0:03

I'm Alec Baldwin and you were listening

0:05

to Here's the Thing. The name

0:08

Steve Higgins sounds like

0:10

a sitcom character, the earnest

0:13

neighbor with thick glasses, the overly

0:15

bright lieutenant on McHale's navy.

0:20

He's from Say des Moines and

0:22

transplanted to New York. Steve

0:24

Higgins is the straight man. The

0:27

real Steve Higgins is all that, but

0:30

also a comedic genius.

0:32

He's my friend with four hundred

0:34

and fifty six Saturday Night Live

0:37

writing credits and counting. In

0:40

fact, he's the guy in charge of the writer's

0:42

room, along

0:44

with Lauren Michael's. Steve holds the fate

0:47

of America's young comedy talent

0:49

in his hands. Lauren and Steve

0:52

decide who gets hired and who gets fired

0:54

from the show. But he didn't become

0:56

a household name until he joined

0:59

Jimmy fallon the Roots and the

1:01

rest of the Tonight Show team in front

1:03

of the camera, playing that venerable

1:06

talk show character, the sidekick.

1:09

So Steve has two jobs. At

1:11

four thirty every day, four days a

1:13

week. Steve announces the Tonight

1:15

Show, sticks around to play Jimmy

1:18

straight man, and then runs back upstairs

1:20

to produce that week's sn L. It's

1:25

a heavy life for a kid from Iowa

1:27

who started a sketch comedy troupe with

1:29

his brothers out of high school. Steve's

1:33

kindness and humility have stayed

1:35

as sharp as this comedy. So

1:37

it was a joy when Steve Higgins

1:40

agreed to join me on stage at

1:42

Guildhall in East Hampton. Hello,

1:45

Hello, Hello, I'm

1:50

so excited, thank you all for coming. Let

1:54

me just start out by saying

1:56

that lately I've been doing you

1:58

know who, all that crap.

2:01

It's so pathetic. But anyway, uh, I actually

2:03

said to our guests, I said, I just can't

2:05

do it anymore. I texted me the the other day I go, so, who's playing

2:07

trump this fall? And he goes, you are,

2:10

and quite brilliantly, I might add, so

2:13

I want you to please welcome to God. This is a dear

2:15

friend of mine, one of the great great

2:17

writer, producers and now performer,

2:19

Steve Higgins. Those

2:31

are the kindest words you've ever said to me.

2:35

Now, speaking of which, what was

2:37

comedy in your childhood? Was

2:40

it always class clown? And

2:42

I had three brothers and a sister,

2:45

and comedy that's all it was.

2:48

We never yelled. It was sarcasm,

2:50

and which now I learned as bad. It's

2:53

good to yell sometimes, well not too much

2:55

take my word for you know. Well, m um,

2:59

it is the lingua franc of our house. Burned

3:01

somebody and get a big laugh, and you were the king of the house.

3:04

I mean it was who was the king? My brother

3:06

Dave was the king. I think he

3:09

was one of the quickest people I've ever

3:11

met. Like one time was

3:13

this. I went to

3:15

high school in Des Moines, Iowa, Thank you,

3:18

um, and there was this thing,

3:21

uh, there's a new part of the gym. Was the new

3:23

part of the gym was built, and on each

3:25

of the eight foot by seven

3:27

ft piece of glass there was a thing

3:29

that said beat Aims, which

3:32

was Aims Iowa. Where the was like we'd

3:34

play them in the first high school thing there

3:36

and he was walking by saw that ripped

3:39

off the B and the

3:41

A and the S or just said eat me that

3:46

kind of thing. You go, my

3:48

mathematicians. That's why I think, that's

3:50

why I love like those celebrity jeopardy

3:52

things that you know what I mean, where it's like a word play

3:55

on a thing is all from that of me, just going,

3:57

how did you fat

4:00

like when they have uh, when Darryl would do Connery?

4:02

Yes, yes, and I can't think of exactly

4:05

horrible. This

4:08

must be my lucky day. I'll take

4:10

the rapists. And that's

4:12

the therapist. The therapist.

4:14

Why would that be his lucky day?

4:18

When you were a kid, I mean your brother's obviously

4:21

it sounds like he's up that school. I grew up with guys

4:23

like that. It wasn't that. Your house. To my family

4:25

was things like we'd be standing there on a corner

4:27

with like a little gang of kids and we would play a game

4:29

called He's Got a Gun. As

4:31

a game you didn't announce, you just he erupted it into

4:33

it spontaneously. So we'd all be standing there. We're

4:36

going like six kids or like fourteen years old

4:38

and fifty and he goes, you see Tommy, did he come

4:40

back to his vacation and they live on a lake. Right, he's

4:42

got a gun? You jump on someone, you pick

4:44

someone. One person would announce the

4:46

game, and he was like sir Han, Sir Han at the Ambassador

4:49

Hotel. Everyone he

4:51

was the killer, he was the shooter, and we'd all picked and

4:53

we'd all beat the crap. We'd stop him

4:55

on the ground. Yeah, as

4:57

opposed to you're

4:59

gonna wear that? Yeah, yeah, that kind

5:01

of like yeah that

5:02

my brother and

5:05

my girlfriend came over. He'd go, you put on weight,

5:09

thank kind?

5:11

And what was TV? Movies? Did you got?

5:13

Were your family out to the movies? We

5:17

did not have what it's called money, um,

5:22

so we would watch a lot of TV.

5:24

And then my mom one day,

5:26

uh took the chord to

5:29

the TV, which kids to work

5:31

with her, so we

5:33

couldn't watch TV during the summer. And

5:35

my brother Mike took a part the whatever

5:38

weird toaster thing, remember that with

5:41

the three products, and he just rewired and shoved

5:44

it in the TV. And we'd watched him. Mom was coming.

