Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Seth Meyers

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Neal Brennan interviews Seth Meyers (SNL, Late Night with Seth Meyers) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Pallbearer  9:37 Upbringing 11:09 College  23:51 Temperamental  34:24 SNL Sixth Runner Up 41:45 Risking Career for Weekend Update  55:57 Bombing at SNL 1:22:06 Fatherhood ---------------------------------------------------------- https://nealbrennan.com for tickets to Neal's tour Brand New Neal Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ---------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors: https://mintmobile.com/NEAL for $15/month plus free shipping GameTime App Code: BLOCKS for $20 off your first purchaseNeal Brennan interviews Seth Myers (SNL, Late Night with Seth Myers) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Need a great reason to get up in the morning? Well, what about two? Right now, get a small, organic, fair trade coffee and a tasty bacon and egger breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Hi, guys, it's Neil Brennan. I have a podcast that you're listening to. I'm tired of explaining the premise.

The premise is that I have a Netflix special called Blocks. And then Jimmy Carr had the idea that I have my friends on talking about their blocks. Today's guest is the best friend I've had on this show. This guy's one of my best friends I've ever had on earth. This guy is what we like to call a pallbearer. You're bearing my pall. That's's great is that six deep or four deep what do you think it depends who i'm talking to okay gotcha if like things are normal normalized toward the end of my life there's some people that will get the call but you're trying to stay

lean enough that four could do it i'm trying to send a message to people that i kept my weight around 150 pounds like most human beings should you're basically saying i won't need five and six not gonna need them that's a courtesy right that's about friendship and that's not about letting people know we kept around 150 we lived a life of discipline my guest guys is seth myers now seth myers i didn't um look at your wikipedia page but how many emmy wins do you have just the one you only have one i only have one yeah the courtesy is to say you know i'm i'm a 39 time well that's what i was gonna say how many nominees no it's a massive number and i've won one a massive number I think you could argue the only reason I won, I won music and lyrics with Mulaney and Justin Timberlake. So, and that was, I think the Academy, their eyes.

I think their eyes were drawn to it. And three of the other four nominees were Lonely Island songs. And I think it was a classic. They split, they blasted apart the category. Because too many people had to choose between. I'd like to bring Lorne into this as quickly as possible. Lorne, once you and Mulaney won, then immediately kind of shifted over to shitting on you a little bit.

Yeah. Being funny about it. There's some famous song writing do i can never remember it but i remember john and i walked in the second app the first song monologue we wrote after we won our emmy it was some version of lauren going well rankin and bass are here like some it's not that but i think it was rogers and heart it was i think that's who you told me it was in my head it's rogers and i don't even know that's a real song writing do it was Rogers and Hart. I think that's who you told me it was. In my head, it's Rogers and Hart. I don't even know if that's a real songwriting duo. It was so funny because it was derisive.

It was as derisive as it was dated. But we were the right audience for it. But the thing I like to always say about Lorne is he's a comedy writer first. Yes. So he has all of the resentments that a comedy writer would have. Like if another comedy writer wins an award he's like fuck that guy even though it's on his show even though it's on his show right his show he got the money he's getting it goes in his tally of the unbreakable record of

how many emmys snl has won no one will ever catch snl for total emmys by a television show saturday night live and our emmy yeah like 60 minutes and it's 200 plus also i think it's primetime emmy so even 60 minutes i bet even 60 minutes in whatever the news emmys are called nemys is that it nem the nemys the nemesis the nemesis um you're a pallbearer uh i want to go over our friendship uh we met in oh i'm gonna go 20 years ago yeah 2002 or three that seems about right that's how that's where i carbon date it yeah um and it is carbonate because it is it is worthy of an archaeological dig uh universities will study this friendship for for uh millennia okay so there's a guy named mike sure mike sure back then was right for saturday night live i'd written a couple movies with him this is kind of before cell phones kind

of ghosted me kind of just like was like that and And then he started writing a lot with you. Yes. Then sure. Got a job on like the reboot of the British office. Wasn't in L.A. We can all agree. Wasn't going to work. Not going to work.

Then not going to work. Wasn't going to work. Wasn't going to syndicate. Well, I got a job in the British office, moved to L.A. or the reboot of the British office, moved to L.A. Kind of ghosted you. We were then. I don't.

I more think he just had other things to do. He didn't live. He was a hanging out friend and you can't be a bi-coastal hanging out friend. All right. Well, here's what we've learned as adults. Once you have a wife and children, then you're not available.

Before then, you're a hanging out friend i don't care what coaster on i don't care oh 100 yeah i'm not here to assail sure no i mean i i am now in his position i started later i have a i have a wife i have three children i have one more child he goes to do before eight kids now he goes to you before me and we're again not here to a sales the great mike shirt history has proven we were back around we were wrong we're like the guys who like fucking edison bailed to do work on his inventions right and then whatever multiple because again uh and it is still called the british the british reboot of the you know the american reboot of the british office yeah starring steve the guy from the daily show and

he's gone on to do i mean parks and rec the shirted parks rec and the good place and brooklyn i think he's created by i he's a producer on hacks yeah a lot of things and and also Aziz's show. Yeah, he sure has done. We were left in his dust. It was, yeah. If we had, thank goodness we did not go on the record in the press shaking our fists saying you will rue the day. That you've stopped attending to us as friends. That you left our nest. Yes, because this is not professional.

Purely friendship. Now, I say all that to say this, which is it brought us together. A hundred percent. As two guys who have been ghosted. I think I would. And again, you keep saying you don't want to assail him and keep using a negative term. I would say we both had a sure sized hole in our lives. We did.

That we puzzle pieced into. We did. When I met you, you were a cast member of siren live yeah you were on an incredible great great didn't want to say it you were like an olympic trial with world record holders your cast was fred armisen bill hater andy sandberg kr But when we first meet, it's not that yet. No? They're 2006-ish. Oh, wow.

So our early days, it's more, that was like the second wave. It's feral and those bumps. Yeah. It's mostly, it's not even competition with others, which was to come later. It was more just, can you actually do the job? Like that, when you met me. The Tina was there.

Tina was head writer. The guys in the cast at that time are Fallon, Tracy, Tan, Parnell, Farrell. And so there was a nice, I mean, I had room to move. I, you know, there was room for me to succeed, but I was sort of just, it was not clicking for me. I think I had one of those things that a lot of people have a little grace period where you kind of pepper your way

through the first half of your first season and people say, oh, I like what I'm seeing from that person. But then once you actually have to. Meaning you would write sketches that were like, they had good premise, good structure. Maybe it's not going to get on, like i wrote something i wrote something with tina and amy that was a parody of a pregnancy test commercial where the whole joke was amy and i were a couple that were so relieved it was a negative and it was back when commercial parodies would rerun and rerun on snl

so that whole first fall there was like this good sketch that I was in. It was quiet, but people like the joke. People like seeing Amy and I together. I was definitely and would continue to for a decade. I feel like, what's the biking term where you're just like drafting off someone? Yeah. So that was like the first of many times I drafted off Polar's Charisma. So I had like those little things, but then I would say in the second half of my first year, into my second year, all of a sudden you just have to be like a little bit more like you have to have more structural integrity because they give you more to do. And that was when I was, that was a rough time

because I wasn't quite executing at the level that was expected of me or that I expected of myself. And I really started to doubt if I could do it but I was staying alive by writing like I would I would write big group scenes and I would give myself a couple good lines in it and then I was sort of secretly adding value that way what did you think your life and career were going to be because all right I see you as of course me if i went to prep school and i didn't go to prep school you did not go to prep school and

you're not especially high like your parents aren't like upper like you know pipe smoking they don't have boats and all that shit lauren once described me to you as like he's you but 10% angrier I think that's probably right um and I always wonder what so you went to you you were like a good student in high school I was a the kind of student where teachers always said you are very talented you should apply yourself a little procrastinating a little leaving it till the last minute and that was not for the just the listeners that was not neil sighing he opened a very carbonated beverage very extremely car 25 episodes in and you're you're doing i didn't well you did you see my shock when i know i was so freaked out so yeah but i you know did well on things like i well ish on things like the sats and i had a decent grade point average

and i wrote well i had a lot of teachers who thought i was a good writer you were funny i was funny but i was sort of back of the class funny not in front of the class funny i think there's a i think anyone who goes to high school knows the difference in that. People that are front of the class funny are actually not funny. They are in their final years of funny. It's something Seinfeld said one time. He goes, when I was in high school, everyone was funny. And then they stopped and I kept going.

