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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to

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Speaker 1: hear their stories, What inspired their creations, what decisions change

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Speaker 1: their careers, what relationships influence their work. We had so

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Speaker 1: much laughter in our house, you know, despite any any dysfunction,

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Speaker 1: as any family, we always laugh. I also feel like

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Speaker 1: you want someone who you can be not great around,

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Speaker 1: meaning I want to be able to be kind of

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Speaker 1: boring sometimes or say something dumb and it's okay. My

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Speaker 1: guests today are two brilliant comedians, one an actor, the

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Speaker 1: other a writer. Both have made millions of people laugh,

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Speaker 1: and both have done so from the show that has

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Speaker 1: launched more comedians than any other. Saturday Night lad Writer

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Speaker 1: Paula Pell and actor Fred Armison took unusual paths to

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Speaker 1: S n L and Pell got the call that executive

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Speaker 1: producer Lauren Michaels wanted to meet her. She'd been working

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Speaker 1: at an amusement park in Florida, one with uniquely nighttime

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Speaker 1: amusements Pleasure Island Welcome Come, Mickey has No Pants on.

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Speaker 1: Before Armison was added to S and l's cast in

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Speaker 1: two thousand two, he had spent over a decade behind

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Speaker 1: a drum set professionally. Eventually, SNL hired Armison my first

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Speaker 1: guest at this hour to play something else. On my

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Speaker 1: first day in office, I said I'd closed Wanton and Mobbit.

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Speaker 1: Armison has added to the show's distinctive line of oddly

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Speaker 1: perfect presidential impressions. He's also nailed such disparate characters as

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Speaker 1: Larry King, Steve Jobs, and Prince Attention Sexy Passengers. This

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Speaker 1: grew jets about to take off, so please direct your

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Speaker 1: attention to my co host, Ms. Beyonce. No. Fred Armison

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Speaker 1: grow up in Valley Stream, Long Island with a Venezuelan

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Speaker 1: mother and a German Japanese father. My mom really loved

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Speaker 1: Saturday Night Life. She loved it. She I remember her

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Speaker 1: talking about Chevy Chase, and she would say like, oh,

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Speaker 1: Chevy Chase, He's so funny. You just look at his

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Speaker 1: face and you want to laugh. And then made a

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Speaker 1: huge impression on me. And even as a kid, I thought, yeah,

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Speaker 1: what is that like a guy who just from looking

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Speaker 1: at him right away, you know he doesn't have Armison

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Speaker 1: is also co creator of Portlandia, a playfully subversive sketch

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Speaker 1: comedy show on i f C, in which he co

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Speaker 1: stars with musician Carrie Brown's team. That the thing of

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Speaker 1: mc sweeney's was comparing CD tracks and album tracks and

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Speaker 1: hearing that, Yeah, did you read that thing in Mother

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Speaker 1: Jones about eco chairs and eco waste to sit? I did, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I did. About all the festivals. Armison's own musical roots

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Speaker 1: run deep. He spent most of his twenties touring with

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Speaker 1: his punk rock band Trench Mouth. I worked so hard

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Speaker 1: on that band. We were in the van, we toward

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Speaker 1: toward towards bokwacewards, booking places, booking, booking, booking, booking, and

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Speaker 1: just trying to get slots and clubs over what area

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Speaker 1: the states in Canada, And you were all floating and

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Speaker 1: reloading your own equipment and we're your own roadies. Absolutely

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Speaker 1: didn't bring any extra people to save money, up and downstairs, drums, symbols, amps,

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Speaker 1: if it was a local show, flyers, records, getting them

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Speaker 1: out to people, getting out to radio stations. It was NonStop.

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Speaker 1: Was it successful? It depends how you look at That's

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying. I want to know. You were Definition,

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Speaker 1: but your Definition played in Europe, played in the States,

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Speaker 1: so absolutely that all that stuff was like, that's a success?

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Speaker 1: Was it what I wanted? I wanted much more, did

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Speaker 1: much more? Why? Why? Why this is going to sound

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Speaker 1: I'll just be honest about what I wanted. But I

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Speaker 1: was wanted to be as big as the Red Hot

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Speaker 1: Cheep a person. I was like, God, they're huge, They're huge.

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Speaker 1: What we can do it? So because we never attained that,

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Speaker 1: and I would see bands from Chicago kind of swooped

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Speaker 1: right by us, I saw it as not a success

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Speaker 1: and that's what kind of got me into doing comedy.

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Speaker 1: Armison went to Austin, Texas for the south By Southwest

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Speaker 1: Music Festival. Along with his drums, he brought a video camera.

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Speaker 1: Somehow I got it in my head to interview people

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Speaker 1: do different characters. You're down there and the and the whole,

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Speaker 1: the whole experience down there was a musical one, but

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Speaker 1: you start doing funny stuff and I don't even know

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Speaker 1: why I did it. That tape this is sort of

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Speaker 1: made the rounds. They wrote about it in this local

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Speaker 1: Chicago paper and then I showed it at a club

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Speaker 1: there that I used to play in trench Mouth. At

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Speaker 1: this club, as many people turn out for that as

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Speaker 1: with the band, the reaction was greater than when I

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Speaker 1: was in a band. On that night, I thought, oh,

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Speaker 1: this might be a way to go. I'm there with

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Speaker 1: the Aluminum. I just wanted to know from you guys,

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Speaker 1: who thought up in the name of the band? And

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Speaker 1: I don't mean like originally, I mean like, who was

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Speaker 1: the person who decided that that was going to be

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Speaker 1: the name? And what record label are you on? Is

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Speaker 1: it the same record label that you're on a couple

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Speaker 1: of years ago or is the one that's going to

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Speaker 1: be different? And is it the one that's going to

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Speaker 1: be on in Europe? Did everybody in Trench Mount feel

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Speaker 1: really sad than did they know you were gonna go? Um? Maybe,

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Speaker 1: but they're my friends, so I think based you know

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Speaker 1: they had they kept on going with another band. I

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Speaker 1: called all of them and they said, they hate you

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Speaker 1: and they'll never damn it. But hatred equals love. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a it's still an emotional not ignoring me. And

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Speaker 1: then what happens after that? That's when I started doing

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Speaker 1: comedy and then doing comedy where um, I started traveling

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Speaker 1: the country, showing it in l A, San Francisco, New York.

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Speaker 1: You took made it into a stand upack kind of.

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Speaker 1: I would just you know, they'd write something in the paper,

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Speaker 1: and people came out in all these cities. And then

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Speaker 1: I went to l A. Played clubs, comedy clubs, um

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Speaker 1: rock clubs, clubs. There was no music, no music, just

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Speaker 1: showed this video and talked a little bit, and that's it.

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Speaker 1: How long we're on stage. I mean total of like

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Speaker 1: half an hour, forty minutes, something really short. Just people

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Speaker 1: dug it. Absolutely, it's pretty Internet. So showing a video

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Speaker 1: was more of an event or nouvelle. Yeah. There was

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Speaker 1: no such thing as like sort of why don't you

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Speaker 1: just watch it online? Um? And then someone from HBO

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Speaker 1: was at one of the shows, and then I started

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Speaker 1: doing these videos for HBO. And then I started making

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Speaker 1: enough money that I didn't have to live in Chicago anymore.

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Speaker 1: I was like, I can. I always wanted to live

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Speaker 1: in l A. I moved to l A and then

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Speaker 1: I started doing stand up like characters and stuff on

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Speaker 1: stage where this is one club that I loved called Largo.

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Speaker 1: I moved to l A and I just wanted to

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Speaker 1: fit in. You know, I was on my own and

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to perform there and I would just

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Speaker 1: do different characters. Yeah. Did you make all new friends

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Speaker 1: right away to fall into the comedy world, Yeah, I did.

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to be part of it, you know

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Speaker 1: what I mean. So I think it was and you

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Speaker 1: were open to it. Yeah, and then I just and

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Speaker 1: who became your pals there in l a Um Paul F. Tompkins,

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Speaker 1: Bob owen Kirk really helped me out a lot. He

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Speaker 1: had a pilot for a show called Next which had

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Speaker 1: different characters and it was a sort of variety show,

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Speaker 1: and he got me onto the cast for that. And

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Speaker 1: from that is where I had like all um tape

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Speaker 1: to submit to SNL. Hello, welcome to focus on talent.

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Speaker 1: I am go hard lip shots and today my very

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Speaker 1: special guest is the wonderfully simple Way Romano. Thank you

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Speaker 1: so much for coming. This is really great and you

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Speaker 1: begin instead up comedy and so and I think that

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Speaker 1: your act was not so good. Yes, I had enough

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Speaker 1: tape to submit to SNL. My agents and manager sent

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Speaker 1: it to them, and then I was on the cast

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Speaker 1: and two thousand two, so you show up to New

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Speaker 1: York to do the show. I flew into do the auditions.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was flipping out that I even got

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Speaker 1: to do the auditions at all. Yeah, I mean I

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Speaker 1: met Tina Favor for the first time worn and Tina

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Speaker 1: was the head writer of them, I believe, So I

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Speaker 1: think it hurt in Dennis McNicholas. I couldn't even believe

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Speaker 1: I was in that studio. And then when you started,

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Speaker 1: you were a featured player. And then how many years

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Speaker 1: do you did you do that before you join? Two years?

