WEBVTT - Jordan Klepper Has Gone from Comedy to Farce 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.200 I'm Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:11.520 Jordan Clapper is a Comedy Central staple, having hosted two 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:16.160 documentary series and the networks earlier late night talk show, 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.279 The Opposition, But you probably know him as this guy. 0:00:20.560 --> 0:00:29.320 This is Jordan Clepper, fingers the pulse. This past summer, 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.320 Trump flag waivers spouted a lot of theories about Hillary 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.320 Clinton's hell. I headed to Trump rallies in the crucial 0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:38.400 swing states of Ohio and Wisconsin to discover what his 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:40.960 supporters know that the rest of us don't. It could 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.720 be aids. What makes you think she has aids a 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.800 way her husband used to be? So you think Bill 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.920 had aids? So how did Bill Clinton get aids? Probably 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:54.680 messing out with that Magic Johnson. Jordan Clepper is the 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:59.640 king of interviewing Trump supporters in their natural environs in 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:03.520 his role as a Daily show correspondent. He started going 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:07.039 to Trump rallies in January two thousand sixteen, just as 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:10.360 the campaign was really taking off. Man on the Street 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.840 interviews are inevitably cherry picked and should be taken with 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.080 a grain of salt. But simply by turning on his 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.440 mike and asking questions. Clapper creates an important document of 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.440 this particular segment of Donald Trump's bace and one of 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:29.520 the most unbelievable discoveries yet Barack Obama. I had big 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.720 part of nine eleven, which part not being around, always 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.440 on vacation, never in the office. Why do you think 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.000 Barack Obama wasn't in the Oval office on nine eleven? 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:40.600 That I don't know. I would like to get to 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.920 the bottom of that. Clapper is from one of those 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.680 crucial swing states. He now studies, a middle class kid 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.600 from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and he was a smart one. If 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:54.240 you don't know him as a star of The Daily Show, 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.400 you may know him as the nine National mock Trial 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:03.440 champion or the recipient of one of Kalamazoo's most prestigious 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:09.400 math scholarships. Clippers intelligence, however, did not translate into foresight 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:13.400 when it came to the coronavirus. Being prepared is something 0:02:13.440 --> 0:02:17.560 that's not my sweet spot. I had a couple cans 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:20.680 of beans and my wife's podcasting equipment. You and I 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.840 are brothers because my wife has a podcast and my 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.560 wife has They sent her all this honking equipment, and 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:29.840 what really hurts most of all because she she says, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.480 she I'm I'm in my wife's office right now using 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.240 her equipment. She has the better equipment, and as a 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:37.640 result of having better equipment, my wife is actually making 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:39.959 more money than me for the first time in this 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.839 this year so far, year to date, selling skin cream 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.560 on Instagram and diapers and butt cream but paste. I 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.880 think this quarantine had really highlighted the importance of producers 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:54.560 everybody else who's trying to do it at their own. 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.680 It's like, you know, I'm a comedian, I'm a performer, 0:02:56.720 --> 0:02:58.800 and then you're like, you don't know what lighting is. 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:00.880 Have you not been talking to grips? You've been on 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.960 sets for years, and you don't know the importance of 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:05.720 not putting a light right behind you. It's like, I 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:07.920 just I need somebody to hold my hand at all times. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.000 Lauren Michael's had a great line. He said, you know 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.440 that the logo this is years ago. He said, the 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:17.440 logo for YouTube is broadcast yourself. And Lauren said, you know, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.000 over time, we've realized a layer of executives and producers 0:03:21.000 --> 0:03:24.120 isn't really a bad thing, isn't to decide who's ready 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.040 to broadcast themselves. Who's really ready to make that step? 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.840 I don't know. But now, you grew up in born 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.440 and raised in Kalamazoo, correct, that's right, yes, Klamazoo, Michigan, 0:03:35.480 --> 0:03:39.320 and nobody in the family was in the arts, musicians, comics, actors, 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.480 not a well my parents know, we were, you know, 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.480 a blue collar family. My dad a brick salesman. My 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.280 mom would stay at home mom, and she also worked 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.760 in the schools. Although we did have the funny strange 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.600 connection is my mom's cousin and my dad's college roommate, 0:03:55.960 --> 0:04:00.200 UH was Tim Allen, and so I would see I 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:05.240 would see Tim Allen every Thanksgiving or Christmas, and that 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.160 was just as he was a stand up when I 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.240 was like a kid. And then he got Home Improvement 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:12.520 and so that was the first little UH insight into 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.440 the industry. Getting to watch suddenly uncle Tim be up 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.840 there on television, which was quite the exciting treat when 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:22.000 you're a ten year old at home and watch somebody 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:28.120 you know actually on your screen. The um you were, 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.520 I mean, I don't want to say NERD or WONK 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:37.480 math major, uh, mock trial champion. Oh you were kind 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.400 of you. You were a smart guy. Up to a point, 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.760 making some really good decisions up to a point. Up 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.039 to a point, I was a doing things that mattered 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.920 up to a point. Yeah, there's when when I was 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.520 under the tutelage of my parents, I was studying and 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:55.200 I was a four point kid. I got a math scholarship. 