Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central from the most trusted journalists.
Speaker 2: At Comedy Central, it's America's only source for news.
Speaker 1: This it's The Daily Show with.
Speaker 2: Your host Michael Costa.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Daily Show. I'm Michael Costa. We've got
Speaker 1: so much to talk about tonight. We're just days away
Speaker 1: from the first presidential debate that will change everything or nothing.
Speaker 1: So let's get right into our continuing coverage of Indecision
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four. If you've been tuning out the presidential
Speaker 1: campaign so far, I get it. It's boring. My grandpa
Speaker 1: is also a rambling eighty year old man, and let
Speaker 1: me tell you, I keep half an ear open for
Speaker 1: the word inheritance and I just ignore everything else. But
Speaker 1: the presidential campaign won't be boring for long because this
Speaker 1: week Trump and Biden will be rambling face to face.
Speaker 1: That's right. Thursday is the first presidential debate, and these
Speaker 1: men are going toe to toe, and if you've ever
Speaker 1: met or seen old men's toes, you know that's going
Speaker 1: to be a dirty fight. Finally, the American people will
Speaker 1: have something to judge these candidates on aside from the
Speaker 1: four years that they were both president already, and Joe Biden,
Speaker 1: for one, he's ready for battle the president.
Speaker 3: This morning.
Speaker 4: It continues to be hunkered down at Camp David. He
Speaker 4: is fine tuning his messaging, honing his attack lines. That
Speaker 4: he's huddling there with over a dozen advisors, and over
Speaker 4: the coming days his prep is expected to evolve from
Speaker 4: gaming out questions and answers to holding ninety minute mock debates.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the most dubious thumbs up I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: That's the football player as he's being carted off the field.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be okay, folks. His thumb is working. But
Speaker 1: that's right. Joe Biden is holding up at Camp David
Speaker 1: and doing ninety minute mock debates, although most of that
Speaker 1: is just him walking up to the podium. And if
Speaker 1: you're wondering who could possibly prepare him for debating Donald Trump, well,
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has just the guy.
Speaker 5: Attorney Bob Bauer would be standing in for Trump during
Speaker 5: mock debate sessions, yelling insults at Biden and trying to
Speaker 5: get under his skin.
Speaker 1: When you're playing a role, you're trying to make the
Speaker 1: experience as realistic for the person you're working with as possible. Really,
Speaker 1: the guy who plays Santa Claus at the Bad Mall
Speaker 1: this is your Trump. I don't know if he can
Speaker 1: replicate the unhinged madness of debating Donald Trump. The only
Speaker 1: Biden staffer who could pull that off as that dog
Speaker 1: that keeps biting everyone in the face. But but regardless
Speaker 1: of how he prepares, there's one thing Biden can be
Speaker 1: sure of, where exactly he's going to be on that stage.
Speaker 5: We're getting more details today about how the high stakes
Speaker 5: debate stage will look. Biden won the coin toss and
Speaker 5: chose to stand on the right side of the stage.
Speaker 5: Why the right? There's actually a scientific reason. When there
Speaker 5: are two people on stage TV, viewers' eyes are drawn
Speaker 5: to the right side.
Speaker 1: Wow, thank you science. I mean, hey, any news on
Speaker 1: a cancer cure?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: Maybe, whenever you're done debating left or right? Possibly? Hey,
Speaker 1: it may usually be true that viewers' eyes are drawn
Speaker 1: to the right, but in this case there'll be even
Speaker 1: more drawn to the neon man ranting about how toilets
Speaker 1: don't flush anymore thanks to transgender swimmers. But I do
Speaker 1: like this coin toss thing. You know, why stop with
Speaker 1: the debate side, Let's have the coin determine who wins
Speaker 1: the election. Yeah, it would be so much less stressful
Speaker 1: than five months of campaigning. Just flip the coin heads,
Speaker 1: it's Trump, tails, it's Biden. If the coin bounces and
Speaker 1: rolls into the sewer, it's RFK Junior. Anyway, that's what
Speaker 1: Joe Biden is up to. But preparing for the debate
Speaker 1: is not the only way to prepare for the debate
Speaker 1: because Joe Biden's opponent, well, he's taking a different approach.
