speaker 3: felt other growing up and I think, yes, that was
Speaker 3: very much where my comedy came from, in the fact
Speaker 3: that I was a kid who, like I was an
Speaker 3: indoor cat.
Speaker 2: I couldn't really do sports. I always I was a
Speaker 2: weird kid. And there's like.
Speaker 3: Video of me at like seven doing stand up stand
Speaker 3: up at this beauty pageant. I should have not I
Speaker 3: shouldn't have been in a beauty pageant. There's you look
Speaker 3: at pictures of.
Speaker 2: Me as a kid. This was not something I should
Speaker 2: have been doing.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I don't know if anyone should
Speaker 1: be in a beauty passion, to be honest, but that's
Speaker 1: probably a different thing. But why why you were doing
Speaker 1: stand up at a kid's beauty pageant?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I got a pamphlet in the mail for this.
Speaker 3: It was like the Cinderella Scholarship pageant at the ra
Speaker 3: Modern Renaissance Hotel in New Jersey. And I was like,
Speaker 3: they said that there was a terrifying It was terrifying,
Speaker 3: but they had a talent portion and I was like,
Speaker 3: I was obsessed with stand up. I was watching Star
Speaker 3: Search and I was like, this is amazing, but there's
Speaker 3: no place to do it. So I thought if I
Speaker 3: could get into this talent competition, I could do stand
Speaker 3: up And I begged my mom and she said, if
Speaker 3: I saved up half the money, then.
Speaker 2: I could do it.
Speaker 3: And I mean I was toothless, like I wore a
Speaker 3: dress that I wore my cousin's wedding, and I mean
Speaker 3: I couldn't wait to get to the talent park because
Speaker 3: it was a lot of like, Hi, I'm Melissa Roush
Speaker 3: from Marlburn, New Jersey and I'm seven years old, and
Speaker 3: I couldn't do that like with all the like Toddler
Speaker 3: and Tierra type kids. But I got to the talent portion,
Speaker 3: I was so stoked that I.
Speaker 2: Did my tight five.
Speaker 3: I guess it was, but it was mostly impressions. It's
Speaker 3: so weird, and that's what I would do for show
Speaker 3: and tell, and everything was just like I need to
Speaker 3: work on my comedy.
Speaker 2: And so it was just weirdness. It was just a
Speaker 2: lot of were you were you brillied?
Speaker 1: Did the other kids pick up on the weirdest?
Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, yes, I mean once in a while I
Speaker 3: got up because I was also doing impressions that weren't
Speaker 3: It wasn't the right demo. I was doing like don
Speaker 3: Nott's from three's company.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it's not.
Speaker 2: It doesn't really killed with the second grade crowd.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I was picked on a lot also because
Speaker 3: of my There was a lot of picking on me
Speaker 3: because my height.
Speaker 4: Were you very because you're you're still quite little large?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I never I never hit five feet, so I'm
Speaker 3: it was tiny. But then, but then I sort of
Speaker 3: realized that if I made fun of myself first, then
Speaker 3: that would help.
Speaker 2: My mother told me it was not the.
Speaker 3: Greatest advice, but she said, if anyone calls you short,
Speaker 3: say that your mother accidentally puts you in the dryer
Speaker 3: and shrunk you, which she was really trying to help
Speaker 3: me do a bit.
Speaker 2: But I know it just made me weirder.
Speaker 1: Do you know it's funny? It's such an odd thing
Speaker 1: when people good naturedly, and in that case, your mother,
Speaker 1: but people could initially suggest things that they think would
Speaker 1: be funny for you to say. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how to tell you that this is not funny
Speaker 1: at all, and I can't make it funny. Did you
Speaker 1: ever try? I tried getting chat gpt to write me
Speaker 1: some comedy. Have you ever tried to tell me to
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really reassuring, because what you do is I said,
Speaker 1: write me a short monologue in the style of Craig Ferguson,
Speaker 1: And it wrote me this monologue and it was either
Speaker 1: I'm delusional about how good I am or I really
Speaker 1: suck or something, but that that was awful. It was awful,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, good, So that's something that
Speaker 1: they can't do. Not Yeah, I just don't think they
Speaker 1: can write comedy.
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, I want to do it.
Speaker 1: That's you think it's because well it wrote it. We're
Speaker 1: a weird little thing about giraffes, about like, aren't giraffes
Speaker 1: dumb looking and stuff? And I'm like, I do not
Speaker 1: think giraffes are dumb looking. I like giraffes. I mean
Speaker 1: I was thinking about them that much. But when I
Speaker 1: do think about them, I'm like, well, the magnificent giraffesweeping
Speaker 1: across the sangetti. I don't think these dumb assholes.
Speaker 4: That's crazy. Who would not like giraffes.
Speaker 1: So I guess in a way it inspired me to
Speaker 1: do a pro giraffe piece of stand up comedy, which
Speaker 1: I've been I guess wanted to do for some time
Speaker 1: and didn't know.
