Episode Transcript
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0:05
Hey everyone, I'm Bruce Bosi. Thanks
0:08
for pulling up a chair today on Table
0:10
for Two. We're back in my hometown,
0:13
New York City, and I could not be more
0:15
excited for our lunch at the Carlisle
0:17
Hotel, a new location for the show,
0:19
but a classic city spot that's as
0:22
glamorous as they come.
0:23
Do you eat here a lot since you live
0:25
in the neighborhood?
0:26
I do. I hear a decent amount I hear this
0:28
morning.
0:29
We're having lunch this afternoon with someone who might
0:31
be one of the sharpest people I know. It
0:34
just so happens that he's also incredibly
0:36
funny. He's both the co anchor of Weekend
0:38
Update and the head writer for Saturday Night
0:41
Live. He's also married
0:43
to arguably the biggest
0:45
movie story in the world.
0:47
You always need fries.
0:49
Need needs an interesting word.
0:50
You need I need fries.
0:53
Are the absolute most addictive one from you.
0:57
That's right, we're having lunch with mister
0:59
Colin.
1:00
We're going to talk about growing up in Staten Island,
1:03
SNL and so much more so.
1:06
Pull up a chair, we grab a glass of rose
1:08
and enjoy, because today's lunch
1:11
is going to be a lot of fun.
1:13
Did you say a Caesar salad with lobster.
1:15
Yeah, whoa.
1:19
I'm Bruce Bosi and this is my podcast
1:22
Table for two. We're
1:32
sitting with an incredibly talented man, funny
1:34
man, smart man
1:38
person. I have the luxury of calling friend
1:40
mister Colin Jost.
1:41
Welcome.
1:42
Thank you, Bruce, thanks for having me. Like I
1:44
only can't to hear that introduction now I'm waving. I
1:47
just needed an ego list.
1:49
You know, your wife was the first
1:51
guest that's Table for two at Via
1:53
Krorota way back when, so this sort of makes
1:56
sense.
1:57
As long as they do better than her, I'm happy.
2:00
It's all about competition. She did
2:02
good. Oh no, they tell you they
2:05
damn it in the room, damn it.
2:07
I have a feeling though.
2:08
Yeah, we're gonna meet. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be friend
2:10
everyone in this restaurant by the end.
2:12
Yeah. Yeah. So what I
2:14
loved about with Scarlett and I bonded is
2:16
we're all New York kids.
2:18
Yeah, different burroughs. Yeah,
2:21
growing up in Staten Island, what
2:23
was that like?
2:23
I mean, you lived on a block with your whole family, So
2:26
family is very important to you.
2:28
And how did that mold you?
2:30
To the man you grew into.
2:32
Yeah, you know, and obviously you have similar with your family.
2:34
I mean it's and then when you when you have kids,
2:37
you realize the value of that on a whole
2:39
other level. You're like, oh my god, it's so nice
2:41
the idea that you could just let them
2:43
go out of the house and they would run to another house
2:46
that your family's and you know, like your grandparents
2:48
or your cousins are in. You know,
2:50
that's so valuable and I
2:53
kind of miss it now. I mean, I love growing
2:55
up in sun Island. I had a great I found
2:57
it very idyllic as a kid. You had
3:00
lots of sports, you know, facilities,
3:02
lots of parks. I was at a swimming
3:04
pool like that was in the Great Hills
3:06
area that I spent
3:09
every single day of the summer there from
3:11
I would get dropped off at eight am and I would leave at
3:13
nine pm.
3:14
Wow.
3:14
And I had a lot of independence and autonomy.
3:16
Like my parents would be there sometimes, you know, in and
3:19
out, but you know, you were with a swim coach,
3:21
or you were with other friends, or some parents
3:23
would rotate keeping an eye on you. But you had
3:25
a lot of room to operate and everything was there
3:27
basketball courts, raquetball court I think you kind of
3:30
ran around. And
3:32
now when I think about that, being in the city, it's
3:34
so hard to find that it's basically impossible,
3:36
and especially with space where
3:39
you could get into kind of adventures, so you could get
3:41
into trouble, but not really bad
3:43
trouble, you know what I mean, like wandering
3:45
the woods, but hopefully nothing weird.
3:47
Now, yeah, it's a good balance.
3:49
And stan Alan had that, and
3:52
you could walk around your neighborhood and you'd see
3:54
friends, and you'd see people you you know, parents
3:56
of friends you knew, and it felt like a that's why
3:59
my mom still lives there. My mom's been there her
4:01
whole life, Like we grew up next to my grandparents.
4:03
You just moved to the house next door, which is amazing,
4:05
amazing, insane. First of all, it's like a sitcom
4:08
setup. And also I keep thinking, now my
4:10
dad, because if you think it's like for my mom,
4:12
like, oh, how great for my dad, it's like, it's
4:14
so weird that your in law just like walks into your
4:16
house anytime of day. It's
4:19
a full everybody else right right right,
4:21
And but it's you know, it's
4:23
a great I think it's a great way to grow up and
4:26
and I loved it. And then there's a you know,
4:28
it's also it's definitely an insular
4:31
place. It's literally an island, right, and
4:33
a lot of people, you know, some people
4:35
commute into work, so they're all the I commuted into
4:37
high school, so I was naturally there all the time,
4:39
right, And then you just see other parts
4:42
of the city and you get kind of you
4:44
have an itch to go get into Manhattan
4:47
and kind of see other stuff.
4:48
The idea that you can sort
4:51
of walk out your door and have your
4:53
adventures and spend your summers there
4:55
and have your buddies, but also have like your
4:57
aunts and your uncles and your grandparents to like
4:59
how informs you as a person.
