Paula Pell

Paula Pell has too much love and medication. Amy hangs with the comedy writer and actress and talks about being born at 50 years old, working on Pleasure Island, and her newest best friend, Kim Kardashian. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Kim Kardashian and Paula PellExecutive producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson and Aleya Zenieris; audio producer Kaya McMullen; social producer Bridget Geerlings; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and booker Kat SpillaneOriginal music: Amy Miles Use coupon code ‘EATCESAR10’ at Cesar.com for 10% off Visible. Live in the know. https://www.visible.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Amy Poehler?

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• 0:38Amy Poehler?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. So excited about our guest today. It is Paula Pell, the great performer, writer, actress. She wrote on SNL. You may have seen her on AP Bio and Girls 5 Eva and The Burbz out now. But Paula and I have loved and known each other for a very long time. And we are going to talk about so much good stuff. We're going to talk about how fun it is to harmonize. We're going to talk about Paula's years performing at Disney's Pleasure Island. And we're going to talk about how she really enjoys writing joyful losers and how that got her through some real complicated times at SNL. So we are going to get into it.

• 1:20Amy Poehler?

  But before we do, there's so many people that want to talk about how great Paula is. I could interview 12 of them right now. But we have someone who is kind of a new friend and a new fan of Paula's and who is working with her currently now on a new film. And that person is Kimberly Diane Kardashian, otherwise known as Kim Kardashian. Kim, Kim Kardashian, can you hear me?

• 1:50Amy Poehler?

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• 2:35Amy Poehler?

  Hi Kim.

• 2:37Speaker 01

  Nice to see you.

• 2:38Amy Poehler?

  It's really nice to see you. Thank you so much for doing this on a Saturday.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  Of course. I just left the gym, so I look a little bit of a mess, but it is what it is.

• 2:48Amy Poehler?

  What did you do in your workout?

• 2:50Speaker 01

  I do strength training. So I have like crazy bodybuilder trainer and we do lots of like, today we did lower body. So squats and walking lunges and.

• 3:03Amy Poehler?

  I'm feeling you because I know I have to up my weight stuff for like bone density.

• 3:08Speaker 01

  Do you ever get a dex- dex- dexa scan?

• 3:12Amy Poehler?

  No, tell me about it.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  I actually know a portable dexa scan. Person that comes in a, in a van and you lay down and each one of my sisters and my mom, we all live in the same gated community. So we have the van drive by and we all jump in the van and you just lay down and it scans your body, maybe like three minutes and it tells you all about your bone density.

• 3:40Amy Poehler?

  Ooh, I love that.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  You know, over, we do it once a year and just to make sure that you're still got it going on and you still have all of the bone density that is necessary.

• 3:51Amy Poehler?

  I mean, it feels like something that our moms did not know about or talk about.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  At all.

• 3:57Amy Poehler?

  I know. I feel like.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  Creatine intake?

• 4:00Amy Poehler?

  I know. There's so much stuff that we have to now take. It's a lot.

• 4:05Speaker 01

  Supplements. I take probably 35 supplements a day.

• 4:10Amy Poehler?

  Kim!

• 4:11Speaker 01

  I spread them out three times a day and I thought, okay, I can't do this fish oil right now, like anymore. I have like pill fatigue. I have to stop these fish oil and I got my blood work and it was so evident that I stopped and I had to start again.

• 4:26Amy Poehler?

  But it is tough to take fish oil because you, when you take it, you, you like taste it for a long time.

• 4:32Speaker 01

  The pills are just so big.

• 4:34Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  I wish there was like an IV drip I could do every day and I would just do it on my way to work.

• 4:40Amy Poehler?

  I'm sure there is a portable, another guy in a van who can follow your car. Well, you are on your way to work on The Fifth Wheel, which is the movie that you're in, starring in that Paula Pell wrote. And I'm so, I was, thank you so much for talking about her today. Because to me, people that love Paula are people that love comedy.

• 5:07Speaker 01

  I have been fascinated by the comedy world and the people that I've been so blessed to meet over the last few years. And Paula, anytime I mention her name, I get a text back, just genius.

• 5:22Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 5:23Speaker 01

  Just how we met was so funny and it was so quick and fast. And it was maybe a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago. I was here filming a movie that we had an idea like the first time we spoke. And it was really crazy that someone wanted to connect us and thought this would be a really fun project. Would you guys ever wanna, Kim, would you wanna do a comedy? And Paula, would you wanna write it? And we got on the phone and she hung up, called right back within an hour with the whole idea.

• 5:56Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  And.

• 5:59Amy Poehler?

  She's incredible.

• 6:00Speaker 01

  We had the funniest day yesterday on set.

• 6:04Amy Poehler?

  What happened?

• 6:05Speaker 01

  So it's like Nikki Glaser, Fortune theme star and I in this one scene. And I won't say what's going on, but Kristen Wiig is doing something.

• 6:15Amy Poehler?

  Perfect.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  So funny.

• 6:16Amy Poehler?

  Perfect.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  And we're supposed to be laughing and reacting. I couldn't control myself, like almost peed my pants. Like just every single time, just being in a room with people that you wanna be professional, you wanna get the job done, and you just can't control yourself because it's so funny.

• 6:38Amy Poehler?

  I can tell you are a big comedy fan.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  I've now gotten to meet some of the people that I've always looked up to and thought were so amazing and.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  It's just such a, it's such a community where everyone supports each other so much. And I experienced that for my, the first time when I hosted SNL. It was like this group chat of so many comedians trying to help with my bit and with my, my monologue. And it was so fascinating just to see everyone's minds and to see how supportive everyone was and showed up that night. When I was doing that and rooting for you, like everyone genuinely roots for each other. And I've never seen that kind of connection and bond in any other genre in the entertainment business.

• 7:32Amy Poehler?

  Okay. So you said you had a couple of questions for Paula today. What are your thoughts for what we should ask her?

• 7:37Speaker 01

  I wanted to know, when she was coming up with this idea for this film, is this everything that she thought it would be? To me, it feels like one of those magical, like there's a little extra magic in it. That like we all knew, and I think this is how it was envisioned. But I feel like there's just a little extra fairy dust over this. Project. And it feels really good. And does she feel that fairy dust too?

• 8:10Amy Poehler?

  And why is it important to you to ask that question to her? Why, why do you want her to, why do you wonder if she's feeling that too?

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Because it's such a exciting time and an exciting feeling. And it just feels like, I just want to know if she feels the same way that I feel about it. Because I am really excited and passionate about it. And I don't know, maybe this, maybe she's so accomplished and there's so many projects and this is just one of those and like.

• 8:39Amy Poehler?

  I, I think the exact opposite. Like I think the best thing about Paula is that she has this. She creates momentum. She has energy, which is what like you're talking about. As you know, you need to get stuff started. But she also, I think one of the best things about her is she doesn't forget the people in any process, like people are as important to her as outcome. And she's a people person, you know, she really wants to connect in that way, like with through the stuff that she makes. And so that magicky, sparkly stuff that you're feeling among each other, like, I think that's kind of, if I was to say something about her, like she is,

• 9:23Amy Poehler?

  I think she loves that stuff. I think that's why she's still doing it.

• 9:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. I just, I hope she feels the magic because I feel it.

• 9:33Amy Poehler?

  Um, and then anything else?

• 9:34Speaker 01

  I always wanted to know, is there ever someone that you just can't control yourself? You just see them in action and you just can't stop laughing? Like you physically can't get through a scene or something because you find them so hysterical? And I love, I love watching SNL and when you're trying to get through, you know, a bit and you just, they break and they just start laughing. Like to me, that's when I really start laughing because I can feel how much fun it is. And I can see that they're having such a hard time getting through it because they just want to laugh so, so hard.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  And I just wonder like, who is that person for you, for her?

• 10:22Amy Poehler?

  You know, like I said, when we started, I feel like anybody who loves Paula's comedy, to me, means that they know comedy. So I really, it really means a lot that you got on a Zoom today. Thank you.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Of course, of course.

• 10:35Amy Poehler?

  She's going to be so thrilled and excited that we talked.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  I'm glad to watch it.

• 10:41Amy Poehler?

  Okay, thanks so much.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Have fun this weekend.

• 10:44Amy Poehler?

  Thank you. Nice talking to you. Bye.

• 10:49Amy Poehler?

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• 11:35Amy Poehler?

  Paula Pell, you look fantastic.

• 11:38Speaker 02

  Thank you. I've got a full denim suit on. Is that a power lesbian move or what?

• 11:46Amy Poehler?

