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're available
Speaker 1: at the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour or
Speaker 1: at your local outlet in your region. My name is
Speaker 1: Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I
Speaker 1: talk to interest in people about what brings them happiness.
Speaker 1: My favorite cast member on Saturday Night Live right now
Speaker 1: is Heidi Gardner. She's professional, she's very very funny, and
Speaker 1: she's very very good at what she does.
Speaker 2: And she's here. Let's meet her enjoy. Here's the thing, Heidi.
Speaker 1: I want to tell you this right now. I think
Speaker 1: Heidi is the nicest name for a girl. I've always
Speaker 1: thought that, and if ever I had had a daughter,
Speaker 1: I would have coder Heidi. And I wondered if you
Speaker 1: were raised in the Alps looking after sheep.
Speaker 3: I wasn't, but I did have a good relationship with
Speaker 3: my grandpa, which I believe Heidi also had.
Speaker 1: So oh, that's right, I think. Did you did you
Speaker 1: read the book Heidi when you were little?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think I've read different iterations of Heidi, but it
Speaker 3: always has to do with a grandpa, the Alps, some sheep.
Speaker 1: Some sheep, and I think there's a vampire in one
Speaker 1: of theisodes where Heidi meets Dracula.
Speaker 4: Yes, Heidi meets Dracula is my favorite version.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm in London right now, and I just walked by
Speaker 1: Bram Stoker's house where he wrote where he wrote Dracula.
Speaker 2: And now I'm a bit scared. It's why it's on
Speaker 2: my mind.
Speaker 4: I would be excited.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm excited and scared. It's a mixture of both.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. So let me are you in New York City?
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 1: I think I can tell by your fashionable bag hanging
Speaker 1: on the thing behind you.
Speaker 3: That might be the only thing I'll hear, the screaming
Speaker 3: fashion are you?
Speaker 2: Are you in production right now for SNL?
Speaker 3: Yes, we have the fiftieth anniversary this weekend.
Speaker 1: Oh congratulations, and may I say fifty years on television?
Speaker 2: You look great? Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: Did you see the movie, the new movie about fifty
Speaker 1: the Saturday Night Live movie?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: OK, And it's only because I'm saving it till I
Speaker 3: not currently taping SNL because it's just a little too close.
Speaker 2: You know. It's funny.
Speaker 1: It seems like I've over the years, I've run into
Speaker 1: a lot of people who have either you know, current
Speaker 1: or past cast members of SNL. And there is a
Speaker 1: kind of you get to be part of a sort
Speaker 1: of elite. You're part of the elite. Now do you
Speaker 1: get like, is there a special roped off area of
Speaker 1: clubs of New York if you're in SNL.
Speaker 3: You know, if there is? I don't know about it.
Speaker 3: And it's my own fault. I'm from the Midwest. Yes,
Speaker 3: and I think we're humble to a fault. And I
Speaker 3: have been told by other cast members and I believe
Speaker 3: this like in their life, and even former cast members
Speaker 3: that you that they can walk into any restaurant in
Speaker 3: New York and get a table, And I just have
Speaker 3: never banked on that for one second in my life,
Speaker 3: or that there's a secret section. So I'm always making
Speaker 3: a reservation. I'm never assuming I'm gonna go a special room.
Speaker 1: I think that's the correct way to go about it
Speaker 1: because that shows the correct approach to show business, which
Speaker 1: is you never know where your next shock of humility
Speaker 1: is coming from. Yeah, but you're not even as old
Speaker 1: as Saturday Night Live. Did you grow up watching it?
Speaker 1: And who did you grow up watching and who were
Speaker 1: the cast member? Because I assume you grew up watching it,
Speaker 1: did you?
Speaker 4: Yes? For sure?
Speaker 3: And I remember my parents and I'm not sure you know.
Speaker 3: Obviously this is before YouTube and where you could rewatch
Speaker 3: most things, but I think that my parents had some
Speaker 3: of the early vhs because they showed me. They definitely
Speaker 3: showed me Eddie Murphy as James Brown the Hot Tub
Speaker 3: Time Machine, like that was the first sketch I ever saw.
Speaker 3: And then I would start watching it on Saturdays with them,
Speaker 3: and the first time I ever made my parents laugh
Speaker 3: was doing or that I remember is doing an impression
Speaker 3: of Dana Carvey doing an impression of Robin Leech and
Speaker 3: so that.
Speaker 1: Was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Woah, that is
Speaker 1: I God, I remember that. What's the So are you
Speaker 1: from a show business family where you are your parents
Speaker 1: involved and stuff like that?
Speaker 3: No, they're definitely characters for sure, and they're like my
Speaker 3: greatest source of inspiration. But my dad, my dad actually
Speaker 3: did do improv for comedy sports, and so when I
Speaker 3: was really little, i'd go and watch him perform that.
Speaker 1: I remember that comedy sports thing. Don Is that still
Speaker 1: a thing to people still do that?
Speaker 4: I do think it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well it's kind of like competitive improv, Is that
Speaker 1: what it is?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And like they would wear ref uniforms. That's what I
Speaker 3: really remember from it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you were you were a groundlings along now, right,
Speaker 1: So how did you get into that?
Speaker 2: How did you end up doing improv?
Speaker 1: Because that's an LA based or alien New York based, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I moved to LA when I was twenty one,
Speaker 3: and I moved out there to do hair and makeup.