5:01
Well, part of it is like my fam
5:03
my mom's side is mostly Irish, you
5:05
know, it was there. A lot of them were in the fire department,
5:08
and I think there's a
5:11
the sense of humor that comes out of
5:13
that was really important because it was it's kind
5:15
of a dark you know, you kind of especially
5:17
in the fire department, like there's so much life and death with
5:20
it.
5:21
But the people who.
5:22
Work in the fire department are really warm and
5:24
really and I think have a great
5:26
sense of humor in general, you know, like I think, and I
5:28
want to joke around and love the community
5:30
and the camaraderie, right, And that's part of why they
5:33
love their jobs, even though they're obviously very dangerous.
5:35
And I think, and maybe that's the nature
5:37
of dealing with a job that's really dangerous, is that you kind
5:39
of have to joke around about it sometimes because otherwise
5:42
you go crazy, you know. So that's
5:44
definitely the community I was raised in of
5:46
people wanting to wanting to have
5:48
fun, and no one wanted to be serious or
5:51
anything.
5:51
So State Island sort of really became
5:53
its own Burrow offshoot. Not a
5:55
lot of people were going to Staten
5:57
Island, and yet to me when I would go, I'd
6:00
be like, this is like country, this is beautiful.
6:02
I mean, it was literally real country
6:05
until probably like the fifties or
6:07
you know, there were huge farms,
6:10
there were it's where people in Manhattan and Brooklyn
6:12
had summer homes, believe it or not.
6:14
Like there was a walk.
6:15
My grandpa was a lifeguard on the boardwalk, and
6:17
it was it was probably similar
6:20
to really nice areas in the Jersey Shore, yea.
6:22
And it had this thriving beach. There's still like beach
6:24
bungalows in certain areas. And I
6:26
mean, basically, I guess the water just got so bad
6:28
that it was it became a lot less appealing that
6:31
to go in the water. But it used to
6:33
be that and now it's a lot
6:35
more crowded. I mean,
6:37
that's the biggest complaint for as
6:39
far as and there's not the same
6:42
you know, the population is
6:44
now probably five to six hundred thousand,
6:47
and it was back then in the fifties it might have been
6:49
like fifty thousand or something
6:51
like. It might have been a ten times growth
6:53
with and it sounds the size of Manhattan
6:56
basically the land area. So it's not
6:58
so much it's like a third of the population, right,
7:00
but still pretty that's still a lot of people.
7:02
I mean, you love it so much that you bought
7:05
a ferry? I did you and
7:07
Pete Davidson bought a ferry.
7:08
That's how much I invested in.
7:10
What is there going to be a party on that?
7:13
You're gonna be You're gonna be invited, don't worry.
7:15
Yeah, Okay, I feel like that's out a lot. When I'm
7:17
with Colin that I remind
7:19
him like you do that, you own that. And
7:21
when are we gonna.
7:22
When is the party? Yeah, it's a great question.
7:25
It's definitely going to start with a party. That's
7:28
the one thing we know right. Everything in between
7:30
is what we're figuring out. I'm very excited about
7:33
the project. It's such a giant project that it's
7:35
going to take time, but there's there's
7:38
really good I think it's a great opportunity.
7:40
There's a lot of good ideas that are already behind
7:42
it.
7:42
So and I love the fact that you guys
7:44
made this choice, you both Staten Island guys,
7:46
to preserve this.
7:49
Part of history. It's like, you know, these things
7:51
go away, you think.
7:53
Yeah, it would have been sad if it was just scrapped.
7:55
Yeah, maybe it might have been more financially
7:58
viable to just use the stealing would
8:00
and sell it, you know. But no, it
8:02
was cool and it was the it was the actual boat
8:05
that the ferry that I took every morning to school.
8:17
What did your room look like? Did you have posters
8:19
in your room? Like? What college?
8:20
My room still looks exactly
8:23
the same as it did. My parents have
8:25
They just like maybe changed the bed
8:27
from a twin bed to because it's like, who's
8:30
going to ever go and see this twin creepy
8:32
twin bed.
8:32
That's all there.
8:33
But it was, and
8:35
it stick. It still is. But since I was
8:38
probably a baby, it was baby
8:40
blue wallpaper, I
8:42
mean not wallpaper painted painted baby
8:44
blue, which it was throughout my entire high school
8:47
college. When I came home, it
8:49
had animated
8:51
looking poster of a penguin
8:53
with sunglasses that said chillin' that
8:56
I that I won selling
8:58
magazine subscriptions that
9:00
went up. There was a photo of me, like
9:04
a caricature of me that was painted in Paris
9:06
when I went with a friend in high school.
9:09
And then it was just bookshelves
9:12
with all these books of Russian
9:15
history, economics, old
9:17
English literature, poems,
9:20
romantic poetry, Michael Crichton
9:22
novels, Wow, and and
9:24
a desk that I would work at in
9:26
the closet with.
9:27
Some clothes and that was it.
9:29
That was it. I know.
9:30
I didn't put up I never had a phase where
9:32
I put up posters of things I liked. I
9:35
never had a phase where I had like real
9:37
stuff, Like I didn't build things and put
9:39
them up, or do art or put it up, or just
9:42
didn't do anything in my room like, I just like, I'm
9:44
here to sleep. Then I go and I live my
9:46
life and go to a school and everything.
9:48
And I've never really thought about it.
9:49
It's it's I just needed to like picture
9:52
it.
9:52
Because I didn't make a space. I just whatever
9:54
was there. I just used for what I need. You know, I
9:57
would read, I would write, I would sleep, and then I would
9:59
leave.
9:59
And it still exist and it's just probably the same.
10:01
I mean, it's almost like about that, Yeah,
10:03
should.
10:04
You really because before one day someone
10:06
your mom's like, you know what we're changing
10:08
and maybe.
