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Today s guest, David, is probably one of the most influential producers of television of all time, especially right now, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, who s in charge of billions of dollars
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allocated to shows and is also an incredible Saturday Night Live and stand-up comedy fan.
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He s a very good friend of David s.
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I know him casually, but he s a really nice guy.
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David?
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I agree.
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He knows SNL.
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He knows the podcast.
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He listens and has comments all the time, which is very nice for a guy who could not be more busy.
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We talked about his schedule, we talked about all these shows he has to keep an eye on, the pressures of being the boss.
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I always think of him up in the world of those guys that run companies like Bezos.
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I think you were saying, you know, Ted s so normal, he s not jacked and juiced yet.
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He s the most regular humble person you d ever meet.
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He has not gotten on a boat.
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He hasn t made a boat.
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Yeah.
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He hasn t, uh, made a rocket ship yet, but he s just a powerful guy.
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That s very low key.
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So I like that kind of thing.
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Very fun.
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Great laugher knows a ton about comedy and we get into different comic specials and, uh,
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He gets a lot of pressure sometimes when things seemingly go too far, and what do you do about that?
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We had a lot of great talk with him and all of his shows he s doing that are hitting.
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How do you know when the shows are hitting?
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All over the world, what the Squid Game meant to.
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to these streaming platforms, and one of the biggest hits in history, and the authenticity of it, and why.
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And so it s really just about the future, all this programming.
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It s a lot of learning, a lot of learning for me.
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I usually think I know everything, and I didn t, shockingly.
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Yeah, I tried to, I was a little pithy in the beginning.
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Netflix, Flexflix, what do you got, you know?
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And I was kind of, I said, I, but you know, these live streaming shows and what they re doing and what the globalization, the monetization, any otherizations, can you add in there?
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No, I think those are theizations.
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But it was a really fun talk and we laughed a lot and he loves comedy.
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Bada bing, bada boom.
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Here he is, Ted Sarandos.
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Ted Sarandos, what is your official title right now?
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Because it seems to jump around, chief executive, creative.
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I m the co-CEO of Netflix.
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Holy tomatoes.
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So does Reid Hastings has to worry about anything?
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Is there any reason?
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Yeah, Reid is kind of, he s the chairman of the board now.
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He s very focused on his philanthropy.
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Ice fishing.
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He s built a ski mountain in Utah, actually.
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Wow.
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He owns Powder Mountain.
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That s what I was gonna do.
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Sounds like a Neil Young song.
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♪ All to be on Powder Mountain ♪ Sorry.
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With the double meaning from the, yeah.
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Oh, I don t know about Neil.
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Oh yeah.
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Cannabis, but.
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Oh yeah.
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So you don t have a jettison, like if you weren t doing this, what would you wanna do?
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I don t, you know, honestly, next year, I m 25 years at Netflix and my whole, yeah, so my whole career has been,
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in home in either video stores or video distribution or Netflix.
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Yes.
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So if I was not doing this, I d be probably doing much the same, many of the same things.
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Cause like, I always thought if I didn t have to make money, I would like.
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operate a retrospective movie theater or something like that.
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Well, you re like Quentin Tarantino in that you both were steeped in movies from working and managing regional video stores.
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And now you just said you d like to have a vintage movie theater, and Tarantino has one of those in LA.
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So do you mind if I call you Quentin for the rest of the interview?
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Please, please.
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I will direct 10 movies in my lifetime.
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That s right.
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They just ripped one down by the Grove.
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Is that true, Ted?
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There was one on Beverly by the Grove in Fairfax, old school one.
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I think they just- I think they closed down to remodel and just never reopened.
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Hopefully, they re opening a Club Monaco or something important.
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I d like to leave with this because it might put a smile on your face.
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This is trending in these last few weeks.
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The kids are all talking about this?
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Well, this is like media that covers companies.
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Netflix won the streaming wars.
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Does that make you smile, make you go, we ve got a lot of work to do, or does that scare you in a way?
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Netflix won the streaming wars with 260 million subscribers.
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Well, two years ago, they were writing, bring in the paddles, I think we lost them.
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I know, you re right.
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It turned.
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I told everyone here, don t take that headline seriously or take this headline seriously.
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That implies that the streaming wars are over.
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Streaming is just the natural evolution of media.
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It s what people want.
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because it s on demand and it s in their control and they get tons of choice and the economics are so much better than the old pay TV model used to be.
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So I just think it s a natural course and it s very big in the early, earliest days.
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So there s no war that s over, but there s lots of battles and we re going through a nice battle.
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Well, the comedians doing Saturday Night Live theme podcast war has not been declared over, but we re in the,
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We re in the conversation.
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Here s what my, Blink, curious thing about you.
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You guys have a show and you think it s going to be a smash and whatever metrics you re using, billions, and it just does, it underperforms and like, Oh, holy shit.
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Or the opposite.
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Okay.
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Well, let s take a chance on that one.
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I don t know.
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And it s a smash.
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Yeah.
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So squid game versus,
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What was the biggest smash sort of surprise?
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Was Squid Game an actual surprise?
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Yeah, it s the most watched show in the history of the company around the world, including in the US.
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And it was a surprise in that it was really meant, like all of our local productions are meant to be thrilling to the local population.
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And they re not meant to be engineered to be global or anything.
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What we have found is that the more authentically local a show is, weirdly, the more it travels, because I think people see it as more authentic and real.
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In that case, it was a relatively expensive Korean television show, but it actually just within about three days on Netflix, it just exploded everywhere.
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Did you pick it up or did you go produce it and put it together?
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So the director Wang, who was pitching it, had pitched it around the world for about 10 years as a movie.
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And our Korea team, which is incredible, and our office in Seoul, met with him and said, this is a pretty on-the-nose Korean cinema, sci-fi story.
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Have you thought about exploring and opening the world up a lot more?
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more and he went off and rewrote the scripts.
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Smart.
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And I saw a picture on your Instagram.
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Ted, I don t follow many people.
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I m going to hear this one.
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But I think you re on the set of
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Squid Game 2, season two, and they re shooting right now.
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It was this place like three hours outside of Seoul, so it was like a fun cultural immersion.
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You know what they have in Korea that s incredible?
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The road stop, the rest stops.
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Oh, they do?
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You know, ours are kind of scary in the United States.
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Or they re closed, you know, yeah.
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Yeah, the ones here, spotless clean, in Korea, spotless clean.
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I have like top line, like very high end food courts in them and all the regional foods, like people, like if you live there, you d actually drive to the rest stop to get the regional food from that area of Korea.
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Go on dates, go to the US.
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It s a good date night.
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It s a good date night.
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So Netflix, you guys, the red envelopes and the DVDs, that was a revolution at the time.
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Weirdly, only mailed our last DVD about four months ago.
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That s what I heard about, because there was something,
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just nice about it, the consistency of the branding, the red envelope and the ease of that.
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So that was like you and Reid and your other people work with you, breaking something new.