  Paula, you're probably one of the guests that we've talked about the most with other guests. Like, I was thinking today about us talking and it was like, oh, we've brought up, I mean, I'm so lucky that we just get to talk to our friends on this.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  It's the dream job, isn't it?

• 12:00Amy Poehler?

  It is.

• 12:02Amy Poehler?

  It is. It's a dream job. And the hours.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  And wouldn't it be fun to have two people doing it? You know, the two blondes. It could be called two blondes having a good hang. I mean, I'm not trying to infiltrate your good, your good thing. But we'll talk, we'll talk.

• 12:20Amy Poehler?

  We've, we've talked about, well, we talked to you on a Gastier episode. You very nicely gave Anna a question. Thank you for that. And I feel like anybody who knows comedy knows you. Anybody who is paying attention to who has done what over the past 25 years, they know you. And I just want to say, I want to start by saying something I say to people all the time, which is Paula Pell is... The funniest people's favorite person. And you are often in a room of hugely funny people. You're usually the funniest.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Thank you. I'm very competitive that way.

• 12:54Amy Poehler?

  I know. I like that. I like you are a little competitive. I like that. And, um, and in a good way. And also, anybody who likes you and likes your comedy, to me, is like an indicator that they know comedy, you know?

• 13:08Speaker 02

  That's really nice, Amy.

• 13:10Amy Poehler?

  Well, it's true, Paula, because, you know.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  Good to pretend to drink.

• 13:14Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 13:15Speaker 02

  A little embarrassed about that.

• 13:17Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  I, um, hmm.

• 13:20Amy Poehler?

  What do you got going on in there? Delicious water? Los Angeles water?

• 13:23Speaker 02

  Hmm. You can taste the tap.

• 13:26Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  I really appreciate that. I love, I love cracking up hard to crack up people.

• 13:34Amy Poehler?

  You do.

• 13:35Speaker 02

  Well, that was always our fun. And obviously with Lauren, I used to like to, I like breaking through someone who's tough, a tough, like, someone's like, I'm a hard, like, it's hard to amuse me. I love to find the, the little crack.

• 13:51Amy Poehler?

  You do, and you, you want to keep working it. And that's why, like, with, like, especially, like, quote unquote, like, alphas, you're really, really good at getting them to laugh.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Getting, well, I was new a few times when I was little in school, and I hated people that were on immediately when they were new of like, hi, I'm so and so. Yeah, what do you like? Oh, I like this to it. My biggest fear was that I would be that kind of person. And so, because I never like inauthentic love coming towards me. I don't like when people are, you know, I, I just like to believe that it's, it's real, that it's not gonna hurt me on the other end, or they're making fun of me or something. So, answering your question, um, that I created in my head.

• 14:38Amy Poehler?

  Did I ask one?

• 14:39Speaker 02

  You didn't. But it's, that feeling, like with Lauren, is, is just like, I want to feel more comfortable with him, so I'm gonna sit on him.

• 14:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Which is what I used to do.

• 14:52Amy Poehler?

  I was gonna talk about this later, but let's talk about it now.

• 14:54Speaker 02

  We can talk about it later. I don't care.

• 14:56Amy Poehler?

  You used to go in.

• 14:56Speaker 02

  This is three hours, right? You guaranteed me?

• 15:00Speaker 02

  Contractually, because I said, I'm not driving over here. Not getting on the 405 for an hour. I know how fast that goes.

• 15:06Amy Poehler?

  Well, we all know that pods need to be.

• 15:08Speaker 02

  Promos.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  I know it's important.

• 15:14Amy Poehler?

  Um, you are mid, do you consider yourself a Midwest girl?

• 15:17Speaker 02

  Oh, God, yes, anyhow.

• 15:19Amy Poehler?

  What would you, how would you describe a true Midwesterner? Like, what are they like?

• 15:24Speaker 02

  A pleasant liar, a deep liar, just like Southern women.

• 15:31Speaker 02

  Midwestern women usually are big liars. And they, my grandma used to always go to, she loved to go have a little diner food with me. And I would take her to the Pine Cone and over by the interstate in La Salle, Peru. And she would start eating the soup. And I have a big, Midwesterners love soup too, Midwestern women. And she, oh, and is this soup ever good? Oh, and how, oh, I love this soup. Oh, God. And then the guy would come by, this soup is fantastic. She would talk about the soup and then as we're walking out, she would go, I didn't care for that soup. And I would look at her like, why the fuck did you? I didn't say why the fuck to her, but I'm like, why didn't you just tell him you didn't like the soup? And get a different soup?

• 16:16Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm not gonna do that. You know, I came from that kind of people that you don't tell the truth because that's not. And what I like about it is based in kindness, that you don't want to hurt people's feelings, but.

• 16:28Amy Poehler?

  Yes. You grew up where specifically for most of your?

• 16:30Speaker 02

  Joliet.

• 16:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, Joliet. And for people who don't know, Joliet, Illinois, what's that, what's that town like?

• 16:35Speaker 02

  Um, I haven't been there in a long, long time. I know they have a casino. I haven't been there since they have a casino, which really revived, I think revived, uh, Joliet. But it was a, you know, kind of a suburban town outside of Chicago, probably about 45 minutes outside of Chicago. And there's a prison nearby. So my bit was always like, you know, where are you from? Joliet, not the prison. I always had it loaded up.

• 17:00Amy Poehler?

  Was that, was the Joliet prison, um, where Blues Brothers, did they go to Joliet?

• 17:05Speaker 02

  So Joliet Jake was Ackroyd's name, I think, in Blues Brothers. And when I came into my meeting with Lorne, uh, he said, so where are you from? Or he said, tell me about you, yourself. And I said, well, I'm from Joliet. And he said, whether that's true or not. And he thought I was doing a Joliet Jake reference, maybe?

• 17:25Amy Poehler?

  You were lying?

• 17:25Speaker 02

  I didn't even know his name was Joliet Jake at the time. And I was like, well, it is true. I mean, I'll have to. Send them some proof of that because they're really raking me over the coals.

• 17:37Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's a little bit of a mindfuck to be like, nice try.

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Nice try, and it isn't even anything that you thought you were snowing them on.

• 17:45Amy Poehler?

  But we've talked about this a lot, and I love this, and I'm curious now, as we're getting older, if like you, you always say that you felt as, and I know from you letting me read your journals, I've got to read Paul's journals, and is you always felt kind of like wiser than your years as a young person?

• 18:05Speaker 02

  I was a very caretaker, I always say born at 50, very, I remember, I started my period at nine, and I remember telling all my friends how it works, and like how to put it, you know, how to put a pad on, and how to, and, and they'd gather around me, like, I was like Julie Andrews on the music, and I'd be, let's start at the very beginning, there's a string and an applicator, I just would always have the, the in of like, I'm an older, you know, and I had an older sister who taught me to read, Patty was like incredible, she always was very nurturing to me, but to them, to my friends,

• 18:46Speaker 02

  I was the wise one, I had a very old soul, and I think it was because it was withering from lack of any sexual interest from anyone, so I, by the time I was 15, I was like, well, I'll never be touched, so I, but I was also silently and quietly looking at women and feeling weird about that.

• 19:07Amy Poehler?

  So you grew up in the 80s, you were, you were a lesbian, you knew it, but you couldn't?

• 19:12Speaker 02

  I knew it, but I didn't really know it, in quotes, until I was just out of high school, and so my best friend and I were basically madly in love with each other, and we ended up always like sleeping over each other's house during the week for the last couple of years of high school in the same bed, like just, it was a very, Florida high school was like so affectionate, like in the public school, and I came from like a Catholic girls' school that was so not. I mean, we'd hug each other if, you know, somebody died or something. But it was just like, or if you had something on your coat, you know, let me do that and get it off. But like, it was, I got to Florida and I was like, what is going on? Why is everyone hugging each other?

• 19:56Speaker 02

  And, but it was perfect for a closeted lesbian because we'd go to like a choir trip and we'd be just like, you know, sixty-nining each other on the bus, just sleeping. Like, I'm sleeping on her ankles and she's sleeping on my ankles. And it's just, but we didn't know at the time. We did know, but we didn't know. It was like, your, your soul knows, but you are not saying it. You're not acknowledging it. And then we started having all these fights at the end of high school, like a lot of dramatic drunken fights. We'd drink like a lot of white wine in big football cups. And we'd be like, I don't know. Well, what do you, well, what did I do? And it was just like fights. And then it was like, and then it just, the world broke open. And I was like, but it was a world you couldn't do that.