Speaker 6: Almost everything that President Biden is doing, Donald Trump is not.
Speaker 6: There are no mock debates, there are no rehearse punchlines
Speaker 6: or pivot points. The poor president also didn't take any
Speaker 6: time away from the campaign trail.
Speaker 1: Tell me a.
Speaker 6: Little bit about how you're preparing for the debate, right
Speaker 6: because we see that President Biden is out of camp.
Speaker 7: David, you're on the campaign trail.
Speaker 6: What's your strategy for the debate.
Speaker 1: Well, this is really the best strategy right here.
Speaker 8: We have all these people screaming questions.
Speaker 1: Okay, first of all, no one's screaming questions. You're elevated
Speaker 1: on a platform talking at people the whole time. And
Speaker 1: how convenient is it that Trump's debate prep is holding
Speaker 1: rallies the thing he wants to do. Anyway. It's like
Speaker 1: when finals were coming up and you had that one
Speaker 1: friend who would say, you know, I retain information better
Speaker 1: when i'm high. You know. It's like, just to be clear,
Speaker 1: that was my friend, that wasn't me.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Of course, when you don't prepare for a debate, you
Speaker 1: run the risk of losing the debate, So it helps
Speaker 1: to lower expectations a little bit.
Speaker 5: Trump appears to be lowering expectations and making excuses ahead
Speaker 5: of the upcoming presidential debate with President Biden.
Speaker 1: So I'm not underestimating him.
Speaker 8: I'm not underestimating him. I assume he's going to be
Speaker 8: somebody that will be a worthy debater.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm better of losing the debate. I'll lose the
Speaker 1: debate on purpose. Maybe I'll do something like that, right,
Speaker 1: all right, don't lower expectations that far. Maybe I'll lose
Speaker 1: the debate. Maybe I'll shit my pants and run off
Speaker 1: stage crying about how much shit is actually in my pants.
Speaker 1: That's how you'll know I've won. But this brings up
Speaker 1: an interesting quandary for the Trump campaign. Right now, Trump
Speaker 1: is saying Biden is a worthy debater. But don't forget
Speaker 1: for the past three and a half years, he's been
Speaker 1: saying Biden is a demented moron with the brain power
Speaker 1: of a Love Island contestant. So how are Republicans going
Speaker 1: to explain it if a guy they say has jello
Speaker 1: for brains really does beat Trump, Well, don't worry. They
Speaker 1: have a plan, the Trump campaign and the Trump allies.
Speaker 1: They keep floating this conspiracy that Biden is going to
Speaker 1: be amped up on drugs.
Speaker 9: They're going to need to goose him and juice him
Speaker 9: for a lot of Red bull, a lot of caffeine pills.
Speaker 1: He's on adderall, or he's on riddlin.
Speaker 9: Etcrin that has caffeine in it, hopped up on B
Speaker 9: twelve ivy fluids.
Speaker 3: Monster Energy train or something or something.
Speaker 8: Whatever happened to all that cocaine that was missing a
Speaker 8: month ago from the way, whatever happened.
Speaker 1: Look, look we all know what happened. That dog snorted
Speaker 1: it before a bit someone's face off. Certainly is conservative
Speaker 1: media now just wildly speculating that the president is on drugs.
Speaker 1: Could be cocaine, could be adderall, maybe both. I mean,
Speaker 1: at this point, Fox News is basically my friend's group
Speaker 1: chat about justin timberleg so so yes. The Republican talking
Speaker 1: point is that if Biden does well, it's because he's
Speaker 1: taking performance enhanching drugs, which is just such a stupid
Speaker 1: conspiracy theory, because, first off, if Biden's body could handle
Speaker 1: even half of what they're saying, he's the strongest man alive.