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Speaker 1: It was Will Forte and I was it frustrating to

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Speaker 1: be a future player because again, no, no, I wasn't.

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Speaker 1: I'm fresh from carrying drums. I'm fresh from just doing

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Speaker 1: stand up at large. I can't there's a part of

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Speaker 1: me that still is like, I can't believe it. A

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Speaker 1: lot of people on the show don't sense that they

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Speaker 1: leave and they don't realize how good they've had it.

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Speaker 1: But people who have left the show have told me

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Speaker 1: and I listened to them, and they say, it's the

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Speaker 1: best job I've ever had. Yeah, it's going to be

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Speaker 1: one of them. You know, you're not gonna have that

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Speaker 1: much freedom and that much variety. I always tell people,

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Speaker 1: don't leave the show and become the thing you made

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Speaker 1: fun of on the show. Right. That's a real trap

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Speaker 1: because you're gonna go out there and do with the jobs.

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Speaker 1: And one of the greatest risks in my mind is

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Speaker 1: that people will characterize you. Oh yeah, and I can

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Speaker 1: see you doing a movie where you're with a really

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Speaker 1: smart cast and a smart director and you like, lock

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Speaker 1: everybody in the gymnasium and burn the gymnasium down to

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Speaker 1: the ground. You either way, don't you think. I hope

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Speaker 1: so straight acting? M hm. That's tricky, um, But if

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Speaker 1: there's a way to do it, it's tricky because I

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Speaker 1: don't want to look like I'm unhappy with comedy. I

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Speaker 1: don't want to go out there and say, for lack

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Speaker 1: of a better word, an audience, like, hey, this is

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Speaker 1: what I really do. However, I think these days there

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Speaker 1: are roles that are both comedic and dramatic. I like

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Speaker 1: that that line is becoming blurry. So my answer is

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Speaker 1: kind of like, I think there's a way that Peter

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Speaker 1: Sellers did it was comedy? Was it not comedy? Somewhere?

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Speaker 1: And then he occupies a very very distinct place. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you have comic actors who made their reputations in comedic roles,

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Speaker 1: who have tried to go over into dramatic films and

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Speaker 1: it's worked to some degree or hasn't worked Billy Crystallin

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Speaker 1: and Robin Williams and so forth. And I think you

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Speaker 1: have a real opportunity, and it's never more vivid than

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Speaker 1: it is in Portlandia that you could go both ways

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Speaker 1: and do the comic and the dramatic. Do you feel

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Speaker 1: that way, yes, because when we do the show, when

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Speaker 1: we write the show, we don't always think about like

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Speaker 1: what's the funniest thing, right, Like what what seems interesting

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Speaker 1: to us? What what's gonna look It comes great. If

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Speaker 1: it's not quite comedy, that's okay, that's that's something else

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Speaker 1: in between tv um. If there's anything that you've done,

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Speaker 1: then we won't do it. Okay, I get it. This

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Speaker 1: is like a cool wedding, but also it doesn't come

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Speaker 1: across as cooled. We don't want anything that reads as wedding. Okay,

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Speaker 1: we're not marionettes getting up at the same time and

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Speaker 1: dancing to and fro. There's divorce rate and I think

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Speaker 1: that that should be in the forefront of people's minds

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Speaker 1: at this wedding. The other voice you're hearing, that's Carrie Brownstein.

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Speaker 1: She co created Portlandia with Armison. Before Portlandia, they made

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Speaker 1: a series of videos as the sketch comedy duo thunder Aunt.

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Speaker 1: Carrie met Fred in two thousand three late one night

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Speaker 1: after an SNL show. Her band was like my favorite

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Speaker 1: bands bands leader Kenny. I became friendly with them. We

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Speaker 1: just had a lot of mutual friends. They came to

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Speaker 1: New York to play. I just invited them to come

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Speaker 1: to the show. They had a show that night, so

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Speaker 1: they came to the after party and I met Carrie

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Speaker 1: there and it was the strangest thing. Carrie and I

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Speaker 1: just became instant friends. That happens, and she knew who

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Speaker 1: you were from the TV show. Fully, it just worked cooked. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: ever since then, and uh, we just made these videos.

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Speaker 1: I'd go to Portland. It was like the equivalent of jamming,

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Speaker 1: you know. So instead of doing that, which is just

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Speaker 1: like so what you know, like, hey, we have this band,

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Speaker 1: we just thought let's make these videos. There was no

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Speaker 1: pressure on it. It's just like, let's just didn't like it,

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Speaker 1: yeah for no reason. Let's just come up with characters,

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Speaker 1: Let's make these tapes. And then we did it. And

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Speaker 1: then we had just all these videos on this website

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Speaker 1: and if I remember reading that you did about a

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Speaker 1: dozen of them, correct, Yeah, that's about right. And then

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Speaker 1: then we just had enough to pitch a TV show

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Speaker 1: and then how does Portland become a show? Who buys

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Speaker 1: the show? It was kind of a thing where I

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Speaker 1: was just talking to my manager, what do you want

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Speaker 1: to do next? What's something you want? Oker? And I thought,

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Speaker 1: let's just turn and see if we can turn it

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Speaker 1: into something. And then Carrie and I just thought, yeah,

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Speaker 1: let's let's pitch it. We already she ready for that?

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Speaker 1: Does she want that? Yeah? She seems like somebody who

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Speaker 1: lived in Portland and lived on the fringe and was

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Speaker 1: very very talented deliberately that she didn't want to be

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Speaker 1: mainstream successful. Um, I think she just likes doing it,

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Speaker 1: so she does what she wants. She's a perfect mix

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Speaker 1: of like she just enjoys, you know, performing and isn't

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Speaker 1: like so crazy ambitious that she's like, Okay, what's the

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Speaker 1: next thing? What's the next thing? She's very like, let's

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Speaker 1: work on some projects and a lot of it's our friendship.

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Speaker 1: We just like working together. And then we pitched it

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Speaker 1: to Broadway Video. So you know, Lauren and as a group.

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Speaker 1: We pitched it to I f C. They said, go

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Speaker 1: ahead and do a pilot. We did, and then the

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Speaker 1: next thing we knew, we're doing the show. And you

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Speaker 1: shoot the show in Portland. Obviously when you go there,

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming to start the show. You've never lived there before, No,

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Speaker 1: but I've gone there soul you had because you've spent

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Speaker 1: so much time, so you knew what this Portland's head was.

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Speaker 1: That's what also got us to doing this show there.

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Speaker 1: I mean like I would visit carry all the time

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Speaker 1: and thunder it for years. I've been going there, and

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Speaker 1: she'd lived there for how long? Forever? For what I

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Speaker 1: think she's she's originally from Washington State and then she

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Speaker 1: moved to Portland whatever, you know, ten years ago or something.

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Speaker 1: So what is your experience being in Portland? Do people

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Speaker 1: say stuff to you? All the love it, They're so

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Speaker 1: nice about it. And I really like it there, you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm a city guy. I'm from New York and

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Speaker 1: and I still love it there. It's smaller, but it's

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Speaker 1: still it's still a city and clean and nice and

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Speaker 1: good food and somewhere really civil, really just physically pretty

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Speaker 1: and and kind of overcast which I really like. Do

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Speaker 1: you develop films now? Do you write films at all

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Speaker 1: for yourself? I've too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I feel like

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Speaker 1: when I when I try to write something for myself

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Speaker 1: and it ends up in TV form. But still I

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Speaker 1: want to try to expand that you would never do

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Speaker 1: a TV series? Um, I do. I would do anything

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Speaker 1: anything it seems interesting. I would. I would do anything

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Speaker 1: it seems like something you know, good to be part of.

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Speaker 1: So when you sign a contract like with Broadway Video

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Speaker 1: for those people who don't know this, that's Lawrence Company,

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Speaker 1: Rice Production arm and you have to deliver how many episodes? Ten?

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Speaker 1: You just do ten? First one was six, second was ten.

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Speaker 1: This one's gonna be tenned a. What do you do

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Speaker 1: for fun? I just work all that time? Well, you

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Speaker 1: do his work? Yeah, that's what you wanted. Yeah. This

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Speaker 1: past season was Fred Armison's eleventh and final year on SNL,

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Speaker 1: where he's performed alongside the biggest stars in the business.

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Speaker 1: But Fred can still get star struck, like when he

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Speaker 1: met Steve Martin. It's it's even weird talking about it

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Speaker 1: because I feel like I know him somewhat, But the

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Speaker 1: experience is greater than I ever thought it would be.

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Speaker 1: And then on top of it, the way he's just

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Speaker 1: the way he is. You know, that's part of the thing,

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Speaker 1: that seeing how people are as people. That's another nice surprise.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, we'll meet Paula Pell, a long time writer

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Speaker 1: on SNL who Fred Armison has called a true genius,

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Speaker 1: one of the funniest people he's ever met. I'm Alec

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Speaker 1: Baldwin and here's the thing. Take a listen to our

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Speaker 1: archive more in depth conversations with artists, policymakers and performers,

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Speaker 1: people like Lena Dunham, who agrees with Armison, Paula Hell

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Speaker 1: is funny. Paula Pell is someone who's funny and not mean.

