Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Daily Show Ears edition. This is Jordan
Speaker 2: Klepper and I'm excited to be joined today by a
Speaker 2: Daily Show trailblazer, the great Ed helms Ed. Welcome.
Speaker 1: Well, hello, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Thank you for being here.
Speaker 1: That's a pleasure.
Speaker 2: What's it feel like to come back into the Daily
Speaker 2: Show studio and fold? Like, what are the first thoughts
Speaker 2: that run through your head when you come in here?
Speaker 1: I immediately barfed when I walked in the door. Is
Speaker 1: that lots of tension, anger, frustration. Decades have just built
Speaker 1: up anxiety, yea ray contempt.
Speaker 3: No, I.
Speaker 1: Have to say, like, for one thing, the studio is,
Speaker 1: and not just the studio itself, but the offices, the building, everything.
Speaker 1: It's so beautiful.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, back in my day, I'm probably gonna say that
Speaker 1: a lot. It was uh, it was just a little
Speaker 1: more i don't know, frumpy, And now it's like sexy.
Speaker 1: It's like a cool it's like very like a cool workplace.
Speaker 2: Too sexy, do you get them?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: No, like like just right, it's got good, it's got
Speaker 1: good vibes. And of course there's there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that still work here that I know and love,
Speaker 1: and so it's really of just absolute delight to walk
Speaker 1: back in the door. I cannot overstate how how fun
Speaker 1: it is to see people and even like newer folks.
Speaker 1: And you're not new to the show by any stretch,
Speaker 1: but you're new by my standards.
Speaker 2: Yes, by the long look of time. But yes, if
Speaker 2: you look at that, there's the Paleolithic, the Colbert, the Helm,
Speaker 2: the Quordrea Cleiocenes, and then yes, I'm one of the
Speaker 2: newer ones.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that you're of the hominid era, and but you're
Speaker 1: also lovely and it's just so cool to meet and
Speaker 1: connect with new folks too. So we all share this,
Speaker 1: uh this TDS bond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a land of They say the no assholes rule,
Speaker 2: but there usually is one. Was that?
Speaker 1: Who was that?
Speaker 2: For you? Who was the asshole?
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: Gosh, there were a lot of ass I let's be honest. Cordry,
Speaker 1: oh the worst Colbert also, huge asshole, Correll, big asshole.
Speaker 1: Every every it was a it was a no no
Speaker 1: nice people rule. Everyone you had to be an asshole.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I take that back. I said the no asshole type,
Speaker 2: but I think I meant the direct opposite.
Speaker 1: Exact, exact opposite. Uh No, it's a good it's always yeah,
Speaker 1: it's always been a good vibe.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the Daily Show audition?
Speaker 1: I do, yeah, very very vividly.
Speaker 2: You were no correct me if I'm wrong. You came
Speaker 2: from improv U see bee Land.
Speaker 1: Correct to some degree. But I was also like very
Speaker 1: deep in the stand up community. So at that time
Speaker 1: in New York, improv was pretty fresh. There wasn't like
Speaker 1: a very well established improv scene. The Uppright cities. This
Speaker 1: brigade kind of came on strong in about ninety nine
Speaker 1: two thousand. I had started doing stand up in New
Speaker 1: York around ninety six when I graduated from college. I
Speaker 1: came straight here and just jumped into all the open
Speaker 1: mics and stuff that I could do, and I was
Speaker 1: just starting to like get some you know, just the
Speaker 1: tiniest bit of credibility as a city club comic, like
Speaker 1: just getting tiny little bits here or hosting spots there,
Speaker 1: but getting up at all of the legit clubs. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Upright Citizens brigade really came on strong in about
Speaker 1: ninety nine, and I was like, that looks really cool
Speaker 1: and fun too, So I started doing that also, But
Speaker 1: it's unclear to me exactly what put me on Comedy
Speaker 1: Central's radar. I think it was the stand up because
Speaker 1: Naomi Frish was the head of talent in New York
Speaker 1: for Comedy Central and she was like in the comedy
Speaker 1: clubs all the time, So I think it was more
Speaker 1: of the stand up. But the audition that I went
Speaker 1: on was an open cattle call. Really, it was massive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: everyone in town, everyone I knew was going on this audition.
Speaker 1: It was at one of the commercial casting companies. I
Speaker 1: mean there were hundreds of people.
Speaker 2: Yeah, similar type situation. You do essentially what we call
Speaker 2: it the Daily Show a chat well, or did you
Speaker 2: have to write a chat for the audition?
Speaker 1: There were two steps. The first was this like massive
Speaker 1: cattle call, and they just gave you a script when
Speaker 1: you got there, and so you didn't have any time
Speaker 1: to really like prepare for it, and then you just
Speaker 1: walked in and did it to camera. But I was
Speaker 1: such a student of the show at that point because
Speaker 1: I'd been really obsessed with it, and it was like
Speaker 1: in my imagination, I was like, I'm gonna be on
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live or The Daily Show, Like these are
Speaker 1: my two like north Stars. I had two north Stars.
Speaker 1: Most have one. I had to.
Speaker 2: It's tough directionally, aspirationally, terrible for navigation, and to have
Speaker 2: two north Stars.
Speaker 1: But but I had been sort of like cultivating my
Speaker 1: SNL audition, like getting that kind of like ready to go,
Speaker 1: and I was like, whichever one comes first, I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna jump at it. So I was really a student
Speaker 1: of the show, and I was watching it religiously advanced
Speaker 1: to Generous and Morocca, and of course Colbert and Corell
Speaker 1: were both on, and I watched it every single night,
Speaker 1: and I got to a point where I was like,
Speaker 1: I know all the tricks. I know what these guys do.