Yeah. It is this odd thing where where you're like hey aren't we gonna keep doing this and they're like i gotta get to whatever work i do think that's it that if you don't actually go into a career of comedy starting after high school and that includes you know you go to which i did you go to college and you start doing comedy in college okay so then you get into northwestern northwestern think i want to be i am a film major i think i want to direct movies first day of the first film class that was about technical film stuff but then i was like oh this is science this is more you know and again i realize now i was being you know petulant back

then but you know you have to learn the science before you can make the art and i was just so uninterested by it but i had the same exact experience at myu where i was like fuck this i gotta take a degree rule that sort of stuff photo i gotta take pictures yeah i gotta do stills and like a radio play and now i just read a there was that new york article with bill hater where he's talking about like different lenses yeah used for barry and you're like oh yeah you were always like that you know what i mean i don't think anybody gets over that hump you by the way i i've been directing i mean obviously famously directed your netflix special lobby baby lobby baby of course directed by neil brennan but i've been directing 20 years and i just now i swear to god in the last i'm taught had a credible conversation about lenses 10 days ago congrats we're like i was like talking to one of the great dps malik saeed who did

clockers and he got game and i was like i was like are we on a 50 maybe can we go down to like uh like a 17 so it was pretty cool yeah i would love one day to be able to say that he was like no i said are we what are we on isaac is that uh and he's like it's a 35 it's like i but let's go down to 17 great but have the confidence to say to just fucking say it the fish eye is a i think fish eye is 12 people are gonna in the comments are gonna fucking light me up this is good oh for this for getting it wrong for all we're just talking about it no no for not knowing what exactly is what but but um you have another podcast called lenses i do and they're like keep it on lenses don't let blocks you can't believe

how popular it is and i've got one called plants i love i love it i for those who are only listening there's a great deal of plants behind me a huge amount none behind neil like intent like like like i asked for like it was in my rider that i this is a version of there's a famous photo of me and seth it is a it is a famous photo because i showed every time i'm on seth's podcast or seth's podcast seth's talk show it's like a podcast but with a budget yeah and um i'm spaced out because i'm slightly on the on the spectrum and he is uh charming a person yeah and we're in the same shot in the same shop that has a wall na i believe was the name of that nightclub that has plants on the wall. N.A., I believe was the name of that nightclub. N.A., the parody of Narcotics Anonymous. That was the inside joke.

That, okay. So college, and then I'm in college, and I have a great time in college, and I see New Student Week, I see the Northwestern College Improv Troupe, and I just think, that's it. Now I know. That's what I want to be doing.

I want to be on stage. I want to be coming up with funny things real fast procrastinator stream yeah yeah you know procrastinator stream no time impress people with the speed and then you can figure out the quality later because so much of it just when college kids are running and also the celebrity like oh my god look at this there i'm sitting with 500 students and we're paying attention to eight peers. It wasn't like a traveling. It wasn't that Second City came and did a show. So I really wanted to do that. What's it called?

Meow is the name of it. Meow. Meow. Meow is a parody of Wah Mew. Wah Mew is, I believe, a hundred-year-old musical theater review that happened at northwestern so meow was like 60s in the 60s i've been talking to some wavy gravy dudes who are writing a book about meow who keep wanting to ask me questions about my experience guys who i think

were maybe they're just gonna have to chop this up as you started it yeah they'll this will be good but i auditioned every year until i only got into the improv my senior year but i did take it seriously to the point where i started going to chicago um from northwestern northwestern but it was you know in evanston which is like an hour it was uh to get there 40 minutes you know still subway 40 minutes yeah it's 40 minutes but you gotta walk to the train anyway uh i would take improv classes and and i really because for the purposes of making it being better at io you would take improv class at io improv olympic is as it was called at the time now no longer um and and then my senior year i got on the improv troupe and it was uh i loved it so much it was everything i

wanted to be and i thought oh i want to do this so then if you're asking me what was my goal my goal was all right i'm going to graduate i'm going to stay in chicago i'm going to do you care about school were you like studying not enough no i can't no i never thought by the time i was in school i never thought i was going to get a job where my transcripts mattered great but i cared about grades i mean it was not inexpensive for my parents to send me there and my report cards would go home and so i there was an expectation that i didn't want to have bad grades but i can't believe that i'm i haven't thought about report cards going like you're an adult and you have a clear, that emotion is still in you that you don't want your parents to see your report card.

And you have, do your kids have report cards yet? No, I did for James Corden's last show, they got all the late night hosts together to shoot a thing. I don't know if you saw that sketch. It turned out very well. They did a very nice job. And it was going, they shot all the hosts together in one room

and they were so fast because they knew they were asking for a time. And my dad was in town. This is two months ago. And it went a half hour over. And I said to Stephen Colbert, I'm meeting my dad for dinner tonight. And I'm so embarrassed by how stressed I am right now

that I'm going to keep him waiting. Yeah. I am doing a real showbiz thing. Undeniable. I have nothing to apologize for. Yes. And yet the fact that I am keeping my dad waiting at a meal

that i will then pick up the check for and so yeah those things stay do you think that's healthy because i'm i'm like i still see my mom as an authority figure i still see my i wouldn't i don't like cursing around my mom i don't you know what i mean like i don't like talking about sex around i don't there's just stuff i'm like i don't i'm not i would argue that's probably better than the opposite what's the advantage of not i should say at its core it's one politeness you know i don't want to keep anybody waiting. But yeah, it's different that it's my dad. I would feel worse about keeping my dad waiting than almost anybody. Is that healthy?

I would say it's hard to make an argument that it's healthy. I think it's the right thing to do. And I guess the opposite is I'm standing there saying, oh, he'll understand, which I'm sure he would. But I'm saying, do you see your parents as a... Are you fully on board as your parents are just to a couple people oh no i that's what i'm saying yeah yeah no i don't think of my parents as just a couple people i have okay i value them yeah they're psychological emotional pillars of your life also parents are like greek gods and i feel very in debt to my parents my parents have been so you know supportive uh you know i mean college was you know for me i'm very happy to say

the last time they supported me financially but that was a huge amount of money for them back then and then they were incredibly supportive of the choice i made to go into this business which is i mean i think i do feel like there's a new there was this 20-year period where all of a sudden comedy was noble and a lot of parents all of a sudden there was a generation of parents who grew up on SNL and so they thought it was so cool their kids got on SNL whereas that didn't exist maybe before but they were super into it and you know they came to shows all the time when I was doing small shows. And that meant a lot to me. And so I feel in their debt.

And your parents are funny. Your parents have like both of your parents have. Weirdly, your parents have in terms of like personality strengths. They're one and two to me. You and Josh are three and four. Oh, yeah. Like amplitude of of of personality how well written a sitcom character they are they're way better you know exactly yeah you

want to write for them more than you want to write for josh and i which is like i feel like that almost never happens yeah where you just know oh i know exactly how and they look like caricatures of themselves they do and they're and they're it's a really fun thing whereas that you know the great thing about aging is you just become you just lean into who you are nobody makes some crazy like visual right turn yeah hi after years of fine print contracts and getting riffed off by big wireless providers if we've learned anything it's that there's always a catch. So when I first heard that Mint Mobile offers premium wireless

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to a billion dollars yet close mid mobile okay so then you you get into the thing at northwest and are you better around the same as everybody do you have like i think i'm better okay i do think i'm six people right now that are punching their i mean i would only say that they would the thing that i'm not proud of they would attest not that i was better they would attest if you ask them in a lie detector that i thought i was better right you know this is not a surprise them and i will say and it's a real it was a real uh when you are a little bit when you have that arrogance when you are the best or at least you think you're the best in a small group of people just know you're probably a couple group of people away which for me it wasn't that many moves to SNL

for my college improv troop it was only only, you know, five years. And now all of a sudden you realize, oh, I'm the worst person here. And how is the best person here treating me? And would I be happy if they treated me the way I treated people in my college improv troop? You know, I have some shame. You know what I mean?

