WEBVTT - Paula Pell 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.680 Hello, it's Alec Baldwin. We're going to rebroadcast an episode 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.559 from our archives. This week. You'll hear my conversation with 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:11.000 Paula Pell, who I met when she was a writer 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.880 on Saturday Night Live. We'll have new episodes of Here's 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.919 the Thing beginning March fifteenth. Until then, enjoy my talk 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.360 with one of the funniest people I've ever met, Paula Pell. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:29.960 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:35.000 Thing from my Heart Radio. Not long ago, there used 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.960 to be two types of comedians, comedians and female comedians. 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.640 Today there are so many women making us laugh that 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:48.639 the qualifier has been rendered obsolete. Saturday Night Live deserves 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:51.400 a lot of the credit for this development. The show 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.880 has introduced us to Gilda Radner, Jan Hooks, Maya Rudolph, 0:00:55.960 --> 0:00:59.560 Teina Faye, and Kristen Wigg, to name just a few. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.960 But there's been another woman at SNL, a woman who 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.800 has been quietly working day after day for seventeen years, 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.880 often without sleeping. To usher in this reality seventeen years, 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.200 I've been there yet. Paula Pell was working at a 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.399 Florida theme park when she got her dream job as 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.720 a writer at Saturday Night Live. Because the show has 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.480 such a wide comedic range, it's the perfect challenge for Paula. 0:01:24.800 --> 0:01:28.040 You've got the hard hitting news parodies and then on 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:29.959 the other end, you know, it's got fart jokes. It's 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:32.480 got everything in it of the low parts of comedy, 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:37.000 mostly me being responsible for Thailand albm of Eli Baldwin 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.720 taking a taking a ship in a bed while he's sleeping. 0:01:40.720 --> 0:01:43.639 Tell Albim releases a gentle sleep aid into your system 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.480 that allows deep, restless sleep for up to ten hours, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.160 so deep it turns off your brains need to control 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:51.920 the bodily functions most likely to wake you. Rachel was like, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:59.560 did you yourself, I've slept like a baby? Done me? 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:05.720 Tell me? You tell me, you tell me. In her 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:10.080 memoir Bossy Pants, Tina Fey writes that her proudest moment 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.120 as head writer at SNL was fighting for one of 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:19.280 Pell's sketches introducing co Text. Classic Classic co Text is 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.400 a commercial for the feminine protection of Yesteryear, featuring the 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.800 sexy women proudly encumbered with bulky pads connected to belts 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:31.840 peeking out of your clothes. I always know it's there. 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.560 You can't take the original room Girls, old school. Paula 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:42.960 pel In person is genuine, charming and easy, the kind 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.160 of person you might actually talk to if you sat 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:47.520 next to her on a plane, which, for those of 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.640 you not in the industry, is not a description of 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.160 the typical comedy writer. I was always a bit of 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:55.520 a class clown. I was. I was a good Catholic girl, 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.959 so I always wanted to be I never wanted to 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.720 get in trouble. But I really pushed the envelope because 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:03.400 I would be funny in class and I do things 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:05.760 like one of my teachers. I would um do a 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.040 bit where I would go by him and drag my 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.200 hand along the chalk line, you know, the chuck shelf, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:13.000 And then I'd come over and I'd say, you know, 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.320 Mr Gracier, just a really great teacher, and I pat 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:17.160 him on the back and I'd leave like a handprint. 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.720 He'd let me make him a little bit the fool 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.640 for a moment, and then he'd do you know, he 0:03:22.680 --> 0:03:24.520 looked like Rob Briner and all in the family at 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.200 the big bushy mustache and along there, and he just 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:29.600 kind of looked a camera three, you know, non existent, 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.680 and the audience. Would you know, the audience the class 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.080 would would crack up, or I'd pass notes and say 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:37.240 when I sneeze, because I have a really good fake sneeze, 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.560 and I would say when I sneeze, everybody fall up 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.360 their chairs, and you know, I'd always be doing something. 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:45.560 But I grew up with an extremely funny dad, and 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.560 my mom is he worked for Ellinois Bell. We grew 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:52.920 up in Illinois and then moved to Orlando when I 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.480 was a teenager. But my entire childhood, my grandpa was 0:03:56.680 --> 0:04:00.400 a watchmaker for West Clark's. So my dad always learned 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.720 that from my grandpa. And then when he came to Florida, 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:06.960 he worked for a T and T for many years, 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.240 and then when he retired, he became a teacher of 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.280 watch repair, watch making, all all of it. So how 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.480 does the guy who works for the phone company and 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:21.240 how does he and he becomes watch tinkerer? How was 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.680 the funny in his life at home? He's just ungodly witty, 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.919 he's really but never wanted to be in the business himself. 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.120 Where did he express? Probably did, But you know, I 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.200 look at all the people in my family and all 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.440 the relatives of different generations, and they all had their things. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.320 You know, my mom has a beautiful singing voice. They 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.640 all had something that they wanted to do. But the 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.440 way they grew up was you just you know, you 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:45.720 have kids early, and you you kind of figure out 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.719 what you need to do to pay for that. And 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.679 and so they, you know, a lot of times didn't 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.200 have the luxury that kids have now. Even though it's 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.760 hard to get a job to say, you know I'm 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.279 doing this, that you didn't sign on to that program, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.080 what was wrong with you? Well, I they wouldn't just 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.000 do what you were supposed to do. They knew that 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.000 I was pretty hopeless. I mean at my confirmation where 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:10.239 you get the Holy Spirit, I came down the stairs 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:12.480 at my party and had torn like eight holes in 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.120 my pantios and said I had the Holy Spirit and 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.159 just would do things like that all the time, you know. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.520 And this was before I drank or smoked anything. I 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:22.679 was always a total hand. But my dad really taught 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.080 me that he's the king of like. I will tell 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:26.760 you that. One of the hardest times I laughed at 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.279 him is my mom and I were watching die Hard 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.320 on television. My Dad's cut in the yard and he's 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:34.320 outside cutting the yard. He's got his little jean shorts 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.760 on and his tank top and he keeps coming in 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.039 and walking by and kind of half listening. He's a 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:42.279 really good quiet half listener. But then he'll do something 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.800 based on what he's been listening to. I you know, 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.120 I was listening to my mom and the terrorist had 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:50.200 the long blond hair, you know, the big like kind 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:54.520 of Nordic guy at the beginning. Yeah, And my mom says, 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:56.960 you know, I don't know, but I don't like long hair, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.800 but that is pretty foxy, and she's like commenting on 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.200 so we're laughing about it and everything, and then I'm 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.960 not kidding. Like an hour later, my dad just walked through. 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.799 He had gone in my room and gotten a wig 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:10.920 that I had of all my ship in my room, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.719 put a long wig on with just his grass cutting stuff, 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:17.840 and just walked through. He didn't stop, he didn't do 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.120 a bit. He just walked through. They also knew that 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.040 rule like that you keep the ball in the air 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:25.640 and play along. They were good, Yes, without the training, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:29.440 they were good improv people. King of like a prop 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:31.560 he'll just And what I love about it is my 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:34.039 parents are in their seventies now, and you know, and 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.760 my mom was always like you'd say, you know, you go, 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.200 oh god, Dad is so funny to you, Thank god, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.599 thank god he's funny. We had so much laughter in 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.400 our house, you know, despite any any dysfunction, as any family, 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.279 we always laugh. Where did you go to college? I 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.080 went to college at University of Tennessee. I first went 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.960 to a local college in Orlando, a community college for 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.039 two years. So you moved to Florida. I moved to Florida. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:06:59.919 My dad went down for a T and T for 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.200 at antitrust suit that they had. Um. Yeah, it was 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.880 like seven at late seventies. You know. We had gone 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.160 a few times down to Disney World with our little 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.119 pop up camper and like that was a vacation place. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.800 That wasn't a place you move. And my parents sent 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:16.800 us a little brought back a little polaroid of the 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:19.360 house they bought, and it was, you know, about seventy dollars. 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.520 But it had this gigantic pool because in Orlando so 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:25.840 many people have pools, even with you know, inexpensive houses. 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:27.720 And we just thought we won the lottery. You know. 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:30.680 It was just insane. But we got there and it 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:33.720 was really hard the first year too. I just never 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.360 liked to be I mean, I think being new is 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.760 a very important thing to do for growth. I think 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:42.760 it really galvanizes a lot of stuff inside you, of 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.240 who you are and everything. And I'm glad in hindsight, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:47.640 but I used to just wake up in the morning 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.520 and just cry, and you know, just because I had 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:53.200 so much familiarity and comfort with all the kids that 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.880 I went to school. It's just I was always quiet 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.160 at first, you know, and then by my senior year, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:01.760 I got really involved in well in the girls you know, 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.640 would go because I remember when you'd come in, you know, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:06.720 you came in your junior year and I'd say, oh, 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.400 really really because I came in my sophomore year and 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.680 sat next to you for an entire class and you were, 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.920 you know, cold, little ass wipe to me. But you 0:08:14.960 --> 0:08:17.440 know that's right now we're friends. And what was the 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.920 difference for you in terms of the people if you can, 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.800 if you can caracter from Illinois to Florida, I mean Florida. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.240 I mean, one thing that really helped me was I 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:29.360 was always I always sang. So I went in immediately 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:32.680 into a concert choir, and so that was wonderful because 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.000 then I had a social group pretty quickly. But the 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.600 one thing about Florida that was so different that freaked 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:42.040 me out was that, you know, I never thought I 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.360 was growing up in Illinois and necessarily I mean a 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.480 cold sort of atmosphere. It was emotionally warm. I had 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.200 great friends, you know, my family warm. But when I 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:57.520 got to Florida, everybody hugged constantly. Everyone was so affectionate 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:01.920 in such a crazy way that I remember sing it's 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.640 I remember coming home and going stop cupping my nipples 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.760 tenor I don't know you in the choir no, but 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.199 people would um. I kept thinking it was our director's 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:13.719 birthday or something. I was like, what the hell is 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.840 going on in here? Everyone is hugging our teacher, hugging 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.040 each other. I realized it was just that was just 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:22.240 the way everyone did, you know. And then my girl, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.840 my um, who eventually became my girlfriend of many years, 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:27.800 was my best friend in high school, and we were 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.400 very huggy, and that all worked out because that was 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.080 the right person, not the teacher, not until after we 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.560 graduated exactly. Then then you went to the college down there. 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.040 I went to the college for two years down there, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.680 and I was, um, well, their theater department was amazing, 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:45.800 their art department was incredible, and I was also an 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:50.679 artist Seminole Community College. But I mean the heads of 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.400 those departments and the music department were so incredible that 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.360 today they still are some of my favorite people that 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:01.720 have gotten taught Because is my art professor, Grady Kimsey, 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:04.839 who I'm a really good friend with. Still he had 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.640 gone to UT years and years ago, just kept saying, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:10.280 you gotta go check out UT. And then my girlfriend 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.280 was going to North Carolina, so it kind of you know, 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.400 I'd go up and visit, and I'd never been up 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.360 in those mountains, and I just fell in love with 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:20.000 us there because I'm such a nature freaking Yeah, I 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:22.840 went crazy for it. And when you left there, what happened? 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:26.760 And then I finished college and I came home and 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:29.360 I worked at the theme parks. What's that? Like? How 0:10:29.400 --> 0:10:31.920 do you get the job at Disney? Like? Who's is 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.880 there somebody who's like a casting person? Well, yeah, there's 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.480 talent people. And you know, I had worked with an 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:42.160 improv group called sac Theater in Orlando. They at the 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:44.640 time contracted out to Disney, so they did all the 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.920 like in Apcott in Italy, the comedian doll Art too. 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:49.760 You know. They would do all the comedy that's kind 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:54.520 of the roaming, atmospheric comedy. And then they built Pleasure Island, 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.720 which was the nighttime Disney. You know, all the nightclubs 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:04.760 Pleasure Island, Pleasure Island, Welcome Come, Mickey has no Pants 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:10.360 on an entire island they built that had all these clubs. 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:12.920 They had like a big discotheque. They had a country 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:15.640 Western sort of music club. It was just kind of 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.720 like a strip of nighttime establishments, but all in Disney. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:21.120 But it was late night and it kind of a 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:24.600 downtown feel, like a cluster. And they would have like 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.400 New Year's Eve every night, so they'd have dancers come 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.760 out and they dance. And it was really a fabulous 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.800 place to work as a young actor because it felt 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:36.760 cool and I could and I did a lot of improvisation. 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.160 But then we also did like radio shows and singing. 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.040 We could be kind of dirty. I mean, it wasn't filthy. 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.240 I didn't I didn't go full till my typical filth 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:51.320 that you know of. I didn't pell out, but you 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.480 would interact with the guests, so there, you know, you'd 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.040 be sitting there with some old British dude who's getting 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.400 drunk and just get into a conversation. And I played 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.719 Pamelia Perkins, the president of the Adventurous Club, and it 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:03.760 was kind of a Teddy Roosevelt era sort of place. 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:06.960 And I had this big buffont and I could just 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.240 be as body as hell. I mean I would get 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:11.200 on guy's laps and you know, have my legs up 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:12.960 in the air because I was like a matron sort 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.520 of character. And we used to have such a blast. 