Speaker 1: I know how they talk, I know how they arched
Speaker 1: their eyebrows, I know when they arched their It's like
Speaker 1: there's really a craft to correspondenting, and I studied it.
Speaker 1: I got the audition right at the sort of like
Speaker 1: peak of my Daily Show preparation, which was a very
Speaker 1: lucky moment. But I walked into that audition, like I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there in the waiting room and there were
Speaker 1: tons of people and I was like, all you suckers,
Speaker 1: no way, I know what I'm doing, Like I know
Speaker 1: I walked into that audition with like a kind of
Speaker 1: confidence that I definitely did not earn or have any
Speaker 1: right to have. But for some reason, I just I
Speaker 1: felt prepared.
Speaker 2: Would was that the case with other auditions you would
Speaker 2: walk into or was it like this one you were like,
Speaker 2: I know this.
Speaker 1: It's a good question. At that point I had I
Speaker 1: was doing commercial voiceover auditions every day, like five or
Speaker 1: six auditions a day, So I really had this muscle
Speaker 1: tuned and I could walk into an audition like, you know,
Speaker 1: do my best, and walk out and never think about
Speaker 1: it again. Like and with voiceovers, like a good booking
Speaker 1: ratio for voiceovers might be like one in thirty auditions,
Speaker 1: and that's a good ratio, but that's also your booking
Speaker 1: like one a week. That means you're a badass voiceover actor,
Speaker 1: but it also means you're auditioning like thousands of times.
Speaker 1: And so I just had this like audition muscle very
Speaker 1: like finely tuned, and that served me in my daily
Speaker 1: show audition. So I walked in. I knew the casting director,
Speaker 1: she was a friend of mine at that point, I'd
Speaker 1: been in her office a thousand times, and I just
Speaker 1: did the audition the best I could. I walked out.
Speaker 1: I was like, I think I did pretty well. Oh
Speaker 1: this is the other thing. They gave me a script
Speaker 1: that I had just seen Colbert do on the show.
Speaker 1: Like it was maybe two weeks old. So they're like, eh,
Speaker 1: we'll throw these audition. There's a curveball. This is from
Speaker 1: two weeks ago. But I'm like, can't fool me. I've
Speaker 1: been watching every night, so I had just seen Colbert
Speaker 1: do this exact script.
Speaker 2: Were you in your head about I feel like that
Speaker 2: is the challenge in that you study it. You know
Speaker 2: the rhythms and you know like the responsibilities of that
Speaker 2: and where the laughs are right, but you probably also
Speaker 2: have Colbert's laughs in your head.
Speaker 1: Sure are you?
Speaker 2: Are you calibrating? Like how do I balance the hell?
Speaker 2: How do I understand the Colbert rhythm but balance the
Speaker 2: helms in this?
Speaker 1: I will say that what you're at came maybe a
Speaker 1: year later. In that moment, I was like, how do
Speaker 1: I do this in exactly the way Stephen Colbert did it? Truly?
Speaker 1: Like that's all I thought about, was like he is
Speaker 1: the sort of like perfect version of this job. How
Speaker 1: do I do it like him? And that served me
Speaker 1: because I then got the callback, and the callback was
Speaker 1: a chat in the studio with John, and there were
Speaker 1: five of us that got callbacks from that massive cattle call. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm really nervous. I was still confident, but I
Speaker 1: was super nervous. But again, they gave us a script
Speaker 1: that they I had just seen on the show like
Speaker 1: two weeks before, and so I felt like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: know how to do this in Salt Lake City.
Speaker 4: Things have gone remarkably smoothly so far thanks to an
Speaker 4: unprecedented level of security in and around these Olympic Games.
Speaker 4: With more it's our chief security analyst, Ed Helms, Ed,
Speaker 4: thanks for joining us talk to us a little bit
Speaker 4: about the security of these games.
Speaker 1: John.
Speaker 3: These Olympics are undoubtedly the safest ever. The perimeter of
Speaker 3: the site is surrounded by an elaborate fencing system, electronic
Speaker 3: surveillance checkpoints at every entrance, X ray equipment at each venue,
Speaker 3: machine gun turrets here, here, and here. Packs of white
Speaker 3: wolves roaming the grounds freely devouring everything in their path.
Speaker 3: Remote controlled laser guided penguins with bombs for heads. The
Speaker 3: top of Mount Allen pops open, revealing a death ray
Speaker 3: capable of destroying a small moon.
Speaker 1: Uh oh okay.
Speaker 3: Moving on to these also twelve thousand security personnel from federal, state,
Speaker 3: and local agencies agents patrolling the back country, some making
Speaker 3: rounds on skis. Others are employing camouflage.
Speaker 4: Well, I guess that's to assist with hazardous materials.
Speaker 1: Ice skates and ski blades have been dulled.
Speaker 3: Hockey pucks are made of some kind of space age.
Speaker 1: Nerf and biathlon athletes will.
Speaker 4: Hug instead of shoot, so the hazards are all taken
Speaker 4: care of. I guess everything's under control, so we can.
Speaker 3: Except for one, it's winter icicles everywhere.
Speaker 1: You could stab someone. It's the perfect crime.
Speaker 3: There's no prints, there's no weapon.