Speaker 3: I knew I wanted to like work in pop culture
Speaker 3: in some way and I was good at doing hair,
Speaker 3: so I moved out there and I was working at
Speaker 3: a salon for about five years and made friends with
Speaker 3: a woman named Rachel who was in the ground LANs
Speaker 3: and she said, you know, you should come to my
Speaker 3: improv show tonight. I'm performing. And I'd heard of the
Speaker 3: Groundlings for sure. I mean, I was obsessed with SNL
Speaker 3: and pop culture and everything. I went and saw the
Speaker 3: show and I was like, that's the funniest thing I've
Speaker 3: ever seen. I can't wait for my family to visit
Speaker 3: so I can bring them to see it.
Speaker 4: And she was like.
Speaker 3: Yes, But also I was hoping that maybe it would
Speaker 3: inspire you to, you know, take a class here and
Speaker 3: I was like what, and she was like, I think
Speaker 3: you'd be really good at this. And I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm not an actor and she was like yeah, but
Speaker 3: you leave me like six minute voicemails in character and
Speaker 3: they're funny.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was kind of how that started.
Speaker 1: So you were because your hair is great. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to bring it up right away, but your hair
Speaker 1: is great. It looks like it's been done professionally.
Speaker 5: If you don't know it was done professionally, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 5: because I did a movie once where I played a hairdresser.
Speaker 1: In order to do it properly, I learned to cut
Speaker 1: hair a little bit and I really liked it.
Speaker 3: That makes me so happy to hear that, because my
Speaker 3: biggest grievance is a hairdresser is if you watch someone
Speaker 3: playing a hairdresser, they don't hold the scissors correctly.
Speaker 4: And so I love your commitment to the craft.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you didn't see the movie, did you.
Speaker 2: Now, you didn't see the movie, but.
Speaker 4: I'm going to if you told me you did that.
Speaker 4: That is the best selling point.
Speaker 2: It was a movie called The Big Teas.
Speaker 1: Nobody saw this movie and it was about a Scottish
Speaker 1: hairdresser that goes to Los Angeles to take part in
Speaker 1: the World Hairdressing Competition.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, the high jinks and sue.
Speaker 1: But I learned how to cut hair a little bit
Speaker 1: and I really liked it, and I thought, I kind
Speaker 1: of wish I'd done this instead of getting into show business,
Speaker 1: but by then it was too late.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I always think it's a good you know,
Speaker 3: it's a good thing to go back to. I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed it, and it was also a place where I
Speaker 3: was meeting so many people every day, different types of people. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but also was a good source of inspiration.
Speaker 1: And also and also gossip in Hollywood. I mean, it
Speaker 1: is the absolute hive of all things. If you want
Speaker 1: to know anything, you you would hear everything, and you
Speaker 1: still went into show business.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's funny when I told my clients when I finally
Speaker 3: quit the salon, I never told them I had this
Speaker 3: like side, I don't even want to call it side hustle,
Speaker 3: because it was I was doing everything for free, just
Speaker 3: this side obsession with sketch and improv. And when I
Speaker 3: told them, you know, I'm leaving the salon, and they're like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: what salon are you going to? If it's close, I'll
Speaker 3: follow you. And I was like, no, I'm I'm I'm
Speaker 3: going to pursue comedy.
Speaker 4: And because I didn't.
Speaker 3: Consider myself an actor either, and they were like, are
Speaker 3: you funny, It's like I think I am. And they're like,
Speaker 3: don't do this, Like you moved out here. You did
Speaker 3: the reverse of what people typically do. You moved out
Speaker 3: here like to be a hairdresser, and you made it
Speaker 3: like don't now do the cliche thing like they very
Speaker 3: much told me.
Speaker 1: Not to do I think the good thing about show
Speaker 1: business though, was as a kind of as a place
Speaker 1: to work on. One of the good things about it
Speaker 1: is the fact that there are no really set paths,
Speaker 1: except except maybe something like Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 2: If you're if you lucky enough to.
Speaker 1: Get into that, then that's kind of like you get
Speaker 1: you get the rubber stamp. It's like the Ivy League
Speaker 1: of Comedians. How long we have you been doing it?
Speaker 1: Like six years or something?
Speaker 4: Eight years?
Speaker 2: Eight years?
Speaker 4: Yeah, in my eighth season.
Speaker 2: Do you still like enjoy it?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I do.
Speaker 3: I love playing characters, so I can't really imagine a
Speaker 3: world where I'm going to get.
Speaker 4: To do this to this degree again, right.
Speaker 3: I will say the only thing that I've started to
Speaker 3: feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue or idea fatigue,
Speaker 3: in the way that at this point, after doing Groundlings
Speaker 3: and SNL for so long, I'm like, I've written a
Speaker 3: lot of sketches, and you know, you just get scared
Speaker 3: and it does happen some weeks where I'm like, I
Speaker 3: do not have an idea for a sketch, a game,
Speaker 3: or a character, And then you know, luckily we have
Speaker 3: amazing writers at the show that will be like, but
Speaker 3: I have an idea for you.
Speaker 4: That's all. Only thing that starts has gotten a little tough.
Speaker 1: How does the week get put together for Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 2: Do you start? You start on a Tuesday or something?
Speaker 2: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Or yeah, we do go in on Monday. It's just
Speaker 3: for a couple hours. You meet the host, you pitch
Speaker 3: them a joke, sketch. It's just kind of an icebreaker.
