Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers - AMY POEHLER Made a Huge Mistake in Punta Cana
Episode Date: June 27, 2023Seth & Josh's longtime friend Amy Poehler joins the pod to talk about Cape Cod and solo trips. Hosted by Seth & Josh Meyers. Theme song written & performed by Jeff Tweedy. Produced by Rabbit Grin Pro...ductions.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Well, look at us. It's the Myers brothers.
Welcome to the podcast, everybody.
Welcome to the podcast. And we wanted to tell you real quick why we're doing this podcast in the first place.
Josh and I are, well, spoiler alert, brothers.
And we were reflecting on the fact that we have taken so many family trips over the years.
And the ones we always talk about are the ones where things went terribly wrong. Yeah, they really stand out. And they sort of, I feel like they make
families stronger, or they've brought us closer together and sort of remembering
those disasters is there's a certain joy in that that you don't get from enjoying,
oh, the great vacation with nothing really remarkable other than that it was fun or nice.
Family trips are sort of crucibles where I feel like everybody gets together and you sort of see
what your family is made of. And so we thought it would be fun to talk to friends of ours about the
kinds of trips they took, the kind of travelers they were, how their parents behaved on vacation,
and just in general, what they would do as they were kids when they
would have time off. Yeah. And it also, I sort of feel like when you're a kid, everyone's a kid,
everyone's so much the same. You sort of have that same sense of wonder at the world and you're
experiencing things and you're not famous when you're a kid, unless you're like one of those weird, famous kids. And so, it's like, it's a bit of an equalizer. And I feel like
some of the people that we're going to have on here will be more relatable as children,
as they recount sort of stories of being kids with their parents or their siblings,
then they might be otherwise.
And I think, you know, with a few exceptions, obviously,
kids are less jaded about vacations as well.
I remember just being so over the moon excited,
except for a few of the really traumatic harrowing times
where everything went wrong.
But in general, I just remember a hotel pool,
no matter what hotel it was, being beyond my comprehension as far as a thing that I got to hang out in.
Yeah. I mean, I distinctly remember the first time I ever saw a Ms. Pac-Man machine.
And that sticks with me as a big moment in my life.
And we were on vacation.
So that's one of the things we're out to do with this podcast,
to just talk to people we already love and respect
and dig down into that time where they were kids just like we all were.
So I'm very excited about our guest today, Josh.
Oh, yeah, me too.
I have known this person since 2001
when we both started at the same time on Saturday Night Live. And she's
someone, because I've known her for over 20 years, you've gotten to hang out with her a great deal
too. Yeah, she even calls me by my childhood nickname. She calls me Poshy. She calls you Poshy.
And you're going to hear over the course of this podcast, you're going to hear a lot of Poshy and
a lot of Sufi find their way into the podcast. And we apologize for that, but that's what we
call each other when we're children.
And yeah, we haven't gotten better nicknames since.
Yeah, those are family names.
The other thing that's fun about talking to our friend Amy Poehler,
if we haven't given it away already,
is that she also comes from a core four family.
One sibling, two parents.
And I feel like we've had a lot of overlap as far as the way we grew up.
Yeah, and a fellow New Englander.
And a fellow New Englander.
Please enjoy our conversation with Amy Poehler, but first, our theme song from Jeff Tweedy.
Jeff Tweedy did our theme song?
Yeah, I've told you this like 50 times. Read your emails.
Hello, Amy Poehler.
Look at you. How's it going? We're so happyler. Look at you.
How's it going?
We're so happy to be talking to you.
Same. I'm always so nervous that I'm not getting the tech right, but this looks okay, right?
You look great, and we can hear you.
I think the very fact that we can hear you is all that matters.
Amy, how have you been? Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to be in NYC for the summer. I've landed for my two-month sabbatical. And I will, before we get
started, because we do want to delve into your past, but you have this very exciting present
where you and our old friend Tina Fey are going on the Restless Leg Tour. I know you've done your first set of shows.
I'm hearing great things.
It's been so fun.
I'm just trying to collect talk show stories to tell you about it in your show.
But it's been a blast.
So fun.
So nice to be in front of a live audience.
When was the last time you and Tina...
I guess if you don't count the Golden Globes,
when was the last time you and Tina
were actually just performing
in front of an audience together?
We did like a festival, Netflix festival last year,
which is kind of why we were like,
we should try to make a show out of this
and go on the road.
Now, Amy, I've been lucky enough over the years
to meet your family,
your lovely parents, Bill and Eileen,
your brother, Greg.
You're a lot like the Myers family.
If only.
You're a core four, a core four.
That's right.
That's so right.
When I see you guys together, it really does,
it does make me feel like what our family did,
which is like, you're all very funny.
You really like to tease each other.
That's a love language that you all have.
And I don't know if it's a New England thing, but it's definitely our family too. It's certainly very hard to thrive in New England without that in your toolbox. Loving, sort of being able to lovingly tease people. If you're
too sensitive, it's a tough place to grow up. And you know, I know I've said this to you, Seth,
but I do want to say this to you, Josh. If only my sons grow up to be like the two of you.
That's sweet.
It's so true. Real friends who work together, who respect each other, who are both so handsome.
Yeah. What's the age difference between your guys?
21 months.
All right. Yeah.
Yeah. They're a year apart in school, but they're almost two years apart.
What about, what's the age difference with you guys?
Do you want to know the craziest thing?
That Josh and I are two years and 11 days,
and my boys are two years and 11 days.
No way, to the day?
To the day, Ash and Axel.
And that's something my parents figured it out.
And you know what?
I never checked the math, so it might be totally wrong.
But that came from Larry and Hillary.
Oh, so Larry and Hillary told you this, but you haven't done the math.
Well, Larry told us.
Larry told us.
Okay, this is even more.
Okay, if Larry said it, then we need to run the numbers.
So you're a chorophor.
When you grow up in Burlington, Mass.
That's right.
What are your first memories of family trips?
What kind of trips did the Polars take?
Okay.
So I was trying to do some thinking about this before I did your podcast.
And we just took a lot of day trips.
I don't think I was on an airplane until I was like a sophomore in high school.
We never flew anywhere.
We didn't have the dough.
And so we just drove a lot. Specifically, we went to the Cape. Cape Cod was our destination.
But you would go to Cape Cod and come home that day or you would stay the night?
We'd go, we'd get out of the car, we'd touch it and we'd get right back in the car.
That traffic can be bad going out to the Cape.
That's right.
To be fair, you did say a day trip.
So I was basing it off of being a day trip.
We couldn't afford to stay.
We could not afford to stay even one minute.
No, I'm sorry.
We would do like, we'd do like a week down there.
Okay, gotcha.
A week on the Cape.
I'm hearing my mother's voice as I say this
because she's going to be like,
we went to more trips than that.
Like she's going to be so mad.
She hates how I say that we were lower middle class.
But we took a big trip.
Our big family trip was to Puerto Rico.
Wow.
And was that high school or was that before?
That was, I think I was, that was like my first,
one of my first plane trips, if not the first.