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Then of course, watch on your computer.
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You can watch a movie on computer.
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And I do think House of Cards was the first that I remember live streaming.
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And my wife and I didn t even know about live streaming.
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We had a bad wifi connection, so it would stop every two minutes and we d have to do this whole thing.
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And we just thought, well, maybe it ll get better in the future.
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But anyway, that was a big thing.
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Netflix, you know, your brand completely shifted with that decision.
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Did you, I mean, that was a huge, huge moment for your company, right?
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At that time, 10 years ago.
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Yeah, you know, it was 2012.
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And at the time, we were building the business up to do streaming.
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But what s interesting about it is Reed Hastings, this incredible visionary, when I met him in 1999, he talked about Netflix just like this.
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And it s all digital, totally global.
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The only thing he didn t see in that vision was doing original programming.
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He thought this would be a better distribution solution, but we re a tech company, we weren t a creative company.
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Like Blockbuster, but you just pick one that goes out.
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Is that what you re saying?
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Something like that.
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Yeah, so for us, I went and so we were just in a routine meeting with the producers of House of Cards, who also produced a bunch of movies.
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And they said this is going to be their first TV package.
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And do we want to look at it.
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And I looked at the package that they put in front of us, which was
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you know, David Fincher directing television, this Oscar nominated writer writing the scripts and Kevin Spacey, when that was a good thing, starring Robin Wright.
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Great actor.
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Yeah.
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Great actor.
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Great actor.
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Yeah.
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Reed Hastings didn t have any psychic visions about him.
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But when they brought it in, I said, look, if we were ever going to get into originals, this would be the one.
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It s like the perfect package.
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We had three scripts.
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It wasn t like we had to do all the development work.
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And I looked at it and I said, we greenlit the show.
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We famously gave them a two season order, which was pretty unheard of at the time.
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But mostly because there was no reason you would take a desirable show to Netflix back then.
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Oh, just to get ahead of it.
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What did you put?
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Yeah, I mean, we paid, basically it was about a hundred million dollar commitment to the show.
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But I don t think anyone s even heard of that much money back then.
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At the time, I remember it was bold.
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It was full boat, as they call it, money.
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So we did the move.
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I came back, I tell Reed that I made the deal and he s like, well, I thought we don t do this.
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And I said, yeah, but for me, honestly, it was if we, if this show works, it will fundamentally change the course of our business.
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And if it doesn t, we ll have overpaid for a show, which we do all the time.
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Well, if it was a race, you got out of the blocks first.
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And everyone went, whoa, there s hit shows, because the show of the moment was on Netflix.
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And so that s huge.
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And people forget too, we had, before we did that, we had like 25 million people streaming on Netflix.
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So if you start trying to, if I tried to build the whole business on our original programming over the last 10 years, we would not be where we re sitting right now.
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Well, the other thing, I don t know if it s revolutionary, but putting shows like Arrested Development that get rediscovered on Netflix has become another lane in your brand.
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Obviously, The Office was huge and so forth and so on.
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So you had to pay a lot for that.
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Those were gambles at the moment, right?
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Well, remember when we were licensing at the beginning, all those shows, nobody really knew what this right was, the streaming rights for a show.
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It was either a home video right or a digital right, and people didn t really know.
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Different studios had it all constructed differently.
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When it came to television, what we were able to license was shows that didn t have enough seasons to get to syndication and were off the air.
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So weirdly, Arrested Development was off the air the year that we were going.
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And so we had the ability to do Arrested Development.
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And on DVD, it was a very popular show.
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We knew that from our own DVD rental data, was that people love this show.
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And I actually think that for Arrested Development was one of those shows that was literally ahead of its time.
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Most people say that when they re trying to make you feel good because your show bombed.
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This thing really was ahead of its time.
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If you watched it, you really had to binge it because the joke sets up in episode one and pays off in episode four.
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And you really kind of have to watch it in one sitting to see that play out.
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And binging, streaming on Netflix was a way to do that.
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So that s why I did that.
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One of our earliest decisions after House of Cards was to reboot Arrested Development.
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So it s sort of hunch plus data.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And plus you re a comedy fan, and so you like good comedy, and that s, you re like, this one s actually sort of a clever, interesting comedy people would appreciate.
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And the fact they blow up, you know, really reinvigorates a lot of these shows, Suits especially.
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Suits was crazy, but that was, you know, in the earliest, in Breaking Bad and Walking Dead,
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We had all those shows right after they were on, right after the season, after they aired on television.
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And they were small, culty shows that just blew up because of Netflix.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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Breaking Bad.
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You re into more live stuff now, and we did the Chris Rock thing.
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Yeah, you guys were part of that history with us.
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Yeah, I was afraid to talk.
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I never felt more like a white guy in my life.
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I m like, I should just stay quiet right now.
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But I got to hang out with Jabbar backstage and talk to him about it.
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So that was a thrill.
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It was fun.
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It was fun.
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You re going more into live.
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Is that just one area that you guys haven t quite cracked?
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Or what are you looking for in live?
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What is appealing live that you guys gravitate towards?
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I m looking for things that actually are creatively better because they re live.
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But, you know, Saturday Night Live is one of those things that people tune into to see what s going to happen.
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And I do think part of the liveness of it is part of the pitch.
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Chris Rock Live was an exciting one for us because, you know, it had been a year that Chris had not talked about what happened at the Oscars and he was going to in that set.
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And there was enough, you know, people wanted to hear that story that the liveness of it really mattered.
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So it was the most watched streaming comedy special since they started tracking it.
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And I know internally it was the most talked about for sure of the year because people were rushing home to watch the Chris Rock.
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And what about the after show?
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How did that do in terms of numbers?
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It was actually, it held on.
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SPEAKER_00
It held on both the pre-game and the, no, it actually did.
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SPEAKER_00
It was fun to do because we want, I mean, talk about like doing, working without a net.
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SPEAKER_00
We had never streamed anything live and we actually did it in two different cities and pitched back and forth and all this stuff.
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SPEAKER_00
So our teams were really chomping off a bunch.
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SPEAKER_01
Are you getting, are you ironing it all out now?
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SPEAKER_01
Like every time you do it, it s a little easy.
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SPEAKER_01
What have you done since?
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SPEAKER_01
What are you, you re doing a tennis thing.
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Tennis, March 3rd.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s, and then we, and they have, and Saturday night we have the SAG Awards live on Netflix as well.
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SPEAKER_00
Oh, this, okay.
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SPEAKER_00
Saturday night.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
And then, uh, and then we just announced we did this big deal with WWE.
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SPEAKER_00
So WWE raw is going to be on every week on Netflix, starting in 25.
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SPEAKER_00
Um, and the, uh, the T got the tennis one coming.
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SPEAKER_00
Uh, and then we re going to do a bunch of live stuff from the Netflix is a joke festival this summer.
1
SPEAKER_01
Oh, right.