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.400 I did mock trial. It was funny. I went back 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:01.200 when I had my wedding after in fifteen years outside 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.880 of the nest, in this entertainment world, doing improv. My 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.440 parents got up to speak in a room full of 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.080 all of my mostly new friends, and they spoke primarily 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:13.160 about my experience as a national champion mock trial person. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.120 And the entire room was like, I don't even know 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.039 what that is. You never bring that up, But it's like, 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.320 all right for my parents who experienced this with me, 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:21.680 that's who I am. I'm a guy who's way into 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.760 the law, who's way into math. To my friends, now, 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:26.680 I'm the person who likes to pretend to be a 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.760 wind or a tree on stage for no money. So 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:37.200 so the people I was a beef steak tomato when 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:39.400 that line he had. But but my path was the 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:41.080 same where I was going to go to law school 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:43.279 and someone kind of like just dared me to audition 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:45.120 for the n y U Acting program, and I got in. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.440 But there are times I stop and think that I 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:50.839 could I go the right way in the fork in 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.080 the road, you know, because this business is so non meritorious. 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.120 Although I will say I had a very it was 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:58.440 a similar path of like when I got into college, 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:00.160 I did the improv team, and suddodly it was you 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.640 should try this, this is fun. I think what was 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.279 so eye opening for me at the time is what 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.440 I found in the arts and and or improv specifically, 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:10.039 was like I've never been asked to kind of think 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.440 in that way. It was creative, there was no yes 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.800 or no, there was no right answer, and I was 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.320 suddenly around people who were very curious in different ways. 0:06:17.360 --> 0:06:19.560 I loved the math world, I love the law world. 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.800 I love the academic world. But I was very much 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:24.200 on a path of like, these are the things you 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:28.360 do to get these outcomes. And then suddenly you hit improv, 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:30.719 and you hit the theater types and folks, and you're 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.400 reading plays, you're reading scripts, you're making things up off 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.680 the spot, and suddenly it's like, well, there's no right answer. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:37.680 We want to know how you feel that. I think 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:39.400 I had gone eighteen years where I was like, oh, 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:41.400 nobody asked me how I felt about this. They just 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.440 asked me like, what was the slope of this this 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.520 line or this angle? And for that was that was 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:48.479 really kind of a game changer for me. So when 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.120 you when you are in the math world and you're 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:57.720 going to school, are you devouring comedy and absorbing comedy 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:00.640 and watching the world of comedy eva of on TV 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.279 and perform Are you going to comedy clubs? Are you 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.599 the funniest guy in the room high school? My bedroom 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:10.280 is full of Jim Carrey posters. I'm watching SNL every weekend. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.320 I'm coming home after school and I'm watching General Hospital 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.680 with my mom and then watching Whose Line Is It Anyway? Alone? 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:20.320 And I get to college, I start playing around and 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.320 because I'm still an academic, I'm like, well, I want 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.520 to know everything about this. And so because we're in Michigan, 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.880 I go to Chicago and I go to Detroit to 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.880 learn about the second city, and I see that live 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:35.680 and suddenly developed that why why why go to Chicago? No? No, no, meaning, 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.200 did you kind of get a sense when you're going 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:42.080 to Kalamazoo and you're a math major from day one. 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.640 When you're here, you're going, I don't know, any minute, 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.560 I'm may going to the theater program. You know, I'll 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.000 be crazy orientation a week I walk on it. So 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.800 it's a small college, Kalamazoo College campus of I think 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.600 it's it's four hundred people. So it is this. I 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:57.920 could be a big fish and a small puddle. And 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.800 there's an improv group. They say, issue for it, see 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:02.200 if you can be in it, And in my mind, 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.120 I'm like, you know what, I like this? Whose line 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.200 is in anyway thing? I'm kind of a funny guy 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.200 in my math classes. I'm gonna audition for this. And 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:11.680 I tell myself there's a lot of people auditioning. If 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:12.960 I get to be in a show in the next 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.400 four years, that's a success. And I do that and 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.840 week two or three they cast me and it's like 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.120 you're in and I'm like, oh, well, this is this 