Speaker 3: And then Tuesday is riding Night, Wednesday, table read Thursday,
Speaker 3: Friday or the rehearsals and when we tape the pre
Speaker 3: tape sketches, and then Saturday rehearsal day, dress, rehearsal, show,
Speaker 3: after party.
Speaker 1: The after party is part of the day, is that
Speaker 1: you have to go to the after party.
Speaker 3: You know you don't have to, but I think, out
Speaker 3: of respect for the show and the party and the
Speaker 3: thing you just created that week, it's good to let
Speaker 3: off some steam with everyone. Occasionally I've not gone, and
Speaker 3: then I regret it because it's like you have so
Speaker 3: much adrenaline pumping three that if you just go home
Speaker 3: and try to go.
Speaker 4: To bed, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 1: I kind of I used to always party after a
Speaker 1: shore or do something after a show. And now I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can leave a theater. I'm out of the theater
Speaker 1: before the audience. I'm in my bed in a hotel
Speaker 1: half an hour later, lights out, socks on, pajamas and sleeping.
Speaker 1: It's funny because adrenaline I always thought as a performer,
Speaker 1: I thought you needed it, And now I think it's
Speaker 1: the enemy. I hate adrenaline on stage. I like, I
Speaker 1: don't like to feel kind of nervous. I like, do
Speaker 1: you do You still get kind of charged before you
Speaker 1: you work?
Speaker 3: I get charged, but you know, to tell you the truth,
Speaker 3: the charge is all adrenaline and anxiety and untruths. You know.
Speaker 3: It's just even when if I'm going to perform, you know,
Speaker 3: I'll perform at like a local theater or do a
Speaker 3: show at a college, and all suddenly before I go
Speaker 3: out to this new crowd of people think that they're
Speaker 3: going to hate me.
Speaker 2: I think that's normal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it is.
Speaker 3: It's just adrenaline and anxiety and you know, And so
Speaker 3: I'm used to just like having that thought saying this
Speaker 3: is how you think, but it's probably not true. And
Speaker 3: you're a people pleaser, so you're still going to go
Speaker 3: do this thing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1: It's also it's funny. I remember working with an old comedian.
Speaker 1: It's not that long ago, actually, and I was working
Speaker 1: with an older comedian who you would know, and I
Speaker 1: was like pacing up and down backstage and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: and he was like sitting in a chair and he
Speaker 1: was like, he said, well, what are you doing? I said,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just kind of getting myself ready for
Speaker 1: what Who's this for? But so that all this posturing
Speaker 1: backstage is just going to make you speak too fast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it kind of does. It's true.
Speaker 1: I stopped doing it, and I feel like in the
Speaker 1: past few years I've gotten much better the job because
Speaker 1: I just like, I just go and if they hate me,
Speaker 1: well that's fine. Be surprised though, because they know I'm
Speaker 1: there so they could avoid me.
Speaker 4: Yes, they didn't have to buy the tic.
Speaker 1: They didn't have to buy the ticket. They actually they
Speaker 1: know who you are. They've come to see you, and
Speaker 1: they've come to see you probably because they like you.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not saying there might not be a
Speaker 1: crazy loaner in there somewhere who hates you and that's
Speaker 1: why they're there.
Speaker 2: But I don't think there's that many of them. Maybe
Speaker 2: I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: The way that your generation is now with performance, though
Speaker 1: there's much more connection I think with the audience in
Speaker 1: digital form. Then I my people of my generation and
Speaker 1: even you know, I kind of separate myself from that
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have social media, but I don't do it.
Speaker 1: Someone else does it, and I occasionally will go on
Speaker 1: and look at it and.
Speaker 2: Go ah and go away. Do you have all that?
Speaker 1: Do you have all the Instagram and the twigs and everything.
Speaker 3: I have an Instagram, but you know, I run my
Speaker 3: Instagram the same way.
Speaker 4: I even saying run my Instagram.
Speaker 3: I just do my Instagram the same way I did
Speaker 3: it before SNL, which was just like posting pictures and
Speaker 3: stories for my friends for the most part, and I
Speaker 3: think I did come around right before it was more
Speaker 3: of like a necessary thing to post so much content.
Speaker 3: I think if I hadn't gotten SNL, I would have
Speaker 3: needed that release one hundred percent and would have done
Speaker 3: that more. But I am able to get a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff out on the show, and I just have
Speaker 3: never found my gear on a social platform in a
Speaker 3: way where I want to.
Speaker 4: Be that vulnerable. You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think also What Happens SNL is famously produced, but
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's still on a day to
Speaker 1: day basis produced by Laurene Michaels, is it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? All right?
Speaker 1: Because Lauren is like one of the great comedy producers
Speaker 1: of all time. And I think that the thing that
Speaker 1: people suffer from on social media, on the phones and
Speaker 1: stuff like that is that they don't have a producer.
Speaker 1: They don't have someone saying, you know, what would be
Speaker 1: better about this joke is if you didn't do this
Speaker 1: joke and maybe did a different joke that wouldn't make
Speaker 1: everybody mad or make you look like an asshole or
Speaker 1: something like that, you know what I mean. It's like
Speaker 1: I feel like the role of the producer is removed,
Speaker 1: the creative producer is removed from a lot of people's
Speaker 1: Instagram And I think the people who are successful in
Speaker 1: social media are people who have a producer's instinct themselves.