Speaker 2: It okay, but I like this.
Speaker 1: It's just a it's a source of inspiration, which I
Speaker 1: think that's what you know. I keep going back to
Speaker 1: this darkness is where comedy is born thing for myself,
Speaker 1: and I think that it's it. Perhaps isn't darkness phaps
Speaker 1: is just interesting. Perhaps if you just got an interesting story,
Speaker 1: it makes you funny, hmmm, because I don't know very
Speaker 1: many funny people who are not interesting.
Speaker 2: That's very true. That is that's I think that's very
Speaker 2: very true.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, whenever I think about, you know,
Speaker 3: parenting or things that my parents did or things they
Speaker 3: told me, I'm actually I'm grateful for any missteps because.
Speaker 2: And they were wonderful, wonderful parents.
Speaker 3: But I gotta say, the people you know who had
Speaker 3: like picture perfect childhoods kind of boring.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: want to peak in high school? That would be bad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think also, you know, look, there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: peaking in high school. And just in case anyone who
Speaker 1: pequed in high school is like, wait, I picked in
Speaker 1: high school and then my life is great. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: then you didn't peak in high school. But I feel
Speaker 1: like you have kids on your own now, right they do?
Speaker 4: Yeah, didn't it?
Speaker 1: Like for me when my kids were born, it's like
Speaker 1: everything like a complete one eighty I everything I thought
Speaker 1: about everything changed, not that day, because it took It
Speaker 1: took a few months before I started to realize the
Speaker 1: enormous change that was occurring within me.
Speaker 2: It's the perspective shift. I know it's a cliche, but
Speaker 2: it's unbelievable.
Speaker 3: I actually did an apology tour to all of my
Speaker 3: friends with kids after I had kids. For any time
Speaker 3: I said I was tired or busy, I felt so
Speaker 3: bad that that version of me just didn't I thought I.
Speaker 2: Got it, but yeah, I needed to go back.
Speaker 4: Like, Oh, I remember.
Speaker 1: Talking to someone who was about to have his first kid,
Speaker 1: and you know, his wife was about to have his
Speaker 1: first kid, and he was telling me about how good
Speaker 1: a parent he was going to be and how it's
Speaker 1: going to do it and stuff. And I didn't say
Speaker 1: this to him at the time, but I remember thinking
Speaker 1: at the time and I still I still think it, like,
Speaker 1: you'll never be as good a parent as you are.
Speaker 1: The last three or four months before your first kid
Speaker 1: is born, that's when you're.
Speaker 2: Really great, good, so good.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be so cool about things and it's
Speaker 1: gonna be fine, and like, why are you dying? Oh
Speaker 1: my god? Get the mad be's still very young though, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are yeah, I got little ones. And but
Speaker 2: it is. It's a hard explosion.
Speaker 3: There's really nothing like it.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: Need the happiness that I have from being a parent.
Speaker 3: I just it's otherworldly and I love it. I knew
Speaker 3: I like it, but I didn't think that I would love.
Speaker 2: It this much.
Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting as well, because, first of all,
Speaker 1: I will tell you this, all the great philosophers didn't
Speaker 1: have children. Really, I don't know if that's true, but
Speaker 1: I'm spreading that as a rumor all the great philosophers.
Speaker 1: I think it's true. I think it's partially true, probably.
Speaker 1: But the other thing is that because you has time
Speaker 1: for that shit once you have a kid, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: thinking about life in the universe, so you can think
Speaker 1: about that when you have kids, you know, think about
Speaker 1: life in the universe. And the other thing is you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, don't pick your finger at that thing. And
Speaker 1: then and then the other part of it, you know,
Speaker 1: when they say and maybe This will annoy some people,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's a risk you have to take
Speaker 1: sometimes when people say my dogs are my kids, you know,
Speaker 1: or my cats and my kids, and go, you know,
Speaker 1: I have dogs and I have a cat, and they're
Speaker 1: not kids. They're not there. You can love them, but
Speaker 1: they're no kids. It's a different game. It's different. Then
Speaker 1: do you have dogs?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I had a dog growing up that was my family's everything.
Speaker 2: But I haven't got a dog since. Eventually I'll get.
Speaker 3: My people said at my wedding that they had never
Speaker 3: heard people talk about a dead dog more than at
Speaker 3: my mit. You know. The comedian Jessica Saint Clair, she
Speaker 3: always says that she's like, I've never heard someone referenced
Speaker 3: a dead dog more than when I'm around your family.
Speaker 2: This dog was my childhood dog, Lucky. We got them
Speaker 2: when I was six.
Speaker 3: And then lived until I was about twenty two. And yeah,
Speaker 3: so we had a dog, was Lucky, German shepherd husky.
Speaker 1: I have German shepherds, Oh, oh greatest. They're very clever.
Speaker 2: They're very clever. Poor Luckies.