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SPEAKER_01
So you can sort of how, how much lead time, sorry, Dan, how much lead time do you need?
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SPEAKER_01
If you say, you know, something s coming up, it sounds kind of cool.
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SPEAKER_01
Can we get in there?
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SPEAKER_00
I mean, I remember we re not actually, we hadn t been built for life.
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SPEAKER_00
So this is all technology for us.
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SPEAKER_00
So we probably need 60 days or so to get the resources.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s the right answer.
1
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
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SPEAKER_02
Excellent.
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Here s a business question, which I don t know if you want to answer, but the NFL, the money that they re getting, and I don t know if I got this right, but I believe Amazon, maybe you re
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SPEAKER_02
I ve heard of them.
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SPEAKER_02
They paid a billion dollars for eight or 10 Thursday night footballs.
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SPEAKER_02
Is that right?
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SPEAKER_00
Something in that area, in that zip code, yeah.
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Bezos, man, that son of a gun.
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He s on the yacht.
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Son of a bitch.
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SPEAKER_00
I think actually it shows you, like the thing I always talk about, I m not like, people say, oh, Netflix is against live sports for some reason.
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SPEAKER_00
No, we re not, not at all.
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Just that those big league live sports, the demand for them is so great that whatever distributor is doing it doesn t really bring much value to it.
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SPEAKER_00
So they don t get much margin for it.
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SPEAKER_00
They don t get much profit out of that.
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And so we were able to, over the last 25 years, build a gigantic company without having a lost leader product.
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And I think sports generally, big league sports, tends to be a lost leader for television.
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So at some point, I m very confident we can be twice as big as we are today without doing that.
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But who knows beyond that?
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SPEAKER_02
Are you talking a half billion subscribers if I run the numbers right in my head?
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SPEAKER_00
You ve rounded down.
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SPEAKER_00
You ve done the math pretty well.
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SPEAKER_02
Well, you re at 260 and you can double it.
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SPEAKER_01
Wait, Dana, what about that Paramount Plus bullshit when they try to throw that in?
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SPEAKER_01
I hate those guys.
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SPEAKER_01
That drove me nuts.
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SPEAKER_02
I don t like Netflix.
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SPEAKER_02
I don t like those Paramount Plus guys.
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SPEAKER_01
Listen, I m in my hotel trying to hook my phone up to my laptop, to my TV, and I got a
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SPEAKER_01
Antenna on the ceiling
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SPEAKER_02
I m like, how do I get parents?
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SPEAKER_02
I just wanna come home and watch the goddamn game.
2
SPEAKER_02
But if that s the future, I mean.
2
SPEAKER_03
Oh, you re talking about Peacock.
2
SPEAKER_03
Peacock did that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Peacock forced them to.
2
SPEAKER_00
Peacock forced them to.
2
SPEAKER_00
For the playoff game, you had to join Peacock.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
Anybody.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, it was Peacock.
2
SPEAKER_03
It tells you how, again, 26 million people or something watched it, but they went from nothing to that.
2
SPEAKER_03
So it s the, people like football, turns out.
2
SPEAKER_02
Sure, but it was sort of a forced situation I didn t love.
2
SPEAKER_00
Well, to your point, it s live, you don t know what s gonna happen.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s a huge gambling component, and then the Taylor Swift effect of like millions of- Fantasy football.
2
SPEAKER_00
Fantasy football, and millions of young women now are interested in football, I think.
2
SPEAKER_02
To gamble, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
And gambling.
2
SPEAKER_02
They like to gamble too, you re right there.
2
SPEAKER_02
They want to gamble.
2
SPEAKER_02
They can come lose and play fantasy football when I lose.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s very addictive, losing.
2
SPEAKER_03
I saw, I m not going to put in a pitch for this for them, but I saw a product that the NFL is working on that basically incorporates
2
SPEAKER_03
all your fantasy football picks, your gaming and everything.
2
SPEAKER_03
So you re watching on an iPad, pull out your iPad and watch the game through the lens.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s almost like a screen where it s also all that shit while you re watching.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m sure the future is like, I m surprised states don t have gambling everywhere because everyone s willing to lose everything just to gamble.
2
SPEAKER_02
And it just, it seems to be everywhere.
2
SPEAKER_02
Some states I land, I can t play it on my phone.
2
SPEAKER_02
Some I can.
2
SPEAKER_02
Ted s from Arizona, Dana, just so FYI.
2
SPEAKER_00
I remember you two guys are Arizonians.
2
SPEAKER_00
Arizonians.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Dana, you met some of my high school buddies.
2
SPEAKER_00
I did.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was interesting because I have a lot of the same friends that I had in high school or in college.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so it was neat that all your friends just knew you when and just completely real, regular people.
2
SPEAKER_02
You haven t dumped them yet.
2
SPEAKER_00
It wasn t like an Oscar party there.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, Jason Bateman was there.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was cool to meet him.
2
SPEAKER_00
David Spade was there.
2
SPEAKER_02
Mr. Chappelle was there.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
That was a fun night.
2
SPEAKER_02
By the way, with Chappelle, I got two stories for Chappelle, just to interrupt you.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
He s really good at it.
2
SPEAKER_02
One is just, first of all, I think it s nice that you re, I ve known you as a comedy fan for years and years, and so that s truly who you are.
2
SPEAKER_02
So when you back people when they do a special or you have to come out
2
SPEAKER_02
and get in front of something and say, I do back a comedian saying what they want.
2
SPEAKER_02
It doesn t mean you agree with it.
2
SPEAKER_02
It doesn t mean that you just mean let people talk.
2
SPEAKER_02
I think that s commendable, especially we re comics.
2
SPEAKER_02
So of course we like that.
2
SPEAKER_00
Definitely.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a big bookstore.
2
SPEAKER_00
You can open any book you want or not, you know.
2
SPEAKER_03
And people like to think about all kinds of diversity except for diversity of thought.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I think comedy is one of these places where you should have a pretty open playground to figure out, you know, ideas and ideas, you know, have to live through conversation.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I think comedy is a great place to start the conversation.
2
SPEAKER_03
Right, and some people don t agree, some people do, and it s under the guise of a joke sometimes.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s in the title.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s a joke.
2
SPEAKER_03
It s in the title.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s not my stock and trade, but I do think the comedic mind, you re not supposed to say this, makes you want to say it.
2
SPEAKER_00
You can say all these things, but not that thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re like, well, wait a minute.
2
SPEAKER_02
You immediately want to crack that puzzle, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, watching comedy, sometimes people like that when they say, oh, he went pretty far.
2
SPEAKER_02
I don t agree with that, but they re trying stuff.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s not the same six jokes that everyone s allowed to use.
2
SPEAKER_03
I think it s funny.
2
SPEAKER_03
I think that people, when they talk about comedy and try to put it into camps and like, well, so people talk to
2
SPEAKER_03
work blue and some people don t, and one s better than the other.