Speaker 1: They understand, you know, I'll do this, And like if
Speaker 1: you look at influencers even like that, like the royal
Speaker 1: family of the Kardashians, they're all produced, they all think
Speaker 1: like producers. They all have a kind of do you
Speaker 1: have that do you think, do you do you censor
Speaker 1: yourself or think about it or do you let you know,
Speaker 1: you let the show do it and relax.
Speaker 2: And that I mean you. I assume you trust Lauren
Speaker 2: and give you the right advice.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I do trust his advice.
Speaker 3: And at this point, I feel like, yes, I know
Speaker 3: how to self edit. I know typically what the show's
Speaker 3: going to respond to or not respond to, even to
Speaker 3: just get it onto the show, like table read. What
Speaker 3: I do like is the freedom of once the new
Speaker 3: part is the live audience. So once I'm performing it
Speaker 3: live in front of the audience and on.
Speaker 4: TV, I do like that.
Speaker 3: That feels like, you know, I'm just like, belts are
Speaker 3: off and I'm just going for it.
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 3: But because we've had rewrite tables and we've edited so
Speaker 3: much of it to that point, I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 3: have I have the time to be a little crazier,
Speaker 3: you know, or to take my time because we've already
Speaker 3: cut it down. The only thing I will say is
Speaker 3: I totally agree with that point that you're making. But
Speaker 3: I was at a concert recently where the performer brought
Speaker 3: out another act and what I was watching was certainly
Speaker 3: something that had not been rehearsed. You know. The woman
Speaker 3: performing was just pretty loose in her dance and singing, like,
Speaker 3: and even the other dancers were like they weren't sure
Speaker 3: where to stand or catch her. And I thought, I
Speaker 3: was like, oh my god, I would never be able
Speaker 3: to go up there and do I can tell this,
Speaker 3: Like someone went out and like marked this for maybe
Speaker 3: two minutes. But they were fine and the audience was fine,
Speaker 3: and they still had confidence. And I was like, that's
Speaker 3: interesting because I don't trust that at all and I
Speaker 3: could never do it, but it was nice to see
Speaker 3: one someone just be experimental. It didn't really work for me,
Speaker 3: but I was like that, that's cool to have that
Speaker 3: confidence because now I'm so like, you know, produced.
Speaker 1: Well, you make an interesting point, because I when I work,
Speaker 1: I don't have a rehearsed show. Even when I was
Speaker 1: doing Late Night, I didn't have a like I would
Speaker 1: turn up. Honestly, in the last like four or five
Speaker 1: years of it, I turn up like fifteen minutes before
Speaker 1: and then we go and then that was it. And
Speaker 1: you know, and I would look at some ideas, but
Speaker 1: I think that's repetition of I know what I do.
Speaker 1: Even so you experiment within the parameters of what you do. Like,
Speaker 1: I know the robot is over there, the horses over there.
Speaker 1: I know if I say fuck, they're going to get mad.
Speaker 1: But if I say asshole, they won't get that mad.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's like you build a kind of
Speaker 1: a little box that you can experiment within. Yes, I
Speaker 1: think what would be difficult now in that environment? And
Speaker 1: I mean, Lauren clearly knows how Saturday Night Live works.
Speaker 1: I think if I were doing a show now, I'd
Speaker 1: be like, I don't know what the rules are now,
Speaker 1: I don't know the joke that I said last week
Speaker 1: might be annoying. Everything moves very quickly, and you can
Speaker 1: step over lines that are still the paint is still fresh.
Speaker 1: You know, they're like, I didn't know that was a problem.
Speaker 1: Why is that a problem? And it has to be
Speaker 1: explained to you? And I do you find that in
Speaker 1: the time you've been on the show that you have
Speaker 1: I mean, presumably you've learned to speak the language of
Speaker 1: the show. You know how to get a sketch on
Speaker 1: the show, you know how to make a sketch work
Speaker 1: in the show. But do you think it's boxed you
Speaker 1: in in any way? Creatively. Is it something that you'd
Speaker 1: like to experiment away from the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it's it's definitely boxed. It's
Speaker 3: weird to say this, and I'll probably have another point
Speaker 3: to it, but it's boxed my confidence in a little
Speaker 3: bit because I so want to be I so want
Speaker 3: to get something on the show. I want to be
Speaker 3: accepted by the show, and I want to thrive on
Speaker 3: the show. And I'm so in this world and I'm there,
Speaker 3: you know, six out of seven days out of the week,
Speaker 3: and it's my singular focus when you know, we're filming,
Speaker 3: and so I'm like, if I'm not getting stuff on,
Speaker 3: then I'm like, I'm not funny, I'm not doing my job.
Speaker 3: And that has been the thing that then is weird
Speaker 3: when I go to another show and I'm so like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I'm nervous.
Speaker 4: Did it.
Speaker 3: I haven't done like live shows like when I was
Speaker 3: doing Groundlings a lot. But then you go when you
Speaker 3: do a show or you just do an improv show
Speaker 3: and You're like, oh my god, it's fine, and people
Speaker 3: are not judging me as harshly as I'm judging me,
Speaker 3: you know, and even the show isn't judging me as
Speaker 3: harshly as I'm judging me. It's just suddenly I got
Speaker 3: this like standard, you know. So there's that, and then
Speaker 3: also I know whatever I do next, which you know,
Speaker 3: I'd love to have a show that I, you know,
Speaker 3: co star in and co write and it's a character
Speaker 3: and it's a world, and it's a character I get
Speaker 3: to live in.
Speaker 4: For a while and explore more.
