The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Laraine Newman

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Original cast member of "Saturday Night Live" and founding member of the Groundlings, Laraine Newman, joins Andy Richter to discuss the 50th anniversary of "SNL," her love for voice acting, the origins of the legendary Groundlings comedy theater, her daughter Hannah Einbinder's journey to "Hacks," and much more. The Andy Richter Call-In Show is back from holiday break this week! Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen and call in to the "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" live this Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel. 

Hi everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm your host Andy Richter. This week I am talking to Lorraine Newman. Fifty years ago, in 1975, Lorraine was part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live. She's a legendary improviser and sketch performer. She's done voice work in numerous Pixar films, and she is portrayed by Emily Farron in Jason Reitman's recent Saturday Night Film. You can hear her voice work later this year in The Day the Earth Blew Up, a Looney Tunes movie. Now here is my conversation with Lorraine, how are you? I'm good Andy.

Remember San Francisco. I do, I do. We just did something. Well, it wasn't just. It was SketchFest. How long ago was it? It was a year ago. A year ago, yeah.

I'm just realizing that now. Have you done a lot of things up there with them? I've been doing that. We're talking about San Francisco SketchFest. Yes, SketchF A, alternative comedy. It's spread over a number of weekends now, yeah. Yeah, it's been around for, God, 23 years. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I've been doing it, I've done it a lot. And I used to, like especially when my kids were younger, it would be a good excuse to go to San Francisco for, you know, just for a fun trip up to San Francisco. But then as time has gone on, I just, I feel so old, you know, like all the comedians are so young.

It's the same thing doing improv shows. I end up feeling so old. Well, with improv, yes, I do because I just, I don't have the energy, the mental energy. Oh no. Absolutely not. And also the form has gotten so like streamlined and yet expansive in its creativity and premise

that I'm like, I can't, I would not be able to retain that information. But I find it inspiring though, I really do love it. It's really exciting to watch. It still is the best thing live. Yeah, I agree. It's just the best thing live. And there's lots of people that are improv stalwarts that don't like my attitude about improv,

which is like they don't like it when I say things like, improv has an inherent apology for itself. Like improv is saying, give us some, cut us some slack, we're making this up. Like don't expect it to be a laugh a minute. Like you gotta give us a little time to discover what the scene is and what the game is and stuff. And like standup rooms, most other live comedy people don't,

they're not there to wait. They're not there for to be patient. Yeah, you don't have a note from home. No, no, they're there for the transaction. Well, I would have to say at the Groundlings, it's not like that at all. There is no slack cut, but generally, I think improv audiences are more generous.

Yeah. And when magic happens, they're that much more appreciative. Exactly. And that's the thing is that when you go, and I mean from doing improv, you know, you know, in baseball, if you get a hit 30% of the time, you're wildly successful. And I would say improv's odds are about the same. If you do really well 30% of the time, that's amazing. Again, I gotta say the shows of the Groundlings,

I don't know if you've ever seen any like the black version. I haven't been in ages. I don't leave the house. Neither do I actually, except for Groundlings stuff. And even that is rare, but I mean, they've taken the form and expanded it. They have this thing called the Crazy Uncle Joe show. And it is, you know, the audience, of course, has input,

but they have to retain information that's been established because it's a continuous show. It's not one, you know, it's like little segments of improvs. So, and there's an intermission, and they still have to remember what had been established. What had been established. So there are people who are brilliant improvisers, they're scared to do that show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know?

But I still, when I watch improv, I'm nervous. Yeah. Watching them. Do you ever do any improv these days? Oh yeah, but I was never a good improviser. When we started in the Groundlings, I just did character monologues. But we have an alumni class that we do on Saturdays, and it's like, well, George isn't here because his hip is hurting.

And we actually, when we had our 40th anniversary, because the people from the 70s were so old, and there was no such thing as filming any of our improvs, it was a live show. I mean, subsequent casts and years, they had stuff on film. I was like so envious of that. So, ours was a completely improvised show. Was gone out into the night too. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we were adequate, I want to say. We were serviceable. Yes. Occasionally good. Yes. Yeah.

You're from here. Yeah, I'm native. And so this was all sort of like in your playground and you started with the Groundlings young, correct? Yeah, I was 20. 20? I didn't go to college, and, you know, my mother said to her four children, I don't care what you kids do

as long as you don't go into show business. So my- And didn't you all go into show business? My sister's like a comedy writer, my twin brother's a musician and a songwriter, but our older brother, at least he sells ATMs. So, you know, somebody got out alive. That's right.

Yeah, but selling ATM sounds vaguely mobbed up anyway. Yeah, that's... I never even thought. Yeah, yeah. Steven. Ooh, still waters run deep. Yeah, yeah. Steven. Ooh, still waters run deep. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, this was when I graduated, I knew that I wanted to be an actor.

I mean, I had started doing improv when I was 15. Oh really? And studying mime. Wow, where was improv when you were 15? Well, I had seen Marcel Marceau at Royce Hall and I had never seen anything like it before and the idea of getting laughs with no words. Yeah. And he was really, I mean, in his prime he was just breathtaking. Yeah. And so I don't know what gave me the balls to do this, Andy, but I went

backstage and I said, is there someone here in LA that you can recommend that can teach me? You asked Marcel Marsodish. I did. And used words to answer you. I did, I did. He did answer me with words in English, but he recommended a guy named Richmond Shepherd.

And so along with teaching mime, he taught improv. And this is like in the 60ss when I was still in high school. Wow. So yeah, I started then. And then when I graduated high school, I just, I was depressed, didn't know what I was going to do. My parents sent me to a therapist, Dr. Hoffs, who is Susanna Hoff's dad. Oh, yeah.