2
SPEAKER_03
I actually think it s, they re just, it s an art form that has a lot of different shapes.
2
SPEAKER_03
And if you, some people, like if you do shock comedy, the hard thing, I ve been watching a lot of comedy over the years, like the hard thing is getting the audience back.
2
SPEAKER_03
So it s actually just a different kind of art when you went out and got, because it s not just a cheap laugh.
2
SPEAKER_03
You have to actually bring the audience back in too.
2
SPEAKER_03
So it s, you have to be able to master a lot of different things.
2
SPEAKER_02
And you also have to have a clever angle.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, if you want to keep a crowd, if you re going to do these things,
2
SPEAKER_02
if you have an interesting angle or something that comes out of nowhere, I think it makes it smarter and there s, it s more fun to listen to, but you re also more of a connoisseur.
2
SPEAKER_02
You ve been doing all your life and now you re seeing every special and then you ve got Hannah Gadsby, you ve got the different ranges of people and then people get mad at you and then they come back and do a special again.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then you re like, okay, well I think down deep they know
2
SPEAKER_02
you re letting these things go on.
2
SPEAKER_02
So they go, Oh, this is the place to do it.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I think it s a hard thing for me too, that, you know, the, the, keep in mind that we try to do a lot of variety because just like Netflix itself, people like some shows and I m like, Oh, that s what we have so much to watch on Netflix because tastes are really diverse and it s certainly within comedy.
2
SPEAKER_03
So to, with, you know, from the point I was trying to make when people got angry,
2
SPEAKER_03
was this idea that if you don t like that idea, switch it and find another one, find one you do like.
2
SPEAKER_03
And you can get a lot of choices.
2
SPEAKER_02
And what about Chappelle when we had your party the other night and he has all these people over the Grammy s, Chappelle s up for one, I think Wanda Sykes maybe, maybe Aziz was up for one.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Chris Rock.
2
SPEAKER_02
Sarah Silverman.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Sarah Silverman, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
So Ted went around.
2
SPEAKER_02
First of all, it s the most fun, Dana.
2
SPEAKER_02
You were invited.
2
SPEAKER_02
You couldn t come, but you re obviously invited.
2
SPEAKER_02
I heard all about it.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s so fun.
2
SPEAKER_02
So he s got two tables.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s pretty much only comedians.
2
SPEAKER_02
We all have a place setting, and so you sit down.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then Ted walks around
2
SPEAKER_02
And it s pretty hard to do this, Ted.
2
SPEAKER_02
It stops at each person.
2
SPEAKER_02
Sarah Silverman s here, and she s done this and this, and we all know her from this and this.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then he was, and I go, oh my God, he s doing it to everyone.
2
SPEAKER_02
And it s so hard.
2
SPEAKER_02
He had to keep us entertained, know the credits, know something about the person.
2
SPEAKER_02
And he s going down, up and down.
2
SPEAKER_02
Remember this, Ted?
2
SPEAKER_02
And he gets, and so,
2
SPEAKER_02
Arsenio Hall was outside.
2
SPEAKER_02
You remember this?
2
SPEAKER_02
So he s outside.
2
SPEAKER_02
Ted has already thanked Dave Chappelle, all the people actually up for a Grammy for the dinner, and he does this whole thing about Chappelle.
2
SPEAKER_02
Very nice.
2
SPEAKER_02
Then Chappelle s standing behind me for some reason.
2
SPEAKER_02
So when Ted gets to me, right when he gets to me to just fawn over me for- I was about to fawn.
2
SPEAKER_02
Fawn.
2
SPEAKER_02
He was really just working his way to the main event, which is me.
2
SPEAKER_02
So Arsenio goes, do Dave Chappelle, he s hiding behind me.
2
SPEAKER_02
And you re politely like, well, I did talk about Dave, but I ll say a few words again.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Dave takes the mic.
2
SPEAKER_01
There was a mic?
2
SPEAKER_01
Was there a mic?
2
SPEAKER_01
No, no mic.
2
SPEAKER_01
He just took the mic.
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_01
But he s got a voice.
2
SPEAKER_02
And he says,
2
SPEAKER_02
i can t believe i m here with all my favorite comedian is so nice and then he starts going to each person and i m like wait is he doing with ted and so now that.
2
SPEAKER_02
So now we re all i m staring cuz i ve got there s a little shrubbery on the tables but i ve got a alley long and bill hader right in front of me so and rock is behind so i m next.
2
SPEAKER_02
And Ted s just waiting to keep going.
2
SPEAKER_02
And she felt it probably 15 minutes.
2
SPEAKER_02
He did like a set.
2
SPEAKER_02
And then he stopped and then Ted s like, and David s face.
2
SPEAKER_01
He had to get right.
2
SPEAKER_01
He had to hold your face in the house.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
It was like, and the professor and Marianne, he kind of wrapped it up.
2
SPEAKER_02
He s like, oh, there s Chris Rock and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
2
SPEAKER_02
But it was pretty hilarious because everyone was waiting
2
SPEAKER_00
I ll tell you a very short story about Ted, because I do think it speaks to your vibe.
2
SPEAKER_00
Please.
2
SPEAKER_00
Ted s character.
2
SPEAKER_00
As someone in your position, I would just say you don t have an ego around it at all, and that informs you all the time.
2
SPEAKER_00
Uh, because we know, um, heads of big things in Hollywood, you know, there s a lot of, you know, like, Hey kid, and you know, all that kind of stuff.
2
SPEAKER_00
And you re the opposite.
2
SPEAKER_00
So Mike and I, Mike Myers and I Wayne s world, um, 280 inflation adjusted 400 million, um, inflation adjusted.
2
SPEAKER_00
So we re sitting in a table and Ted comes over.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s no chair around.
2
SPEAKER_00
So Ted takes a knee.
2
SPEAKER_00
up beneath Mike and I and talks to us for 15 minutes as a fan of all comedy and everything.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it was the most... And then... Sounds about right.
2
SPEAKER_00
I said, well, Ted, you re... Very nice, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Ted s very polite.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, thank you.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
He goes, this was my favorite moment of the Oscars.
2
SPEAKER_00
Then he leaves.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I said, my wife, well, that s the guy who runs Netflix.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s like,
2
SPEAKER_02
She goes, who s that joker?
2
SPEAKER_00
Who comes over?
2
SPEAKER_00
So anyway, I just wanted the audience to know that about you.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s why people come to your house and you re popular for a guy in that position you re in.
2
SPEAKER_00
You wear it very well.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s all I ll say.
2
SPEAKER_03
Well, thank you, man.
2
SPEAKER_03
Look, I think probably I came to this completely as a fan.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I think a lot of folks in my role
2
SPEAKER_03
work their way up from the mailroom or from the, you know, from the junior development positions and those kinds of things.
2
SPEAKER_03
He got grinded down and grinded down to a place where they don t really like the thing they do anymore.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I love it.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I love creative people.
3
SPEAKER_00
I love what you do for the world.