So when you were sort of hot dogging it in at Northwestern I you know I think I hopefully was uh hot dogging it with some benevolence but I do think it was hot dogging it I do remember my friend Pete Gross who is a really accomplished writer who wrote for Late Night he again we were doing a rehearsal for freeze tag. No audience, just a rehearsal and like an empty stage. And I remember somebody tagged me out before I said my joke and I threw my baseball cap against the wall. Now, one, the very fact that I'm wearing a baseball cap while I'm improvising is damning. But that I was very temperamental and I i feel like my temperament you know well this is what i would say the you're me if i went to prep school that's me yeah okay that's throwing i i don't know i threw a hat whatever but like

fucking would absolutely i was a pa on the pilot for singled out on mtv and they wanted me to go pick up food and i was like no yeah not doing it like a fucking asshole so when because and then i remember somebody saying they'd gone to an snl and they saw you before the show and you were yelling at somebody i was like that was him like you were yelling at a makeup you're yeah i don't know you're not i don't when did you stop yelling well i the best person i met professionally and continues to be that person is mike shoemaker yes mike shoemaker who is ostensibly your partner yeah uh executive producer of late night now and uh was a producer at snl when i started there and a man of great benevolence and he was very helpful in pointing out the ineffectiveness of you know sudden bouts of anger at people who more often than not just didn't understand what

it was you wanted you know there was no i ran into which will surprise people i ran into very little malice uh at my time at snl and yet you know i think it's a very high pressure system obviously and more often than not you're angry at yourself and right or or angry at how you're being the audience is responding to what you believed your best work was but i did have some some bad moments did he ever say because i'm still i still lose my temper i'm getting better at it but that thing of it's not, people just didn't understand. I get so frustrated because I told somebody the other day, this is like a lot of jobs are you're playing charades with people

and you can talk. Right, right. And people still don't understand. You're like, I'm'm talking i'm acting out and you still didn't do the what i thought was obvious thing it is that there are certain things where to no fault of other people it is easier to do than to have to explain it in a foolproof way you know what i mean it's just oh i can i know how to explain this to make sure i get exactly what i want but i also have done the math in my head and i think it's faster just to do it myself yes but but a lot of times we can't do it you know what i've started doing recently

drawing yeah just drawing out this here oh yeah this here drawing this here and it just makes it way easier um but i it's still very frustrating and it's hard for me not to believe it's not this was heartbreaking for me and i think you'll find it very funny i was driving the other day because now i will say i am uh uh which is both a success and a failure all my losing of temper happens in domestic settings with great perfect what a place i'm great at work now i'm really great no problems you need a shoemaker you need shoemaker at the at the house driving in the car i've got ash is in the back seat with his friend your oldest son as seven years old axel's also

there axel's five being impossible and i'm i'm getting into it with axel i'm trying to keep my cool but it's not you know and ash says to his friend oh this is going to be so funny my dad's about to blow his top and it was just heartbreak you that thing where you i could not be less of a mystery to my children i'm whatever don draper was to his kids i'm the opposite of that right but that's that sounds like progress to me meaning yeah you're i don't know if you would have i never would have done a bit about my dad losing his temper like there were no bits yes when we were coming i don't by the way i don't think he was doing it as a bit for me i don't think he was either he genuinely just thought this is hilarious you'll want it's i one of the nicest things yet when my dad got mad i thought it was scary yeah and i when i get mad

my kids think it's funny which is good that's progress yeah that's it's just fantastic it's uh and i by the way get mad exactly the way my dad got mad but it must they i feel like they're seeing it like an impression of somebody you know how do you how do you get mad i just it's hard to explain it just like run out of pain i just feel as though i never just don't do a thing a person asked me to do five times and i know it's just kids they won't acknowledge you. Yeah. And sometimes they're paying more attention to the thing they're doing.

And, you know, their kid brain is, needs to finish this thing before they can. It is important, right? It's not important to me that they're Lego, whatever thing they're doing. But it is important to them. And they have to, but I just, you know, I have to learn that the correct path is not asking five times

and then just being like. And do they then do it and laugh at you? They're like, it just, you just teach them the bad habit. You know what I mean? Like they. But if they think it's funny, I think it's positive. Don't, it's so funny because that thing is my dad does have a temper i definitely learned it from him it was a very i knew it to be a very ineffective parenting tool and i feel like i tried very hard not to have it

but like man oh man is it just like baked in but also is it an ineffective parenting tool i don't know it's effective it's i feel like i don't know what it is maybe it's generation like I do think it was effective it depends on what parent what do you think parenting is right well I guess parenting is if you need them to get in the car right like sometimes you have to get them in the car without doing anything that might be traumatic for them you just you have to have more patience than the five and the seven year old that's all okay but at the same time there are times you gotta get people in the car agreed and Seth because he's a generous person open a water and he didn't want me to still feel like a fool from when I opened my water.

Yeah, still being a key word here. I mean, still people are, a lot of the viewers haven't gotten over it. But what do you think? I don't think parenting should be violent. I don't think. But sometimes it's like if you're being aggravated. I don't think that's a horrible lesson to learn if i'm a child if i don't acknowledge somebody and won't do what i'm very reasonably being asked to do by someone who loves me

just like a little bit of like how did i yeah pick them up move them there are times where your kids make you feel like whatever a cuck is supposed to be it sounds like a lot of cuck stuff where you just especially when it's in public and you either lose all your you you crap out of the casino if you yell at your kid in a cafe right like nobody cares how bad it was you just are the loser yep and so then the other version is just using this really ineffective calm voice and you just that's when you it's the worst cucks cucks for kids cucks for kids kid cucks uh and one eight seven six for kids um okay so you got more patient at work yeah and and then kids seem like the worst co-workers imaginable yeah and you've had to yeah and the thing about work is work sort of stays the same

and you mature and learn whereas with kids i think they also are maturing they're not a constant like work can be so they're as you're learning how to deal with them as each level they're oh yeah that's and that's not me anymore that's do you are they getting do they get better they're getting better but the weird thing is my my little girl is not yet too best of all. Of course. And I mean, again, you know, ticking time bomb, I'm sure. But right now. I had a joke that didn't really work one time.

I was like, when I was 10, like little girls could solve the Middle East. Like, you know what I mean? But I like when I was 10, I had a babysitter. She was six. Like like girl little girl they can they just like you over here you here we uh having breakfast the other morning i'm feeding there's no greater greater moral authority than a six-year-old girl yeah then a two-year-old any little girl um wait a six-year-old we were at at a party. She must, I want to start for the podcast audience by saying she must have heard this from someone,

but this is something a six-year-old said. This is bad writing in a movie because I appreciate this is not how a six-year-old normally talks. Yes. There was a bouncy house at a Memorial Day party. And in the beginning, it was all sort of five, six, seven-year-olds.

And then the teenagers showed up and went in. And it was, kids of five six seven year olds and then the teenagers showed up and went in and it was um the kids were coming out crying because it was just got too rough yeah and i saw a six year old girl say um it's turned into the devil's playground bad writing in a movie you'd say that it's a cutaway and it's turned into a devil's playground for the trailer we love it for the trailer we love it for the trailer but in real life it's not believable yeah if it was uh yeah you'd never get it past uh um a neo-realist filmmaker of course not not the sort of film students we were yeah um okay and what i'm interested in you and the thing that you don't talk about very much is the going from toward the end of SNL cast member Seth. Yes. In that incredibly fast heat of other performers.