And he just gave me really- She's been on this show and she talked about having- She's wonderful. Yeah, yeah. She's great. But he gave me really practical advice about writing to- the only acting classes or schools I knew of were in England. So I wrote to those. I got auditions for like three of them. I made it past the preliminary audition for all three schools and had to go to England for

the final ones and then was rejected by all of them. Oh my goodness. Well, at least there was an expensive plane trip involved. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. But my mom said, why don't you check out Marcel Marceau's school? And that's what I did.

Wow. So I studied with him for a year. And why was there, why was college not? Because I mean, there are, you know, there's Juilliard and there are, you know, even USC, UCLA, they have acting, they have theater schools. It didn't occur to me. I didn't know. Really?

Wow. Yeah, I simply, and also I was such a bad student. Oh. School was just, you know... Glad to be done with it? Yeah, really. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think back. Whenever anyone says, you know, like, well, your youth, oh, the beautiful day, I think, yuck.

Yeah. Like, oh, that was awful. Had to go to school and everybody could tell you what to do, you know, no thanks. I still, when there's back to school ads on TV, I'm like, yes, I don't have to go. I can't believe it, I still feel that way. I've actually, and I mean, this is a bigger thing anyway,

but like, I've talked to my therapist about, this is a bigger thing anyway, but like I've talked to my therapist about, it was a few years ago, there was a moment where I was, I don't know if I was stopped in traffic or parked somewhere, but I looked and there was a playground, a grade school playground, it was recess and kids were playing and my thought was, oh, look at all those grade schoolers, how sad. So much to look forward to.

Not. That's not what you're supposed to think when you see children playing. You're not supposed to think, oh gosh, how sad. But for me, it's just like, oh God, kids, get the fuck out of there as quick as you can. Go somewhere else, go, you know. They still had dodge ball when I was in school. Oh, me too. Oh yeah, really? Absolutely.

Oh my God. That was the lazy gym class, you know, that was 80% of our gym class. Oh no. Cause kids liked it. And, you know, just, you know, yeah, throw balls at each other. Okay, you know, get the aggression out. Well, how does, I mean, you're known as a founding member of Groundlink, sort of.

And how does that happen? What does, I mean, you go, is it people that you met at this, I'm sorry, Richard? What was it? Richmond Shepherd. Richmond Shepherd. No, no. When I came back from France, I was like- From France? From studying with Marcel. Oh, oh, you went there with him? Oh, wow.

Did I leave that out at me? No, I thought when your mom said to go to Marcel Marceau's school, I thought you meant- That's what I did. I thought, oh, wow. So you went straight to the source. So yeah, and it was incredible. And how long were you there? I was there for a year. We were taught fencing and acrobatics and ballet and mime technique. I was one of the few people there that had mime technique, and I spoke a little French.

We also had to learn ASL because there were a lot of deaf students as well. Wow. So it was full immersion and it was an amazing experience. I bet. But when I came back, it was like everybody was on the corner doing mime and there were mimes at the Renaissance Fair. This is not a living. Yeah. You know, so I was pretty depressed and a friend of mine asked me to be his audition partner for CalArts. So I did that and then they offered me a spot. So

I thought I'm not doing anything else. Yeah. So I joined that. then they offered me a spot. So I thought, I'm not doing anything else. Yeah. So I joined that. I was there for about three months, but I was in a theater school and I didn't really- And that's up in Santa Clarita? It's a, it's sagas. Okay.

It is sagas. Okay. I didn't really feel like that was quite, I mean, I was so used to creating my own material and I also didn't really like being exposed, which is what acting requires, you know? It just was uncomfortable for me. But I did meet another student in that program named Paul Rubens. So, you know, we did the improv show there at CalArts and I kept complaining to my sister about the program. She said, well, I'm in this class, this improv class.

Why don't you come to this? So that's what I did. I left CalArts, joined the improv class that was taught by this guy named Gary Austin. The people that were in the class, some of them were working actors. It was Pat Morita, and Jack Tsu, Sue and Tim Matheson and Valerie Curtin. Wow.

Then a bunch of USC students and my sister and me. Yeah. We would have a scene. Was Paul, but for people that don't know, Paul is P.B. Herman. Yeah, he came later. Yeah. But we would do scene nights,

just presenting stuff that we had worked up just for ourselves. And we would invite friends and it soothes through word of mouth. There were like lines around the block. We were in this little theater and there were people coming to the show. So we thought, well, we better name ourselves. Be a real company. and that's how it happened. Rather than just class, improv class. I want to go back to when you say acting that exposed you, and if you don't mind explaining a little bit more what you mean by that. I really think people have to have access to their gut.

I really think people have to have access to their gut. And I spent my whole life avoiding that gut. Andy, I just through various techniques of chemical experimentation, it's like people would say, go with your gut. And I'm like, what gut? I don't know what you're talking about. I just, I didn't like, I didn't want to seem vulnerable. I wasn't comfortable with that.

And that's pretty much the criteria for being an actor. Yeah, you've got to basically spill your guts, as they say, and show it all. I tried, but I have no access. Wow. None. Why do you think that is? I mean, is that something that just in your family?

I mean, you know, it says, according to my research, it says you were in a funny family. Yeah. But was it the kind of funny that covered things up? That was like, you know Let's not talk about feelings. Let's make jokes about stuff instead probably. Yeah. Yeah, that's a fair assessment. Yeah, you know My parents were good people. They just were not interested in kids Oh, so, you know the the currency in the house was being funny.