5:47

Yes, we thrown away. What

5:49

kind of show did you watch? We watched the same as you

5:52

as. I mean, we grew up in the same house pretty

5:54

much. I mean you'd watch I

5:56

mean I remember when my mom said, my mom

5:59

loved comedy, so she would let bob

6:01

and yes, she was funnier than your

6:03

dad. She was a funny one. Well, my dad died when

6:05

I was in tenth grade, so

6:07

you know when you're that you don't but my dad

6:10

was funny, but in tenth

6:12

grade he was he died. But

6:14

I remember one time my little brother al uh

6:18

was He would go, oh,

6:22

Alan Alan, Joel thinks,

6:24

bring me my room and off, so

6:27

bring me my running not even

6:29

run, this says to be laughing at out. Did

6:32

you do this thing too? Did you do that one? You

6:35

know? I think I want to know what's that.

6:37

That's the thing where you go like this and if the guy

6:39

doesn't see, you get to punch him. But if he

6:42

puts his finger through it and breaks it, you get to

6:44

punch him. So it would

6:46

be one of those elaborate and punching

6:48

games of like who won the Kentucky

6:50

Dry to reach Charlie Horse, Spider

6:52

bites Dutch RBS does

6:55

anything that would inflict pain in a controlled

6:58

manner, we laugh.

7:00

We just each other. Mom, did your mom?

7:02

Like in my house? My mom?

7:04

You know, we'd have to speak in code, so

7:06

we'd say vulgarity and code. So

7:09

if somebody was an effing asshole, we

7:11

told that, we use the word fung and we call

7:14

him a zoul. So we'd be

7:16

having lunch. We'll have a dinner in our kitchen. Tip have

7:18

you seen Larry Lady, did he come back from upstate?

7:21

Is he back? Yeah? He's a fung zul Right, we'd

7:24

say lima. I told him to lima. You

7:26

know, I mean just lima. Lick me. We have

7:28

all these like funky code like lick me was lima.

7:32

And finally my mother would be like, like, you know, like after

7:34

like one whole summer of this, Mom was like, what are

7:37

you saying? What does this lima? What do you what

7:39

is lima? What did your mother

7:41

do to control you? Guys? The silent treatment?

7:44

That would be the big thing, because you didn't hit, so

7:49

you just go like

7:52

that, No,

7:55

had four sons, Yeah, but we

7:57

did his hand you cash. You said you had no money, No we

7:59

didn't. Would just go work a thousand different jobs

8:01

and things like that. It wasn't, No, it's not.

8:04

And so mom would just take care of the thing and she would

8:07

make sure everything ran smooth, and you

8:09

know, everybody did, and it would just

8:11

be one time, Oh my god, she

8:15

goes, I'm gonna come back. I

8:18

want this house clean. That was

8:20

the big thing, because our house was a big sty.

8:23

She left and I don't know why we got

8:25

a pudding fight. Why

8:28

the why would you do that. I mean, was depit

8:30

about on Dad's South. It was in the dry clan.

8:32

It was like to this day, if I

8:34

think about that, it just gives me ship. Was feathers

8:39

exactly was There was like an episode

8:41

of the Brady Bunch, like that

8:43

doesn't happen in real life. No kids getting pudding

8:45

fights with tapioca pudding awful.

8:48

My dad had four sons, he had no money

8:50

and uh and other people you know in the neighborhood

8:52

they had something you could control and managed kids

8:55

with. Like you know my friends people

8:57

with money lived on the water with my friend's parents would

8:59

be like, if you don't get in there and do

9:01

your homework, they're not getting any gas for the

9:03

boat. ID

9:06

be like in my bedroom, going not gonna get any gas

9:08

for the boat. I do my

9:10

homework. If it got me gas for the boat, you

9:13

can bet on that. My dad had the fear

9:15

program. Like we go out at night and my dad would

9:17

be like, what time

9:19

are you coming home? Will You'd be like,

9:24

oh God, please don't yet. And

9:26

he did an iron finger. He had to figure he like, grind

9:29

it into your into your muscle of your chest, and he

9:31

goes you come home at ten thirty, I'm

9:33

gonna break every bone in your body. Were

9:36

like, okay, we'll bear God

9:39

please, Well

9:42

you have to as a parent, you have to find

9:44

things of your children love so

9:46

you can take away from them nothing.

9:49

Now we had no money,

9:52

yeah, now barely making

9:54

rent. When do you decide you're

9:57

gonna you're gonna try to get up in front

9:59

of people. You formed a comedy group, and

10:02

how old are you when you sit there and go, I want to get but

10:04

I want to try to do stuff in front of people. Because

10:07

we were all in plays growing

10:09

up. There was a thing called Summer Upper at a workshop

10:11

which did Gilbert and Sullivan plays in

10:13

Des Moines, and my sister joined

10:15

that, and then everybody in the family joined that, so we

10:18

were in all the place in high school were you know, it

10:20

was always and my mom

10:23

and my dad, I found out later went to announcer

10:25

school. My aunt Pat told me and my aunt I

10:27

didn't know about this. He went to ann and I'm an announcer.