Speaker 2: Would be like, what would that? Would that character be
Speaker 2: a a hairdresser?
Speaker 4: Maybe no, but I bet they'd have big hair.
Speaker 1: I think, look, you already know how to hold the scissors.
Speaker 1: You're halfway there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that the idea of working because I used
Speaker 1: to like avoid playing.
Speaker 2: Scottish people all the time.
Speaker 1: I was like, but I'm Scottish, you may as well
Speaker 1: like over the part being Scottish.
Speaker 2: Go all right.
Speaker 1: I presume that if you go over the part playing
Speaker 1: someone from Kansas, that would be okay.
Speaker 3: It would be totally okay. I mean, I love like Kansas,
Speaker 3: Missouri where I was raised. I love the people, I
Speaker 3: get the people. I love Midwestern all the different levels
Speaker 3: of it. So like that world I'm in on that.
Speaker 1: I was always surprised that when I went to the Midwest,
Speaker 1: like because I got to know America from the coasts
Speaker 1: in so I knew in New York and LA that
Speaker 1: when I started going to America in the middle that,
Speaker 1: you know, because I learned that you go, hey, how
Speaker 1: you doing, and people go, hey, how you doing, and
Speaker 1: that's it. But if you say hey, how you doing
Speaker 1: in Kansas, people tell you how they're doing.
Speaker 2: Really they will. I'm okay, but my sister.
Speaker 1: Had to have an operation and Po're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: is she okay? Well she's doing okay now. But and
Speaker 1: you find yourself in conversations. Yes, yes, I worked with
Speaker 1: a great improviser from the Midwest who played the character
Speaker 1: of Mimi on The Drew Carey Show, which is the
Speaker 1: show I was on the nineties, Kathy Kenny, who's from
Speaker 1: Stevens Point, Wisconsin, which is about as Midwest as I
Speaker 1: can think of, is maybe nearly as much as Kansas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're very funny people, but there's a real darkness. It's
Speaker 1: there's a weird undercurrent to it that I love.
Speaker 4: Yes, Oh, I totally feel that.
Speaker 3: I mean so much of my stuff at Groundlings and
Speaker 3: even sometimes at SNL, like you know, a note I
Speaker 3: get is like it's a little too dark or you know,
Speaker 3: like play up the joy. You know you can play
Speaker 3: you know at work, they've told me before, like you
Speaker 3: can play a loser, like, but you have to be
Speaker 3: loving your life as a loser. Like the audience at
Speaker 3: least our audience here at C and L does not
Speaker 3: want to worry about you. So like you are having
Speaker 3: fun all of this information that's painting the specificity of
Speaker 3: your weird, down and out life, Like you need to
Speaker 3: be loving it.
Speaker 4: And I get that.
Speaker 3: For a while, I was like, but this was my life,
Speaker 3: like you know, like even talking about like being in
Speaker 3: debt or something like just things that happened throughout my childhood,
Speaker 3: you know. Or I was like, well, this was funny
Speaker 3: because this is how we dealt with it, or this
Speaker 3: is what my parents did to you know, And they're
Speaker 3: like yeah. But a lot of people think, like maybe
Speaker 3: that's something you should talk about in therapy to just
Speaker 3: be careful.
Speaker 1: What do you think that the sketch format doesn't low
Speaker 1: It can't really if you're doing a sketch, you can't
Speaker 1: go hugely complex with the character if you've only got
Speaker 1: three or four minutes to do it right.
Speaker 3: And that's like the exact thing that producers tell hosts,
Speaker 3: especially hosts that are like seasoned dramatic actors who want
Speaker 3: to get into their character. And I get it because
Speaker 3: I love characters and I like to go a little deep.
Speaker 3: But you'll just get lost in it for three minutes.
Speaker 3: And I've never seen it serve someone very well to
Speaker 3: go too deep and take it too seriously. It's always
Speaker 3: about just like, yes, the voice you're doing is great,
Speaker 3: Like we don't need to think about what they had
Speaker 3: for breakfast, Like you're good.
Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite I want to ask you
Speaker 1: names Ransom, but do you have a favorite type of host?
Speaker 2: Is there?
Speaker 1: Is there a type of person that is more that
Speaker 1: is easier to work with and you get more out
Speaker 1: of it than another.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's a couple one of those being really amazing.
Speaker 3: I'll say I should just say actors, but I like
Speaker 3: to say dramatic actors because it catches me off guard
Speaker 3: because when someone I remember my first season, I think
Speaker 3: it was my first season.
Speaker 4: Sterling K.
Speaker 3: Brown hosted and he did a sketch where basically he
Speaker 3: was just at a dinner table just saying Shrek is
Speaker 3: the best, like DreamWorks movie or something, and someone else
Speaker 3: was like, no, I think it's how to Train Your Dragon.
Speaker 3: And there were jokes in there, but he was never
Speaker 3: going for the joke. He was just playing it as
Speaker 3: a man who earnestly believed this and had his moment
Speaker 3: to say it, and he never went for a joke
Speaker 3: or a silly face like anyone in the cast would.
Speaker 4: Have been like, just going so goofy with it.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I left that table read being like,
Speaker 3: is he funnier than me?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: Is he funnier than all of us? And I see that.
Speaker 3: I see that a lot with really good actors. I'm like,
Speaker 3: you're just a good actor and like you're doing i'm
Speaker 3: sure what you learned in school, just playing the truth
Speaker 3: of the character, and it's fully working and the writing's good.