10:09
Blow torch it's right, would
10:12
it would be very very flammable. I'm sure. I
10:23
basically have never eaten lunch in like twenty
10:26
years.
10:26
Really, I never eat lunch.
10:28
I never I never go to it.
10:29
Like, never sit and have a lunch unless
10:31
it's a meeting or you know, something,
10:34
very which is pretty rare. I
10:37
don't have lunch. I don't sit and have lunch.
10:39
I'll have I actually just don't even I
10:41
usually know breakfast. I'd usually kind
10:43
of wait, get to you know, with kids
10:45
and everything, and then I maybe can
10:47
get out of the house by nine or ten.
10:50
I'll work out.
10:51
Then I'll have a juice like a green juice
10:54
or a coffee.
10:55
And then I'll have an Usually I'll just
10:57
have like an egg white omelet when I finish, after I finish
11:00
exercising, and then i'm
11:02
you know, I'm kind of good till dinner, but
11:05
you know, of something on a go or
11:07
I work in between, but you
11:09
know, otherwise that's my next main meal.
11:11
Okay.
11:11
I mean you talk a lot about growing
11:13
up and being overweight, Yeah, which
11:16
I don't.
11:16
It was hard for me to believe.
11:19
Plus you're always so active on bicycles
11:21
and then doing crew at college, I don't understand.
11:24
Yeah, it was a very It was like a
11:26
paradox where I was. So I
11:29
was playing five sports
11:31
and I was gaining weight, and
11:33
I think it was like, honestly a testament to how
11:36
insanely caloric fast.
11:38
Food was in the nineties.
11:39
Yes, that I was able to maintain and even
11:41
add weight despite constant activity,
11:44
and my brother and I both were, like my brother
11:46
was even heavier than I was, really and
11:49
we were constantly eating like processed.
11:52
Yeah, there was a lot of.
11:54
McDonald We would go to McDonald's. We
11:56
would each get a full adult meal.
11:58
Then my brother and my dad and I
12:01
would like split a twenty piece nuggets
12:03
for the table, and like
12:05
you often would get like one other thing like a
12:07
triple cheeseburger.
12:08
To split out. And that's crazy, that's
12:10
a lot. That's like each having probably three
12:13
to four thousand calories.
12:14
For completely casual one.
12:16
Yeah, and we probably ate it all in about ten
12:18
minutes.
12:19
Nothing tastes better. And then you'd have dinner later
12:21
that night.
12:21
Oh yeah, of course we weren't missing meals.
12:24
I'm like, no, I should back off on dinner. They
12:27
made a lot of dinner, you know, my parents did cook a lot at
12:29
home, and then we had probably all
12:31
the things that you now realize are the worst breakfasts,
12:33
you know, like a bowl of cyrus, like bowl
12:35
of sugary cereal with
12:37
nothing else to wigger it in any
12:40
way, or like a doughnut or a bagel,
12:42
or all the things.
12:43
That right now you realize it right exactly
12:46
like.
12:46
The But you know, of course, I think
12:48
also at that time, no one was really thinking, certainly,
12:50
no one in my orbit was thinking about
12:52
nutrition or no.
12:55
No, no, no, that didn't come until later.
12:57
No, I
13:08
got to I talked to Share the other day, okay,
13:13
like three days ago. Why because
13:15
she was maybe gonna come on and do something on
13:17
the show.
13:18
She basically was like I wanted to. You know, she was extremely
13:20
nice.
13:23
Last like last show because she was doing she was
13:25
doing a show in Madison Square Garden and she was doing
13:27
a probably jingle ballingall and
13:29
we were kind of talking about Originally
13:32
we were talking about having her come on, like
13:35
introducing her as updated.
13:36
She wanted to do something.
13:37
Update, like saying, here to talk about the
13:39
NBA's first ever in season basketball
13:41
share, come
13:44
on, just give really good basketball
13:46
analysis of what's happening.
13:47
Come on.
13:50
I would have.
13:50
And when I talk to her, She's like, I don't know basketball.
13:53
I'm looking at these names. I don't know anyone that's
13:55
in this thing.
13:55
You're like, right, yeah, And then she
13:58
would have made it funnier.
14:00
It would have been, but I think it would have been.
14:01
But also I'm sure she maybe it would have
14:03
also been deeply unsatisfying for any fan of
14:05
Shares. I don't it would have basically eliminated
14:07
both those fans. But
14:10
she was she was so I mean, I was so excited
14:12
to talk to her, like, oh was
14:15
she like was she like really very nice? And
14:17
and and you
14:19
know, I really wanted to figure something out.
14:21
But it was hard.
14:23
I think the part of it being alive is so hard,
14:25
and so it's also such a scary thing,
14:27
you know, but hopefully
14:29
we will at some point. But she was she was really
14:31
cool to talk to. I mean, it's one of those people you're
14:34
like, oh, that's that's really she is.
14:54
Thanks for joining us on Table for two.
14:56
Colin Joe's graduated from Harvard, where he
14:58
served as president of the le gender humor
15:00
publication the Harvard Lampoon.
15:03
How did working at the Lampoon prepare
15:05
him for Saturday Night Live? When
15:08
you go to Harvard and you are,
15:11
you know, writing for the Lampoon, which you know,
15:13
they don't make it easier to get on that. It's
15:15
you know, to become a writer, and it's kind
15:17
of great that they kept a.
15:19
Yeah, it's a hard process and a kind of a mysterious
15:22
process, and and you
15:25
don't know.