Speaker 3: Last words that Lucky heard on this earth. We're Lucky
Speaker 3: had testicular cancer and that's how he ends up passing
Speaker 3: into he had I'm gonna go here with you, Craig.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but he had very large testicles at the end,
Speaker 3: and it was very uncomfortable for him. And as we're
Speaker 3: all putting him to sleep, it was my mom and
Speaker 3: my dad, my now husband, my brother. We're all around
Speaker 3: him and telling him how much we love him and
Speaker 3: hugging him, and my mom in all her Jersey ways.
Speaker 3: As we're putting him down, she goes, we love.
Speaker 2: You, Lucky. No big bulls, Lucky, No one big bulls.
Speaker 2: And that was it. And that was lights out for Lucky.
Speaker 2: That was the last thing that Lucky heard.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful. It's sad and lovely. And you know my
Speaker 1: dogs don't have testiculars.
Speaker 2: We get them smart, smart, We should have done. You
Speaker 2: have how many dogs?
Speaker 1: I have two at the moment, yeah, which is actually
Speaker 1: a low count for me right now. I have a
Speaker 1: really one German shepherd and and I.
Speaker 3: Jack Russell, Oh oh did they get.
Speaker 1: Along sort of as well as the Irish and the
Speaker 1: Germans can get along. It's it's it's it's high impact comedy.
Speaker 1: It's it's like an episode of canine wipeout. Every day.
Speaker 1: But but they're not my kids. Uh. And it's an
Speaker 1: interesting thing. So I guess why is Lucky such an
Speaker 1: important figure in your family? That's interesting, I said. When
Speaker 1: you first mentioned Lucky, you said, the dog who was
Speaker 1: my everything, everything in my family.
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 3: I mean when I talk about like feeling other like
Speaker 3: that dog was truly my best friend. I would talk
Speaker 3: to that dog as a you know, seven eight year
Speaker 3: old and tell him things that I didn't tell anyone
Speaker 3: would sleep with me, I mean, And he just brought
Speaker 3: he was astray. He literally like found our family walked
Speaker 3: up to my house in a snowstorm, and my father
Speaker 3: had no plans in getting a dog. My mom loved animals,
Speaker 3: but my father had no, no, any experience with animals.
Speaker 2: And this dog walked up.
Speaker 3: We were my brother and I were shoveling the driveway
Speaker 3: in a huge snowstorm and this cord he had ice
Speaker 3: schools hanging from his stomach. And my mom said we
Speaker 3: should bring him into the garage. And we called the
Speaker 3: local please see if anyone lost him, and he just
Speaker 3: he showed up at our house and my father said,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be very cold tonight, let's bring him inside
Speaker 3: and set up some blankets room in the basement and
Speaker 3: that that was it.
Speaker 2: And he just stay with us.
Speaker 3: But he left, he never left it and just brought
Speaker 3: so much joy did community theater with us, played Sandy
Speaker 3: and Annie.
Speaker 2: He was just the greatest, the greatest dog.
Speaker 3: If my brother was like wrestling with me and like
Speaker 3: tacklinghim on the floor, he would like pull my brother
Speaker 3: off me.
Speaker 2: It was he was just he was so great great.
Speaker 1: I feel like you grew up in a wholesome movie
Speaker 1: from the nineteen fifties. Is that accurate or not?
Speaker 2: No? I mean it's like with a Jersey twist.
Speaker 3: It was very you know, lots of hanging at the mall, mall,
Speaker 3: the mall, the mall. My accent was I mean, I
Speaker 3: almost got kicked out of acting school for that accent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my accent was pretty broad when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Jersey, but I had an accent. It was something.
Speaker 1: So tell me that. Then you're waiting tables and you've
Speaker 1: got this highly marketable theater with backup musical theater qualifications.
Speaker 1: How did the Big Bang thing come about? Was that
Speaker 1: was not your big break? Was the Big Bang thing? Right?
Speaker 1: It was?
Speaker 3: I had, I guess I moved to New York. I'm
Speaker 3: from New York about four years prior so. When I
Speaker 3: first moved out to LA it was just a lot
Speaker 3: of driving around crying in my car.
Speaker 1: And everybody does that.
Speaker 2: So much crying in the car, A lot.
Speaker 1: Of crying driving in your car. Let me assure you
Speaker 1: you can do it, even if you've got a late
Speaker 1: night TV show as well.
Speaker 2: The drive cry it's fun. It's fun. It feels just
Speaker 2: like a real scream chamber.
Speaker 1: And yeah, I did scream chamber as well. Did you
Speaker 1: do screaming in the car as well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 3: And there was just a lot of like a couple
Speaker 3: pilots that didn't go a show that I did a
Speaker 3: handful of episodes of that never aired. When I was
Speaker 3: really I mean I was at the unemployment office the
Speaker 3: week that I got Big Bang. It was just this
Speaker 3: guest star part that I audition for the show was
Speaker 3: already doing well, and I was. I was so excited
Speaker 3: because it was a show that my parents really liked.