10:30

How weird is that? But my mom had like pictures

10:32

of Lucille Ball autographs

10:34

that she sent with so show business was always

10:37

we knew no one an in show But like when we went to do show

10:40

business. People thought we were crazy because nobody

10:42

from des Moines chloris Leachman except

10:44

chloran Um, what would be

10:46

in show business. It was just the craziest

10:48

thing. So we did wasn't scouting in des

10:50

Moines? No, he didn't show up and yeah,

10:53

yeah, so what's the first thing you did? You got

10:55

up in front of people? Well we did, Yeah, we did comedy

10:58

comedy. Who's we me? My

11:00

brother Dave and a guy named Greuber. So

11:02

it was the Higgins Boys and Greuber would

11:05

good name and uh

11:07

we would he was. They started a club, like

11:09

in the seventies, seventy nine, they

11:12

started a club to do comedy

11:14

in des Moines and so they would perform in Omaha

11:17

the Spaghetti Works in the moment of the spaghinning and they

11:19

just yeah, spaghetti works. They go there

11:21

and then they do circus you play around and

11:23

so then we moved to l A

11:25

and eighty four. So I joined the group. I was

11:28

what was it like for you? Like you were you were

11:30

gung home? We were like yeah, l A. Yeah, No,

11:33

I wanted to go to New York. Why

11:35

because my whole life I wanted to live in

11:37

New York because everything in the world was New York.

11:39

To me, it was like, you know, live television

11:41

and you know the street,

11:44

you knew you know, like you go to New York

11:46

and there's no culture shock. In my opinion, if you've seen

11:48

French Connection, you've seen New York. You

11:51

go to l A and I love l A. But it

11:53

was never for me. It was like, this is Hollywood

11:56

Vine. Wait a second, I thought it was exactly

12:00

yeah. And so we lived out there and we performed

12:02

and would do colleges and gigs like that. And then

12:05

um Joe Hodgson,

12:07

who had MSS Mystery

12:09

Science Theater three thousand and if you guys know that

12:11

show, knew us and he they

12:14

this place called the Comedy Channel. We're

12:16

doing shows and we would we had

12:18

performing clubs and stuff like that, and he goes, you guys would be

12:20

good in the show. So he paid for us to go

12:22

to Minneapolis and

12:25

shot a pilot and recreated our house and

12:27

we smoked cigarettes, strake coffee and goofed off

12:29

on this show. And that's how we came back

12:32

to New York and so and there was Comedy

12:34

Channel that moved out for John moved to

12:36

l A. And then John Stewart, who I met at the Comedy

12:38

Channel, said Hey, I'm doing a show.

12:40

Why don't you come out and help me? Not the successful John

12:42

Stewart show, the show before

12:47

and that one. Yeah, and he so he could come

12:49

on out and we'll go here. And well, my brother

12:51

was working on the show and we had fantastic

12:54

and that got canceled when

12:57

Farley and all those guys left. That was my first year at S

12:59

And first year was when when

13:02

you when you hosted the show, you

13:04

had done the show more times than I had, right,

13:07

and you never let me forget. But

13:09

but but when you come on the show in how

13:13

does that happen? How do you get what's

13:15

your first job? You're a writer? I think

13:17

I was like head writer with fred Wolf. Maybe

13:19

like it made you the head writer right out of the gate because I

13:21

was head writer at John Strange. Okay, so you you

13:23

so you have credentials where you're head writing.

13:26

You know, a serious show, the show that's

13:28

go on the air. So when you come and they poach

13:30

you, you go to SNL. No, it got

13:32

canceled. It was canceled. So when you

13:34

come to Lauren, you come to SNL, you become

13:37

the head writer, you w wolf, how long were the

13:39

head writer for I don't know because titles, as

13:41

you know, are nebulous there, so I know I

13:43

was head writers, like the head

13:45

head head writer right right, nine,

13:48

producer or something for this Lauren with Lauren

13:50

took didn't. I think he switched.

13:53

He didn't become executive producer. He went down a producer.

13:56

And then I think Fred and I were head co head writers,

13:58

and there's been other head writers, and he wanted to

14:00

give the executive producer title to somebody else. Lew

14:02

of pain that money, yeah, yeah, and

14:07

I'm gonna pay you forty dollars a day. What was

14:09

it like for you, the transition. We were getting

14:12

the ship kicked out of us. Every day.

14:15

Every day was Saturday night. Dad. You'd

14:17

read a article in American Heritage

14:19

about the Battle of Shiloh and they go, the Battle

14:21

of Shilo was long, but not as long as a Saturday

14:23

live scatch, and you're like, come on, and

14:26

it was just on the bed. They were just a you

14:28

know, and so it was you're just

14:31

and you're scared because you know it's a real deal.

14:33

You know, You're you're sitting there and with all

14:35

these people who know way more than you. But everybody

14:38

was so kind Shoemaker

14:40

and Marcy Klein and Jim Downey was everybody

14:43

was so accepting and opening

14:47

with exactly. But they were pain about

14:49

the hours that Dad.

14:51

Yeah, it's it's so. I lived there,

14:53

just stayed there in the city and then we'd see my wife

14:55

would come in on Sunday, I'd see the kids and

14:57

Christmas. Yeah, exactly. But you're there,

15:00

you're living now, and it really

15:02

has an effect on people's lives. When you go to SNL

15:05

and there's a weird camaraderie because they're

15:07

in a submarine together for like week after

15:09

week to work, and you feel like you

15:11

see somebody who you weren't in

15:14

the cast with or wasn't even at the same time with you,

15:16

and it's like your marines together

15:19

or something like that, you know what I mean. It's like because it is such

15:21

a soul crushing and soul

15:23

exhilarating experience. It

15:25

is just strips and by show three

15:27

of a three week run or a four week run, there's

15:30

no filter left. I've

15:32

seen people there. They're right around the table

15:35

and somebody look out the window and go. People

15:37

are skating on the skating rink.