Speaker 1: All that's left is a puddle. Water keeps its secrets. John,
Speaker 1: thank you ed that audition round. I think me and
Speaker 1: Corder and then three other comedy people that we knew
Speaker 1: were in that last round, and Rob and I got hired.
Speaker 2: Did you know it afterwards? Did you're like, oh, I
Speaker 2: got that job?
Speaker 1: No? I don't think so. I think it was a
Speaker 1: day or two later that I got the call.
Speaker 2: And actually in your bones, though, were you like, oh,
Speaker 2: I think I nailed that.
Speaker 1: I felt good. I had no idea if I was
Speaker 1: going to get it. But I had learned through thousands
Speaker 1: of auditions that if you can just do your best,
Speaker 1: that's like a home run because it's really never ever
Speaker 1: up to you. And even if you think you're right
Speaker 1: for something, if the person who's casting it doesn't think
Speaker 1: you're right for it, guess what matters that opinion, not yours.
Speaker 1: And that was something that got beat into me as
Speaker 1: a voiceover actor, was this idea that, like, the audition
Speaker 1: process is so completely totally out of your control, and
Speaker 1: I think it takes a lot of actors a long
Speaker 1: time to actually internalize that. And that's where voiceovers was
Speaker 1: such a kind of like hack for me, because the
Speaker 1: volume of voiceover auditions at that time was so massive,
Speaker 1: ye and I was going on so many. I became
Speaker 1: a full time voiceover person. It's all I did. I
Speaker 1: went on from like five, six, seven, eight auditions a day.
Speaker 1: I was in recording sessions two or three days a
Speaker 1: week for different products, this that or the other, like
Speaker 1: sometimes like little radio spots, sometimes giant ad campaigns. Like
Speaker 1: I was a seriously working voice over guys.
Speaker 2: Is your agent from two thousand still taking clients? Is
Speaker 2: that possible, Can you pass my name along?
Speaker 1: I had really really great agents at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a wonderful little moment in my career, the Cunningham,
Speaker 1: Scott Slevin and the Peenie crew. Big shout out and
Speaker 1: credit to all of them, really wonderful agents.
Speaker 2: Then you shift into getting that daily show gig. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you audition. When I went to my audition, they test
Speaker 2: you on how to be in the studio and be
Speaker 2: ready in the studio, be able to do a chat,
Speaker 2: be at the desk. But half of the job of
Speaker 2: being a correspondent is get your ass in the field
Speaker 2: and do one of the weirdest jobs in comedy totally
Speaker 2: sit in a chair across from what could be a
Speaker 2: very important person, what could be a very strange person,
Speaker 2: could be a very angry person, and then tell jokes
Speaker 2: to their face. Yeah, how did that feel for you?
Speaker 2: You come across and seem to be a very kind,
Speaker 2: nice person. I think Colbert famously asks and has told
Speaker 2: correspondence to like leave your soul on a hanger back
Speaker 2: in the studio. Yeah, that you have to kind of
Speaker 2: go out with with balls and uh no fear and
Speaker 2: seeing these rooms and talk to these folks.
Speaker 6: In the bar business. Liquor and firearms don't mix.
Speaker 3: Alcohol causes conflicts, firearms resolve conflicts. It's a no.
Speaker 6: Blanner logic tells you that alcohol and firearms don't mix.
Speaker 3: If yeah, if you're a pussy, If you're a pussy.
Speaker 1: Ernie and I had a delightful chat, a rational exchange
Speaker 1: of ideas.
Speaker 6: All right, you're calling me a pussy.
Speaker 5: So would you prefer me taking this bottle of beer
Speaker 5: I got in my hand and cracking it over your face,
Speaker 5: or you prefer me reaching to my back fling out
Speaker 5: my I'm putting a bullet between your eyes?
Speaker 6: Which do you prefer?
Speaker 3: I would say, if you hit me over the face
Speaker 3: with the beer bottle, then then you're you're you're being
Speaker 3: a pussy.
Speaker 2: Was that easy to wear? No?
Speaker 1: That was incredibly uncomfortable for me. Yeah. I am a
Speaker 1: Southern boy raised by a mom and dad who want
Speaker 1: to make everybody comfortable and keep the peace, and and
Speaker 1: I think my career choice is a bit of a
Speaker 1: reaction to that. But of course I could never fully
Speaker 1: shed that either. And so that job of being deliberately
Speaker 1: awkward with someone being deliberately confrontational or even like at
Speaker 1: times kind of mean. It did not sit well with me,
Speaker 1: and it was it was a challenge every time. And
Speaker 1: the ones that that where I had a ton of
Speaker 1: fun were really the ones where I could just be
Speaker 1: silly or incredibly stupid or incredibly silly. That to me
Speaker 1: was it comes very easily to me to be very stupid.
Speaker 1: But then you know, you kind of get the most
Speaker 1: affirmation from the ones that are like real conflict. Y.
Speaker 1: I got good at it, I got to where I
Speaker 1: could do it, but it always, you know, it always
Speaker 1: felt like a little bit of like I was giving
Speaker 1: up something a little bit and I and weirdly, I'm
Speaker 1: actually incredibly proud of a lot of those things and
Speaker 1: a lot of those moments, but it never stopped being
Speaker 1: just kind of like I never stopped feeling like it
Speaker 1: was just against the grain of my just like who
Speaker 1: I am or something.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I always felt that when you could be silly in
Speaker 2: a field piece or doing something even very public but
Speaker 2: where it's very clear the joke is on you, it
Speaker 2: felt like a form of like theater performance. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you get to be the gesture in this big space
Speaker 2: and everybody understands the point of view. I remember doing
Speaker 2: some of my first field pieces and then watching the
Speaker 2: tape afterwards and having that sense of I got some
Speaker 2: Midwest nice in me, and that feeling of like, oh,
Speaker 2: instinctively with strangers, I want to make everybody feel comfortable
Speaker 2: in that space.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I remember Jason Jones telling me at the time.