Speaker 1: You know, he'll win the presidency and the Kentucky Derby. Now,
Speaker 1: just by the way, Trump isn't really one to talk
Speaker 1: because in the same speech where he claimed Biden is
Speaker 1: mentally incapacitated, he was going around saying things.
Speaker 8: Like this, and my stupid people, when I wanted to
Speaker 8: refute it, they should sure don't dignify it with a refuddle,
Speaker 8: refutal or refunneled.
Speaker 1: What the hell word would that be? Refunneled?
Speaker 8: Do what they'll say, he didn't know refuddle or refutal,
Speaker 8: But they don't know either.
Speaker 1: It's neither. It's neither of those words. What do you
Speaker 1: mean they don't know? No, I don't know what fake
Speaker 1: word you're trying to say. This dude's entire brain is
Speaker 1: just squiggly red spell check lines, and then his mouth
Speaker 1: always tries to refuddle every thought he has. That's the
Speaker 1: big difference between Biden and Trump. When they make a mistake,
Speaker 1: Biden will correct himself, whereas Trump will deflect and call
Speaker 1: everyone else an idiot, which, to be honest, is more relatable.
Speaker 1: And it's like when I get too drunk and then
Speaker 1: I accuse everyone else of being drunk instead of just
Speaker 1: focusing on the road. Right, So thank you for laughing.
Speaker 1: So on one hand, Biden's taking the whole week to
Speaker 1: prepare it, and on the other hand, Trump's raw dogging it.
Speaker 1: Two very different approaches, but which one's right. For more
Speaker 1: on the debate over whether to prepare for a debate
Speaker 1: or just to wing it, Let's go to Desi Lideck
Speaker 1: and Troy Awata. Desi, Desi, you're for preparation. Why is
Speaker 1: that better?
Speaker 10: Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 9: Preparation is the better approach because it gives you the
Speaker 9: tools you need to lay out your position, project confidence,
Speaker 9: and do this thing with your thumb. Because, as Thomas
Speaker 9: Edison said, genius is one percent inspiration in ninety nine
Speaker 9: percent perspiration.
Speaker 10: Thank you.
Speaker 1: The wise Troy. Troy, why are you pro winging it?
Speaker 7: Because I'm not a dork? While Desi was in the
Speaker 7: nerd zone. I was eating a double cheeseburger in a pool,
Speaker 7: staring at a cloud that looked like a double cheeseburger.
Speaker 7: And role that's studying do for her. I can also
Speaker 7: quote Thomas Edison. If you build it, he will come.
Speaker 10: He did not say that. That's from Field of Dreams.
Speaker 1: You know I did like that movie. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: a point to Troy for that. Now do forgo? Does
Speaker 1: he try again? Try?
Speaker 10: Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 9: Preparation gives you the best chance of crafting your answer.
Speaker 10: All right, and I will prove it.
Speaker 9: If I were prepping Joe Biden to answer a debate
Speaker 9: question on inflation, here's what I do. I'd arm him
Speaker 9: with a six point economic plan that addresses rising costs,
Speaker 9: job creation, affordable housing, tuition costs, abortion rights, and always
Speaker 9: always landing on a charming story about a factory worker
Speaker 9: named Jack.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 7: Do you do you really want the queen of Library
Speaker 7: town talking about a plan or do you want someone
Speaker 7: like me who just says, don't worry, I got this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, see DESI it seems like he's got this point
Speaker 1: to Troy.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 9: That is not a point for Troy when he's saying
Speaker 9: is empty. Someone who prepares for debate is someone who
Speaker 9: prepares for everything, and that's what you want to president.
Speaker 7: Look at this cat that I drew. It has swords
Speaker 7: for arms. It isn't that cool, dude?
Speaker 1: That is awesome. I'm not a point for Troy. Cats. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not selling me on preparation right now.
Speaker 10: Okay, okay, fine, you know what. I'm nimble.
Speaker 11: I can see that.