Speaker 4: So I love that.
Speaker 3: And then you know, I'm a big sports fan, so
Speaker 3: I love when athletes host because personally, I think the
Speaker 3: expectation should be super low. They're a fish out of water.
Speaker 3: This isn't what they do. So if they are just fine,
Speaker 3: it's like, yeah, that's fine. Like he's a linebacker. It's
Speaker 3: like we didn't expect him to be the best. But
Speaker 3: when they kill it, it's like, oh my god, like
Speaker 3: there's this hidden talent in there or something they always
Speaker 3: had that they got to the floor.
Speaker 1: So if you're a big sports fan and you're from Kansas,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you probably is not the greatest weekend you've
Speaker 1: ever had, was it.
Speaker 3: It wasn't the greatest weekend it you know, I've had
Speaker 3: like so many great Chiefs years recently, lifelong fan, so
Speaker 3: I am like grateful to a fault, grateful too that
Speaker 3: they went to the super Bowl. The only thing that's
Speaker 3: hard as like what I consider to be like a
Speaker 3: sweet fan who has been through wins and losses and
Speaker 3: all sorts of different season and I know what it
Speaker 3: feels like when like another team is raining.
Speaker 4: It doesn't feel great. The only thing I don't.
Speaker 3: Like is just that there are some stories that are like, well,
Speaker 3: the Chiefs didn't show up, they didn't try, they didn't
Speaker 3: and I'm just like, no player out there who made
Speaker 3: it to the Super Bowl didn't try, Eagles included. I mean,
Speaker 3: Eagles tried so hard and they blew us out. Like
Speaker 3: I just find some of these narratives so insulting. And
Speaker 3: actually I was talking to someone recently, I was like,
Speaker 3: I fail all the time at work, Like I write
Speaker 3: sketches three sketches a week usually because I want to
Speaker 3: have good numbers to maybe get one in, and usually
Speaker 3: I get zero in.
Speaker 4: Like I fail and I lose.
Speaker 3: It's just that, and I think that's a loss because
Speaker 3: I didn't get it on. But I'm like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: kind of protected because no one saw my loss live
Speaker 3: because it never even went. They didn't see me lose,
Speaker 3: and so I'm just like, they have to go lose
Speaker 3: in public, but they try, Like no one's not trying.
Speaker 2: It's an odd thing.
Speaker 1: But I think around sports casting espasically, when you think
Speaker 1: about it, it's not you can't rehearse it, you know,
Speaker 1: so if you're I feel like the people who are
Speaker 1: actually commenting and live on the game, I have great
Speaker 1: deal of sympathy for that because you have to keep
Speaker 1: talking and you're not going to I say a lot
Speaker 1: of bullshit that people are going to get mad at.
Speaker 1: But I think afterwards, the idea of yeah, they didn't try,
Speaker 1: somebody analyzing the game saying they didn't try it is
Speaker 1: a ludicrous idea that you would get up in the
Speaker 1: morning of the Super bow Gol and go, eh, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll go, but really, I mean, I'm more looking forward
Speaker 1: to going out later on in the day.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone goes to it like that.
Speaker 3: No, No, So thank you for letting me get that
Speaker 3: off my I think talk you're going to get.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you got it off your chest, and I'm glad.
Speaker 1: It is an interesting thing though, But I think when
Speaker 1: pop called very famously with the chiefs. Right now, pop
Speaker 1: culture and sports culture are intersecting at you know, light speed,
Speaker 1: and I think people that normally don't pay any attention
Speaker 1: the super Bowl is always like this, when people that
Speaker 1: normally pay no attention to sport suddenly it's it's the
Speaker 1: day where they're going to sit down and watch sports
Speaker 1: all day and have opinions about it. And I think
Speaker 1: the thing about sports a little bit like performance, is
Speaker 1: that everybody's kind of an expert. You know, you can
Speaker 1: say things like, wow, he didn't do that because of this,
Speaker 1: and no one can prove you one hundred percent wrong.
Speaker 2: No one.
Speaker 1: If you say, oh, Travis Kelsey, he didn't try, he
Speaker 1: went well, he did, but no one can prove you
Speaker 1: wrong and say he didn't but he did, he tried,
Speaker 1: He just but it's the same thing when people say
Speaker 1: that's not I mean, I'm interested. When we talked right
Speaker 1: at the beginning, we talked about common improv sports, that
Speaker 1: sports improv thing, and I was always fascinated by that
Speaker 1: because the idea that somebody can be more funny than
Speaker 1: somebody else seems an anathema to me. It doesn't it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem possible to me that because it's so subjective.
Speaker 2: There are some things that people laugh at.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just just don't get it, and I'm
Speaker 1: not funny. I get fucking Emmys and peabodies and shit,
Speaker 1: I know I'm funny.
Speaker 2: I've made money, so what why do I don't get that?
Speaker 1: And the reason I don't get it is because it's
Speaker 1: like all are it's subjective and I I mean, but
Speaker 1: sport you kind of have to win or yes, and
Speaker 1: I think there's.
Speaker 3: So much more vulnerable in my opinion, it's just like
Speaker 3: there's just a winner and a loser, and you're putting
Speaker 3: it all all out there, and like with what we're doing,
Speaker 3: it's like you're funny and maybe some people think you're not.
Speaker 3: A lot of people think you're winning. Like even the
Speaker 3: most like subversive like left of center stuff, you know, like.
