0
SPEAKER_02
Hey guys, it s David Spade here.
0
SPEAKER_02
Applause, applause, standing ovation.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s everyone has been asking me where I go on tour, literally every single person in the world.
0
SPEAKER_02
So I m playing the Venetian in Las Vegas with Nikki Glaser coming up in April.
0
SPEAKER_02
And then we do it three more times.
0
SPEAKER_02
Check davidspade.com.
0
SPEAKER_02
That s not a plug.
0
SPEAKER_02
It sounds like one.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s not.
0
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, have fun.
0
SPEAKER_02
Here we go.
0
SPEAKER_02
Bye.
0
SPEAKER_02
I like when Kevin Nealon goes, you know, my dentist said to me, all right, open your mouth and you might feel a little prick in there.
0
SPEAKER_02
He goes, I better not.
0
SPEAKER_01
I used to do it.
0
SPEAKER_01
A dentist having sex, you might feel a little prick.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh really?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
You guys should get together.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, no, Kevin s is better.
0
SPEAKER_02
Fred Wolf says.
0
SPEAKER_02
I went to the dentist, you could tell he sucks.
0
SPEAKER_02
He goes, now I m gonna have to take out two teeth.
0
SPEAKER_02
So what we re gonna do is make an incision down your cheek, we re gonna pry it open about two inches, get in there and pull those teeth out.
0
SPEAKER_02
And he goes, can t I just open my mouth?
0
SPEAKER_02
He goes, well, I know the first way works.
0
SPEAKER_02
Cecily Strong is our guest today.
0
SPEAKER_02
See these are bits.
0
SPEAKER_02
Dana got his teeths cleaned.
0
SPEAKER_01
So what did you, I was watching Warriors basketball.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I saw the country.
0
SPEAKER_02
The CMT?
0
SPEAKER_02
CMA, it s close.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, what s the CMT?
0
SPEAKER_02
I think that s a channel.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh.
0
SPEAKER_02
But I think they won an award too.
0
SPEAKER_01
Okay, so you watched the CMAs?
0
SPEAKER_02
So I watched the CMAs.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_02
And because I m a little jodert, shit kicker, goat roper, but they were just on and
0
SPEAKER_02
You know, my legs are always compared to Carrie Underwood.
0
SPEAKER_02
So my friend said her legs look good, but I know you both shave your legs.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think that s how it started.
0
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, so I watched, but here s my observation, two cents.
0
SPEAKER_02
They had on, here s who I saw, Megan Thee Stallion, Alanis Morissette sang, You Oughta Know, and Gwen Stefani sang, I m Just a Girl, with some other country people.
0
SPEAKER_02
But I know they wanna be inclusive, but honestly, just be the music awards, because you re having people from rock and roll.
0
SPEAKER_02
You know how these shows, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame isn t rock and roll anymore?
0
SPEAKER_02
It s okay to do that, but you don t need to label it then.
0
SPEAKER_02
Just say, it s the awards awards, or it s the music awards.
0
SPEAKER_02
And just say, if you re in music,
0
SPEAKER_02
we can all be up for an award and just pick the best out of music.
0
SPEAKER_02
Does it make any sense?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, real country music to me, it was on the AM radio, driving to Montana, and it was like, you re cheating hard.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, that was it.
0
SPEAKER_01
And now it s like, you re cheating hard.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now it s give me the beat.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I m surprised Diplo wasn t there.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s just, so that s a really smart observation.
0
SPEAKER_02
I say smart things all the time, but no one has a pen ever.
0
SPEAKER_02
You re cheating hard.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, the Mark Twain Awards we ran.
0
SPEAKER_02
Mark Twain Awards is what Dana was at.
0
SPEAKER_02
And Dave was at.
0
SPEAKER_02
And we did that in celebration of most celebrated man in comedy.
0
SPEAKER_01
Celebration.
0
SPEAKER_01
Celebration.
0
SPEAKER_01
I went on an hour four.
0
SPEAKER_01
It was great.
0
SPEAKER_01
Is that when you went on?
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t know, three.
0
SPEAKER_01
I was sitting next to Chris Rock and Pete Davidson, and every time a comedian would come up and kill Chris Rock would go,
0
SPEAKER_01
I m down to two minutes.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
Cause you know, you don t want to go late in the show because people step in your premises.
0
SPEAKER_02
Here s my, most of my premises.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I did it too.
0
SPEAKER_02
We all did it.
0
SPEAKER_02
I was the 11th comedian.
0
SPEAKER_02
We literally, I was talking to the guy backstage, Stillson, the writer.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I said,
0
SPEAKER_02
I say Zababu or something in this headline, I go, does anyone else do it?
0
SPEAKER_02
And he goes, just Conan and Stiller and Dana.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I go, well, that s most of the panel, whatever.
0
SPEAKER_02
But we went out there and we really...
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t know what we did, but it was fun, right?
0
SPEAKER_01
It was fun hanging out with everybody, seeing everybody.
0
SPEAKER_01
Marcy Klein.
0
SPEAKER_01
They cut 90 minutes of it.
0
SPEAKER_02
Tim Meadows.
0
SPEAKER_02
You know that?
0
SPEAKER_01
I know.
0
SPEAKER_02
They cut 90 minutes of the show, and it was only 90 minutes.
0
SPEAKER_02
So everybody went long.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m the only one that went within my time.
0
SPEAKER_02
Can you believe that?
0
SPEAKER_02
And they cut four jokes.
0
SPEAKER_01
Didn t I go short?
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, and they cut me down, yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
They cut four.
0
SPEAKER_02
I did under five anyway.
0
SPEAKER_02
Hm.
0
SPEAKER_02
Motherfuckers.
0
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, so that s cool.
0
SPEAKER_02
I don t care, motherfuckers.
0
SPEAKER_01
Don t you?
0
SPEAKER_02
I do.
0
SPEAKER_01
I think someone needs talk space.
0
SPEAKER_02
Here s my joke.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you want me to tell?
0
SPEAKER_02
You have a new joke?
0
SPEAKER_02
No, this is the one I didn t, this one I got shit canned.
0
SPEAKER_02
I ve done a lot of movies with Adam.
0
SPEAKER_02
Instead of listing them, just go to your unmarried uncle s apartment and look at his posters.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s harmless.
0
SPEAKER_01
Which ones?
0
SPEAKER_01
Can we knock them off here?
0
SPEAKER_02
No, that was the one and the other one was,
0
SPEAKER_02
In this woke PC world of Comedy Police, I can assure you the only person that would not win the Mark Twain award is Mark Twain.
0
SPEAKER_02
I said he had some iffy material.
0
SPEAKER_02
And then, fucking rat fucked me on that one.
0
SPEAKER_02
What about you?
0
SPEAKER_01
Well, there s been a controversy.
0
SPEAKER_01
You did a good Trump one.
0
SPEAKER_01
I did Trump and being, you know, arrested and they cut it.
0
SPEAKER_01
And what did you say?
0
SPEAKER_01
I liked it.
0
SPEAKER_01
I just say it was just an angle.
0
SPEAKER_01
Go ahead, arrest me, but you don t have to read me the rights because I wrote the rights.
0
SPEAKER_01
I can write a lot of things.
0
SPEAKER_01
I wrote the rights.
0
SPEAKER_01
I wrote the with a lovely lady named Miranda.
0
SPEAKER_01
We got together.
0
SPEAKER_01
I said the right to remain silent.
0
SPEAKER_01
She puts it down.
0
SPEAKER_01
We did it for hours.
0
SPEAKER_01
I know how to write things.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, everything you can use can be with you and against you.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I put it down.
0
SPEAKER_01
And you can say them to me, but I wrote them, I know them already.
0
SPEAKER_01
Miranda s a very good friend.
0
SPEAKER_01
She s a good friend, she s a lovely lady, what a beauty.
0
SPEAKER_01
What a beauty, that s funny.
0
SPEAKER_01
The Miranda Rites.
0
SPEAKER_01
There s a controversy involving me going around.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, that s right, I read this on Twitter.
0
SPEAKER_01
And it wasn t, here s the real story, and it s kind of,
0
SPEAKER_01
a sensitive topic, but after 9-11, I was shooting a movie called Master Disguise.
0
SPEAKER_01
After 9-11, we took an appropriate time off and went back to shooting.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I was playing, if you ve seen the movie, kids, the turtle man with a bald cap and a weird thing on my lip and a big green shell outfit.
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, let me tell you, Dan, the rumor was, because I saw it on Twitter and I sent it to you.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay, I wanna hear the rumor.
0
SPEAKER_02
Just to clarify what they thought it was.
0
SPEAKER_02
They said, rumor has it during,
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, when 9-11 happened, you were shooting actively in the morning and you heard about it in your turtle outfit, which isn t even a real story, but they thought it was funny you had the thing on, and that s when you heard about the historically terrible situation.
0
SPEAKER_01
Right, what happened was they obfuscated it, because I was in it all that day, and then they said, we re gonna have a group prayer.
0
SPEAKER_01
about 9-11, and I couldn t get the thing, I would have held everyone up for a half hour getting all that prosthetic makeup on.
0
SPEAKER_01
So as I remember it, there was all of us, everyone else, civilian clothes, I m dressed as a turtle man with a bald head, and I m holding hands and I m lowering my head and praying.
0
SPEAKER_01
I just saw at the moment, this is really strange.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s very ridiculous.
0
SPEAKER_02
And also that even someone would repeat that dumb story that like, anyway, did you have your shell on or off?
0
SPEAKER_01
They might ve gotten the shell off, but they didn t get the turtle head or the turtle lip off.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, that s too much work.
0
SPEAKER_01
Couldn t have gotten it all off, but you know, if it s outrageous, it s contagious.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now listen, if the shell, the shell should be really, you should be walking to the set and you go, shell, and then someone comes on, like Velcros it on.
0
SPEAKER_02
But if you have to like on your back and people, you know, you don t want that.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
The turtle man falls on his back.
0
SPEAKER_01
I can t even get up.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m completely, I m helpless.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
0
SPEAKER_02
Cecily strong is one of the stalwarts.
0
SPEAKER_01
She s a stalwart.
0
SPEAKER_02
She s a great solid 10 year hitter that, uh,
0
SPEAKER_02
that s been on SNL for 10 years, just left.
0
SPEAKER_01
Came to SNL with Kate McGinnon and Aidy Bryant.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_01
Did her 10 years.
0
SPEAKER_02
Talked about her little squad.
0
SPEAKER_02
She talked about a little bit when Trump hosted, she talked about, she does do a Lorne impression.
0
SPEAKER_02
Actually, I really liked hers.
0
SPEAKER_01
She did a unique take on Lorne and that ll be fun for you to hear.
0
SPEAKER_01
And she was,
0
SPEAKER_01
Extra, extra adorable as a person.
0
SPEAKER_01
And we were able to put her in context.
0
SPEAKER_01
She had some heavy hitters around her, but when you go over her history on SNL and her incredible sketches, we break down.
0
SPEAKER_01
I mean, she ll do a character that s missing a tooth, but she s not missing a tooth.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I asked her the process of how you talk like someone who sounds like they re missing a tooth.
0
SPEAKER_01
and have it sound real.
0
SPEAKER_02
And British accents, she went over.
0
SPEAKER_02
Incredible.
0
SPEAKER_02
She s also in these Verizon commercials, and I ve seen so many.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think I was saying, I think there s a movie there, but we decided there wasn t.
0
SPEAKER_01
And she s on Schmigadoon.
0
SPEAKER_01
Schmigadoon.
0
SPEAKER_01
Schmigadoon.
0
SPEAKER_01
So I wrote just a little, just before we throw to her, just a little ode.
0
SPEAKER_02
Just a little, let s give us a taste.
0
SPEAKER_02
He s got his guitar.
0
SPEAKER_02
That s a rockin  tune already.
0
SPEAKER_00
strong strong strong strong no wonder you went away this
1
SPEAKER_03
weekend and wrote that.
1
SPEAKER_03
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s happening.
1
SPEAKER_03
Everybody get off.
1
SPEAKER_03
Everyone off.
1
SPEAKER_03
She s here.
1
SPEAKER_02
The thing about Cecily is she s always prompt.