Speaker 2: He was like, you have to let them sit in
Speaker 2: that silence, yes, and let them fill that with something.
Speaker 2: That's when they talk and reveal themselves to you. And
Speaker 2: it was like, well, that's what I feel the worst,
Speaker 2: right right, right right, But I hate this silence. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to cover it up, even if I snuck
Speaker 2: that joke in there. I want to keep talking to
Speaker 2: move away from the awkwardness of that feeling. And you're like, totally,
Speaker 2: but that's kind of the gold. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'll say two things. I think Correl really paved
Speaker 1: the way for the silly version of stories like advance.
Speaker 1: Degeneris and Colbert were so good at the more sort
Speaker 1: of like sardonic or ironic attack dog kind of angle,
Speaker 1: and then Correl was so good at the like just dumb,
Speaker 1: like sweet reporter that could somehow also be like laser
Speaker 1: sharp satire. And that I think also was what was
Speaker 1: so special about the two of them is that they
Speaker 1: really weren't doing the same thing, Like they didn't have
Speaker 1: the same comedy game, and all of us that came
Speaker 1: after we're always trying to kind of like find our game,
Speaker 1: find our voice as a correspondent, like you asked earlier,
Speaker 1: Like it took me a year before I stopped just
Speaker 1: deliberately imitating Colbert.
Speaker 2: Like what was there something that clicked or it was
Speaker 2: just a comfort in how you worked within a daily
Speaker 2: show setting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was a moment of having some
Speaker 1: success under my belt and being like I've kind of
Speaker 1: earned some a little bit of credibility, and it's time
Speaker 1: to like enjoy my own instincts here and to kind
Speaker 1: of like take some pride in my instincts. And that
Speaker 1: might be different from what I would expect Colbert to
Speaker 1: do or expect someone out Correll to do or whatever.
Speaker 1: And I think my imitation of Colbar's to me very
Speaker 1: well at that time, it was really was a kind
Speaker 1: of he created a gold standard. But I think now
Speaker 1: and especially watching the show over the last ten years,
Speaker 1: like it's so fun to just see so many correspondents
Speaker 1: with like really unique voices, but really getting the same satire,
Speaker 1: like getting that just like good media satire dialed in.
Speaker 1: Everybody's just crushing it. But I wanted to ask you
Speaker 1: this on that subject of kind of like being uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with the silence and all that. This happened to me
Speaker 1: a lot. You know, we'd find some story, we'd start
Speaker 1: brainstorming and break all these funny questions to ask the person,
Speaker 1: and then we get there. And it definitely took me
Speaker 1: probably five or ten segments before I understood that, like
Speaker 1: when the cameras are getting set up, don't talk to
Speaker 1: the subject. Yeah, like, do not chill out with them,
Speaker 1: don't get to know them, don't have like a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee, and and like shit chat because.
Speaker 2: It's a danger because I feel like I've said I've
Speaker 2: made that mistake too, where you'll arrive at somebody's house. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you can have an hour hanging out in their kitchen
Speaker 2: right and then be like, shit, I got I gotta
Speaker 2: say some pretty heinous things to this person right now.
Speaker 2: And you're like, well, now we're becoming friends.
Speaker 1: Exactly, the less you know the better. And you don't
Speaker 1: want any vibe established before you sit down. You want
Speaker 1: all of it on camera. That took me a while,
Speaker 1: because again, my instincts were to just be like, hey,
Speaker 1: how's it going. Even if they were some like monster
Speaker 1: that I'd just be like, they're a person, let's just chat,
Speaker 1: of course, And then we sit down for the interview,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh shit, I gotta ask these hard
Speaker 1: quess But I also I would find myself and I'm
Speaker 1: so curious your take on this. Like sometimes you're interviewing
Speaker 1: people that are problematic or difficult or have some point
Speaker 1: of view that seems strange or wild or wrong, and
Speaker 1: then you have your funny questions. But so often I
Speaker 1: would just be like, oh, man, like I never get
Speaker 1: to meet someone like this in my normal life, Like
Speaker 1: can't I just I just want to pick their brain,
Speaker 1: Like I want to have a real conversation. I really
Speaker 1: want to get inside their head and like understand how
Speaker 1: and why they think. I had a bunch of moments
Speaker 1: like that where I was like, hold on, am I
Speaker 1: a real reporter? Am I having like real reporter instincts
Speaker 1: here that I want to just like get to the
Speaker 1: bottom of this story for real? And so often I
Speaker 1: would just find myself in these fascinating dialogues, and I
Speaker 1: just want to like drop the script, drop the game,
Speaker 1: drop the satire, and just be like, what's your fucking
Speaker 1: deal man, Like who are you? What is it? How
Speaker 1: do you think? And just get into it with somebody.
Speaker 1: But of course you never ever could do that.