15:40

Christmas is coming, you

15:42

know, and someone's like, yeah, come back. So the guy has a penis

15:44

transplant and they go right

15:46

back to the comedy coal mine, you know. But it's

15:49

like they're in that bubble in that building and that unique

15:51

building where the where the world of New

15:53

York is out the window, and you know, and even

15:55

like it's hard goes. Yeah

15:58

when the tree goes, the tree goes something like you just stay in side

16:00

more because you know, there's too many people. We can't fight

16:02

the clouds. We gotta go at the backboard. Now

16:05

sleep here now in

16:07

the time you've been there, there's the video

16:10

department, and there's a set design and camera

16:13

and talent meaning the

16:15

cast and their schedules and the hosts.

16:18

And there's a music department for the music. And

16:20

you basically run the writer's department,

16:23

where again you have had writers, but you're the

16:25

producer that oversees that. And when when when

16:27

people come into are tough, they send me to meet

16:29

them. Yeah.

16:32

Yeah, uh, it's

16:34

funny used to say that. But the

16:37

because because you are like that, you're like, what's wrong?

16:41

I am like you know what I am like? Did you read

16:43

c biscu. Your wife's having a baby, you can

16:45

play trump that? Why not? He

16:48

literally, he's like, they're like this, you've already had four

16:50

babes, isn't the novelty? Warn If you're gonna

16:54

again and again, TiVo it, TiVo

16:57

it better view. But

17:00

in the time you've been there, No. One of the things you do

17:03

is you have to scout talent. You do

17:05

do this every explain to them

17:07

that rhythm this. The season ends in May and

17:10

everybody takes a bit of a break and then you gotta go out. You gotta

17:12

go do what In the summer, we usually we go to people

17:14

go to l A and I go. I go to Chicago

17:17

now when Lauren goes, and we'll go see people

17:20

every year, so we just know who's out there. Yeah,

17:23

in the sketch people's comedy world, because

17:26

it's a weird sketch comedy is a weird

17:28

it's not stand up and it's not acting. It's

17:30

like a merge of both, especially

17:32

SNL's like it's not film,

17:36

it's not TV, and it's not live

17:38

theater. But it's all you know what I mean, it's a

17:40

very odd skill set. Why

17:42

would you want to work anywhere else. Why would

17:45

you want to go to movies, you know what I mean? You sit

17:47

there, they roll it again and again and again to no audience

17:50

alone dark theater. I'm

17:52

not making any money yea in the movie

17:54

business. Now. Um, Now, for you

17:57

people who are in comedy world, they

17:59

all as the trade just to say, ankle

18:02

out to l A as quickly as possible. L as.

18:05

L A still a big hub of comedy

18:07

writing. And there's a lot of sitcoms out there. But

18:09

you have no desire. You don't want to go out there like

18:12

you want to develop shows sitcoms.

18:16

I think once I exceeded

18:18

my dream so far. I

18:21

hope my wife is not listening to this. That my

18:24

it was like, why would I want to go anywhere

18:26

else? Because it's not There's not one part of your brain

18:28

that doesn't get used, you know what I mean. When you're

18:30

doing on the show, it's like, they're good, what's this sketch about? It's

18:32

about the you know, the Norman

18:34

invasion. Well I know a little bit about that, you know, whatever

18:36

it is. And it's still amazing to me that

18:39

some you'll think of some crazy idea

18:42

Wednesday morning at noon, right it up

18:46

Thursday Friday, it's done on Saturday.

18:49

They've got costumes, they've got the

18:51

beer. The makeup is amazing. The costumes

18:53

are amazing, the sets are amazing. Many

18:56

many Emmys for all their makeup

18:59

very quickly. It's insane

19:01

how good people are there. And I

19:03

like living in New York because I

19:06

think that it's it's more for me. It's

19:08

not a one industry town, you

19:11

know what I mean. So it's like you'll meet some my neighbor

19:13

as a banker, and this guy's a plumber, and this guy does

19:15

this, and mone there's a range of mountains

19:18

to climb, and you know what real

19:20

wealth is because it's not show

19:22

business, you know what I mean. And so you're in New York

19:24

and you'll see like, oh my god, look at that. And it's

19:27

a different feel. And again, my brother's

19:29

my brother. I lives in l A. He writes uh

19:32

on shows. He loves it there, but desire

19:34

to make films. I would write films for

19:37

some people, but it's like

19:39

that thing of SNL would consume

19:41

so much my time and I'm really

19:43

quite lazy. I

19:46

don't like working like you

19:48

do a lot of things. Jerry Sein felt,

19:50

something to me goes you don't like a lot of blank pages on the

19:52

gal You're like a van,

19:56

gotta book everything. Your

19:58

joy is to be busy while you're talking to

20:00

some of your phone. I'm heading out to the opening of a Burger

20:02

candidates out tree

20:05

signing. You'll call me every

20:07

time you call me, you're busy. I'm just sitting there. Yeah,

20:09

you call me, what's going on? I'm

20:12

busy. It's

20:14

like John Alexander, my friend who's who's very dear

20:16

friends with Lauren. He said to me, they'd

20:19

say, come on over, we're gonna have blunch with Mick Jagger. And

20:21

I'd say, well, I can't do that. I gotta go to an event

20:23

at guild Hall. They were like Jesus.