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:24.040 is more success than I expected. And you get that 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.760 first laugh and I'm like, actually, I like this so 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.640 much more than I thought I would. I know, but 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.679 at that point, I'm like, I got a math major 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:32.480 and I got a scholarship that paid for me to 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.800 go to college. But I did that again. At this point, 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.240 I did that thinking through what my future would be, 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:38.960 and I was like, if I can get college paid for, 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.120 I might not be a math teacher or going to 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.240 be an actual real scientist. I'll find something in college 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:47.600 that I care about. And at that point, I'm like, 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:49.280 this is the one thing I'm good at. It's the 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.520 one thing I enjoy. I don't know how it's a career, 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.120 and to be quite honest, I don't think I figured 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:56.840 that out for another decade. But I was still curious 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:59.880 about these things. And so suddenly six months in it's like, 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:01.520 you know what, I like this. I'm gonna take an 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:03.520 acting class. You know, I'll take a I'll take a 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.720 lighting men. Yeah. At mentors. I mean, he's he's the guy. 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:10.840 He's the head of the theater arts program at Kalamazoo College, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.000 and he was the guy who sort of shepherd me 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.680 into the world of performance. He's like, you're funny, you're smart, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.559 but if you want to know about this stuff, there's 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.800 like there's a legacy here. Go to that. Understand that. 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:26.319 And he's a theater nerd who's gonna talk to you 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.240 your ear off about Sam Shepherd Ibsen. But he had 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.160 Jeffrey Sweets book something wonderful right away, and it's like, 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.600 you gotta go to Chicago. Let me tell you about 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.880 Nichols and May. This is how comedy started in America 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.320 when it comes to sketch and improv. And so I 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.280 jump in and I'm certainly reading Viola Spolan. I'm going 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.280 to Chicago to watch people improvise on Friday nights. I'm 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.640 driving to Chicago and I'm seeing late night shows at 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.960 the Improv Olympic. And he was really the guy who 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.160 walked me through that I put up my first sketch show. 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:57.760 He introduced me to people in Chicago. I went to Chicago, 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.280 got to meet the people I was reading about. Year 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:05.320 is the two one is when I moved to Chicago graduated. Uh. 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:07.040 One of the first shows I see in Chicago, which 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:08.760 might have been two thousand, I was still in college 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.959 at the time, I see Rachel Dratch on stage. Uh, 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.160 and she's the funniest. I'm saying, that'll do it. You're like, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.640 what is this? And you're in live theater. People are 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.160 laughing like they're so engaged. It's smart, it's ridiculous, it's 0:10:21.320 --> 0:10:23.679 alive and it's and it's all you tell me if 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.720 you don't agree. The comedy that I liked when I 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:31.000 was younger, I watched f Troop and the Monsters, and 0:10:31.080 --> 0:10:35.320 I watched The Adams Family and all these cookie shows. 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.920 They were clever, they were wonderful actors, funny, deadly timing 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:42.240 and so. But there was a bit of warmth to them. 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.800 They weren't snarky like Rachel. There was an innocence to 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.080 them and a sweetness to them. And that's the thing 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.680 that attracted me most to you was it was not nasty. Well, 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:54.520 that's that's kind of you to say. I think, actually 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.080 you've hit on something that people don't talk a lot 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:59.880 about with comedy. Often people talk about like the edgy comedians, 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.040 and trust me, I love my Carlin's and I love 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:05.440 the comedians who can cut to the quick like that. 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.240 But I will say in the improv role that came 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:09.280 up with your right, there's a warmth because it's an 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:12.360 art form that's sort of built in collaboration. And one 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.920 of my one of my early coaches was Keegan Michael Key, 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:20.680 who had moved from Detroit to Chicago. He's this theater nerd, 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:22.880 who was also the best person I've ever do seen 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.480 do sketch comedy. He was built to do sketch comedy, 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:27.080 and he was like, I want to work with some 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:29.160 young students, and I'm like twenty three at the time. 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.719 And so you work with Keegan and he's like the kindest, warmest, 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.120 smartest person you're gonna run into. He's doing this work 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.440 at night. That's just mind blowing. And I think, like, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.680 like I grew up and watching people like that. I 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.400 loved Python, and you love the Michael Palin's as well, 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.760 who sort of bring like an innocence to it. But 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:50.280 it's not at the expense of intelligence. Carlin I think 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.640 was edgy and acrid. But everybody he gave it to deserved. 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.240 That's what it is, really, they really did. He's not 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:58.959 punching down. I think that's you know, that's one of 0:11:59.000 --> 0:12:00.880 the early things. If you're punched it in the right direction, 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.240 take those swings, like whatever your whatever, whatever your tactics are, 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.640 use them, but but but swing in the right direction. 