Speaker 9: Being unprepared is winning this debate. So let me tell
Speaker 9: you this. In my preparation for being prepared, I also
Speaker 9: prepared a scenario where I am unprepared. Huh okay, look
Speaker 9: at me. I don't really care about this. I'm an easy,
Speaker 9: breezy lemon squeeze.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me just let me just stop me there.
Speaker 1: That was so bad. I'm going to give another point
Speaker 1: to Troy.
Speaker 10: I mean three, seriously.
Speaker 9: Look, yes, okay, policy is boring, preparation is nerdy, but
Speaker 9: this country needs people that are prepared to run it.
Speaker 9: A debate isn't some Bravo reunion. It's where candidates outline
Speaker 9: their policies and platforms, their belief systems. So yes, running
Speaker 9: the country is the one test you have to study.
Speaker 7: For counterpoint, I'm on the right side of the TV screen.
Speaker 3: You know what, try.
Speaker 1: Wins, Troy wins, Deasie Line and Troy wana everybody. When
Speaker 1: we come back, we learn all.
Speaker 12: About Jeff Bezos does all the way right. Welcome back
Speaker 12: to the dailysh Next week will be exactly thirty years
Speaker 12: since Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, forever changing the way we
Speaker 12: try to desperately fill the empty hole in our lives
Speaker 12: while destroying local businesses.
Speaker 1: And the earth. But who is the real man behind
Speaker 1: the Internet mogul. Let's find out in a new, brand
Speaker 1: new daily show Agraphy.
Speaker 9: America has always been home to titans of industry, but
Speaker 9: only one capitalist in history has ever been this much
Speaker 9: of a joke.
Speaker 13: I'm Jeff Bezos. I'm the founder of Amazon dot Com.
Speaker 9: This is the Daily showography of Jeff Bezos, History's most
Speaker 9: powerful nerd. Born to teenage parents in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Speaker 9: Jeff's identity asserted itself early.
Speaker 13: I was a very nerdy and good student.
Speaker 1: I like school.
Speaker 9: His favorite place in the world was radio Shack, where
Speaker 9: he developed an appreciation for technology. Cheap garbage from China
Speaker 9: and underpaying workers. After graduating from high school as valedictorian,
Speaker 9: Jeff attended Princeton, one of the best colleges for nerds.
Speaker 11: Socially, I was a little awkward.
Speaker 2: I didn't really date much until like my last year
Speaker 2: of college.
Speaker 13: Actually, I so sort of a formal plan to date.
Speaker 1: I'll had all my friends something up on blind dates.
Speaker 9: None of them worked out very well. Yes, despite many
Speaker 9: positive reviews from his friends, women found the actual product wasn't.
Speaker 11: What they had been led to believe.
Speaker 9: After college, Bezos joined a Wall Street hedge fund. On
Speaker 9: Wall Street, Bezos also found something almost as good as money,
Speaker 9: his future ex wife, Mackenzie Scott. She would later tell
Speaker 9: Vogue magazine it was Jeff's laugh that made her fall in.
Speaker 11: Love with him.
Speaker 9: Okay, sometimes love is blind and deaf. It was around
Speaker 9: this time that Jeff noticed that the world was changed.
Speaker 13: He came across the startling statistic that web usage was
Speaker 13: growing a twenty three hundred percent a year. So I
Speaker 13: decided I would try and find a business plan that
Speaker 13: made sense in the context of that growth, and I
Speaker 13: picked books as the first best product to sell online.
Speaker 9: With a quarter million dollar investment from his parents, a
Speaker 9: garage to work from, an mc hammer Kaki's Bezos.
Speaker 11: Launched his empire.
Speaker 9: Within a few years, Amazon went from online bookseller to
Speaker 9: Wall Street darling to the so called everything store. Third
Speaker 9: party vendors could sell literally anything on Amazon's website, from
Speaker 9: stuff to put in your butt to stuff you shouldn't
Speaker 9: put in your butt but will anyway because you're not
Speaker 9: a coward. Amazon was taking the world by storm, and
Speaker 9: while Bezos was still literally the nerdiest person in the world.