3
SPEAKER_00
And for me, it s like I think it s really it.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s what makes me bounce out of bed in the morning because I feel like I m doing something that matters to people.
3
SPEAKER_00
And really it s what you do and it s enabling that is the important part.
3
SPEAKER_02
It sounds overwhelming to have so much on your plate because I don t even know if you still sit in pitch meetings or, but it s probably, there s probably too many things going on, but just the global, the markets and what s going to be a hit.
3
SPEAKER_02
Huge.
3
SPEAKER_02
You have to love it because the hours suck.
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh my God.
3
SPEAKER_02
Just the fact you go to the set and go to Seoul to go to that, just that s three days out of your life just for one thing.
3
SPEAKER_00
And Dana, you probably know this too, but when I say I came to this as a fan, growing up in Phoenix, it wasn t that easy to be a fan of entertainment.
3
SPEAKER_00
Didn t really come to Phoenix that way.
3
SPEAKER_00
It wasn t bumping.
3
SPEAKER_00
No.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then David, I remember because I used to, in Arizona, I grew up, you could, the drinking age was 19.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you could start sneaking into bars when you re like 16, 17.
3
SPEAKER_00
And all my friends went to the different
3
SPEAKER_00
dance clubs and that kind of stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I didn t dance, so I used to go to the comedy clubs.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I would see a young David Spade, you know, early.
3
SPEAKER_00
And by the way, I was thinking about this the other night.
3
SPEAKER_00
When I was seeing David do his standup, this was like Anderson s Fifth Estate, NFL, Chuckles, Phinney Bones.
3
SPEAKER_00
David would get up and do something that was, I couldn t put my finger on, because I hadn t yet seen enough comedy, I think, to understand
3
SPEAKER_00
how different what you were doing was in Arizona.
3
SPEAKER_00
You were doing like a New York brand of comedy that I had not seen before.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I know it wasn t, you re not from New York, so it wasn t that.
3
SPEAKER_00
But it was that level of kind of, and when I finally realized what you were doing is at Chuckles one night, I went to see Belzer.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I go, oh, that is what that is the vibe.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s the rhythm.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s the that the sarcasm, the whole bit of it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like that to me is the clearest line I could see from someone else to what you were doing at that time was was Belzer.
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh, that s not you know, when I when I started, I only knew people from The Tonight Show.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know, I d only watch that.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
So I was sort of luckily not.
3
SPEAKER_02
so influenced by, if I grew up on the East Coast, you re seeing 10 comics a night at the clubs, you know?
3
SPEAKER_02
And they re all pretty smooth.
3
SPEAKER_02
And so not knowing as much, I m doing weirder bits because I don t know what s right or wrong, you re just trying stuff that s funny to be with my friends.
3
SPEAKER_02
And that sort of helped me.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I only really got into the improv when I came out, I think I was 19 or, I was 20.
3
SPEAKER_02
because I just, looking back, I had a different look.
3
SPEAKER_02
I had a kind of a clever act, not a ton of material, but I was blonde hair.
3
SPEAKER_02
Everyone else was Belzer.
3
SPEAKER_02
It was Leno, Belzer, all those guys.
3
SPEAKER_00
But it was the confidence level that Belzer has on stage.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s what I saw.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it was very interesting to see it in a very young guy.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, and there was really no confidence there.
3
SPEAKER_01
You fake it till you make it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you gotta.
3
SPEAKER_01
I saw Belzer catch a rising star in the 70s, I think.
3
SPEAKER_01
And he was doing it, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
He was the ultimate just powerhouse cocky, and he was doing a bit about, a proctology bit.
3
SPEAKER_01
Keep out of my ass, okay?
3
SPEAKER_02
Here s a 20, stay out of my ass.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then, obviously, he was an influence on Dennis Miller, who then took it to his own place.
3
SPEAKER_01
But that kind of sarcasm and specificity, I see a lot of Dennis in David at times, and also calling back quickly.
3
SPEAKER_01
words and references, so, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think that this idea that if something didn t work, it wasn t the end of the set or the end of my day.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s like you had to just flow right into something that, make fun of the audience for not laughing at the joke.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right, right, right, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
Sometimes, when I first went on at Chuckles at an amateur night, my literally first night, the guy said, I think I told you this, Dana, when I get off, just some guy, he s just a manager, he doesn t probably give a fuck about comedy.
3
SPEAKER_02
But I go, hey man, how was it?
3
SPEAKER_02
Knowing I bombed.
3
SPEAKER_02
But I wanted to come back, even though it s probably free to do four minutes.
3
SPEAKER_02
And he goes, I don t know, it was all right.
3
SPEAKER_02
He goes, actually what you said between was funnier.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then he walked away and I was like.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then that s my whole life.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s my whole life.
3
SPEAKER_00
Self-deprecating.
3
SPEAKER_00
You knew what to do.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, you knew what to do.
3
SPEAKER_02
Throw away jokes, this kind of thing, and then it just turned into that.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you were the opposite of please love me.
3
SPEAKER_01
Maybe I was in that mode at one point.
3
SPEAKER_01
Come on, everybody!
3
SPEAKER_00
In those Phoenix days, Dana, I saw you at the Celebrity Theater.
3
SPEAKER_02
Ooh, did you see that SNL show with Kevin Nealon, Dana, and Dennis?
3
SPEAKER_02
Was it me, Dennis, and Kevin?
3
SPEAKER_02
Oh, that s unreal.
3
SPEAKER_02
I saw that.
3
SPEAKER_02
I was so jealous.
3
SPEAKER_02
That was the Swatch Tour.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think I just went to watch.
3
SPEAKER_02
I wasn t on SNL yet, and I was like, holy shit.
3
SPEAKER_02
I think they were getting six grand a night, and I was shitting.
3
SPEAKER_02
I couldn t believe it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, I remember that show, because it was the three of us, and I don t know, I think I came back, and then someone, I m on stage, and someone had a big stalk of broccoli, and threw it as hard as they could, and hit me in the back.
3
SPEAKER_01
Good job, broccoli.
3
SPEAKER_01
I went back with Mike Myers there, actually, and he opened for me.
3
SPEAKER_01
But that s a cool theater.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, In the Round can be tricky, but I remember that was a hot theater.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s where Nate Borgazzi did a special.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Louie.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was an embarrassment of riches for comedy, because it was drivable from LA.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
So all the comedians knew they can go and work on the weekends in Phoenix.
3
SPEAKER_01
Always great audiences, the improv and stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
Sophisticated, but not cynical.
3
SPEAKER_00
I always thought it would be terrible audiences, because it was hot.
3
SPEAKER_00
So people would be working outside and a little bit drunk and tired from being hot, but the audiences always were great.
3
SPEAKER_02
You know what s funny is Ted s my same age, Dana, and I think, right, Ted?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, 40, 47.