Well, yeah. So to echo back to what you're saying earlier. So that was the real, the gnarliest time for me after my first year of Forte and Fred joined the cast. I mean, two of the most unique comedy voices of the last 20 years. Because there were things that were happening at SNL before they showed up. This is 06? No, still we're talking 02. Okay. They show up. There's that thing of I'm looking around and I'm sort of watching what everybody's doing and I'm thinking, I can get there. You know? Not throwing any shade on anybody around and i'm sort of watching what everybody's doing and i'm thinking i can get there you know not throwing any shade on anybody that was happening but i felt like again it was all the

versions of the sketch comedy i'd grown up for a year before i was watching snl i got it now i'm on snl i'm seeing it up close jimmy and tracy have moves will like comedy fun fucking hilarious dudes funny uh with moves will ferrell kind of outer space you don't even think right and nor do you never in my i never thought okay that's next yeah and then and then step tina and amy hilarious moves like fairly linear anybody who comes out of chicago you sort of feel like you know because again that was so I'd seen Tina and Amy I'd seen their growth because I used to see them on stage and I'm like okay so growth will happen for me too but then Forte and Fred show up and they have space both from outer space bag of tricks you've

never seen before no overlap with what either of them has that just oh so now you know it spent that whole summer being like I'm gonna get a little bit I'm like, oh, now it's a daze. Then there's like, you know, and so then I kind of, you know, get through that and they kind of find their space and I have mine. But then now this other thing happened, which is Andy, Bill, and pretty soon after, Sudeikis.

Sudeikis, who had been a writer. Who had been a writer. He joins the cast a little bit if my timeline is right. A little bit after Bill and Andy or maybe at the same time. But they're I think they maybe are all at the same time. So now there's like five guys and

I'm writing at the time as well and I just sit down and I don't feel like I am self-hating. I like the things I'm good at. But I would write sketches and I would have an idea for a premise. And I would genuinely think if I want this to work and I have these six guys of which I'm counting myself and I want this sketch to work.

As a writer, my sixth choice is Seth. You know, if I'm counting myself. And I want this sketch to work. As a writer, my sixth choice is Seth. You know, if I'm Seth, and I'm not like... No, I don't think anyone would disagree with you. Yeah, I mean, you would say, if it's a fail-safe joke where someone has to say the word without stumbling, Seth can do it.

But every one of them brings these other layers, which is what any sketch writer any writer anywhere wants which is I think I wrote this great thing but now I want to bring in a performer

who is going to make it great in seven different granular ways that is going to somehow make it twice as good that I can't predict

and I can't write it and also just like with some of them it's just Andy's charisma Andy's charisma, Bill's charisma. Yeah. Sudeikis fucking charisma.

Yes. The yin-yang. The other thing is, so now you're like, oh, not only do you feel like right away, oh, they're all better than me. The longer you're with them, you now want to write for them based on moves you've seen them do. Because the longer you're with them you now want to write for them based on moves you've seen them do yeah

because the longer you're with andy the more you want to write for andy the longer you're with keenan to bring up yeah yeah the more you want to write for keenan and and yet i'm with myself every day and i'm not giving myself a single new idea at no point in my life well now but here's something only mr myers can bring and we're fast forwarding but andy suggested you do really really when i auditioned yeah when i auditioned for weekend update sandberg gift of gifts said you should do something called really because that is the cadence you talk in and i think it's really funny and so and and there are people who say that the cadence it's a we don't need it it's fine i think the cadence cops are going to be watching this one i've been trying

to lean out of my neil cadence today but you know the real burn on really though it was not you do you know no yeah this all right so basically what i'm getting at is seth has said he's doing me when he does really you said that to jerry seinfeld no it was the seinfeld was not it was independent of you seinfeld we heard seinfeld wanted to do something on the show he was promoting i don't remember if it was let's say b movie he wants to come on update and i i had never spoken to jerry seinfeld at this point but we get on the phone and we had decided oh maybe jerry would be fun to do a really with yeah and i said uh we have this thing called really he goes oh i know really i like really and i was like we think you'd be really good at it and he said

some might say i invented it which is so it was to hear it and realize yeah it's a great thing about jerry seinfeld is he sounds like jerry seinfeld he sounds like jerry seinfeld and it was it was like he said i can see dead people because it everything when he i'm like of course yeah and then even when you say chapelle was like isn't that isn't really yours he said that to me independently and i probably just got it from jerry right like i don't not it was very at least you weren't in this situation where you were where i had i talked to the first guy and i brought it up like it was a thing yeah like well yeah that's fine it was like saying to lebron like and then we dunks we sometimes do dunks there's a corner three the

left corner three have you ever shot a left corner three do you like dunks so you feel like you're kind of getting washed away and you don't even you can't even really argue with it you can't really argue with it you can't stop the tide the uh solution at the time would be a some negative for the franchise which is things would be going better for me if all of them were worse you know what i mean like the only way right because you like them all i like them all i like when the show is good. I mostly love them all. No, they're all family. Yeah. I mean, everybody we've talked about, you included, were at my wedding. These are people, you know what I mean?

And I'm glad they were. And I love them. They are, I mean, not to get Vin Diesel on you, but they were like family. More than friends at some point because you just spend so much time together yeah at SNL and then I hated myself for competing with them or whatever it's just like the jealousy I hated I hated that when they would crush it was impossible to remove that piece of me that was saying well there's another strike me, even though it wasn't a strike against me. Except, of course, it was, right? There is a calculus at the end of every season of SNL

where the decision makers say, you know, what do we need? Do we need this? Or is this a redundancy? Can you explain that summer? Yeah. And what the summer, it's 07? 06.

It's 06. It's 07? it's 06 summer of 06 explain to the earth what happened and I'll explain what it was like to watch well Tina has left to go

first she left to have a baby and then she left for 30 Rock and this is how dumb show business is. Tina goes to do the pilot for 30 Rock. Aaron Sorkin did a show called Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which was an hour drama about Saturday Night Live. And none of us knew which was going to be more successful. Looking back, you're like like i don't know i don't know you know

maybe people do want to see a drama both on nbc both on yes anyway i had the my last year working with tina i had been made a writing supervisor so I was not a writer on the show. You were not? No, I was hired as a cast member. And I'm very proud of the fact that during my struggles as a cast member, I did write enough things that Lorne thought I would be good

at sort of running a table. Being a head writer. Being a head writer. I wasn't a head writer yet. But then Tina left. And I remember Tina used to, if she couldn't rewrite her sketches, she would send them to you.

Yes, we had a nice, that last year was a really nice, for me to know that she valued my opinions. But you were sixth in terms of who she would cast. Yes, but we had the same six. We had the same six. So I, we come back in the fall for snl we do these sort of uh dicking around weeks uh writing commercial parodies i don't know if they do that anymore in the same uh way that we used to i used to say it

would take it take 24 people seven weeks to write three commercial parodies insane it was the biggest waste of money it was like uh it was like city government waste of money and it proves anytime somebody says you know i don't understand why snl doesn't work all year round to like bank sketches doesn't work it just doesn't like really the sketches are shitty well they're just shittier that's what i mean like the commercial parody like the best commercial parodies on an sl season are very rarely the ones that were written in late august i don't know why yeah yeah it's just there's something immediate it's almost like necessity is the mother of invention there you go coin it so they are having auditions to replace tina they had auditions to replace jimmy

i had auditioned for that when that had been three years ago i obviously wanted this a great deal amy got it that time yeah. Amy got it that time. Yeah, Amy got it that time, which made all the sense in the world. And then I was auditioning for it. Who's auditioning for it? I won't remember everybody. But like seven people, five to seven.

And some are, I remember Sudeikis, you. Kenan, a couple couple writers maybe some people from the outside and they but beforehand i also know i'm gonna be head writer next year i'm very proud of but you're you're performing your cast contract is up my cast contract is up. My cast contract is up. And basically I get word from my manager, which is, hey, next year you'll either get update, but if you don't get update, they'd like you to just be a writer. So you would just be the head writer of Saturday Night Live. You would never be on the show.