15:26
There's a lot of things that kind of fuck with your head about
15:28
it, and you don't know whether you're blowing
15:30
it or you're doing okay. Like you know, there's no
15:33
there's very little support or structure
15:36
to what the advice is and stuff
15:38
there. So and you realize
15:40
you're just dealing with kids who are a year older
15:42
than you maybe and maybe they're drinking
15:45
during the day and maybe they're not totally in a
15:47
great position to be giving advice also, right,
15:49
So you're trying to go through this process. But
15:51
it is a really you know, it's a great meritocratic
15:54
writing process.
15:55
You know, you're simmoning sketches.
15:57
People are voting on sketches
16:00
not knowing who wrote them, you know, which I think
16:02
is kind of a cool thing, and theoretically
16:05
just trying to find who is the funniest person,
16:07
which is still subjective, but that's at least
16:09
what their goal is. And it's you know, you
16:11
have to write a lot to get in and when you're on you're
16:13
expected to write a lot.
16:14
So it's you know, that's wild.
16:16
So do you feel and you also, you know, by
16:18
the time you left you are at the top
16:20
of the chain in that you know you're top
16:23
dog there. Yeah, and also now being
16:25
you know, head writer and you've been head writer, and
16:28
what is it about you that you feel
16:30
gets you to that place? Are you highly ambitious
16:33
that way? Do you?
16:35
Definitely?
16:35
I mean, I'm definitely ambitious. I think the
16:38
head writer part was a combination of things.
16:40
Like part of it was just getting
16:42
better as a writer. It's not a job anyone
16:45
does. Like Michael Ja I
16:47
loved him as a comedian and recommended
16:50
him as a writer, but he came in like
16:52
he had never written a sketch before in his life,
16:54
you never written a single sketch. He was a great stand
16:57
up and he but he'd never in
16:59
a sketch.
16:59
And then he just figured it out,
17:02
like quickly.
17:03
He figured it out and wrote and has written. Some
17:06
of the best sketches that have been on the show
17:08
are right, And so
17:10
that's just like that, Yeah, I mean, obviously
17:12
it's talent. And then also someone
17:16
you know, I don't know what it is like willing themselves
17:18
to figure it out or just being savvy
17:21
enough to figure it out, you know, and which
17:23
is kind of a miracle that someone can
17:26
just do can come in and just figure it out
17:28
totally. Like I didn't have any experience writing
17:31
sketches really, but I would do, like
17:34
in the Lampoon, you're writing stuff that's
17:36
not always so dissimilar. And
17:38
then I definitely performed some things
17:40
with friends around the city that were kind of more
17:42
in a sketch world. So
17:45
it wasn't like totally and I wrote a
17:47
packet, like I wrote a couple packets to
17:49
try to apply and submit, which
17:51
he didn't do. So it's he really
17:54
went from like zero to one hundred successfully,
17:56
whereas at.
17:57
Least I had that, like I
17:59
had gone to it a little bit.
18:01
And then certainly it's ambition, like that was after
18:03
I first, your first goal is to not get fired, right,
18:05
You just want to be about have a chance to do
18:08
it and enjoy the job and write
18:10
things you think are funny and hope
18:12
that they get on the air. And I was lucky that some
18:14
things that I broke out on the air. And then
18:17
the second year I came back and
18:19
I had sort of an expectation of myself,
18:22
like I should be able to write a lot of stuff because I wrote
18:24
some stuff last year, and the second year,
18:27
like I want to even set up the first five or
18:29
six shows, like I didn't have anything in the show my
18:31
second year, and I was like, oh no, like am I regressing?
18:34
Am I bad at this now? Or like
18:36
did I submit? And it
18:38
just wasn't yeah, like yeah, you're in SNL.
18:41
And and then at
18:43
some point the second year it started clicking again.
18:45
And I started getting stuff on and then after
18:48
that it was like a build like
18:50
years three, four five, where I started getting
18:52
like something on every show. Then I
18:54
started getting like two things on a lot of shows.
18:57
Then I started getting like two things on every show, you
18:59
know, on average at least.
19:00
Just because did you figure out sort of
19:02
the rhythm of it?
19:03
I can. I got better. I mean, it's just getting
19:06
reps.
19:06
And you know, like I wrote, was writing hundreds
19:08
of sketches a year, so you get better at it
19:11
hopefully, Yeah,
19:14
and then you and and then also there's lots of things, right like
19:16
if you if you start getting sketches
19:18
on the show, then probably cast
19:21
members want to write with you more, or
19:23
if you're helpful to cast members who are funny, that
19:26
probably helps you also. And I was very
19:28
lucky to work with people who are really fun to cast.
19:30
You know.
19:30
If I started with Sadai, kis Andy
19:34
and Kristen and Bill, which is
19:36
essentially the best four, and
19:38
that was the whole class. So I
19:41
think that's pretty much like per capita
19:43
of the best incoming class ever. I
19:45
think, so with the exception maybe of the
19:47
first ever ever, you know,
19:50
but that's a pretty pretty incredible
19:52
group and so I think I was lucky
19:55
in that way, and I think, you know, I was. Then
19:57
then once you once it's like years three
19:59
to five or something, I think then I got promoted
20:01
to like supervising writing position, which was
20:04
was really just like you're getting a bunch of stuff on
20:06
and we need to give you some title. But
20:09
you're not a head writer, nor are you're ready
20:11
to be, so you know, but you're somewhere
20:13
in that you're in the mix of a new
20:15
generation.
20:15
Yeah whatever.
20:16
Then you're just like more, you get into
20:18
more the producesorial world of it. More, you're
20:21
in more meetings with the producers,
20:23
You're in more meetings with Lorne. You're
20:25
getting the comfort of being around Lorn
20:27
in a way too, because that's you know, because he
20:29
goes from goes from being a guy you see
20:32
in the hallway every so often
20:34
I are scared to say hi to
20:36
to he's asking your opinion on something,
20:38
which is that's a big change. And then you're
20:41
getting and then over time it's like you're growing.