3
SPEAKER_02
When you grow up in Arizona, I was like so into Gilligan s Island and Happy Days and Mark and Mindy.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it s funny that you can laugh at those and be so,
3
SPEAKER_02
and love them so much, but later you go, that s a little corny or that s a little not what I do.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s hard to steer because you re told that s funny.
3
SPEAKER_02
All those shows, they were funny though.
3
SPEAKER_02
I don t know what about it, but it wasn t totally my style.
3
SPEAKER_02
But at the time, I couldn t get enough of those shows.
3
SPEAKER_02
Were you into those shows?
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
But for comedians, there were tropes.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, one thing you would do, this is an old reference, but you d get the microphone cord, you d go up and you d wave the microphone cord and go, rolling, rolling, rolling, keep them doggies going.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s my closer.
3
SPEAKER_01
A lot of those.
3
SPEAKER_00
Don t tell everyone that.
3
SPEAKER_01
But yeah, I would do all that stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
I haven t seen him around in a while, but Tim Thomerson, remember that guy?
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah!
3
SPEAKER_00
We did all the stagecoach and all the John Wayne stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, we re going over the hill, papi.
3
SPEAKER_00
And all the sound effects.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeehaw!
3
SPEAKER_01
i mean i do like the assortment pack of stand-up i do like that uh... you know the kennesan can come on or caretop you know and i said not anymore obviously but in the day it was uh... a lot of different styles of comedy do you think is a good question for you
3
SPEAKER_01
Where are we right now in the world of stand-up?
3
SPEAKER_01
Are they mimicking each other?
3
SPEAKER_01
Is Shane the newest kind of different type of guy?
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, how do you see it?
3
SPEAKER_00
I think comedy always comes in waves.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think there s this interesting wave right now with like Nate and Shane too.
3
SPEAKER_00
But basically there s a group of folks who
3
SPEAKER_00
appeal to a to an audience and then they can get it broad and then another one so someone come out they make it broad so i really feel like like no other time you kind of really have to pay attention to who s out there and what they re doing and tiktok can give you a funny read on things uh for the most part what you want to see is just somebody the way an audience really reacts to to the comedian which you don t see at all in social media
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, that s the other revolution for people of my age group.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s like comedians are not household names, sell out arenas.
3
SPEAKER_01
They either have a podcast or their Netflix special.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was on Burr Kreischer Show, super nice guy.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s great.
3
SPEAKER_01
I love Burr.
3
SPEAKER_01
He was going to go to Europe the next day and he s going to headline Berlin and Edinburgh.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s amazing.
3
SPEAKER_00
One of our early specials we did with Bill Burr, and I remember Bill called and said, hey, are you guys in other countries?
3
SPEAKER_00
I go, yeah, he goes, yeah, because I just sold out shows in Denmark and Norway.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so it really, I think that that Netflix special is the thing that s kind of at the center of the business battle.
3
SPEAKER_02
You definitely need it because the formula now, Dana, and you know this and Ted knows this, is like,
3
SPEAKER_02
These guys that are, you work on your hour, everyone talks about their hour, they re getting together.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s always like, it s insinuated it s for Netflix, but they re not buying them all, but they re like, I m working on my hour, I m doing my special.
3
SPEAKER_02
Doesn t mean Netflix is paying for it.
3
SPEAKER_02
Some people are just too new, and they re not good enough, but the idea is to get an hour, to hopefully get on Netflix, and then that s a big calling card around the world, and then you go tour, you have to sort of come up with a pretty new hour,
3
SPEAKER_02
go out so you bring a crowd out.
3
SPEAKER_02
Nate is great at this.
3
SPEAKER_02
Nate Bregazzi did this.
3
SPEAKER_02
And it just got bigger every time.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then you get more fans.
3
SPEAKER_02
And you go out live and they see you.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then they go look for your new hour.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then you, and Bert did that.
4
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, Segura and Bill Burr, all these guys are, and you have to be good.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then they show up and then you just keep, and no one was playing theaters like Ted back in Scottsdale.
4
SPEAKER_02
Leno maybe played Gammage Auditorium or Celebrity, or Seinfeld maybe.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think I ran into you at the Seinfeld show at Gammage.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh wow.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t remember who, I was trying to think of it the other day, was Leno with him maybe?
4
SPEAKER_00
Because they did, it was definitely Seinfeld, you were sitting like two rows ahead and we talked a little bit.
4
SPEAKER_00
Jesus, you know, and that was hard to fill a theater.
4
SPEAKER_02
And you know, when I do clubs during SNL or Just Shoot Me or whenever, I would always just go book, even if it s an Irvine improv, you do even Seven Nights, it s a big room.
4
SPEAKER_02
But I never thought about jumping to theaters.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then my manager was like, why don t you just ever just book a theater tour?
4
SPEAKER_02
You d never, if you re filling out this many seats.
4
SPEAKER_02
And so I go to people that are like, everyone s doing that.
4
SPEAKER_02
I was really late to the game.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think I heard Bert Kreischer describe like the whole,
4
SPEAKER_00
business of how to book clubs and how to do a Netflix special, what to do after that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, he s a very, he s super tuned into the business model for sure.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he has a pod and he has clips out.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then like Bobby Lee, Theo, like these guys, I know the younger generation really loves them.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s great.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it can put you, I mean, like you said, if it s a great hour, it can definitely change the trajectory of everything and you can build on and build on it.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s a recurring thing.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s been working now for years.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it could be, and for me, I ve been back to the diversity part.
4
SPEAKER_00
It might be something as big as 50,000 people at Dodger Stadium for Gabe Iglesias.
4
SPEAKER_00
Or Norm McDonald s last special, he just shot it like this in front of a webcam.
4
SPEAKER_00
Actually less than this.
4
SPEAKER_02
Do you remember?
4
SPEAKER_02
Can we watch it?
4
SPEAKER_02
Can we watch it together?
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, okay.
4
SPEAKER_02
But you know what?
4
SPEAKER_02
It s the material.
4
SPEAKER_02
Everyone worries about the backdrop and the shit.
4
SPEAKER_02
Are you funny or not?
4
SPEAKER_02
Really, you can look through all the clutter, and Norm was funny just talking, and the guys that play at Dodger Stadium are funny.
4
SPEAKER_02
How many do you do?
4
SPEAKER_02
Do you do one, is it up to one a week now or not?
4
SPEAKER_00
There s ones that we film, there s some that we license, so between all that, there s probably one a week that ll come out.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was funny, when I first signed Chris to do his first special on Netflix, Chris goes, you got a lot of ordinaries, not a lot of specials.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, it used to be really a big, huge deal.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I mean, for you personally, it must be kind of satisfying, especially somebody who s kind of treadmilling along sort of their first big break, and then it s happening on your platform and then their dreams come true.
4
SPEAKER_00
Kind of a fun part.
4
SPEAKER_00
It is the best.