And that was when I was in, I think maybe
eighth or ninth grade. I can remember my attitude, which was really like, this sucks. So I think it
was around that time. You thought it sucked from it's the inception of the idea. Okay. So do you
guys remember that time in your life when maybe, maybe you're still in this time in your life where
trips like are more fun if you brought a friend, were you guys allowed that time in your life when maybe maybe you're still in this time in your life where trips like are more fun if you brought a friend were you guys allowed to bring friends
in like your trips or did you have to be each other's friend we were each other's friends
yeah but i we were also we were close so i don't think we ever thought oh this would be so much
more fun if we had a friend we were pretty happy with the deal yeah we were so core for like you
guys but you know you do get i don't know there's an age where you're you know and i have a brother if we had a friend. We were pretty happy with the deal. Yeah. We were so core for like you guys,
but you know, you do get, I don't know, there's an age where you're, you know, and I have a brother.
So, you know, maybe if I had a younger sister, but you know, sometimes we're like, when you're
a teenager, like, you don't want to hang out with your little brother. Like, and he certainly does
not want to hang out with you. So I just remember being like, Oh, what is this stupid trip we have
to go on? And my grandmother lived in Puerto Rico.
I did not know this forever or had like retired there.
My dad's mom, her fourth marriage, bless her heart,
was to a wonderful Italian man that we called Uncle Jerry.
He was so nice.
And Uncle Jerry was born in Italy,
moved to the States,
and then moved to Puerto Rico.
And so she lived right near the rainforest
in El Yunque, was the section of Puerto Rico.
So it was like this lush, beautiful,
humid Puerto Rican paradise
that I was like, where are we going?
Like I was such a bitch.
Did you change your tune once you saw The Lush
Paradise? You know what? I was thinking about this because I want to tell you yes, but the reality is
I think family trips are wasted on teens. Yeah. I think they're wasted. So yes, I saw some cool
stuff, but I was very like moody. And at the time, I just remember being like, it's so hot.
Like there's frogs everywhere.
And the food is so weird.
I was really into how weird the food was, which, of course, this is like basic white girl shit where I didn't know the deliciousness that I was eating.
And you're famously, famously anti-frog.
You know how I feel about frogs.
I don't want to get into it because I know you guys are very pro-frog. You know how I feel about frogs. I don't want to get into it because I know you guys are very pro-frog. But there's a thing in Puerto Rico called the coqui, C-O-Q-U-I. It's
kind of like a mascot, which is like these little frogs. I think it would be like comparable to,
you know, like a cricket. They have t-shirts that have coquilles and they make the sound coqui,
coqui, coqui. And so the coquilles cookies are everywhere there's a lot of frogs
or there were in the 80s you think no more yeah i don't know they've been i'm sure they've been
marginalized now and do you think the frog was called the cookie and then they trained them to
make that noise or do you think they they got them to say their names.
Yeah, they trained it.
They didn't do it the other way around.
Hey, real quick.
Your grandmother was married four times.
How many of them did you know?
Two.
My grandfather, who my dad's adopted father was our grandfather, Granka.
And that was her longest marriage.
And then she was married before- Would he say, Granka, Granka, Granka?
Yeah.
Wait, what did you call your grandparents? Did you guys have good names for your grandparents?
We had Grandma and Grandpa, and then we had Frank and Addie.
Oh, that's right. I knew that. They were sort of cosmopolitan and didn't want to be called.
But do you know what my kids call my parents? No.
It's awesome. And Granka is kind of perfect. They call them Ponkas
because Ash couldn't say grandpa,
and he started saying Panka.
And so we call them Panka Yeri and Panka Hurri,
and it's really perfect.
And now the other kids do as well.
Wait, so all the grandparents are called Pankas?
My parents are called the Pankas.
And why do you have to?
Oh, because Panka is a gender-neutral term.
Panka is gender-neutral, yeah. it just means old people who are blood relation.
Ponca. And then so they don't say. And then what's the second word? Ponca what?
Oh, so my dad, Larry. So when we were growing up, my parents always had like pet names for each other, which were Yeri for Larry and Hurry for Hillary.
So that kind of fit in nicely. By the way, the other thing that's
important about Ponca Yuri and Ponca Hurry, which are perfect names. When I first had, I don't know
if your parents were like this. When my kids were born, my first kid, my dad and mom thought it was
up to them to choose what they wanted to be called. And my dad decided he wanted to be called
Cisco, like the Cisco kid. Like a character from General Hospital. Yeah. He wanted to be called Sisko, like the Sisko kid. Like a character from General Hospital.
Yeah, he wanted to be Sisko.
And my mom had a Swedish grandmother.
And she was like, I think in Sweden they call it mumi.
And I'm like, we're not going to do mormor.
Yes, my brother lives in Sweden.
And yeah, they have a mormor.
Yeah, but she was like, I want to be mormor.
And it's like, what?
You have no identification with your Swedish roots.
I don't want to learn more and more.
You won't remember more and more.
So anyways, it worked out.
What do your kids call Bill and Eileen?
I just want to point something out about your parents
is that they have pet names for each other,
but yet they name their pet the same name.
Yes.
Wild.
What Amy is calling out is the fact that my parents have had,
how many now, Josh?
Six.
Six old English sheepdogs from when Josh and I were probably seven and five
or something like that?
Younger, because we had the first Albert in Michigan, but yeah.
So six, yeah, the first Albert.
They've all been named Albert.
Yep.
And then, like, my father will be walking a sheepdog and like one of my old friends who
lives in town who doesn't see my father very often will see him and be like, is that Albert?
And my dad will be like, yeah.
And my friend will be like the same one.
And my dad's like, no, this sheepdog's not 40.
Like 280 years old in dog years.
And they're like, well, which is less weird?
You naming your dog the same thing or me thinking the dog's alive?
You know what?
That's a case where everybody's a dummy.
Yeah, we had Gunka and we had Granka.
So those are ours.
Where is that from?
Where's Gunka and Granka?
I think it was the same thing.
I couldn't pronounce.
Grandpa.
Those are the best ones.
It feels very old world. And then it turns out it's. I couldn't pronounce grandpa. Those are the best ones. It feels very old world.
And then it turns out it's just kids can't say it.
And then this is not going to be PC, but I'll share it, which is we had Nana on both sides.
But my dad's mom is a quarter Portuguese, which I'm now discovering my Portuguese roots, which I have.
But my grandmother on my dad's side had darker skin.
She could tan, whereas my Irish side, like myself, were pretty fair-skinned. So we would call them
white Nana and brown Nana. Brown Nana lived in Puerto Rico and just kept getting more tan,
looked incredible. And she and her Italian husband lived there. So that's who we visited.
Gotcha. And when you would go for a week in the
Cape, what would you do for lodging? Would you sort of hotel it? So there was a house that should
just be one house, but was split into two to rent. So we would rent a house in Dennisport in the Cape
on Bayview Beach. It was right on the beach. And we would get one half of the house.
So the core four would power in there.
And I think it was two bedrooms.
And I have real fond memories of my Walkman, my CD Walkman.
Oh, did I have CDs in it?
It might've been even cassette tapes.
I think it is.
Right?
And then just putting on my like fuzzy headphones
and just listening to the Violent Femmes, walking the beach, just being like, I can't wait to get out of here. Like very, very moody.