20:26

Then like, you know, two weeks they're like, come on over. You

20:28

know, McCartney's gonna come over and have a

20:30

sing a longna have a sing a long. Gardener's gonna

20:32

tea us how to play the days. Yeah, he's gonna tell us

20:34

stories about the Beatles. No one's

20:37

known the Beatles that nobody's

20:39

ever heard. A dinner is gonna be you

20:42

and me, and he's gonna play

20:44

you some barber strikes and and I'm

20:46

gonna play some tapes on the cab and then every

20:49

cardener is gonna take us to a secret trap door we

20:51

had, like a recording studio, and

20:53

I'm like, no, I can, I gotta go host the thing at guild

20:56

Hall and uh

20:59

and um see you think

21:01

the fact that you've got me even to come here.

21:04

I don't like leaving my house. SNL

21:09

producer, writer and Tonight

21:11

Show announcer Steve Higgins. If

21:14

you're enjoying all the SNL talk,

21:17

take a listen to Kristen Wigg who

21:19

joined me on Here's the Thing for

21:21

an exit interview of sorts.

21:23

Every Saturday, you do something that you're

21:25

scared to do. I will miss that feeling.

21:28

And of course you have absolutely no prospects whatsoever.

21:31

It's a really ballsy move on your part because

21:33

who the f can hire you? I

21:36

don't know. I'm made open up the canoe

21:38

shop. The rest of

21:40

that interview and more that Here's

21:43

the Thing dot Org when

21:45

we come back with Steve Higgins more of

21:47

my favorite SNL moments, and

21:50

he tells the story of how he got started

21:52

with Fallon on the Tonight Show.

21:54

I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening

21:57

to Here's the Thing. Hi'm

22:09

Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's

22:12

the Thing. Now more

22:14

from Steve Higgins on the hard work

22:17

of hiring for us. And now that's

22:19

the drag about being in comedy. How do you make

22:21

somebody hate their hobby? You pay them?

22:24

Because now you look at something you can't It's

22:26

like I'll go to my children's graduation and go, can't

22:28

they speed this up? Why do they take it so much time base

22:30

versus name? They can't just get it to go? So

22:33

you look at things differently. So I see it

22:35

when people perform and they

22:37

make me feel like an audience member, and you

22:39

go, how did you come up with that? You

22:41

know what I mean, Like like Leslie just barrels

22:44

over you, you know, eighty does something

22:46

just delightful thing that some crazy

22:49

to us Cecily or do some character that is

22:51

like so deep that

22:53

you're going, like people from the town

22:55

that she's doing will go, so did

22:57

she spend a lot of time in Manx? You know? I

23:00

mean like that? And then Kate will just come up

23:02

with these, but you know her Giuliani,

23:04

It's just it's just like you're going, like, where did that

23:06

so to me, it's very And the calendar,

23:09

yeah, she said, I'm

23:11

doing all the talk shows. It's like an advent

23:13

calendar. So that's

23:16

like just a treat. And it's like,

23:18

oh the dudes, Keenan, come on, Kenan

23:20

Thompson. It's like, you

23:24

know, and just all the dudes are great.

23:27

I mean because I've seen I've been there for twenty or

23:29

years and you see these people

23:32

and it is the same thing. It's like, I love

23:34

talent. That's why I love you. I love talent.

23:36

People who are talented, you'll move heaven

23:39

and earth so that their talent can be seen by people.

23:41

And I think that's what my job is, to help them get

23:44

out of their way so that they

23:46

can be the best them they

23:48

can be. So my notes, hopefully are

23:50

more like to get you to do

23:53

what you need to. You need direct you can't s I'm

23:55

not go out there. I'm like, it's this weird sound

23:57

thing. It's a it's a it's a it's

23:59

a an acoustic thing. Like you know, all

24:02

my memories are all about line meetings and somebody

24:04

would do some little thing, you

24:06

know. I always tell the

24:09

story about how I never laughed on the air ever,

24:11

until I worked with Phil Harpman, the late Phil Hartman,

24:14

And there was a scene righte did my bad Marlon Brando.

24:16

There's an explosion at the chemical factory

24:19

and I'm taking Victoria Jackson with me

24:21

and we're gonna leave the town. And

24:23

Phil Hartman is her father who runs the chemical

24:25

plant. And right as we're about to leave

24:27

and he's about to try to stop us, his side

24:30

kick comes in and says, hey, you know, telling him a night

24:32

just blue, sir. You know there's chemic, there's

24:34

a there's a there's a FOG's

24:36

a mist all over you know, the back yard.

24:39

And Phil Harmon like completely

24:41

never did it this way in any of the recause that

24:43

on the air, you see him grab me, go kick

24:46

me with you, and

24:48

I spit up laughing on the air. I

24:51

fucking lost it on the air. It's like

24:53

back I had to stop myself from laughing.

24:55

When Beck is putin and Beck says,

24:58

you'll take this alphon the shelf

25:01

on the mantel next to your intern the route.

25:04

Yeah, and

25:07

I just thank you very much for your gift that of

25:09

here. I'm sorry I didn't buy you

25:11

a gift, and he says no, Mr President,

25:14

you are the gear, and

25:17

he says that line. Just say every

25:21

He's like, you are the gear, and

25:25

everything is their sound, their lines

25:27

and readings and this and that. Now

25:30

speaking of Trump, because we're gonna take some questions.

25:32

Speaking of Trump, now, you and I

25:34

both know, and I think it's necessary for us to be honest

25:36

with people. You voted for him that I thought, I

25:41

thought you want to keep that secret. But

25:43

let's face it that in the halls of SNL

25:47

you had like forty people. I mean, I

25:49

was told you wanted Eddie Murphy over me

25:51

to play Trump. Is that true? You want Edie Murphy

25:53

by trumped Murry, come him do

25:55

anything? Yeah? Come on? Yeah.