I would never be on camera anymore as the head writer for SNL. And it's the only time I ever i think to this day have done something like this but i said no basically they wanted as i recall they wanted you to sign a contract saying i'll audition for weekend update and if i don't get it i will be head writer and i will not be on the show yes Yes. And to which you said, I just said, no, I said,

I'm not going to sign the contract till after you decide about weekend update. Yes. So basically they not strong arm, but like they were trying to go like, Hey, we're, they were kind of holding one against the other.

Sure. Like, and by the way, I didn't as evidenced by the fact that I, then as soon as I got update, I was never in another sketch. Later on, people started putting me in sort of derisively. As a gag. It would be a gag.

Then like Seth. Like Boston Powers, I think is like the next time. Do you remember the Kings of Catchphrase Comedy? The Kings of Catchphrase Comedy Tour is back. I can't believe I don't. It's a really good sketch. It's got a scroll, right? David, beef jelly, wind field.

Beef jelly. Yeah, it's a bunch of, it's just Kings of Catchphrase. And I was Boston Powers. Christine Nangle. And what was your catchphrase? Like, I don't know. Do you your catchphrase like I don't know do you think I'm a sexy

I don't know it was some version of Boston Maslow and Austin Powers I can't believe I don't remember so tell me

do you want to shag now or shag later see this is why they don't put me in sketches I can't even do PR for them

they give you catchphrase I can't even do publicity so yeah so I basically just and I will say because because I mean everything. You would have rather quit than just be head writer.

Because out of like, not pride, but like pride. Pride. Pride. Some pride. And also this. I meant what I said. I did think I was the sixth of that list yeah and then if you add in i mean i'm sure by the way that's the thing we haven't even talked about polar

wig maya i mean fucking murderers there there is a photo on the wall of the office that i still work at on the eighth floor where it's we had an 11 person cast nine of us have hosted keenan's still on the show and daryl hammond is the announcer so that's the 11 that was that time and it's the best i would put it up against any era i remember you saying that like 15 years ago i'm kind of rolling my eyes in my head, but like, and it was just lean and mean and everybody can do anything. And I would always, it is one of the great benefits of being a part of a smaller cast is that Andy Samberg, you know, a self-professed doof has to do political impressions because you just run out of bodies and it's fun.

Like in the audience likes it because they know it's they know everything when the dick in a box guy is all of a sudden you know rama manual they think that's awesome so my point is i didn't think i should be a cast member i did think i should do weekend update with amy i did my heart yeah in my bones i it was the one thing where i thought this you if you and by the way i think if they picked other people it would have been fine I'm not saying it would have been a disaster but I did think hey no you I I get it I have not been uh the best at this that's why when I write sketches I don't put myself in it that's why you know guys and then uh but I was like I did I the pride part was not just I can't

work here if I don't have that job the pride, I can't sign this piece of paper and make their decision. Yeah, like basically they were ready to like, and I remember my recollection is they weren't dying for you to host update. I think there was, you know, some people thought I'd be better at it. I mean, I don't know if anybody's ever dying for anybody. Lauren is not like, I think that no one ever like lauren's dying for anything or anyone so it's time for paul mcgarnett to call him back but like that's it exactly and he did and he would never he would never show it he would sir paul ever ever ever well about time oh look who's sitting by the phone look at his mop top so yeah and that was a so you basically had to gamble on yourself i remember it being like a risky it was one of

these moments in someone's life where i felt like boy this is a hinge moment yeah you auditioned you auditioned for update and you were either gonna get update or you were leaving snl yeah i also then i auditioned for update i went back to my dressing room i put on running clothes and i uh was gonna go for a 10 mile run and i ran into central park and i went like three miles it was like fuck this i'm ah because it was just like two i thought like i could run the stress away and it just it was like he's eating me up. And what did you, then I just like went back to my apartment

and I think like ordered Chinese food and just stewed. Yeah, I remember that apartment. I can always remember the date I found out. I was at, do you remember there was a bar called C4? It was like on 48th.

It was like, it was like catered to NBC employees. They had like a mural with like Al Roker on the wall. And I was sitting at the bar there. Why were you up there? If you, because at this point, you're like, I don't know if I work here anymore. We were shooting the opening credits.

And they were, so they still hadn't decided. But were you gonna, what were you gonna do? They were gonna shoot me in the opening credits just in case i guess uh and then i was sitting at the bar with shoemaker or maybe i was sitting at the bar and shoemaker came over and told me but i remember the date i can always look it up because the steelers were playing on monday night football against who can forget who can forget it's the only time the steelers have ever played on monday night football when you know the years and it

turned out that i was right like the i i thought like if i got that piece things would be okay at snl and that was the beginning of things for you yeah i got to be uh on weekend update which was the place i always thought i fit best there get to do with polar the person and i got to be i it turned me into a really good head writer because I was absolutely then selfless about that element of the show because there was no, I took myself out of the competition from either from winning or losing as a sketch player. And I just, it like the better the sketches were, the better the show was, the better people thought I was doing as head writer. So I, it was great. It made me better at both. And it was the best. I had the best time once I started doing Upday.

It took, I mean, again, I remember once. Do you remember Sandberg had a sketch called That'll Move the Chains? I don't. It was some version. It makes me laugh as an idea for a sketch. It was originally a Make-A-Wish kid, but then Cool you know,

cooler minds prevailed. And that was like, don't have a... And so it was some kid who got to go to the booth for a game and every play he would go, that'll move the chains. And like at first, the announcers think it's...

It's cute. And he did it, it went well. And then like eight weeks later, he did it went well and then like eight weeks later he comes in my office and i'm like what are you working on tonight he goes we're thinking about writing another that'll move the chains and i now and probably you thought that was a one-off premise and not a recurring character so he said i think we're gonna write another that'll move the chains and i just said another and he went hey not all of us have fucking update every week and it was that was the truth of it though right like when you don't have update every week

like sometimes you just hit the fucking wall and you're like i guess we'll do another that'll move the chains but like i got to it was just flying high doing another that'll move the chains is his version of moving the chair you know it's like the levels right exactly levels are fantastic again let me stress when we're talking about actual geniuses uh there's another sandberg goes in that box yeah a phd in sophomore comedy yeah yes i love lonely island as much as i love radiohead yeah like i love they i know all their songs I know I know they're like I when I see Instagram videos of friends of mine who have brought their kids to see Taylor Swift and it's just they're losing their mind that's maybe not like how I physically projected it but it is

absolutely internally how I felt when I watched the lonely island concert live like when they went on tour and i got we went and saw the night before your show or the night after your show the night after it was even better yeah it was like a great yes one of the best 24 hours of my life was when we uh you directed my special in minneapolis and then we went and watched those dudes and i opened for for them and did fine. It was great. Hey, you know how buying tickets is a humiliating nightmare and you're giving them money. So why are they making it stressful? Game time is the fast and easy way to buy tickets for all sports, music, comedy, and theater near you.

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And was there a level of embarrassment? Meaning we both sort of become who we always were. You just figure it out. You just go like, oh, no, okay, I'm not that. Yeah. I guess I'm not that. Like, what was it like for you? I think I weirdly, I did work through a fairly supportive era at SNL.

With that said, when you took a big swing at the table outside of your comfort zone, like there was no, you could feel it. You could feel the air of that miss. And I mean,

I flop sweated in a conference room just reading sketches for my peers. With, in front of Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Kenan, Andy, Bill, Sudeikis. And especially, conference room just reading sketches for with in front of amy paula kristenwick keenan right andy bill just and and and especially it is a thing where you just start pressing right it's not to

keep going back to like sports analogies but like when you're in a slump and you're just trying anything and then nobody wants to be around you because it's your slump vibe is so sweaty and they're irrationally worried it's contagious i remember maybe my second year there was some mtv dance show and i'm not going to remember the name of the guy i played but matt murray is a great writer we were office mates and i nickname was panther nickname was panther because uh i believe polar coined it because she said you're in the room for two minutes before anyone realizes you are yeah like a panther it's a great nickname it's a great nickname uh i would also, I've been meaning to mention that 40% of the time I refer to you as Snarf. Yeah.