So no matter where you went, your early vacations were, I can't wait to get out of here. That was the case with the cape. But yeah, we went down there a lot. And I remember that the house was for sale.
And God, it was probably nothing.
And my parents were just thinking like, oh man, can you even imagine if we ever, you know,
they were just thinking, well, could we ever buy this?
And, you know, we couldn't.
But back then the cape was cheap.
Josh and I would always share a bed on most of our vacations. We'd get a hotel
room with two king beds in the same room, two queens. Probably. My parents, we'd all be in the
same room. Would you and Greg share a room then? Yeah, we would share a room. I don't know we'd
shared a bed as much, but I'm sure we did. I'm sure there were times when we did. And it's funny
when you have like a brother and sister, there's not as much expectation to kind of do the same thing. But I would love to have
my brother on because we have the same experience and completely different stories all the time.
I don't know if that happens with you too, but it's like, what do you mean? That was really fun.
And someone's like, what are you talking about? Everybody was fighting, but we were in the same
room. I don't, I wonder what his experience of that
would be. Our version of that is we just like different things. So I think our memories are
the same, but even at the time, Josh wanted to be active and I wanted to be passive. And so
anything like skiing or parasailing or things that I think most people would think are fun,
I always didn't want to do.
Yeah.
You'd get cold and you'd just go to the lodge and be like,
I'm cold.
And mom would be like, we're cold.
And then dad and I would stay out.
Yeah.
Until our toes fell off.
When Seth got cold, mom got cold.
Yeah.
I mean, she really, she on uh whatever we're taking on our mother was very much uh
if you needed to like stay home from school because you weren't feeling well or because
you had a test or something you would just wake up and if mom came to get you up you would say
like i don't feel well and she'd be like okay like let's let's stay home and then she was a
school teacher and if she if she was a school teacher.
And if she was teaching at the time,
she'd be like, I'll take the day off.
She would drive to Blockbuster Video.
She would rent movies, pick up a pizza and come back.
But if our dad woke us up, he'd be like,
come downstairs, have a cup of tea and toast and you're going to school.
So our mom was very easy to-
That sounds so nice.
You have two, both your parents, school teachers.
Our mom was a school teacher.
I don't know about maybe if you have any memory of this,
but I think when teachers retire,
they often have all these sick days they didn't use,
and they get compensated for those sick days.
And my mom was a teacher for 30 years,
and I think they told her she was the first teacher who retired
with zero sick days left.
Like she took every single one.
No way.
Over the years.
She was like.
She did it.
A lot of me days.
A lot of substitutes teaching French through the public school system over my mom's long career.
A lot of kids know the wrong word for apple because your mom needed a day.
Yeah.
They say pomme de terre when they should just stop at pomme.
Yeah, exactly.
A lot of people calling apples potatoes.
A lot of people doing it.
And they eat potatoes like apples,
and it's, yeah, they really got to be cooked.
They will, yeah, because she wasn't there that day.
And the other thing I remember about the Cape
is fireworks.
Yeah.
That's a very Massachusetts thing, I think.
I remember even as a kid,
I always thought fireworks shows were too long
and I felt like other people were more excited
than I was ever going to be
I like the smell of them
like the sulfur like smell
when they are lit
and I love sparklers
I think sparklers are great
but no I don't enjoy fireworks
lighting them
I don't enjoy them
for maybe 5 minutes but then too long sparklers are like those toys But no, I don't enjoy fireworks, lighting them, watch. I don't enjoy them.
For maybe five minutes, but then too long.
Sparklers are like those toys that like,
it'd be like a motorcycle and you'd put a piece of plastic in and you'd like rip it out and then set it down.
But it's like, that's like what it does to a kid.
You take a kid, you light a sparkler,
and then they just run around.
Yeah.
It's like, yeah, it's like a little engine.
I know, you're right.
What is the instinct to make us want to take
that sparkly piece of fire and run?
Yeah, I don't know.
I guess it's too much visual stimulation
to just stand still.
Like you feel as though.
Maybe you're actually, you know,
your caveman instinct is running away from the fire,
but you know, you also want to keep the fun.
Right.
Oh, yeah.
So your kid instinct is, I don't want to put this down, it's too cool.
And your caveman instinct is fire.
I got to get out of here.
Yeah.
If you ever see a kid just like standing still looking at a sparkler, just get away from that kid.
That kid, something's wrong with that kid.
Yeah.
His mom told him he's allergic to running.
When you said you would set up at the beach and other family would come over,
did you have extended family that would be at the Cape at the same time as you?
Yeah. My mom's family, my aunt, my auntie Clea, and my uncle T, Steve, but we called him T,
and his wife, Polly, and their kids. So it was like cousins,
a lot of cousins. Were you close with your cousins?
Yeah. This is not going to come as a surprise to either one of you, but I was the
first daughter, first child, first granddaughter, first cousin. I was the first, first, first. So
I was the oldest in all of that group. So my cousins are considerably,
they felt considerably younger than me at the time.
I was 12 when they were born.
Now they're grown adults and we have so much in common.
So they got older as you did.
Yeah, they also grew up.
But so they were young.
They were like younger than me,
but I did have a couple second and third cousins
that were closer in age, but it was, yeah, it was just that kind of feeling.
But they must've looked up to you then if you were the oldest, like there's something to that. There's a, there's some level of authority. Yeah.
first actual job was being a babysitter yeah and from what i remember of those vacations it was a lot of sunburns yeah because we didn't really know how to the pullers are a fair people we are
fair people even though brown nana was doing her best to try to pump us up well she went to puerto
rica she's like i can't be around these she was like yeah and you know i was told i had portuguese
cheekbones which i don't
want to brag but um congratulations thank you so much but that's recently or was that something you
were hearing as a kid i was told that i met a few people from portugal and they said oh you oh i can
see you look portuguese i said i look portuguese like that's crazy and they said there's a type of
face shape that i believe that I maybe have or borrow from.
That was very exciting growing up as a Pharisee.
Did those people who told you you had Portuguese cheekbones also ask you for money?
Was this part of a scam?
They didn't ask me for money.
They told me about a really exciting opportunity that I invested in,
and I'm excited that I'm invested in it.
How long ago?
When was the initial investment?
It takes time to grow any business, Seth. I won't ask any more follow-ups.
Do you remember your parents' dynamic on vacations? Were they chill? Were they...
Yeah, it's a good question. I feel like, you know, because we had parents who were teachers,
like there's a lot of pressure for that summer vacation. It really is like you better have a
good time. I feel like, you know, my parents are
pretty easygoing. I didn't feel a lot of pressure to squeeze a lot of things in. And I feel like
there was a lot of family around. So there was a lot of socializing. So depending on your introvert,
extrovert level, that was, you know, some days it was like a big, fun, everybody come over,
hang out, sit at the beach kind of thing. And then
other days you really wanted your me time, but it was really park it at the beach, sit down,
eat potato chips. There wasn't a lot of parasailing. Yeah. Was there like a boardwalk or arcade kind
of situation that like taffy action? Yeah, I remember fried dough. I remember a lot of rickety rides.
There always were carnivals.
We loved carnivals and going to carnivals
and those pop-up carnivals,
which now not in a million years
would I go on any of those rides.