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Speaker 1: She's just a dreamy person. Take a listen to my

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Speaker 1: conversations with Dunham, Lord Michaels and Kristen Wigg. I don't

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Speaker 1: remember what I said. And here's the thing. Dot Org.

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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.

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Speaker 1: Departing SNL cast members are generally expected to springboard into

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Speaker 1: a career in film. Maybe it's the punk rocker in him,

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Speaker 1: but Fred Armison doesn't seem entirely at home with that tradition.

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Speaker 1: Someday I want to invent a type of entertainment that

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Speaker 1: isn't is really blurry between comedy and something else that

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Speaker 1: doesn't have a name yet. But I do want to

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Speaker 1: see if there's another way to another level of um

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Speaker 1: fooling people as opposed to just doing a character something

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Speaker 1: a little bigger than that. And I don't know quite

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Speaker 1: how to do it yet. But do you think being

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Speaker 1: famous has killed that opportunity for you personally and sometimes

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Speaker 1: so that someone you have to get someone else to

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Speaker 1: do it right and produce that yeah, because you couldn't

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Speaker 1: do that because you minute you show up, they know

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Speaker 1: something's going on. But uh, do you find that you

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Speaker 1: find that when you walk up to people automatically like

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Speaker 1: someone said something to me, They said to me, you're

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Speaker 1: you're at a wonderful place which is also a terrible place,

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Speaker 1: that place where people are going to laugh at you,

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Speaker 1: whether you're funny or not, and you meant it as

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Speaker 1: a dig. Do you find that's true with you that

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Speaker 1: wherever you go, people are predisposed to you saying something yeah,

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Speaker 1: Or if I do like a stand up show somewhere,

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Speaker 1: I find that I want to put more effort into it.

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Speaker 1: But sometimes I don't really have to, so that might

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Speaker 1: not be a good thing. So what about it in

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Speaker 1: your personal life? How is your personal life changed as

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Speaker 1: a result of being famous? Um, it's everything I ever wanted.

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Speaker 1: But there are some things about it that are just

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Speaker 1: very new and just very interesting, you know, Like I

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Speaker 1: love New York. I love writing on the subway. My

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Speaker 1: subway rights an't as private as it used to be.

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Speaker 1: That's when I start trying to think of ideas. I

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Speaker 1: listen to music and that's just different now, and people

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Speaker 1: say things to you, Yeah, perfectly nice, perfectly nice. I

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Speaker 1: would have done the same how I met whoever, But

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Speaker 1: that's that's changed, like a different kind of subway, right.

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Speaker 1: What about your relationship with your family, your friends? I mean,

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Speaker 1: do you still have the same friends? Yeah, kind of,

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Speaker 1: but I've got, you know, got new friends, obviously, new

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Speaker 1: circles of friends. But lad, yes, but I've maintained my

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Speaker 1: friendships with the guys in the old band and Kirk

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Speaker 1: yeah absolutely, he's in l alright, Yeah, let's text each

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Speaker 1: other and yeah, so I do maintain relationship with this

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Speaker 1: even if I'm if we're both busy, Paul F. Tompkins, whoever,

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Speaker 1: I still try to keep those alive. This is the

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Speaker 1: last thing I want to say to you, which you

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Speaker 1: could say a million things to me. Well, but I'm

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Speaker 1: saying that, uh, without getting too personal. You've been married twice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you find you were married twice, correct, That's correct.

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Speaker 1: And and the first one was in Chicago before I

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Speaker 1: was doing comedy, and that's someone who I'm still friends with, Sally.

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Speaker 1: That was during the music days, yes, the Keith Moon days,

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Speaker 1: and then you were married the secon in time. Yes.

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Speaker 1: But would you say that like from things I've read,

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Speaker 1: you find that because of what you crave and what

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Speaker 1: you love, you speak very lovingly about Carrie and how

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Speaker 1: you and to your just friends. But she's like you're

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Speaker 1: you know, she's your last text of the day. Do

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Speaker 1: you think that she's kind of your soul mate? Without

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Speaker 1: a doubt. It's all the things that I've ever wanted,

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Speaker 1: you know, aside from like the physical stuff. But the

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Speaker 1: intimacy that I have with her is like no other,

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Speaker 1: Like it's something that and it's only it's taking me

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Speaker 1: a want to realize, Like wait a minute, I am

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Speaker 1: super super close with her. I mean we work all

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Speaker 1: day together on Portland and then we hang out afterwards.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what is that? Because people don't understand in

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Speaker 1: this business how important it is, Like do you have

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Speaker 1: to be It depends on who the person is. I

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Speaker 1: also feel like you want someone who you can be

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Speaker 1: not great around, meaning you know, like I want I

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Speaker 1: want to be able to be kind of boring sometimes

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Speaker 1: or say something dumb. And it's okay that I like

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Speaker 1: that pressure not to be there to have to be

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Speaker 1: super funny and intelligent all the time. It's nice when

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Speaker 1: I like I'm competitive, yeah, where I'm just like, the

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Speaker 1: comedy world is very competitive, isn't it. I guess I

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Speaker 1: haven't walked into that too much. I wasn't part of

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Speaker 1: a comedy troupe or anything. And so and the stand

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Speaker 1: ups I've become friends with, I've all been very you know, supportive, definitely.

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Speaker 1: Portlandia Season three is now available on DVD. It enters

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Speaker 1: its fourth season on i f C early next year.

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Speaker 1: Fred call me. Can I play a customer in Portlandia?

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Speaker 1: Can I come to a restaurant any time I come

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Speaker 1: and do something? Who would I play? What would I order? Um?

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Speaker 1: I think you would uh come from southern California and

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Speaker 1: you'd order all kinds of meats a meat a fiction.

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Speaker 1: People think of it as a veggi place, but it's

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Speaker 1: actually a very meaty play. Yeah, it's very like cured

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Speaker 1: meats and sausages there. But we haven't explored that one.

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Speaker 1: Maybe it could be a meat salesman. Even better, maybe

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Speaker 1: it could be a meat salesman of all kinds of

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Speaker 1: charts and graphs of the loins and actually the sections

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Speaker 1: of the pig and the cow and the organs, and yeah,

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Speaker 1: I love it and the answers yes right, anytime I'll

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Speaker 1: come see your important. Yeah, if Fred invites me, I'll

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Speaker 1: do it. And most likely I'll do SNL the next

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Speaker 1: time Lord Michael's calls. And that's due in large part

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Speaker 1: of the brilliant writing of my next guest. Not long ago,

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Speaker 1: there used to be two types of comedians, comedians and

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Speaker 1: female comedians. Today there are so many women making us

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Speaker 1: laugh that the qualifier has been rendered obsolete. Saturday Night

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Speaker 1: Live deserves a lot of the credit for this development.

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Speaker 1: The show has introduced us to Gilda Radner, Jan Hooks,

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Speaker 1: Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Kristen Wigg to name just

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Speaker 1: a few. But there's been another woman at SNL, A

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Speaker 1: woman who's been quietly working for nearly two decades, often

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Speaker 1: without sleeping to usher in this reality seventeen years, I've

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Speaker 1: been there yet. Paula Pell was working at a Florida

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Speaker 1: theme park when she got her dream job as a

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Speaker 1: writer at Saturday Night Live. Over the years, her sketches

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Speaker 1: have ranged from Bobby and Marty and Debbie Downer to

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Speaker 1: a personal favorite of mine, the Tony Bennett showing great

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Speaker 1: Things fantastic. I guess what we gotta make just to

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Speaker 1: talk show about the dastic show things? Yea. Tina Fey

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Speaker 1: wrote in her memoir that one of her prouder moments

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Speaker 1: as head writer at s NL was fighting for one

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Speaker 1: of Pell's sketches introducing co Text. Classic Classic Code Text

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Speaker 1: is a mercial for the feminine protection of yesteryear, featuring

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Speaker 1: sexy women proudly encumbered with bulky pads connected to belts

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Speaker 1: peeking out over their clothes. I always you can't hate

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Speaker 1: the original Room Girls. Paula Pelle in person is genuine,

424
00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:24,320
Speaker 1: charming and easy going, the kind of person you might

425
00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:26,359
Speaker 1: actually talk to if you sat next to her on

426
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: a plane, which is not a description of your typical

427
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,520
Speaker 1: comedy writer. I was always a bit of a class clown.

