The Exchanges

Q of the things that you really did and, and, and became kind of a signature of what you do is just singing with famous people and getting them to do things that are just unbelievable, like getting Paul McCartney onto the show to sing yesterday, but to sing about scrambled eggs and how did you, how did you do that? How did you convince people to, to do those things?

A I don't know. I just think at the time, in my brain, that just made sense. Like, that's something they should do. And, you know, and you go, like, I have an idea of, you know, Paul McCartney's, like, this would be funny. What if he went back to his original recording of yesterday with his words that he, you know, wrote down, the scrambled eggs, and we just finished the song, and the whole song's about food. And, you know, and so I kind of pitched it to him. He was on Saturday Night Live. And I went into his dressing room, and he's so nice, you know. And I go, ah, hi, Paul. He goes, hello, Jim, you know, and so I go, well, I got this idea, and he goes, okay, he goes, well, can you sing it for me? And I go, ah, oh my gosh, you know, I didn't plan on, so I go, okay, so I had the, the script, so I'm like, scrambled eggs, oh my darling, how I love your legs, but not as much, you know, whatever, and, ah, all of a sudden, he's playing his guitar, the one that he played, Yesterday on, and singing with his head right next to me, looking at the lyrics, and I'm freaking out, and I could tell he's, he's into it. He's laughing.

AI assessment note: “And so I kind of pitched it to him. He was on Saturday Night Live.”

Q But I wonder, um, when you think about Where you want to be in 10 or 15 years? I mean, do you think out that far ahead and think, you know, I think I want to maybe produce a bunch of shows and kind of be on the sidelines and maybe be in some of them and I don't know. Does it ever kind of cross your mind?

A I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it, but I, I don't, you know, I always come to the conclusion that I wouldn't be happy with that. I, I just think, I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life. As long as NBC and the audience would, will have me, I will. I think, why not? I, I think, let's see how good, how good can it get? You know, how good can I get at interviewing? I'm getting better every year I do this, and so I, I think I want to just keep going until, uh, the, the audience doesn't want it anymore, but I, I think, I think about the history. I think of, uh, Leno, I think of Johnny Carson, and I, I think of Steve Allen, and I go, I think they would want me to go further, and I wish Johnny Carson could see how big The Tonight Show's gotten. Because, you know, that tomahawk was the biggest clip from The Tonight Show, or the potato chip lady, and that was no internet. That existed just from word of mouth. I mean, and re-airing a clip, but I mean, like, imagine, I mean, it's global. There's people from around the world that come to The Tonight Show now. It's like, I want to see how big I can make this, and I want to see how, how better can I get.

AI assessment note: “I feel like I could do this for the rest of my life.”

Q So I want to ask you about doing stand-up comedy, because That's where you, you would kind of start your career, right? And I think you started doing it pretty early. How did you get into standup?

A Stand-up, I, I started in, in, at, like, my senior year in high school, there was a radio contest of who could do the funniest impression in the Hudson Valley, and my mom heard about this on the radio, and she, uh, said, she came out to my room, she's like, you, I wrote this down, you have to do this contest, because I hear all the voices you do in your room, and you, blah, blah, blah, and I go, Ok, let's, let's, let's do it. I'll, I'll enter this contest. And, you know, if she believed in me, you know. And I was 17 at the time. I think I had one minute to do any impression, and instead, I wanted to make, do as many impressions as I could in one minute. I think I ended up doing, like, 10 impressions. You know, Bill Cosby, uh, Casey Kasem, Bullwinkle, John Travolta, you know, and I was basing it all off, someone gave me a Uh, troll doll as a graduation gift, like a good luck class of, you know, 1992, and it was a troll doll holding a diploma. And I thought that was very nice, but also, what am I gonna do with this doll, you know? And so, I, I remember doing different celebrities auditioning for a commercial for troll dolls. So I would do Travolta and go like, geez, like, you know, like, who, who does this hair? Like, what kind of doll is this, you know, his arms and legs don't even move, you know? And I remember at the, Time, I was into Bullwinkle, and so I did Bullwinkle, sayin…

AI assessment note: “there was a radio contest of who could do the funniest impression”

Q earlier hour, um, did you think that, I mean, cause I, I would have thought, oh, this is awesome. This is, this is amazing, an amazing opportunity. I mean, it's a late shows on at like 12 30, but did you think it was sort of a step backwards, or did you think that it was a, a huge opportunity, or how did you, what'd you think about it initially?