My kids, we've gone to a couple pop-up carnivals
in New England.
And my goodness gracious, kids still love it so much.
And it's really funny.
As long as they haven't
seen anything better,
they think those
where you just get on
a little plane
and all they do
is go up and down
while you go in a circle.
But they're over the moon.
I mean,
all they have to do
is see one real amusement park
to never want to go
to those again.
But it's pretty fun right now.
You don't have to ever take them.
Just don't take them.
When the kids were little
and they used to trick or treat,
I used to say, can you believe it? You get to go to ever take them. Just don't take them. When the kids were little and they used to trick or treat, I used to say, can you believe it?
You get to go to five houses.
And they'd be like, what?
I'd be like, you get candy from five houses.
And we would be done in 20 minutes.
Yeah.
That's great.
And they'd feel great.
Then they caught on one year.
And when they catch on, do they sort of admire the fact that you fooled them?
Or are they angry?
I think there's a deep, bitter betrayal that they never get over.
Yeah.
I might've told you this story, but I had a friend of a friend who told me that, you
know, she had some teen boys who got into some trouble with drugs and when they were
getting older.
And so with her fourth, she was like, I can't take it anymore.
Like I got to do something.
So she just lied to her fourth kid and told him that he was allergic to weed.
She said, you're allergic.
You're like when he was 10 or something, 11.
Like, oh, you can't do that.
You can't smoke that because you're allergic.
Like, I'm allergic.
And if you smoke it, you throw up.
And he was like, okay.
You know, he doesn't know he's a kid.
And he spent his entire high school not smoking weed or anything. And he was like, okay. He doesn't know. He's a kid. And he spent his
entire high school not smoking weed or anything. And he was in college and someone passed him a
joint and he was like, oh, I can't, I'm allergic. And they were like, what do you mean? And he's
like, well, if I smoke it, I'll throw up. And they said, well, that's strange because it's
supposed to be for nausea. And they said, who said you were allergic? And he said, my mom.
And then he said he had his whole life flashed before his eyes.
And that boy was Snoop Dogg.
Yeah, it was Snoop Dogg.
Then he made up for lost time.
It didn't work.
And he ended up backfired pretty hard.
Yeah.
So, no, I think they felt betrayed.
But, you know, they got over it, whatever.
Yeah.
Do you guys do that switch witch thing?
Do you know about that?
We do.
Nope, never did it.
I was like, I'm not doing it. And then they never knew about it. whatever yeah do you guys do that switch which thing you know about that we do never did it i
just i was like i'm not doing it and then they never knew about it and then by the time they
knew about it it was uh yeah oh but that is good to like give give away some of your candy right
you can yeah it's like i mean i don't have kids but i've heard of people that do it they like
their kids go and get all this candy and it it's like, if we put the candy outside, the switch witch will come and turn it into a nice toy.
And you get to throw away all this candy.
All this disgusting candy.
Ours is just a straight up, give me that bad candy and here's your sugar-free Skittle.
Oh.
Oh, yeah.
Seth's kids will eat like turmeric popsicles.
And you're like, what?
It's crazy.
Wow.
It's crazy.
I mean, look, everybody, good for you, not for me.
But I find that the kids that were denied sugar when they were younger, they really go for it when they get older.
So just be aware.
I mean, our pantry is rough if you're looking for any sort of tasty reward. And the other day, there was a bag of vegan marshmallows.
And it tasted as much like a regular marshmallow as a seahorse is a regular horse.
It tasted like the top of this microphone.
It was basically that.
The fuzzy top of this microphone.
One of the things about you being the oldest and the first,
I think that is very in line with what I want to ask next,
which is I know you to be someone who takes a lot of trips now with your friends. And you are,
I know you've mentioned love language already. You have said before that one of your love
languages is planning when it comes to a trip. Do you think that was baked in early on in your
life because you were sort of the oldest amongst your family? I think so. I think
this is going to be an interesting question that'll probably come up for you guys in this
podcast, like nature versus nurture. What were you born with and what role were you encouraged
to take on and where do they overlap? I don't know, chicken or egg, whether I was told I was
independent and in charge or I felt like I was. I can remember from a very young
age, you know, looking at my family and being like, oh, I think I'm in charge here.
You know, we could unpack that. Do you think your parents
noticed that and then maybe ceded some of the responsibility to you?
noticed that and then maybe ceded some of the responsibility to you?
I don't know. It's a great question because my parents were really young when I was born. Not really young, but very early 20s. And they were young themselves. They had
just moved out of their parents' home. My parents met in college. They were college sweethearts.
And my dad would want me to mention what a good basketball player he was. And he was in the
Boston State Hall of Fame. There's just not room for that on the podcast, but we
appreciate you trying. I appreciate that. My mom was a cheerleader. They met. So they were
very young. And sometimes I feel like we all kind of grew up together. But I can remember when
maybe I was about eight or nine in the backseat of my parents' car, probably driving to the Cape and being like, I think I'm
in charge. So I was always told that I was a spirited child and didn't like to sleep, was kind
of bossy, like kind of had a strong will, if you will. So I don't know what came first, but yeah.
So I think that manifested in my older age into planning and creating schedules and trying to,
you know, I think provide a great experience for people. Maybe others would say be controlling.
Everybody's been on a trip with you, I think would attest.
I think also like if you were moody or whatever the word is, crabby about going to Puerto Rico,
then maybe you were like, well, I need to turn things to my advantage,
and I'm going to create situations and experiences that I will enjoy
because these frogs in this rainforest, despite Brown Nana's best efforts, are not.
I'll tell you something about the rainforest.
The rainforest is not on your schedule, babe.
Not on your schedule.
Very hard.
Very hard to work with.
Rainforest does its own thing.
You always said, rainforest gonna rainforest.
That's what you've always, always said.
It's so funny you said that about having young parents
because I am so so my dad was
26 when he became a dad i was 42 when i became a dad and i always think he seems so much more
an adult at 26 and i feel like i was at 42 like i was sort of i'm sort of blown away at the amount
yeah i think i think you're right. Like I do think 23, when my
mom had me 22, 23 was a different 22, 23, but, but still young, but it was still really young.
Yeah. And I mean, look, I'm so grateful for it now being in my fifties and having still having
my parents healthy and with me, like I'm so, so grateful, but yeah, I feel like there was, you know, it was also the 70s. So, you know, no one watched us.
And I mean, we kind of raised ourselves a lot.
So the combo of that and maybe I don't know what some inner thing I like to, I'm working on it.
I'm working.
I'm trying now with my upcoming vacations or trips.
I'm really trying to pump the brakes a little bit.
Pump the brakes on your-
On planning, on over-planning, on over-scheduling.
Right.
You want to be able to enjoy it
without having to be in charge of it.
But we took comedic license for the movie Wine Country
for me to play a version of myself
that was over overscheduled
and worried about people having a good time
and kind of handing out itineraries and stuff.
Although I did make an itinerary for the ladies of Wine Country
because if I didn't, we literally would have walked into the ocean
and everyone would have died.
You need to have those tent poles.
You need those guideposts to at least get you out the door.
And then you can throw it all away.
You can throw it away.
Sure.
Yeah.
You know?