That was how I could get their attention. And they themselves were funny and my sister was funny and my twin brother was funny. So you know, that was really the focus. I mean, in a way, I guess you could say it was a superficial focus and there was no requirement or effort or desire to develop anything beneath all of that. It felt dangerous. It's a fairly common thing though, even among professionally funny people. There certainly are people that they want to be funny,

but they're not that interested in sort of digging around in the muck and it kind of makes them uncomfortable. Yeah, well, I always feel like when you see people that start in comedy and they're really good actors, I always think that that's like a miracle. Like someone like Robin Williams or, I mean, there's a list of people that start in comedy. Gene Hackman, you know, Second City. I mean, Alan Arkin, All of these people started that way. So I really, I'm so impressed by people

who can really become good actors. Yeah. ["Can't You Tell My Love's A Girl?" by The Bachelorette plays.] Well, I think acting is, acting either have it or you don't. I just kind of feel, honestly, and I mean, that's kind of, I think you is... acting either have it or you don't. I just kind of feel it, honestly. And I mean, it's kind of... I think you can learn. Like, you can go to classes and you can learn some techniques.

But I really do feel... And it's... I just feel like you either can do the thing where I'm supposed to be really angry right now and where you can take on the aspects of being angry where I'm supposed to be really angry right now and where you can take on the aspects of being angry to a point that someone who just walked in the room would think that guy's really angry. As opposed to, that's weird, that person's making,

like yelling, but I don't feel what they're feeling. And so, yeah, I just think, because there are, it's also amazing to meet a really funny comedian who cannot act. Like that's so weird to meet those people where it's- Well, I think they've got the same thing going on that people like me have, which is they don't wanna go there.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that's very true. And I think too, that's a case with a lot of standups is that they like the control. Exactly. Yeah. They like, like, I'm only going to say what I want to say, and we're only going to touch on topics that I want to touch on.

Yeah. They've developed a way of, I mean, they've created their own voice. Yeah. And anything that they want to say, they've generated that. Yeah. and anything that they want to say, they've generated that. It can be hard to try and find their way into other people's material. And that's what I found.

And the times that I did act, I would see the stuff on film and it was like, wow, that is not what I thought I was doing. You know? That was like just, so I, you know, my limitations were really like, you know, flashing lights. And it made, it actually, that's why I went into voiceover because it became harder and harder for me to audition because I was really distracted by the knowledge of my limitations.

And I'd see people in, you know, in the waiting room that were so much better than me. So I had this facility that I really started as a little kid, which was to do characters and voices and dialects. I was really fascinated by dialects. Growing up in Westwood, it's a college town. You see people from all over. Right. We had the Orange Julius stand in the village run by the Scottish couple. They'd say things like,

would you like your hot dog steamed or grilled? So you just soaked up accents basically. Yeah. It's really served me really well in animation. It's mimicry basically. Yeah, exactly. Or memery. You know, isn't that what they call it? Memery?

I've never heard that word. Miming? I don't know. I've never heard memery. Well, what do you think it is? Because it's, I mean, I always am interested in it because it happens a lot. Here you are, somebody who doesn't want to expose yourself, but you're hell-bent on getting on stage.

But doing things that are within my comfort zone. Yeah. But I mean, but if you're, you know what I mean? Like it does seem like you don't want to be looked at, but you want to be looked at. Well, I didn't, you know, I love the idea of being in a company. I see.

Where I didn't have the full responsibility. I bet you 100% I understand that one. But I didn't plan to be in these in one character monologues. That was the way I wrote. And it was a comfortable familial situation in the groundlings. My sister was there. My brother was the lighting director. Yeah. You know, and it was just a really supportive company. It was a family.

Yeah. Like any company is. And you were local. It was just, yeah. Yeah. You know, that was this, for me, when I started doing improv, I lived in Chicago. And then when I started taking improv classes, I would see like, oh my God, this person moved here from Colorado to do this. And I'm just doing it cause, you know, it's few blocks from my house.

Yeah, I think anybody that moves here from somewhere else is really brave. Yeah. Cause it can be so lonely and isolated. Absolutely, absolutely. And the odds are stacked against you for sure, you know? Well, when does it kind of, I mean, does it seem like the groundlings is a thing before it even becomes a thing? Well, when does it kind of, I mean, does it seem like The Groundlings is a thing

before it even becomes a thing? Well, it was hard to know. I mean, I left so soon. I, Lorne Michaels and Lily Tomlin came to see the show because they needed some people for her special. And they hired me. And that was when I first did The Valley Girl on TV. Right.

And then Lorne came back to the Groundlings. I was doing new material and new characters. And he had me meet him at the Chateau to talk about this show that he was doing. And it was only at the end that he said it was going to be in New York. And that just, my stomach went on the down elevator. But at the same time, it was like, well, it was only going to be for 13 weeks. Yeah, yeah. With a five-year option.

Right, right. Like that'll ever happen. And so were you excited? Was it like, what percentage excited? What percentage did you feel daunted? I had no idea what the show was going to be, so there was nothing to be afraid of. Right. You know, me and my boyfriend drove cross country, we camped out, you know, we landed

in Greenwich Village, stayed there for four days, moved to Midtown. By the way, everything in his car, my written material, my costumes, my record collection, the car was stolen. In New York? Yes, in New York. Can you imagine that, Andy? In Midtown. Well, at least it made it there. Somebody's enjoying my record collection. Yeah. But all I had were the clothes I was wearing.

Wow. And I met Tom Schiller. That was one of the first writers I met. And he looked familiar to me. And we realized that he had gone to the same grammar school that I had. He was only a couple years older than me. Wow.