Speaker 2: My watch updates itself from the atomic clock thirty six
Speaker 2: times a day.
Speaker 1: If that gives you any indication.
Speaker 9: He was driving Amazon into the future, a future of
Speaker 9: non stop row. How did Jeff Bezos transform himself into
Speaker 9: a life sized Oscar statue by using his big nerdy
Speaker 9: brain to devise the perfect growth plan to expand his
Speaker 9: business and his body. Since starting Amazon, Bezos has amassed
Speaker 9: a net worth of two hundred billion dollars, money that
Speaker 9: he's used to make the world a better place. Sure,
Speaker 9: he spent some of it on a super yacht that
Speaker 9: has its own yacht in the world's fastest jet, and
Speaker 9: like a shit ton of mansions, exotic food, a prehistoric
Speaker 9: bear skeleton and some gigantic clock that only takes once
Speaker 9: a year, but he also gave back.
Speaker 7: Jeff Bezos paid zero federal income taxes for two years.
Speaker 9: Maybe not to his country, but he has given nearly
Speaker 9: one point five percent of his net worth to charity.
Speaker 9: And while he didn't share much of his wealth with
Speaker 9: Amazon workers, he definitely helped them to boldly go where
Speaker 9: no one has gone before.
Speaker 1: Amazon workers have to pee into bodels because of Amazon's
Speaker 1: stringent quotas keep them too easy to go.
Speaker 11: To the bath. You know what they say.
Speaker 9: Teach a man to fish, he eats for a day.
Speaker 9: T j a man to piss in a bottle while.
Speaker 11: He eats his fish. He only has to take a
Speaker 11: two minute lunch break.
Speaker 9: Jeff's plan was working perfectly, but there was one thing
Speaker 9: his plan didn't take into account.
Speaker 11: That all his success would go to his head.
Speaker 14: The National Inquirer obtained nude photos of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Speaker 14: The pictures and racy text messages from Bezos to his girlfriend,
Speaker 14: Lauren Sanchez led to the end of his marriage.
Speaker 10: With one stupid mistake, Jeff lost the thing.
Speaker 9: That was most important to him in all the world
Speaker 9: thirty eight billion dollars. Jeff had hit rock bottom. He
Speaker 9: had literally showed the world his dick. But soon he
Speaker 9: would bounce back by showing the world his bigger, shinier,
Speaker 9: rocket powered dick and riding it to the Cosmos.
Speaker 10: Tonight mission accomplished.
Speaker 9: Jeff Bezos launches into space in the first unpiloted fully
Speaker 9: civilian suborrittle flight. Yes, Bezos accomplished his boyhood dream and
Speaker 9: same day shipped himself into the stars.
Speaker 11: Bezos had finally done it.
Speaker 9: He finally made space travels seem uncool.
Speaker 13: I also, I want to thank every Amazon employee and
Speaker 13: every Amazon customer because you guys paid for.
Speaker 9: All of this, and now the world knows the real
Speaker 9: Jeff Bezos as well as Jeff Bezos knows himself.
Speaker 13: I always worked really hard.
Speaker 11: I was nerdy, You were nerdy.
Speaker 1: Was nerdy.
Speaker 5: That hasn't changed, by the way.
Speaker 1: Oh, come back, Paul w Bath. I'm a good show Hack.
Speaker 1: We'll you're joining us. It don't go away. Welcome back to.
Speaker 11: The Daily Show.
Speaker 1: My guest tonight is an Emmy winning writer, actor, and
Speaker 1: co creator of the hit Max series Hacks. Please welcome
Speaker 1: Paul w. Downs. Hello, Welcome, than you. Holy moly, congrats
Speaker 1: on the success of Hacks.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We laugh I laughed so hard at the show.
Speaker 3: That's the goal.