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.480 Now when when you are when you're there, and mentor 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.800 says you should try improv I mean obviously, when someone 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.040 has a lot of academic promise and you come from 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.840 a middle class family, how did your parents feel when 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:28.080 the scholarship mathlete decides I'm gonna go live in poverty. 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.760 You know, I'm I am, I am fortunate beyond belief. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.400 I think they were, they were, they weren't continued to 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.840 be my my biggest fans. Like I'm doing basement improv 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.760 shows at nineteen and I'm and they're coming, they're they're 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.959 like the parents who are there amongst amongst a bunch 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.800 of drunk college students at a terrible performance. And I 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.800 think they the one thing my family, which you know, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:52.679 as I embark on a family of my own, I 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:56.079 respect most and got most out of it. My family 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.120 always showed up, my grandparents and we were lucky, we 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.080 were small town count zoo. But if I had a 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.960 basketball game, my family was there. My Grandpa would show up, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:06.760 my Grandma would show up, and like they always were there. 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.400 And so when they got to watch me find love 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.800 in this thing, be terrible in this thing, and when 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.439 graduation came, I'm like, I don't exactly know what I 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.440 want to do with my life, but I like, I'm 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:20.680 I'm interested in this world. The math thing it got 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:23.240 me through. Now I have no debt. But the theater 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.160 thing I'm curious about. I love Chicago. I was gonna 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.480 give it a year. Did you say the same thing, 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.280 Did you say, I'm gonna a dabble in this. I 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.560 I was bad with deadlines, but I was definitely not 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.439 a dabbler. I think, like still the mindset of a mathematician, 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:41.120 like junior year, it starts to uh dawn on me. 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.280 It's like, I like Chicago. I think I want to 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.000 give this thing a go. How do I make that work? 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.280 I wish I had the ego to be like, I'm 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:50.320 gonna kill this thing. I'm gonna walk out and do it. 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:52.040 But I'm like, I need I need a game plan. 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.240 I need to make money. And so I'm junior year. 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:57.640 I'm like, I'm not thinking about getting that acting job. 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:00.280 I'm thinking about getting that service job that help me 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.439 support trying to get that acting job. So I got 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.760 a catering job by jar so it was I was like, 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:07.760 I was like, I got a catering job, so I 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.840 have references to get a job in Chicago waiting tables, which, 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.040 of course then I never worked waiting tables, but I 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:17.920 had all the good at like there's not enough caviar 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.080 on top of this. It's a little light of the kids, 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:22.280 a little bit of I know what you guys are 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.680 doing back there. I respect it. For God's sakes. Give 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:29.400 me the caviar. We need that. So you're in Chicago. 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.200 How long I'm in Chicago almost ten years? I jumped 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.400 and I burned out. Why why? I mean, I think 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.320 i'd like to say, you know, I always was moving 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.360 to that next thing. I think you get comfortable, like, well, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.920 here's one thing. It's a great town, and I think 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.160 you know the entertainment industry, there is no path, but 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:50.360 in the improv world there's the illusion of a path. 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.280 You can start taking classes and then you move up 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.040 a ladder at second City, you get on the touring company, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:57.600 and then hopefully you get on one of the stages, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.280 and then you get on SNL. And there was like 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.160 there the path when you go to Chicago for success. 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:05.360 That is beneficial for people who don't know how to 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.760 make connections, but it becomes detrimental once you're there too long. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.840 And so I sort of I got what I could 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.240 get out of it. For five six years, I got better, 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.520 I got connections I got close to getting breaks, and 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.480 then I got a little complacent, and then and then 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.240 I book a thing here, I get a pilot, I 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:22.760 get a couple of little things. I'm like, funk out, 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.000 I'm gonna go to New York. Also New York Er 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.640 l A. New York was always romantic to me. And 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:29.840 uh and also I have the ship on my shoulder 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.760 now of Chicago because I didn't get everything I wanted, 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.120 so funck it, Let's go to go to New York. 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:36.600 But this point, I'm in my thirties or I am. 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.760 I'm thirty, I think, and and now trying to kind 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:44.560 of restart. I had. I met her touring at Second City. 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.360 She's a masochist, so she knew what she knew exactly 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:49.400 what she was getting into. The guy with the math 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:52.720 scholarship who wanted to become a comedian. She's the patron 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:54.640 state of Lost cause, yeah, that's right. I mean, she's 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.400 she knew it from the beginning. At that point, she 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.800 had dated somebody who was a clown. She had dated 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:01.880 some but like she's she's been in the art world. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:03.960 She's like, you know, at least this guy she dated, 0:16:03.960 --> 0:16:06.480 the Joker, dated the Joker this guy could be our 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:10.160 accountant and it could at least trace our economic downfall. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:11.800 You can bounce a check, but which is easy because 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.840 it's not much in the bank. To time minutes, I 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.280 can tell you what we don't have. You met her 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.520 where I met her? At Second City? Essentially one of 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:24.720 my side hustles was teaching, uh, underprivileged schools in Chicagoland area, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.920 improv after school, and she was doing the same thing, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.720 and so we suddenly meet there. We get put on 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.240 a touring company for a Second City and get launched 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.120 into a van across America. And you spent two years 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:38.680 in a van with somebody, Uh, you kind of start 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:43.920 to develop a relationship. Let you went two years in 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:46.280 a van with her, I mean, you're your home here 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:48.760 and there, but it's yeah, you're you're you're I mean 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.040 at the time, it's a ton of van, but you're 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:54.680 getting paid seventy five dollars a show, so it is 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.920 worth it. You come home after like eight nine shows 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.680 in a month, you pay your rent and then where's 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:06.840 Laura from? Where Laura's from Downers Grove outside Chicago, Downers Grove. 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.080 That sounds like a Jimmy Stewart movie. I gotta tell 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:11.280 you if the image you have in your head of 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:17.439 Downers Grove fits covered bridges, Edmund Gwen with a beard 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.040 winging a ball out in front of Kresky's. They have 0:17:20.160 --> 0:17:23.119 like a claim to fame for the largest flagpole. But 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:25.520 I looked it up and it's not height, it's width. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.120 And that's where did she go? She goes to Northwestern 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:32.560 and she kind of she thinks she's gonna be a poet, 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.320 and she's going into writing programs and then suddenly finds herself, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.120 uh loving acting. Northwestern is a grade school, finding improv 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.119 finding second city. She we laugh. Megan Marco was in 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.480 one of her classes, which is you know, you kind 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:48.440 of they deal with jealousy in this world, but when 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.880 you're literal classmate becomes a princess and a movie star, 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:55.159 you get pretty jealous and Jaden, So Laura's always dealing 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.920 with that. And she finds Chicago kind of the same 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.600 way I did, but from the suburbs, and she's a 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:03.000 she's a better performer, a little bit more artistic. She 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:05.840 was doing stuff with other theater companies, a more uh 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.560 straight theater in town. Uh. But we get kind of 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.800 put on this team together and and sort of find 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:15.080 that we both like the same stuff, we like each other, 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:17.680 and then we decide buck, let's let's quit this team 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:19.679 and let's move to New York. And we did it 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:22.679 about two years after we quit. That. I don't want 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:24.680 to get to but I think it's interesting how you 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.400 have that if things had played out differently, you said 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.920 that she went to Northwestern and studied poetry or literature. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.680 What is your degree in poetry? Poetry and creative writing? 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:34.640 So if you had played your cards differently, you could 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:38.000 be teaching math at the Kuran Instituted Inn by U. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.280 Your wife could be an editor at the New Yorker. 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:41.720 But instead the two of you were in a band 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:44.960 for two years driving around. Yeah again, you know, emotional 0:18:45.040 --> 0:18:47.520 choices were made. If I had stuck to the mathematical brain, 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:49.360 and I would be so much more successful right now 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:52.560 and not stuck in my apartment having not thought through 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:58.120 what happens when true So when you come to New York, 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.920 you're in Chicago for ten years, you go to New York. Now, 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:03.640 the overwhelming number of people that I have worked with, 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.800 whether it's Dirty Rock or esn NO like right now, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:09.800 the SnO cast is remote for the shows from l A, 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.560 many of them, it's more like live from my bedroom 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:15.160 in l A. The comedy world is in l A. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.199 You don't go to l A. Why I don't like 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.440 l A. I've grown to be okay with it. But 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.879 I think l A's and one industry town, which is 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:26.240 good if you want to get in an industry, and 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.080 I think there's more opportunities there. I think New York 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:30.760 has always been held this romantic appeal to me. You're 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:32.760 You're never the most interesting person in the room, and 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:35.199 I think most of my time in New York has 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.240 has been failing and finding camaraderie with other people who 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.240 are failing along with you. And I think that shared 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:45.840 suffering brings a connection to New York, a richness to 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.000 New York. Uh that, don't get me wrong. I think 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:50.600