• 20:37Amy Poehler?

  That's what I was gonna say is I think people did, don't really remember or understand that in our generation, I mean, I had, I had no openly gay students in my high school. Not one, not one.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  Not even the super gay ones.

• 20:50Amy Poehler?

  Exactly.

• 20:51Speaker 02

  Like the super gay guys where you're like, there is no doubt.

• 20:54Amy Poehler?

  Like I was saying to my kids, there was no gay and lesbian alliance in my high school.

• 20:58Speaker 02

  Oh, hell no.

• 20:58Amy Poehler?

  There was no openly gay teachers or students. Everything was, you know, nothing was spoken of. And it was this time where you really did have to live this secret double life that you could not share with most people that you loved.

• 21:14Speaker 02

  And I mean, the most heartbreaking thing about it was that when we, we went to college and we ended up together for a few years in college, and then there was a big heartbreak. The most heartbreaking thing is to go home and not be able to be heartbroken young person with, in front of your family.

• 21:29Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  So you have to manipulate all the reason you're heartbroken of like, oh, she's gone away to school and I'm not, and it's just, I miss having a friend. I miss someone to hang around with and go troll for dick. You have to like, you just have to fake it.

• 21:45Amy Poehler?

  You don't get the aftercare.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  It's so heartbreaking because you just wanna look at your, oh. I'm crying already, guys. This is supposed to be lighthearted, right? But like, you want to look at your mom and go like,

• 21:57Amy Poehler?

  Yes, yes.

• 21:57Speaker 02

  It's my first time I have my heart broken, you know?

• 22:01Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 22:01Speaker 02

  And my parents were very kind, sweet, wonderful, supportive people. And at the time, if I would have had the balls to do it, I could have maybe explained it to them and they would have been loving to me.

• 22:11Amy Poehler?

  And you know, I know your family so well. And you know, you talk about your sister and your parents. You come from such a funny, like, your parents are hilarious.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  They're all joy.

• 22:21Amy Poehler?

  Your sister's hilarious. You guys tease each other. You love a good joke. Like, comedy was so important to you.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  No.

• 22:27Amy Poehler?

  Growing up.

• 22:27Speaker 02

  All of them. My father is truly, genuinely, like, in his next life, will be a comedy writer. He, he is a comedy writer. Like, he is still, he's, he's 87 and he is still so ungodly funny. My mother was having gastro problems recently when she got really sick. And I said, I texted my dad and I said, is she still having diarrhea? And he said, not since Saturday, and spelled it T U R D. Saturday.

• 23:00Amy Poehler?

  Saturday.

• 23:01Speaker 02

  Like, immediately. But he does it, he does it without being desperate for you to laugh at it.

• 23:08Amy Poehler?

  Sure, sure, sure.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  He just does it and waits.

• 23:10Amy Poehler?

  And that's you, too.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  I also have a really good skill of freezing and pretending I'm freezing. You want me to do it?

• 23:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:16Speaker 02

  Okay, I'll just do it while we're talking.

• 23:17Amy Poehler?

  Okay. So I know that there was a lot of musical theater that you were into when you were a kid.

• 23:24Speaker 02

  Yes, I love.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  The only reason I had to stop is that I was choking on my spit. During the pandemic, I used to do it all the time on Zooms. And it, and I would go so long and just be, but like, you know, it has to be in the middle of something. You can't just like,

• 23:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, sure.

• 23:49Speaker 02

  So it's just like, when you.

• 23:56Amy Poehler?

  People are gonna think their YouTube is.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  And then they'll be like, no, I'm gonna, I'll watch that later.

• 24:01Amy Poehler?

  You were a musical theater, like you were doing all your plays in high school. You were like, I want to be a performer. Like, did you know anyone that was an actor? Did you think that was gonna be your job?

• 24:09Speaker 02

  One of my biggest gifts in life was I grew up in the Midwest where I had a little teeny Catholic high school. They had the most glorious theater and music departments, always. All my schools always had the most glories and nobody had money. It wasn't like these rich schools at all. And I, I was in full with orchestra Oklahoma when I was like in fifth grade. Full orchestra, music man, where like a full band comes in at the end with 76 trombone, like, but really talented people, but like, and when I was in eighth grade, infamously with all my friends, I was Mother Superior, born at 50, Mother Superior in Sound of Music.

• 24:54Speaker 02

  And I have video and like many photos of me looking into the shaft of light, like, Maria, you shall be led forth with peace.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  And it's like my pubes have not come in and I'm like the oldest woman. I'm the oldest fucking woman and I'm looking like this earthy matron just singing in my nun outfit.

• 25:20Amy Poehler?

  I hear that you claim, you should, yeah, you do have like great nun vibes.

• 25:25Speaker 02

  Other eras for sure.

• 25:26Amy Poehler?

  But you're too, you, you love sex too much, babe. Can't do it. You can't.

• 25:31Speaker 02

  I should have done the nun thing. Oh, wait, I did.

• 25:35Speaker 02

  Hi, Sister Christine. She's not a sister anymore.

• 25:41Amy Poehler?

  Wait.

• 25:41Speaker 02

  I was gonna try to drink that like a cat.

• 25:42Amy Poehler?

  You claim, you claim that you're an alto, but I, are you, you're not an alto.

• 25:48Speaker 02

  I'm an alto and then I can do like soprano as a joke voice.

• 25:53Amy Poehler?

  I was talking to Anna about, Anna Gasteyer about this. At some point, what is joke voice? Like joke voice is voice. Like, you know.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, when you sing high, like alto, I'm a big blender. I love harmony. I love harmonizing those new things where you can go and just for the day harmonize with a bunch of people. I weep when I watch them, like where you can go in different cities and they have that group that you learn it in one day and then you go and they're all singing like the song from Rent and everyone is just walking around with their parts and they're singing. That's my joy of all. I grew up with a lot of choirs, a lot of show choirs, a lot of groups, and I love to harmonize. So when I did Girls 5 Ava and I was with these like insane singers like Sara Bareilles and Renee Goldsberg and then Busy Philipps

• 26:42Speaker 02

  was a great singer, like secretly. And then we would sing. It was just like to blend and sing with them.

• 26:49Amy Poehler?

  What have you been listening to lately?

• 26:51Speaker 02

  Um, I'll just every so often I'll listen to, you know, I'll listen to Company because I did a parody of that.

• 26:56Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God. Let's talk about that for a second. We're all over the place, but it doesn't matter. You did a documentary now. For people who don't know, Documentary Now was a like a was was a bunch of fake documentaries that Bill Hader and Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers did brilliantly did and John Mulaney was in some and wrote some. And there was a very famous one based off of the film and musical Company, The Making of the Broadway Album.

• 27:24Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 27:24Amy Poehler?

  And you guys did one called Co-op.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  Co-op, Co-op the Musical. And it was a of era. We were in that era and I was in a Lane Stritch type. And it was based on an actual documentary that was very iconic black and white documentary about the night that they recorded Company cast album, which was a hot mess, but then it turned out incredible. And I listened to that. And when I got to do that with them, because they were all fictional songs, but like Sonheim actually heard them and talked to Mulaney about them and was like, I love, you know, because it was.

• 27:59Amy Poehler?

  Oh, he did?

• 27:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:59Amy Poehler?

  I didn't know that.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  He went to some screening of it and then talked to them and they they all, I think, met him.

• 28:06Amy Poehler?

  Like kind of, he kind of gave his blessing, like, these are good.

• 28:08Speaker 02

  Yes, he gave his blessing because they were so. Such well-done songs. Eli Bolan was so good at writing the music. And, and the

• 28:19Amy Poehler?

  They're so funny.

• 28:20Speaker 02

  And Seth wrote some of those songs, but they're all so funny. And just, I just love being able to sing and emote at the same time. Like, any musicals that I grew up with, I loved the ones that you could just be in them. You know, one of my favorites, I'm not gonna, I know you probably, do you have to pay for songs?

• 28:40Amy Poehler?

  Well, I mean, I feel like we shouldn't.

• 28:42Speaker 02

  I could do what we used to call at SNL, a soundalike.

• 28:44Amy Poehler?

  Let's do a sound, but, but you can sing the regular.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  The song "Losing My Mind" from Follies, it's like, it's those kind of songs that like Liza Minnelli would

• 28:53Amy Poehler?

  So can you sing the, sing part of it, the real thing, and then show people what a soundalike would be?

• 28:59Speaker 02

  It's, it's the, it's one of the saddest songs on earth. The sun comes up, I think about you. The coffee cup, I think about you. You said you loved me, or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind?