1
SPEAKER_02
You ll find that she ll be on the Zoom a little bit earlier than when it was scheduled, like 35 to 45.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, sorry.
1
SPEAKER_02
Hi, I love your sweater.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, thanks.
1
SPEAKER_01
We re doing a similar theme.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, this is a, yeah, kind of colorful.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s the perfect puffer.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s David s.
1
SPEAKER_02
David has a perfect puffer.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m in Northern California.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s freezing and there s a hypersonic river.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, there s never a rainstorm.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s always a cyclone bomb.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, but it s kind of nice.
1
SPEAKER_01
Is that still going?
1
SPEAKER_01
Is that still happening?
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
We haven t quit.
1
SPEAKER_02
Northern California never lays down with this.
1
SPEAKER_02
They never quit.
1
SPEAKER_03
I m not apologizing for my hair, but I m just going to say we re just going to deal with it on this.
1
SPEAKER_01
It looks like a fashion choice.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s kind of hip.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s what it used to look like.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m going to say two words right now about David s hair.
1
SPEAKER_02
Bad, bad boy.
1
SPEAKER_01
Back me up.
1
SPEAKER_01
Bad boy.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right.
1
SPEAKER_02
Uncapped.
1
SPEAKER_01
Ready to fight hair.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
And bad boys never go out of style.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right.
1
SPEAKER_02
Bad boy lost his comb.
1
SPEAKER_02
Bad boys never go out of style.
1
SPEAKER_02
So they re in style and they re going to stay in style.
1
SPEAKER_02
I think forever.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
Dana was saying it rains and you re not in LA, I don t think, but it s raining always now.
1
SPEAKER_03
It s a new thing.
1
SPEAKER_03
And you think with the taxes and everything, the only thing we get is good weather.
1
SPEAKER_03
Now we don t have that.
1
SPEAKER_03
So when it rains, the weatherman goes like this, it s going to pour for seven days straight.
1
SPEAKER_03
And then you, and there s such a big drought here.
1
SPEAKER_03
Everyone goes, Oh good.
1
SPEAKER_03
And he goes,
1
SPEAKER_03
but it s not gonna help the drought.
1
SPEAKER_03
Did you think that? 
1
SPEAKER_03
And I go, I did think that.
1
SPEAKER_03
And I go, no.
1
SPEAKER_03
See, it s funny you would think that, that the drought is getting worse.
1
SPEAKER_03
And I m like, I don t think I know what a drought is then, because why is all the rain not helping?
1
SPEAKER_03
And they re like, it s nothing.
1
SPEAKER_03
It just literally does nothing.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s gotta go underground, man.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s all about recharging it underground.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right.
1
SPEAKER_01
But it was like, well, it s good to fill the ones over ground too, I think.
1
SPEAKER_01
I don t know what s getting filled.
1
SPEAKER_01
We can celebrate the little wins, right?
1
SPEAKER_02
I thought it was a little win.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes, it was a little win.
1
SPEAKER_02
Shasta is a mofo.
1
SPEAKER_02
That thing is so fucking huge.
1
SPEAKER_02
And it s going to get so full when the mountains start to melt that they re going to have to release water.
1
SPEAKER_02
Here s my point.
1
SPEAKER_02
If it rains outside, I don t really have a point.
1
SPEAKER_02
I took a one hour shower yesterday just to kind of, just because it was raining outside.
1
SPEAKER_02
I go, how much could it hurt?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
I didn t know where you were going with that, but okay.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m so punchy and I have nothing, but at least I ll admit it ahead of time.
1
SPEAKER_02
Cecily, we re so glad you re on this show.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re so excited.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s wonderful to be here.
1
SPEAKER_01
I just adore you both.
1
SPEAKER_01
I hope you know that.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think I told you both that the 50th, but I don t, or the 40th, I mean, geez, but I don t know if you remember.
1
SPEAKER_01
50th is next.
1
SPEAKER_03
You know, the 40th, Cecily, it is Cecily, right?
1
SPEAKER_03
You say Cecily?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes, Cecily.
1
SPEAKER_03
Don t say it wrong.
1
SPEAKER_03
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_03
People do say it wrong.
1
SPEAKER_01
You ve been saying it right.
1
SPEAKER_01
I appreciate that.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m Dana and he s David.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
No, it s Cecily is very hip.
1
SPEAKER_02
Cecily is like works at a mall or something.
1
SPEAKER_02
Cecily, I don t know about.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_03
When we did the 40th, aside from the excitement of it all and seeing every return, someone was fun to see and old, new cast, whatever, whatever.
1
SPEAKER_03
She was assigned the thankless job of doing my buh-bye with me, which, you know, the show was so thrown together.
1
SPEAKER_01
Was not thankless.
1
SPEAKER_01
That was very exciting.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, can you imagine?
1
SPEAKER_01
It was fun though, right?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes, yes.
1
SPEAKER_03
It didn t kill and get off the charts and win awards.
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Just for a second for our audience, David used to do a care.
1
SPEAKER_02
His first character that landed an absolute catchphrase flight attendant as you get off the plane saying bye bye.
1
SPEAKER_02
Right.
1
SPEAKER_02
So then on the 40th, you two are in the sketch.
1
SPEAKER_02
Fill us in.
1
SPEAKER_02
What happened?
1
SPEAKER_02
How did you get together?
1
SPEAKER_02
How did where were you in the show?
1
SPEAKER_02
Hour three or hour six?
1
SPEAKER_01
We ended the Californians.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I actually have a picture of you and I standing there, I think, with Bradley Cooper.
1
SPEAKER_01
But I have the little picture on my wall.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I love it.
1
SPEAKER_03
You know what was fun about that was, I think it was, I talked to Shroomtaker, Michael s shoemaker, and he... What s a Shroomtaker?
1
SPEAKER_03
What s a Shroomtaker with Michael?
1
SPEAKER_03
His name sounds like Shroomtaker, a shoemaker.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I thought it was like he deals in psilocybin.
1
SPEAKER_02
Um, I ll just have a small amount, Marci.
1
SPEAKER_02
Sorry.
1
SPEAKER_02
So anyway, you guys did the sketch show, the Californians, and then at the end, you two were placed on the soundstage, kind of at the edge of their set, and did a goodbye.
1
SPEAKER_02
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.
1
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, it was funny because as Shoemaker, I asked Shoemaker, I said,
1
SPEAKER_03
What if, because this show is obviously so thrown together, no one cares, what if when someone s leaving a sketch, they just walk by and we go bye-bye?
1
SPEAKER_03
And he goes, yeah, we can probably do that.
1
SPEAKER_03
So we talked to Higgins, and then they said, you would be good for that.
1
SPEAKER_03
And then we stood there, and I have a picture, I think it s probably from, is it from rehearsal or is it from the real show?
1
SPEAKER_03
I have one, I think, from rehearsal.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I m not sure.
1
SPEAKER_02
And hey gang, let s put it on social media when this episode comes out.
1
SPEAKER_03
It doesn t matter, but it was fun because Taylor Swift was in it.
1
SPEAKER_03
So basically Dana, it was very unorthodox.
1
SPEAKER_03
They do this sketch.
1
SPEAKER_03
That s a big favorite sketch.
1
SPEAKER_03
And then when they re leaving, we just stand there for absolutely no reason and go bye bye.
1
SPEAKER_02
I remember it.
1
SPEAKER_02
I remember it now.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s kind of meta or whatever that word means.
1
SPEAKER_03
It was fun.
1
SPEAKER_03
And Taylor Swift was in it.
1
SPEAKER_03
She was very tall.
1
SPEAKER_01
She is very tall.
1
SPEAKER_02
Was she swift in a way in her movements?
1
SPEAKER_02
Sorry, it s all I got.
1
SPEAKER_01
No, why do you ask that?
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, I don t know, maybe some subconscious connection.
1
SPEAKER_02
So anyway, Cecily, we ve been watching all your cool stuff.
1
SPEAKER_02
I didn t even know where to start.
1
SPEAKER_02
We can go chronologically, but one thing that I did absolutely love as someone who loves accents is the way your British,
1
SPEAKER_02
indiscernible character, Gemma, super, super cockney.
1
SPEAKER_02
Like that is just music to me.
1
SPEAKER_02
I love music to the ears.
1
SPEAKER_02
I m Gemma.
1
SPEAKER_02
Would you give us just a, you don t have to do it.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, just talk through it in that, or just give us a second.
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, I think you also have to,
1
SPEAKER_01
put make it feel like you have big teeth, too, I think, because I was I was watching a lot of British reality show, but everybody gets their teeth done.
1
SPEAKER_01
So so Gemma Collins, that s there is a Gemma Collins who is on the show that I was watching a lot of a slight overbite.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
So if I if you think if you re talking around your teeth like that, how about that?
1
SPEAKER_00
It s just like you re talking around your teeth.
1
SPEAKER_00
There s a show called The Only Way is Essex and it s sort of like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
And they do a lot of like American vocal fry almost.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, it s so refined.
1
SPEAKER_02
I love that.
1
SPEAKER_02
God, I love that.
1
SPEAKER_01
You do a lot in there.
1
SPEAKER_01
I love accents too.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s fun for me.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s just what it sounds like to my ear.
1
SPEAKER_01
I feel like there s always a million comments.
1
SPEAKER_01
They re like, that s not how that sounds.
1
SPEAKER_01
Which are the most fun people to be watching.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, the ones that are upset.
1
SPEAKER_02
We don t sound like that.
1
SPEAKER_02
But you re teasing it out and making it a character.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, there s you re doing something lispy or something with your teeth.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s very gives you a little.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s almost like a little lisp because of the teeth, I think.
1
SPEAKER_02
Is that is that a little who s a great actress, Olivia Colman?
1
SPEAKER_02
Or, you know, she did The Queen.
1
SPEAKER_02
Is that the name of that actress?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I assume so.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_02
Let s let s say that s her name.
1
SPEAKER_02
She s on the crown.
1
SPEAKER_02
She has a little overbite.
1
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, I love that.
1
SPEAKER_02
So that s where we wanted to start.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, I appreciate just fanning out.
1
SPEAKER_01
OK, well, I m a fan.
1
SPEAKER_01
And Dana, just, you know, I also I just want to say I also have a picture of you from the 40th.
1
SPEAKER_01
It was it was a huge deal.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think I was in my
1
SPEAKER_01
second year on the show or something.
1
SPEAKER_01
So it was like 20 2014.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it was very cool.
1
SPEAKER_01
I have a picture of you and Mike Myers and your Wayne s World get ups.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I got to stand in between you two.
1
SPEAKER_01
And that was very exciting.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_02
It was that night.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
When you re just say it s Billy Crystal, there s Steve Martin.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, Bill Murray.
1
SPEAKER_02
It was in the audience.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, there s Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, Donald Trump.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it s just like Keith Richards.
1
SPEAKER_02
Everybody was famous that you looked at.
1
SPEAKER_02
So it was nerve wracking in that way.
1
SPEAKER_02
That 40th, that darn 40th.
1
SPEAKER_02
Did you get a plus one?
1
SPEAKER_01
Uh, I I did actually to the party.
1
SPEAKER_01
I did what was that?
1
SPEAKER_01
Should I I don t know.
1
SPEAKER_01
Is that not?
1
SPEAKER_03
No I m calling lauren on the other side.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re in the overflow room the most, uh, The toughest one a cast member some were put in the overflow room rough Next year, we ll have a net up talk
2
SPEAKER_04
There ll be no overthrow.
2
SPEAKER_04
There ll just be people in sort of like a loose circus net.
2
SPEAKER_04
They ll bounce around.
2
SPEAKER_04
It ll be like that thing of like, they ll see the show.
2
SPEAKER_04
I had to go in there and get Rob Schneider.
2
SPEAKER_02
I love the Lorne.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
You must do your own version of Lorne.
2
SPEAKER_04
No pressure.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I can t do it in front of like the best Lorne impersonator.
2
SPEAKER_04
Everyone has different ones, you know, who everybody s done.
2
SPEAKER_04
Samberg did that.
2
SPEAKER_04
He does the quiet one on Bill Hader.
2
SPEAKER_04
Just, you know, I d be really nice if like it was a good show.
2
SPEAKER_04
You know, there s the quiet Lauren and right.