Speaker 2: And I called them and said, I have this audition.
Speaker 3: And actually I had gone a really long time without
Speaker 3: any auditions, and I'm not good at being a squeaky
Speaker 3: wheel or advocating or like doing the thing that you're
Speaker 3: supposed to do, where you you know, check in with
Speaker 3: your agents and.
Speaker 2: Say like, hey, what's happening. Yeah, because I just I
Speaker 2: just the.
Speaker 3: Rejection on top of the rejection just always felt terrible,
Speaker 3: and I just didn't want to bother people when I
Speaker 3: wasn't making anyone money, which is not.
Speaker 2: A way to live, but I was. I was really broke.
Speaker 2: We're having trouble paying our rent.
Speaker 3: And I got up the nerve to call my agent
Speaker 3: and say, I haven't had any auditions in a while.
Speaker 2: Is there anything that you think i'd be right for?
Speaker 3: And I don't know had I not made that phone call,
Speaker 3: if I would have gotten the big bang audition. Oh
Speaker 3: really Yeah, because that audition came in that night, and
Speaker 3: I really don't think that it would have happened otherwise,
Speaker 3: which has been a lesson for me when I don't want.
Speaker 2: To spend it for something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you particularly, I think in Hollywood.
Speaker 1: I mean, people who say how great they are, people
Speaker 1: believe them. It's weird. It's like they're great. You go,
Speaker 1: oh he's great. You know he told me, he told
Speaker 1: me he must be. Then yeah, I say to people,
Speaker 1: now I'm a world record breaker and stuff.
Speaker 2: They're like, oh, congratulations, Oh I'm gonna start doing that.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, you're doing fine.
Speaker 4: You don't have to do anything.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I've said to people like, yeah, my podcast they
Speaker 1: won the Oscar for Best Podcast.
Speaker 4: People just go, wow, that is big news.
Speaker 1: That my wife changed her name on the airline thing,
Speaker 1: so she's now Lady Megan Ferguson as well. And they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're just do and all that.
Speaker 2: Kind of stuff for real, you can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't.
Speaker 2: That's great, it's fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yes, I will believe someone if they tell me then
Speaker 3: that sounds correct.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, and there's so you push your agent and.
Speaker 2: Yes, and they I got the audition that night.
Speaker 3: I remember I was at dinner with friends, my best girlfriends,
Speaker 3: and we were sitting there and I was we were
Speaker 3: all commiserating of how hard it was like being out
Speaker 3: of work, and this audition came in. I was so
Speaker 3: excited and I ran home to work on it. And
Speaker 3: I remember going into that audition so nervous and putting
Speaker 3: such pressure on myself because we were so so broke,
Speaker 3: and I was just terrified that I.
Speaker 2: Was going to have to pack it in.
Speaker 3: And do something else, because it was starting to get
Speaker 3: to starting to get to that time where I would
Speaker 3: go back your jersey and like my parents' friends and
Speaker 3: everyone would say like, what are you gonna m try
Speaker 3: something else? And that audition was everything. And I remember
Speaker 3: I got the call back for it and being they
Speaker 3: had narrowed it down to I guess like four or
Speaker 3: five of us, and that whole drive home just praying
Speaker 3: that it was gonna, like, please have this happen.
Speaker 2: I got a call. I remember as I.
Speaker 3: Was coming up to my apartment that I got the part,
Speaker 3: and I thought I thought it was going to be
Speaker 3: a one week thing and which I was thrilled about
Speaker 3: just to get read money. So the fact that it
Speaker 3: ended up being what it was was just amazing dream.
Speaker 1: A dream that's kind of in a sort of slightly
Speaker 1: less dramatic way, it's almost exactly what happened to me
Speaker 1: with the Drew Carey show in the night. Really yeah,
Speaker 1: I had twenty seven cents in my bank account when
Speaker 1: I got that job. And you know, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you know this, but you need a dollar to
Speaker 1: take out twenty seven cents from your bank account. So
Speaker 1: I couldn't even get twenty seven. Yeah, I was what broke,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. And also I was on a work visa,
Speaker 1: you know that, So I was on a six month visa.
Speaker 1: If I didn't, you know, get something, if I didn't
Speaker 1: click into something, it was get out, you know. So
Speaker 1: the stings were high. And I remember the same feeling
Speaker 1: from the audition, like I actually didn't even audition for
Speaker 1: that part. I auditioned for another part on a different show,
Speaker 1: and I didn't get that part, but they gave me
Speaker 1: the part on the Drew Gerris.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it's crazy.
Speaker 3: How long between auditions did that happen? When you auditioned
Speaker 3: for the other one and then you got the DWO
Speaker 3: carried It was fast?