• 29:22Amy Poehler?

  Damn.

• 29:23Speaker 02

  Gunshot. I'm sorry.

• 29:26Amy Poehler?

  Okay, now can we get a soundalike, please?

• 29:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, so if we were at SNL, and then they were like, we can't do that, you're gonna have to do. So it would be like, When I wake up, You're in my mind. When I wake up, You're not here, my heart's cracking, you're in my mind. And then we were just

• 29:51Amy Poehler?

  Just off enough. Okay, Florida, affectionate Florida. You get there as a high schooler, you go to Disney.

• 30:00Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:00Amy Poehler?

  You work at Disney.

• 30:01Speaker 02

  I work at Disney.

• 30:02Amy Poehler?

  How did you get the job at Disney, which is a job everyone must want?

• 30:06Speaker 02

  I, I got my degree in theater. I left University of Tennessee because I

• 30:13Speaker 02

  Barely finished. I did finish.

• 30:16Amy Poehler?

  But that's really interesting because you're such a good student and you're so smart and studious.

• 30:20Speaker 02

  I was also a theater student.

• 30:22Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 30:22Speaker 02

  It was the 80s and my best friend, James Anderson, who wrote at SNL for 20 years and wrote every funny thing you've ever seen. He and I were classmates and we were gay and we used to go to gay bars and dance all night. And then we would do plays constantly that rehearsed all night. And then we would have like a seven o'clock biology class in the morning.

• 30:44Amy Poehler?

  And it wasn't happening.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  So I was always making up incompletes all the time. And my parents came for my graduation and I looked for my final. I went to the Hall of Science to look at my final, my final grade. The night before they all got there with my grandparents and everything and it was an F. And I called James crying and it was pouring rain in a phone booth and he goes, call the teacher. It's 11 o'clock at night, but call the teacher. I called the teacher and I just blubbered. And he ended up giving me like a D or a C and I could graduate. I had to write a, a paper that night, had no sleep. The night before my graduation, I wrote a paper called, that I still look for in boxes,

• 31:30Speaker 02

  called plagiarized 100% from a bunch of stuff cobbled together on microfiche. And it was called Galileo, the courage to wonder.

• 31:43Speaker 02

  And I came up with this theory because I read one line that he said he had a fraught relationship with his dad or something. And I was like, and it was just all about his internal world with his father and all this shit.

• 31:54Amy Poehler?

  Oh my God, Paula, I did not know that, that you graduated by the skin of your teeth. Would never have guessed that.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  But I got to, I got to Florida, you know, was broke as hell. A lot of my friends went to New York, like James, to have the dream. And I went back to Florida and then they built Pleasure Island. And it was this nighttime, crazy 80s.

• 32:17Speaker 02

  Giant, like, phallic island of clubs for the adults. It was brilliant. It's like, your kids are here and you're sick of them and you want to go out and let it rip and get drunk with your wife and make out. And every night was New Year's Eve. So every night, at like, right before midnight, all the drunks from all the clubs and the theaters and the comedy warehouse, which was improv, all of them came out. And then there'd be these hot dancers and then they'd have confetti. They'd do a big countdown. It was like Times Square. And it was so 80s and so good. And so I ended up being in the original cast of The Adventurers Club. So I was Pamela Perkins, once again, a matron, a comedy matron. I was 22.

• 33:01Speaker 02

  Pamela Perkins, the president of The Adventurers Club. Conga Looch.

• 33:09Speaker 03

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• 33:35Speaker 04

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• 33:46Speaker 01

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• 34:07Speaker 04

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• 34:33Speaker 01

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• 34:36Speaker 05

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• 34:44Speaker 06

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• 35:28Speaker 06

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• 35:33Speaker 05

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• 35:39Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking which group chat you're typing in before hitting send? Next thing you know, you sent a scalding hot take about the restaurant to the group with the person who picked it. Yikes. Yeah, checking first is a good idea, so check Allstate first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Company and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. This episode is brought to you by CarMax. Okay, hear me out. When CarMax says that you can buy your way, they really mean it. Shop for cars from your sofa, the subway, the hair salon, wherever.

• 36:22Amy Poehler?

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• 36:44Speaker 02

  Oh, the other fun thing about Pleasure Island was all these guys would come. Now, this is when, after I got my heart broken, I wanted to have a baby. And I was like, I've never really been with a man. I've been a little bit here and there.

• 36:56Amy Poehler?

  Just a tip.

• 36:57Speaker 02

  Little sneaky, weaky, whatever.

• 36:58Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 36:59Speaker 02

  Touchy, wacky, poky, woky, but like, nothing.

• 37:01Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:01Speaker 02

  Haven't had the full girth.

• 37:04Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 37:04Speaker 02

  And so I was like, you know, maybe I need to go down penis avenue. So I, at that club, they'd let the employees party after work.

• 37:14Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God.

• 37:15Speaker 02

  For like, the last two hours.

• 37:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 37:17Speaker 02

  So when the club would close, we had like, at least an hour and a half to go to these other great bars right there. So we'd be with these cute ass boys.

• 37:27Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  And we'd just be like, you know, a bunch of cute Brits or cute, like, Irish boy. And now, I looked literally like BR, you know, like, I mean, I had like, a bouffant. And I'm like, you want to meet us over at the thing? And then I would go in the bathroom and I would like, blow out my long hair. I'd take all my hair down.

• 37:44Amy Poehler?

  Holly, you have great hair.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  I'd put a bunch of makeup. I'd come out, I was still fat. But I would put all the other stuff on, bring the eye up, put earrings, lots of stuff up here. Look at me up here. And, and, and then I'd show up. And then I started fooling around with these guys that were like, these fun, like, there to have fun, you know?

• 38:04Amy Poehler?

  And they were like, she's so cool. She doesn't even really seem into me. I'm like, so in?

• 38:09Speaker 02

  And I would fool around and nothing, nothing stuck.

• 38:12Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 38:13Speaker 02

  Except the semen. No, I'm kidding. But like, nothing, you know?

• 38:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. And so Disney was like, felt like a training ground for you.

• 38:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, Disney was, every night you got to have a large group of people laugh at what you did. Even if it was like, stupid that night, or you weren't feeling it, or you weren't. It's that energy that we all love, that we loved at SNL, that we, we all craved since we were little, that we'd do shtick in front of our parents on a couch. You got to... Hear humans look at you and go, oh, she's really funny. She's, they'd laugh at you. And then I, I went over to work at Murder, She Wrote, the post-production show during the day for my next job. I moved out of Disney and I just did part-time there. And I pretended I was a, like in this, in these wheels. I pretended I, in some of it, you're an editor.

• 39:03Speaker 02

  And it was all about the making of Murder, She Wrote. And I would talk to Jessica Fletcher on the screen. So I'd go, you know, it was all timed. So it was like fake, but you know, she'd come in and go, oh, dear, I think we're going to do this episode. You, we better go, there's murders. And I go, I know, Jessica. Well, we're gonna make sure that we're gonna. And you'd have to talk. And one, one day I was so hungover that I looked up at her and I turned and I went, let's see what big, I said, big old Jessica. I go, let's see what big old Jessica has to say. And then I turned like this and it was just like, I could not stop laughing like my whole, I missed like three cues. So she was just talking with like 10 seconds in between.

• 39:46Amy Poehler?

  And you would hang over church giggles.

• 39:48Speaker 02

  This.

• 39:50Amy Poehler?

  So that felt like a step up.

• 39:52Speaker 02

  That's where I got my SNL job.

• 39:53Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so that, how do you go from talking to Jessica Fletcher to audition for SNL?

• 39:58Speaker 02

  Because I, that year, all those talented people that worked for Sac Theater, that also performed at Disney, were great writers, great performers. And I, they had a theater and I would go and do characters at their theater sometimes on sketch night. I wasn't an improviser. I was, you know, I never really have had improv training ever in my life, except theater.

• 40:23Amy Poehler?

  Sure. And every day at Disney.

• 40:26Speaker 02

  That's true. So I did these characters and then that got to SNL.