Speaker 1: So much of this season, So much of this season
Speaker 1: is about acquiring or attempting to get a late night show. Yes,
Speaker 1: did you reach out to people in late night? Did
Speaker 1: you not have my email? And you were nervous and
Speaker 1: then you got it? But then you still didn't want
Speaker 1: a cold email? How did it work?
Speaker 15: You know, I know you have a lot going on,
Speaker 15: you have a lot of news to read, you have
Speaker 15: a lot of things to do. So we did have
Speaker 15: We had a bunch of consultants on the show that
Speaker 15: had worked in late night, so we had a.
Speaker 3: Peek behind the curtain from our writers.
Speaker 1: Because it is I mean, I'm I feel like you're
Speaker 1: writing about the comedy industry and it's singing to me.
Speaker 1: But then I'm going, is the rest of the country
Speaker 1: also understanding and laughing at all this? But it feels
Speaker 1: like you've really done that?
Speaker 3: That's good.
Speaker 1: How have you created a show about show business that
Speaker 1: my friends in Michigan like also? Wow? And they're idiots.
Speaker 1: I love them, but I.
Speaker 15: You know, I think because it's a show about people
Speaker 15: who have been kind of cast aside by the industry.
Speaker 15: I think it's really relatable because you know what it's
Speaker 15: like or a lot of people know what it's like
Speaker 15: to be on the outside of something and want to
Speaker 15: break into it. And you know, this woman, debor Vance,
Speaker 15: played brilliantly by Jeane Smart, you know, is this Vegas
Speaker 15: stand up and kind of had to carve out her
Speaker 15: own path outside of show business.
Speaker 3: So I think because of that, you.
Speaker 15: Know, people who want to do creative work or people
Speaker 15: who want to do something and have a craving for
Speaker 15: something really understand that want.
Speaker 1: Her drive her ambition, yet her selfishness. That's one thing
Speaker 1: I also got to ask you about. Does one have
Speaker 1: to be selfish to be successful? I'm asking basically I'm
Speaker 1: asking myself that question, but it comes up in Hacks.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's a major theme.
Speaker 15: I hope not because I'm an angel, so I mean,
Speaker 15: I hope you don't have to be But you know,
Speaker 15: I think you have to be selfish to a certain
Speaker 15: degree in that if you are somebody like the characters
Speaker 15: in the show, you have to really be married to
Speaker 15: your work.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 15: It's like really all about devoting yourself one hundred and
Speaker 15: fifty percent. So in that way, I think, yeah, you
Speaker 15: kind of do sacrifice things in your life.
Speaker 1: Was it important for you to create a show where
Speaker 1: women from different generations are interacting, because that's one thing
Speaker 1: that I when I was looking at Hacks and not
Speaker 1: just laughing with and I was saying, I was like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, these are just two totally different age groups interacting,
Speaker 1: which is pretty rare on TV. Yeah.
Speaker 15: I mean, that was the thing for us is we
Speaker 15: had never seen a show, I mean, other than maybe
Speaker 15: mother daughter or something where there were two people that
Speaker 15: were so different that became friends. So that was really
Speaker 15: one of the most interesting parts of the dynamic. Also,
Speaker 15: it let us explore different ideas from their frame of reference,
Speaker 15: which would be so different, and so we can do
Speaker 15: that over and over again in a way that hopefully
Speaker 15: is you know, sensitive to both of their points of view.
Speaker 3: Nobody's ever one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, well that is what's fun is you as
Speaker 1: soon as I'm liking Deborah, she she breaks my heart
Speaker 1: and I'm and then you know, it's yeah, so you've
Speaker 1: done that very well.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Hacks.
Speaker 1: That term and stand up comedy, it's an insult. It is.
Speaker 1: It means you are telling old jokes, You're not being creative?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 3: How do you know?
Speaker 1: Exactly? Honestly, I know because I'm fearful of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you know. The worst thing you can be called
Speaker 1: is a thief. The second worst thing you can be
Speaker 1: called as a hack. Yes, So how did this term
Speaker 1: in the title happen? And sometimes I wonder if it's
Speaker 1: accurate for the show? Am I right to question that?