Speaker 4: Like Actually, what it was is, I don't you might
Speaker 4: even know this guy?
Speaker 1: Do you know?
Speaker 4: Ton Yes, he's the greatest guy.
Speaker 2: Right, Tony was so much.
Speaker 1: He's awesome, right, he's ever think to Tony? I owe
Speaker 1: everything to Tony. Suppose what happened was Tony was casting it.
Speaker 1: He was casting at Warner Brothers, right, and that's where
Speaker 1: the Drew Carrey Show was made, and they were in
Speaker 1: their first season and I. There was some clerical mix
Speaker 1: up and I was pulled into audition for the part
Speaker 1: of the Hispanic photographer on a brook Shield show called
Speaker 1: Suddenly sou and I I'd like, I you know, I
Speaker 1: riffed my way through the audition, but everybody knew, like
Speaker 1: I knew the minute I saw everybody else, I'm in
Speaker 1: the wrong place. And I, you know, I did the
Speaker 1: audition that we were dicking around and having a laugh,
Speaker 1: and everybody knew I wasn't going to get that part.
Speaker 1: But when I left, Tony followed me out at the
Speaker 1: room and said, hey, obviously you know this is not
Speaker 1: the part for you. I went, I know, thanks for
Speaker 1: seeing me anyway, and he and he said, no, no,
Speaker 1: they're looking for They're looking for a guy on the
Speaker 1: Drew Carrey Show. Can you do an English accent? And
Speaker 1: I said, so, said George Jessica and I did, and
Speaker 1: we I got the I got it for one Get
Speaker 1: one show. It was for one show, and then I
Speaker 1: did six years, eight years, nine years on it.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, that's amazing. I didn't know that was totally.
Speaker 4: With stories though, right, you've got the same one.
Speaker 2: It's like they do happen that's incredible. I love that
Speaker 2: it's Tony. He is just gem of gems.
Speaker 3: My very first meeting with anyone in Hollywood was Tony.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because he's so pivotal in a lot of
Speaker 1: people's and he's very every time I tell him that story,
Speaker 1: I owe every time I see him. I haven't seen
Speaker 1: him for years and years. Every time I see him,
Speaker 1: I always think him and he's like, no, no, you
Speaker 1: I had nothing to do with it. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: you had anything to do with it.
Speaker 2: Oh, He's on our set every week a night court.
Speaker 1: He's yell, tell him I've never forgotten what he did
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 2: Now I sure will. He's just instant happiness when you're
Speaker 2: around him.
Speaker 4: Is he does he do the casting for He's.
Speaker 2: Still Warner Brothers?
Speaker 3: Yep?
Speaker 1: All right? So you know if you guys need and like,
Speaker 1: would you you know?
Speaker 2: Would you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: You kidding me? I guess asked me work for you
Speaker 1: and Larakett. Sure I could be Larket's drunk brother from school.
Speaker 2: I'm taking you up on this. This isn't gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I would do it in the heart,
Speaker 1: but you kidding me? In a heart? So fun yeah,
Speaker 1: it would, Oh my god, it would be a riot
Speaker 1: and I you know, I'm very reasonably priced. You know,
Speaker 1: scale plus ten is just fine.
Speaker 3: It'll be fine that I am so excited about this.
Speaker 2: I would it would be.
Speaker 4: So say in years, that would be funny.
Speaker 2: Did you love doing it?
Speaker 4: I did? Do you guys still do it with like
Speaker 4: a studio audience?
Speaker 1: Oh? Man, that is the greatest life. That is the
Speaker 1: greatest life.
Speaker 2: Wonderful And there's nothing like a tape night.
Speaker 3: It's the electricity that is fabulous.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. But it for years and years and
Speaker 1: years and years, and I never get tired of it.
Speaker 1: It was amazing. So are you Tuesday or Friday?
Speaker 3: We're Friday Nights. And we started very differently because we
Speaker 3: started we were developing this all through the pandemic. So
Speaker 3: when we shot our pilot, it was I mean, we
Speaker 3: were really just coming out of COVID, so we couldn't
Speaker 3: have a full audience. Everyone was just it was socially distant.
Speaker 3: It looked like a hospital waiting room. Everyone was masked
Speaker 3: and socially distance like six, you know, feet away from
Speaker 3: each other. But now we got get to have a
Speaker 3: full audience and it's We've been at Plexiglass up at
Speaker 3: one point because of COVID rolls, but now it's I mean,
Speaker 3: it's great. We have a full audience every Friday night
Speaker 3: and it's so special, and of course.
Speaker 1: It's such a lovely way to make television. I'm sad
Speaker 1: that it's not done so much. I mean, it's such
Speaker 1: a cool, cool thing to do, but it fail out
Speaker 1: of favor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and I I really I don't know why, because,
Speaker 3: like you said, it's such a fun way to make television.
Speaker 3: The the comedy rhythms that you get in front of
Speaker 3: a live audience. Yeah, there's there's just truly nothing like it.