428
00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,399
Speaker 1: I was. I was a good Catholic girl, so I

429
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:37,320
Speaker 1: always wanted to be I never wanted to get in trouble,

430
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 1: but I really pushed the envelope because I would be

431
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:42,399
Speaker 1: funny in class and I do things like one of

432
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,320
Speaker 1: my teachers. I would do a bit where I would

433
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,440
Speaker 1: go by him and drag my hand along the chalk line,

434
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 1: you know, the chalk shelf, and then I'd come over

435
00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:52,880
Speaker 1: and I'd say, you know, Mr Grocer's just a really

436
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:54,560
Speaker 1: great teacher, and I pat him on the back and

437
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,280
Speaker 1: I'd leave like a handprint. He'd let me make him

438
00:23:57,560 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: a little bit the fool for a moment, and then

439
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 1: he do you know, he looked like Rob Briner and

440
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:04,200
Speaker 1: all in the family had the big bushy mustache and

441
00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:07,120
Speaker 1: along there, and he just kind of looked at camera three,

442
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:09,760
Speaker 1: you know, nonexistent, and the audience would you know, the

443
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:13,280
Speaker 1: audience the class would crack up. Or i'd pass notes

444
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,000
Speaker 1: and say when I sneeze, because I have a really

445
00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: good fake sneeze. And I would say when I sneeze,

446
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,159
Speaker 1: everybody fall up their chairs. And you know, I'd always

447
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:22,520
Speaker 1: be doing something. But I grew up with an extremely

448
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,639
Speaker 1: funny dad and my mom is what did he do

449
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,119
Speaker 1: for a living? He worked for Ellinois Bell. We grew

450
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 1: up in Illinois and then moved to Orlando when I

451
00:24:31,560 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: was a teenager. But my entire childhood, my grandpa was

452
00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:38,960
Speaker 1: a watchmaker for West Claks. So my dad always learned

453
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:43,280
Speaker 1: that from my grandpa. And then when he came to Florida,

454
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 1: he worked for a T and T for many years,

455
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,800
Speaker 1: and then when he retired, he became a teacher of

456
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,840
Speaker 1: watch repair, watch making, all all of it. So that

457
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: is the guy who works for the phone company and

458
00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: how does he and he becomes watch tinkerer? How was

459
00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: the funny in his life with he's just ungodly witty.

460
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,520
Speaker 1: He's really never wanted to be in the business himself.

461
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 1: Where did he express? Probably did, But you know, I

462
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:10,760
Speaker 1: look at all the people in my family and all

463
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:13,959
Speaker 1: the relatives of different generations, and they all had their thing.

464
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:15,919
Speaker 1: You know, my mom has a beautiful singing voice. They

465
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 1: all had something that they wanted to do. But the

466
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 1: way they grew up was you just you know, you

467
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,320
Speaker 1: have kids early and you you kind of figure out

468
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: what you need to do to to pay for that,

469
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 1: and so they, you know, a lot of times didn't

470
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: have the luxury that kids have now. Even though it's

471
00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:34,600
Speaker 1: hard to get a job, to say, you know, i'm

472
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: doing this getting into that you didn't sign on to

473
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:40,800
Speaker 1: that program? What was wrong with you? Well, they wouldn't

474
00:25:40,840 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: just do what you were supposed to do. They knew

475
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,240
Speaker 1: that I was pretty hopeless. I mean at my confirmation

476
00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: where you get the Holy Spirit, I came down the

477
00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,280
Speaker 1: stairs at my party and had torn like eighty holes

478
00:25:51,320 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 1: in my pantios and said I had the Holy Spirit

479
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:55,800
Speaker 1: and just would do things like that all the time,

480
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: you know. And this was before I drank or smoked anything.

481
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: But I was always a total hand. But my dad

482
00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 1: really taught me that he will just do a bit,

483
00:26:03,520 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: that we'll just have us crank. And I will tell

484
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:08,600
Speaker 1: you that one of the hardest times I laughed at

485
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 1: him is my mom and I were watching die Hard

486
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 1: on television. My dad's cutting the yard, and he's outside

487
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:16,240
Speaker 1: cutting the yard. He's got his little jean shorts on

488
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:18,720
Speaker 1: and his tank top, and he keeps coming in and

489
00:26:18,840 --> 00:26:21,120
Speaker 1: walking by and kind of half listening. He's a really

490
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 1: good quiet half listener. But then he'll do something based

491
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 1: on what he's been listening to. I. You know, I

492
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:30,200
Speaker 1: was listening to my mom and the terrorist had the

493
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:32,280
Speaker 1: long blond hair, you know, the big like kind of

494
00:26:32,400 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: Nordic guy at the beginning. Yeah, And my mom says,

495
00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:38,880
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, but I don't like long hair,

496
00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: but that is pretty foxy. And she's like commenting on him.

497
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,120
Speaker 1: So we're laughing about it and everything, and then I'm

498
00:26:45,200 --> 00:26:47,880
Speaker 1: not getting Like an hour later, my dad just walked through.

499
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:50,640
Speaker 1: He had gone in my room and gotten a wig,

500
00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:55,760
Speaker 1: put a long wig on with just his grass cutting stuff,

501
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,879
Speaker 1: and just walk through. He didn't stop, he didn't do

502
00:26:57,920 --> 00:27:00,119
Speaker 1: a bit. He just walked through. But they also that

503
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 1: rule like that you keep the ball in the air

504
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: and play along. They were good, Yes, without the training,

505
00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:09,520
Speaker 1: they were good improv people, king of like a prop.

506
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: And what I love about it is my parents are

507
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:13,919
Speaker 1: in their seventies now, and you know, and my mom

508
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:16,760
Speaker 1: was always like, you'd say, you know, you go, oh God,

509
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,399
Speaker 1: Dad is so funny. To thank god, thank god he's funny.

510
00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,159
Speaker 1: We had so much laughter in our house, you know,

511
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:27,200
Speaker 1: despite any any dysfunction, as any family, we always laugh.

512
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:29,480
Speaker 1: Where did you go? To college. I went to college

513
00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,440
Speaker 1: at University of Tennessee. I first went to a local

514
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:35,240
Speaker 1: college in Orlando, a community college for two years. So

515
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: you moved to Florida. I moved to Florida. My dad

516
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:40,400
Speaker 1: went down for a T and T for that antitrust

517
00:27:40,440 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: suit that they had. Um. Yeah, it was like seven

518
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: at late seventies. You know. We had gone a few

519
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: times down to Disney World with our little pop up

520
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 1: camper and like that was a vacation place. That wasn't

521
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:54,680
Speaker 1: a place you move. And my parents sent us a

522
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: little brought back a little polaroid of the house they bought,

523
00:27:57,040 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 1: and it was, you know, about seventy tho dollars. But

524
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:02,119
Speaker 1: it had this gig anna pool because in Orlando so

525
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:05,439
Speaker 1: many people have pools, even with you know, inexpensive houses,

526
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:07,320
Speaker 1: and we just thought we won the lottery. You know.

527
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,200
Speaker 1: It was just insane. But we got there, and it

528
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 1: was really hard the first year. I just never liked

529
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: to be I mean, I think being new is a

530
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,440
Speaker 1: very important thing to do for growth. I think it

531
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 1: really galvanizes a lot of stuff inside you, of who

532
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,200
Speaker 1: you are and everything. And I'm glad in hindsight, but

533
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: I used to just wake up in the morning and

534
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,240
Speaker 1: just cry. And you know, just because I had so

535
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,879
Speaker 1: much familiarity and comfort with all the kids that I

536
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: went to school. It's just I was always quiet at first,

537
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,680
Speaker 1: you know, and then by my senior year, I got

538
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 1: really involved in school, and the girls, you know, would

539
00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: go because I remember when you'd come in, you know,

540
00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:47,200
Speaker 1: you came in your junior year and I'd say, oh, really, really,

541
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:49,520
Speaker 1: because I came in my sophomore year and sat next

542
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,520
Speaker 1: to you for an entire class and you were, you know,

543
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,640
Speaker 1: a cold little ass wipe to me. But you know

544
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,880
Speaker 1: that's right. Now we're friends. And and what was the

545
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: difference for you in terms of the people if you can,

546
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 1: if you can drinks from Illinois to Florida, I mean Florida.

547
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:05,600
Speaker 1: I mean, one thing that really helped me was I

548
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: was always I always sang. So I went in immediately

549
00:29:08,800 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 1: into a concert choir, and so that was wonderful because

550
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: then I had a social group pretty quickly. But the

551
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: one thing about Florida that was so different that freaked

552
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:21,280
Speaker 1: me out was that, you know, I never thought I

553
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,760
Speaker 1: was growing up in Illinois and necessarily I mean a

554
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: cold sort of atmosphere. It was emotionally warm. I had

555
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,640
Speaker 1: great friends, you know, my family warm. But when I

556
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: got to Florida, everybody hugged constantly the other way. Everyone

557
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: was so affectionate in such a crazy way that I

558
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: remember saying, it's I remember coming home and going stop

559
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:47,960
Speaker 1: cupping my nipples tenor I don't know you in the choir, no,

560
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: but people would um. I kept thinking it was our

561
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: director's birthday or something. I was like, what the hell

562
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: is going on in here? Everyone is hugging our teacher,

563
00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,240
Speaker 1: hugging each other. I realized it was just that was

564
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:01,640
Speaker 1: just the way everyone did, you know. And then my girl,

565
00:30:01,920 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 1: my um, who eventually became my girlfriend of many years,

566
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,239
Speaker 1: was my best friend in high school, and we were

567
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 1: very huggy, and that all worked out because it was

568
00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 1: not the teacher, not until after we graduated exactly. Then

569
00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,880
Speaker 1: then you went to the college down there. I went

570
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:18,640
Speaker 1: to the college for two years down there, and it

571
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: was um, well, their theater department was amazing, their art

572
00:30:22,880 --> 00:30:27,120
Speaker 1: department was incredible, and I was also an artist Seminole

573
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,960
Speaker 1: Community College. But I mean the heads of those departments

574
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:34,560
Speaker 1: and the music department were so incredible that today they

575
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: still are some of my favorite people that have gotten

576
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,600
Speaker 1: taught because my art professor, Grady Kimsey, who I'm a

577
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,920
Speaker 1: really good friend with still, he had gone to UT

578
00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,800
Speaker 1: years and years ago and he just kept saying, you

579
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: gotta go check out UT. And then my girlfriend was

580
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,320
Speaker 1: going to North Carolina, so it kind of you know,

581
00:30:53,360 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 1: I'd go up and visit, and I'd never been up

582
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 1: in those mountains, and I just fell in love with

583
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,239
Speaker 1: them there because I'm such a nature freaking I went

584
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:02,800
Speaker 1: crazy for it. And when you left there, what happened?