And my sister had been his counselor at camp. You know, it's all connected. Yeah, it's a small world. It's so connected. It is really, I mean, I have so many weird connections like that where like, you know, that summer camp kind of thing where like somebody goes and I mean, it happened to other people in my life where it's like, oh my God, that guy, I know that guy, you know? Which is kind of, I don't know, there's a warmth to it.

Yeah, there's a warmth to it. And you know, his style and perspective of humor, I totally got it. And I can't really, I don't know how to characterize why. It's just that, you know, I really feel like we came from the same place in a lot of ways, you know? Now, how important to you, like this notion of like, cause especially people that come out here to be out here,

brave as they are, there is that, I'm gonna get on TV. Like there's that engine that's in them, which I think when you're young is a very good thing. It's a very natural good thing to have that kind of, but then as you get older and you start to do things, you realize like, well, yeah, but that, just that attaining of some kind of, you know, I don't know, like some sort of level

or getting to some, sit on some throne doesn't really matter. It's about the work that you're doing. You have to believe me when I tell you I had no idea where the work would take me. I've always been very myopic. I've never been able to see the big picture about things. And I just liked being a creative person and having, you know, that, this sounds so corny, but it's like when an audience gets you,

it feels like a kind of communion. And that was all I was looking for. I had no idea what would happen with it. And it was, you know, the groundlings are having her 50th anniversary and there've been many panels and one of the panels with the people from the very beginning, like Tom Maxwell and my sister and a bunch of other people. And one of the people said this and I don't know, I don't remember which one, but it was like, you know, if you're the kind of person that thinks, oh, I want to be famous. I want to have a house and cars. I want to be a billboard.

I'm going to do improv. Yeah. You know? Yeah, yeah. Right. So I never thought I want to be on TV. Yeah. I want to be, I just wanted, you know, to do the work that was right in front of me.

Yeah. So you didn't really allow yourself to think about the fact that you were going to be on TV. Exactly. Because I also knew, you know, we moved from Westwood to Beverly Hills when my brother and I were 11. Okay. And, you know, you'd see movie stars every day walking around. The drugstore and whatever.

Exactly. But you would also see like people who were character actors or whatever who've been on a series and weren't working at the time. So I knew what could happen. Even at the time observing that, I never imagined being an actor myself. I just remember that lost feeling or look that they seem to have. Right.

That guy whose face you've seen 50 times on 20 different things sure does have a lot of time to sit at the diner. Yeah, and it's like, Mom, why is his face all red? You know, he's an alcoholic. Honey, it's the makeup, you know. It's the sun. He spends a lot of time in the sun.

MUSIC a lot of time in this song. Can't you tell my love's a- Well, I mean, what's it like as they start to amass that cast and you start to kind of meet these people and, you know, and when do you start to kind of realize what is taking shape? You know, what the form of the show that you're gonna do, what? Well, you know, if you watch the first episode, the form wasn't there yet.

Yeah. But it was really, again, you know, we were, we felt like we were, first of all, we were in a time slot where we were told constantly, nobody's watching. Yeah. You know? And, you know, you could tell, with the regard the network held us in when the offices had their shit vomit colored furniture from God knows where, you know, assembled for us.

And there were no offices. We were just on the 17th floor. There was nothing but carpet and phone lines and telephones. That was it. So one big open space. One big open space. Wow. And then walls started to come up and offices started to be built.

That's why it always amazes me. And it's been a long time since I've been on the 17th floor, but even the last time I was there, it's just unrecognizable. And it's pretty exciting. Was it in that center building? Yeah, 30 Rock. Yeah, yeah. Because we were on the kind of the West end. We were on the Sixth Avenue end. Okay.

And the SNL was always, you know, you kind of had to walk through the labyrinth to get to the SNL offices. Well, it was like the 49th and the 50th Street entrance. Yeah. You know, and then that bank of elevators where the security guards never wanted to let you up, which they showed wonderfully in the SNL movie with Lorne not being able to get up. But the first friend I had was Gilda Radner, and she took me with her to a recording session for a Lampoon album called That's Not Funny, That's Sick.

And so I met Chris Guest, Harold Ramis, Billy and Brian Dole Murray, and they had me do a bit on the record. And so it was like, oh, acceptance, a little bit. In the beginning, Lorne wanted us to gel as a cast, so we would be doing improv in his loft. We did that twice. Yeah, yeah.

After that, no. And he would sit on the couch and watch like a little Raja. Yeah, I mean, we all came from that background. We all had it. I mean, you know, the groundlings, and I'm sure Second City, but the groundlings more with costumes. You know, you're on stage, blackout, runoff, change,

come back in the dark, lights up, go. That's what SNL is, you know? Yeah, of course. So it didn't seem foreign to me, and I had already been on television, Andy. So a lot of people were saying, oh, my God, millions of people are watching us. They said, listen, listen, you're not going to be able to feel that. The only people you know about are the 300 people in the studio. That's it.

Yeah. It's funny when you say that about Rockefeller Center because it wasn't that much different in 1993 when we took over because we were on the ninth floor, and I can't remember what floor David Letterman was on. I think he was above us, but directly above us. You know, like we looked on Sixth Avenue and we had that whole side of the building on Sixth Avenue on the ninth floor with us.

And I was the first writer hired. And when I got there, it was basically Conan, Jeff Ross, Robert Smigel. Oh my God. Conan had an assistant, Jeff Ross had an assistant, Paula Davis, who is still booking this show, was there, and then like a couple of PAs,

like eight people in the whole floor. And I was the first writer hired and Letterman was still on the air and we were waiting. There was a date where, and because like I was sitting on a folding chair and I had a desk and a folding chair. And what had come down was when Letterman is done, there's a day at which they're out of there. You get up there and you take what you can. Oh my God. And so there was a mad dash up there

and like people, like I took, I had this ugly old yellow, I found this but very comfortable, ugly yellow wheeled desk chair that I found and then I just stacked things on the desk chair and pushed it down to my desk. Oh, you mean really take stuff. I mean really take stuff. Snacks and supplies it down to minus. Oh, you mean really take stuff. I mean really take stuff.