2
SPEAKER_04
I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_04
Everyone has their.
2
SPEAKER_02
I like to imagine that Lauren I like to do Lauren when he s like laughing so hard at a sketch or imagining that he really loves her.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, my fucking God.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no, they didn t.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, shit.
2
SPEAKER_00
That is my shit.
2
SPEAKER_02
by him really going off.
2
SPEAKER_04
Well, that s, to that point, Lorne has a, he ll be very casual.
2
SPEAKER_04
If something hits him, and we ve never talked about this, he goes into almost a convulsion or spasm.
2
SPEAKER_04
He has a laugh from zero to 10, puts his head down.
2
SPEAKER_04
We ve never talked about that.
2
SPEAKER_04
A thousand.
2
SPEAKER_03
That is a, that is a really, really- Good observation because he does that at read through.
2
SPEAKER_03
If he, if you can make him laugh and slap the desk or something, you re like, holy shit.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
And just to be clear, he doesn t say those things.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s what I know.
2
SPEAKER_02
I like to put that on him.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I have seen him a couple of times in 11 years laugh very hard.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
How is he, you know, we were talking with other cast members the other day and Lawrence, Keenan, I don t know how these go in order or whatever.
2
SPEAKER_04
This comes out in 2026.
2
SPEAKER_04
Anyway, Lawrence kind of amazingly, I ll say sort of brilliant, passive-aggressive, intentionally sarcasm to get you to relax.
2
SPEAKER_04
that I ll get you started.
2
SPEAKER_04
Like, it d be really nice if this sketch would really be funny.
2
SPEAKER_04
That d be a good thing.
2
SPEAKER_04
Right.
2
SPEAKER_04
You know, those kind of statements, which Kenan said relaxed him, you know?
2
SPEAKER_04
Huh.
2
SPEAKER_04
It either can relax or put pressure.
2
SPEAKER_04
I think initially it put pressure on me when I first got there.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
I was just so fucking scared.
2
SPEAKER_04
But eventually I got used to his sense of humor, the dryness of just.
2
SPEAKER_03
You know, Dana, sometimes I remember I was behind one of the, you know, where the sketches are.
2
SPEAKER_03
So if you walk in,
2
SPEAKER_03
for people at home.
2
SPEAKER_03
And then behind the sketch is like nothing.
2
SPEAKER_03
And so I m just waiting to go in with some goofy outfit on.
2
SPEAKER_03
And Lauren comes around the corner with a, they re like, 20 seconds.
2
SPEAKER_03
And then I m getting nervous looking at my sides.
2
SPEAKER_03
And then Lauren walks with an Amstel light casually.
2
SPEAKER_03
And he goes, you want to try tonight?
2
SPEAKER_03
I m like, and then he just drifts off.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I m like,
2
SPEAKER_03
Am I not trying ever?
2
SPEAKER_03
And then I botched the sketch because now it s in my head.
2
SPEAKER_03
He has his style.
2
SPEAKER_02
I think it s a little, it s kind of Lorne being sassy, I think.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, he s very sassy.
2
SPEAKER_02
He s like, okay, Lorne.
2
SPEAKER_02
He s got his little dig in.
2
SPEAKER_03
Doing a sketch called sassy.
2
SPEAKER_03
Remember Dana with Phil Hartman?
2
SPEAKER_03
Who Cecily likes.
2
SPEAKER_02
I. Right.
2
SPEAKER_02
You ve read it.
2
SPEAKER_04
Let s go back a little bit to your house.
2
SPEAKER_04
How Cecily Strong became Cecily Strong.
2
SPEAKER_04
We don t have to spend much time on it, but I thought it was very, very interesting.
2
SPEAKER_04
And you, amongst other people, have mentioned or at least if this is accurate, Phil Hartman as kind of a true North Star.
2
SPEAKER_04
Will Ferrell did as well.
2
SPEAKER_04
And we all love Phil.
2
SPEAKER_04
And he was brilliant.
2
SPEAKER_04
So yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
Well, I also think, listen, I have so many like I I feel like I spend a lot of time with you both on the show, like watching and really enjoy it.
2
SPEAKER_02
There s so many people I love.
2
SPEAKER_02
And usually it s just when you say one thing in an interview, then it kind of
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I know.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I mean, I m I was just a huge fan of the show in general.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I do think, you know, I ve played a lot of straight characters on the role.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I think he just is kind of like the such a great straight man.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
He ll play he ll he ll take the lead if you need it or a completely play the base, so to speak.
2
SPEAKER_04
Hold it down.
2
SPEAKER_04
Do you know you actually reenacted?
2
SPEAKER_04
I mean, did you like
2
SPEAKER_04
You had an uncle who was a Broadway producer.
2
SPEAKER_04
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_04
Your mom and dad were kind of at a certain very young age, kind of saying, Cecily, maybe this is for you.
2
SPEAKER_04
Or do I get that right?
2
SPEAKER_04
Like, well, that dream occur to you.
2
SPEAKER_02
I think I never like for real had the dream even at the audition was like, well, I can t I don t want to say it out loud even because this is so this just doesn t happen.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I don t want to be disappointed if I got to, you know, that I should be so happy that I got to audition.
2
SPEAKER_02
I got to be here.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I think I was like when I was three, I would just perform a lot around the house.
2
SPEAKER_02
And my parents are like, I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_02
And they put me in a drama class.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, I hope that s it.
2
SPEAKER_02
I hope that scratches that itch and it s not something worse.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, kids like it.
2
SPEAKER_03
Then you keep with it.
2
SPEAKER_03
Like, you know, I think every kid is like we got into comedy in our house and everyone just liked comedy.
2
SPEAKER_03
But I agree with you that when you say you re auditioning for something or when I start doing stand up, you don t want people to go how to go.
2
SPEAKER_03
And if you don t get it, you re like, oh,
2
SPEAKER_03
And then they go, oh.
2
SPEAKER_02
Right.
2
SPEAKER_02
Then it s like a bummer thing when you re like, well, I wanted to be happy about that.
2
SPEAKER_04
That was the idea initially.
2
SPEAKER_04
Well, the pressure keeps building because it s going toward 50 years.
2
SPEAKER_04
Like it was enough for me to even imagine I could be on it.
2
SPEAKER_04
But there was only 10 years before me.
2
SPEAKER_04
Now a cast member goes, OK, I ll check out the history of the show before you audition.
2
SPEAKER_04
It s like months of pouring through so many sketches.
2
SPEAKER_04
But I could not believe that s a very common theme for people of being very humble about.
2
SPEAKER_04
Auditioning, like, my God, this is a dream.
2
SPEAKER_04
And just some of the darkness of the people who it went asymmetrical and they didn t get it, you know, and it s something and then they ve gone on and done great.
2
SPEAKER_04
It s not the one lane to go.
2
SPEAKER_04
But for you, it was kind of
2
SPEAKER_02
It definitely and certainly like at the time, I mean, and I d done theater for a long time before comedy.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I really only got into comedy after college.
2
SPEAKER_02
Not that I like I I guess like officially study comedy.
2
SPEAKER_02
I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
So weird.
2
SPEAKER_04
It didn t count before, I guess, you know.
2
SPEAKER_04
So you were in theater all the time, then you got busted for pot, got arrested, okay.
2
SPEAKER_04
So you went to jail, you re a pot dealer, it says here.
2
SPEAKER_04
I went to jail.
2
SPEAKER_04
Some of these are wrong.
2
SPEAKER_04
A little bit of a rebel in those days, I guess, or was everyone smoking pot?
2
SPEAKER_02
I think kind of, maybe that was just the thing in the year 2000, I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_02
But I definitely, I was like a, I wasn t really a bad kid.
2
SPEAKER_02
I really, I like, I got good grades.
2
SPEAKER_02
I liked school, but then I also like smoked cigarettes and, you know, I would, but I was like in with the theater crowd.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s not like the cool kids at school.
2
SPEAKER_04
No, not at all.
2
SPEAKER_04
You know, well, you do smoke a good cigarette, just but you don t light it.
2
SPEAKER_04
Right.
2
SPEAKER_04
With is it with Kathy?
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
I was a smoker for a long time.
2
SPEAKER_02
So I but and that s always a thing I look at when I watch people smoke on camera.
2
SPEAKER_02
So you can tell I ve always felt like the people who have never smoked always go like that s like their whole hand.
2
SPEAKER_03
And then, yeah, and breathe in.
2
SPEAKER_03
I put all the cigarette and my fingers in my mouth like this.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
So that s a very straight hand.
2
SPEAKER_04
So Kathy-Anne is like a redneck, quasi-alcoholic or whatever.
2
SPEAKER_04
She s just kind of lived hard.
2
SPEAKER_04
I ve seen him in Montana, where I m from, and I go there a lot.
2
SPEAKER_04
I ve seen those people.
2
SPEAKER_04
And she s that sound that looked like a fun character to play.
2
SPEAKER_02
So much fun.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I do think it s like so many of the people that I just love in real life and love to watch.
2
SPEAKER_02
And actually, it was I worked at Greenblatt s.
2
SPEAKER_02
for a while, right next to the laugh factory.
2
SPEAKER_02
And this is when I was smoking and I d go outside for a cigarette every now and then.
2
SPEAKER_02
And there was like a local lady in the neighborhood who would yell on the street a lot.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so she was where it came from.
2
SPEAKER_02
And she said and it always be like, oh, don t make eye contact because she ll come over here.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I said like that.
2
SPEAKER_01
They tried to get my brother, DUI, and I said, it s probably your own breath blown back in your face.
2
SPEAKER_01
And she was just that kind of energy attitude.
2
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_04
But together, you know, a lot of those characters in our neighborhood, right?
2
SPEAKER_02
That person.
2
SPEAKER_04
And that s a such a specific rhythm.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
And I think they are everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_02
I don t think it s like she s got a bit of an accent, I guess, but I don t think it s like definitely it s not in Michigan.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s in it s in a bar everywhere, every state, a bit of a tweaker twist to it.
2
SPEAKER_03
Like you don t know really what you re getting to.
2
SPEAKER_03
And it s a little crazy in the eyes.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_02
And again, I d like to think that there s some teeth interaction, you know, like missing a tooth or there s a rotten tooth.
2
SPEAKER_02
Okay, how would that affect the way the voice comes out?
2
SPEAKER_02
Tooth interaction.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s kind of like why she also got like a mild speech impediment too.
2
SPEAKER_04
Because there s a missing tooth and the tongue kind of wanders in there?
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_04
There s like a sore back there.
2
SPEAKER_04
There s stuff in the mouth.
2
SPEAKER_04
Bitter cheek.
2
SPEAKER_04
For our theater students that listen to this podcast.
3
SPEAKER_01
You re freaking right now.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, just the idea of pretending, okay, his character is missing a tooth.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have, Cecily has beautiful teeth.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m gonna somehow make that part of the voice that the tooth is missing.
3
SPEAKER_01
Okay, that was for the theater fans.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
Great.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, Dana, we need to go bye.
3
SPEAKER_01
Can we get one last taste of it so people can listen to that?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, well, if you think about, if you try to talk like you have no teeth, you know how to sometimes, I think it s sort of starting from there.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re starting from there.
3
SPEAKER_00
When we did buh-bye, she said approximately how many teeth does this have?
3
SPEAKER_03
And how big, I say, does she whiten them?
3
SPEAKER_00
Roughly how big, centimeter-wise.
3
SPEAKER_00
This ll help me a little bit.
3
SPEAKER_01
We re bouncing around, I love you.
3
SPEAKER_01
We re keeping with teeth, that s good.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, I love that you re willing to kind of explain the character rhythmically and the voice thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s really interesting to me.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that gem, I mean, who, Benedict Cumberbatch was American, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
Benedict Cumberbatch.
3
SPEAKER_01
Slumber Party.
3
SPEAKER_01
He did his like a...
3
SPEAKER_01
A cover badge slumber party.
3
SPEAKER_03
He should host that.
3
SPEAKER_00
Did he, you say to him, is it more fun for him to play American accent than you re taking the Gemma?
3
SPEAKER_03
I think that was, I mean, I hope that was fun for him.
3
SPEAKER_03
Uh, it sounded like it was at the time.