Speaker 2: There's I definitely found myself on multiple shoots with you know,
Speaker 2: you are talking to people who are on the extremes
Speaker 2: and then also talking to people who are experts in
Speaker 2: fields that you'd never get a chance to exactly right, Yes,
Speaker 2: there's also an ego thing. There's times where it's like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna play the dummy does know the right But
Speaker 2: by the way I read all your articles, I'm smart too,
Speaker 2: I'm cool, Like we can hang right with you, like totally.
Speaker 2: That is just my need to be seen by this
Speaker 2: person as legitimate.
Speaker 1: It's so funny.
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: We're back with Ed Helms. It has been a little
Speaker 2: bit interesting in I do think, like, you know, Daily
Speaker 2: Show as media satire has you know, Colbert helped create it,
Speaker 2: as did all of the early correspondence of like the
Speaker 2: archness of the overly confident reporter is sort of the
Speaker 2: big target of a lot of that initial satire. And
Speaker 2: I do think what has been curious over the last
Speaker 2: ten years is the media landscape has changed, and so
Speaker 2: news doesn't look the same. It's not just all white
Speaker 2: guys who are telling you what they know about the world, right,
Speaker 2: That dynamic has shifted, but also even just the structure
Speaker 2: with which people watch news has changed and what they
Speaker 2: want from their comedy has shifted, and so there has
Speaker 2: been this new balance of like, how do you bring
Speaker 2: a certain amount of authenticity to who you are? I
Speaker 2: feel like when Trevor came in, the audience had to
Speaker 2: know who Trevor Noah was before he could be arch
Speaker 2: about stuff, and frankly, Trevor didn't love going arch on
Speaker 2: stuff and that was more with a correspondence. Sure came in,
Speaker 2: but when he started to bring people on, archness was
Speaker 2: a tool they could use. But he brought Roywood Junior
Speaker 2: on because Roy is funny and smart and knows how
Speaker 2: to play off of that yeah, and can use the
Speaker 2: report the tools of reporter satire, but is also going
Speaker 2: to use the tools of just like authentic stand up.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: It's been interesting to watch how that has has shifted
Speaker 2: and part of it has I think a reflection of frankly,
Speaker 2: the news that we are watching and what an audience
Speaker 2: wants from their comedy. They feel like they almost need
Speaker 2: to know you now, and you can't hide as much
Speaker 2: behind character.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I think you're onto something. And it's also it's
Speaker 1: also a reason that this new rotating host format I
Speaker 1: think is so successful, because it gives all of you
Speaker 1: a chance to be genuine and to sit across from
Speaker 1: an interview subject and have those real moments like we
Speaker 1: never had that, and I have to say, like I
Speaker 1: can look back on my correspondent character who shared my name, right,
Speaker 1: my correspondent character had my name but was not me,
Speaker 1: like very different from me, right and arguably like kind
Speaker 1: of a dick. And that also didn't sit well with
Speaker 1: me because I had to then like move through the
Speaker 1: world as this like you know, that's I do give
Speaker 1: the audience credit, like they understood I was being a
Speaker 1: sort of like dick for comedy's sake. But still, I think,
Speaker 1: what's so cool now, You're exactly right. Audiences want to
Speaker 1: feel like they kind of understand someone in a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a genuine, earnest way, and this what
Speaker 1: the show is doing now, Like I really think the
Speaker 1: show is in a is in this incredibly special mode
Speaker 1: for a number of reasons. It has a really great
Speaker 1: talent pool. You accepted obviously, but the talent here is
Speaker 1: so so good, and the show is responding to a
Speaker 1: wild cultural moment and that's special. Like back when the
Speaker 1: Correspondent crew was just me, Corder, Colbert and Sam Bee,
Speaker 1: I feel like we also had the good fortune of
Speaker 1: being in a pretty wild cultural moment, which was the
Speaker 1: w Years, and that may not have been like great
Speaker 1: for the country, but it was great for the show
Speaker 1: with the world of it.
Speaker 2: Really did I feel like those years kind of crafted
Speaker 2: the voice of the show that John was able to
Speaker 2: kind of continue to articulate. Did you feel it's curious
Speaker 2: describing how you were a character very much a character
Speaker 2: outside of who you were, but on a very successful
Speaker 2: political satire show. Did you feel a burden outside of
Speaker 2: that to be political, to articulate political takes outside of
Speaker 2: your character, whether that's maybe on a personal level, but
Speaker 2: even more so just on a media level. I feel
Speaker 2: like part of the I go out now and I
Speaker 2: do stand up shows. Yeah, and I will do a
Speaker 2: Q and A at the end, huh, and they get
Speaker 2: they're very serious. The Q and a's are very serious.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting the political moment, people want answers and they're
Speaker 2: frustrated and they want to articulate where they're at. But
Speaker 2: they see me coming there as somebody who they understand
Speaker 2: the comedy that I do, but very much want to
Speaker 2: talk to me as somebody who is in the political
Speaker 2: world and want analysis. Did you feel that burden?
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, I definitely did. And I had a
Speaker 1: similar experience. I was still doing stand up at the time.
Speaker 1: I did a stand up show at Columbia School of Journalism,
Speaker 1: and I remember it was weird because I'm telling some
Speaker 1: dumb jokes and then I did wind up getting into
Speaker 1: a dialogue with the audience, and similar thing it got.
Speaker 1: It was just sort of serious, and it was became
Speaker 1: a dissection of like the craft of journalism and whether
Speaker 1: or not it's in a good place. And you know,
Speaker 1: Fox News was really exploding at that moment. It was
Speaker 1: it was still relatively new and people were trying to
Speaker 1: still process it. And I think for kids at journalism
Speaker 1: school like Columbia, like they really were curious about what
Speaker 1: is going on right, Like are we entering a broken
Speaker 1: industry or like a broken apparatus, and like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, it just was I do share.