20:43
There's a friendship growing with the person that you really
20:46
like, you care about.
20:48
So it's that was the build, but certainly there
20:50
was ambition like that was once I got over
20:52
the hump of being afraid of being fired
20:55
like that was definitely a goal in my mind at
20:58
some point was I wanted to be head
21:00
writer because that was a.
21:01
Lot of people that I looked up to.
21:02
We were head writers like Jim Downey
21:04
and Seth and Tina and
21:07
Paulapel, and there were a lot of people that were like
21:09
in that Michael o'donaghy back in the day, you
21:11
know, people that were you adopted.
21:23
It feels on Weekend Update when
21:25
you and Michael sort of go
21:28
back and forth. It feels like you write
21:30
what he's going to say, Like when you do the and
21:33
like he's never seen it, like you know, you'll
21:35
see it pop up on the screen and then you
21:37
shake your head and you smile like, Okay, I can't believe
21:40
I have to say this? Is that how it goes
21:42
down?
21:42
Yes, Yeah,
21:45
it's yeah,
21:48
it's really it's it's
21:51
it's both terrifying and exhilarating.
21:53
Like it's kind of crazy. There's
21:55
just not a lot of live television in the world anymore.
21:58
So the idea that you're on live television and
22:00
you have to say something you don't know what it is, that's
22:02
pretty crazy.
22:03
And it's not it's not usually gentle.
22:06
No.
22:06
So it's a very strange.
22:09
Uh, it's a very strange thing and a but a
22:11
crazy experience to go through. And
22:14
and it's really fun. Like
22:16
I'm someone who can also be really in my head a lot
22:19
of times, you know, it's in a right ely way. I could be
22:21
in my head and it definitely gets you out of your
22:23
head. And there's
22:25
times where things and I really like that when
22:27
when there's when there's times where you just have to react,
22:30
I'm probably better at that than when I'm thinking
22:32
it through. But then
22:34
you're like, I don't know how, why can't I get that normally
22:37
right?
22:37
Like I like, if you were anticipating it
22:40
because you knew it.
22:41
Then it wouldn't be the same.
22:42
It's it's a brilliant as a viewer,
22:44
it's a.
22:45
Brilliant moment like that your weekend
22:47
update together is when when when
22:50
it goes there it's hysterical.
22:52
It really just came out
22:54
of I'm just kind of
22:57
trying something and it was not Again,
22:59
we didn't really have an idea for it, and then we
23:01
just kind of tried it and it became
23:03
that and you know,
23:06
we'll see but it's always there's
23:08
definitely a reminder to
23:10
not be afraid of trying things, Like it's
23:13
hard at our show because you really only get one shot
23:15
to try something because it's at dress rehearsal.
23:17
Like if it doesn't go well address rehearsal, it's
23:20
pretty rare that it's going to still be on the air, right,
23:22
you know, so it can go the other way. It doesn't well
23:24
addressed and the not well at air, but it doesn't
23:26
really go the other way.
23:37
Who were the comics
23:40
that you were heavily influenced?
23:42
I was thinking about you.
23:44
So when I was a
23:46
young man in nineteen eighty nine, I was
23:49
a page at NBC and
23:52
that was a hell of a great job.
23:54
So every weekend we worked SNL. We
23:56
did tours during.
23:57
The day and then you know, you had your
23:59
break and then it was like boom. And I always with
24:01
Stephanie Phillips, we had big curly
24:04
hairs, very you know, late eighties
24:06
or late nineties, and we would
24:08
work the door at Studio H and it
24:10
was it was like the power job. And
24:12
my cast then the caste was
24:15
Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Phil
24:17
Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria
24:19
Jackson, who I just love John Lovetts,
24:22
Dennis Miller, Mike Myers, Kevin
24:24
Neelan and.
24:25
A Whitney Brown.
24:26
Wow, that's great. It was a good that's
24:28
a great guest.
24:29
Yeah, it was a great. Yeah, it was a great
24:31
I remember that.
24:31
I know that writing staff was great too at that time.
24:34
Really, so many great writers from that era.
24:35
I mean it was a hell of a year and
24:37
a half to be part of that and to be in those
24:39
shows. And yeah, that was the year too
24:43
that Gilda Radnadat and so
24:45
like that was a whole.
24:46
Thing in a moment.
24:47
Who were the people that really influenced you from
24:49
a comic standpoint? And
24:52
were you always interested in finding
24:54
yourself on the road
24:56
and pursuing that.
24:58
I mean, you also are a Russian literature ma, you're
25:00
you know, you're also a writer.
25:02
How did SNL
25:05
SNL wise that that was what
25:07
you're describing?
25:08
That cast is the first cast that I have
25:10
memories of.
25:11
Oh wow, And you
25:13
know, obviously loved Dana and Mike Myers
25:15
and Jan Hooks, and I mean Phil Hartman
25:18
was incredible and also from
25:20
you know, like so I marry
25:22
an axe murderer. I loved Phil Hartman's
25:24
great in that too, and his work on The Simpsons,
25:27
like I kind of was aware of that, you know, it's just
25:29
his voice acting that was so funny. And
25:31
when you know the Waynes World movies with Mike and
25:33
Dana were. Those were like the early SNL
25:35
people that I really loved then really
25:37
big were really in my sweet
25:40
spot in high school, I guess were
25:42
which is usually when people's SNL casts
25:44
are. It's like were Sandler
25:47
and Farley, rock Spade,
25:50
that whole crew. Those were
25:52
like the sketches that I would re enact at
25:55
school and stuff with my friends, Like
25:57
even formally we would go do like assemblies
25:59
and we would re create those.
26:01
That listener about that because that's really
26:03
funny.