25:57

But when this comes up

26:00

out and we have to how

26:02

did you feel? Not in terms of because

26:05

I think the essa L people are pretty mercenary. When

26:07

Trump won the election, we hope that on that morning, Hot,

26:09

damn, we're gonna have some fun. I

26:12

wish um

26:14

that was crazy. Yeah. We

26:16

did three shows before he was gonna lose. Yeah,

26:18

we thought everybody thought he was gonna lose. My wife would go,

26:21

he's gonna win, He's gonna win. I don't know, He's not that wife.

26:23

Yeah, she knew it she was on Facebook.

26:26

I don't like the Facebook, so I

26:28

stay off. We did three shows. People say to me, you

26:30

know, your Trump really isn't that good. I go, well,

26:32

I try to make it like as two dimensional as the man

26:34

himself is trying

26:37

to make it very like. You know, there's a couple of quick moves

26:40

and uh the uh wait

26:42

till they see this year's oh

26:46

and totally redesigned like like an Apple

26:49

phone. Yeah, I mean we were taking away to the

26:51

botton wireless

26:53

charging you never know charging,

26:57

but the uh no. But when we did it, I mean

26:59

I remember you, mum gonna do it three times? And how

27:01

much could I get hurt if I fucking three Trump shoving

27:04

it off? And then also when I turned out, I gotta do

27:06

it eight teen more times. It's

27:08

like whoa, No. Ninth coming

27:12

up. But when you do the show, obviously

27:16

because I learned this from Lauren, you

27:19

do back off. There's sometimes you sit there and

27:21

go, well, we can't just like hit the guy with a coutl

27:24

because that's the drag of it is. We try to be

27:26

even handed, you know what I mean, And it's

27:28

hard. It is hard,

27:33

Like the best evern't been the olden days

27:35

when it was like Bush and Gore try

27:39

to be fair. It's

27:45

hard, though, it's very

27:47

hard. You try to make it because you don't

27:49

want to because it just gets boring. Does to pound

27:51

something over and over? Just

27:53

go there's got to be something, you

27:55

know, It's just something that's not crazy.

27:58

It's like a televangelis. They're hard to make fun

28:00

of because it's just like they're they're already

28:03

yeah, yeah, you'll come into my room.

28:05

I like you change this page nine, page fourteen,

28:08

and you'd walk out and be like, I gotta help a meteor

28:10

hits this building, but now and

28:13

just kills all of us. I just I

28:15

can't go out and do this goddamn show one

28:17

more time, please God.

28:20

Now, who are people who have

28:22

left the show? Who are some of the ones

28:25

who you really admire, Like the

28:27

careers like Farrell and McKay and

28:29

work really well together, to Tina and

28:31

Carl Tina and Carlo were forgetting, and

28:34

then writers to like Mike Sure and people like that.

28:36

It's like there's so many people. It's like if you go

28:38

through an IMDb page

28:40

and do a thing in comedy, I

28:43

would say it's probably of the people worked

28:45

at s and now who are you? Know what I mean. It's like a giant

28:47

percentage you forget like I'm Greg Daniel.

28:49

You know everybody Conan and if

28:51

they haven't done it, they've hosted it, you know what

28:53

I mean. So it's a very weird. That's another reason I never

28:56

need to go to l A or leave because everybody I know comes

28:58

to visit. Eventually, you either down

29:00

a Jimmy or up on SNALYSIS just like you sit

29:02

there long enough? Is that calfinagas? How's it going?

29:05

Um, We're gonna bring the lights up and take

29:07

some questions. Everybody

29:09

gotta their hand up. We have some mics in

29:11

the audience. There's Mike Peters,

29:13

I see Mike Johnson, and

29:16

you got a question for us right here? Go

29:18

ahead, So we have a great let's wait for the Mike. That's

29:22

a very casual stroll you have there,

29:25

Mr Mike. When I

29:27

first started with SNL, I was no

29:31

problem staying up. Now I see

29:33

SNL on Sunday morning and

29:35

I just wonder how you deal

29:38

with the demographics of your television

29:40

audience. Well, I think that the thing

29:43

that we learned when SNL as

29:45

Lauren would be went from a show

29:47

to being an institution, because

29:50

when when I came there, Farley

29:53

Spade, all those guys, it was reviled that

29:55

New York magazine cover, and then they

29:57

all two years later going, oh my god, that was the past

30:00

year's ever. So whatever year you watched

30:02

it in high school or college,

30:05

that to you is the best. Everything

30:07

before that is garbage. Everything after that is

30:10

garbage. So it's like a thing

30:12

and you go through and then and it is. The Democrats

30:14

should be like the Simpsons, where there's you

30:17

know, as Longe calls it, a big tent show where there's

30:19

something for everybody. You know, there's

30:21

a sketch that that and also hopefully

30:23

all the references are correct and the

30:25

costumes are correct and every so there's something to

30:27

enjoy, but it is aimed at where the money

30:30

is not us anymore. What's the biggest f

30:32

up you saw on the show live? Where even you

30:34

sat there and it doesn't happen that often. Believe me,

30:36

they were all very very very good and smart

30:39

at what they do. But there must have been something you saw you were like,

30:41

oh god, one time, I

30:43

think it was a Mikey Today sketch. It

30:46

was this forst Centaur vodka. Bruce

30:50

Willis was hosting Who's

30:52

a Delight, and uh, he just

30:55

got the cards mixed up and walked out in the middle

30:57

of the sketch, and I was like, what you're

31:01

freaking you know what I mean? Because cars are it's very confusing,

31:03

all these things like that. You didn't do it on perfect We did

31:05

that on the air with the Trump thing where we ran out of the shot.