Speaker 3: And I agree, it's such a relationship between the actors
Speaker 3: and the audience, and you find things just in their
Speaker 3: laughter or just in the moments where you're holding for
Speaker 3: their laughs.
Speaker 2: There's just wonderful little moments that you're delicious.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what you mean. Like I remember when
Speaker 1: I started Late Night because I'd come off all these
Speaker 1: years on the Drew Carey Show and when I started
Speaker 1: Late Night and they were getting me to read these
Speaker 1: jokes like you know, hey, guys, have you seen the
Speaker 1: playoffs and stuff? And I'm like, I even fucking I
Speaker 1: ain't know what I'm talking about. I don't even know
Speaker 1: really what playoff is. And I said, let me just
Speaker 1: let me just talk a little bit. And it changed.
Speaker 1: The whole vibe of that show changed when I was
Speaker 1: allowed to just mess around with the audience and the
Speaker 1: camera because when they're looking at the monitors, because they
Speaker 1: all look the audience will look at the monitors like
Speaker 1: it's on TV, uh huh. And then but they could
Speaker 1: also see you dicking around, so they get some kind
Speaker 1: of weird participatory enjoyment of it. It's a very odd,
Speaker 1: special thing that I don't think exists for any other audience.
Speaker 4: TV audience gets a very weird experience.
Speaker 2: It's so true.
Speaker 3: You know, I just had this very distinct memory of
Speaker 3: waiting in the dressing room to do your show and
Speaker 3: watching you do that monologue and just the brilliance of
Speaker 3: it and watching you. I truly remember, I remember, like
Speaker 3: them working my handbrakeup and all of it, just watching
Speaker 3: you on that screen because it was so there was
Speaker 3: talk about electricity. Just the relationship you had with them
Speaker 3: was so it was so special, and it was just
Speaker 3: such a nuanced genius model and that you would do
Speaker 3: on that show.
Speaker 2: And I just I just.
Speaker 1: As I think that what it is with performers, and
Speaker 1: you've got this. People who can hang have got this,
Speaker 1: people that like that's how I describe, but people can
Speaker 1: hang eight people can do it. Larraquet's got this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: If there's sometimes that Richard kind has this some performers
Speaker 1: that you see on a stage or you see in
Speaker 1: a movie or any kind of performance. I think it's
Speaker 1: the same as certain sportsmen like or sportswoman, the same
Speaker 1: as athletes who like I used to take there's a
Speaker 1: Scottish soccer player called Kenny Dull Gleish and Keny Dell
Speaker 1: Gleish when I was a kid, was the greatest soccer
Speaker 1: player in the world. And uh, every time he got
Speaker 1: the ball wasn't necessarily going to score a goal, but
Speaker 1: fucking something was going to happen. And I feel that
Speaker 1: about certain performers, that every time they're there, something's going
Speaker 1: to happen. You know, it might not be great, but
Speaker 1: you go to watch and I think that that's that
Speaker 1: to me is the essence of the whole gig. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm fascinated and kind of delighted to know that
Speaker 1: you did stand up because I always thought of you
Speaker 1: of someone who had that. I kind of have a
Speaker 1: bit of a rule about that on the show, to
Speaker 1: be honest, that it kind of when I'm talking to
Speaker 1: performers then it is mostly performers I talk to. They
Speaker 1: have to be people who I think can hang.
Speaker 2: Oh. I love that.
Speaker 3: I love doing that about your show so much because
Speaker 3: I remember doing the you know, the pri interviews and
Speaker 3: talking about what the style of the show was, and
Speaker 3: I remember them saying, just really have a conversation, because
Speaker 3: that's what Craig's like to do, Like we could talk
Speaker 3: about the things that you're going to talk about, but
Speaker 3: just go with the conversation.
Speaker 2: And it was such a relief that it didn't feel
Speaker 2: like going.
Speaker 3: On, I'm gonna tell you're gonna ask me a question,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell my story, and I have to tell
Speaker 3: it exactly.
Speaker 2: How I told it.
Speaker 3: It was truly like a lot of the times we
Speaker 3: would just end up talking about whatever happened in that moment,
Speaker 3: and it was so nice. And it's also I loved
Speaker 3: watching the show so much because they were genuine, real conversations.
Speaker 1: Well, I think what was what I was lucky and
Speaker 1: as well is the sense that I had been on
Speaker 1: a lot of talk shows as a guest, you know,
Speaker 1: as an actor, and I was like, I had to
Speaker 1: do that very thing, you know where they would say, oh,
Speaker 1: tell that story the way you told it, and I
Speaker 1: was like, but I've already told it, why would I
Speaker 1: tell it again? And it got a little it got
Speaker 1: a little weird, It felt it always felt a little
Speaker 1: false to me, and I never loved that aspect of
Speaker 1: the whole game. You should do an interview show, though,
Speaker 1: because you're good at it.