26:04
We did, Yeah, we did, like you
26:06
know I did.
26:06
I basically hosted a show
26:09
in our class, which again now you realize
26:11
teachers will do anything to not teach. They're like,
26:13
yeah, you should do this, So I would host a
26:16
show as Letterman. Letterman was a huge
26:18
influence for me, and I would pretend
26:20
to be David Letterman and I would read
26:22
like his actual top ten lists that
26:24
he was doing, Like I had books and books of top
26:26
ten lists that I would read and pick out
26:28
the ones I thought were the funniest, and then I would read
26:30
them to my class, just fully
26:33
steal his material, and
26:35
then I would introduce it's
26:38
kind of not.
26:38
A bad hybrid format for a show.
26:40
I would host it as Letterman,
26:42
and then I would introduce sketches from SNL
26:44
that we would also steal and do. So my friends
26:47
and I, like a group of us Lenny and Mike Calcagny
26:49
and Mike Bodner and Frank Berlin
26:52
and Steve Paul mecI, we would go.
26:54
We would reenact them in front of
26:57
the whole in front of first it was just in front
26:59
of our whatever seventh grade class, and
27:01
then I guess we were good enough that we
27:03
got moved to full assembly, so
27:05
then we would do it for the whole school, which was kind
27:07
of kind of cool. So that was that was
27:10
like the first idea of performing
27:12
or putting a show together in a comedy way,
27:14
right, So that was like one track
27:16
of things. And then it was really actors
27:19
that I love, like Jim Carrey
27:21
was huge, Robin Williams
27:24
you know a little before, was big,
27:26
and then Will Ferrell was
27:29
was you know in both ways both SML and
27:31
movies. Was big, and
27:33
like when he came back to host
27:35
when I was a writer, that was like one of the coolest
27:38
things because he was a guy I you know
27:40
at SNL, Like so many of his sketches
27:42
were classics to me as a
27:44
comedy nerd. And then you know, in Tina
27:46
and Amy also like in an update way,
27:49
those were big. I mean, Norm too and
27:51
Tina Amy were you know, and Tina on the both
27:54
writing and update
27:56
side was really inspiring, like seeing
27:59
how she did that and she's
28:01
still like I think of her a lot when I'm
28:03
writing sketches because a
28:05
lot of the sketches she wrote were like really joke
28:08
dense and they had a funny premise.
28:10
They had got you know, good performance things, but they had
28:12
a lot of like every line it feels like it
28:14
was a joke and it's like a aiming
28:16
for that I think is such a great thing,
28:19
like to just remind yourself it's always better
28:21
if there's more jokes and it's more everything
28:23
is an opportunity for a joke.
28:25
Is after something that you're born with or is
28:27
that no.
28:29
No, no, I mean I
28:31
think some people are born probably with some
28:34
inclination to joke around
28:36
or some innate. Some people are obviously
28:39
naturally really funny, and you
28:41
know they're they're like even if they don't
28:43
do comedy, they're naturally funny. Like some of my
28:45
friends are lawyers who are really funny,
28:47
or doctors who are really funny, and they don't
28:49
even really think of it. I mean, I never knew it was a business.
28:52
I never knew it was a job to go do comedy. Growing
28:54
up, No one I ever met worked in any related
28:56
anything to show business, you know, So I
29:00
think beyond that, it's mostly
29:03
learned. You know, you're if you're doing and
29:05
what you're drawn to. So all I did, again, I
29:07
didn't know it was a job. But all I cared about
29:10
and really memorized and got into as
29:12
a kid was comedy. You know, Sandler's
29:14
albums I would listen to and memorize,
29:16
like word for word, knowing every
29:18
line from every movie that he
29:21
did, that Jim Carrey did.
29:23
That's just setting you down a path.
29:25
Now you might you might be that path and never find
29:27
the opportunity to be involved in making it.
29:30
But I then I did, and that was then I
29:32
was like, oh, yeah, this is a great way to do it.
29:34
Because I used to love it and now I could keep doing it.
29:55
Welcome back to Table for two.
29:57
A typical week at Saturday Night Live is
29:59
incredible stressful. There are
30:01
new sketches to write and rehearse, costumes
30:04
to design, and sets that need to be built.
30:06
I'm particularly curious what's it like
30:09
for Colin and the staff to work with a new
30:11
host each week. Has there
30:13
ever been you know, the host come and
30:15
you see them and you're like, you know who they are, and then you're
30:17
like, oh, okay, like you get like I'm sure very
30:19
surprised, like this push is actually really
30:21
good, Like they actually get it. You know, when
30:24
it goes either way, when it goes like, oh,
30:26
this is just you know, not this is going
30:28
to.
30:29
Be really an uphill battle.
30:30
This person it just doesn't have that, and it
30:32
happens. It can happen different ways throughout
30:34
the week. Like you can have a host who's
30:37
not that good at the read through table,
30:39
right like even maybe they're not a great cold reader.
30:42
Maybe they're you know, their their process
30:44
is more they're kind of reading it more
30:47
straight, and they're just they're
30:49
they're going through the character in their head because
30:52
they know it's not the real time, you know, they're
30:54
like more, they're more seeing the character in
30:56
their head instead of performing it. Then yeah,
30:58
like even or there's things like Melissa McCarthy
31:00
when she hosted, she had pieces that she
31:03
worked on, she wrote, and they
31:06
were fully formed in her head, but she
31:08
was kind of clocking in a different way at the table
31:10
read, and you kind of have to
31:12
trust, you know that, oh,
31:14
that's going to be folk.
31:15
She knows what she's doing.