Like snacks and supplies. Lamps and desk organizer things. But then we went into, like you got to go into Letterman's office, which was empty and felt like a crime scene, but we'd seen it so much on his show that there were the pencils in the ceiling, which he used to throw pencils in the ceiling.

Yeah, of course. We did, too. All of it. Yes, I know. He didn't invent it, but he made a big deal out of it. You know, I mean, it was part of his Midwestern charm, which, listen, I know about that gimmick. But the other thing that was amazing too was

there was, it looked like bank teller windows around all the windows in his office, thick, like bulletproof glass all the way around on his windows. And we were, you know, people were like, were there like death threats? What was it before that though? No, it was in front of just the regular windows. They just tacked up these really thick glass and we're like, were there snipers that were trying? And they said, no, he used to play baseball in his office and broke a window and hit the ball out on the Sixth Avenue too many times.

Oh yeah. So that they put bulletproof glass up so that he couldn't break his own windows playing baseball. Jesus, actors are children. I know, I know. Well, I remember the first Conan show where they show him. I don't.

You don't? No, I do actually. It was amazing. And I didn't even, I didn't know who he was. I knew that it was something that Lauren was producing. He didn't know who he was. I knew that it was something that Lorne was producing. He didn't know who he was back then. But I did know that this was a writer. He just found that out like six months ago, who he was.

Isn't that true of all of us? Oh my God, isn't it? I don't even know yet. I'm 72. It was a shock to everybody that this guy was doing this thing. I really have to hand it to Lorne though to see that this was something that could be. To recognize Conan's ability probably before he was aware of it. And he was so great in that opening where you see his like, he's so afraid and you see

like a dummy of his body like, what is it, jumping out a window or something? It just, it made me laugh so hard. I think it's he hung himself. He kept, people kept saying, you're not as good as Letterman, you're not as good as Letterman. And at the end he just puts his head in a noose and hangs himself.

Going right for it. That was a good introduction to our sensibilities. Yeah, the tone was really beautiful and original. Yeah, that was, Lauren, I mean, Lauren did, because at that time too, Lauren sort of went in and out of favor with NBC. And at that point he was, SNL was doing very well. So they assigned him the job.

You got to find the next guy. And they went through these guys. And I honestly think, and I don't know for sure, but I feel like Conan just told them, it's me, just make it me. It's me. Yeah, I think that Lauren initially wanted Conan to be the head writer on the show.

He wanted him to run the show. And Conan was like, no, I don't wanna run the show. I wanna be the guy. And I think he just like insisted enough, and Lauren was like, no, all right, do it, you know. Wow. And, and that was, and then that was just kept that way, you know, cause and you know,

Lauren is amazing because people make fun of them, you know, and people, you know, everybody does a Lauren imitation, you know, and, and, you know, and people will say snarky things about him and stuff. And he does have imperious ways. But like my friend, one of my best friends is Tim Meadows. And like he says, who has started more people? Like who has birthed more comedy? And said, hey you, come here and now here world, here's this person that's going to give you the gift of laughter over and over and over.

And it's absolute, there's nobody else. And pull you into their sensibility, which is new. And that's what I think has kept the show on, is that over the generations, there've always been new people with new styles, original people, writers and performers. And the turnover, you know, they keep finding those people. They have, you know, whether Lorne has the last word, I don't know how it's done now, but they have really good taste.

I mean, Sarah Sherman is a perfect example of someone whose style is so original and so pulling the audience along into her wake. And they had the foresight to have her. Absolutely. Yeah, because she's weird. She is very weird, but so funny. Absolutely, but there is, but you know, there's not a lot of places where truly weird can get on television because it's all ruled by fear, you know, and so that does get to happen. But Lorne is really kind of exempt from that. Yeah.

You know, in a way, because he's like got the golden touch. Well, and it's also too, I think he's, he's, you know, experimenting,'s experimenting, give him a shot. It hasn't hurt him, it's only helped him to be like, well, let's try this. If it doesn't work, let's try this person. And there have been people, give them a shot. Nah, they're not working.

Goodbye. And you know, by the way, those people that weren't working that maybe had one season, Mikaela Watkins. Oh yeah. You know, there's so many of them for whatever reason. Jenny Slate was one, Sarah Silverman was one. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, and lots and lots.

I mean, it's a really difficult atmosphere. Yes. Especially if you're very young. And also I think, although I want to get your take on this, not so much anymore, but it used to be a very hard place for women, I think. Did you have that experience early on? I sound like a broken record with this, and I've said this on 50,000 interviews. I met Lorne when he was producing Lily Tomlin. He's written for women.

He wrote for Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers. He really appreciates and champions women's humor. It was just a numbers game. We had 10 male writers and three women writers. We had four male actors, three female actors. But it was always a meritocracy from my perspective. It didn't matter who wrote the sketch,

who was in the sketch, except with Belushi, who had to hide the fact that Ann Beats wrote it. But other than that, and she was so good, but other than that, you know, I really don't feel like this whole polemic about the men's club was going on when I was there. Yeah. Well, and when you put it like that, that the cast was four men and three women, those

are pretty good numbers actually, especially for that time because when I started doing improv in the late 80s, there would be, there were so few women sort of in the organization and the organization was run by a woman, but there'd be, you'd get maybe one or two women for every eight or nine men. There's very sort of token feel to the female representation. Are you referring to Second City? No, I'm referring to Improv Olympic. Oh, okay. Improv Olympic.