And the reason is because Kristen Wiig did an update as Bjork. Yeah. And was like. Greetings, Snarf. Snarf. I was like, well, there it is. There it is. Perfect.

Snarf. The many GIFs of how update characters said my name was one of them. The Sarah Schneider and Chris Kelly who wrote Olga Pavlotsky, which was my late era of Weekend Update. It was Kate McKinnon's Russian character. And she always called me Set Meyer.

Set. And they made me a nameplate that I have in my office that says Set Meyer. And it's just a very funny joke. Yes. To give somebody a bad nameplate. And it's a great, because it's a nationally televised joke.

Yeah. And you can either keep it or not. That joke, that is a bear with me. Let me tell you about my dream house. Okay, sure. Bear with me. I am. No, in my dream house, I have a bear with me.

And Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider created the other two. The other two. Wonderful show. Wait, I was talking. Oh, so this dance scene. And I think, so Pantherider created the other two. The other two. It was a wonderful show. Wait, I was talking. Oh, so this dance scene. And I think, so Panther was doing me a favor. He put me in this scene where I was the lead of a scene. I was introducing it.

But I was this dance guy. And it was bad. It was a bad sketch. But it aired. But it was bad. And part of the reason it was bad is I can't really dance. And that was. I remember your calves were on one time on TV.

That was funny to me. Something about that was just funny. Like seeing you in shorts on TV, it was funny. And I remember Steve Higgins, who's still a producer of the show, dear friend Steve Higgins. And I realized... Big Bounce, the great Higgins. What's that?

Big Bounce, yeah. It took me five years to realize what he was telling me. But I remember he was like, don't do sketches like that. Like don't... Like he was telling me but i remember he was like don't do sketches like that like don't like he was basically like it's not you have to know you can't do that you have the great story about writing an australian accent for who martin short oh wait did i which was the you wrote a sketch for martin short yeah and and he was like i don't do an australian accent and you were like you're fucking martin short of course you don't and he's like and then you realize like oh i we have to manage what we do in public because we'll look stupid if we can't do it oh yeah right like martin short is smart

enough to know like this i'm too late in the game here to not yeah i know i'm 68 i would know if i can do an australian accent by now there was another time that same week where he said how do you want me to do this sketch and i remember all i wanted to say was like martin short i don't know i i this i want you to know this all comes from my great reverence for you. Yeah. But like, we don't want to say anything that might mess up you doing it like you. Yeah, just don't even, like I'm not here. Yeah.

Do it like I'm not here. The funniest person, Martin Short, the funniest person I've ever been at a dinner party with, by far. And I haven't been to many dinner parties in my life you but most of them are like there's a there you're on you're the sixth invite you're the sixth man the great gift if you invite me to a dinner party i will remember the five funniest things that was that were said by other people and quote them the rest and usually it's at a dinner party that martin short steve martin lorne yeah mulaney mulaney seinfeld seinfeld will be at there's a at these dinner parties oh i think there's more of them than i'm at but every now and then no i know because i've heard the ones that you're not yeah yeah yeah um because sometimes rock will spell you right

i think we the rotation they could be trying to diversify it they'll it, they'll take you out. Oh, the other one that was very in line with the Martin shirt was, I know I told you this as well, which is when Elton John hosted. It was Wednesday. And so all the sketches had been written and Elton John was reading through the sketches

for the first time. And I sort of got called to go talk to him. And it should be noted, he was an excellent host. He was very funny. He was great. But I think I saw a thing. He was very funny and almost didn't know why. I got to see a thing that nobody, I feel, sees,

which is I went in and he was definitely like you know it's 40 sketches if you don't do sketches and then all of a sudden there's 40 we got 40 for you

40 and then you're gonna read them in front of people and I just I realized I was with a guy who due to his talent and work ethic

hadn't even come close to bombing in 45 years yeah you know and in any setting in any setting and when you look at 40 sketches and you realize at no point do you get to do rocket man and no you know it's just and it was so that is a real and the other funny thing is it's at snl it's a it's a cramped so you're just in a tiny room yeah with elton john the elton john and he's a little panicked right and there's nowhere there's yeah there's no uh a room he can't say give me a minute and go into a bigger room where he goes when when the hoi his freak out room yeah there's no and so uh though and that is one of the uh i don't know i feel like sometimes we we fail to appreciate exactly the ask of the snl host because it's a massive well it was also fun i remember either tom brady i think tom brady hosted her it's sort of countering what you're saying, but he, I think on Friday or Saturday you go, are you nervous? And he was like, no. And you were like, oh yeah, I guess you do have an ambulance at your work. Like you might die if things, if you bomb.

bomb well also you know no one i do feel you could bomb as an athlete and it wouldn't cost you anything in the sports world you know what i mean it's not like yeah you know we're gonna oh you're gonna practice on the s and l you're like well you can't you've lost you've lost the first team you're still yeah like well this is gonna affect your pro bowl nomination well we're gonna have to take your that your your uh we can't do it that second sketch you don't say a lot so you bombed and oh yeah i bombed what made you not what made you not give up but but you were i guess pride kicks in and then you were like, I think I'm good. Yeah.

Aren't I good? Well, you know, again, I should note that even in the worst of times, it was pretty fun working on SNL and living in New York City, you know, and, you know, for any jealousy I had, I don't think it manifested itself in a negative way for the people I felt it towards. You know, I think that we, you know, I did, I was building friendships at the same time. And so it was wanting to stick around, right? Like it wasn't until that inflection point where I basically thought, well, I don't know,

you know, if I had left, then it would have been seven years on the show or whatever, six years on the show.'t have been well no i remember you and going like hey what do you if you don't get update what are you gonna are you gonna move to la and you were like i think so yeah i don't it's weird i mean i feel like i've wiped it all from my i remembered that you did run all the way you told me that you ran the full 10 maybe now and when you told me that you got it i straight up cried because i was so excited for you that is and i should stress that um one of the things about our friendship is there's so few people you're one of them shoemaker's one of them who know exactly what certain things meant to me whereas Whereas no fault to my parents, right? Like I had had all the conversations with you

in the lead up to it, right? You knew all the pieces. I did not share any of that with my parents about my anxieties or how I felt. I did, I did, go ahead. Because I remember walking out of that bar after I found out and calling my parents to tell them I was on Weekend Update.

In my head, I'm like, this is, what can I ever tell them that it's gonna be bigger? Second to parents to tell them I was on weekend update in my head. I'm like, this is what, what can I ever tell them that it's going to be bigger second to calling them to say I got on SNL. Right. And I was like, Hey, I'm going to be, uh,

uh, I'm not going to do like, as a, like here comes the bad news, but here's the good news. I'm like, I'm not going to be in sketches anymore, but I am the new anchor of weekend update.

And my mom was like, you're not going to do sketches anymore. And I was like, and then it was like, not her fault. Right. I anymore. And I was like, and then it was like, not her fault, right? I just like, but that's why in life, it's so good to have a friend like you

where I could just give you the information and I didn't have to explain like, and why, here's why it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just, you just knew. I'm in show business.

Your parents are not. Yeah, but there's plenty of people in show business your parents are not yeah but there's plenty people in show business who don't get it yeah but yeah i was just it was i was scared i was scared not like scared but i was like i didn't it wasn't a it wasn't an auto it wasn't a gimme it wasn't they weren't giving it to you no and they weren't the competition was pretty significant not even like fuck that it was just like oh he's good they're good well that was always the problem at snl was knowing that there weren't the second choice wasn't a wrong choice

yeah you know it was, and you could probably go five choices deep before you would make them one. But they get to sixth and there you are. Oh, Myers. What's that? Myers gets to be a frustrated waiter. And then Correspondence Dinner, another great night.

Real quick, I'll get to Curious because I love, that is a great night. We used to joke that there would be photos from popular sketches on the wall at snl and there were like six of them where i was just a guy while someone was crushing i was a guy sitting on a couch in the background like going like this yeah i remember you and i talked about sketches one time and i and i said yeah you don't want to be the guy in the sketch who says you're driving me crazy. Yeah. That means you're not getting laughs.