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.720 But then also during that time I went down Penis 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:22.640 Avenue for about two years. I was dating men for 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.800 a little while, and I would hook up with people, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.400 I mean just meeting like different people I meet, well, 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.520 just guests, and you know, you'd meet some super super charismatic, 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:34.599 handsome person. You'd be sitting there laughing and you be 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.200 in costume, and then they'd be like, what are you 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:39.600 guys doing after you know the characters, what do these 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.319 characters do next? And there was a restaurant and there 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.439 were bars down the street that they would let us 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:46.800 after work go to. So you just take change all 0:12:46.840 --> 0:12:48.560 your clothes and you know, blow drive the ship out 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:50.840 of your hair and go now I'm twenty five again. 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.760 And I'd walk down there and and it was New 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:57.200 Year's Eve. Every day it was New Year's but you 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:02.200 vomited every day and lost your virginity every day. What Pamelion, 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.400 Pamelia Perkins, Pamelia, Pamelia Perkins. Of course he's banging the 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.280 guests two at a time. I mean for an actor. 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.560 At that time, I was making really good money and 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:15.560 had full insurance everything, had a car, rented a little house. 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.600 You know. It was kind, it was. It was a beautiful. 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:21.920 It was a beautiful life. And then I got started 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.080 crazy with it and that was just about when happened. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.080 But how does how does that happen? How did they 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.920 find you? It was? It was a beautifully random, amazing thing. 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:50.440 We'll be back in a minute. I had worked with 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.840 Sick Theater. They had a theater downtown. They would call 0:13:53.920 --> 0:13:55.800 me every so often and I go do a set 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:58.360 with them where I do a character that I had written. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:00.600 And so they said, you know, we're going to do 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.120 this sketch comedy pilot called chuckle Head. And they said 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:05.920 will you be in it and do those characters? And 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:07.920 I said sure, I mean I was doing, like I 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:09.920 got beat up in America's most wanted, you know, all 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.559 the local all the things that we're shooting in Orlando. 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.800 I would do, you know. And I did this lottery 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.560 character for years in about three states that was played 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:21.880 the Worlitz Organ. You know, sexy characters, ale, you know, 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.720 but all from the Matron Handbook. I was born at 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.440 fifty Alec. But um they called me. My agent called 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.200 me one day and she said, are you sitting down? 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.760 I said yes. She said, Saturday Night Live saw that 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:41.280 pilot Lauren wants to meet you. And I'm like, okay, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.560 for what And she goes, now, it is not an audition, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:47.840 but he wants to fly you up and talk to you. 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.840 And I'm like, well, what is it? An orgy? Am 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:57.119 I being summoned? What in the f And I said okay, 0:14:57.160 --> 0:15:00.520 And so I flew up there. You know, talk about vacating. 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.800 I mean it was like emmodium city the entire two 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.240 days of getting there. He was two hours, you know, 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.840 or three hours late for the meeting, but he was 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:14.240 super nice. And I sat with Marcy Klein and Ayala 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:17.040 in the talent room and I was so nervous that 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.120 they ordered food and they said, um, we're ordering zen palette. 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.960 You know, vegetarian, We're ordering zen palette. Do you want anything? 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.160 And I said, just just like a couple of white 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:29.480 rice would be good, just like rice. And I just 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:31.840 got a dry cup of white rice and set and 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.000 ate it. I went in and he said, we have 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.640 just cleaned house. It was it was when well Ferrell 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.120 and everybody ken. He said, we've cleaned house. We're starting over. 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:44.720 You know, it's gonna rise again. We're hoping, and we're 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.520 gonna try to infuse it with new talent, and we 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.240 would like to hire you to be a writer. When 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.120 I was like, oh, well, I've never done that. I 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:53.800 you know, I don't even I mean I didn't even 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.160 use a computer at that point. And I said I can't, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.480 you know. And if you tell them you can't, then 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.200 they will. He will keep saying well, and he said, 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.120 well we'll show you, you know. But it was so 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.320 quick that it made me worry that there was something wrong, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.600 like there was a scam or something like this was 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.320 all some kind of freaking joke, because I was like, 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.040 this can't be. And how soon after that were you 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:17.640 moving to New York? Um? I had five days to move, 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:20.600 packed up my whole life, gave my animals to my mom, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:25.480 temporarily went up to New York City, and you know, 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:32.040 just was just ungodly miserable and I mean with fear. 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:35.920 But Mike Shoemaker called me right before I left because 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.520 I was starting to freak out to the point of going, 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.440 I'm going to my dream place. I mean, I was 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.320 obsessed with us. Now. When I was little, I used 0:16:43.320 --> 0:16:46.520 to audiotape it. I used to perform Rosanna, Rosanna Dana 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:49.440 for my high school in the auditorium, and I thought, 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:52.000 I'm just going to be sitting around with like, you know, 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.560 ten Harvard dudes looking at me, going who the fund is? 