Talking about being children of the 70s, which we are as well, and raising yourself, the most trouble I ever got into was Josh and I were in elementary school together.
Josh had forgotten whatever lunch money was then, 50 cents.
Yeah.
Seems like a lot. Came up to me in line, asked if he could borrow 50 cents. I was talking to
somebody. I said, wait one second. Josh was so petulant about me not immediately giving him
money. He just walked out of the school and walked home. Then came home, sat down, turned on HBO, started watching Flash Gordon.
And then the school basically didn't know where he was.
And just like a full panic happened.
Yeah.
You could, like, there were kids that would walk home for lunch and then come back to
school.
Like, I feel like that was a thing that happened.
I don't know about that.
I was very young.
It's why the younger, the younger siblings, man,
they have all this freedom.
Unbelievable.
But yeah, but also I was watching Flash Gordon.
I wasn't going to go back to school.
It wasn't like the math that I was learning
in second grade.
Enough of Flash Gordon.
Amy and I are drilling down on a very important thing now,
which is younger brothers. They love enough of Flash Gordon. Amy and I are drilling down on a very important thing now, which is younger brothers.
They love to just peace out.
They just float through life.
They peace out and they're like,
somebody will get me.
Somebody will find me.
Must be nice.
But then you had like a fight with dad
because you got in trouble.
And it was the first time I think you won an argument
in your life against dad.
Ever.
I did say I would like it to be pointed out that Josh should not have just walked out of the school.
And he said, you're right.
I shouldn't.
He said, when your brother needs help, you have to give him help right away.
Do you remember why you didn't give him?
I really just think I was in the middle of one of my very entertaining stories, which to this day, I don't like when they're interrupted.
There we go.
Now we're getting somewhere.
An audience.
People, they're kind of hanging on every word.
And I got old Dum Dum here who wants 50 cents for me.
And it's just, wait your turn.
That's very interesting.
So Seth, as your therapist, let me just say,
so Seth broke it down with an audience
and was feeling like the show's on.
And Josh was like, hi, I'm your brother.
Yeah.
I have 50 cents.
And you were like, not right now.
And so Josh was like, I'll see your audience and I'll raise you a missing child.
Yeah, there's a new show in town.
It's called Missing Kid.
That's right.
And also, yeah, he was in like third grade, maybe fourth.
That story wasn't that great.
Oh, no.
That story wasn't that good.
No, no, no.
It was always.
A rock contour for my very own age.
I love my nephews and my niece, but I don't know.
They're stories.
Oof.
Yeah.
Get to the point, babe.
Get to the point.
Are your boys telling stories now that you feel like
have good structure well i what i love about raising young boys is um you sometimes you feel
like you're on like the worst date ever because you're hearing things that you already know but
you have to pretend like it's really interesting information so you know it's like you know led
zeppelin uh they have some really you know cool songs and you should be like, awesome.
Yeah, I want to check that out.
You just hear a lot of stuff you already know and you have to pretend to be impressed by it.
I had the most horrifying thing happen the other day, whereas I heard Alexi say to one of the boys, oh, my God, that's so interesting.
And I walked in and said, what's so interesting?
And she looked at me as if to say, nothing. Nothing. Like I'm making it up. And then the
heartbreaking thing was realizing that when we dated, she would say stuff like that to me all
the time. And I realized, oh, she was probably lying to me then in the same way she's lying.
I'm really trying to raise, and I have two wonderful kids. I'm really trying to raise
young feminist men who really are paying attention to
the rest of the world and the women in it. And so one of the things I'm, you know, I'm always
drilling is like, hi mom, how are you? How was your day? You know, just the simple thing of like,
what's, what's going on? And it's really funny to have teen boys ask you questions like that. And they're like, hey, mom, how are you?
How was your day?
And I'm like, thank you so much for asking.
It's funny to hear them say it, but trying.
Do the boys, when you travel with the boys now, are they good companions for one another?
The best.
And also highly recommend having children that will grow taller than you.
It's really great for things like reaching things, getting bags down.
A part of travel that's often underestimated as far as how hard it can be.
Look, the fact that they can put their own,
there will be a day when your boys
will be able to put their own suitcase up in the bag.
It's just incredible.
I mean, when they can carry their own suitcase,
it really feels like,
I think your work is done, really.
But no, they're great travelers
and they're really different kinds of,
I'm actually going to go this summer to Iceland.
I'm going to take my youngest to Iceland.
Oh, so this is exciting.
You're just taking one.
Yes.
My older one is going on a school trip.
He's going away for the first time for a couple of weeks.
Like as a, we're not camp.
Were you guys camp?
Did you go to camp?
We weren't camp kids, no.
I went to one, I you guys camp? Did you go to camp? We weren't camp kids. No, I went to one.
I went to camp one summer.
You did for how long?
How many weeks?
Like six weeks,
maybe four weeks.
Yeah.
I remember I wrote a letter that we still have on like Cheerios
stationary.
And I was like,
mom,
send like a Snickers bar.
Here's what you can do.
Send a flashlight, but remove the batteries and put the Snickers.
I had like all these ways to sneak candy and chocolate to me because I needed it, because I couldn't access it at camp.
Did you like camp?
I didn't really.
I mean, I look back at it and I think I really liked it.
I didn't really.
I mean, I look back at it and I think I really liked it.
And our dad, who he's like, he is Jewish, but he wasn't bar mitzvahed. And he was like, yeah, you guys didn't like camp because you're not Jewish.
And it was just like his theory.
And then as I like go through all my friends, it's like the ones who went to camp and really loved it.
All Jewish.
Yeah, I know.
We did not have, I did not have a lot of friends
who went to camp. We went to like a crappy day camp in my town, but you know, where we basically
got to like swim in the pool and make stuff out of paper plates. But I would have loved to have
gone to camp. I think I would have loved to get the heck out of there. I think you have to just
start it early because otherwise you show up to camp and everybody else has like their friend clicks and you feel like you missed the boat. You're not
spending the summer with your friends, which is what you've always done in the past. And that
feels weird. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, but you're so you and. So me and. Yeah. So we're going to go to.
I think I'm going to go to Iceland and I've never been. And I'm talking to our friend Fred Armisen
about it because he knows a lot about Iceland.
And is Abel excited
about taking a trip with his mom?
I think he is, yeah.
It's really nice to go
on individual trips.
We try to do it when we can.
It makes a big difference
and especially when they're older,
it's really cute.
Archie and I went camping
when he was nine together,
which was really fun
and we've gone on a bunch of different
like short trips.
Is there any jealousy when you go with one instead of both?
Maybe, but not too much.
I don't think, I think we try to, I don't know.
It's a good question.
I think trying to think about where would be a good place
that they'd like to see,
or sometime the timing just works out.
If one of them is doing something
else, it's fun to kind of take the other one. Now, what's really nice is, you know, the great
Rachel Dratch, for example, has a wonderful son, Eli, who's really good friends with Abel.
And it's really, we're talking about going on a trip together, and that would be
just very cool to go on a trip with my buddy and have our kids be buddies.
I mean, it's hard to imagine how happy that must make you.
It makes me so happy.
That Dratch's son is friends with your son.
I mean, it makes me happy.
And they're also both really funny, like genuinely funny.