I never did. Isn't that Sharna? Yeah, Sharna Halpern. Yeah. And I had never, but that was also just like, at the time too, it was like, well, that's- That's who wants to do it. I'm in the classes. It's 80% men.

Yeah, exactly. What are you gonna do? It's a numbers game, that's all it is. And if anything too, I felt like a woman that shined went right to the front. Yeah, no one's obstructing them. Because it's like, holy shit, this talented woman, get her up here.

Exactly. Because talented men, who gives a shit? But talented woman, get her up here, because talented men, who gives a shit? But talented woman, get up there, no, seriously. But then that really did change, and I was just talking to somebody the other day about it, and I think a big deal was when Tina Fey started being head writer on Saturday Night Live, and it became much more of a woman-centric show.

And then- Really strong women. Yeah. A lot of groundlings women too. Yeah, yeah. You know? Yeah. Bridesmaids is a groundlings movie.

Yeah. Oh, that's right. And I've noticed you can always tell a groundling in the SNL cast because they're the people that really do the outstanding character work. Yes. You know, I mean, Second City do the outstanding character work. Yes. I mean, Second City is like premise-based and Groundlings is character-based. Is character-based. And both, of course, have their value.

I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I've always been able, and also some of the people I've watched them develop at the Groundlings and then go to SNL, which is always exciting to see. But you know, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, you know, Anna Gasteyer. I mean, the list just goes on and on. Will Ferrell to Sherry O'Terrio. It's just endless. Nassim Pedrad. Yeah, they're all- I never thought about that, but you're right.

The Groundlings is more like there's... Because in Chicago, there wasn't a lot of like, well, now I'm going to... Nobody was doing Pee-wee Herman. Nobody had a, this is my character that I'm going to sort of get inside of and inhabit and find all the different sort of wrinkles of this particular vessel. And I think largely because it was driven by Del Close, who put the kibosh on doing things twice. Oh, really?

Yeah. There was a macho attitude that like if you did it once and it was good, you can't do it again. Because you were always supposed to be discovering. You know, it was this sort of very sort of... I understand that, but they did have set pieces. They had touring companies. Oh yeah, in Second City, definitely. That's how you develop them. Yeah, but I never did Second City. And when I was there too, Second City had kind of,

it wasn't the sort of laboratory of new good ideas. It was sort of resting on its laurels. That was the sort of, people were doing, they were touring in a van doing Nichols and May sketches. They were doing very, very old sketches. And when I would go see SNL, or SNL, when I would go see Second City Review kind of things, whether, because they had a, like in the Northwest, they had a, like a theater out in the suburbs

that friends of mine were in a lot, or when I'd go down and see the shows, I would see some of the old, you know, you'd see like the head, the person that died from the head in the bean can sketch. Right, with other people doing it. Yes. There's no such thing as that at the groundlings. Yeah. No. There were these old standby sketches that people did, and that's what they did out on the road.

Then after I was in improv and set off on a different direction, people came in and revitalized Second City. Yeah. I mean, that's what's great about all of this, is new people come. All of it. And I was going to say too, like when you were mentioning SNL, the thing about SNL that is amazing to me and that people seem to forget is that it can reinvent itself with each new commercial break. It can come back from like a shitty sketch, a shitty, boring, derivative sketch, and then come back from the commercial and be a brand new, hilarious, fantastic show, which is really like you don't get that anywhere else.

Yeah. John Mulaney's show, The Thing with the Chimp. Yeah, yeah. Whoever made that, I've never seen his name on credits on anything on SNL before, so I suspect that he's someone new. Yeah. And we're going to get to see more of his stuff. Yeah, yeah.

And that's really exciting. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, no, there's definitely, like there was a writer, Chris Kelly, who was running it for a while, and there were definitely sketches. There were just, like, very weird, you know, very weird kind of campy sketches that I would just feel like, okay, that's under his influence.

Like, that's, you know, like, they had, like, the show... And the show, you know, like, the show gets to be really gay sometimes, which it didn't always get to. It used to be really gay, you know? Culture, we're just gonna usher you along, bring you along, just come to the light, children. Yeah, yeah.

Well, you said you had the five-year option. Mm-hmm. Was it five years? We were there for five years. Yeah, and then Lauren. And was it only 13? Did you only do 13 those whole five years? What? 13 episodes. five years? What?

13 episodes. Oh, per season? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, you don't remember the exact episodes. Yeah, yeah. It was so long ago, Andy. Numbers, numbers! Fifty years!

Who can know? Who can know? Fifty years! That is right. It is 50 years. I can't believe it. Are you going to go to the shebang? Yeah, yeah. I just found out, you know, the first night is, we're going to Radio City and Soul and Musical Show, which is gonna be great.

Oh, that's great. But the second event is a show. So that'll be interesting. You mean it's a TV show or just a live show? Yeah, it is a TV show. And is the Radio City show gonna be taped? I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know. It would seem like a shame to not. I mean, why not? Yeah, I mean, what an evening. And there's all kinds of places to put it, you know? Sure. Peacock is right there. It is.

For gosh sakes. Yeah. Well, what was, I mean, you traveled through it and you have, and you made mention of, you know, that the end, at you made mention of, you know, that at the end of that, you were not in good shape at the end of those five years. And had that been like happening throughout the years? Had you kind of, you know, been sort of?

Well, I came there with a drug habit. Oh, okay. So it's not like, you know, you couldn't take the success, man! You know, it's the fuck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, right, exactly. I don't need that.