Speaker 2: That when you made the choice, so you were correct
Speaker 2: me if I'm wrong. But Office comes along, and there's
Speaker 2: an opportunity for episodes on the Office, But that means
Speaker 2: you are going to have to leave the Daily Show? Correct?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 2: When that moment happened, did you feel like that was
Speaker 2: a step away from the political world? Was that a danger?
Speaker 2: Was that appealing to you at all? Was that was
Speaker 2: that a part of your consideration?
Speaker 1: Great question. So after four years here, I really was
Speaker 1: feeling like I'm maxed out, and not maxed out like burnout.
Speaker 1: I just was feeling like I'm still young and hungry
Speaker 1: and there's nothing else I can do here. John's not
Speaker 1: going anywhere anytime soon, and even if he goes somewhere,
Speaker 1: like I'm not necessarily like next in line to be
Speaker 1: host or anything. Like I kind of had hit a
Speaker 1: ceiling and there was no upward mobility, and I was
Speaker 1: starting to feel like, and I think this is just
Speaker 1: part of my personality. I just got restless, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, I feel like I have more to prove
Speaker 1: as a performer. And as an actor, and I think
Speaker 1: being this very specific kind of character on this show
Speaker 1: was suddenly feeling like not enough. Like I wanted to act,
Speaker 1: I really wanted to do silly stuff. And I was
Speaker 1: watching Correll. He left maybe five or six months after
Speaker 1: I started, so we overlapped here for just a little while,
Speaker 1: and then he left to go do I guess he
Speaker 1: did that movie Bruce Almighty, and then watching Ellie I think,
Speaker 1: or some sitcom that he got on, and I just
Speaker 1: was like, that's that looks really fun and it's the
Speaker 1: same thing that got me to loving the Daily Show.
Speaker 1: Was like, that looks so fun, right, And it's why
Speaker 1: I wanted to be on Saturday Live. I really just
Speaker 1: I wanted a career that I could like just love
Speaker 1: and enjoy and be passionate about. And I was starting
Speaker 1: to feel like there's more I can do, but I
Speaker 1: can't do it in this format, And so I started
Speaker 1: auditioning for sitcoms and I got a pilot and it
Speaker 1: was a really incredible experience. I only had to leave
Speaker 1: The Daily Show for two weeks, which was, by the way,
Speaker 1: a big ask because there were only a few of us,
Speaker 1: and like it was a big deal. I was like, guys,
Speaker 1: I got a network TV pilot, kind of go for
Speaker 1: two weeks and they're like, I don't know, okay, And
Speaker 1: and so I went out to LA and I shot
Speaker 1: this pilot and it was one of the most incredible experiences.
Speaker 1: It was a multi caam pilot, which it's like a
Speaker 1: live audience. Yeah, it was so exhilarating, it was so
Speaker 1: fun and it went amazing, and NBC was like, this
Speaker 1: is our next big show. We love this show. Da
Speaker 1: and then and then the entertainment president changed and they
Speaker 1: were like, we're going to recast this show and you're
Speaker 1: still in it, but we're going to redo the pilot.
Speaker 1: And da da da, And so they we reshot the
Speaker 1: pilot and it was a train wreck and and then
Speaker 1: that it just didn't go anywhere. Yeah, but I had
Speaker 1: been ruined. I was like, I love this so much,
Speaker 1: Like I just wanted to go to LA and be
Speaker 1: in on a TV show. And so I just was
Speaker 1: sort of like putting that energy out and cultivating that
Speaker 1: with my representation and so forth, and the office meeting happened.
Speaker 1: I met with Greg Daniels and they already had this
Speaker 1: character in mind for Andy, and they're like, what do
Speaker 1: you think? And I was like, oh, yeah, this is great,
Speaker 1: and we all just sort of started spitballing and they
Speaker 1: were like, all right, well we'll let you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was a while later they said, we're going
Speaker 1: to try this out, this like Stanford Branch thing, and
Speaker 1: so here's a two week, two episode contract and I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know if I can do that.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can leave the Daily Show
Speaker 1: for whatever, cause then like what if it doesn't work out?
Speaker 1: And they're like, well, it's going to be eight episodes.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, so then I really have to quit
Speaker 1: the Daily Show if I am going to take this.
Speaker 1: That was a very scary moment because it was like
Speaker 1: I can't ask for two months off. I have to
Speaker 1: like either take the plunge and go do this these
Speaker 1: eight episodes on The Office, which was still a new show.
Speaker 1: It was season three, but it was still a pretty
Speaker 1: new show because there were only six episodes in the
Speaker 1: first season, so it was still like gaining momentum. But
Speaker 1: there was momentum for sure, and I could feel that
Speaker 1: like I knew The Office was special. I knew that
Speaker 1: Steve had been like Steve's casting in the Ricky Gervais
Speaker 1: role was like a really inspired choice that I believed in.
Speaker 1: I just knew he would crush it, and so I
Speaker 1: felt like that show was special and something special to
Speaker 1: be a part of. But it was a that was
Speaker 1: a soul searching moment because I knew that if I
Speaker 1: left to do eight episodes on the Office and it
Speaker 1: didn't work out, after that, there was nothing. It was
Speaker 1: a void.