4
SPEAKER_00
Because you think about, again, kind of this is that technology, internet, what it brings to things, like what it would have taken for a Bert Kreischer to turn into a Bert Kreischer, you know, without it, it would have been really tough and long and hard.
4
SPEAKER_02
Allie Wong really did that pregnant one.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was great.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then and then you start rippling across the things like she just now she has won all the awards for beef.
4
SPEAKER_00
And yeah, you know, yeah, it made a really great movie for us a couple of years ago.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I think there s the cool thing is because we do so much, the platform is so open.
4
SPEAKER_00
You can you know, David has done three great movies for Netflix and a great couple of great Netflix specials and.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, what was the billions of minutes that World Missy got?
4
SPEAKER_01
I love the metric of billions of minutes watched for World Missy.
4
SPEAKER_02
Wrong Missy!
4
SPEAKER_00
It s getting up there.
4
SPEAKER_00
But you always mentioned Wrong Missy, but I think the do-over is another.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, the do-over.
4
SPEAKER_02
Well, I have to give that a little bit to Sandler.
4
SPEAKER_02
because we get some credit but i always say that whenever his name is mentioned i did father of the year yeah which was for tyler one of directing missy but father of the year.
4
SPEAKER_02
I think I talked to you guys after it and maybe Scott Stuber said, hey, this did really well for us.
4
SPEAKER_02
We re going to keep looking for another one.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I m like, oh, it came out?
4
SPEAKER_02
It was when you didn t know how well it went because it just came out and people would say, hey, I saw Father of the Year.
4
SPEAKER_02
And you go, great.
4
SPEAKER_02
But by the time Wrong Missy came out, there was numbers at the bottom.
4
SPEAKER_02
And when it said, number one, that means something.
4
SPEAKER_02
Now it s like looking in the paper and seeing what was the number one movie this weekend.
4
SPEAKER_02
So you go, one of you guys, you told me it was doing well.
4
SPEAKER_02
Then you said, it s number one.
4
SPEAKER_02
Then he says, number one in the world.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then it was still, and then it just kept going.
4
SPEAKER_02
So luckily The Wrong Missy really was another generation of people that
4
SPEAKER_02
to have a big movie out that they talk, I get talked about every day.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s fun, I talk to filmmakers all the time, and I do think that they really like the idea of the movie going through the traditional release and all those things, because that s what they grew up on.
4
SPEAKER_00
But the truth is, they all say the same thing, which is, when my movie premieres on Netflix, I hear it from the world.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it used to be that I would be screaming it to the world that my movie s out.
4
SPEAKER_00
Now the world tells me my movie s out.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s true.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it s true.
4
SPEAKER_02
Because it could be the next day you can hear about it.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it was unfortunately during COVID.
4
SPEAKER_02
So I had to throw myself a little party.
4
SPEAKER_00
By the way, I was gonna I was wondering how much you know, I love this, this podcast, because it s all about SNL.
4
SPEAKER_00
And because David knows, I love SNL stories.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love listening to you guys.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I heard you, Bill Simmons, I go, what s going on in that guy s life that he knows every single thing that ever happened?
4
SPEAKER_02
I was like, Ted s the biggest fan.
4
SPEAKER_02
I got nervous.
4
SPEAKER_02
Ted hits me when he hears almost every podcast.
4
SPEAKER_02
He knows he s listening somewhere.
4
SPEAKER_02
So yeah, that was one of the reasons we thought it d be fun to have you on.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then Bill Simmons, really aficionado.
4
SPEAKER_02
He really he had some deep cuts and he want to talk about anything sports.
4
SPEAKER_02
We had all these sports questions for him.
4
SPEAKER_00
He was that encyclopedic.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s pretty.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was spooky listening to.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was just stunned when I said, OK, what was the sketch of the night on the when Michael Jordan hosted?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, that was Stuart Smalley.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and if you d have given me 15 minutes, I might have come up with that.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I m good enough, I m good.
4
SPEAKER_02
Also, when Michael Jordan was the, we were the all white basketball team in the 50s and we didn t want him on our team, even though he was, it was like all of us were the shitty players and we re like, we don t like this guy.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was thinking about like what, he said something interesting about like his age when the show started and all that.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s two years younger than, or did he say 68 or 69?
4
SPEAKER_00
I was born in 64.
4
SPEAKER_02
When he was born?
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah, because when he was in grade school and high school, it was a perfect time.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so me, I m a complete TV nerd.
4
SPEAKER_00
I grew up, like, the reason I think that my direct line to why I love comedy so much was I didn t sleep a lot as a kid and I used to watch all the old TV shows, Burns and Allen and Jack Benny, who were doing stand-up essentially and then acting out the shows.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then, and so it was a real natural then to Carson.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so when SNL came on, I was a 10, I guess I was 10 years old.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was born in 64.
4
SPEAKER_00
So 11.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And loved, would not miss an episode, you know, an episode.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then an album, they released a comedy album, the best of SNL just played like a comedy album and I play it nonstop.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I remember all those bits by line, but you know, word for word, the word association with Chevy Chase.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I got in trouble in school for repeating it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah, of course you did.
4
SPEAKER_00
But even the dumb things like, remember the singing group with Gilda and Jane Curtin and Lorraine Newman?
4
SPEAKER_00
That s the tribute to Chevy Chase song, isn t it?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Chevy, we love when you fall down, each night on my TV.
4
SPEAKER_00
But anyway, so just being able to memorize and watch over and over again and see it.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s before the Internet.
4
SPEAKER_00
So the idea that it s been that,
4
SPEAKER_00
incredibly socially relevant, and nothing I think will ever touch the relevance of Lorne and SNL in show business history.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, I don t know if you ve heard this quote.
4
SPEAKER_01
Steve Higgins told me that Lorne wrote the Constitution.
4
SPEAKER_01
of of saturday night live and then he lets each cast and the writers kind of own it in their own way and he s sort of a guiding person there it d be nice if uh there was if jan was in that sketch you know i mean he sort of moves the sketches around very subtly
4
SPEAKER_02
Any Lawrence story before we got to let you go?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, no, I mean, my connection to the show is mostly fandom.
4
SPEAKER_00
Going to see the show live to me is still the most thrilling thing to do in the world.
4
SPEAKER_00
I never tire of it.
4
SPEAKER_00
The first time I got invited,
4
SPEAKER_00
Um, I got Lauren invited me and I got that seat like right in the center above the week, you know, the center stage.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, right on top.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Which I said to go, this is the best seat in the house.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_00
And right after the monologue, his assistant came up and said, Hey, Lauren would like to know if you wanted to come down underneath and watch a show with him.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I go, will he ever invite me back if I say no?
4
SPEAKER_00
Because I really want to see how it works.
4
SPEAKER_00
This is an incredible vantage point.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, she goes, yeah, sure, he ll understand.
4
SPEAKER_00
Sure.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he did.
4
SPEAKER_00
I didn t go down.
4
SPEAKER_00
He did invite me back.
4
SPEAKER_00
But so I think it was Cameron Diaz was hosting that night.