31:16
I mean, obviously she knows we're doing, but like in this particular
31:18
sketch, she's got this all mapped out and yeah
31:22
or sure or yeah or it's like, you
31:24
know, whatever it is, there could be an element visually that's
31:27
not really in the piece, but she
31:29
knows in her head when she's performing it,
31:31
or she knows she could figure it out. And those
31:33
have been some of those sketches that killed the most and
31:36
were classics for her. So it's it's
31:38
it's that kind of thing. Or there's an actor
31:40
that has their own process, like you know, you can be and
31:43
finding it a little bit in a moment or trying
31:45
to differentiate because you're reading, you're reading
31:47
forty.
31:48
Sketches right at the table read, so
31:50
to.
31:50
Be able to make a choice in
31:52
all of those and that's something like actually,
31:54
Adam Driver's especially good at at the table
31:56
read, like he'll he makes a choice
31:58
for all those pieces.
32:00
And an interesting choice, and.
32:02
The same way Will Ferrell does in a but you know,
32:04
obviously he knows it in a whole other way,
32:06
but he will, We'll find
32:08
a new move for all of them. And
32:11
it's really a kind of a miracle or maya you
32:13
know, like my real will come back and to like have a different character
32:15
wherever. It's like, it's really
32:18
they're very yeah, they really are, and you
32:20
know, so that and then there's hosts that are
32:23
great at the table read because they're great
32:25
readers. You know, if
32:27
it was an audio series it would be great. But
32:29
they are less performers in
32:32
space, you know, so you're that other part
32:34
doesn't add in as much as you thought.
32:36
Some people have never done theater. Some
32:39
people have never done live anything
32:41
live, which is scary, yeah, you know, and
32:43
then some people are it's it's
32:45
also you're reading off Q cards
32:48
mostly, which is a very
32:50
hard thing.
32:51
If you don't know that.
32:52
It's you know, when I started an update, I
32:54
was like, I'm very good at reading.
32:56
I'm really very good at reading, and somehow I couldn't
32:59
do it well at all. And I was like in my head,
33:01
like, why.
33:01
Is this so hard?
33:02
You're like overly concentrating on reading,
33:05
you know, and you're like, just let go of it, don't Why
33:07
are you worried about being able to read in this situation. You're
33:10
able to read signs on the street and just
33:12
go just read, but it's
33:14
intimidating when you're not used to that and let
33:16
alone changes on the fly. Like Christopher
33:18
Walking, who's obviously one of the best hosts ever.
33:21
He when he posted you
33:24
and you have things at the table read and and you
33:26
always make changes between the table read and dress
33:28
rehearsal because you're trying to make it better or tighter
33:30
or whatever.
33:31
A joke didn't work, you fix it.
33:33
Christam Walker wun always be like no, leave it and
33:35
you're like, well, no, we didn't got to fix this part. He's like, no, leave
33:37
it, and you're like why He's like it's
33:39
fine. He's like, it's fine. I'd rather I don't
33:41
want it to changes. I'd rather find it
33:44
figure it out as an actor, know
33:46
the rhythm, have the comfort with
33:49
material, not have all these changes
33:52
and you know, that's another approach that I think
33:54
really works for him and maybe would work
33:56
more if we did that. But you know, the sometimes
33:58
we get into it's easier now to
34:01
make changes because technology has gotten better,
34:03
you know, like you can type in things fast, but you can
34:05
make it. But maybe that's bad in a way
34:07
because the sometimes the actors are less
34:09
familiar with the material and if they
34:11
saw a joke the same twice, maybe
34:14
it's not as good a joke, but they'd be
34:16
able to find something in the delivery that would
34:18
make it better than a new.
34:19
Joke, right. You know.
34:30
During the show itself, the live show, is
34:32
it daunting to look over at Lauren and see
34:34
his face at this point? Can you see in his face
34:36
when because when I've gone to the show and I look
34:39
at him and I swear, I'm like, I have nothing
34:41
to do with the show'rving, I'm
34:43
like, oh my god, did he like that?
34:45
Did he not?
34:46
It's a yes, it is still daunting.
34:49
Or like when he even kind of shows up at
34:51
a when you're rehearsing or something and he kind of
34:53
drifts into the back of the room, you're just a little
34:55
bit more on edge and you're you're second guessing
34:58
the like joke about pooping pants
35:00
that you have in and you're like, why did I do this? I
35:02
wish I didn't have to do that for the first time
35:04
in front of Lauren whatever it is. You know, like there's
35:07
that kind of feeling. But you
35:09
know, I've got you get over that to
35:11
some extent because he just realize like he's
35:14
seen a lot of bad stuff, so you
35:18
know he's not and he's seen a lot of bad stuff
35:20
get better, and he's seen a lot of you.
35:21
Know, does he throw things out like if
35:24
he sees it just maybe like like one of those
35:26
passion by comments that oh
35:29
yeah, oh okay, yes, yeah he
35:31
does.
35:31
He does, and he's judicious about it because
35:34
he's part of it. Is
35:36
at least for us with update, I
35:38
think now at this point he probably
35:40
knows that we're anticipating
35:42
some of the things he might say in a good way, not
35:44
like we're worried about what he's gonna say,
35:47
but more like he's taught us
35:49
some instincts that we probably sure
35:51
so we're like, oh, yeah that if it's a joke
35:53
that he's there
35:56
rehearsal for and sees it bomb where
35:58
he is pretty confident we're going to fix it with
36:00
or or cut it, probably without
36:03
him having to specifically say cut that horrible
36:05
joke. So that but he's but
36:07
he'll give like a you know, he'll just give like a small
36:10
but important note about how you're playing a
36:12
certain thing, or the tone
36:14
or the aftertaste of a joke, like
36:17
is that do you really want to have that
36:21
the perception of this joke after the fact,
36:23
or something you know, like if especially if it's about
36:25
someone, like is it mean
36:27
to that person? And I'm I'm
36:30
very sensitive about that. In general, I'm not a person who
36:32
likes doing things that are mean to people. I
36:36
prefer to do it based on what things they
36:38
do, like what a are actions, rather than about
36:40
I don't like making fun of people's personal lives that
36:43
it really does not maybe not like that,
36:45
but but
36:47
sometimes, like you know, I'll have a occasionally
36:50
I'll have a joke where I'm like, I think even that person
36:52
would not be offended by this joke, but
36:54
maybe they would be.