31:07

Run back about that. So

31:10

that person that sucked up Bruce Willis, they're still there. Yeah,

31:12

yeah, there, they got a promotion. Sucked me up.

31:14

It makes good television. Who else? Right

31:17

back, bro, I'm a leo.

31:21

So has there ever been a time

31:24

where you could not come up with anything?

31:26

Have you ever been really stunned? Yes?

31:29

A lot of the show. It is like the muse

31:31

hits you, and the muse can leave

31:33

you and you just hope it comes back someday

31:36

and you'll be sitting there and I don't

31:38

write, um

31:40

even when I did, right, I was like writing with people

31:42

because I'm in my as I tell

31:44

new writers, you can either be paid to laugh or

31:47

be paid to be miserable. Your

31:50

call up to you, and I always chose to I

31:52

would lay on a couch and you know, Keim

31:54

word or Mike sure Carl

31:56

like what said at the typewriter, and we

31:58

do sketches and we and you know, we

32:00

do stuff. But the thought of me writing

32:03

alone in a room. I did that. I wrote

32:05

pilots and things like that, and I hated

32:08

it. So it was more fun at goof off

32:10

like it was more like you do in real life.

32:12

It was like I wanted to put what I would do at home with

32:14

my brothers. I'd be more Saliary

32:17

than Mozart. And there is stuff that ends

32:19

up, you know, on the cutting room floor, so to speak, because

32:21

if you're laughing too if we're laughing too hard at

32:23

something, we know it's not gonna make

32:25

it because we are jade. You

32:28

know. When we first did Tony Bennett Show, Paul

32:30

Appelle wrote all the Tony Bennett Show sketches

32:32

and the very first one didn't get on air. So

32:34

I'm Tony Bennett, I'm hosting my talk show. We're

32:36

gonna bring out this rabbi who's

32:39

written a book about the looting of Jewish

32:42

art and treasures by the Nazis during

32:44

World War Two. And I said, Nazi

32:46

gold, this great, great great, great

32:48

book written by my first guest, Rabbi

32:50

Gush Thedeman. Come out out

32:52

here, Rabbi Sedeman, and I say, so,

32:55

you wrote this book, and I want to ask you my first question.

32:57

What's your beef with the Nazis? Yeah?

33:02

And the Jewish holidays were that time

33:04

of the show Humans, and

33:06

I like it goes, maybe we'll call this one.

33:09

Yeah, like there's some great

33:11

stuff, but maybe not such a good idea.

33:14

Yeah, you know it's weird. Got

33:17

over here Trump at side.

33:19

Who's the funnest person for

33:22

both of you that you've made fun of? You know, we

33:24

we we We've had a lot of fun. But the greatest

33:26

moment for me was when we got Tony Bennett

33:29

to come on and do the Tony Bennett Show. And

33:31

I cried when we were done, I

33:34

cried. So we leave and he goes

33:36

to the cast. Everybody wants a picture with him. He's

33:38

got his assistant there with a suit bag.

33:41

He's like a real show business, old

33:43

school guy. And he turns to the cast.

33:45

They take the picture of him by the elevator

33:47

bank and he's leaving. He goes, I want

33:49

to say thank you all very much. Your kids

33:51

are fantastic. That was a million dollar

33:53

night on Ironically and ironic.

33:56

I was getting married to my wife, who is a little bit

33:58

younger than I am, a little bit his wife,

34:05

and we're going to his school out in Queen's

34:08

to do this benefit. And we're sitting there

34:10

and the woman who's the principal of the school that he runs

34:13

and says, us he's getting married. I saw in

34:15

the paper that here getting married. And

34:17

I said, yes, I have said, well, my wife was a lot younger than

34:19

I am. And I said, but you know a little bit at what that's like,

34:22

Tony. And he's there with his wife, Susan, who's even younger

34:24

than even more of an age difference, and

34:26

I said, you know that worked out for you, and

34:28

without waking, he looks at me goes, I always tell

34:30

people, consider the alternative. Is

34:37

it okay? Yeah, all

34:39

right, I'm gonna go with that. Consider the

34:41

alternative. I said it to the priest during

34:44

my way. I consider the alternative. Father.

34:47

I'm just saying, who

34:49

else a couple more right here?

34:52

Right here?

34:57

That was to as I ended

35:00

up on the Tonight Show. Because when

35:02

Jimmy was on the show, uh,

35:06

we would just do bits and goof off constantly,

35:08

and we had an affinity towards that, and

35:11

we would you know, I wrote Jeopardies that

35:13

Jimmy was in, and Barry give talk show and

35:15

think whatever. He'd you know, Mick Jagger at

35:17

the Mirror. And because

35:20

Jimmy, to me, what I loved about him the most

35:22

was everybody thought of him as like this

35:24

cute little mop top creature,

35:28

and we knew him as this well

35:31

of comedy knowledge. And so when

35:33

he started that, you know, it's you

35:35

know, he goes, you want to be my sidekick? I

35:37

go, if it's okay with Lauren because I still work on

35:39

SNL, and so Lauren

35:42

gave it his blessing. So exactly

35:45

like on Wednesday's after run down from read through

35:48

on this like four sketches, I'll rundown,

35:50

do the show and run back up

35:53

because I'm only out there for ladies

35:55

and gentlemen. Jimmy fallon ha

35:57

yeah, and then so I

35:59

guess comes on, I'm out of there. You know, I'm back upstairs

36:02

to my day job, getting like seven

36:04

and a half eight million a year for the nine

36:07

an episode nine an episode. So

36:09

who else we got than Trump got elected?