4
SPEAKER_00
And my buddy Isaac, you guys met, texted me during the show to say, are you at SNL?
4
SPEAKER_00
Because he could hear me laughing.
5
SPEAKER_02
Uh, cause that microphone was right above my head.
5
SPEAKER_00
Um, but they had, but the, then I, every time I ve gone back though, it s just, I marvel at it just feels to me like exactly what TV was like, you know, 50, 70 years ago, even at the beginning of television that Brad mad rush between breaks for all the changes.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, um, so for me, that s amazing.
5
SPEAKER_00
Our, our history with SNL is that Dave Chappelle, uh, actually signed his Netflix contract the night he hosted SNL after the election.
5
SPEAKER_00
and we had been talking to him for well over a year.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he said at the show, we went to the, and they said, my contract is signed and sitting on the seat.
5
SPEAKER_00
So he just signed it, sat on the seat and went out and hosted the show.
5
SPEAKER_00
That was a pretty changing thing.
5
SPEAKER_00
Wow, that s funny.
5
SPEAKER_02
Very cool.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and then from, and I ve gotten to know Lorne over the years and I m just, I hugely admire, it s hard to say that you get to become friends with someone you so idolize like that, but I count him as a friend.
5
SPEAKER_00
And we were going to, last year, be co-honored by this organization called PEN America.
5
SPEAKER_00
And because of the Writers Guild strike, it got kind of nasty and they had threatened to boycott it and all that kind of stuff.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I pulled out of it.
5
SPEAKER_00
But in between hand, there was all kinds of controversy about
5
SPEAKER_00
whether or not Dave Chappelle could introduce me at this thing and on and on.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I sent him a note to say, I m sorry, I can t be there.
5
SPEAKER_00
I didn t want to ruin it for you.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he calls me and says, you know, Ted, the hard part of thankless jobs is nobody thanks you.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s a solid that s a surprisingly good didn t you think david that s and that s a good lord as a week on lorna isms there s that s that will add that to the bunch he s quite a character out the worst part of thankless jobs.
5
SPEAKER_00
Nope, no one thanks you.
5
SPEAKER_01
The minute you are huge, you will feel yourself being less huge.
5
SPEAKER_00
Don t underestimate water.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think that was always my favorite.
5
SPEAKER_01
Don t underestimate the value of water as he s pouring a giant thing.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think I got, I think he said it to mine too.
5
SPEAKER_01
And he s always drinking a lot of water.
5
SPEAKER_01
Everything out of his mouth is, you know, what he is, is that type of person that takes a really big idea and distills it down, which is a sign of intelligence, I think.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think, too, the guy s got it.
5
SPEAKER_00
You think going to the show and then staying at the party after for 50 years.
5
SPEAKER_00
Fuck, I can t do that.
5
SPEAKER_00
I can t do this.
5
SPEAKER_00
Another gigantic highlight for me with the show was 25 years ago, me and that same group of buddies that you guys had met, we went to Aspen for the comedy festival, HBO comedy festival.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you guys did the 25 year of SNL.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, wow.
5
SPEAKER_00
It felt like an SNL convention because there was so many SNL people.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And that s the first time I ever met Farley.
5
SPEAKER_00
First time I ever met Sandler.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was a big group of people.
5
SPEAKER_01
The original cast all the way up to Will Ferrell s cast were up in the bleachers.
5
SPEAKER_01
Is that where I did Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
You killed them that night.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_00
Sorry.
5
SPEAKER_00
That was a funny... I can t imagine what it was like to try to get a line in on that stage.
5
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I don t think we talked far.
5
SPEAKER_02
By the way, Farley had a rough go with it on that one.
5
SPEAKER_02
It was oxygen problems.
5
SPEAKER_02
I think Norm needed oxygen and it was a tough... Remember that awkward moment, sorry to interrupt.
5
SPEAKER_01
Remember, David, the moment where Mike, it s a lead discussion and he goes, it s like being shot.
5
SPEAKER_01
I always said it.
5
SPEAKER_01
He said, I said it.
5
SPEAKER_01
SNL is like being shot out of a cannon.
5
SPEAKER_01
That was the analogy.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then of course, Norm and Norm s brilliance.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_01
You have to be shot out of a can to know the difference.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if it s exactly like being shot out of a can, more like people pretending to be other people or something like that, you know, and Mike turned red.
5
SPEAKER_00
Very Norm like.
5
SPEAKER_01
Very Norm.
5
SPEAKER_01
We miss him, but.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, I miss Norm.
5
SPEAKER_00
No one else in my life.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, most people go through their whole life trying not to look crazy.
5
SPEAKER_00
And when Norm got sick, he went out of his way to make you think he was crazy instead of sick.
5
SPEAKER_02
I got mad at him.
5
SPEAKER_02
I look at my old texts.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m like, I was going, Norm, you can t say you re coming to dinner and then just flake out.
5
SPEAKER_02
And he s like, David, there s COVID.
5
SPEAKER_02
I go, we ve gone over it.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m sitting 20 feet away from you in my house.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s you.
5
SPEAKER_02
We already agreed.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s fine.
5
SPEAKER_02
Then he goes, it s an epidemic.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then a week later, when are we having dinner?
5
SPEAKER_02
I go, why are you keeping this?
5
SPEAKER_00
Your episode with Norm on his old Netflix special, his Netflix show, it s an act of jazz.
5
SPEAKER_02
It s not even a conversation.
5
SPEAKER_02
I fucking, I don t know if I told you that.
5
SPEAKER_02
I ve never seen it, but I heard, that whole year I heard about that.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I was like, what did we do on that show that was so funny?
5
SPEAKER_02
I think you were there.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I think- You kept asking, is this a test show?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, because I was such a crummy piece of shit.
5
SPEAKER_01
The crew was like walking in front of you guys with cranes and stuff.
5
SPEAKER_02
This thing goes by beep, beep, beep in front of the camera.
5
SPEAKER_02
I m like, are we on a construction site?
5
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, Ted, let s let Ted go.
5
SPEAKER_01
He s got to get the reshoots and everything.
5
SPEAKER_01
Thank you for coming on, Ted.
5
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.
5
SPEAKER_01
We appreciate it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m a fan of both of you.
5
SPEAKER_01
Love you both.
5
SPEAKER_01
Love you both.
5
SPEAKER_01
See you soon, hopefully.
5
SPEAKER_01
All right.
5
SPEAKER_01
Miss you, bud.
5
SPEAKER_01
Take care, Ted.
5
SPEAKER_02
Thank you.
5
SPEAKER_02
Take care.
5
SPEAKER_02
This has been a presentation of Odyssey.
5
SPEAKER_02
Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all this stuff.
5
SPEAKER_02
Smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.
5
SPEAKER_02
Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss, Berman of Odyssey, Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment, and Heather Santoro.
5
SPEAKER_02
The show s lead producer is Greg Holtzman.