Speaker 2: You're like, fucking I'm going to take them to take
Speaker 2: the leap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But but I then I sort of took the leap.
Speaker 1: It took me a minute, but I went. Once I
Speaker 1: came around on it, I was like, this is definitely
Speaker 1: the right choice. And I went and shot those first
Speaker 1: two episodes and they were like, yeah, this is going great.
Speaker 1: We're definitely gonna do six more. I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: eight and it was just going so well and it
Speaker 1: was so fun and exhilarating. And then like six episodes in,
Speaker 1: they're like, uh, I think we want to keep you
Speaker 1: in Rashida. Maybe we'll like take the story back to Scranton.
Speaker 1: What do you think? And it's like, yeah, that works
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 2: But so what happened? Did people end up watching this
Speaker 2: television show. What's it? What was it called?
Speaker 1: I'm told that that it that it was? Okay?
Speaker 2: Office?
Speaker 1: No, But you know what's incredible. Here's how I knew
Speaker 1: that I was I was doing something right because that
Speaker 1: year I went to the Emmys because both The Daily
Speaker 1: Show and the Office were nominated and I was a
Speaker 1: cast of both that year and both won Best to
Speaker 1: Show in their categories, and I was like, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is a good move, Like this is this feels like
Speaker 1: a special moment that like, what are these shows have
Speaker 1: in common? This guy?
Speaker 2: Do you see this?
Speaker 1: Yes, you see this America. Yeah. But I was definitely
Speaker 1: like very giddy in that moment and just incredibly proud
Speaker 1: to be a part of these things. Yeah. Can I
Speaker 1: say a really really overused and treacly word.
Speaker 2: I want to hear it.
Speaker 1: Gratitude, so much gratitude. I wish you hadn't, But I
Speaker 1: truly like, I like taking back on that moment.
Speaker 2: Did you say that because it felt so gross bragging
Speaker 2: about getting two Emans in one night? Oh you didn't
Speaker 2: get that.
Speaker 1: I didn't get the the show's got the.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, you just have gratitude for the gratitude.
Speaker 1: Man, you've been in l a too long.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm getting soft, having done all of this
Speaker 2: and this chaotic time we're in. What interests you now
Speaker 2: as you create characters, as you create projects, clearly somebody
Speaker 2: who has followed their passions? And also what is silly
Speaker 2: and what is fun? It feels like sure this day
Speaker 2: and age, that's few and far between. Yeah, what is
Speaker 2: silly and what is fun?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: What are you gravitating toward? What are you what are
Speaker 2: you hoping to keep chasing?
Speaker 1: It's a great question, and I do feel incredibly lucky
Speaker 1: to be in a position to mostly just chase things
Speaker 1: that I am psyched about. One of them is my podcast,
Speaker 1: Yeah Snafu, which is sort of scratching my cultural political itch,
Speaker 1: which The Daily Show kind of also did right that
Speaker 1: I've always since I left The Daily Show, I've always
Speaker 1: missed feeling like I was part of something that was
Speaker 1: saying something about culture in a meaningful way. And so this,
Speaker 1: this podcast is sort of a is my own version
Speaker 1: of that, and I love love it. It's really fun
Speaker 1: and it's funny, but it's also very earnest and it's
Speaker 1: very it's very me like, it's just my personality coming
Speaker 1: through these these incredible stories about history. And then I'm
Speaker 1: also I have little kids now, and I I find
Speaker 1: myself looking at parts and I'm like, like, I'll get
Speaker 1: an offer to do like a horror movie or something,
Speaker 1: or even just like a very intense drama, and I'm
Speaker 1: like ah, and I like, I don't really want to
Speaker 1: be in that headspace for three months, Like I want
Speaker 1: to be able to come home and giggle with my
Speaker 1: kids and like be a dufist. And somehow this movie
Speaker 1: feels like very scary and dark and weird. So maybe, uh,
Speaker 1: but that none of all that is to say, like
Speaker 1: I still love all kinds of acting and I would
Speaker 1: definitely take a dramatic role that is that's exciting, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a higher bar. And then on the
Speaker 1: comedy side, I just like, I just did this movie
Speaker 1: with Jen Garner last year, Family Switch, which was a
Speaker 1: really broad Netflix Christmas comedy. It was so fun, Like
Speaker 1: it was just ridiculous. I'm a dad now I'm getting
Speaker 1: more and just like I think my humor is, I'm
Speaker 1: just getting it was like more dad humor. It happens,
Speaker 1: So my humor might be declining a little bit, but
Speaker 1: I don't care. I just I still love it. I
Speaker 1: just want to be a dufist. And I was very
Speaker 1: heartbroken when when we didn't get a sequel to Vacation,
Speaker 1: when I got to be Rusty Griswold and like that
Speaker 1: again was just such a dumb comedy. But I was
Speaker 1: so proud of it. Yeah, and I like, I loved
Speaker 1: how dumb it was and so silly, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I could be Rusty for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: Like if I all I did was like Rusty Griswold movies,
Speaker 1: I would be so thrilled. And I'm still it's not
Speaker 1: out of the question that another Vacation comes up, but
Speaker 1: at the time, like it just wasn't you know, box
Speaker 1: Office with stuff was crazy and yeah, at whatever, But
Speaker 1: that's the kind of stuff I just love and always
Speaker 1: have and always will.