Yeah. You're a straight man. You're a straight man. I mean, it's nicer when you have a late night show because then you just like you're by design. You're the straight man or update desk. But in sketches, it's bad. sign you're the straight man or update desk but in sketches it's bad well update another hilarious thing about update which was that update especially when you were host probably forever but it was the last it was the last court of appeals yeah for crazy people yeah like seth so then

mr myers well you i think you said you made me laugh once just talking about it, like Stefan in the green room before going on update and the idea that a segment producer was like, and now you do have St. Patrick's Day tips this time because it has gone off the rails a lot. And Stefan's swearing to them. No, I'm prepared. And I know what I'm going to say.

And I'm going to get out there. And then it just is like, wait, what? Yeah. Another great get. Alex Baze made me a doormat that said, I'm going to stop you right there. Because that was, if I had to catchphrase and we could update it. I would like to just pause the podcast right here to salute Baze. Greatest living joke writer in America.

I said, I've said it on here before. Yeah. He wrote, uh, he wrote like a supermodels vagina. Let's all give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio. And he also wrote one of my favorite jokes ever for you,

for the correspondence dinner. Donald Trump said recently has a great relationship with the blacks, though, unless the blacks, though unless the blacks are a family of white people, I bet he's mistaken. And that's just two out of, he also wrote the black eyed peas are doing a free concert in central park, a free concert in central park, the black eyed peas.

That sounds too true to be good. Central Park. A free concert in Central Park. The Black Eyed Peas. That sounds too true to be good. Those are three out of legitimately a thousand incredible jokes the guy's written. I mean, again, a banger a day. Easy. Sometimes three. A day. A day.

He writes, closer look. You, him. Sal writes. sometimes three a day a day and when i look you him sal writes i want to make sure sal genteel also shout out race the first draft and then bays and i come in and put in a few jokes but that waiting for the bays draft on anything is so exciting because it's just he writes in like blue as you just scroll through like a 30 page document there's four blues and he's just like send them to cards he when i left snoh i got late night i went into lauren's office and uh he said you can't have bass and i said i only i'm only taking bass but it was very uh i mean i think that is the highest tribute you can get as a right i can't believe we said lauren's not desperate for anyone and then but lauren highest tribute you can get. I can't believe we said Lauren's not desperate for anyone. But Lauren literally said you can't have babies. And then Lauren did a very funny bit,

which is he kept naming his least favorite writers at the time and telling me I could have them, which I thought was beyond him. Give me some of the names. I'm kidding. But I can't believe he knew their names. Because I will say when Lauren is dismissive of a writer, it feels like...

It's like they die. And it's like, oh no, look at that. This bit only worked if you knew their names. No, actually it's worse for them than they know. And he was like,

I've already told them. So it's on. That they start on Monday. You have a correspondence to dinner base with a key player there. Yep. You were there.

Yep. Are you going to give me the key player designation? Key player. We had a bunch of us. John Mulaney, key player there yep you were there yep no i get are you gonna give me the key player designation key player we had a bunch of us john mulaney key player will you give him a key player designation he was a key player mulaney wrote one of my favorite jokes you didn't do won't age well we were it was when drones first became known yeah obama uses drones uh if you don't know what drones are, drones are the street gang that Joe Lieberman was a member of in the 50s. Some variation on that. The drones.

That was a very special time. We worked very hard on that. Yes. Well, that's what I want to say about you, which is for a former procrastinator, if anybody ever even insinuates anything say about you, which is for, for a former procrastinator, if anybody ever even insinuates anything negative about you, I am. It's like, you want to talk about fucking values. You want to talk about comedy values. You fucking write your ass off and you wrote, uh, i can see russia from my house you wrote like the you wrote a lot of famous sketches and that's just as a writer plus all the shit you've done correspondence center how many episodes

of uh whatever a thousand fourteen hundred plus yeah golden globes i'm very happy with golden glow yeah we had a time you know there was a time where the SBs was a really fucking kick-ass award show to do. It was fun. We got to do sketches. Yeah. That's the only time you've ever gotten mad at me. I direct some promos. We couldn't do it a certain way.

You didn't know that. You got mad at me. Because I didn't tell you. It was a thing about moving moving the moving the chains it was it's something the script changed and i'd like just didn't tell you and you were mad i get i should say the the time where i'm i get uh most likely to be mad is like out of my element where i have to perform right you know where i have to like be on camera because I'm already so because I will say I've never fully rebounded from those years of yeah you know and so when

it's my I mean again I feel when I walk on a stage tell jokes I'm like good there but like when it's like shoot a promo for a thing it's like well it's also weird that you're you are better at update correspondence center sb's late night talk show host then i'm sorry fred will you know what i mean like then those guys who are fucking outstanding at the thing they do right and that is you're better at late night then than Sudeikis probably would have been. But you know what he's better at? Ted Lasso. Be a goldfish, Sam. Yeah. There is that thing that I do think comes with the wisdom of doing this for a while

is seeding away the things you're not good at. Don't try to hold on to a little piece of something that you're you know you can't break the top 50 it's also yeah what am i going to be the best it's like what i did with stand-up where it's like all right i'm not going to be like the there are guys that are better at that but i can figure out a niche that's like oh yeah yeah like then it's you become that thing and that matters and that has value and again being yeah being the best at a at a a sort of like i don't know curated thing is so much better than being you know the hundredth what can i come in first in what can you come in first in meaning that's the question that you have to ask right

or at least you know i'm asking you now no but yeah like what can i make a significant what i can be an also ran as a sketch guy or i can be uh because at the end of the day it requires a level of humility yeah and a level of like honesty with yourself yeah and it does help too if you can genuinely enjoy watching other people be great at something because that also helps you know you can't do it right you're like oh man right like it's not like it was easy for bill or andy or jason i watched how yeah it's funny because the hater now is like oh i had panic attacks but he fucking made it look easy on tv yeah and then that's the thing where you you just is that especially watching somebody who you see how hard it is and then they when the camera rolls they crush it and you're

like oh i'm not i'm not even close to this yeah but uh it's nice to be somewhere where you feel you belong and i i am very i feel like i'm very grateful for that because i know a lot of people in show business don't end up there well yeah it's a weird it's a i was talking to somebody yesterday it's a lot of people don't even know what they want to do right so to in life they don't career vocation fan like and to be able to do it and succeed at it but i also the point i want to make with you is like you fucking struggled yeah it wasn't it sounds like easy but i but oh two oh three oh four like it was not i mean it's that awful feel where you just feel helpless and you nobody and you realize nobody cares how badly you want it nobody cares how hurt you'll be if it gets taken away i'm not saying they're

unsympathetic i I do feel like a lot. I don't think, but even that thing of like, today I don't care how much people want it. I guess what I mean is the audience, a comedy audience doesn't care how much you want it. And they don't, you know, ultimately if like they, given the choice of, you know, watching a sketch performer they don't love

in their 60s and are finding out what the new thing is, like they'll choose the new thing every time as they should. But one of my other favorite shoemakers as far as wanting something i remember maybe my third year on the show there was a sketch we'd done once it had gone pretty well a little that'll move the chains i think people argue but it did well at the table at between uh sorry after the table you you find out what gets picked, what doesn't. And it hadn't gotten picked. And so I went into Shoemaker's office.

And I was very lucky to have somebody like Shoemaker that I could go complain to. Because a lot of people didn't have that. And I could go complain to him as much as a friend as someone who was in the room. And I just sort of went in and very sullenly flopped on the couch. And he said, what's wrong? And again, he's been nothing but patient with me for the past 20 plus years and he's very loving and um he like i said doesn't lose his temper historically he's like just a salt of the earth yeah and just smart and and also like incredibly

seasoned like going on almost 40 years in the snl and started the part like started as a script pa so he's seen it from every angle and so he said what's wrong and i said i just i just really wanted to do that one and instead of empathy he said oh you really wanted no one in the room had any idea let me call lorn because maybe he'll change his mind if he knows you really wanted to do it and i was like all right geez by the way cut to you and me talking six years later you're the head writer and you needed somebody to cut a joke in a sketch and they were like oh we really like that joke we were like did you like it did you like that joke i bet you did the audience didn't like it yeah fucking cut it because we

don't have time for that part of the sketch of this part of the show but like oh we like it so we like it that's our favorite part oh we love that part well you can it's good news it was on they printed it out and everything there's a cue card you can bring it home because we're not using it today absolutely i'll get it i'll get you the tape uh it's also it was also funny seeing you go from being whatever talent to like more of a manager and i remember when you it was it was summer of auditions and like the the you had to let people know by noon the next day and uh and I remember you were like yeah I remember sweating about this but now that I'm on the other side I'm like let's wait till 11 59 tomorrow to decide. You just go like, oh, what's going to benefit me? What's the, but like, why would I care?