Speaker 2: Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 3: I also liked what I also like you You're easy to talk,
Speaker 3: talk to what happens somebody's good.
Speaker 1: That's a real trick as well. Only interviewing people you like.
Speaker 1: That's I mean, it's it really makes the difference.
Speaker 3: Because if someone's a dud, I don't know that I could.
Speaker 3: I think I'd freeze up and do a lot of so.
Speaker 2: Tell me more.
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I started doing things like you want
Speaker 1: to smell my finger and all that stuff. I like,
Speaker 1: nothing to say, but if you say to someone, hey,
Speaker 1: you want to do an open pause, or smell my
Speaker 1: finger or talk to the rule book, it kind of people.
Speaker 4: You know, something will happen.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's going to be doing, but
Speaker 1: something will appen.
Speaker 2: We're at the awkward cause that was so fun. It
Speaker 2: was just such a genius. Genius. But where did that
Speaker 2: come from? That?
Speaker 1: I think I think it came from It came from
Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about originally? Is it talking to
Speaker 1: people who just that's kind of what they were and
Speaker 1: to Sometimes people would come on the show and I'm like,
Speaker 1: why are you doing a talk show? Why would you
Speaker 1: come on a talk show if you don't want to talk?
Speaker 1: It doesn't make any sense to me. But I think
Speaker 1: sometimes actors of a particular type and it would you
Speaker 1: and musicians as well, they feel like they're going to
Speaker 1: be fine, and then they get out there and they
Speaker 1: kind of freeze. And I don't think there's any malevolence
Speaker 1: in it. I think it's I honestly think it's nerves
Speaker 1: and shyness sometimes and they just like shut down. And
Speaker 1: that's why it's interesting, because when you talk about doing
Speaker 1: stand up and then doing your one woman show and
Speaker 1: then seeing someone doing a joke and going ah ah,
Speaker 1: and you find it something that's such.
Speaker 4: That's it that's the thing.
Speaker 1: I think. That's the thing.
Speaker 4: Now you're right with your husband, right.
Speaker 2: I do? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And you guys always been always written together.
Speaker 2: We have. We met in colin and we were friends.
Speaker 3: We were writing partners through college and but we didn't
Speaker 3: we didn't start dating until right before we graduated college.
Speaker 3: But it was very much that's how that was the
Speaker 3: basis of our relationship was we would go and write
Speaker 3: comedy sketches together, most of which never saw the light
Speaker 3: of day, but we just both connected over this love
Speaker 3: of comedy and love of writing.
Speaker 1: Do you make each other laugh? Is that right?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that he made me laugh harder than anyone
Speaker 3: that I had ever ever know. I remember my roommates
Speaker 3: at the time, I was just dating such jerks and
Speaker 3: guys that just weren't right for me. And we've never
Speaker 3: seen you so happy. You're every time you're with him,
Speaker 3: you're hysterical laughing. And it's still there's and I got
Speaker 3: to say, and watching he makes me laugh so much,
Speaker 3: but then also getting to see my kids when they
Speaker 3: laugh at something, there's also a special joy in that too.
Speaker 1: Oh my God, making children laughs fabulous. I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'm quite ready to be a children's entertainer. But
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think I'm qualified, but I got
Speaker 1: scared them. I think I scared children.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I'm not BLA.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because when you talk about, you know, writing
Speaker 1: with your husband, I do you still do you still
Speaker 1: write together?
Speaker 4: See Write or nineteen?
Speaker 2: He's a producer on it with me.
Speaker 3: He's not in the writer's room, but we we always
Speaker 3: work together. And we wrote the first movie that we
Speaker 3: ever produced, The Bronze, that we did years ago, which
Speaker 3: I think, gosh, it's like about ten years ago. Now.
Speaker 2: That was our first feature we wrote together.
Speaker 3: And we've always sort of used our our writing together
Speaker 3: as a way to create roles for me that I
Speaker 3: wouldn't necesss sarily totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get it. I mean I ended up writing
Speaker 1: stuff with my We've been married for years and years
Speaker 1: and years, and we I ended up just listening to
Speaker 1: stuff she was saying and saying, you know that that's
Speaker 1: stand up, and she'd be like, no, it's not, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, it is, it is stand up. She made
Speaker 1: an observation once about this is to me, I think
Speaker 1: why I think she's a really good writer, and why
Speaker 1: all it takes is for someone else to go, wait,
Speaker 1: you are a really good writer. She said, I can
Speaker 1: prove the existence of God. I went, all right, tell
Speaker 1: me prove the existence of God. And she said, seek
Speaker 1: freedom Roy. I said, what do you mean, seek freedom Roy?
Speaker 1: She said, well, look the chances if you're a young
Speaker 1: gay Austrian line Tamer growing up and saying, I am
Speaker 1: a young gay Austrian Line Tamer, there's no one in
Speaker 1: the world for me.