36:55
I don't know, who knows.
36:56
You never know.
37:04
I've had a wonderful lunch with Colin today.
37:06
I know that family plays a huge role in both
37:08
Colin and Scarlet's lives and
37:11
as our time together winds down, I'm
37:13
interested to know what Colin hopes
37:15
to share with his son as he
37:17
gets older and you talk about
37:20
family, and family is very important to you, It's very
37:22
important to Scarlet. I've talked to
37:24
Scarlet about her family when we had lunch,
37:26
and they're wonderful and as
37:28
are yours down to earth. Is there something
37:31
that you want to show your son You
37:33
want to make sure he sees there's so much
37:35
humor in your family.
37:36
I mean, there's so much wit and so much intelligence.
37:39
Is there anything that when you think of because when you become
37:41
a parent, it's just everything changes.
37:43
It just does.
37:44
Is there anything that you I want to do
37:46
this with Cosmo. I want to show him this.
37:49
You know. One thing that's really important to with
37:52
him is I take
37:54
him swimming a lot whenever I can, you
37:56
know, like pool or ocean.
37:58
And he's he's only two, and he's he's a pretty.
38:00
Good swimmer, actually, like he's almost independent
38:02
swimming, which is kind of crazy. He's
38:04
a smart he's a smart guy too, but he's
38:06
a great such a bunch hit.
38:08
But he I like that. I mean, the water
38:10
is really important to me.
38:12
And yeah, and it's always
38:15
been something I just you know, I didn't love always
38:17
the competitive part of swimming, but I did love
38:19
being in a pool, and I'm very happy
38:21
around water all the time. And
38:24
that's something I'd like to share with him in different ways,
38:27
you know. The first thing that came to mind was my grandpa.
38:30
My grandpa just passed away, and
38:33
he was he was a firefighter, His
38:35
dad was a firefighter. And he's the one, my
38:37
grandpa who lived next door, and he really helped to raise
38:39
me a lot. And I'm really happy
38:42
he got two years with Cosmo.
38:44
In the years to come, even though Cosmo
38:46
I'm sure won't remember that time, I'm
38:50
excited to kind of impart
38:52
elements of my grandpa in him.
38:54
His middle name is my grandpa's name, and
38:58
the spirit of a lot of the great things my
39:00
grandpa. A curiosity that my grandpa really
39:02
had, a friendly and outgoing of
39:04
friendliness and ability to go talk to anyone
39:07
and engage and really be curious about
39:09
them, and a real
39:11
joy and appreciation for life, like
39:13
a deep gratitude feeling
39:15
like you know what you would say late in life
39:17
he would constantly say, like if I go tomorrow, I'm
39:20
so happy, you know, like I don't
39:22
you know, I'm not wouldn't be sad. It's
39:24
all good, you know. And
39:26
and that's like one of the one of the last things,
39:29
like on his deathbed that he said to me was
39:32
like, don't worry, I'm okay, and
39:34
he literally said bye bye, like kind
39:37
of funny in a joking way. Yeah, And
39:39
that's the last thing. That's the last words that
39:41
he said to me. And he died that like later
39:43
that day. And you know, I think
39:46
that's what I will hopefully in
39:49
part and Cosmo, I don't know how much of it's taught
39:52
versus in you, but
39:54
you know, a gratitude in it,
39:56
some kind of grace I think with
39:58
with people is is a great thing.
40:00
Well, that's a beautiful story and
40:02
I think that, uh, I think it's a beautiful way
40:04
to sort of wrap our beautiful lunch. And Colin,
40:07
thank you, thank you for coming your mind.
40:09
My family loves you. I love
40:11
you. I love your family. And
40:14
you know you're just an incredibly
40:17
talented gift to the
40:20
world. What you how you see the world and did
40:22
you have this platform turn presented and you
40:24
make people happy?
40:26
Thank you very much. It's a pleasure.
40:28
It's a pleasure in any capacity,
40:30
but especially with this lobster
40:33
caesar salad and the second lobster that I ordered
40:35
to go.
40:36
Very generous of you.
40:37
My pleasure.
40:40
Ready that I'm going to have shipped exactly.
40:43
Anyway, Thanks for everyone for pulling up a chair
40:46
today on Table for two with Bruce
40:48
Bosi and mister Colin Joys and
40:51
We'll.
40:51
See you real soon.
41:01
Table for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by
41:03
iHeartRadio seven three seven Park
41:05
and Airmail. Our executive producers
41:08
are Bruce Bosi and Nathan King.
41:10
Our supervising producer and editor is
41:13
Dylan Fagan. Table for two
41:15
is researched and written by Jack
41:17
Sullivan. Our sound engineers are
41:19
Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor, and
41:22
Jesse Funk. Our music supervisor
41:24
is Randall Poster. Our talent booking
41:26
is done by Jane Sarkin. Table
41:28
for two's social media manager is Gracie
41:30
Wiener. Special thanks to Amy
41:33
Sugarman, Uni Scherer, Kevin
41:35
Yuvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison
41:38
Kanter Graber. For more podcasts
41:40
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio
41:42
app, Apple Podcasts, or
41:45
wherever you listen to your
41:47
favorite shows.
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