• 40:30Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 40:31Speaker 02

  And then I'm sitting in the Dressing, I mean, green room with all the people that worked at Murder She Wrote, post-production. And I was sitting there waiting for the next, them to load the next audience. And, and everything was accorded phone, of course. And it was like, somebody's calling you. And I answered the phone. It was my local agent that I had done commercials for and stuff. And she was like, are you sitting down? And I said, yeah. And, and she said, Lorne Michaels wants you to come to New York and, and meet him. And I was like, is it, what is it? Like, is it an audition? Because I mean, spent my whole life, you know, tape recording SNL, doing Roseanne, Roseanne and Dan in high school for my school assemblies. Like, I was so SNL. And they were like, no, it's not an audition.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  And I was like, what, what is it? And I just got off the phone and they flew me there that week for two nights or one night. And I just got there and was terrified. And I went in, he was like, two hours late. And I sat down with him and he started talking like we had been talking already. Like, he started in the middle of a sentence. And that's why the show is, you know, a phoenix rising. And this year, we're gonna rise again, and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, rising above my body. And at one point, I remember saying to him and Steve Higgins, I am a lot more boring here than I usually am. I just remembered like, calling out, because I was so scared. And so, and he had already dissed

• 42:00Speaker 02

  my, you know, telling him I'm from Joliet. So I was a little off.

• 42:03Amy Poehler?

  You were basically hired without knowing, and no one told you you were hired, which is what SNL does.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  Right. So then they just said, I think, I think we, and then I left.

• 42:14Amy Poehler?

  Lorne notoriously does not hire or fire.

• 42:17Speaker 02

  And then I caught, and then they, you know, Steve Higgins was like, okay, we'll figure, you know, we'll call you. It has to be in about four days, five days. I went and gave my cats and my dog to my mom and dad. I ran and called, like, it was the most, I remember crying in a closet and calling my nieces and nephews and crying and be like, you know, and they're like, can you take us to the opera? Like, they didn't know New York City. Like, it was so exciting, but it was terrifying. And I remember my mom just finally looking at me and going, what is the worst case scenario? And I'm like, I fail at a place that I've worshipped my whole life. And she's like, but then you do. And you had the experience, you got to go there.

• 42:56Amy Poehler?

  Wow Paula, so they saw your characters and they were like, we want her as a writer. They didn't really make it clear why you were coming in.

• 43:03Speaker 02

  Right.

• 43:03Amy Poehler?

  But you knew you were coming in for writing and not performing.

• 43:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:06Amy Poehler?

  But you were a performer. What is it like to like, and obviously you're a performer who's writing all the time. You're creating these characters. But back then especially, I feel like the lines are way more blurred now.

• 43:16Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 43:17Amy Poehler?

  But when, when, when you get to SNL, you kind of get like put into a category.

• 43:22Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 43:23Amy Poehler?

  And you're put into the writer category, even though you not, and, and you are this super strong performer who's been performing.

• 43:30Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 43:30Amy Poehler?

  So what was that adjustment like?

• 43:32Speaker 02

  Well, I don't want to assume, uh, you know, I've heard here and there little things and I, who knows, because we've all been in there when they're picking people and it's like so random.

• 43:41Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 43:42Speaker 02

  I mean, not random, but like there's reasons that you don't think are the reasons and all this, but I do suspect that I was a big lady. I was a big plus size person. There wouldn't, there was, there was just not that.

• 43:55Amy Poehler?

  Mm hmm.

• 43:56Speaker 02

  In any TV, anything like there wasn't, you know, there were starting to be Roseanne Barr, like people that had more real looking bodies. But I was just not of the aesthetic of that place whatsoever.

• 44:09Amy Poehler?

  This was late 90s?

• 44:10Speaker 02

  Mid, mid 90s. So it was 95 and I just, I do suspect that it wasn't even like, oh, no, like, but her writing, like, I like her writing because that fits with us.

• 44:24Amy Poehler?

  Did you ever talk to anyone at the show about that specifically or like?

• 44:28Speaker 02

  I mean, I, you know, I really was such a good Catholic girl.

• 44:33Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  Of, of a role follower when it comes to, when, when, when a actor who, because I'd only acted, I got there and told them, I'm not a writer. I, even though I'd written like

• 44:44Amy Poehler?

  Of course.

• 44:45Speaker 02

  Short stories and different, I don't know how to do, I don't know how to do any of this.

• 44:48Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 44:48Speaker 02

  I, I really.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  I was so afraid to ever show any desire to perform. And it's why I'm so gloriously happy to be able to perform later in my life because I finally let that out of the cage of that shame, the shame.

• 45:06Amy Poehler?

  The shame and it also, the shame and the shine, right next to each other.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Yes, oh, I like that, the shame and the shine.

• 45:12Amy Poehler?

  Shame and the shine because you might have been feeling that, right? Like, I just want to be grateful for what I have. But your shine, just, without you even trying, like, it could not be dimmed. Like, you there, you became the performer that you are now because it was such a strong, undeniable thing. People put you in sketches because they knew how funny you were. You were funny in the room. You just, like, without, to your point, you didn't say, fuck this, I'm not gonna write, I only want this. You took the opportunity, you did an incredible job writing for other people, and you slowly knew and believed in yourself, and others saw what kind of performer you are.

• 45:56Speaker 02

  Well, I felt, I felt like everything, and it was, it was a bigger picture of codependency and caretaking, that in my life, in my whole life, I was making the pie and then giving all the pie away.

• 46:10Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so for people who don't know, who are listening, and we talked about this a little bit with Anna, and we've talked about it with Rachel, and we've talked about it with Tina, and we've talked about it with Seth, and we've talked about, but like, Paula Pell has written some of your favorite sketches, including Bobby and Marty, The Culp's, including Debbie Downer, including The Cheerleaders, including...

• 46:28Speaker 02

  With those actors.

• 46:28Amy Poehler?

  Of course, of course. But the actors get all the credit. They do, they always, it's like whoever's saying the lines, people assume that they've written the lines. And as we, I mean, people understand that there are writers on that show, but the public facing cast always gets the first kind of love, amount of love. Appalachian Emergency Room, Tony Bennett Talk Show, all this stuff. When you're writing, what was the first time you wrote something and you were there where that terror went away a little bit, where you thought, okay, I might not get fired. Okay.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  Well, there's two kinds of terror because I was in that era of recurring characters. And I was lucky enough to get in that first year with Will and Sheri for Cheerleaders and with Anna and Will for Bobby and Marty. And they were so up my alley. I was the person that tried out every year for cheerleading, never ever made it, worked on my back handsprings in the summer. And then I would, because I was fat, and I would stand with, holding everyone's purses during the basketball games. And I knew every cheer and all my friends were cheerleaders, like all of them were on the squad. And then I'd be up there like a dance mom, like, but once again, matron at 12 going.

• 47:40Amy Poehler?

  And gathering them around to talk to them about like.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  Cough drop, do you need a cough drop? And so the idea of, I loved writing Joyful Losers. That was my favorite thing, is someone who is joyfully living their life, what they want to do. Because when I read that journal, that's what I was. You know, I got a new, I got my rock tumbler and I have, I changed the grit and my amethyst is looking gorgeous. My God. And I was like a Victoria, like a crazy broad as this little person, like talking about what lights me up, my plants, my stuffed animals, all those things. And when I got there and met them, they were my people. Like I would cry laughing till five in the morning writing those things with them.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  But the other thing you have to get there is to prove that you're actually good by yourself. And that is a terrifying thing. Because you can always hide behind those characters that once they're a hit, you got that to ride on. It's the best thing ever. And my very first one I remember was doing Wilford Brimley with John Goodman. And I wrote it. I used to do this thing where I was the last one almost always at writing night.

• 48:51Amy Poehler?

  Yes, so Paula stayed the latest.

• 48:53Speaker 02

  So one night I wrote John Goodman as Wilfred Brimley and he was on a fake horse and because it always used to make me laugh when he was a big guy and he would, I mean, Wilfred Brimley was a big guy, but then he'd do this commercial for this, this like health stuff and he'd be like, I take care of my blood sugar. And I was like, no, you don't. And so I, I had him say like, you know, I take care of my blood sugar. Well, I don't. And it was just this slowly descending conversation in this commercial and John was so funny. But it killed at the table. It absolutely killed. And it was the first time I could really look and go, I deserve to be here because I didn't feel like I deserved

• 49:37Speaker 02

  to be there. I didn't think, you know, I, and then if I was writing with other actors, it's like, yeah, but they're so funny and they're so good. And that was the first time I said, you are a writer. Like you sat down and you wrote words that no one else saw because they all went home and they could, they could read this. I mean, they, they read this and they laughed.

• 49:56Amy Poehler?

  How long did you write for SNL?

• 49:58Speaker 02

  I wrote full time for like 18 years and then I started slow, you know, I did that slow exiting out where I did like, I came to Lauren and was like, I'm going to do half the season spread out. So I would do like one or two shows, then I would have a break for a while. It was really trying to get away from the teat.