585
00:31:03,760 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: And then I finished college and I came home and

586
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: I worked at the theme parks. What's that? Like? How

587
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,960
Speaker 1: do you get the job at Disney? Like, who's is

588
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,720
Speaker 1: there somebody who's like a casting person? Yeah, there's talent people.

589
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,360
Speaker 1: And you know, I had worked with an improv group

590
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: called sac Theater in Orlando. They at the time contracted

591
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:25,360
Speaker 1: out to Disney. So they did all the like in

592
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,320
Speaker 1: Apcott in Italy, the Comedian Dollar too. You know, they

593
00:31:28,360 --> 00:31:30,480
Speaker 1: would do all the comedy that's kind of the roaming

594
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:35,000
Speaker 1: atmospheric comedy. And then they built Pleasure Island, which was

595
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:40,040
Speaker 1: the nighttime Disney. You know, all the nightclubs Pleasure Island

596
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 1: Pleasure Island. Welcome Come, Mickey has no panther on. It

597
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: was New Year's Eve every night. Asure Island an entire

598
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:55,479
Speaker 1: island they built that had all these clubs. They had

599
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: like a big discotheque. They had a country Western sort

600
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 1: of music club. It was is kind of like a

601
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,680
Speaker 1: strip of nighttime establishments, but all in Disney. But it

602
00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: was late night and it kind of a downtown feel,

603
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,880
Speaker 1: like a Custer. And they would have like New Year's

604
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:12,440
Speaker 1: Eve every night, so they'd have dancers come out and

605
00:32:12,480 --> 00:32:15,880
Speaker 1: they dance. And it was really a fabulous place to

606
00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 1: work as a young actor because it felt cool and

607
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 1: I could and I did a lot of improvisation, but

608
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: then we also did like radio shows and singing. We

609
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: could be kind of dirty. I mean, it wasn't filthy.

610
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,960
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't go full till my typical filth

611
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: that you know of. I didn't pell out. But you

612
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,200
Speaker 1: would interact with the guests, so there, you know, you'd

613
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:40,800
Speaker 1: be sitting there with some old British dude who's getting

614
00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 1: drunk and just get into a conversation. And I played

615
00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:46,480
Speaker 1: Pamelia Perkins, the president of the Adventurous Club, and it

616
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 1: was kind of a teddy Roosevelt era sort of place,

617
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: and I had this big buffont and I could just

618
00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: be as body as hell. I mean I would get

619
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:55,960
Speaker 1: on guy's laps and you know, have my legs up

620
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: in the are because I was like a matron sort

621
00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,320
Speaker 1: of character. And we used to have such a asked.

622
00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: Also during that time, I went down Penis Avenue for

623
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,680
Speaker 1: about two years. I was dating men for a little while,

624
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 1: and I would hook up with people, I mean just

625
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 1: meeting like different people. I'd meet, well, just guests, and

626
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: you know, you'd meet some super super charismatic, handsome person.

627
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 1: You'd be sitting there laughing and you being in costume,

628
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 1: and then they'd be like, what are you guys doing after?

629
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:25,040
Speaker 1: You know the characters? What do these characters do next?

630
00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 1: And there was a restaurant and there were bars down

631
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:29,760
Speaker 1: the street that they would let us after work go to.

632
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: So you just take change all your clothes and you know,

633
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,880
Speaker 1: blow dry your hair and go. Now I'm twenty five again.

634
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: And I'd walk down there and and it was New

635
00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:41,200
Speaker 1: Year's Eve every day it was New Year's but you

636
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,920
Speaker 1: vomited every day and lost your virginity every day. What

637
00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 1: was the character Pamelion, Pamelia Perkins, Pamelia Pamelia Perkins. Of

638
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 1: course he's banging the guests two at a time. I

639
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:54,920
Speaker 1: mean for an actor. At that time, I was making

640
00:33:55,520 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: really good money and had full insurance everything, had a car,

641
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 1: rented a little house. You know, was kind of plenty

642
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: of fun. It was. It was a beautiful It was

643
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 1: a beautiful life. And then I got start crazy with it.

644
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 1: And that was just about when happened. But how does

645
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: how does that happen? How did they find you? It was?

646
00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:17,000
Speaker 1: It was a beautifully random, amazing thing. I had worked

647
00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 1: with Sick Theater. They had a theater downtown. They would

648
00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 1: call me every so often and I go do a

649
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,600
Speaker 1: set with them where I do a character that I

650
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 1: had written. And so they said, you know, we're going

651
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: to do this sketch comedy pilot called chuckle Head, And

652
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:32,640
Speaker 1: they said will you be in it and do those characters?

653
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: And I said sure. I mean I was doing like

654
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 1: I got beat up in America's most wanted, you know,

655
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:39,360
Speaker 1: all the local all the things that were shooting in Orlando.

656
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,600
Speaker 1: I would do, you know, And I did this lottery

657
00:34:41,719 --> 00:34:45,360
Speaker 1: character for years in about three states that was played

658
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 1: the Worlitz organ you know, sexy characters, ale, you know,

659
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 1: but all from the Matron handbook. I was born at

660
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:57,320
Speaker 1: fifty Alec. But they called me. My agent called me

661
00:34:57,400 --> 00:34:59,120
Speaker 1: one day and she said, are you sitting down? I

662
00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:03,280
Speaker 1: said yes. She said, Saturday Night Live saw that pilot

663
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:07,960
Speaker 1: and Lauren wants to meet you. And I'm like, okay,

664
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: for what? And she goes, now it is not an audition,

665
00:35:12,480 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: but he wants to fly you up and talk to you.

666
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, what is it? An orgy? Am

667
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 1: I being summoned? What in the f And I said okay,

668
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:26,439
Speaker 1: And so I flew up there. He was two hours,

669
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,520
Speaker 1: you know, or three hours late for the meeting, but

670
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,839
Speaker 1: he was super nice. And I sat with Marcy Klein

671
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: and Ayala in the talent room and I was so

672
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:40,399
Speaker 1: nervous that they ordered food and they said, um, we're

673
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,760
Speaker 1: ordering zen palette, you know, vegetarian, we're ordering zen palette.

674
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: Do you want anything? And I said, just just like

675
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:49,359
Speaker 1: a couple white rice would be good, just like rice.

676
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:51,879
Speaker 1: And I just got a dry cup of white rice

677
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,439
Speaker 1: and set and ate it. I went in and he said,

678
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,600
Speaker 1: we have just cleaned house. It was it was when

679
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 1: well Ferrell and everybody k He said, we've cleaned how house,

680
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 1: we're starting over. You know, it's gonna rise again, We're hoping,

681
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:06,960
Speaker 1: and we're going to try to infuse it with new talent,

682
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:10,080
Speaker 1: and we would like to hire you to be a writer.

683
00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:12,400
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, well, I've never done that.

684
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:14,040
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't even I mean, I didn't

685
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:16,239
Speaker 1: even use a computer at that point. And I said,

686
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:18,720
Speaker 1: I can't, you know. And if you tell them you can't,

687
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 1: then they will. You will keep saying well, and he said, well,

688
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:25,000
Speaker 1: we'll show you, you know. But it was so quick

689
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:27,799
Speaker 1: that it made me worry that there was something wrong,

690
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,080
Speaker 1: like there was a scam or something like this was

691
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,800
Speaker 1: all some kind of freaking joke, because I was like,

692
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,839
Speaker 1: this can't be. And soon after that, were you moving

693
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: to New York? Um? I had five days to move,

694
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: packed up my whole life, gave my animals to my mom,

695
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:45,960
Speaker 1: temporarily went up to New York City, and you know,

696
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:52,520
Speaker 1: just was just ungodly miserable, and I mean with fear.

697
00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:56,479
Speaker 1: But Mike Shoemaker called me right before I left because

698
00:36:56,480 --> 00:36:59,000
Speaker 1: I was starting to freak out to the point of going,

699
00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:01,920
Speaker 1: I'm going to my dream place. I mean, I was

700
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 1: obsessed with us now. When I was little, I used

701
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: to audiotape it. I used to perform Rosanna, Rosanna Dana

702
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,919
Speaker 1: from my high school in the auditorium, and I thought,

703
00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:12,440
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be sitting around with like, you know,

704
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,280
Speaker 1: ten Harvard dudes looking at me, going who hired Kathy

705
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,560
Speaker 1: Bates light and you know, and why is she here?

706
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: And I adore Kathy Baits by the way, but they

707
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 1: were just you know, I thought that I would be

708
00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: so not of their world, of these writer early sort

709
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 1: of people. And I didn't realize how many writers there

710
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:33,000
Speaker 1: are performers. And so Shoemaker called me, and I still

711
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 1: thank him for this, because he really is the reason

712
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: that I ended up getting the balls to get there.