I don't need that to have a drug habit. Exactly. I had a drug habit just from being alive. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, I was very young. I was very inexperienced. I was the dubious captain.

You were very young. Well, but there have been younger people. But I was very young, 23. I know, but still, yeah. But, you know, I was the dubious captain of my own ship. Lauren said, you should repeat characters. I was like, no, that's hack. I'm not gonna do that, whatever.

So there were a lot of things. And when I wrote my memoir, Andy, I had to go back and look at a lot of the shows to remember certain sketches I wanted to talk about. And it was like, you know, you did okay. Considering all of that, you did fine. So it's, you know, I held out for a while, but in 1987, I got it together.

Yeah. When did you, when it was over, were you done with it? Were you ready to be done with it? I wanted to go home. I never really caught into New York. It was just not my vibe. I am such a Southern California person. I mean, as trivial as it sounds, just coming from a car culture where you can go anywhere and do, you know, it's like if you in New York want to do a big marketing and pick up your dry cleaning in the same day, it's utter toil.

Yeah. Yeah. And plus the weather, I could never figure out that cold. Right. I finally got an Eddie Bauer Arctic Parka and everybody laughed at me. I still have it, by the way. But that was the only thing. I finally figured it out at the end.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you come home for the summers? Like when you were... Yeah, or sometimes I would be doing a movie. Yeah, yeah. So I'd do that during the summer as well. Right, right.

So when it was done, you came back here and did you have a like a what now kind of feeling or? I really, I mean, this is so hard to talk about, but you know, I just... Well, you don't have to. I mean, I'm not, you know... Yeah, I mean, you know, I, yeah, I just, listen to my memoir, Andy. It's all in there. Okay, all right. All right, all right. It's called May You Live in Interesting Times. It's on Audible. Yes. All right. Well, now, how soon after you got,

when did you become a mother? I had my first baby when I was 39. Oh, wow. And my second when I was 42. When you were 42. Yeah. And was that something that you maybe had thought you weren't gonna do?

That is correct, Andy. Yeah. I never, I was never, And was that something that you maybe had thought you weren't going to do? That is correct Andy. I was never, I mean all my friends around me were like rabid to have babies. Like what, I don't, who cares, you know? But the first pregnancy, I didn't think I could get pregnant. And then it was like, oh, well, if not now, when? Yeah. And then the second one was, well, we don't want this one to be alone in the world. Yeah.

Let's bring a companion along. Yeah, yeah. So that was the plan for Hannah Marie Einbinder. Yeah. Who was done through sperm selection, by the way, to get a boy. Oh, well. Yeah.

Oops. Yeah. Well, yeah,. Oh, well. Yeah. Oops. Yeah. Well, yeah, no, Hannah insisted. She had the force of will. Exactly. Like, fuck that, get that chromosome out of here. Well, how was, I mean, was that daunting at that age? Or were you ready?

Were you excited and ready? It was perfect because they weren't stopping me from doing anything I would have rather be doing. I was enchanted by the whole thing of experiencing. I played with them and because of course I come from a discipline that is childlike on some level. Absolutely. You know, playing with them was just wonderful. The sleep deprivation was hard, especially at my age.

And that was also a reason I went into voiceover because the times that I was working on camera and it was like a 12-hour day. You know, I felt horribly guilty. And also, nobody could mother them better than I could. Of course not. It's like, did you now make sure that you packed the diaper back, you know. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, transferring into that, which was really the best job for me and the best job for my skill set. And you spend like maximum four hours,

you do stupid voices, you laugh your guts out, and you get paid. And some of the funniest, most talented people in that world. That's the best. Yeah, voiceover is pretty great. It's really fun. And the ratio of work to pay is silly.

Yeah. It's like the most like there's, you know, I'm like, oh my God, I made a lot of money for going, that's really good, you know, because I've, you know, other times you like, you really work hard and exhaust yourself and stay up for 14 hours. And it's like, here's 20 bucks. I mean, I was able to work during the pandemic because Netflix sent me equipment. Oh, that's great.

You know, it was, you know. And the strike too, I mean, we have a different contract. So I was able to work during the strike as well. Yeah. Do you think, what do you think waiting to have children brought to you? Do you think that the difference than if you had had kids earlier? Well, I was a mess earlier and I was a drug addict. And you know, I was well into sobriety when I had them.

But just as I said, you know, they were not keeping me from doing anything. I had done a lot of things that were aspirational. And I was in a point in my life where I was ready to not have my life be about me. And that was the best part of it. Absolutely, yeah. Do you think, because I asked myself, because I have older kids and I now have a four,

I got remarried and I have a four and a half year old daughter now. My hat is off to you. Thank you. I'm back in the little kid business. Aww. But I do, you know, I do do some self-reflection now that I have older kids that are out. And I think about like how I could have done a better job. Well, that's the plight of being a parent.

Do you feel like that? Of course I do. The things I know now, it's like there was this thing called fervorizing your baby, which was helping them sleep through the night by letting them figure it out. And meanwhile, my husband, Chad,

and I would be leaned against their bedroom door crying because we wanted to go in. And now I realized that was not good. I think that babies, when they're not tended to, tend to internalize that. And it can be trauma. So I would never have done that now. There's so many things I would have done differently. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I have a hard time with how much I was supposed to scold them into

doing things. You know what I mean? Like if they were taking piano lessons and they really decided like, I don't want to do this anymore, I'd go, all right, don't. Whereas I don't know if I was supposed to go, no, no, no, you must continue to do this thing you hate. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that either. I mean, I really think the people that become great at it, they want to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's like anything. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I just, and also too, I'm sure you've dealt with this. They get to be grownups or they'd be on the cusp of grownup and you're just like, oh shit, you're just gonna go out there and be an adult now, aren't you? You're just gonna, you might fall flat on your face or you might fly like an eagle.