A At the time, I didn't want to do it. I was leaving the show, I was going to do movies, and that was my goal. I didn't want to do a sitcom, I just didn't, I didn't want to do television. I was like, I'm a movie guy. And so, I remember leaving, and Conan O'Brien was promised to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in six years time or something. And so, I was leaving, and Lauren goes, would you ever want to host a late night You know, because you could take over Conan in six years, if it doesn't, and I go, and we were kind of laughing, like, I don't know if he was joking or serious, and Tina Fey was in the office, she goes, you'd actually be good at that. She goes, because you talk to all these people, you go to bars, and you just talk to, it's like, I mean, you love talking to people. Uh, I think you'd be great at it. Uh, and I go, yeah, yeah, well, I don't know, I mean, my movie career awaits, you know, and it just didn't work out, and then, You know, I had a couple years where you just go, like, I don't know what to do, and then I got a call from Lorne, and he goes, do you remember when I asked you if you want to take over for Conan O'Brien? I go, yeah. He goes, do you want to do that? And I was like, well, let me, yeah, I mean, well, let me think about this. I mean, I want to, I have to ask my wife, because I'm married now, so I asked Nancy, I'm in LA, and she goes, are y…

AI assessment note: “At the time, I didn't want to do it. I was leaving the show”

Q Did you spend a lot of time at night writing, writing down material? I mean, were, were you, were, cause, but basically you, you, you're gonna get better and better and better, and sometimes you're gonna really suck, right, on stage, but over time, you, you're gonna get more confident.

A Yes, that's what it's all about, just honing the act and tinkering and changing one little bit and one thing or one, if something gets a laugh, you know, I remember I, I videotaped my, my act, you know, uh, and sometimes I even just carried the video camera In my guitar case and record the audio of my act, and I would listen to my act all day long the next day and analyze it. As a comedian, you have nothing really to do during the day. So during the day, I just watched, you know, General Hospital or, you know, Price is Right, and then I'd just work on bits and work on impressions and work on what lines I thought would be, oh, that's sticking out of my head, or that's a good bit. I guess, which is kind of what I was doing, you know, when I was a kid, you know, in my bedroom.

AI assessment note: “Yes, that's what it's all about, just honing the act and tinkering”

Q So, so when you got out there, when, when you got out to LA, what do you remember? What was it like? What, what did you do?

A I lived on, um, another one of the manager's couches. I slept on his couch in his living room for probably about a month and a half or two months until I could find a Place my owner and see how I can afford. I didn't have a car, because my dad was like, you can't afford it, and you can't drive out, and all this stuff, and that was a really big mistake, because in LA, you need a car to go anywhere. You can't go across the street without driving. You go, wait, I can see, I know, you can see it, but you can't get there. I mean, in LA, they go, I know the best place to go for a walk. You go, where? They go, take the four or five, To the one oh, and you go, oh no, I have to drive to get to the place you walk? Uh, so I'm like, everything's driving, so I'm like, that was a mistake, but I used to get rides and then go to the club early and just wait and stay there until it's my time to go on stage, you know.

AI assessment note: “I slept on his couch in his living room for probably about a month”

Q a, there's, there's that model too, which is, he was a talk show host. He had a show, and people, Thought of him that way, but he had this giant, like, media business behind him. Is any part of that appealing to you as, as, as kind of a model? Because you can do that. I mean, in a sense, what you're doing now could be a version of that.

A If it's fun, yeah, I think, you know, there's certain things I can do that I don't do because, I don't know, do I want to have meetings every night? Do I want to have dinner with people? I don't know. I don't feel like that. You know, I, I, I kind of, Like doing my own thing, and at this pace, I can do my own thing, but still make the stuff I want to do in the same quality. You know, I think if you get too crazy, and you, I start coming out with my own line of this and that, and I go, I don't know if I can control all that quality control, and that's, up to this point, I think I've done a pretty good job at whatever I've done, it's been a pretty decent quality, and you know, whether it's a Christmas song, or if it's a, you know, Silly invention or something, or a TV show.

AI assessment note: “If it's fun, yeah, I think, you know, there's certain things I can do”

Q these things that you are part of, and I wonder, do you, you know, because from the outside, it can seem overwhelming. Like, and I'm sure people ask you this all the time. They'll say, how do you do it? Because is a part of you, do you need to constantly create stuff to just keep yourself stimulated? Is there a part of you that just has to do that?

A I think so. I think there might be, you know, I, I, my wife will say it too, like, you know, thank God for the show, because I, I have so many ideas, and I don't know what I would do with them. You know, like, last night, I just wake up in the middle of the night, and I have an idea for, uh, for when the holidays come around. Like, what, instead of Elf on the Shelf, what if it's Elvis on the Shelvis? And so, but he's cool, he doesn't rat on you, you know? Like, these are ideas, I don't know if they are anything. I don't know if that's funny, but I, I could see, you know, Elvis, he's going like, There's something to that, and so I, I love, you know, when I would ever see you, and I would just tell you dumb ideas I have, because I have just lists. You know, today I thought of someone should, someone should create a balloon that's good for the environment.