713
00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:40,239
Speaker 1: But he called and he said, some people want to

714
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,400
Speaker 1: say hi. And it was you know, Cindy Capanair and

715
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 1: Lorina So and all these people that were new that

716
00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:47,520
Speaker 1: were terrified, and they all got on the phone going,

717
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:49,920
Speaker 1: we can't wait to meet you. And I hung up

718
00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:51,839
Speaker 1: the phone and I just burst into tears. I said,

719
00:37:51,880 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: it's all gonna be okay, No matter what, it's gonna

720
00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:56,040
Speaker 1: be okay. It's just a group of people it's almost

721
00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:58,040
Speaker 1: like of all the years of doing plays, it's like

722
00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:01,799
Speaker 1: it's a new cast getting manic. Seventeen years I've been

723
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:07,799
Speaker 1: there yet. And one of the biggest things that's changed

724
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 1: in general to me is the Internet, Because when I

725
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,120
Speaker 1: was growing up and you were an actor, you had

726
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:16,840
Speaker 1: to create a body of work by really doing it

727
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:20,000
Speaker 1: and getting hired, and then they would give you access

728
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:23,320
Speaker 1: to tape of it. You know, you couldn't just go

729
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 1: on machines and videotape yourself and make a beautifully edited,

730
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 1: great comedy piece and put that on the internet. I mean,

731
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:34,919
Speaker 1: you just can't do it. The Internet has changed things profound. Yeah,

732
00:38:34,960 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: its just and I think in a bad way. It

733
00:38:37,800 --> 00:38:40,799
Speaker 1: gave people a sense of entitlement of there isn't as

734
00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:44,080
Speaker 1: much awe of all of it because they do it themselves.

735
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,040
Speaker 1: So it's like, oh, yeah, I have you know this,

736
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: I've done, I've done my show. You know, they create

737
00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 1: it themselves, which is very empowering and wonderful. And it's

738
00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 1: also getting a lot more comedy out there of hilarious

739
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:56,720
Speaker 1: people that would never usually walk into a room nervous

740
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:00,400
Speaker 1: in an audition, right right, right, that's the aims to me.

741
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: To have been the condition for me, which is I've

742
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:07,040
Speaker 1: come to us and now and um the signals that

743
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:10,120
Speaker 1: I picked up in Hooks and all that crowd back

744
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:17,200
Speaker 1: then was, you know, my career wasn't that iconic to

745
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: send up me and my career. And so it's not

746
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:23,080
Speaker 1: like I'm Stallone or Schwartz and Negress like that where

747
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,799
Speaker 1: we do that. So you come in and right away

748
00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 1: you pick up I've got to become like everybody else

749
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,120
Speaker 1: and become a member of the company. And as soon

750
00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: as I got that, as soon as I gotta picked

751
00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:34,399
Speaker 1: up that vibe from them, I was, you know, asked

752
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: to come back and come back and come back. And

753
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:38,600
Speaker 1: what it does is it for me as a performer,

754
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: it's killed everything else that's supposed to be funny. Well,

755
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: and I wonder what that's like for you where you're

756
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,600
Speaker 1: in the world where you work with the funniest people.

757
00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:48,600
Speaker 1: No matter what people say about SNL, you know, it's

758
00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:50,360
Speaker 1: not always gonna work, but when it works, it's I

759
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: think it's the best. What's it been like for you? Well,

760
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,080
Speaker 1: you get so you get so into you know, isolated

761
00:39:56,120 --> 00:40:00,399
Speaker 1: there in great ways, in weird ways, because it's there's

762
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 1: nothing like it. You cannot compare that experience with anything,

763
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: but it really is so intense. And you you know,

764
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:10,040
Speaker 1: I started writing movies two years ago and working into that,

765
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:13,080
Speaker 1: I realized how stretched out the time is to the

766
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,399
Speaker 1: point where, you know, I mean, we'll go between dress

767
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 1: and air and Lauren will say, I don't like the

768
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,600
Speaker 1: whole top of that, like add you know, a couple

769
00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:22,839
Speaker 1: of new jokes, So you're you're coming up with new

770
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,520
Speaker 1: jokes at eleven fifteen And let me let me just

771
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: put a finer point on that for our radio audience,

772
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 1: because um that SNL does a full dress rehearsal at

773
00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: eight o'clock on Saturday night with an audience with a

774
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 1: lengthier show, and they're gonna pick what worked best and

775
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:41,200
Speaker 1: then they're going to be right. So when that finishes

776
00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:46,719
Speaker 1: at ten, maybe ten fifteen, maybe ten thirty, who show show,

777
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:48,759
Speaker 1: and then you've got an hour where you're sitting in

778
00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: a room. And in that hour between shows, that's when

779
00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,359
Speaker 1: Lauren and the producers and their riders edit that show

780
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:56,120
Speaker 1: and choose what they're going to do and ask for rewrites.

781
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 1: And they're getting rid of that audience. They're bringing in

782
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,320
Speaker 1: a new one. The band is warming up the new audience,

783
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 1: and you'll walk through and have a task to change something,

784
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 1: and you're walking by these people that are walking in

785
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:09,640
Speaker 1: to their seats looking like I'm so excited I'm here,

786
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,440
Speaker 1: and you're like, I don't know what we're gonna have

787
00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: for you, but we're gonna do it right now. You know,

788
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:16,680
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that if like Dr Oz did my

789
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:18,759
Speaker 1: actual age, you know how they test you and you're

790
00:41:18,760 --> 00:41:21,040
Speaker 1: actually I'm probably a hundred and eighty now because the

791
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: stress of that. It's just such adrenaline. And you know,

792
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: but I mean the beautiful thing about s and L

793
00:41:27,719 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 1: is hosts will come in and and you know, never

794
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 1: you because you were always very approachable, but like you know,

795
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 1: host will come in with their people and and they're

796
00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:38,840
Speaker 1: very nice and very scared, but they have a little

797
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: bit of that sometimes because they're fearful and they have

798
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:44,319
Speaker 1: people protecting them. And by the end of the week,

799
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: they just always at that after party, you know, they're

800
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:49,680
Speaker 1: sitting with everybody and laying across everybody because it feels

801
00:41:49,719 --> 00:41:52,799
Speaker 1: like theater. It feels like I'm I'm in theater camp

802
00:41:52,960 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 1: and this is what I miss doing. In a minute,

803
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:08,080
Speaker 1: Paula Pell shares her plans for retirement. I want to

804
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,759
Speaker 1: go live the leftbian life. I want to be on

805
00:42:10,840 --> 00:42:14,280
Speaker 1: a lesbian far. I want to wear my dance go clacks.

806
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:29,239
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.

807
00:42:30,080 --> 00:42:33,440
Speaker 1: My guest, Paula Pell has been writing sketches at Saturday

808
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:36,720
Speaker 1: Night Live for almost two decades. She no longer works

809
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,799
Speaker 1: full time on the show. Lately, she's branched into both

810
00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:43,880
Speaker 1: TV and film comedies as well. Even still, Hell admits

811
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 1: that on Sundays she wants to curl up on the

812
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:49,520
Speaker 1: couch and watch something well not funny. Oh my god,

813
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:52,759
Speaker 1: you don't want to watch the sorrow in the pity now?

814
00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: My my gal of fourteen years. She watches a lot

815
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,040
Speaker 1: of TV, and she watches shows that I wouldn't and

816
00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:03,319
Speaker 1: really watch, like Castle or you know, like Hawai Fi

817
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,920
Speaker 1: Bo or like Murder Shore and I mean, you know

818
00:43:06,080 --> 00:43:08,560
Speaker 1: murder shows, C S I and C I S. She'll

819
00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:11,040
Speaker 1: watch all She'll take She'll tape all these shows in

820
00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:14,440
Speaker 1: like elementary, all these new shows, and I'll get totally

821
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,000
Speaker 1: hooked on things and realize that I just love I

822
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:21,000
Speaker 1: always loved having drama and comedy together. I mean, that's

823
00:43:21,040 --> 00:43:23,040
Speaker 1: the fun thing about writing movies now is you can

824
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,960
Speaker 1: have a moment that's just a heart wrenching moment in

825
00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 1: a comedy that's that's real. You know, that feels more

826
00:43:29,239 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: three dimensional, because after seventeen years of sketches, you do

827
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,920
Speaker 1: get a little stir crazy with feeling like you're just

828
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:37,719
Speaker 1: writing something on the surface. I mean, it's great to

829
00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,520
Speaker 1: make people laugh, but when I go home, I love

830
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:44,360
Speaker 1: to watch dramas or some reality things. I love to

831
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: just not think about comedy. I do the show and

832
00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,600
Speaker 1: I go out there and it's really um and I'll say,

833
00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:53,759
Speaker 1: I'm never doing this yet, this is ridiculous. I can't

834
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:57,799
Speaker 1: be bothered with this toastiness people to These people are

835
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:01,359
Speaker 1: all young, and they're all crazy and puerile and all

836
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:04,399
Speaker 1: they talk about his thoughts and brazils and so forth.