Speaker 1: But also the thing is as well that if you
Speaker 1: don't make people laugh, they get angry at you, the
Speaker 1: same as the same as if your team doesn't win,
Speaker 1: they get angry.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like, and that's an interesting I don't I've never
Speaker 1: understood that, Like, that.
Speaker 2: Guy doesn't make me funny. He's an asshole? Why is he?
Speaker 1: It just it just doesn't make you laugh. No, he's
Speaker 1: an asshole. That asshole doesn't make me laugh. And I
Speaker 1: think that there's a thing that somebody said to me
Speaker 1: when I started Late Night I was always gonna haunted me,
Speaker 1: which is you said, the first two weeks, maybe the
Speaker 1: first couple of months are going to be rough because
Speaker 1: they're going to have to forgive you for trying to
Speaker 1: make them laugh. And I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that's a weird thing to hear.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you go out on the stage now on a
Speaker 1: Saturday night, like when you go out because presumably the
Speaker 1: first time you perform the show, that's when we see it, right,
Speaker 1: Do you go out there now thinking fuck it, I
Speaker 1: know I'm funny or is there still doubt?
Speaker 3: I do think it's like, fuck it, I know I'm funny,
Speaker 3: and I think I'm funnier when I'm confident and having fun. Definitely, Yes,
Speaker 3: it's still hard to do if you are trying a
Speaker 3: completely new character or idea, which we are for the
Speaker 3: very first time. So to have all that freedom is
Speaker 3: like and you have like it's your baby, and you
Speaker 3: have hopes and you have expectation for it. But you know,
Speaker 3: I am trying to lean a little bit more into
Speaker 3: just the fact it's like the same way that you were, Like,
Speaker 3: if people have bought a ticket to see you, like,
Speaker 3: probably there's not going to be one in the audience
Speaker 3: that hates you. Yeah, And I'm trying to believe that.
Speaker 3: Like I've been at the show for a while now,
Speaker 3: I still have the job the audience. I'm just trying.
Speaker 3: It's even hard for me to say right now. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to be like, the audience does love you, and
Speaker 3: they might not love something you do a sketch one night.
Speaker 3: They might not get this character, but it's not like
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, I hate her now, you know. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to just trust that the more I can be
Speaker 3: myself and have fun, I'm good.
Speaker 2: I think that's right.
Speaker 1: I think the proof is the like, if you've been
Speaker 1: on Saturday Night Live for eight years, you're funny. It's
Speaker 1: just you just wouldn't have been on for that amount
Speaker 1: of time if you weren't enough. People love you and
Speaker 1: think you're funny. But it's an interesting thing that I
Speaker 1: wonder sometimes. I don't think you have to be the
Speaker 1: funniest person to succeed in calmedy. I think you have
Speaker 1: to be the person that people like. I think it's
Speaker 1: more about like than funny. Yeah, you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's about some weird empathy thing rather than just ha ha.
Speaker 2: It's a weird thing who makes you laugh.
Speaker 3: I mean, as far as who I work with at
Speaker 3: the table read, I sit next to mikey Day and
Speaker 3: I've known him for a long time now, and because
Speaker 3: we sit next to each other at the table read,
Speaker 3: it has felt like I am just working with one
Speaker 3: of my brothers.
Speaker 4: I have two brothers, and.
Speaker 3: Just like the familial sense there, it really makes me laugh.
Speaker 3: It's like at this point we can like mess around
Speaker 3: about anything we have like a second hand our own
Speaker 3: kind of languae, which that makes he makes me laugh
Speaker 3: a lot ago at the show, like her characters and
Speaker 3: her improv she's so quick and I've done some improv
Speaker 3: shows with her recently where it's like when she gets
Speaker 3: to be unscripted, it's amazing.
Speaker 4: And then my all time favorite comedian is Jack Black.
Speaker 1: All right, yeah, now that's into because Jack's very anarchic
Speaker 1: and wild and this is do.
Speaker 2: You know Jack?
Speaker 3: I haven't, well, I know him, I just haven't really
Speaker 3: ever gotten to like meet him, but I've you know,
Speaker 3: he's sent me incredibly kind messages about my work and like,
Speaker 3: I mean, he's my dream post. I was a tenacious
Speaker 3: d fan. And yeah, I love what you just said
Speaker 3: about him. Like when I'm totally like when I feel myself,
Speaker 3: like on a weekend update, just free, I feel like
Speaker 3: I have a moment of like what Jack Black is
Speaker 3: able to conjure all the time, and I think that
Speaker 3: and the way he does it and it works is
Speaker 3: so singular and like such a specific thing that and.
Speaker 1: So it's who he is as well. I've known Jack
Speaker 1: for fifteen years. He still thinks I'm Irish. I'm not Irish.
Speaker 1: I'm not Irish. I've said to him Jack, I'm not Irish,
Speaker 1: and every time he's like, oh I was the old
Speaker 1: I'm like I thought he was fucking with me, but
Speaker 1: he's not. He just he decided early on when we
Speaker 1: first met, I was Irish and I've just stayed Irish.
Speaker 1: I got annoyed about it for a while, and now
Speaker 1: I really I would miss it if it wasn't there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what about stand ups? Is there any Is there any
Speaker 1: stand up that you would see? Male or female? Who
Speaker 1: who you think that's because that's slightly it's a.
Speaker 2: Different kind of discipline to the character work.
Speaker 4: For sure.