3
SPEAKER_03
He might ve been just doing whatever that week, but I imagine it would be more fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I think he was cool.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
Fun to work with.
3
SPEAKER_01
So much fun.
3
SPEAKER_01
I did a guest spot there and just met him.
3
SPEAKER_01
He seemed very earnest and humble and ready to work and hoping he s doing a good job.
3
SPEAKER_03
I feel I don t know if you ve got this vibe at all when you guys were on the show.
3
SPEAKER_03
But if sorry, my dog.
3
SPEAKER_00
Hey, come on.
3
SPEAKER_03
She s making things up.
3
SPEAKER_03
She s very dramatic.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m sorry.
3
SPEAKER_00
This wasn t on her.
3
SPEAKER_00
She s making things up.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s saying, what is this person doing?
3
SPEAKER_00
She s talking to herself.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m sitting over here.
3
SPEAKER_03
No one s paying attention.
3
SPEAKER_03
But I was going to say, don t you?
3
SPEAKER_03
I feel like a lot of the English hosts or British hosts were sort of so game to kind of nerd out with us.
3
SPEAKER_03
And yeah, and not that American hosts aren t.
3
SPEAKER_03
But I just felt like across the board, kind of every British host we had almost had like a giggly, like little kid just really would be willing to do anything.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
I find the same thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s something about their their training, their attitude.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Something very potent.
3
SPEAKER_03
And kind of like a silly goofy, too, which I thought was a fun thing about Benedict.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_03
While he I guess he does.
3
SPEAKER_03
It is kind of a silly name, but it s also a very buttoned up name, I think.
3
SPEAKER_00
Sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
When you meet the host in the Monday meeting, I think that s where you get a vibe.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, they are nervous for sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you re nervous.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m nervous because I m starstruck most of the time.
3
SPEAKER_00
And you re a writer, you re new on the show, whatever.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, you re always starstruck and they bring in some big names.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I think you get a vibe in the first meeting what they re going to be like.
3
SPEAKER_00
Are they going to be fun?
3
SPEAKER_00
Some people you see pitch them something, they go, sounds great, anything.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then they re up for anything and you go, this is going to be fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
And some go, oh, I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re just tense.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can tell they re tight.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they re like, can you do Russian accent?
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I don t I don t really do accents, really.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then you re like, OK.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then everyone pitches.
3
SPEAKER_00
And when you walk out of there, you go, I got a feel for it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I got a feel for it.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
I feel like I m not as good at that.
3
SPEAKER_03
I think I felt like I didn t quite
3
SPEAKER_03
get to know every host until after a table read.
3
SPEAKER_03
Cause sometimes you just guess so wrong.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s true.
3
SPEAKER_03
They can really come alive.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
Or like you ve just given them something that s so the wrong thing for them.
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you there when Trump was on?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because I just heard a story that Pete Davidson told and he said, Dana, do you hear this?
3
SPEAKER_00
He goes, first of all,
3
SPEAKER_00
that Trump came to read through this.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can corroborate it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I m getting it wrong.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh, I know that.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he said, like, I don t really read.
3
SPEAKER_00
I don t really like I sort of ad lib instead of read sketches.
3
SPEAKER_00
That was part of it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then he said ad lib like nobody s business.
3
SPEAKER_00
He said, let me I don t have my glasses.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then Lauren said, you can use mine.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, and then there was an end of a sketch, maybe at Disneyland, where he says he says, see you later.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then he looks at everyone else and goes, chicken leg, no turkey legs.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, let s let s go eat turkey legs.
3
SPEAKER_03
Let me tell you, because it s one of my favorites.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh, let s hear it.
3
SPEAKER_03
There s a couple of things that happened.
3
SPEAKER_03
He didn t bring his reading glasses to the table read and was like, oh, I didn t know what that we were going to be reading or something like that.
3
SPEAKER_03
I was kind of like, well, it s the table read.
3
SPEAKER_01
With script, 45 scripts.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
And so Ivanka was there and there was a sketch that Ivanka was in that was set at like medieval times.
3
SPEAKER_03
And at the end of it, he goes, told ya, the grammatically was written, told ya, like told you so to her.
3
SPEAKER_03
He s talking to her period.
3
SPEAKER_03
And then it says turkey leg.
3
SPEAKER_03
Like, would you like to go get a turkey leg as well?
3
SPEAKER_03
That s how one would read that sentence.
3
SPEAKER_03
But Donald Trump read it as told you turkey legs to Ivanka.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s like he was calling her.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s pretty funny.
3
SPEAKER_03
He looked at us like, OK, weirdos.
3
SPEAKER_03
And it s like, we re not the way you read it wrong.
3
SPEAKER_03
And then he also in the middle of it got a phone call and took his call.
3
SPEAKER_03
So we all just waited.
3
SPEAKER_03
I ve never seen anyone like do that to Lauren yet, you know.
3
SPEAKER_03
And he went, uh-huh.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh, that s great.
3
SPEAKER_03
Uh-huh.
3
SPEAKER_03
My book just went to number one.
3
SPEAKER_03
And we all just went, wow.
3
SPEAKER_03
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_03
Had to applaud just the moment, just the fact that you would interrupt the table read to take your very real call.
3
SPEAKER_01
My book just went to number one, and I know you got to do some things, but I think I deserve a little bit of applause.
3
SPEAKER_03
And then he he asked to be put into the Drake.
3
SPEAKER_03
The hotline bling skit, the dad, I think it was like the dad dance or something that I remember his funny little dance to be put in.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
And then the other thing he did was they did a giving tree sketch.
3
SPEAKER_03
And Jenna always tells the story, our stage manager, because he s like, that s not a real book.
3
SPEAKER_03
And she kept saying, what do you mean?
3
SPEAKER_03
That s a book.
3
SPEAKER_03
And he just did not believe that the giving tree as he was in a full tree costume.
3
SPEAKER_03
And I do have a picture from my monitor, my dressing room from rehearsal of this face in this tree costume, the giving tree.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s just a rumor.
3
SPEAKER_03
Did not believe obviously was not brought up on the giving tree.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know books, I ve read a lot of books, I can see books.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve heard about books, so I know when there s a book and it s not a book, excuse me.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know a lot of books, excuse me, let me finish.
3
SPEAKER_01
I know about books, let me tell you.
3
SPEAKER_01
No one like him, everything s been said about him, but he s a one-off.
3
SPEAKER_00
Those table reads are cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, you can learn a lot.
3
SPEAKER_00
I remember the first Alec Baldwin, he was great.
3
SPEAKER_00
You don t know what you re getting into, and sketch after sketch, you start to go, oh my God, these are pretty much cold reads.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like they ve never seen the sketch and they re walking in.
3
SPEAKER_00
Someone s going, hey, my sketch is number 41.
3
SPEAKER_00
And if you could play it like quiet at the beginning, but then you build and they re like, right.
3
SPEAKER_00
And, you know, they re trying to absorb it all.
3
SPEAKER_00
You don t know what the fuck s going on.
3
SPEAKER_03
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they made hours.
3
SPEAKER_00
John Goodman always learning eight songs.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
They re having to sing a song.
3
SPEAKER_00
The hosting is so complicated.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_03
And I think they re mainly just kind of in shock.
3
SPEAKER_03
I thought of my role as kind of an RA throughout the week, where you re just sort of always being encouraging, like, how do you feel?
3
SPEAKER_03
Great.
3
SPEAKER_03
That s normal.
3
SPEAKER_03
I think that s normal.
3
SPEAKER_03
And by Saturday you re going to be, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s very funny when because they re walking into your turf and they can be kind of nervous.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I with a superstar, you know, like a big movie star, and you can tell they re out of their element and you re kind of going, you re doing great.
3
SPEAKER_01
And, you know, just read it off the card.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just read it straight off the card.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_03
That s like putting it in my head that they need encouragement from me.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m probably like wearing a blanket.
3
SPEAKER_03
and slippers.
3
SPEAKER_03
My life isn t I don t have it all together.
3
SPEAKER_03
And I m like, you re doing great.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was doing a guest spot.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think Church Lady update because I d done Fallon.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then Lauren would always say, you ll be doing Church Lady on a Saturday.
3
SPEAKER_01
OK, I ll call my travel agent.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then it was Benedict Bumberbatch.
3
SPEAKER_01
I remember afterwards, just at the good nights, he goes, it was pretty good, okay, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
It was okay?
3
SPEAKER_01
I go, no, it was great, great.
3
SPEAKER_01
But funny, me telling you, I can t, you know, please.
3
SPEAKER_00
I wonder if anyone s ever gone, eh, it was pretty good, you could have done better.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean to any host would you ever, even if they re bombing, you re going, you re doing great.
3
SPEAKER_00
You got to keep them upbeat, you know.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
Just never go real on them.
3
SPEAKER_01
No.
3
SPEAKER_01
So we circle back around how you, your audition.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just want to know the, so just to jump around a little bit, you went to Cal Arts.
4
SPEAKER_00
Cal Arts for theater.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you re studying, you re getting better, you re starting to get funny, and then you go to Chicago.
4
SPEAKER_00
I went, yes, so I stayed in LA for like nine months, seven to nine months or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was just kind of like, I don t think this is gonna be the way I,
4
SPEAKER_00
do this business if I m going to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was just sort of I didn t really understand how many if it worked and business wise, like I couldn t get an A. It was just I felt bad as this business can feel sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I took a class at the Groundlings, though, and I really liked it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I was like, well, I ll move back to Chicago and rent will be a lot cheaper.
4
SPEAKER_00
And every now and then my mom can buy me groceries.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I and I went to Second City.
4
SPEAKER_00
I started taking classes at Second City.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
What was the vibe difference when he got to Chicago?
4
SPEAKER_01
L.A., it just feels more pressure and just weirder.
4
SPEAKER_01
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it was still a Midwestern.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
My family was in Chicago.
4
SPEAKER_00
And yeah, yeah, I do.
4
SPEAKER_00
I enjoy the Midwest.
4
SPEAKER_00
A lot more.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s a lot.
4
SPEAKER_00
a lot chunkier people who are more friendly or who are friendlier in public.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_00
Uh, chunk, chunky and friendly.
4
SPEAKER_02
You have a slight accent too, right?
4
SPEAKER_00
You like to eat, like to laugh and drink.
4
SPEAKER_00
You have to, because it s so cold.
4
SPEAKER_00
You have to find ways to enjoy life while you can.
4
SPEAKER_00
Um,
4
SPEAKER_00
And in LA, it s just... Yeah, and actually I loved my class at the Groundlings.
4
SPEAKER_00
I really had a good group.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I definitely, I was like, there s just, there s so much more of that kind of, especially that comedy sketch and improv.
4
SPEAKER_00
This is just like, that s so much of what Chicago is.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I took classes at IO eventually, was doing, I did some shows at the Annoyance and, you know, then we would do a couple of those shows where- Improv Olympic.
4
SPEAKER_00
But you rent out the theater and beg your friends to come for five dollars tickets.
4
SPEAKER_00
You may have five audience members that night.
4
SPEAKER_02
Bring your show.
4
SPEAKER_02
Bring your show.
4
SPEAKER_01
And when did you, you know, like how you met people either been at Second City, got on SNL or coming back to say hello, or then it became sort of.
4
SPEAKER_01
In your purview, as they say, SNL is a possibility.
4
SPEAKER_00
It still was not.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was like a possibility.
4
SPEAKER_00
But again, like I wouldn t be so foolish as to say that out loud.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s just such an outlandish, you know, like that s not going to happen to me.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I knew that they did auditions, but even you had to audition for the audition.
4
SPEAKER_00
But and I was like in the box office at IO one night when Sharna was like, you should do this.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I thought, well, I don t know if I m ready.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I hear, I heard like if you audition for Lorne once and he doesn t and you don t get in, he never wants to see you again or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, there s all the things that people pass around and like, you can t get pregnant in a hot tub.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can only audition once.
4
SPEAKER_00
Just the info kids pass on.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Urban myths or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so, but then I took a workshop.
4
SPEAKER_00
uh, that was, what was it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Characters and impressions or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
Cause I didn t do a lot of impressions and I never really thought of myself as an impression person.
4
SPEAKER_00
Um, but I got, I think I put together six, six things, you know, but I, and I kept them all short and I think that s what helped me in the end was because you would see some people, yes.