So to see them being goofballs together is, yeah.
And a lot like, you know, we've hung out with Tina's kids and Anna's kids
and Maya's kids. And when we were, you know, and Spivey, her son. So when we were shooting,
we were all together a lot. Was it COVID where all the kids did a talent show?
Yeah, that's right. It was at the beginning of COVID. We did a Zoom talent show.
COVID, we did a Zoom talent show.
And Rowan Philbrook, Emily Spivey Philbrook's son, won.
I believe he did a sketch, an old one of Spivey's sketches.
Oh, my goodness.
It was like a barbecue commercial, I think he did.
Something like it.
Yeah.
And he crushed.
That's fantastic.
Crowd favorite. Yeah.
Yeah, Iceland is great.
We went, Seth and I and Alexi and my girlfriend Mackenzie,
went for a New Year's several years ago.
It was great.
And then my girlfriend took her father and just did a trip like that.
She hadn't gone on a trip with her dad.
And yeah, it's great.
We're going to go to Iceland for a couple days,
and then we're going to go visit my brother in Sweden.
That's fantastic.
So your brother lives in Sweden.
Two children?
Three. He has two boys and one daughter. Fantastic. So your brother lives in Sweden. Two children? Three. He has two boys and one daughter. Yeah.
Fantastic.
And his oldest son just graduated from Burlington High School, my old alma mater.
Wait, so he came over on his own?
Yeah. So for his senior year, he's a really good basketball player. So he wanted to play
basketball in the States.
He's Phil Poehler's grandson, right?
That's right.
Hall of Famer.
Yeah.
If that was cut out before, you should know that my dad is in the UMass Boston Hall of Fame.
Again, we don't have time for it.
And so.
Yeah.
Ben, my brother's son, just came and stayed with my parents for a year.
Oh, my God.
That's amazing.
Amazing.
and stayed with my parents for a year.
Oh my God.
That's amazing.
Amazing.
And lived with my parents and played basketball at my old high school
and my brother's old high school,
which was awesome.
Now, did he love, did he thrive?
Did he love his year in Burlington?
Loved it.
Loved it.
Had a great time.
Also, things have changed so much
that I was like,
oh, this is going to be so like exotic,
a Swede coming in for senior year.
And there's also like seven other foreign exchange students in, you know, there's Italians.
And they're like, so he wasn't even the only foreign exchange student.
Oh, my God.
Was it hard?
Was Greg, was your brother, was he trepidatious about the fact that his son was just going to come live with your parents for a year?
Or was he enthusiastic?
He was pushing it.
He was thrilled.
He was thrilled.
Sweden has a kind of a different kid starts school later.
So Ben still has another year back in Sweden.
Got it.
He's going to, I guess, have two diplomas or I don't know how it's going to work.
That's great.
Double senior year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I know.
Sort of be a senior twice.
I know. Sort of be a senior twice. I know, so cool.
I mean, if a Swedish basketball player arrived
when I was a senior, I would just be like, incredible.
Like I just, we didn't, again,
I didn't get on an airplane until I was,
so I was not worldly when I was in high school.
That's for sure.
Did you, were you nervous the first time you flew?
Do you remember?
I think I remember.
No, I loved it.
I still love travel.
There's a trend on TikTok.
Like, are you the dad of the group?
You know, are you the one that holds the passports
and gets there early and checks the gate?
And that's definitely me.
Like I have friends who don't, you know,
well, her name is Rachel Dratch
who won't even know what time she's flying. Yeah. I'll say, what time is your flight? She'll say, I don't, you know, well, her name is Rachel Dratch, who won't even know what time she's flying.
Yeah.
I'll say, what time is your flight?
She'll say, I don't know.
I'll say, do you want to check?
Because I think it's today.
But I get to the airport very early.
Again, you're going to correctly burn me for this rookie mistake.
I once walked us to the gate that had been the gate.
I checked it so early in the day that I knew the gate and it had changed.
Now, obviously, when I got to the airport, I should have checked.
That happened three years ago.
And every time we go to an airport, my kids still bus me on it.
Like that it was the most traumatic thing that ever happened to them
is that they had to walk to a second gate.
And we had to backtrack. So for them, like them just dragging ass back up,
whatever, Terminal C,
just at Newark being like,
what, but why did you do it?
But why?
Look, nobody's perfect.
We make mistakes.
But you're the most perfect.
I know what you're getting at.
You're the most perfect of my friends.
Have I ever done something as stupid
as going to the wrong gate? Absolutely not. But we all make
mistakes. No, I like getting there so I have freedom to make that mistake and it's okay.
But I've definitely, I remember one time I was flying, I was really hungover. So I'm sure it
was after SNL or something. I got to my gate early. You know, I sat in the seat and then fell asleep
and woke up to like the sound of them closing the door.
You know, and I was like, wait, I have to get on the plane.
And they let me on.
But so stuff like that.
But I never, I've never, knock on wood, I've never,
it would be a little devastating if I missed a flight.
Yeah, we have a friend who says, if you've never missed a flight, you're getting to the airport
too early. And then he and his wife missed a flight and she's like, I disagree with your theory.
I don't, I hopefully you're willing to talk about this, Amy, because I feel like you took a trip
similar to the kind of trip and we're talking about family trips, but there's also the solo
trip. And I feel like you and Josh have taken similar trips
where like post, like maybe a bad breakup,
you think that what you need is time alone.
Didn't you take a, didn't you buy a guitar
and go on a trip?
I sure did.
I sure did.
Where'd you go?
Well, first of all, Seth,
I love your giddy laugh as you say this.
So you can fuck right off with that.
But it should be noted too that you
can't see my face but i think you're also seeing that there's a giddiness just from top to tail
right now well you know what's so funny is i don't i don't remember who i broke up with i think that's
great or who broke up with me so that's what's great about getting older. But I was going through a breakup and I was like, now's the time to go to, I think it was Punta Cana,
like one of those resorts.
Josh, you did this as well.
You went on your, and I went by myself.
I got a guitar.
Yeah.
I arrived and I was like, this is, I've made a mistake.
Immediately knew?
Immediately?
Immediately knew.
I've made a mistake because immediately knew immediately, immediately knew. Yeah. Because it was the nicest group of, you know, they, by the way, they were, I was in my twenties.
They were probably in their mid forties, but they seemed so old, you know, but the nicest group of
couples and me. So everyone was like, who is this lady? And let's be honest. They said, who is this girl? They didn't say lady.
This is pre-SNL, right?
Oh, yeah.
This is late 90s, mid to late 90s.
And she has a giant guitar case.
Is this Liz Phair?
Is this, is it a chance?
Is this Sean Colvin?
Jewel?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Wow.
That would be great if they thought I was Jule.
And I went to my hotel room and my guitar wasn't tuned properly, I don't think.
So I had, it must have been like a disc or a cassette.
Again, we're back to cassettes because I didn't have a phone then.
Or if I did, it was, you know, Or if I did, there was no YouTube, internet.
So I think I had to listen to try to tune my guitar.
So day one, the guitar was out.
So I didn't learn any chords.
I think I had a book, a chord book, but I don't think I learned anything.
And then I had to have meals.
You have to have group meals in the resort.