837
00:44:04,800 --> 00:44:08,120
Speaker 1: And then I'm gonna go do as you like it

838
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:11,080
Speaker 1: in the park. Then of course, you know, Lauren calls me.

839
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:13,359
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, yeah, he'll call me like I get

840
00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 1: thrown off the plane on American Airlines for for playing

841
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: words with friends. The phone rings like three or four

842
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,080
Speaker 1: days there it's Lauren and he literally, he literally he

843
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:29,840
Speaker 1: literally goes, so perhaps we should do something, and I

844
00:44:29,960 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I can't believe you people

845
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:36,880
Speaker 1: are insane. This would be the week, This would be

846
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:39,840
Speaker 1: the week, you know which like that thing where we

847
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 1: have to do it now? Now you are you left

848
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,960
Speaker 1: to do a television show I left about six years

849
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: ago to do. I wrote a pilot called Thick and

850
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:53,400
Speaker 1: Thin that was about too fat sisters that grew up

851
00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 1: fat and one gets really hot and thin and beautiful. Yeah,

852
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:02,200
Speaker 1: we shot the pilot. It got picked up for like thirteen,

853
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:06,759
Speaker 1: but it was a bad year for multi camera sitcoms.

854
00:45:06,800 --> 00:45:08,520
Speaker 1: It was kind of when they were getting phased out.

855
00:45:08,680 --> 00:45:11,279
Speaker 1: And it was also about a subject that was a

856
00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:15,160
Speaker 1: little weird. Still back in that era of you know,

857
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:17,840
Speaker 1: there wasn't a whole bunch of stuff with weight stuff,

858
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:22,279
Speaker 1: and I really wanted like real people that look fat,

859
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: you know, that look fat because I had struggled with

860
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 1: my weight all my life and lost huge amounts of

861
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,400
Speaker 1: weight a couple of times in my life. The process

862
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:31,439
Speaker 1: of developing a network show like that is so hard,

863
00:45:31,680 --> 00:45:34,839
Speaker 1: and I really, in hindsight learned so you know, learned

864
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,680
Speaker 1: so many things after the fact, you know, which one

865
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:41,720
Speaker 1: thing you learned that, you can say, Well, the biggest

866
00:45:41,800 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 1: thing I learned was I'm a people pleaser, and I

867
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 1: always like to get to know people and see the

868
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:49,920
Speaker 1: good sides of them, and I wanted to have a

869
00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:52,320
Speaker 1: lot of positive energy with the with them because I

870
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:54,399
Speaker 1: had known so many people that developed stuff that were

871
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:59,600
Speaker 1: like welcome to hell. But I befriended everyone so intensely,

872
00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,920
Speaker 1: you know, especially like network people and everything. I befriended everyone,

873
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:06,280
Speaker 1: So then there was this sort of discomfort at telling

874
00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:08,240
Speaker 1: them things they didn't want to hear, or me pushing

875
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:12,200
Speaker 1: back in bigger ways. And because I had already established

876
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 1: that we're all just friends and we're all having fun

877
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:17,080
Speaker 1: and we're laughing, then they would suggest things that were

878
00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:20,879
Speaker 1: just show ruining and I would just be like, okay, well,

879
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 1: you know, and I just at the time didn't really

880
00:46:23,000 --> 00:46:26,320
Speaker 1: have my voice as a as a creative person to

881
00:46:26,480 --> 00:46:29,279
Speaker 1: lead something like that, you know, So I I regret that,

882
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,480
Speaker 1: and I regret not um pushing more. I mean, casting

883
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,640
Speaker 1: was you know, a little brutal, just because of the weight.

884
00:46:35,719 --> 00:46:38,040
Speaker 1: Thing is they would they would bring people in that

885
00:46:38,160 --> 00:46:41,080
Speaker 1: were I wanted real people that were you know, I

886
00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 1: wanted the other sister to want to be a real

887
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:47,360
Speaker 1: heavy person. And and when they'd audition heavy people sometimes

888
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: I'd watch their faces when they're auditioning them, and they're

889
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 1: kind of like looking at their bodies, and I'm going,

890
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:53,719
Speaker 1: this is not good that they don't get it that

891
00:46:53,880 --> 00:46:57,080
Speaker 1: like that. You know, rose Anne was freaking huge hit show.

892
00:46:57,160 --> 00:46:59,399
Speaker 1: It's like, come on. I don't even remember who said

893
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:01,919
Speaker 1: this to me, but one of the network people pulled

894
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:03,719
Speaker 1: me aside during one of the castings and she said,

895
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 1: did you audition this other girl for that part for

896
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 1: the heavy sister? And I said, no, I auditioned her

897
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:11,160
Speaker 1: for the thin sister. And she said you couldn't pad her,

898
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:13,880
Speaker 1: could you. And I just remember walking away going, this

899
00:47:14,040 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 1: is so dead in the water. You know, now movies,

900
00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,840
Speaker 1: you're doing a movie now, Yeah, I did. I worked

901
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 1: a little bit on Bridesmaids. I just came a couple

902
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:25,040
Speaker 1: of different times and just you know, pitch jokes on

903
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:26,799
Speaker 1: the set, did that kind of thing. Had never done

904
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 1: anything movie wise ever, And I really really had fun

905
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 1: doing it. I really enjoyed it. And then I Judd

906
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:35,960
Speaker 1: started hiring me to do some rewrites on different movies

907
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 1: and punch ups and stuff. And then last summer I

908
00:47:39,560 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: worked on my first full movie experience with This Is forty.

909
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:45,080
Speaker 1: I was the executive producer on that. I've finally kind

910
00:47:45,120 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 1: of gotten my foothold in the movie thing now and

911
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 1: it's really fun. I really love it. I mean, it's

912
00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 1: a lot of it's a lot of waiting around for

913
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:54,440
Speaker 1: news on things. It's a lot of you know, I

914
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:56,799
Speaker 1: can't plan anything because you don't know what your next

915
00:47:56,880 --> 00:47:59,360
Speaker 1: year is going to be you find out. But so

916
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 1: beautiful to be able to work at home with my

917
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:06,480
Speaker 1: animals and D and just like to be buddy, aren't you.

918
00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:08,319
Speaker 1: Well you always come back to the same thing when

919
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,320
Speaker 1: I've spoken to you. When you left, I was despondent

920
00:48:10,400 --> 00:48:12,360
Speaker 1: when you left because you know, you were such a

921
00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: great You're such a great writer. You're one of my

922
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:18,920
Speaker 1: favorite writers. So funny, but everything mean and you. And

923
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:20,680
Speaker 1: then when you left and you said the same thing,

924
00:48:20,719 --> 00:48:22,080
Speaker 1: You're like, I always want to go home to D

925
00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:26,520
Speaker 1: and my animals, animal animals, to go live the lesbian life.

926
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:29,239
Speaker 1: I want to be on a lesbian fire. I want

927
00:48:29,280 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 1: to wear my dants, go Clag's. I want to get

928
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:35,000
Speaker 1: a mag light and go under a dumpster and get

929
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:39,799
Speaker 1: some feral cats out of there. I have a horse

930
00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:42,840
Speaker 1: up there, I have you know, just it's so beautiful

931
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,120
Speaker 1: and inexpensive up there in the Hudson Valley. It's like

932
00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:49,360
Speaker 1: the amazing place. But also, um, just I'm realizing to

933
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:52,399
Speaker 1: just the finite amount of time. You know, I've spent

934
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:54,520
Speaker 1: more time since I've been doing the movie stuff the

935
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:57,400
Speaker 1: last two years, I've spent more time with my family.

936
00:48:57,560 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 1: I've been down in Florida a lot to visit them.

937
00:49:00,040 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: It's just feeling so much better for me. And also

938
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,239
Speaker 1: I love like Lauren whenever I'm there. I did the

939
00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:09,600
Speaker 1: Louis c. K Show, and I'm doing this next to here,

940
00:49:09,680 --> 00:49:12,359
Speaker 1: and you know, Lauren will say to me, it's still fun, right,

941
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:14,759
Speaker 1: it's fun. You had fun, And I go, oh my god,

942
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,759
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing. But if I did it all the

943
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:19,400
Speaker 1: time now, I would be like a you know, a

944
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:23,200
Speaker 1: bitter hag, because I just feel like I wasn't having

945
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:26,240
Speaker 1: time or energy to do other things. And also everyone

946
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 1: is is very young. I mean my nieces and nephews

947
00:49:28,719 --> 00:49:32,880
Speaker 1: I saw delivered out of my sister's uh the gene

948
00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:36,000
Speaker 1: and they're in their mid twenties and ones a physician's

949
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:38,920
Speaker 1: assistant ones. I mean, I've named myself at S and

950
00:49:39,040 --> 00:49:40,879
Speaker 1: L Nanny sn L because I'll sit at the real

951
00:49:40,920 --> 00:49:43,840
Speaker 1: rate table, like what isn't the name of that here's

952
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:48,480
Speaker 1: that detective on television. I'm like my grandpa, Oh my god, Grandpa.