4
SPEAKER_00
And you were like, some people, this is very indulgent and I ll, you know,
4
SPEAKER_00
And everybody s doing similar.
4
SPEAKER_00
And, you know, there s the old I forget his name because I m Sam Malkin Elliott.
4
SPEAKER_00
Who was it?
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, the the old guy with the mustache.
4
SPEAKER_00
Everybody Sam Elliott.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like, well, eight of you are going to do Sam Elliott.
4
SPEAKER_00
So you don t need to do like a three minute monologue.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
I like when they say like, I think this is a good trick, like Dana.
4
SPEAKER_02
I ve learned a lot about impressions from Dana and.
4
SPEAKER_02
People don t realize the longer you do it, the harder it is because you have a few hooks.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
And they go, oh, that sounds like him.
4
SPEAKER_02
But the longer you go, it doesn t.
4
SPEAKER_02
And when sometimes you ask people to ad lib as a character, they go, no, I want I know that s so much harder because you want to write something that includes the hooks.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
And where you and yes, like your thing in and your I know I sound like them here, but I can t say the word chalk.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you re going to audition at I.O.
4
SPEAKER_01
or?
4
SPEAKER_01
At I.O., at I.O.
4
SPEAKER_01
And to your mind, you were in, there was maybe 10 of you or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
And so you were strategizing, knowing who was maybe going to come on before you.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you were not redundant.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then who was there?
4
SPEAKER_01
Was it lieutenants, you know, Lawrence minions, basically?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, I know Lauren there are them Lauren was there.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think Oh Lindsay sugar was there Aaron Doyle I think was there Colin was there
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, really?
4
SPEAKER_01
And Kenward.
4
SPEAKER_01
The whole canon of people who can decide whether you re going to be on Saturday Night Live were in the audience.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, they were all there.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I mean, I didn t know who anyone was except Lauren, really.
4
SPEAKER_02
I get nervous when you just said that.
4
SPEAKER_02
I was like getting nervous going, oh my God, walking out going, here we go.
4
SPEAKER_02
This is all that matters for everything.
4
SPEAKER_02
They ll never see you again.
4
SPEAKER_02
That s true.
4
SPEAKER_02
You think if they did not like you, then why would they see you right away again?
4
SPEAKER_02
It takes a long time.
4
SPEAKER_01
What did you do?
4
SPEAKER_01
Did you have any methodology for dealing with that pressure?
4
SPEAKER_01
Or when you got out there, you got a laugh and felt comfortable or what happened?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I think
4
SPEAKER_00
I got laughs, so that s, I mean, really, there s really, I don t know what the strategy would even be for that.
4
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes you just have to go do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like you don t have a choice.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re just trying to control your nerves and actually have fun is the goal.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then how do you try not to try?
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
I probably looked like I was trying, but I think they,
4
SPEAKER_00
forgive it.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I have it s also like I m comfortable around an audience at this point.
4
SPEAKER_00
This is my family was there.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I imagine if I hadn t gotten any laughs, it would have felt terrible.
4
SPEAKER_00
But luckily that didn t happen.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s also your home theater.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s not like at that day on eight eight eight eight is barren.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s a super friendly audience.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
And everybody s laughing because, you know, it s like in all of our best interests for anyone to succeed.
4
SPEAKER_01
So what was your first, ladies and gentlemen, Cecily Strong, do you remember your first bit, your first laugh, or first character that you did?
4
SPEAKER_01
Or an impression, or what did you start with?
4
SPEAKER_01
Hello.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s hard to start sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes, it was hard to start.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think the biggest was like, we did Girl at a Party kind of two weeks
4
SPEAKER_00
And it was during one of those election.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you came in with that one.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I didn t even.
4
SPEAKER_01
So another thing that you do, these long names and characters, you re a girl you wish you hadn t started a conversation with at a party.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s kind of the which is one of your first big hits.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_00
The one that s or maybe everyone knows how to say the name.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was actually was trying to write an update character with Colin Jost.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I did do.
4
SPEAKER_00
For my audition, I did a little boy that I overheard at Mother s Day restaurant in Forest Park, Illinois, who was
4
SPEAKER_00
But it was my the intro was half of the is that the name of it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was like a chubby little boy that I overheard it for his part.
4
SPEAKER_00
That was awesome.
4
SPEAKER_00
See you next Saturday.
4
SPEAKER_00
Something like that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Just that much is funny.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I get it.
4
SPEAKER_00
You see the boy.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
You see that little boy loved his pancakes.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I was trying to write something with Colin and I kept sort of being like, and that s, you know, that s a good one because it s important for a society or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
And was we were joking around like that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I remember Jay Farrow was writing something, but you just heard him yelling the N word in the hallway.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I think I said, and can I say the N word in mine?
4
SPEAKER_00
And so that was the girl at a party s bit, too, was she was always like a little just
4
SPEAKER_00
assumes that she s got the right to do everything too.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I d like heard a story from a male friend of mine who there was like a girl, and I d heard a couple, like a couple people in my life were telling me, you know, they d like seen a cute girl to borrow something.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then she said something racist or offensive, just kind of out of nowhere.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it was like, where did that even come from?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
So wait a minute, so you actually used the real word on your audition?
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no, I ve never.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, no.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, no, I didn t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
So Jay Pharoah was screaming in the cold.
4
SPEAKER_00
He used the real word.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, no, I said, can I use the N-word, you know, which I think he did.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think we did put that in an early girl at a party.
4
SPEAKER_01
Did Jay Pharoah and you get the show on the same night or?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, he was,
5
SPEAKER_00
I think it was two years before me.
5
SPEAKER_01
Mm-hmm.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
So he was already in the cast when you auditioned.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yes, yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay, and he just happened to be screaming in the hallway.
5
SPEAKER_01
I thought it was from nerves that he screamed.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no.
5
SPEAKER_00
Jay was, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Jay gives all of himself.
5
SPEAKER_00
A brilliant impressionist.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Did you get the show from that audition?
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, so we had like speed dating the next day.
5
SPEAKER_00
They asked nine of us to go to the hotel where Lorne and his peeps were, and there were like two long tables.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I think I had an awkward conversation with everyone for five minutes.
5
SPEAKER_00
The only thing I remember saying was like, and I love Trader Joe s, you know, cucumbers and wine.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_01
And they re all just staring.
5
SPEAKER_01
Was anyone laughing in a friendly way?
5
SPEAKER_01
Or were they just looking at you?
5
SPEAKER_00
I feel like they were encouraging, but that was- I m sure they know you re nervous.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m sure they know.
5
SPEAKER_02
Everyone that walks in that door is saying stupid shit.
5
SPEAKER_00
Right, right.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s impossible not to.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you do the audition, you do this little meet up with them, and then what happens?
5
SPEAKER_01
You get a phone call, do you wait six months?
5
SPEAKER_00
I got another phone call, I think,
5
SPEAKER_00
the next day or something that to fly out for a screen test.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was an all girls screen test.
5
SPEAKER_00
And 80 was in the ETC show at Second City.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so she got, she got flown out from that too.
5
SPEAKER_00
So 80 and I, it was, what was nice was 80 and I really did every step together.
5
SPEAKER_00
So we went to that first screen test.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and I knew her.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was a fan of hers, honestly, in Chicago.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was actually, I think I understudied her at that point, too, on her role on ETC.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so we did our first screen test.
5
SPEAKER_00
in New York and then went home and kind of didn t think about.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no.
5
SPEAKER_00
Then the day I flew back and I got a call driving back from the airport to fly out to New York again to just sort of sit in the office and talk to them.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s Lauren Pickup.
5
SPEAKER_02
Hey, Cecily, guess who, guess who?
5
SPEAKER_01
Hit me on the hip.
5
SPEAKER_01
Can you do the person who you don t want to see?
5
SPEAKER_01
They re trying to converse with you.
5
SPEAKER_01
The lady doesn t have an Uber app, but she does.
5
SPEAKER_00
We like the little fat boy, but... There s always a but.
5
SPEAKER_02
Can he be fatter?
5
SPEAKER_01
So after the New York screen test, were you starting to think, maybe I m going to get this?
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, did you call your parents?
5
SPEAKER_01
Who do you call?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think I definitely called my parents.
5
SPEAKER_00
And and probably only my my parents would be the one because, again, it was like, I don t I just don t want to say too much and jinx it or.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Or make people think that I think I m going to get this.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
But you did check in with them just because they knew you when you were three being funny.
5
SPEAKER_00
So they d known me for a while.
5
SPEAKER_00
So.
5
SPEAKER_00
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
But you probably downplayed it.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like, I don t know if I ll get it, but I did this, this and this.
5
SPEAKER_00
And of course, they probably at that point assume you ll get it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_00
Maybe they did.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s pretty far down the road.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s such a right.
5
SPEAKER_00
And especially to go from like, I m understudying Second City and touring and like, it s just such a big jump from that to now I m on TV.
5
SPEAKER_00
And even, you know, like living in Chicago versus New York.
5
SPEAKER_01
Well, just going in that building, the 30 Rock and seeing 8-H for the first time is hallowed ground.
5
SPEAKER_01
Right.
5
SPEAKER_01
All of it would give you a slight stomach ache or something.
5
SPEAKER_01
Diarrhea-inducing building.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes, and you have to kind of wait forever.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t even know how many people were in that screen test.
5
SPEAKER_00
You can just sort of hear people in the hallway and kind of like, I don t know when I m up.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s torture.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
You re there for like eight hours and someone just goes now.
5
SPEAKER_00
Those were the longest days of my life.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s that s scary.
5
SPEAKER_02
There s a waiting thing Dana and I talk about, like it s waiting to see Lauren.
5
SPEAKER_02
There s some weird thing about it s always waiting and it just drives you bananas.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then your anxiety does kind of build up.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I hope I m going to can I stand by the time I m out there?
5
SPEAKER_02
I think when Lauren gets someone like you, on the other side of it, they re thinking like, you probably see this now.
5
SPEAKER_02
You ve done Second City, you ve done Iowa, you ve done all these things.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s sort of a safe bet at some point.
5
SPEAKER_02
Like, you re not just out of nowhere, plucked out of nowhere.
5
SPEAKER_02
They do like to hear about you.
5
SPEAKER_02
I think they need a little buzz, maybe for one season, and then they hear your name again.
5
SPEAKER_02
And if they keep hearing it, they go, we got to check her out.
5
SPEAKER_02
And it s almost done deal then, you know, at the beginning.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well, I certainly had no... I never thought I was safe, you know what I mean?
5
SPEAKER_02
Sure, on your end, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Right, on my end.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I think like, I don t know that there was any buzz necessarily, although I m sure Sharna probably said something, but I think I was a bit...
5
SPEAKER_00
out of nowhere.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so I went for two screen tests.
5
SPEAKER_00
So then we went again at the end of the summer.
5
SPEAKER_00
And Lorne told me he said my second one was funnier than the first.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he said that s why he hired me.
5
SPEAKER_02
How crazy.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
You almost get more nervous later on.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s weird.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, but you look at your, you prepared yourself for whatever reason you did, took all the steps so that it would be a possibility that you would get on Saturday Night Live.
5
SPEAKER_01
So let s move into, now you re on Saturday Night Live.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m on it.
5
SPEAKER_01
Does anyone telling you anything?
5
SPEAKER_01
Are you sharing an office with 80 or what s going on?
5
SPEAKER_00
I actually, I shared an office with Joe Kelly who now does Ted Lasso with Jason.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I think he was there for Jason s last season and he was so, uh,
5
SPEAKER_00
He really like took me under his wing and he was sort of our social coordinator, too.
5
SPEAKER_00
So we went out a lot my first couple of years.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, we d go out every Wednesday.
5
SPEAKER_00
I went to Amsterdam with a bunch of people.
5
SPEAKER_00
Restaurant.
5
SPEAKER_00
Where was it?
5
SPEAKER_00
I think I m sure I went there.
5
SPEAKER_01
Amsterdam, the the.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Country Europe.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, the real Amsterdam.
5
SPEAKER_01
I thought we went to Amsterdam s, which was, I thought, a restaurant.
5
SPEAKER_01
I went to Amsterdam s.
5
SPEAKER_02
We had our table in the back of Amsterdam.