And I was always eating with these couples who were very nice, but they were worried for me, basically. They were all very worried like something was wrong with me.
Josh, was Thailand your heartache?
Yeah, I went to Thailand. I want to say maybe a 10 day trip or something like that. I had, I had vacation days I needed to use, uh, from our job in Amsterdam at that comedy theater, boom, Chicago that we
worked at. And so I went through a breakup and I was like, I'm going to go to Thailand. Like a lot
of Dutch people go to Thailand and I'm just going to go and I'll just check it out. So you were
never going with the girl you were? No, no, and i remember i flew into bangkok and it was
like a 16-hour flight and i booked no hotels i had no reservations and i went to like the
kosan road and i got ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver like one of those three-wheeled taxi
those are oh and that's also the noise the frogs there make, right?
Yeah, they go, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk, tuk.
Then I went to some island and I was like, I'm going to get certified in scuba diving, which I did.
But also I had no reservation for a hotel.
I was like, I'm going to get we're gonna drive you on the back of a motorcycle up to this like
cinder block hut that has a sprinkler that's like spraying the side of the building and it's like
covered with lizards on the inside and i would have to walk up that sort of mountain to get to my
uh my little spot past a dude who always seemed to be like squatting on the ground with a blowtorch,
sort of going over a pig.
He was just like, it was like just a pig laid out on the ground.
But a live pig who was just like a little cold.
It wasn't a blowtorch for cooking.
It was just his pet pig was just like slightly.
He was airbrushing it.
It was like, all the pigs in Thailand get like airbrushed.
It's like hannah tattoos but yeah i remember this is another little brother thing polar because i remember talking to
my parents and they're like well we talked to josh it's not going well in thailand i was like no shit
go to thailand by himself for 10 days you're right i did a real little brother thing by going
on a trip by myself i was like I can be a little brother too.
Yeah.
It didn't work for you.
You're not, you're not built to be a little brother.
Nope.
I remember calling my dad and, or my parents, you know, my parents.
And I think like my dad was like, well now, you know, there was like a market down on
the beach, you know, they sold bracelets and little purses.
And, you know, I had about seven days to waste or whatever.
It's like, and my dad was like, why don't you practice haggling?
Go practice.
And so I did.
I did.
I went down to the beach and I was like, and I just want to point out, for some cultures,
it's really almost disrespectful if you don't try to negotiate and bargain.
They don't like it.
And it's a language,
right? You're not trying to get it for free and they're not trying to rip you off, but you have
to have this exchange. It's part of the deal. So I would go down and say like, you know,
how much is this? They'd say five. I would say, I'll give you one. And they would go,
get out of here. You know, they'd be like, get out of here. And they'd be like get out of here and i'd go
all right and i'd leave and then i'd come back the next day like because you know that was all
i had to do so i i was i became good at haggling so you uh did not learn how to play guitar
no but you came back an excellent haggler i got two or three woven bracelets for the price of one.
Wow.
And I remember all our years together at SNL,
no one haggled with Lorne better than you did.
He'd be like, we're not doing your sketch.
And you're like, get out of here.
Lorne would be like, we need you to cut two minutes.
And I'd be like, how about one minute?
And he'd be like, no, two.
And I'd go, okay.
It's very fun to think of Lauren at a sort of outdoor bizarre haggling with someone.
I do enjoy, for anyone still listening, and God knows who would still be listening at this point.
I have a piece of advice, which is a phrase that I learned during that time, which was when you say, you know, and how much for this?
And they say, you know, $10, you can say, can you do any better?
It's a great way to say, to even start by saying, you know, I'm not going to insult you by like you know saying one dollar but you could say can you
do any better and sometimes i'll go ah okay and um my favorite thing about living in new york
is that attitude is the fuel on which new york runs which is aggravated collaboration
yeah that's a very good way to put it.
It's my favorite thing is everyone goes, ah.
But also, it's kind of a sign of respect to see if, you know, someone can do a little better on something.
We should all try to do a little better.
Yeah, for sure.
So when you see someone in New York just walking down the street, you might just tap them and be like, hey, excuse me.
Could you do a little better? could you do a little better?
Could you do a little better?
Could you do a little better on this?
And they're like, I respect that.
And yeah, I probably could.
I probably could.
I know.
Polar, we're going to let you go in a minute,
but first Josh has some quick questions for you.
Oh, okay, great, exciting.
What's the name of this podcast? It's called Family Trips with the Myers Brothers.
All right, here we go uh
okay you can only pick one your ideal vacation you are relaxed it's relaxing adventurous
enlightening or educational relaxing uh I think I'm really trying to I'm trying in my in the second
half of my life to see what it feels like to do less in almost every department all right you've
done enough for us I just want you to know on every department. All right. You've done enough for us.
I just want you to know,
on behalf of the rest of us,
you've done enough for us
and you deserve some time to relax.
Thank you so much.
Do you prefer to travel by train,
plane, automobile, boat, or on foot?
Ooh.
Ooh.
Oh, you know,
I have been traveling by train a lot, and I really enjoy train.
As our president says, it's a great way to travel.
But I would say that overall, I would pick getting there faster rather than driving or foot.
So I'm going to pick plane.
I still believe that it's a miracle that we know how to fly and get to places. So I still
enjoy an airplane still, even though I know it's a tough time right now for flight attendants.
Be nice to your flight attendants, everyone. If you could take a vacation with any family
other than your own, this family could be alive or dead. what family would you like to go on a trip with?
Wow, that's a great question.
Alive, dead.
We've also agreed that it can be a fictional family.
Okay, okay.
This is a great question.
Okay, my first instinct is to go with luxury.
Like I want to go with a family that, so I know that they have
not been getting along lately, but I feel like Logan Roy's family would like that succession
family. You know what I would love? I would have loved to have been in that house in Barbados or
wherever it was while they were fighting and me just like coming in to get a towel and be like,
sorry, so sorry.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And you know what would be great about if you had been with them for that week?
The staff would love you so much.
You know what I mean?
Because you would have been so nice to them
and the least of their headaches.
And you had a lot of side eye with them.
And you know, it's not my mother,
so it wouldn't be triggering me.
So I would just be like pulling her aside, being like, oh, these kids, you know?
And I'm like, you want me to go to the grocery store?
Oh my God, you'd be the grocery store person.
Yeah.
I think I would go, I would want to travel with them to wherever they go and then they
have to go argue and I would sleep in the fancy beds and I would use the jet
skis and stuff like that. I would like to edit you into a lot of succession scenes where something
very tense is going on and you just come in a door with a grocery bag and then just sort of back out.
You've gone to whatever the local, the nearest local grocery store. And it's like, hey, I'm back with the bread.
And then I get a call.
I get a call from Jesse Armstrong, the creator.
And he's like, it didn't really work.
We didn't really need it.
And I'm like, that's disappointing.
Yeah.
We've cut you out.
Yeah.
All right, great.
If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family.
Ooh. Who would it be?
Oh, that's a tough one.
Are you sad already that you feel like you have to pick one?
I do.
I feel bad.
And I feel bad that I'm not going to pick my mom.
Okay.
Well, maybe we just end it there.
You know what? I will pick my mom. Don't pick it just let's just leave it at that, that it wasn't.