• 50:16Amy Poehler?

  And he didn't want you to leave.

• 50:17Speaker 02

  It was slow. And Lauren, you know, the, one of the things I love the most about him is he, he doesn't want people, he doesn't want his family to leave, you know?

• 50:26Amy Poehler?

  You are the long, do you know that you are the longest tenured female writer in SNL history?

• 50:32Speaker 02

  Female? Oh yeah. Cause I was going to say James beat me by two years on the writing side, but yeah, female. Um, that's, that's really nice.

• 50:41Amy Poehler?

  Isn't that cool?

• 50:42Speaker 02

  Why haven't I gotten a plaque for that?

• 50:44Amy Poehler?

  And before I get off SNL, um, two things. One is Debbie Downer.

• 50:49Speaker 02

  Yes. Most fun ever. I mean, that first Debbie Downer is. We've talked about the antidepressant of all antidepressants. I remember us all standing in one of the dressing rooms, just looking up at the screen and just, we could not believe, it was like a house of cards falling down, but it was the best house of cards and we just wanted it to go on and on and on.

• 51:10Amy Poehler?

  And I mean, you created a cultural language. Like, people use the term Debbie Downer now as if it was just-

• 51:18Speaker 02

  It was on my soaps the other day and I was like, good lord.

• 51:20Amy Poehler?

  It was?

• 51:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 51:21Amy Poehler?

  What soap are you watching right now?

• 51:23Speaker 02

  All the CBS soaps. Love them all. If you ever want me on there, I'd love to do an-

• 51:26Amy Poehler?

  Oh my god, Paul, you should definitely do a soap opera.

• 51:29Speaker 02

  That would be so fun. That would be so fun.

• 51:31Amy Poehler?

  Okay. So, we've worked together on so many things after SNL. We worked together on Sisters, an incredible movie that you wrote, that is like-

• 51:39Speaker 02

  And you guys were incredible in-

• 51:40Amy Poehler?

  And Tina got to play some versions of you and your sister and-

• 51:44Speaker 02

  And read my actual journal in a bathtub. They were in the bathtub, reading pages from my actual journal.

• 51:50Amy Poehler?

  It was beautiful and so fun. And that shoot was so fun with Ike and John Cena, your buddy who loves John Cena. He loves you.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  I love John Cena.

• 51:59Amy Poehler?

  I know.

• 52:00Speaker 02

  I see him to this day. I have a couple of ideas for John Cena. I'm gonna hit him up for. I have some-

• 52:04Amy Poehler?

  He is, he just, and that shoot was just, and Kate, there were so many fun people that came in on that. Diane Wees and James Brolin.

• 52:12Speaker 02

  James Brolin playing my parents and-

• 52:15Amy Poehler?

  Do you want to tell the story about when Barbara came by set?

• 52:17Speaker 02

  So, my mom has lived to, like, worship Barbra Streisand her whole life. I took her to the millennial, millennium concert that was supposed to be Barbara's last concert. And that was at the, that was like 2000, whatever.

• 52:32Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 52:32Speaker 02

  2000, right?

• 52:33Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, yes.

• 52:33Speaker 02

  And I spent all this money to fly her to Vegas to go to that concert at like, New Year's Eve. It was this huge surprise and I took her. And then she comes to Sisters, married to James Brolin, she comes to Sisters the day before my parents came to set to visit from Florida. And if I would have known, I would have like immediately flown her there. But, you know, I sent pictures, which is like, great. She looks cute from this blurry picture.

• 53:01Amy Poehler?

  I don't know if you remember, my parents happened to be there. And in a different way, you're flying my parent, you're flying your parent, your mom out to Vegas. I'm always telling my parents, "I'm not gonna fly you out to Vegas."

• 53:14Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I'm doing the opposite.

• 53:15Speaker 02

  Vegas is their Streisand?

• 53:17Amy Poehler?

  Well, they're always like, why don't you take me to the Academy Awards? And I'm like, relax.

• 53:22Speaker 02

  Right.

• 53:22Amy Poehler?

  So my parents arrived on the set and my mom's like, ooh, James Brolin is here. I wonder if Barbara Streisand is gonna show up. And I go, Barbara Streisand is not gonna come to our set, Mom. Give it a break, like, let it go. And she just came to visit.

• 53:36Speaker 02

  She is? And she was the cutest?

• 53:38Amy Poehler?

  So cute.

• 53:39Speaker 02

  So cute. And she, I just remember, whenever I would get up to go to anything, she'd go, are you going to the, you going to the craft services? She'd go, just give me a little play to some. Just give me, just give me a little something. I don't care what it's, just a little something. And I'm like, that's fucking Barbara Streisand. I mean, A Star is Born with Kristofferson and her is like, I know every moment of that movie. I used to lay on the shag carpeting and ball and sing to that movie and, not ball sexually, like ball.

• 54:07Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, B A W L. But we've worked together on Wine Country, on Parks and Rec, on Sisters. You have been more and more, like you said, in front of the camera. You got a new show on Peacock called The Burbs.

• 54:19Speaker 02

  Yes, I'm so excited.

• 54:20Amy Poehler?

  Yes, which looks so fun.

• 54:23Speaker 02

  So fun and creepy.

• 54:25Amy Poehler?

  Creep, tell me, like, what, you're, you love to be part of an ensemble. I mean, you're, you are, you, you are a leading lady in every way, but you also love that juicy ensemble thing. And Kiki Palmer.

• 54:37Speaker 02

  Kiki Palmer leads the pack. Julia Duffy, Mark Proch, Kapil Talwakar and Jack Whitehall, who is also in the movie I'm shoot, we're shooting that Janine and I wrote. And they are so funny and so weird. Like, their characters have so many twisty, weird secrets. I've never done this kind of genre. I've never done a mystery, murdery, like, some things are serious, some things are funny, you know? Because that, we grew up with comedy or drama. You know, you were either watching ER or you were watching, there was no, like, in-between.

• 55:13Amy Poehler?

  Can we talk about Kiki for a second?

• 55:15Speaker 02

  So unbelievable. We just did the press, press for it and the premiere for it. And she can just, she can just lead anything and just be the kindest, funniest, most energetic. And then she's like, in hair and makeup, getting like elaborate stuff done while she's doing like a podcast thing, also talking to a choreographer about a music. Choreography for the music video she's doing for her album that's coming out the next week. Like, I would just look at her and go like, I get exhausted. And a two-year-old child.

• 55:47Amy Poehler?

  I know. She's a pro.

• 55:50Speaker 02

  She's so great. I was getting my hair blown out. And I, a couple of weeks ago, and I just looked up at the TV and they play the, you know, they play the movies on the screen at the hair place. And it was her and Akela and the Bee. And she just had little braces. And she was, and she was such a great actor. I was just watching her do this whole monologue. And I'm like, oh, my God, she was just cooked when she was born. Like, it was just.

• 56:15Amy Poehler?

  I don't want to skip over the fact that you were getting your hair blown out. Because I would say that next to Tina Fey, and not a competition, but I'd love to have you both in here and we can touch your hair. You have the best hair. You have incredible hair.

• 56:30Speaker 02

  That, thank you very much.

• 56:31Amy Poehler?

  People should know this is all your hair.

• 56:32Speaker 02

  I, it's all my hair. I took very good care of my hair, because when I was plus size, and in that era, this is not like a pathetic fact, it's a true fact. If you had good hair, it was like something that you could use, because there were, there was no good clothes. It was like, big shirts and leggings. That was all you had.

• 56:52Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 56:52Speaker 02

  When I was young, all the pictures of me, if I ever felt good about how I looked, it was always just right, right here. You know, because everything else I wanted to forget about.

• 57:02Amy Poehler?

  What is your relationship now to neck down?

• 57:05Speaker 02

  It's good. I lost some weight this year for health reasons, a little bit, like 25 pounds. And it made me feel a lot better because I have knee replacements. So it was much better for that. But I, I lost 100, close to 100 pounds, three times in my twenties. And it really devastated me. Because I gained it back each time. I gained it back more. It was such a racket. All those diet things were such a racket. I would go into deep depression, which I'd always struggled with. I would go into that cycle of like, suddenly people want to talk to me because I'm skinny and pretty looking. And then like, and I'm not funny. I was not funny at all when I was skinny.

• 57:42Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 57:43Speaker 02

  And so that's the only reason that I eat cream cheese on Pop Tarts now. Just stay funny.

• 57:51Amy Poehler?