5
SPEAKER_02
You guys would go to Amsterdam every Wednesday night?
5
SPEAKER_02
Every Wednesday night.
5
SPEAKER_01
I swear I m telling the truth.
5
SPEAKER_01
You could take Paul s jet.
5
SPEAKER_01
It ll be fine.
5
SPEAKER_01
They ll be back for read through.
5
SPEAKER_01
They re wild.
5
SPEAKER_00
You gotta let them.
5
SPEAKER_01
So you get on SNL and you start traveling the world.
5
SPEAKER_01
They re wild.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I had to.
5
SPEAKER_00
Didn t I wasn t able to pay my health insurance premium until January though.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I did it I think it was like my first tax return That s when I got to go to Amsterdam.
5
SPEAKER_02
Ooh, I Saw that you
5
SPEAKER_02
at a certain point, you were on update.
5
SPEAKER_02
How is that?
5
SPEAKER_02
How is that true?
5
SPEAKER_02
And how does that discussion happen?
5
SPEAKER_02
And then you wanted to go back to sketches more?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
So consuming, right?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I went on.
5
SPEAKER_00
I went on with Seth for a bit, which and it was really easy then because Seth had been doing it and he had done it with with Amy before.
5
SPEAKER_00
So he sort of knew how to do that duo.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then Seth left.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then I knew Colin was coming in.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I think it was just
5
SPEAKER_00
Especially it was kind of like it became very clear that this was going to take a lot of work to sort of figure out what our update would be.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that s when I kind of.
5
SPEAKER_00
it was kind of like, I don t want to put, I don t want that to be my whole thing on the show, to have to, like, I just felt it was going to take more work than I, that would take away from getting to do sketches.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it s sort of like, I really, I liked being a guest on Update and felt like I had had much more success doing that than, than being a host.
5
SPEAKER_02
Host is like the straight man.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I kind of like, I just, I was like the,
5
SPEAKER_00
It was a cool honor.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was great.
5
SPEAKER_00
And there was a great team writing jokes.
5
SPEAKER_00
It feels like a whole different world at SNL, like the update room versus sketches.
5
SPEAKER_00
But I certainly was like, I want to be in the sketch world more.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I don t want people to not write me into sketches because of update.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, and knowing that it was going to need all this work was sort of, we had a lot of talks about it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was like, I just, I would rather go back to just being in the cast then.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like, I think it s, it could have been done maybe if we had, if it were just more a stat, if we had like a rhythm already, but we just didn t, it was so new and it was, you know, when the audience, when they lose someone, it just, everything takes a bit more work.
5
SPEAKER_00
So it was getting used to not having Seth, then they re kind of like,
5
SPEAKER_00
They don t like you already because you re not Seth.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was, I just, it was like, I don t want that uphill battle when it already is so tough to sort of figure out your place at that, at that place.
6
SPEAKER_01
the better for it because your range is extraordinary.
6
SPEAKER_01
And so it seems like if update usurped you and your energy and time, we wouldn t have all these great characters.
6
SPEAKER_01
You re just a natural sketch player and you re someone who you want on your team.
6
SPEAKER_01
I mean, Lorne must have loved it when he discovered
6
SPEAKER_01
you could play this, you could do this, you could do that.
6
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s great to have somebody with that kind of.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_00
Your sketch.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, I think is right.
6
SPEAKER_00
I don t know that, you know, now being there for a while, you sort of see how all how many different types of people do this show and make it work.
6
SPEAKER_00
And you re always like there s people who are stand ups and they re you know, it s just like not everybody comes from like a theater.
6
SPEAKER_00
Hmm.
6
SPEAKER_00
So you re only going to have the right.
6
SPEAKER_02
So valuable probably out there in sketches.
6
SPEAKER_00
I definitely think I was more valuable in sketches than at the desk.
6
SPEAKER_00
Because I m also, I m not a stand-up.
6
SPEAKER_00
And so it was, it was just wasn t as natural.
6
SPEAKER_02
But you know it s newscaster-y and it s good jokes.
6
SPEAKER_02
They have great joke writers usually and update always.
6
SPEAKER_00
Great joke writers.
6
SPEAKER_02
I think, I think Dana, is this possible?
6
SPEAKER_02
I was only there six years, but I think I lived through
6
SPEAKER_02
doing bits with Dennis on Update, Kevin Nealon, Norm, and Colin Quinn.
6
SPEAKER_00
Awesome.
6
SPEAKER_02
Probably, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_02
Because Dennis was finishing, then Kevin had a long run, then Norm, then he got fired, and then Colin when I left, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_02
Crazy.
6
SPEAKER_02
And it is hard.
6
SPEAKER_00
That is crazy.
6
SPEAKER_02
And Colin always says they were mad Norm got fired and sort of took it out on Colin.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes, right.
6
SPEAKER_00
So there is something to that.
6
SPEAKER_00
That would be hard to step into right after.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_02
Because it wasn t,
6
SPEAKER_02
It s not Colin s fault.
6
SPEAKER_02
He s great.
6
SPEAKER_02
But you re just following.
6
SPEAKER_02
And they re like, wait, where s Norm?
6
SPEAKER_01
What happened?
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s true.
6
SPEAKER_01
And Colin talked about that.
6
SPEAKER_01
He felt he should be sort of norm like in a way like, yeah, he s very affable and friendly and he wishes he d been more like that.
6
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, everybody has regrets.
6
SPEAKER_01
But you re the longest running female cast member, just a tenured, a fun stat.
6
SPEAKER_00
Although I d like I do think if someone like officially ran the numbers, I because
6
SPEAKER_00
Like number of episodes, number of episodes, because Kate was there like five episodes before 80 and I got there.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then I missed some because of other shows.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I felt like I was pretty darn close to 80 and Kate.
6
SPEAKER_00
Like, I think we re all.
6
SPEAKER_02
Leaning at the table.
6
SPEAKER_00
I m gonna call it a wash.
6
SPEAKER_00
I would call it a wash and just.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s essentially around a decade.
6
SPEAKER_02
Did you just rip the bandaid off and leave?
6
SPEAKER_02
You didn t make it a long goodbye, right?
6
SPEAKER_02
I think yours is sort of out of the blue.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, it was it wasn t really, though.
6
SPEAKER_00
It just wasn t a thing.
6
SPEAKER_00
I was like broadcasting to everyone.
6
SPEAKER_00
But when I went back that year, the you know, the way I went back when talking to Lauren was like, I would like to leave this year.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I think Christmas would be a great time because it s a happier show.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it would you know, I m going to be so sad to leave.
6
SPEAKER_00
So hopefully that ll.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m doing more on the other end of this conversation.
6
SPEAKER_01
Oh, no.
6
SPEAKER_01
He gets attached to his cast members.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
Maybe stay till February.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think I think they would.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes, I m sure he would have.
6
SPEAKER_00
It was probably like we don t we re not going to talk about it and broadcast it, because I think there was still a lot of people holding out hope that I would not.
6
SPEAKER_02
Was it when you did you go to Schmigadoon and then come back?
6
SPEAKER_00
Is that what happened?
6
SPEAKER_00
In 2020, I did Schmigadoon that fall and got back in December.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then last year I did a play.
6
SPEAKER_00
I did this one woman s show in L.A.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I missed the first.
6
SPEAKER_00
The Lily Tomlin one, right?
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_01
Another long title.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it was right.
6
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
6
SPEAKER_00
I m comfortable with.
6
SPEAKER_01
Filling those shoes.
6
SPEAKER_01
Did you did you hear from Lily at all?
6
SPEAKER_00
She she came to opening night.
6
SPEAKER_00
OK, which I found out that day.
6
SPEAKER_00
And that was that was I think maybe that was even more nerve wracking than having Lauren at that audition.
6
SPEAKER_01
And Lauren said, yeah, make sure you re there in the opening night, Lily, but don t let her know until like a couple of hours before, because like she works very well under.
6
SPEAKER_00
Right.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
Do you probably scored?
6
SPEAKER_01
I m sure she was incredibly sweet.
6
SPEAKER_01
I would assume she was wonderful.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I think it was I got to
6
SPEAKER_00
get applause for her at the curtain call, which was really, I was kind of like, can I get through this?
6
SPEAKER_00
Can I say these things without weeping?
6
SPEAKER_00
But it was very cool having her there.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then unfortunately, Jane Wagner, who wrote the show, didn t get to the show, but we did, I went and saw her at her house, which was really,
6
SPEAKER_00
Cool, seeing all of her and Lily s.
6
SPEAKER_00
It was like a museum, really.
6
SPEAKER_00
So they have all their things.
6
SPEAKER_02
In search of intelligent life.
6
SPEAKER_00
The search for signs of intelligent life in the universe.
6
SPEAKER_02
And yet, for short, I know people call it I-S-F-A-J-J-Q-Q-F-I.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
Just for short.
6
SPEAKER_01
I call it the spaceship monologue.
6
SPEAKER_01
The spaceship monologue.
6
SPEAKER_01
Well, by the way, I saw Schmangadoon.
6
SPEAKER_01
I saw Schmangadoon.
6
SPEAKER_01
Schmangadoon!
6
SPEAKER_01
You can t not do Adam Sandler when you say that.
6
SPEAKER_01
Oh, my God.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
I thought you were saying Chicago, which is our second season.
6
SPEAKER_02
And it looks very involved like that.
6
SPEAKER_02
Is it a hard show?
6
SPEAKER_02
I think you produce maybe also.
6
SPEAKER_02
But is it hard because it s first of all, very unique, which is so hard to do these days.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then the dancing and the singing and the jokes in the songs, all that stuff has got to be tough.
6
SPEAKER_00
Oh, definitely.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think.
6
SPEAKER_00
But
6
SPEAKER_00
There s a lot of outside rehearsals.
6
SPEAKER_00
There was a great, we have a great choreographer and great music team.
6
SPEAKER_00
So it was sort of, it all felt like we were, once you were shooting, it felt very ready.
6
SPEAKER_00
Because especially that first season, we was such strict COVID rules.
6
SPEAKER_00
So we really were so limited with how much time we got with each other.
6
SPEAKER_00
So just tell everyone what it is for our viewers.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
You and Keegan Michael Key, I love his name, star together.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then go ahead.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
So we play a couple that are they re sort of a newer couple.
6
SPEAKER_00
They ve fallen.
6
SPEAKER_00
They met and have a great thing.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then they re sort of at a rut in their relationship and arguing a lot.
6
SPEAKER_00
And they
6
SPEAKER_00
my Melissa finds a hike for them to sort of it s like a romance hike or a love building hike, one of the rekindling hike.
6
SPEAKER_00
And they go on it and they re arguing and caught in a rainstorm.
6
SPEAKER_00
And somehow they end up in this magical town called Schmigadoon.
6
SPEAKER_00
But they find out it s it s a musical every day.
6
SPEAKER_00
They ve gotten themselves trapped in an old fashioned musical.
6
SPEAKER_00
They can t get out and they can t get out until they find true love.
6
SPEAKER_02
That s a good, that s a good, really interesting setup.
6
SPEAKER_02
And it s really well done.
6
SPEAKER_02
I mean, I was watching it going, just knowing a little bit about production, being on movies and how hard everything is just when I do my basic crummy movies to have this with like so many things happening and so many jokes written and just how it s got to be so tight.
6
SPEAKER_02
Everyone looks great.
6
SPEAKER_02
Very good job.
6
SPEAKER_00
I will say the second, the second season, there are more,
6
SPEAKER_00
uh, looks and worlds covered.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I think it was somewhat, we had the same amount of time, but I think like 20 more pages or something.
6
SPEAKER_00
So it was felt a bit more frantic, but we got it, we got it done.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s, I think it s, I think it s pretty fun in Canada.
6
SPEAKER_02
Oh, you do?
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
Schmigadoon Canada.
6
SPEAKER_00
And Schmigadoon Canada.
6
SPEAKER_01
I always like it when you watch the first episode.
6
SPEAKER_01
I love when people are going into a surreal environment that can t be true, but it is.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s Vancouver.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
Your character s kind of going, well, let s go with this.
6
SPEAKER_01
And your boyfriend s going, this isn t happening.