You know what? I'm going to flip it. I am going to pick Eileen, my mom, because that's nice.
My mom would she'd really keep our spirits up. She'd really she'd be really good at keeping her spirits up, much like Hillary.
She would she definitely every day would grab my arm and say, what are we going to do? How are we going to get out of here?
I would say maybe if I don't think of it less as being stuck on a desert
island,
but like enjoying a desert island,
my mom and I,
we loved chat.
So we would sit under a palm tree and chat until the smoke monster.
I think for part of your,
the second act of your life and a little more relaxing,
I think you on an island with Eileen
is just with the doctor order.
You're right.
You're right.
And don't try so hard to get off.
I know.
What's the rush?
Where are you going to go?
Yeah.
Enjoy the coconut.
Yeah.
Enjoy the coconut.
And I'm sorry.
It's Burlington, Massachusetts, yeah?
Yes.
Yes.
Now, I've not been to Burlington, Massachusetts.
Would you recommend it as a vacation destination?
Oh, great question.
So growing up, there was a very important mall there that has survived and flourished.
So there's a great mall in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Massachusetts in general, I think, is a great place to vacation.
Beautiful seasons, lots to do.
We eat the most ice cream of any state. And Burlington itself has a lovely town common with a gazebo that many
people have been fingered in, I'm sure, over the years. Is it the most fingered gazebo? The most fingered, yeah.
There's been fingerings and wine coolers in that gazebo.
I mean, I'm with you, Josh.
That was a hard right turn when you hear gazebo.
I think when you hear gazebo, it's such a beautiful structure that immediately your brain just shuts off a lot of avenues.
I don't know what people are into on their vacations.
You know, you guys are talking about family stuff,
but some people, you know,
they get a good day, they buy a guitar
and they go to Burlington.
They go to Burlington.
They want to learn some chords.
And then have some ice cream.
Yep.
So I would recommend.
I would recommend.
Great.
And then Seth, you want to finish with your...
This is my most important question.
Grand Canyon, have you been? No. Seth you want to finish with your this is my most important question uh Grand Canyon have you been no do you want to go very much oh interesting yeah uh we shot a scene from Parks and Recreation Chris Pratt and Aubrey Plaza Andy and April went to the Grand Canyon
and I sadly didn't go because my character was not there. But I wished I had gone.
Looking back now, I wish I had just jumped on that train and gone
because it would have been fun to go with those people.
But no, I've never been.
Have you been?
Neither of us have been.
And I don't want to go in Josh's face.
Yeah, I've been to the rim, but I haven't been below the rim because I had my dog with me.
Josh keeps telling everybody he's been to the edge, I don't count it.
If you don't go down, you haven't been.
Wait, do you think after this podcast, you should gather everyone who hasn't gone?
Everyone who says they want to go can come with us.
I'm in.
Great.
Great.
Oh, my God.
It's a real 50-50 puller, I'm going to tell you.
Who would say they don't want to go?
We're not allowed. It's a lot. Yeah, me. I don't want to go. Oh, Seth doesn people. Who would say they don't want to go? We're not allowed.
It's a lot.
Yeah, me.
I don't want to go.
Oh, Seth doesn't want to go.
Josh, you want to go though.
You want to go back?
I'll go with you.
Yeah, great.
Let's go.
Because why wouldn't you want to go?
It's, I feel like the title gives it away.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think there's some feeling of awe.
I feel like I would have if I went there,
just about how, you know.
Can I tell you my fear? It goes back to fireworks. I'm afraid that I'm supposed to have awe,
and I'm worried that I will then think less of myself when I see it
and process what it is really quickly.
Well, what if you pretended like it was
a giant dinosaur footprint?
Ooh.
Or it was, you know,
where the aliens landed. I want to go.
It's where the aliens live.
Hey, this
is, before, we are
going to let you go, but you have, this is very exciting, you have
a podcast. Oh my gosh.
Yes.
Thank you for letting me plug it.
Say more with Dr. Sheila.
So Dr. Sheila has to be said in the form of a question because she's not a licensed physician,
but she is a couples therapist.
So we have couples on and she gets to the root of it.
So we have incredible improvisers.
It's a completely improvised podcast.
So we have incredible friends of ours come by and join us. And maybe hopefully someday you guys
will want to. We would love to. Have you loved improvising in the podcast setting? I would
imagine it's so much fun. It is so much fun. And having the game of couple is so fun. We've also asked a lot of people who
are kind of naturally partners like Abby and Alana and Jason Manzoukas and Jess St. Clair or
Paula Pell and her wife, Janine Brito. We've asked actual couples to come in or couple adjacent
people to come in. So it's been super fun.
That's great.
That's coming out in the summer.
So listen to this and then go on.
And then listen to that.
Listen to this.
And then a little bit of listen to that.
Amy, we love you very much.
Love you too, guys.
Thanks so much for asking me.
You too.
Always.
And let me know when you're going to the Grand Canyon, Josh.
I'll keep you posted.
Let me know what donkey to rent.
Done and done.
Thanks, Poles.
My pleasure.
Love you guys.
Bye.
Love you too.
Hey, guys, every week we're going to end the podcast
with something called Josh's Song.
That's a great name for it.
Josh, you have a gift.
Well, yeah.
I started doing songs for our pals in the middle of the pandemic
And I'd sort of roll them out on a Zoom that we could all listen together
And they sort of had that playful ribbing that friends will do
Yeah, they're sort of parody songs that poke fun at things people we love have said or done.
Yeah.
And I'm not necessarily poking fun here, but I'm going to write a song every week inspired by our guest.
And sort of one of the things I'm hoping is that I'm guessing a lot of the people who do our podcast aren't going to listen to our podcast.
Like, I don't think you listen to a lot of podcasts that you do.
That's right.
Because I lived them.
Right.
You live them. But this song
is sort of going to be a little nugget at the end. And I'm hoping that some of our guests will
at least be curious to know, like, what's my song? Yeah. And so this is a gift to our guests and
also a gift to those of you who have listened to the end of a podcast. And so just to be clear,
each week, Josh will do the work of combing through the episode,
taking information, writing lyrics, and then recording himself singing a song.
My job was to come up with the title for this segment, and I came up with Josh's song.
Please enjoy.
Please enjoy.
She took a big trip down to Puerto Rico, but she was pretty crabby, did not want to go. Amy Poehler, the young Amy Poehler.
She thought sitting on the beach could be nice and low-key
But the rainforest frogs chirped, cookie, cookie, at Amy Poehler
The frogs yelled at Poehler, your friend and mine, Poehler
Ten years later she'd find all of that sand in an ill-fated jib to get over a man, oh Amy Poehler Oh no, Amy Poehler
Maybe that plan wasn't all that great, but that's where she learned to negotiate, oh, Amy Bowler, the haggling bowler.
She was getting bolder.
She bought the guitar and met some peeps.
But they were all in their forties.
She strummed that guitar and they all prayed that this teenage girl would be okay.
She learned a lesson and ever since then, when she goes on vacation, she's got the best plans.
Oh, Amy Poehler.
Oh, Amy Poehler.
Our girl, Amy Poehler Oh, girl, Amy Poehler
Woo!