Speaker 3: No? I mean it is.
Speaker 15: It is interesting because we kind of called it that
Speaker 15: in the beginning. It was sort of like a temporary title.
Speaker 15: But it is like this thing of and you see
Speaker 15: people on late night. Actually, a lot of times comedians
Speaker 15: I find, or I think we can all agree, sometimes
Speaker 15: go on late night and they still kill and they're
Speaker 15: so funny because they're in touch with what's going on
Speaker 15: in culture. And then there are some people that age
Speaker 15: out and some people that you get are on and
Speaker 15: you're like, why is this person still doing it?
Speaker 3: Or why are they still telling the same joke.
Speaker 15: So in the beginning of the show, this young writer
Speaker 15: interviews for this job with this older stand up and says,
Speaker 15: I would never want to work for a hack, but
Speaker 15: what she learns in the course of the show is
Speaker 15: that a hack is somebody who does the same thing.
Speaker 3: Over and over again. But our character learns and.
Speaker 15: Grows because of her relationship with this younger person and vice.
Speaker 15: So I mean the younger person is an entitled gen
Speaker 15: Z person that earns the value of hard work and
Speaker 15: gets up earlier.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a.
Speaker 15: Lot of things that she gets back from Deborah.
Speaker 1: You create, co created, there's a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: you write on it. Yeah, you've directed, right, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you're in it.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That's a shitload of stuff. Too much, too much stuff,
Speaker 1: wearing all the hats. How do you compartmentalize? Is it
Speaker 1: too many things?
Speaker 7: You know?
Speaker 3: They all kind of go hand in hand for me.
Speaker 15: I mean being able to perform is the most fun,
Speaker 15: but also having written it just it gives it a
Speaker 15: little bit more of a freedom and an effortlessness when
Speaker 15: I am performing. Directing is something that you know, I
Speaker 15: think when we write, we write visually and we think
Speaker 15: about the way that the show looks and how it's composed,
Speaker 15: and so that is also something that feels like it's
Speaker 15: just integral to the work.
Speaker 3: But it is the hardest part directing is hard.
Speaker 15: Direct directing is really hard, Yeah, because you have to
Speaker 15: like thinking about time and you know, there's a whole
Speaker 15: crew that are making this thing happen, and you're deciding
Speaker 15: if you can move on or you can.
Speaker 3: Get another take.
Speaker 15: It's just like that stuff is much less fun than lines.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're also dealing with talent, but in yourself,
Speaker 1: you're dealing with yourself and that's the hard to think
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, Like this guy, Paul is such an
Speaker 1: asshole to the director, absolutely right.
Speaker 15: Yeah, I am the most demanding of the director, and
Speaker 15: I'm the hardest on the actor, Paul.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. There's a line in episode one, season three
Speaker 1: where you're at the JFL Just for Laughs festival, which
Speaker 1: Rest and Piece is now bankrupt. But there's like young
Speaker 1: people at the bar and one of them is looking
Speaker 1: around and he says, God, it feels so eighties in here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I laughed out loud.
Speaker 1: Who wrote that? And what is that?
Speaker 3: Does that line?
Speaker 15: I have to tell you that that was improvised by
Speaker 15: that actor? Are you serious?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 3: I give credit where credit is doing.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, shit, he's a co writer. Now he's a
Speaker 1: co writer. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Jordan improvised that.
Speaker 15: And yet that's the thing we tried because myself, my
Speaker 15: wife Lucia, and Yellow and Jensaski, who created the show,
Speaker 15: we all come from improve and sketch comedy, and so
Speaker 15: when somebody brings something to the role that makes it better,
Speaker 15: we're like, great, let's use it. So we're constantly adapting
Speaker 15: on it.
Speaker 1: I feel like you and your co star in the
Speaker 1: scene that showed are improvising a fair amount. Is that
Speaker 1: accurate or does it just feel so natural? Yes?