6
SPEAKER_01
He s not a musical person.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then just so people know, you ll randomly say something to these people that you don t even know.
6
SPEAKER_01
And then they ll have a well choreographed, brilliant Broadway song.
6
SPEAKER_00
And they were such great dancers.
6
SPEAKER_00
I remember there was one, it was like eight in the morning or something.
6
SPEAKER_00
And this guy just did.
6
SPEAKER_00
16 flips in a row.
6
SPEAKER_00
I was just like, wow, what a different morning you and I have had.
6
SPEAKER_02
You went on a tunnel of love and there s a guy, there s like a bad boy guy standing there and then he sings to you.
6
SPEAKER_02
This is probably early on when you don t really know that s what s going on, which is very funny reactions.
6
SPEAKER_02
And then I guess you guys start to get used to the fact that this is where you are.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes, yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
And right.
6
SPEAKER_00
We we stop asking what they re doing every time except as we figure that out.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s on Apple TV.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s on Apple TV.
6
SPEAKER_00
Plus the new season, which is Chicago, is April 5th.
6
SPEAKER_01
If you like Broadway musicals, which everybody does.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then I hopefully I do think first season, I think a lot of people who were not do not consider themselves musical people.
6
SPEAKER_00
We had a good amount of people.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m not a musical person.
6
SPEAKER_02
I liked it.
6
SPEAKER_01
Well, it s kind of science fiction in a way, fantasy science.
6
SPEAKER_00
Hopefully there s like something for for everybody.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think having Keegan and I let s like a comedy audience and jokes.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, there s tons of jokes.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think that that was a show for them.
6
SPEAKER_02
Well, the songs have jokes, so it s not just watching, you know.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s very original.
6
SPEAKER_01
Nicholas Nickleby.
6
SPEAKER_02
I would check it out.
6
SPEAKER_01
I would check it out.
7
SPEAKER_01
Keegan are great.
7
SPEAKER_01
I see Keegan out a lot.
7
SPEAKER_01
I see him around in Los Angeles.
7
SPEAKER_00
He s the best, yeah.
7
SPEAKER_01
Always a good mood.
7
SPEAKER_00
You can hear him when you re out too.
7
SPEAKER_00
I feel like when he enters the room, you know he s there.
7
SPEAKER_00
There s like a big scream laugh.
7
SPEAKER_02
A lot of fun energy.
7
SPEAKER_02
Could we just touch on, as we go through your life here,
7
SPEAKER_02
Some of your classic sketches, like I know that you, I just kind of personally sort of noticed some of this.
7
SPEAKER_02
I just want to say this is very cool for me.
7
SPEAKER_00
Just want you to know that.
7
SPEAKER_01
We ve been watching you all morning and laughing out loud at your stuff.
7
SPEAKER_01
And that s why me and Dana are going back and forth before we called you.
7
SPEAKER_01
And we were like, did you just see this one?
7
SPEAKER_01
Did you see this one?
7
SPEAKER_02
We re alums and we don t want to make it too grandiose, but it is a seminal experience for us in that place and Lauren and being on live TV with your friends who you make lifelong friendships with.
7
SPEAKER_02
So this is very enjoyable, but
7
SPEAKER_02
I just kind of thought there was so many great cast members in that decade.
7
SPEAKER_02
And then I personally sort of started to notice you and notice you doing, you know, like really connecting with the audience.
7
SPEAKER_02
Because I think it takes a while for the audience to go, oh, we like Cecily.
7
SPEAKER_02
She just made me really laugh.
7
SPEAKER_02
And then it happens and builds.
7
SPEAKER_02
So I just saw that maybe
7
SPEAKER_02
At least it was for me, those last two or three years, you were just at another level, or some other level happened of confidence.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_02
And Gina Perino, was like a,
7
SPEAKER_02
Sorry, but like a heavyweight character, like a big, loud bombastic.
7
SPEAKER_02
And that must have been fun just to play that person that that persona is so aggressive.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I Tucker and I, Brian Tucker wrote it with me and he wrote it as a sketch first, just sort of a Fox News thing.
7
SPEAKER_00
But
7
SPEAKER_00
No one really knew who she was at the time, even though we were like, she s why she s a great character.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, she s.
7
SPEAKER_00
But the first time we did it, I don t think there was a big response.
7
SPEAKER_00
And then we tried it again on update.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was sort of I was excited because it was a way to do a bit of physical comedy, too, because I wanted to.
7
SPEAKER_00
We and the first sketch that we wrote, we had her in a chair with a seat belt.
7
SPEAKER_00
worried that she was going to fly out of her chair.
7
SPEAKER_00
I was like, well, then let me fly out of the chair.
7
SPEAKER_00
That ll be, I think.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_01
You know, she always yells Dana because she was yelling for a Cobb salad and they didn t have cranberries on it.
7
SPEAKER_01
One cranberry.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s her volume or something.
7
SPEAKER_01
She never went down on volume after that.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yelling at a waiter.
7
SPEAKER_02
It was a big, powerful one.
7
SPEAKER_02
And then I m always interested when people can do, cause I don t know if I had that gear play.
7
SPEAKER_02
play subtle, dumb, and I m just looking at the two porn stars you did with Vanessa Bayer.
7
SPEAKER_02
Describe those two characters and the rhythm of how you re acting dumb, but not dumb.
7
SPEAKER_02
I mean, how do you describe that?
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well, I think
7
SPEAKER_00
My, my porn star was always a little bit more out of fit than Vanessa s and started, but it was kind of, that s how the pair worked, you know?
7
SPEAKER_00
And I think mine s just, I remember seeing, I think it was like a Tyra Banks or something early on.
7
SPEAKER_00
And she had a porn star on, I forget who it was, but she was so like, yeah, and I m happy doing that.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it s,
7
SPEAKER_00
Just her, the way she was speaking was, I was like, oh, I want to do that.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I think it was also just a way to, writing with Colin Jost, we like to do a lot of malapropisms.
7
SPEAKER_00
And so it was, which we do a girl at a party and then we wound up doing in porn.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, it s like an excuse for a lot of bad puns too, honestly.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, right.
7
SPEAKER_02
But it s it s fun when you land a hard laugh with something that s so soft spoken.
7
SPEAKER_00
I think that was like even more than girl at a party.
7
SPEAKER_00
I think that was the most I felt the best after that first year.
7
SPEAKER_00
You know, I think it was Jamie Foxx s episode.
7
SPEAKER_00
I think that s what it was.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was my first year and we were the last sketch.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I think, and Lauren gave us, you know, it was that, it was still more cushioned when you re in that last spot and you can kind of, I just, the audience went so wild for it.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was so much fun to have that reaction for the first time.
7
SPEAKER_01
At 10 to one.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_00
And kind of be like a little dirty.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was just it was really fun because you had a series of lines.
7
SPEAKER_02
The one I saw today was this morning was I got banged and then something really you re both doing it.
7
SPEAKER_02
So.
7
SPEAKER_02
obviously casual and so soft-spoken.
7
SPEAKER_02
But anyway, so I m glad to hear that that would be something.
7
SPEAKER_02
For me, it was doing Johnny Carson, because I didn t really, I wasn t thinking about whether the audience was going to laugh, because I knew what I was saying was almost too funny, at least to me internally.
7
SPEAKER_02
So I felt like you had that connection with that character, where it s just like all thrown away and really soft-spoken, but super funny.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
I think that s sort of how we got away with all of it, too.
7
SPEAKER_00
We just, we kept saying like, how can we, we just wanted a framework to be able to say these awful things.
7
SPEAKER_00
And we were like, oh, they re, they were porn stars, but they re not anymore.
7
SPEAKER_00
And then, then it was like, and we had a lot of fun running gags.
7
SPEAKER_00
Like I never got a name.
7
SPEAKER_00
It was always like, how do we do that this time?
7
SPEAKER_00
How can we skirt around me saying a name?
7
SPEAKER_00
Like, can you give me an example of that?
7
SPEAKER_00
Like she d say, we re not porn stars anymore, I m Brecky.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I d go, and this is Brecky.
7
SPEAKER_00
Or she said, I m Brecky.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I said, and you can too.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s your non sequitur weird lock on.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
That really got me.
7
SPEAKER_00
I m not always paying attention, that gal, at every moment.
7
SPEAKER_01
They may have done drugs.
7
SPEAKER_00
They may have done drugs.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_00
You kind of hope that they did.
7
SPEAKER_01
There was just a, I thought it was very cute when you and Kristen did, it s such a weird thing you re on a date with a 10 year old kid.
7
SPEAKER_01
You guys just carry the whole thing and you re so keeping it alive and funny and just sort of odd, but very likable girls.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_00
And I think when I think I wrote it with Mike O Brien and it was like we just wanted to really write the best date that someone could, you know, there s something that felt really good.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was like and then they ve just happened to be 10 year olds, but they really felt like this is a really a date that s good.
7
SPEAKER_01
I know the way you played it was that s just fun to watch, because obviously, you know, you start these, you don t know where it s going.
7
SPEAKER_01
And if you re in comedy, you don t know what s in it.
7
SPEAKER_01
It s fun to watch these things unfold.
7
SPEAKER_01
And then you guys just seeing two pros just being very funny on their side of it, like.
7
SPEAKER_00
And having like Tim and Bobby.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was a lot of giggling.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I m sure that this looks like a super fun rehearsal also.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
And you and Bobby Moynihan, you and he did the best by firing.
7
SPEAKER_02
That must have been kind of fun because it was just so loud.
7
SPEAKER_02
And and and you re just you re supposed to be getting fired.
7
SPEAKER_02
So you just deconstructed every other employee.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_02
Rip rip.
7
SPEAKER_00
They re going out.
7
SPEAKER_00
They re going out with a bang, which and it was I thought was the first show I d gotten.
7
SPEAKER_00
a sketch on and I got that on and my girlfriend s on.
7
SPEAKER_00
And it was it was so great because Bobby had been there for a while and sort of like I really like trusted whatever.
7
SPEAKER_00
If he s saying this is good, then I trust that it s it s I was really I hadn t quite yelled at the table yet before.
7
SPEAKER_00
That s my first time yelling.
7
SPEAKER_01
Is it definitely this happened to me twice?
7
SPEAKER_01
Not as much as Dana, but.
7
SPEAKER_01
to either write something or co-write something, and when you originally get a big one on, it s so much your focus.
7
SPEAKER_01
To have two on almost throws you.
7
SPEAKER_01
It s like, that s too much.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_00
It was it was crazy that they I was sort of like, how does that how will that work?
7
SPEAKER_01
Because you have to oversee them directly.
7
SPEAKER_01
Like, is there so much to do with them and go to wardrobe and costumes and set design and help with every aspect?
7
SPEAKER_01
You re like, oh, my God, just give me one.
7
SPEAKER_01
Let me just see if I can figure.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
And you re like, well, is this going to work?
7
SPEAKER_00
It s my, you know, wanting to make sure everything is like you ve thought.
7
SPEAKER_00
Right.
7
SPEAKER_00
You ve thought through everything for that for the first one.
7
SPEAKER_02
But then after- Was the other one Girlfriend s Talk Show, sorry.
7
SPEAKER_00
Girlfriend s Talk Show, yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
Was the other one Girlfriend s Talk Show with Aidy.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
So there s your bandmate from- Here s your Aidy, yep.
7
SPEAKER_02
So you have a comfort zone with her.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I really- At least in the early days.
7
SPEAKER_00
I did a lot of two-handers for a long time over there, which I really loved.
7
SPEAKER_00
Two-handers, meaning duos.
7
SPEAKER_00
Some blasts.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, where, you know, me and Bobby or Vanessa and I, Aidy and I, yeah, Kate and I. Those were kind of, those were fun.
7
SPEAKER_01
Wayne s World was a two-hander.
7
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
7
SPEAKER_02
Hans and Franz, I m going to say two hander.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, exactly.
7
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_02
You know, but yeah, I think it s it s fun.
7
SPEAKER_02
It s a it s a very clean, simple thing.
7
SPEAKER_02
You re you re playing a rhythm with your other person.
7
SPEAKER_02
And it s just nice.
7
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
7
SPEAKER_01
Also for getting laughs off a straight part was you and Bill Hader when he hosted and you re going to play Uno with your
8
SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
Well that one, we were, I wrote a lot with James Anderson and Kent Sublette, and I was like, we just have to, like what I know of Bill, it s like, we just have to give him a big toy, really.