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.480 Who hired Kathy Bates Light and you know, and why 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:01.920 is she? And I adore Kathy Bathed by the way, 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.640 but they were just you know, I thought that I 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.480 would be so not of their world, of these writer 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:09.480 early sort of people, and I didn't realize how many 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:14.080 writers there are performers. And so Shoemaker called me, and 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.520 I still thank him for this because he really is 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:18.720 the reason that I ended up getting the balls to 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.520 get there. But he called and he said, some people 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.320 want to say hi, and it was you know, Cindy 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.240 Capanair and Lorina So and all these people that were 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.560 new that were terrified, and they all got on the 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.000 phone going, we can't wait to meet you. And I 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.080 hung up the phone and I just burst into tears. 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:34.800 I said, it's all gonna be okay. No matter what, 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.080 it's gonna be okay. It's just a group of people. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.280 It's almost like of all the years of doing plays, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.320 it's like it's a new cast getting in a cast 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:47.439 seventeen years. I've been there yet seventeen And well, I 0:17:47.480 --> 0:17:50.520 think in general, comedy has gotten a little, you know, 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.360 it's gone through its ebbs and flows in terms of 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:58.040 things being more character driven or or you know, more conceptual. 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:00.840 I mean, I think that show always has great amount 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.560 of both. And I always loved the fact that that 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.600 show had something for everybody. You know, I'd sit with 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.199 a group of people that I'd love certain things and 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:13.160 they'd love certain things, and so I, yeah, I love 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.000 the band. I love the balance, you know, I love 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:18.000 the balance of it. Um. But one of the biggest 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.680 things that's changed in general to me is the Internet. 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.480 Because when I was growing up and you were an actor, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.320 you had to create a body of work by really 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.280 doing it and getting hired, and then they would give 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.520 you access to tape of it. You know, you couldn't 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:38.399 just go on machines and videotape yourself and make a 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:42.159 beautifully edited, great comedy piece and put that on the internet. 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.639 I mean, you just can't do it. I mean, my 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:46.760 my real I just remember, you know, I do a 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.159 tiny role in something and just love that. I was 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.240 adding that to my real and you'd have to go 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.240 to like a video place and pay the guy to 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.639 sit there and do it on the gigantic machine. The 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.280 Internet has changed things profound Yeah, it just and I 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.320 think in a bad way. It gave people a sense 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.520 of entitlement of there isn't as much awe of all 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.560 of it because they do it themselves. So it's like, oh, yeah, 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:12.280 I have you know this, I've done, I've done my show. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.360 You know, they created themselves, which is very empowering and wonderful. 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:17.560 And it's also getting a lot more comedy out there 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.520 of hilarious people that would never usually walk into a 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:24.840 room in an audition, right right right. That seems to 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:26.679 me to have been the condition for me, which is 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:31.520 I've come to us and now and um, the signals 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.480 that I picked up in Hooks and all that crowd 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:41.240 back then was you know, my career wasn't that iconic 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:45.160 to send up me and my career. And so it's 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:47.440 not like I'm Stallone or Schwartz and neggrassing like that 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.120 where we do that. So you come in and right 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.120 away you pick up I've got to become like everybody 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.520 else and become a member of the company. And as 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.000 soon as I got that, as soon as I kind 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.439 of picked up that vibe from them, I was, you know, 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.400 asked to come back and come back and come back. 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.200 And what it does is it for me as a performer, 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.760 it's killed everything else that's supposed to be funny. Well, 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:08.480 and I wonder what that's like for you where you're 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.160 in the world, where you work with the funniest people. 0:20:11.200 --> 0:20:13.160 No matter what people say about SNL, you know, it's 0:20:13.200 --> 0:20:14.960 not always gonna work, but when it works, it's I 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:17.680 think it's the best. What's it been like for you, Well, 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.000 you get so you get so you know, isolated there 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:25.639 in great ways and weird ways, because it's there's nothing 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.480 like it. You cannot compare that experience with anything but 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.080 it really is so intense. And you you know, I 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:35.000 started writing movies two years ago and working into that, 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.960 I realized how stretched out the time is, to the 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.240 point where, you know, I mean, we'll go between dress 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:42.879