I don't know and I can't do anything about it but sit here and cross my fingers. Well, you know, both my kids have really, I don't know how this happened, but they both have good head on their shoulders. And they're both a lot more capable than I ever was at their age and on. Yeah.

You know, they just don't have the same issues that I had. Mm-hmm. And they were, they are, they have an aptitude for the work that they're doing. Yeah. You know, which is everything. I mean, going to Beverly Hills High School, seeing the children of movie stars,

some of whom wanted to go into the business their parents were in, some of whom really had an aptitude for it and did well. But the ones that didn't, that was sad. And my kids kept it kind of a secret that they wanted to do that work. So I never had to worry about that until they were in a point where they were already so good. They were already doing it. Yeah. Because I was gonna say,

because for people that don't know, your daughter Hannah Einbinder is on the amazing show Hacks. The, what I envy that show. Oh my God. And the fact that they get to all do that. I know. And they're all so good on that. It's a great cast and writing.

And then Hannah's sibling is in show, Spike is in show business. Spike started doing standup when they were 15. Okay. They went to school with Jake Reiner, Rob's son. Oh my God, this is terrible. Tracy Ullman's son, Johnny. Yeah.

And they were also friends with James Brooks' son. Mm-hmm. And Jake had Spike join him at this improv class or stand-up class at the improv. And Spike would not let me go see them perform, but Rob Reiner got to see them. And James L. Brooks got to see them and Carl Reiner got to see them. So they were the ones that were telling me, your kid, you know. And then when it was my birthday, I got to see them do stand-up and they were incredible. Yeah.

You know, but very different. Yeah. You know, not mainstream. Yeah. Yeah. Even though Hannah's material is really not mainstream in any sense. It is really, would absolutely be alt. Spike is really alt and really interesting, and there's nobody like them.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. That's great. And so you didn't even really get a chance to feel worry about them. You didn't get the do anything but show business like your mother did to you. Well, the one thing was when Hannah got Hacks, she had no acting experience at all.

And so I was worried about that. But you know, obviously she adapted. Yeah, she learned on the job. And that's the best way to learn too, I think. I mean, how did that happen? She auditioned and they went, yeah, you? She auditioned. Wow. Yeah.

You know, this kid was in all-star competitive cheer from the time they were 11 till into high school. And they'd have these competitions and there'd be like a time when there would be a dance contest. And these girls would be grinding and dropping it low. Yeah. And Hannah would be doing the pee-wee dance. You know?

So that would give you kind of a hint. That's great. Of their direction. That's great. Well, you've got coming up, I mean, you've got the 50th anniversary of SNL, and then it's also the 50th anniversary of the Groundlings, because they are kind of founded concurrently. Well yeah, actually we're doing it, we're celebrating now because it was 74.

Okay. But we actually started in like 72. I see. But that's what they're acknowledging is 74. And so yeah, there's been a lot of stuff going on for both things. How does it make you feel to have this kind of forced retrospective? I can't believe it. For 50 years, I cannot believe, first of all, that number is incomprehensible to me because

I don't feel old enough to have been doing something as an adult 50 years ago. Except in the morning, Andy. Then it seems absolute. When I try to open a jar. Oh, yes, that makes sense. Yeah. But it's wonderful. I've been seeing these things on bus stops and SNL 50 all over the place. I was watching SNL and I was sitting on my couch. Well, I spent a lot of time, Andy. Yes, of course.

And I was just looking around my place and thinking, you know, this show gave me all of this. Yeah. You know, and I'm really, really lucky and grateful. Yeah, yeah. That's great. I'm really, really lucky and grateful. Yeah, yeah, that's great. I imagine people will ask you like for sort of advice and what you've learned, you know, in your path

through this business and through life and having a family. And what would that, what do you tell people when they ask that? Asking me about what necessarily. Like what's the, what is the lesson that you Asking me about what necessarily. What is the lesson that you would learn? What would you want to share with people? What's the point that they should get from your story?

Restraint of pen and tongue. I've really struggled with impulsivity and that's something I'm just now getting a handle on. And it's cost me a lot. I mean, not as much as some people, but you know, as I've grown older and as I develop and still try to grow, that has been one thing that I've really been working on specifically is just keeping things close to my vest in a good way. Where I grew up at a time was like, let it all hang out. You're not going to stifle me. Yeah, exactly. No, we don't do that. Yeah. You know, it's better to listen than to talk.

Yes. No, it's a very grown up way to be. I'm trying to grow up. Very hard. Just because it occurs to you doesn't mean you need to say it. I don't have to have unspoken. I can have unspoken thoughts.

Yes, exactly. It's OK. Yes, yes. And sometimes your opinion is just your opinion. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Not necessarily universal. Well, Lorraine Newman, thank you so much for spending this time with me. Thank you for having me. This was so fun, Andy.

It was great to talk to you and I've been loving you and your work, and I mean, your kids' work for a long time. So, thanks so much and congratulations on all these big happenings, all these anniversaries happening. And I look forward to seeing you on some of them. Yes. Well, hopefully. I mean, you don't know, we don't know if we'll be at any of the sketches. Right, right. I was telling Julia Sweeney, it's so funny when I said, I found out there's going to be a show and she said, God, I hope I'm in it. And I was like, me too. I'm still so insecure.

I hope you're, well, I don't think that ever stops. Yeah, it doesn't. That never stops. All right, well, thank you. And thank all of you out there for listening. And I'll be back next week with more The Three Questions. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production.

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