Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Jesse Joins Andy Richter to Talk About His Roots

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

Today, we are giving you a sneak peak into comedian Andy Richter’s podcast, The Three Questions with Andy Richter. Every Tuesday on The Three Questions, Andy invites friends, actors, musicians and asks them all the same three questions: "Where do you come from? Where are you going? What have you learned?" And tune in to the podcast feed every Friday to hear Andy talk to listeners on "The Andy Richter Call-In Show!" Jesse joined Andy last year for a conversation about growing up in New Mexico, his big break in “Modern Family,” and his love for the theater. In the following clip, you’ll hear Jesse talk about the first time he ever performed in front of his high school English class. Listen to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Friday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello listeners. Today we're doing something a little bit different and I want to recommend a show to you that I love. It's called Dinners on Me and it's hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who you might know as Mitchell from Modern Family, and he is a lovely person. Each week Jesse takes new friends and old ones out to dinner at restaurants across LA and New York City because the best conversations always seem to happen over a meal. Past guests have included his modern family co-stars like Julie Bowen and Sofia Vergara,

plus other stars like Iggy Azalea, Sarah Paulson, Justin Long and more. Past guests also include me. I recently sat down with Jesse at Connie & Ted's in West Hollywood, he paid, and we got into all kinds of conversation. Here's a clip. My friend, Nikki Glazer, the comedian.

Yeah, I know Nikki. Shortly after I split up, Nikki said, oh, you gotta get on Raya, you know, the one that's like supposedly celebrity. There's like a waiting list to get on ahead. Yeah, and you have to be okayed to be in on it. Uh-huh. She said, I'll recommend you. And I said, okay. celebrity. There's like a waiting list to get on ahead. Yeah, and you have to be okayed to be in on it. She said, I'll recommend you.

And I said, okay. She recommended me and I signed up. And I was in no position to self-examine and write cute little things about myself because I just felt like I'm an old shoe. Like I'm garbage. What kind of music do I like? Garbage music. And it was also, you had to pick What kind of music do I like? Garbage music. And it was, it was also, you had to pick a piece of music and everything I plugged in was just too old for it.

Like it was like, I couldn't find anything. Like ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. No, well, I mean just like, no, but I mean like Aretha Franklin or I don't know. They didn't even have these songs that I was putting in so I don't even remember what I settled on. God, I'm desperate to know. I think I settled on an Al Green

which I felt was much too forward. You know, cause that's like a come on baby, let's go. Is that like a let's get it on? Yeah, a little bit, yeah, yeah. But I don't think it was that. So funny. And I put it together finally and I picked big photos of yourself which is truly. Oh, that's the worst.

I mean, I hate even submitting a headshot. Oh, it's just I can't. So I picked the photos and I kind of send it up and then I was kind of browsing through and I realized, oh, I thought I just had made it and was saving it, but it was like, it was out. And in circulating, and it was only about a half an hour, but I was like, yeah, delete, delete. And you weren't ready. Squashed the whole thing.

And I just couldn't. It was my first experience. And this held true a little bit to Hinge too, but I felt like if you went by Raya, you would think that in Los Angeles, at any given time, there were like 100 women in their 40s leaping in the surf joyously. And I was just like, this is not my crowd.

But I really, I mean, Jan and I, it was very short time that I was even on the thing and I met her, because we went out on a couple of dates and then she came over to my house and I cooked her dinner, which is, I understand the power of that. Sure, it's very powerful. And then I just started hanging out at her house and I met her daughter

and I started finding myself driving home feeling very, very happy. Like I say, a way that snuck up on me. A big deal to me, a realization that crept up on me about her too is that she did not need me. She has her own business. She has a career that she's been, you know, involved in for years and years, does well, is well respected in her community,

decided to have a baby and had a baby on her own, you know? Like I never had to, I never felt any kind of pressure to behave a certain way or be anybody other than myself. And I never, I didn't have that with other people that I dated. You can hear the rest of that episode by listening to Dinners on Me wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to subscribe so you can take a seat at the table with a different guest every Tuesday.