Speaker 4: I'm doomed to be so lonely.
Speaker 1: And you both been to another gay honest being line Tabor,
Speaker 1: Line Tabor, I find you attractive. The answer that happening
Speaker 1: without a god and an intelligence design and the ambarrasser impossible.
Speaker 4: And I was like, that's a piece of stand up.
Speaker 2: But I did.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I made it, and I used it and.
Speaker 1: I and it's gone. But it was a thing. And
Speaker 1: I think I think that's part of the chemistry of
Speaker 1: of of being a couple, you know, is that if
Speaker 1: you make each other laugh, don't you.
Speaker 2: Think a thousand Absolutely there's.
Speaker 3: It's truly the basis of our relationship, both as a
Speaker 3: writing team. But the phase of our love was me Yeah,
Speaker 3: started the laughing over something You're saying like, oh, that's
Speaker 3: that's what I want for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: I want to feel that happiness because obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: like the joy.
Speaker 1: That's the last time you know, yeah it is, And
Speaker 1: then you laughed so much. She end up with children.
Speaker 1: Then you're just tired and you never write any philosophy ever.
Speaker 2: Again, no philosophy is your wife.
Speaker 3: Was she starting in comedy or she just you just
Speaker 3: don't notice that she was.
Speaker 1: She's a dealer. I mean, she writes. She she's actually
Speaker 1: very good writer. But she I mean, but no, she
Speaker 1: had was not in any way drawn into that world.
Speaker 1: She's she's a blue bloody Yankee. She get none to
Speaker 1: do with showfolk.
Speaker 2: She can make you laugh.
Speaker 1: And that's oh my god. Yeah yeah, like like no
Speaker 1: one else can. Uh maybe Josh Robert Thompson, but he's
Speaker 1: not my type. Josh is the guy who did Jeff
Speaker 1: Peterson the robot on the show.
Speaker 2: Oh oh my god.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you talk about an improvised vizational genius.
Speaker 1: My god, Oh it was so.
Speaker 3: And when did that did the robots start at the
Speaker 3: big beginning?
Speaker 2: Was that part of right?
Speaker 1: No, we were about five years in. Oh wow, okay, so,
Speaker 1: oh my God, that fucking robot. I mean, I still
Speaker 1: weep with laughter. I can just be on the have
Speaker 1: a conversation with Josh on the phone and he can
Speaker 1: have me weeping with laughter. I don't know what it is,
Speaker 1: just some people just boom.
Speaker 2: Did you know him before the show?
Speaker 1: No? No, he commented to do bits on the show.
Speaker 1: He was a friend of one of the writers who
Speaker 1: had seen him do some bits and pieces and he
Speaker 1: commented to do I think it was an impression of
Speaker 1: Arnold Schwarzenegger or something, and he just you get you know,
Speaker 1: it's one of these Hollywood things. It's like you meet
Speaker 1: a guy who meets a guy who knows a thing
Speaker 1: who doesn't, and that's how it always works, you know.
Speaker 1: It's like when people in Hollywood say, my agent doesn't
Speaker 1: get me any work. You go, yeah, they don't. They
Speaker 1: don't do that. They charge you money and they come
Speaker 1: up and had you a small ball water and tell
Speaker 1: you how gifted you are. But that's only after you
Speaker 1: get the job. It's so funny, Melissa, it's such a
Speaker 1: joy to see you again. I'm so happy that you're
Speaker 1: killing it with this night Court thing. Oh congratulations, it's
Speaker 1: just lovely.
Speaker 4: I couldn't have to a nice person.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I'm so I was so so
Speaker 3: excited to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Truly.
Speaker 3: I just have the best memories of talking to you
Speaker 3: on the show, and you really it was such an amazing,
Speaker 3: such an amazing training for me for that to be
Speaker 3: my first talk show. Say, okay, this this sets the bar.
Speaker 2: This is how you have.
Speaker 3: You're just amazing. I'm so happy to get to talk
Speaker 3: to you. And I'm gonna hold you to this. If
Speaker 3: I really we get more Night Court episodes I want,
Speaker 3: I would love love.
Speaker 1: Put me in the pitch for the next season. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, work for Scale. I'll do it.
Speaker 4: In a fucking harpy, I'd do it for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I'm so excited kidding.
Speaker 1: And this is legally binding because now we're on a
Speaker 1: podcast and that makes it legally thing.
Speaker 2: That's to be our trailer.
Speaker 3: If we get a season, work, then Craig Ferguson comes
Speaker 3: in and works for Scale.
Speaker 1: Works for Scale. That's the story. But I'm nobody knows
Speaker 1: that Craig Ferguson always works for sale. All right, take
Speaker 1: care of yourself. It's lovely.
Speaker 2: You're wonderful, Craig. Thank you so much for talking to me.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thanks for being It's lovely
Speaker 3: To see you you too, Take care bye,