And that's how life is. I will say one of the great, Lauren let me tell a few people I got hired and that was one of my favorite things I ever got to do. He'd be like, why don't you tell them? And it was the best. He let me pick the sketches. Just pick the order of the sketch on the show.

That's great. I mean, that's some real, like standing in front of that wall. Yeah. That's a famous wall. It's a famous, well, I didn't know you weren't supposed to touch it. I didn't know only he touched it,

and then I started touching it, and everybody just kind of weirded out. I remember once a host, is lawrence very again people i think underestimate how his personality is so perfect for that job like he again doesn't lose his temper certainly not with a host right no and some hosts um kind of come looking for a fight a little bit weirdly which is strange and uh i remember i was coming in between dress and air and looking at the board and the order and being like and this is what you're going with and lauren was like that's what we're going with and it was like we were all like

because like for lauren that was you know uh confronted confronting yeah um okay so how would you say you've grown we didn't really cover family at all meaning i know they're great yeah what so what if as a father the who were you when you started and who are you now ah that's a good question i don't know, they, I will say the fact that there's, and I know this is not that impressive to a Brennan, but the fact that there's three of them now, it does feel like a crew in a way that's really fun.

It is. That's a crew. It's a crew. That's like eight in the 70s. And it's just, they're such good company. And again, you just give them room to be themselves and then enjoy the show, right?

If you keep them fed and you keep them safe and you do the things that are necessary for them to thrive and be healthy, the rest of it, you just realize how much of it as they get older, the choices they make and you just support their uniqueness. And they're very different different and yet they're also very much the Myers kids and I love that part of it it's great and it's as good as advertised yeah it's as good as advertised it's like if they can because they're not good all the time but they're the moments they're good

are so sustainable more than any sort of professional success or or any i don't know interaction you have with other people like when they when you have a genuinely good moment with a kid like it's like just feels like it like resets everything negative for like a 24 hour period. Somebody said it's like the love he always wanted is from his kid. I was like, oh. I feel like I do something. I think it's a great Mother's Day present, which is I, over the course of a year. Lingerie?

Lingerie. I write down every funny thing my kids say and then i type it up like on a typewriter right my wife and like it's gets the list gets longer because they're just older and they say funnier things and so you should slip in if this is the devil's playground you know what i should slip in is like one negative thing about my wife to see if she read the whole eight pages uh that is a and is are they all things she's heard some she's heard some like because some i don't tell her everything and and but like i just on my phone i have like a file of like funny things you ever say to the kid like don't repeat that

to your mom some are really good this is a very i mean this is one of my wife's all-time favorite which is i said uh the seven-year-old uh hey let's be really nice to mommy today and he said why i'm like she's just had a really stressful week and she does so much for us and she has to take care of so many things so we should be really nice to her and he said or you could do some of that stuff i was just like fuck she's gonna like tell that to everybody the rest of her life and what's funny is i don't know if that's more alexi or you meaning like who wrote who which yeah which brain which part of the spirit did the kid get that from it's true i don't know either but it is very funny that he immediately did the math and he's like i think she'd rather i don't think she wants our kindness

i think she wants us to chip in which is 100 of the case yeah but come on if i can help out a little bit kids you know um here's a question that i don't think you'll like or want to answer but and we'll wrap it up movie of your life who plays you and what's the arc i mean i think that you know know, we all, we all do. I think it's almost important to think we're all underdogs. And I'm very aware that I'm not. They're way bigger underdogs in this world. It's relative. Everything's relative.

But I do think like part of your drive is to think you're an underdog, right? Right. Like I think, so it's an important part of self-preservation to think that. And I think there's, so, but at the same time i realized like i you know i don't know if people saw a movie in my life they'd want to see an underdog story i don't i would like but i you are yes but i mean like michael jordan's not an underdog but i know why he thinks he is of course that so it's that yes it's that so i don't i don't know what the obviously written by martin tina fey oh martin mcdonough martin mcdonough i would love martin mcdonough would

be the happy if martin mcdonough because i will say in bruges which if you don't know much about sud meyers it's he's an in bruges bruges he's a bruges head br I'm a Bruges head. Been to Bruges. Traveled to Bruges. Took pictures. Talked about the movie to me endlessly. And I do think, I think it's a, what I love about that movie is it's a really great movie about male friendship. And I've had a great many female friends in my life,

but I think that certain male friendships, the one that I've had with Shoemaker, the one that I've had with old Ahem Jones over there, like I wasn't going to get there. I'm trying to put a button. I was so scared that you were going to forget about me. I'm trying to button blocks here. Oh, fuck.

Buttons. You do blocks. I do buttons. No, but look at who's speaking of buttons. Always one more button. Can I interest you in the Church of Latter-day Saints? Go ahead. Are you still making your own shirts?

Yeah. Are you really? This is one of the originals, yeah. That's great. Yep. I mean, I just made them once. I've got a Brandon in my closet. Yeah, I made them once.

Oh, really? They're still for sale, yeah. I just made them once, and I have a... I got to put them back on sale. Anyhow, go to neilbrennan.com. Okay, so male friendship. Yeah, but I will say, I have been... He's really important. Go to neilvernon.com. Okay, so male friendship.

Yeah, but I will say, I have been, it's really important. You were, because I had Shoemaker first, and I was just saying this to Shoemaker today. Like at the time where I was the most full of self-doubt, like I needed two sources.

You know the way a journalist needs two sources? I needed two sources to tell me, you're better than you think, it's going to be okay. And I know it's weird to tell people it's going to be okay because you really don't know, right? But it helps, I think, most people wake up in the morning and move on to the next day better if someone's told them it's going to be okay. And I had that with you in Shoemaker.

That was really important to me. That was my ambruge. Got a little mealy him it's going to be okay and i had that with you in shoemaker and that was really important to me that was my ambruge got a little mealy mouth they got to be honest it was i you were ready i was ready to soar the end of your the end of that statement and you kind of went down i i got mealy mouthed it just went i was waiting for like it's just like but what i'm looking for was like and and because of two people, I needed some, I need colons. I needed commas. All right. Gotcha. Well, I will just say that in my darkest time, there were two lights, two lights through the fog.

I'm turning into Forte. Great mistake has been made with this obama they were michael shoemaker and neil brent and they steered this ship into port and for that i am who plays you who plays shoemaker who plays obviously i'm colin farrell he's brendan gleason and you can be i guessiennes you want Ray Fiennes I guess I always thought Chief Justice Sonia Sotomayor John Roberts should play Shoemaker

oh interesting that's what he I said Sonia Sotomayor because he went to the same high school as him Cardinal Spellman in the Bronx

I did a I did a charity event in the Bronx for this did a, I did a charity event in the Bronx for this wonderful organization called Bronx Works. And I said to Shoemaker, give me a joke that'll work in the Bronx.

And he said, just say, don't drive to City Island on Mother's Day. And it fucking crushed. And you still don't know why? my understanding is uh there's only one road in and one road out and there's a lot of restaurants and uh bad traffic it's a bronx native cackling in the background or a guy who's familiar with city island or mothers um well what blocks yeah look it's it's been a it was what a was a little chop

on our descent but i love you like hell i love you too buddy blocks blocks Everybody wants to have it, wants to have it real, my man All you have to do is open, open up your hand, my man