8
SPEAKER_00
So I was like, give him a big motorized wheelchair.
8
SPEAKER_02
And then you climb on him, I didn t see that coming.
8
SPEAKER_00
No.
8
SPEAKER_02
You have the courtesy blanket.
8
SPEAKER_00
Courtesy blanket, mm-hmm.
8
SPEAKER_02
So it s not like and she goes, sex is sexual.
8
SPEAKER_00
Right.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s not a sexual thing.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s science.
8
SPEAKER_02
And she has no sex.
8
SPEAKER_00
And it s sort of, you know, this awful way of trying to make your friends feel bad.
8
SPEAKER_00
Like, you know how much I want a baby.
8
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s all good.
8
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_02
Try not to laugh, of course, because he s banging everything, driving.
8
SPEAKER_00
Right.
8
SPEAKER_00
And there s not you know, we still only get however many rehearsals and then so it is.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s so.
8
SPEAKER_00
We don t know how any of it s going to work.
8
SPEAKER_00
He s backing up.
8
SPEAKER_02
You don t even know if he s going to hit a table or you guys are going to get your leg broken.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I think like the controlled chaos was sort of, that became my favorite part of the show.
8
SPEAKER_00
You know, it s like the one, the thing that sets us apart from everything else is having it live.
8
SPEAKER_00
Not perfect.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
So and it was sort of like throw in a dog, throw in some wine that you re throwing or something, you know, just there s then you have chaos that you re kind of like, I don t quite know what s going to happen.
8
SPEAKER_00
So then it keeps the audience senses that having fun.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
They want it for sure.
8
SPEAKER_01
I had a dog with massive head wound hair, of course, which was, you know, but that was I was just writing an Emmy.
8
SPEAKER_01
The dog is pushing a little.
8
SPEAKER_01
Could we get the dog to look like, not like, find the legs.
8
SPEAKER_02
The dog s hosting during February Sweets with Jay-Z.
8
SPEAKER_01
So you do 10 years, you go through all these different cast members coming and going.
8
SPEAKER_01
When you first came in, who was there and who left pretty shortly after that?
8
SPEAKER_01
We had a core cast for a long time together.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was Bill and Jason and Fred s last year.
8
SPEAKER_00
OK.
8
SPEAKER_01
When I got there, you caught them for one year.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
So I got one year with them.
8
SPEAKER_01
Solid.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
Which was so exciting, you know, to have those people around when you re first there.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was really exciting.
8
SPEAKER_00
And then.
8
SPEAKER_00
And Bobby, Taryn, Jay, Vanessa, they were sort of the next, and Nassim, were all sort of the next upperclassmen.
8
SPEAKER_00
And then 80, Kate and I, and Beck, and Kyle,
8
SPEAKER_00
We were sort of, we were there for a long time together.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you did have a nice long run together.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, Kate, of course, you, yeah, what, yeah, like a re, the show keeps- And Kenan, obviously, yes.
8
SPEAKER_01
Reinventing itself.
8
SPEAKER_01
And Kenan Thompson, just the perennial cast member who s just always- When you leave this season, is it a weird feeling when the shows are still on?
8
SPEAKER_00
It s definitely, it feels like it was much longer
8
SPEAKER_00
It feels like a much, much more time has passed since I ve been there.
8
SPEAKER_00
But I also I think
8
SPEAKER_00
One of the I I know 80 and Kate and a couple other people I ve talked to and even Kristen, I talked to her when she first hosted.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was kind of like you can t I haven t been watching.
8
SPEAKER_00
I think you have to kind of walk away for a while to be able to leave.
8
SPEAKER_00
So it s very weird to watch it after there s people doing your job.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s weird.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I think all the anxiety I feel like would just come back right away.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I would I just don t I think it s I m good where I am with this distance.
8
SPEAKER_01
Hey, you did a good run.
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, my God.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s pretty comprehensive.
8
SPEAKER_01
Do you feel, I don t know, you probably feel so many things, but somewhere you must feel a nice level of satisfaction.
8
SPEAKER_01
You lived your dream.
8
SPEAKER_01
Totally.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I got to leave like happy, which I know is doesn t always happen.
8
SPEAKER_00
No.
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, there s heard of those stories.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I, you know, there was, I had a tough,
8
SPEAKER_00
a couple of years like everybody does.
8
SPEAKER_00
And so it was really nice to get to leave that way.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
Going out with a bang.
8
SPEAKER_01
And now you have Schmigadoon.
8
SPEAKER_00
Schmigadoon.
8
SPEAKER_00
I think that s a great name.
8
SPEAKER_02
You also may not know this.
8
SPEAKER_02
You re in a phone commercial.
8
SPEAKER_00
That s right, yes.
8
SPEAKER_02
You wouldn t know that.
8
SPEAKER_00
I don t know if you ve seen it.
8
SPEAKER_02
I don t know if you ve seen it.
8
SPEAKER_00
You know it s mandatory to see it.
8
SPEAKER_00
You can find it on YouTube though.
8
SPEAKER_01
You have to go to YouTube.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m a big fan of tech commercials and phone, you know, potato chips and tacos is harder, although I m for sale at this point.
8
SPEAKER_01
I will eat, I will bite a taco.
8
SPEAKER_01
But when you re doing phone companies or that sort of Apple commercial or whatever, that s sort of nice.
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I think the commercials, you look great and it s just sweet and it s kind of smart.
8
SPEAKER_01
So yeah, I m a big fan of doing commercials as soon as you come off SNL.
8
SPEAKER_00
I come off great gig.
8
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s a great gig.
8
SPEAKER_02
And then you got a I think who is in it.
8
SPEAKER_02
Seth was in the one.
8
SPEAKER_00
Seth has been.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
Jessica Williams just did one.
8
SPEAKER_00
So they ve been.
8
SPEAKER_00
I was like, wow, they re not.
8
SPEAKER_01
You were not supposed to do commercials.
8
SPEAKER_01
when you came off there in the 90s, you were not supposed to do commercials.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I m not envious.
8
SPEAKER_01
I don t hate the people who do them now.
8
SPEAKER_01
I lived through them and I root for you guys, but yeah, do the commercials.
8
SPEAKER_00
I know, it was like a new thing that we got to do a commercial during our time on the show.
8
SPEAKER_00
That was always like such a no-no, but I think in the past, however, a couple of years, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_02
I got shot down on that.
8
SPEAKER_02
I have to tell her one thing before you get your last word, Dana.
8
SPEAKER_02
Born in Springfield.
8
SPEAKER_02
Springfield, Illinois.
8
SPEAKER_02
My daughter lives in Springfield and growing up in Springfield.
8
SPEAKER_02
Really?
8
SPEAKER_02
So I m saying there s hope for her to come out like Cecily because you did it and you liked it.
8
SPEAKER_02
You were there for a really long time.
8
SPEAKER_00
Well, I did move pretty quickly, actually.
8
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you did?
8
SPEAKER_00
I was a year and a half when we moved to Oak Park, which is right outside of Chicago.
8
SPEAKER_02
What are your recollections of?
8
SPEAKER_02
What was the mall like when you were there at one year old?
8
SPEAKER_00
But I m sure it s what made me who I am.
8
SPEAKER_00
Do you go back ever or no?
8
SPEAKER_00
To Springfield?
8
SPEAKER_00
No, not to Springfield.
8
SPEAKER_00
I did go back.
8
SPEAKER_00
I went back once.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s far away from Chicago.
8
SPEAKER_00
But I went I it was when Barack Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate.
8
SPEAKER_00
It was in Springfield.
8
SPEAKER_00
And a couple of friends and I did it at the J.Crew at the mall at the J.Crew.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I got I got an autograph.
8
SPEAKER_00
Barack Obama.
8
SPEAKER_01
So you have a memoir out.
8
SPEAKER_01
This will all be over soon, which I love the time.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
Written during the pandemic.
8
SPEAKER_01
And that s available on wherever you can find all the book places.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
Book places.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I m just so I don t know, I m just so thrilled that we when they said Cecily s in, it made me very happy.
8
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like I think it s like a rite of passage to to get to talk to you guys.
8
SPEAKER_00
And you are both some of the best to have ever done it.
8
SPEAKER_00
And.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s you re doing well on the other side.
8
SPEAKER_02
Very nice.
8
SPEAKER_01
I love funny people.
8
SPEAKER_01
And we did ask Kenan about we just as a kind of a pithy question, like, oh, who s the greatest?
8
SPEAKER_01
We all have to make a name up or whatever, you know, rank things.
8
SPEAKER_01
And he gave the best answer.
8
SPEAKER_01
He just said spontaneously the women.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s all the women because the freaking doll, he is adorable.
8
SPEAKER_01
He s like, you want to adopt him?
8
SPEAKER_01
Smart guy, too.
8
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
The amount of women.
8
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And you re in that continuum between Amy and I ll forget the names too many.
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Sherry Oteri and
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Maya, Molly, Kristen, Amy.
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Right, right, right.
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Yeah.
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So many women who ve done such brilliant work on that show in recent history.
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But we fancy ourselves, it sounds highfalutin, a slight, casual, funny oral history of cast members interviewing cast members.
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We know where the grease paint is stored.
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So this has been a pleasure.
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David, do you have any final statement?
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No, I like it.
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You get to talk about SNL and not bore everyone.
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Because at certain times you just start talking about it and you re like, all right, well, forget it.
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I should stop.
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But it s fun to talk about because it s on your mind.
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It ll be on longer than you think.
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You just keep... You ll always be from Saturday Night Live.
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And the great thing about the way the world works now with live streaming and all these venues, you re just going to work.
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You re going to do whatever you want to do and show business for decades now, but you ll always be from Saturday Night Live.
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Yes.
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You know, which is a great legacy.
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It s right.
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Everybody has a story.
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It s not.
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Yeah.
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Could be way worse.
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It s great to have.
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I mean, yeah, you everything sort of comes from there and, you know, came from improv places.
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Well, when you go there.
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when you can do live sketch comedy and do it with with joy and and and do it uh with as an expert it everything else that you can do it s kind of you know it s like i feel like
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I think the greatest thing since leaving has been seeing that people maybe see me now the way I saw Amy and Tina and Maya and Kristen walking in.
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And that was, I think, that s just a great thing to have in my pocket for a bad day.
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It s a big deal.
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I m amongst those names, and that s so cool.
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thousand percent amongst and the everyone loves it at a certain age.
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One of Lauren isms, you know, who was 14 at the time.
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But you ve you ve got your your cast, your primary cast and your people.
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And those fans are so connected to you forever, which is very sweet.
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You know, they re 14 now, but you ll run into it later and they ll be so.
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So it s such an honor to be on that show.
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Yeah.
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And to be humble about it and just be grateful.
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We re on the wall.
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We get to do this.
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We got to do a fun job for a long time.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So anyway, we re going to get started in a minute.
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We re just going to take a break.
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But we like to do pre-interviews.
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I think we got a good show here.
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We do.
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We know what we re going to talk about now.
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Thank you very much.
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As I like to say, we re going to see you around campus in show business and for sure at the 50th.
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Yes, right.
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You know, that ll be exciting.
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I hope I get to do something with.
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I know something.
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I would love that.
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We ll put you in Wayne s.
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We re going to start thinking about.
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Yes, please.
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That s one of the first movies I think I like had memory.
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Like that s probably I have the most memorized of of all movies.
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Oh, I like to play.
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I m sorry.
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Of course.
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And I think I did like she was, of course, a gun rack.
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And I m like, what am I going to do with the guy?
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I don t even own a gun.
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A gun.
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All of it.
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Great, great movies.
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Yeah.
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Surreal.
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But anyway, best of luck to you.
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I m going to be watching your show with my sister who s visiting tonight.
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Schmigadoon.
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And the new one is April 5th.
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So.
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And it comes out April 5th for the next season.
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Yes.
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All right.
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Well, thanks guys.
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Our pleasure.
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A real honor and joy.
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A pleasure.
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Thank you.
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SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
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This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13.
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Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes.
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Available now for free wherever you get your podcast.
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No joke, folks.
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Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment.
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The show s lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.