36:12

Back there right there, I se there you go. Yeah,

36:16

there are so many times either

36:19

candidates officials are

36:22

so over the

36:24

top the writers

36:26

sometimes feel kind of super I

36:37

think that it's it's the it is

36:39

the hard thing. As you said of Trump, it's like men,

36:41

you go when he goes farther than you would have ever

36:44

gone, Like

36:46

the when you're telling them about the McCay sketch that

36:48

guy now would have won. The

36:50

guy wiped his ask with a flag and stuff like that.

36:53

So it's like, it's hard to keep it

36:55

real. Who else we

36:57

got a couple more yes right here, and there was somebody

36:59

up top. We're gonna get you right

37:01

over here. Then we're gonna have you shout. I

37:04

need shout, all right. Well, a couple

37:06

of weeks ago, Kelsey Grammar actually announced

37:08

that there is going to be a reboot of Fraser. And

37:11

uh, the question is, in this current

37:13

climate of comedy, how do you think a Fraser

37:16

reboot will be received? And should

37:18

the TV industry stop relying on

37:20

reboots and come up with more new material?

37:23

Well, yes, but I

37:26

think it is. I find that

37:30

besides the you know, it's just

37:32

hard to get anything made that somebody's gonna say

37:34

yes to. And I do find

37:37

I'm guilty of this. If I flipped through and

37:40

me TV comes on and there's some show from

37:42

my childhood before all this Michigun stuff

37:44

was happening, I will sit there and watch it and go,

37:47

oh, that was a good time. It will it will take me

37:50

out of this. So I think there's also a

37:52

giant nostalgia thing. But do

37:54

I wish they'd quit making more? Who coo am I

37:56

to say, I'm just a sketchwriter

37:59

apparently, But I think that that, you know,

38:01

obviously, these reboots, it's

38:03

like, if you think it's unoriginal, they don't care.

38:05

Is there an audience for that? Sent Comcast? Comcast

38:08

cares, but

38:12

they don't care if that people might criticize

38:15

that reboot thing. If they get uh,

38:18

David Hype Pierce, if they get all the original gang

38:20

back together, What could be wrong with that? When those guys

38:22

were really, really, really funny, but um

38:26

now, please stand up and give us your

38:28

best operatic performance. It

38:45

was Chris and Sarah who had another song,

38:48

and then Leonard Cohen

38:50

had just died, and so that's how the Hallelujah

38:52

thing came in it. But that wasn't until dress,

38:54

wasn't it let me do it air. We did a different Yeah,

38:56

it was like a very very up until the last minute,

38:59

you know, it was one likes the sweet when it works.

39:02

Sometimes we do some very tender things and they're

39:04

very kind of if it's at the right moment. Everything

39:06

I look at critically, I look I divide it into three parts.

39:08

So a third of the shows suck, a

39:11

third of the shows are okay, and a third of them are really

39:13

wonderful. And if you hit that march, if you're bating

39:15

three thirty three, then you're doing well

39:17

because to grind that out, you know, you're you're in a

39:19

room on a Monday,

39:22

and uh, then the show was on the air,

39:24

and the sets are built in your broadcasting a live TV

39:26

show on a Saturday, it's it's nothing

39:29

short of a miracle. And when you host, when

39:31

you've hosted a few times, you

39:34

come the writer's uh

39:36

tell the ideas to the host on Monday, and when

39:38

it's Alec, they don't put out any

39:41

effort because they go, we'll get

39:43

it, we'll get hang on, what do

39:45

you got? That's okay? I'll never

39:47

forget down. He's there, he's the head writer

39:49

down. He comes to me and I go, so, what's

39:52

the monologue? Because I was always obsessed. If we don't have

39:54

a good monologue, it might be tough to be coming about. I'm

39:56

like, what's the monologue? It's like Thursday night. He's like,

39:58

oh, I got some great and I want to showt

40:00

you now by so good, I mean,

40:02

I don't want to well, I'm still kind of playing with the but this

40:04

is gonna be really good. Friday comes, I'm like, can I

40:06

see the mone Like, oh, it's so good.

40:09

It's really good. He doesn't have a fucking idea what we're gonna

40:11

do. And then finally he hands

40:13

me the monologue. On the Saturday, I just got divorced from

40:16

my first wife, and I come out there and he has me come out

40:18

there, and I'm like, you know, this is a time of transition in my

40:21

life. And uh, you know,

40:23

I've had a lot of changes in my life, but one thing that's

40:25

always been there for me and like a home for me a Saturday

40:27

night love and out comes Daryl Hammett as

40:29

Clinton and he

40:31

comes in. He goes Alec Baldwin. Alec

40:34

Baldwin, he said, you

40:36

gotta put your oars in the water and

40:38

row your way towards the island of Poonani

40:45

and I'm saying I'm not.

40:48

He goes, You're gonna be having it hot and cold

40:51

on tap my brother, and he starts

40:53

saying all these vulgar euphemisms.

40:55

Um, but I want to say that, you

40:57

know, you are, besides me, unbelievably

41:01

funny and God knows you are. But you're also

41:03

such a gracious, gracious colleague.

41:06

Whenever I've done that show, I mean, you're one of the main reasons

41:08

I come back, because even though we don't enjoy

41:10

always Trump himself, you know,

41:13

embodying him. It's been such a joy

41:15

to work with you these last years. And thanks for doing the show with

41:17

me. Thanks, thanks

41:20

for coming you k Thank the

41:30

incomparable Steve Higgins of

41:32

des Moines's finest sketch comedy

41:34

troupe, The Higgins Boys and Gruber.

41:38

I'm proud to call him my friend. I'm

41:41

Alec Baldwin and you're listening to

41:43

Here's the Thing.