AI assessment note: “I think so. I think there might be, you know”

Q I mean, you, you, when you dropped out of college, you decided to move to Los Angeles, you were 21, and, and you were moving out there with the single pursuit of just honing your craft, trying to get better and better. You had a plan in mind?

A I worked at this local newspaper in Troy, New York, outside of Albany, called Metroland, and the owner of Metroland was this guy, Peter Island, who was moving to L.A. to become a music manager. So he was leaving Albany to go to where Hollywood is, I mean, where the business was. So I, I was, I was working, I was his secretary, so I would answer the phones, and, um, he was leaving, and I said, hey, if you see anybody, here's my headshot and my tape of my troll act. That I was doing in college, my troll doll act, I go, if you see anybody, and he goes, I'm not doing comedy, but, ok, I'll, I'll take it with me, and he took it with him to LA, and he worked at this company, and there was this woman that worked there called, her name was Randy Siegel, and she worked for a manager named Ray Rio at, at Brillstein Gray, and that's a lot of names, but let me explain something. Bernie Brillstein and Brad Gray were the biggest entertainment Managers in the business. And anyone who knew anything about Siren Live at the time, a lot of cast members were on the roster of Brillstein Grey. So I go, oh my gosh, if any connection to Brillstein Grey.

AI assessment note: “I said, hey, if you see anybody, here's my headshot and my tape”

Q you can make an analogy between a kid who's just really talented at A basketball or baseball. And, and there are kids like Mike Trout was an amazing youth baseball player, right? Like, like Bryce Harper. People knew that at the time. Did anybody, when you were 1011, 12, say to you or your parents, he's really talented. Like this, this is not just funny, fun. Like, there's something here.

A I don't know, you know, I don't think so. I remember, uh, I got some, uh, report card once that said I smile too much, uh, which is hilarious to me. Um, he doesn't take things serious. I think they were kind of, was their point or something, because I would just, I would just laugh if someone said something to me. I think, but I do remember that report card coming back, and like, what a weird thing for someone to say. I think it was kindergarten. Who would ever say your kid smiles too much? But that was, uh, a real, actual, Report from, uh, my teacher. I, I do remember graduating from eighth grade, my yearbook said, and this is true, I can, if you can believe me over this podcast, uh, I can somehow get a photo to you somehow, or maybe I'll tweet it when this airs, but, uh, uh, it said, uh, most likely to replace David Letterman.

AI assessment note: “I don't know, you know, I don't think so.”

Q that your team has made, that you're in, and you can imagine how long it took to do that. There's so much work that happens around the actual, beyond the live recordings of the show. There's so much that you're doing. Is your time just beyond your control? Are there, is there, are there people or, or somebody who essentially tells you where you need to be at all times?

A You know, I mean, I have a very great assistant that, uh, Kelly Powers, who's, honestly, she's the secret sauce, but always keeps me on time, and, you know, tells me where I'm supposed to be, and all that stuff, but we have tons of producers that are on point, and they know how to plan ahead, and it's all planned. I mean, right now, you know, we have sketches and stuff that we're starting to film that will air two months from now, just because, I mean, I'm already... Thinking about next year. I'm thinking about, you know, what can we do for holidays? You know, I'm, I, whatever bits you can think of, the sooner you can think about it, do it now, and get it rolling, so that you can go like, is this a possibility? Hey, this is a silly idea. Well, you know, how can we get, you know, Elizabeth Olsen to do WandaVision without wardrobe, or anything, and on a zoom camera, but still make it with our production, and what we could do on our end, and I have a great team, and great set designers, and Costume and wardrobe, and man, did I miss them. You know, when the pandemic, when you did those at-home shows, you just miss all of that, and you go, oh my gosh, boy, did we take that for granted, you know.

AI assessment note: “Kelly Powers... always keeps me on time, and, you know, tells me where I'm supposed to be”

Q hard for me to, to listen to myself. I do listen to the show and critique myself. It's hard, because I, I kick myself, but, like, you know, you re-route athlete to sit in the, in the screening room and just watch, watch a game where they just sucked, and it's really hard. Did you, how did you do that? How did you get through listening to your, your performances?

A You live and learn, you know, you do things that are hacky, and you go like, ugh, I know that gets a laugh, but I can't leave it in my act, because it's too corny. And trying something that you think is gonna be so funny, and have it tank, and you're like, alright, I hope they invite me back, because that one was rough. I remember once, Guy, I, I thought it would be so, I think it was a show, a showcase was a big deal, like if HBO came to the improv, and they're gonna watch new comedians, they would showcase like five comedians, and out of those five, hopefully one person would get On HBO or something. And I, I remember not getting on those showcases, but if I was the first comedian on after that showcase, they're still in the room. Yeah. So I could, if I scored then, it's almost like being on the showcase, you know?

AI assessment note: “You live and learn, you know, you do things that are hacky”