Speaker 15: But in the scene that you just saw that was
Speaker 15: completely script it was that was a very very scripted
Speaker 15: because there were so many you know, that woman who
Speaker 15: was taping us had like you know, there was a
Speaker 15: lot of moving parts of that scene.
Speaker 3: But we do improvise a fair amount.
Speaker 1: That's great that I told you backstage, But that episode
Speaker 1: would resonated with me because as a comic, it's like
Speaker 1: get to JFL get to just for laughs and the
Speaker 1: holy shit, you guys nailed it so well, thank you.
Speaker 1: But there's also a little bit of a dig there
Speaker 1: on this show called on the Contrary that Hannah's character
Speaker 1: plays and it's a man wearing an uncle Sam had
Speaker 1: and they're talking about how important comedy is, yea, how
Speaker 1: it changes society. Oh yeah, and I'm watching it and
Speaker 1: I'm looking around here and I'm seeing the red, white,
Speaker 1: and the blue. Yeah, And then I was thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things I like about Deborah's comedy is
Speaker 1: that it isn't always important. It isn't always changing the world.
Speaker 1: And I want to know what your thoughts are on
Speaker 1: is comedy important?
Speaker 3: Is it meant to be? Does it need to be?
Speaker 1: Can we just do a joke where we do fart noise.
Speaker 3: In our own sometimes my favorite joke, my favorite joke. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think that.
Speaker 15: I think comedy is important, even if it's not satire
Speaker 15: and it's not political comedy. I think it's important because
Speaker 15: I don't know that thing of like getting together with
Speaker 15: people and laughing. It does bring people closer together. I
Speaker 15: know that sounds I know, but it's true. I mean,
Speaker 15: don't you guys feel connected?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I just feel like, Yeah, that was fun. Was
Speaker 1: the Daily Show in the in there when there's DNA
Speaker 1: and the Daily Oh yeah, there's absolutely Daily Show Actually
Speaker 1: references and speaking of the Daily Show, tell us quickly
Speaker 1: you have a little bit of experience in this building.
Speaker 15: Well, I met Ilana Glazier from Broad City, who I
Speaker 15: worked with on Broad City on the street because we
Speaker 15: both auditioned to be on camera interns on The Daily
Speaker 15: Show and neither of us got it.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm made to bring.
Speaker 15: It up, because no, but that's okay, it's okay.
Speaker 3: I do love that it worked out.
Speaker 1: That's where you met her.
Speaker 3: That's what we met on the street.
Speaker 15: She had met my wife Lucia and she said, hey,
Speaker 15: you're Paul and I said yeah, and she said, I
Speaker 15: know Lucia and I'm just like her, but three years younger.
Speaker 15: And I was like, I was like, is this a
Speaker 15: time travel thing? It was very it was great, But
Speaker 15: you know what, that's very Ilana. It's kind of classic Alana.
Speaker 1: That's so funny because this is also part of the
Speaker 1: reason why everybody I meet on the street I keep
Speaker 1: in touch with for years. Yeah, because you never know.
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming. The Hackses is awesome. I liked
Speaker 1: watching it. Everyone should watch it. Hacks is available to
Speaker 1: stream on Max. Paul w downs everybody. We're gonna take
Speaker 1: a quick break the right back after this. Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's our show for tonight now here. It is your
Speaker 1: momentum's out.
Speaker 8: You got to get out of vote.
Speaker 3: Just this time.
Speaker 1: I don't care. In four years, you don't have to vote.
Speaker 8: Okay, in four years, don't vote.
Speaker 1: I don't care about that time.
Speaker 8: But we'll have it all straightened out, so it'll be
Speaker 8: much different.
Speaker 2: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by
Speaker 2: searching The Daily Show wherever you get your podcasts. Watch
Speaker 2: The Daily Show weeknights at eleven ten Central on Comedy Central,
Speaker 2: and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount plus
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