Speaker 3: I mean, lately, stand up's always been something that I
Speaker 3: love but also intimidates me. It's like when I have
Speaker 3: to do a live show. For the last few years,
Speaker 3: I've been a little bit like, well, I do characters
Speaker 3: and that doesn't feel as embraced in this arena. So
Speaker 3: you know, I've started trying to dabble and stand up,
Speaker 3: but still very scared of it. I mean, what's been
Speaker 3: really cool is the last two seasons Nate Bergetzi has hosted,
Speaker 3: and you know, he's I believe he's from Nashville or Tennessee,
Speaker 3: but it's like just close enough to where I'm from
Speaker 3: that like, his observational humor feels just very spot on
Speaker 3: for the people and places that I grew up in,
Speaker 3: and I just love this simplicity. It's so not simple,
Speaker 3: but it's like there is a simplicity to just like
Speaker 3: what he's saying that feels so relatable to me.
Speaker 4: I've been loving that.
Speaker 3: I loved I love Nicki Glazer, but I love what
Speaker 3: she did at the Golden Globes, Like that's such a
Speaker 3: thankless job, but I feel like she won it back.
Speaker 2: She's an amazing woman. She she used to do. I
Speaker 2: knew Nikki back in the day.
Speaker 1: I still know her, but I haven't seen her recently
Speaker 1: because I used to say her and I used to
Speaker 1: do this radio show and she would be on it
Speaker 1: a lot, and I used to say her, it's too much.
Speaker 1: You're freaking me out. I'm scared for you. You're telling
Speaker 1: me too much stuff. And she's like, don't worry about me.
Speaker 1: I'm fine, and she would and her the bravery in
Speaker 1: which she would just unload.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I.
Speaker 1: Don't have that. That's incredible. She's something, she's force in nature.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm delighted for her me too, but I also
Speaker 1: I still fear for her a little bit. I think
Speaker 1: there is a type of and I think you know
Speaker 1: this from from doing sketches. You get to build an
Speaker 1: invisible kind of protection shield. If you have a character,
Speaker 1: you got some protection. Even if that character is this
Speaker 1: is who I am when I'm doing stand up, or
Speaker 1: this is who I am when I'm doing a late
Speaker 1: night show.
Speaker 2: But it's not really me. I don't really behave.
Speaker 1: Like this, but I think some stand ups that's who
Speaker 1: they are, you know. It's just they get up and
Speaker 1: start talking on a machine that makes their mouth loader,
Speaker 1: and that's it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I don't go searching for comments, but sometimes just someone
Speaker 3: will actually tag your specific name and I hateful comment
Speaker 3: about you, and so you can't kind of miss it.
Speaker 3: And I've seen one come up a few times that's like,
Speaker 3: oh at Heidi Gardner. I hate her voice. I hate
Speaker 3: her voice. I hate her voice, and I think about
Speaker 3: that as well. That is who I am. I genuinely
Speaker 3: can't change that. And I do get to hide behind
Speaker 3: that sometimes in a character, but you know, it still
Speaker 3: comes out. And yeah, thinking about being if this, if
Speaker 3: I was just doing this all the time, I would.
Speaker 4: Get that a lot more. It's scary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think though the thing really I'm really speaking
Speaker 1: to myself.
Speaker 2: You can't look at the comments. You mustn't.
Speaker 1: You mustn't, mustn't, mustn't look at the comments because you
Speaker 1: don't know where anybody's coming from. Some can have a something,
Speaker 1: can have a horrible life and a horrible thing, and
Speaker 1: they just want to get some hay out. And I
Speaker 1: get that, I understand it, but I don't need to
Speaker 1: let it take me down.
Speaker 3: No. So you know that the only time I've responded
Speaker 3: to a couple where I'm specifically called out, they're sports related.
Speaker 4: And it's someone teaching me.
Speaker 3: If a man teaching me about sports are telling me like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's football or something, and it's me like
Speaker 3: just sarcastically being like, oh, thank you for teaching me
Speaker 3: or something. That's like the most I'll do, but for
Speaker 3: some reason I feel compelled to do it. But then
Speaker 3: the person always writes me back and is like, oh,
Speaker 3: I didn't realize you'd write back. I'm a huge fan,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, I thought you were being so mean
Speaker 3: to me. And then I start to see behind the
Speaker 3: curtain and the and I'm.
Speaker 4: Like I get it. I get what this all is.
Speaker 1: It's just about anonymity. But listen, it's been lovely to
Speaker 1: talk to you. I'm so delighted to finally kind of
Speaker 1: meet you in this odd digital post COVID way. But
Speaker 1: I am a big fan of what you do, and
Speaker 1: I wish you could tell you long. I had no
Speaker 1: idea you were so such a talented hairdresser, and that
Speaker 1: just adds to your mistaque as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 1: because I'm impressed with that artisanal skill.
Speaker 3: Well, we can probably someday open a salon, even if
Speaker 3: we were just open for a month.
Speaker 2: Don't want to even say it as a joke. Don't
Speaker 2: even say it as a joke. You're like, that's my dream.
Speaker 4: Stars with shears or something. It's like our way, that
Speaker 4: would be a come on in.
Speaker 1: We'll tell you about our show business lives and give
Speaker 1: you a great dude. Yes, all right, it's been lovely
Speaker 1: talking to you. Thank you so much for being here
Speaker 1: and continued success on that TV show that you do.
Speaker 2: Thank you all right, Thanks Aiding