Speaker 2: I'm curious with staff with the podcast. You do take
Speaker 2: these moments in history, these these giant fuck ups, and
Speaker 2: also the in some ways people who see see conspiracies
Speaker 2: and then are often more than not proven true about
Speaker 2: what is broken. Has that shifted your perspective on kind
Speaker 2: of the conspiratorial mindset that is pervasive in this day
Speaker 2: and age.
Speaker 1: Good question. I try to keep an open mind. I
Speaker 1: think I'm extremely skeptical towards any conspiracy theory, and I
Speaker 1: think part of that is the first question I always
Speaker 1: ask when I hear a conspiracy theories, like, well, how
Speaker 1: many people would be involved in this conspiracy? And usually
Speaker 1: it's thousands and thousands of people, right, and that right away,
Speaker 1: I'm like, no fucking way, there's no way thousands of
Speaker 1: people can keep a secret. Period. It just has never happens.
Speaker 1: And so like the moon landing, for example, like not
Speaker 1: a conspiracy because thousands and thousands of people would have
Speaker 1: perpetrated that and somebody would have bragged about it to
Speaker 1: their bro at a bar, like that's an easy one. Now,
Speaker 1: what's interesting is this current season of Snaffoo, we look
Speaker 1: into a lot of these activists in the nineteen seventies
Speaker 1: who thought that the FBI was was surveilling illegally, too
Speaker 1: much surveillance, And that is also very conspiratorial feeling, right,
Speaker 1: And it's something that I think a lot of conspiracy
Speaker 1: theorists now also think and suspect that we're being watched.
Speaker 1: We're being watched by the NSA or the FBI or
Speaker 1: Russia or my neighbor or corporations, or aliens. There are
Speaker 1: versions of that that are clearly conspiratorial or conspiracy theory,
Speaker 1: and then there are versions that are sort of like, well,
Speaker 1: there's a reasonable amount of concern that can then expand
Speaker 1: into conspiracy theory level. But what's interesting about this story
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies is that these people were confronted
Speaker 1: by mountains of evidence that they were being surveiled. You know,
Speaker 1: it was a much less technologically advanced time, and so
Speaker 1: in order to surveil the FBI would send out agents
Speaker 1: to actually stand there at rallies, and they would put
Speaker 1: these guys in crew cuts and wingtips, in tied I
Speaker 1: shirts to just stand on the edge of rallies. A
Speaker 1: lot of times, the FBI at that time wanted people
Speaker 1: to know they were being surveiled because it was also
Speaker 1: an intimidation tactic. So it's a little bit intellectually dishonest
Speaker 1: to conflate the fear of surveillance in nineteen seventy one
Speaker 1: with a lot of like contemporary fear of surveillance, but
Speaker 1: there is also a rational amount to fear. Edward Snowden
Speaker 1: revealed that we were being relentlessly surveiled by the NSA
Speaker 1: all of us, all of our phones, and that is legit.
Speaker 1: Now that led to more deeper layers of conspiracy theory
Speaker 1: about it. I think AI is going to really disrupt or.
Speaker 1: I say, it will just pour kerosene onto the conspiracy
Speaker 1: theory community. And I find myself starting to go down
Speaker 1: rabbit holes of like, oh geez, what is AI gonna do? Like,
Speaker 1: you know, deep fakes and and all that, And we're
Speaker 1: not far off from deep fakes starting to happen in
Speaker 1: real time, where like you could be on a zoom
Speaker 1: with someone having a live conversation and they're not there
Speaker 1: right It is a it is an AI version of
Speaker 1: somebody having a conversation with you that's real soon.
Speaker 2: That feels like, that's a real fear you have right now.
Speaker 2: That's I am very suspicious and I am here there's
Speaker 2: amount of.
Speaker 1: Wealthy That's exactly what an AI Jordan Kle would say.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to make you believe this is
Speaker 2: actually happening.
Speaker 1: No, but I like, I don't know what to make
Speaker 1: of it right now. But I just I sort of
Speaker 1: feel like AI is is going to really disrupt our
Speaker 1: trust in institutions in a pretty scary way, and it's
Speaker 1: right around the corner and we are not doing anything
Speaker 1: about it. I'll tell you there's a real incredible thought
Speaker 1: leader in this space, Tristan Harris.
Speaker 2: I've done an interview with him. He's wonderful, he's incredible.
Speaker 1: I had to do.
Speaker 2: I had to make farting noises the whole time, and
Speaker 2: that's just.
Speaker 1: That was a daily show, Okay, called back.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I actually know. He was definitely somebody I tried to
Speaker 2: impress with how much I knew about him. Yeah, my
Speaker 2: ego came in already.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for anyone listening, Kristan Harris is a really uh
Speaker 1: it just has tremendous integrity in how he's approaching tech. Really.
Speaker 1: I mean, he has an organization called uh Technology, the
Speaker 1: Center for Human Technology, which is basically sort of holding
Speaker 1: the social media industry and the AI industry to a
Speaker 1: to account and these are very important things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we need responsible people in those positions. We do,
Speaker 2: because I do think that misinformation is just wide Eden.
Speaker 1: Talking to you, Jordan a delight.
Speaker 2: Come on back any time.
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm gonna come. I'll be back here
Speaker 1: in the morning with donuts.
Speaker 2: Please please do Okay, yes, at Helms. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for joining us on The Daily Show Ears Edition.
Speaker 2: New episodes of Snaffu Medburg are airing weekly on Wednesdays.
Speaker 2: Listen on the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to The Daily Show Ears Edition.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 3: searching The Daily Show wherever you.
Speaker 1: Get your podcasts.
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