953
00:49:48,520 --> 00:49:49,960
Speaker 1: They'll knock on the door and super ready and like

954
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:53,720
Speaker 1: Grandpa will be right there. It'll be right there. God

955
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 1: damn it. But if you have a good night there,

956
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:57,759
Speaker 1: you feel like you're twenty again. I mean, you know,

957
00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,680
Speaker 1: if you have a night where you feel like I mean,

958
00:50:00,920 --> 00:50:03,839
Speaker 1: last week I had a really fun Scotch I wrote

959
00:50:03,840 --> 00:50:06,520
Speaker 1: with Kate McKinnon. I just went home on that old

960
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:09,680
Speaker 1: school SNL high, just a whole high, you know, like

961
00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:12,400
Speaker 1: the whole weekend, just bouncing off the walls. And then

962
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: you start going, maybe I could do this all the time.

963
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:16,680
Speaker 1: I got I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna I would

964
00:50:16,719 --> 00:50:18,040
Speaker 1: leave there on after a good show, I leave there.

965
00:50:18,200 --> 00:50:21,600
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be a cast. Addition, now, Twitter, you kill

966
00:50:21,640 --> 00:50:23,360
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, thank you, and talked about like I

967
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:24,759
Speaker 1: was laying on a bed and I was having a

968
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:26,200
Speaker 1: great time, and I was eating sacks and I was

969
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 1: really cozy and everything was just I felt so great,

970
00:50:28,160 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 1: and then security guard came up, you know, tging his

971
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:35,120
Speaker 1: close man like the Tony Ben routine. People always really

972
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:37,799
Speaker 1: respond to my target tweets. Twitter is just another form

973
00:50:37,880 --> 00:50:40,520
Speaker 1: for you. Twitter is really I got very addicted to

974
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: it just because it's so simple and it's like a

975
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:45,160
Speaker 1: video game for comedy writers to just do a one

976
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:48,600
Speaker 1: liner about something. And I started doing these hey young

977
00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:52,359
Speaker 1: girl tweets and I might do a little book of them,

978
00:50:52,600 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: maybe um an illustrated. You know, my nieces, I just

979
00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:58,839
Speaker 1: used to drive them insane when they were growing up

980
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:04,280
Speaker 1: because I was tamember, hey young girls, keep your boobs

981
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,759
Speaker 1: in your shirt, you're button your pants, your eyes on

982
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:08,960
Speaker 1: your dreams, your head in the cloud. You know, like

983
00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:11,000
Speaker 1: you also say the thing about you if the guy

984
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:15,759
Speaker 1: does this. Yeah, the hey young girls stuff just came

985
00:51:15,760 --> 00:51:17,799
Speaker 1: out of my nieces because I would bring them tests

986
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:20,400
Speaker 1: and l and they were just these dropped gorgeous girls

987
00:51:20,480 --> 00:51:23,000
Speaker 1: and they would have people, I'm not talking about people

988
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:24,840
Speaker 1: just checking them out, but like at the if I

989
00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:28,320
Speaker 1: brought them backstage or whatever, there'd be some some dude

990
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 1: that would just end up coming up and saying, you know,

991
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:34,200
Speaker 1: really aggressive checking them out. And so they still imitate me.

992
00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:37,399
Speaker 1: How I would grab them with my meaty, polish firm

993
00:51:37,719 --> 00:51:40,799
Speaker 1: wife arm and she's spart ching you want to talk

994
00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:42,840
Speaker 1: about it? I mean I would just become this raving

995
00:51:43,320 --> 00:51:45,759
Speaker 1: crazy woman looking at them like get you know, And

996
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,840
Speaker 1: so I always i'd always be like, are your sexually active?

997
00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,280
Speaker 1: I would always want to know all their details and everything,

998
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:53,399
Speaker 1: like a character out of a rock huts and yeah,

999
00:51:53,640 --> 00:51:57,440
Speaker 1: the chaperone, Yeah, I'm the chaperone. That's that's uh, storrying

1000
00:51:57,560 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 1: my son away from the hoochie hoochie dance. It's ironic

1001
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:04,840
Speaker 1: that Paula Pell has thrived in the notoriously cutthroat culture

1002
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: of SNL. You get a sense that she is by

1003
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 1: nature a maternal figure, often encouraging up and coming comedy writers.

1004
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:14,360
Speaker 1: Like I've always said about us and L, it's like

1005
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,480
Speaker 1: the funny rises to the top with it. And if

1006
00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 1: somebody's super funny and has abandoned and enjoy and they're

1007
00:52:21,120 --> 00:52:23,160
Speaker 1: not trying, you know, I don't like ever with a

1008
00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 1: comedy person them acting like someone else or acting dirty

1009
00:52:27,280 --> 00:52:29,239
Speaker 1: just to be funny. I'm the filthiest person on earth.

1010
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:31,960
Speaker 1: But if it's not funny dirty, if I'm not being

1011
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:34,880
Speaker 1: funny dirty, you know, then forget it, because there's got

1012
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:39,080
Speaker 1: to be some class to my to my volvol of

1013
00:52:39,120 --> 00:52:42,040
Speaker 1: a joke does not have a class to it, then

1014
00:52:42,120 --> 00:52:44,759
Speaker 1: forget it. But you know, for a while, there are

1015
00:52:45,160 --> 00:52:48,080
Speaker 1: some auditions I would watch where girls would come out

1016
00:52:48,160 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 1: and just try to just sex it up and be

1017
00:52:50,120 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: funny and dirty, you know, and it's like that's you

1018
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:54,440
Speaker 1: feel like, not all of them, certainly, but enough of them.

1019
00:52:54,480 --> 00:52:55,920
Speaker 1: They go out in front of a camera, a lot

1020
00:52:56,000 --> 00:52:57,839
Speaker 1: of them in the comedy world, and they think feel like, well,

1021
00:52:57,840 --> 00:52:59,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to go too far over this song

1022
00:52:59,160 --> 00:53:01,120
Speaker 1: because I don't want to lose this othern thing. I

1023
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:03,279
Speaker 1: really would like to kiss Leo in a movie, right,

1024
00:53:03,440 --> 00:53:04,480
Speaker 1: I want to be as much as I think. You

1025
00:53:04,520 --> 00:53:07,319
Speaker 1: don't want to see anyone thinking too hard while they're

1026
00:53:07,520 --> 00:53:10,120
Speaker 1: you know, the the greatest auditions at SNL were people

1027
00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:13,040
Speaker 1: that came in purely as themselves, came in, did a

1028
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:15,719
Speaker 1: bunch of craziest characters, and you just went, this is

1029
00:53:15,800 --> 00:53:18,759
Speaker 1: a force of nature. What is this? What is this human? Like?

1030
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:20,600
Speaker 1: They were making me laugh so hard and I don't

1031
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:23,000
Speaker 1: even know what where they're getting it from. Women have

1032
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:25,000
Speaker 1: that the condition though, where it's like it's like they

1033
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:26,640
Speaker 1: sit there and they you know, I mean, I've seen

1034
00:53:26,680 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: women who they would make fun of actresses. I mean,

1035
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 1: I'm took a comedy. They would just tear apart, they

1036
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 1: would laceerate actresses who they thought were leaning too much

1037
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,680
Speaker 1: on the sex button. And then those comedy actresses became

1038
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: stars and they popped another button and they put the

1039
00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:45,719
Speaker 1: makeup on their cleavage and they were like and they

1040
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:48,200
Speaker 1: were just like they were camera ready. Mean, they became

1041
00:53:48,239 --> 00:53:50,320
Speaker 1: the thing they made fun of, and you and you

1042
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 1: realize for women, that's a tough angle. Comedy comedy girls

1043
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:56,759
Speaker 1: tended to grow up being the goofy looking you know,

1044
00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,279
Speaker 1: the goofy looking ones that weren't getting the attention that way.

1045
00:53:59,320 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 1: So when they be um famous and have a lot

1046
00:54:01,640 --> 00:54:04,960
Speaker 1: of money and people putting beautiful dresses on them, I

1047
00:54:05,040 --> 00:54:07,120
Speaker 1: think they do go they do go that way, you know.

1048
00:54:07,320 --> 00:54:09,480
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got a lot of pretty sparkly pants

1049
00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:11,440
Speaker 1: suits I wear to the Emmy's now and I really

1050
00:54:12,200 --> 00:54:21,480
Speaker 1: get up my own ass on it. Paula pell is

1051
00:54:21,560 --> 00:54:24,439
Speaker 1: working on a few side projects, but as a fan,

1052
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:26,839
Speaker 1: I hope that Paula doesn't give up her night job

1053
00:54:27,320 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: and has another seventeen years of sketch writing ahead of her.

1054
00:54:31,239 --> 00:54:39,000
Speaker 1: Thanks Sugar, this is Alec Baldwin. You can hear more

1055
00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:43,320
Speaker 1: conversations in our archive from Nobel Prize winning economists to

1056
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:49,080
Speaker 1: NFL quarterbacks. They are the apex of physical freaks. You know,

1057
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Speaker 1: there are some guys that are three pounds that are

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Speaker 1: running faster than running than your high school running back.

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Speaker 1: Listen to more at here is the Thing dot org.

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Speaker 1: Here's the Thing is produced by Emily Botine and Kathy

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Speaker 1: Russo with Chris Bannon, Jim Briggs, Wendy Door, ed Herberstman,

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Speaker 1: Melanie Hoops, Monica Hopkins, Trey Kay, Sharon Macheehee, and Lou Okowski.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Larry Josephson and the Radio Foundation m