  But, but you

• 57:52Speaker 02

  But now I feel like

• 57:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I mean, well, I think you speak to, you're speaking to a lot of people who are listening, who understand, and you're really honest and very compassionate about how that can be a lifelong struggle.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I have been on the, the shot. I, I've been on the shot this year on a very microdosed way that helped me a lot.

• 58:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 58:16Speaker 02

  With inflammation, pain, everything, and it got me, I had kept gaining again, and it got me down to this kind of like, I just want to live a long life. And so I'm now, it's not about, because I have a younger wife. She's 22. She's 42.

• 58:33Amy Poehler?

  Gorgeous, sexy wife, and you're so in love. Janine Brito, a hilarious writer, actress.

• 58:39Speaker 02

  Incredible writer, incredible person, incredible performer.

• 58:42Amy Poehler?

  She's, you guys are the best. Paula, your relationship, for most of us that know you, felt like not only a miracle to come into your life, but just like

• 58:50Speaker 02

  It was a miracle.

• 58:51Amy Poehler?

  Aspirational for us to think about wanting to have a partner.

• 58:54Speaker 02

  It was a miracle, and it taught me truly to, to stop always, you know, not believing that the happy ending can happen. And that's why I'm, the world is dark right now, and I still, no matter how sad it makes me, I, I wake up and I go, it will right itself. It will right itself, because that's the nature of life. It's, you look at nature doing it, you know, there's a disaster, and then there's the green coming up, and I really do

• 59:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 59:18Speaker 02

  Believe that, and that I saw it in real time with, with finding her.

• 59:23Amy Poehler?

  Well, when we were trying to figure out who to talk to about this podcast, who, who we should have talked to about Paula, like

• 59:31Speaker 02

  Is it Michelle Obama?

• 59:32Amy Poehler?

  Close. But no, but we were like, we, we have so many, I want you to know, I know you know this, but I just want to say out loud, like, I can think of a dozen people that would in five minutes' notice, get on a Zoom to talk to me about you. But we decided to go with your newest best friend, and that was Kim Kardashian.

• 59:57Speaker 02

  I'm the new spokesperson for Skims. She's size inclusive.

• 1:00:01Amy Poehler?

  She is.

• 1:00:02Speaker 02

  And she's a sweetheart.

• 1:00:04Amy Poehler?

  Boy, what a-

• 1:00:04Speaker 02

  I've been drawing the hell out of her.

• 1:00:06Amy Poehler?

  I know. And I really wanted to talk to Kim because, two things, I don't know Kim, but I, her wanting to talk to us about you, I was like, I love this lady. Because people who love Paula and people, I'm speaking about you in the third person, people who love you and know the how funny and talented you are, to me, I'm like, okay, that's, that's a smart person who's paying attention. That's a smart person. And I remember you saying that you worked with her, you started to work with her and her mom, and you were like, she's really fun and easy to work with.

• 1:00:39Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:00:40Amy Poehler?

  You guys are doing a movie together.

• 1:00:42Speaker 02

  We're doing a movie together. We're mid shoot, we're like about two weeks in, and it's with a bunch of other comedy, it's a bunch of comedy ladies that we all know and love. Fortune Feimster, Nikki Glaser, Casey Wilson, Brenda Song. And she is so blending in with them in this group. And it, just her existing was like an inspiration for it because we knew that she wanted to do this kind of idea. And we were like, what would if Kim was just a normal person with a normal life and normal, you know, living situation?

• 1:01:24Speaker 02

  And, and she was around girls that she grew up with, like, what would be that thing? And anyone I talked to, including Lorne Michaels when she hosted, were like, she's really nice. You know, there's, the fame is always equated with someone's an asshole.

• 1:01:39Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 1:01:39Speaker 02

  And that is often true.

• 1:01:41Amy Poehler?

  Often true.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  And our next episode, which is only available

• 1:01:45Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  on another website, the two of us will list those to you. But what I love the most about her is she's an extremely kind, gentle person, really doing a great job playing her part. What I love the most about her, after all those years at SNL, having all those hosts. Is that she is always aware of what she's really good at and what she wants you to be great at, that she knows you're good at.

• 1:02:17Amy Poehler?

  That's a good skill.

• 1:02:17Speaker 02

  And it's like, let's meet, let's meet and do something fun. And that is so valuable to me at this age because I just can't be with people that think they can do my job better than me.

• 1:02:30Amy Poehler?

  Oh, Paula, say it again.

• 1:02:32Speaker 02

  I can't do it.

• 1:02:33Amy Poehler?

  Say, Paula.

• 1:02:34Speaker 02

  I cannot be with people.

• 1:02:35Amy Poehler?

  Paula, I'm gonna put the chair around while you say it. Say it again.

• 1:02:37Speaker 02

  I cannot. Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. I cannot be with people who think they can do a better job than I can in the situation that we're doing right then. Now, they might be just as good at something that I'm doing. I'm not saying I'm better than them, but when people come in, when a host would come in and they have never written something in their life and they're telling you how to write the sketch. I have done that so many times in my life with people and I'm so spiritually exhausted with it. And the first time we met with her, Janine and I wrote this movie together. We came up with it together, drinking, eating soup on a winter day. And Janine and I just started like spinning it, like, wait, what if this? And what if this?

• 1:03:22Speaker 02

  And then we really loved it because it had a lot of heart and it was about female friendship. And it was, we were like, oh, my God, I love this. We ended up like zooming with her. She came there, I thought she'd have like an entourage of people with her on the Zoom, a lot of squares. It was just one square of beautiful Kim Kardashian just going, hey, guys, you know, just being a lovely person. And she's been so great on the set. We have had so much fun.

• 1:03:48Amy Poehler?

  You're absolutely right. People who know what they're good at and also like working with people who are good at what they do, that is a skill. And also, you know, it is, when we were talking to her. One of the questions she has, which is such a sweet question, is also told me a lot about maybe what I sometimes forget, or hopefully don't take for granted, but sometimes do, which is, she was basically saying, do you think Paula is feeling the magic, the sparkly magic of what we have, like I am? You know, it was basically like, and she basically said, I'm having such a good time. I'm like, I can't believe I'm there. I'm new to doing comedy,

• 1:04:31Amy Poehler?

  but I've loved it forever, and I'm having fun. Is Paula having fun? Like, it was such a sweet, cute question.

• 1:04:37Speaker 02

  I love that. And the answer is, hell yeah. And I am in a no asshole zone of joy now. This is our only weapon is joy. That's the only thing we can do now.

• 1:04:45Amy Poehler?

  Okay. And so, the other question that Kim had was, who is someone that you like, you know, is so hilarious that you can't barely get through a scene with them? Like, who really tickles you?

• 1:04:58Speaker 02

  I like that old time, true, classic, like, without the meanness under it.

• 1:05:06Amy Poehler?

  Well, I feel like I saw you do versions of that all the time. And what comes to mind is especially in Lauren's office, where we would have this big meeting, where between dress and air, or after a read through, where all of us would be packed in, and Paula would come in, and you'd just do some version of that with Lauren. And he would, he would just, he's kind of a quiet laugher. He would laugh like this. And you don't see Lauren laughing. I mean, when you're in comedy, you almost can't laugh anymore.

• 1:05:33Speaker 02

  No, you're tired of it. Yeah.

• 1:05:35Amy Poehler?

  And no one would make him laugh harder than you. And Paula would, you'd put two oranges in your bra.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  Yes. I would always, he had oranges always in a bowl, at his little tangerines. And I would always put oranges in my bra, or I would, I've done a lot of things with Lauren.

• 1:05:51Amy Poehler?

  And there's a picture in Lauren's office. Do you want to describe what that picture is?

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  It's my 1980s headshot. And I think it's one of the times that I lost a lot of weight. And it's just that dreamy, it almost looks like an 80s soap star.

• 1:06:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it is very soapy.

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  And I have my hair flipped, and I have a very metallic, almost like alligator Print like, which now would probably be like a beautiful outfit and because everything has come back, but it's very 80s. And I gave it to him. I framed it in a very heavy like crystal frame. And I wrote on it, I'll never forget our time in Saint-Tropez. And it's just this woman heavily filtered looking off. And he has it over by when everyone's sitting there picking the show.

• 1:06:36Amy Poehler?

  It really does look like his old lover.

• 1:06:38Speaker 02

  It looks a little like a corpse. It's just like this, but.

• 1:06:42Amy Poehler?

  When you're new to the show and Paula would do that, it was like watching. I mean, it was like, it was like watching. How would I, how do I describe this? It was like, honestly, it was thrilling. Honestly, it was thrilling to watch a woman come in and just make the big honcho laugh. It honestly, Paula, it made you feel like, oh, maybe he will think I'm funny. Like it, you being fearless in those moments and earning all of the laughs and being the funniest made everybody else feel like, oh, there might be room for me here.

• 1:07:27Amy Poehler?

  Like there might be space for me here.

• 1:07:29Speaker 02

  I mean, if I analyzed it, I probably was always trying to get him to know that I was performatively funny because I, that was something I hid.

• 1:07:38Amy Poehler?

  Sure.

• 1:07:38Speaker 02

  And so for years, it was very painful for me to be in rooms and just be very serious with him. And while we worked on that and I put the joke in, okay, great. Thanks. Thanks, Lauren. And just walking out always very contained. And once I broke through that with him, I felt much better about that. You know what? I didn't get to be in the cast here, but like I, he knows that I'm a funny person.

• 1:08:01Amy Poehler?

  And Paula, it's really interesting as we started this interview, like Midwestern girl doing the right thing. You broke, you keep breaking social protocol and you did it in that office at a time when we were all watching. You really did keep breaking barriers for us that did make it feel really safer and safer for us. Every way and you still do that.

• 1:08:22Speaker 02

  I hope so because now it feels so much better. And I mean, all of it is

• 1:08:27Amy Poehler?

  Sure.

• 1:08:27Speaker 02

  Some some's worse, some's better. But I do feel like in comedy, the the women in rooms, when I go to SNL now and I see the writing staff, like, oh, my

• 1:08:36Amy Poehler?

  Incredible.

• 1:08:36Speaker 02

  Much more diverse and like, there's queer people and thank God, like, it just makes you

• 1:08:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:41Speaker 02

  Feel so much better.

• 1:08:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:43Speaker 02

  And and one last thing I just want to say about who makes me laugh is Janine is one of those people that I never thought in a million years I would ever be with a comedy person. I my ex was not a comedy person, lovely person and funny, but like, not not by trade. But she makes me laugh in that stealthy way that I enjoy so much.

• 1:09:05Amy Poehler?

  I mean, the two of you guys are so so matched comedically. I've never I've never because sometimes, you know, like, people are like, my partner is so funny. And you're like,

• 1:09:13Speaker 02

  Oh, my God.

• 1:09:14Amy Poehler?

  When?

• 1:09:17Amy Poehler?

  Now, we are at three hours.

• 1:09:18Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:09:18Amy Poehler?

  As you requested.

• 1:09:19Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:09:20Amy Poehler?

  So I have two last quick questions for you. One is, how are the dogs?

• 1:09:24Speaker 02

  The dogs are great.

• 1:09:25Amy Poehler?

  How are the pets?

• 1:09:25Speaker 02

  Seen them in a in a month and a half. Janine just went home to see them. We have a an old donkey, a very big white horse that I used to ride, Verbena, and five dogs, one in a wheel cart, and who hauls ass, little tiny paralyzed dog, and three cats.

• 1:09:45Amy Poehler?

  And and and they're all

• 1:09:46Speaker 02

  Two snakes. I'm not done. I'm

• 1:09:48Amy Poehler?

  Wait, you have two snakes? I was like, when did you get those snakes?

• 1:09:51Speaker 02

  I can't get other other classes of animals because they'll start eating each other.

• 1:09:55Amy Poehler?

  Reptiles are a whole thing.

• 1:09:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:57Amy Poehler?

  They're a whole

• 1:09:57Speaker 02

  Well, I couldn't feed them the live animals.

• 1:09:59Amy Poehler?

  Exactly. You have to start

• 1:10:00Speaker 02

  And birds, I hate cages. I love birds, but I unless I can afford someday, an aviary of rescue birds where I can walk in and they can all land on me like

• 1:10:09Amy Poehler?

  And you don't want something that's going to outlive you, like a parrot will outlive you.

• 1:10:12Speaker 02

  That's true. Well, our donkey could live to be like

• 1:10:15Amy Poehler?

  How long?

• 1:10:16Speaker 02

  He's old. He's older now, but like, I we were like, our old horse were like, let's get her. She lost her partner horse. Let's get her a little donkey. We'll adopt an old older donkey. And then the donkey is like 18. How long do they 50 years? Fifty years, we get the rescue, old dogs all the time. And they'll, they'll call and they'll go, you know, we did bring her to the cardiologist. And Noni is, you know, Nino is actually gonna probably not make it for a few weeks. Do you still want him? Of course we want him. A thousand good days in one day. Like, let's just give him a great end of his life. He lives like seven years.

• 1:10:52Amy Poehler?

  Because it's too much love.

• 1:10:53Speaker 02

  Lots of expensive medications.

• 1:10:54Amy Poehler?

  Too much love.

• 1:10:55Speaker 02

  Too much love and medication, which is the nut and name of my book.

• 1:11:00Amy Poehler?

  Too much.

• 1:11:04Amy Poehler?

  And then the last thing is, I want to find a public domain song that we can harmonize to.

• 1:11:08Speaker 02

  Oh, yes.

• 1:11:10Amy Poehler?

  Because you're so good at it.

• 1:11:11Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, I love it.

• 1:11:12Amy Poehler?

  What's a good public domain song? Let's see, that we, we don't have to, that-

• 1:11:16Speaker 02

  Is Amazing Grace?

• 1:11:18Amy Poehler?

  Yes, it is. Amazing Grace, okay.

• 1:11:20Speaker 02

  I have a good one of that.

• 1:11:21Amy Poehler?

  Okay, Paula.

• 1:11:22Speaker 02

  Good harmony, but that's a high. Amazing Grace.

• 1:11:25Amy Poehler?

  What one should I sing?

• 1:11:26Speaker 02

  I'll do the higher, so you just sing the melody.

• 1:11:30Amy Poehler?

  Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. But now I am found.

• 1:12:12Amy Poehler?

  Was blind. But now I see.

• 1:12:27Speaker 02

  Was grace that I had.

• 1:12:30Amy Poehler?

  Paula, that's so good!

• 1:12:33Speaker 02

  We did not rehearse that.

• 1:12:34Amy Poehler?

  We did not.

• 1:12:35Speaker 02

  It's not public domain. Great, it's getting cut.

• 1:12:37Amy Poehler?

  What is it? It costs $150,000? Okay, great, we're gonna cut it.

• 1:12:41Speaker 02

  I will put $20 towards it.

• 1:12:44Amy Poehler?

  Paula, I love you so much.

• 1:12:45Speaker 02

  Thank you. I love you so much.

• 1:12:46Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much for doing this.

• 1:12:48Speaker 02

  It's such an honor to be at the table with you.

• 1:12:52Amy Poehler?

  Are you kidding, Paula? You're the best in the biz.

• 1:12:55Speaker 02

  This is like, I love watching this and hearing it.

• 1:12:57Amy Poehler?

  It's a very expensive table.

• 1:12:59Speaker 02

  It's a big honor. It's a big honor.

• 1:13:00Amy Poehler?

  Paula, I love you so much.

• 1:13:01Speaker 02

  Thank you. I love you so much.

• 1:13:02Amy Poehler?

  Thank you for everything.

• 1:13:04Amy Poehler?

  Paula Pell, you're just so fun to be around. Thank you for doing that. And you know, for this Polar Plunge, there's just so many things that Paula mentioned that she wrote on, great sketches that you should check out at SNL if you're looking to laugh. But I want to remind you about a little YouTube show that she did, not little, big, a big YouTube show called Hudson Valley Ballers, that her and James Anderson, another writer at SNL who was mentioned in this interview, worked on. And Paula and James just play two jerks, two funny, lovable jerks who live in the Hudson Valley. And there's a lot of really funny

• 1:13:46Amy Poehler?

  cameos, stupid people being with other stupid people doing stupid things. So check out Hudson Valley Ballers if you haven't checked that out, and check out Paula on the Burbs. And keep listening to Good Hang. We love that you're here. Thanks for being here and see you soon. Bye.

• 1:14:05Amy Poehler?

  You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaia McMullin, and Aleia Zaniris. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:14:30Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Allstate. Checking Allstate first could save you hundreds on car insurance. Not checking which group chat you're typing in before hitting send? Next thing you know, you sent a scalding hot take about the restaurant to the group with the person who picked it. Yikes. Yeah, checking first is a good idea, so check Allstate first for an auto quote. It could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. This episode is brought to you by Caesar. Dog parents, what do you have on the menu tonight? If you're looking to serve your favorite four-legged friend high-quality wet dog food they'll be genuinely excited about,

• 1:15:14Amy Poehler?

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