Ana Gasteyer

Ana Gasteyer is ready to cut the shit. Amy hangs with her fellow 'SNL' alum and talks about her favorite TikTok hacks for Christmas decorating, hanging with Amy Carter at the White House, and bringing back Marty Culp and Bobbi Mohan-Culp for "SNL50." Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Paula Pell and Ana GasteyerExecutive 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; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and booker Kat SpillaneOriginal Music: Amy Miles Gifts in as fast as 1 hour. Order thru 5pm on 12/24. Introducing Save Your WayTM from Hotels.com. Get instant savings now with Member Prices, or bank as rewards for later. Learn more at hotels.com/product/save-your-way/ 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?

  This episode is brought to you by eBay Live. Here's how it goes. First, you're watching the eBay livestream telling yourself, I'm just looking. And then boom, you see a vintage Rolex go for an absolute steal. Suddenly, a rare Beanie Baby pops up. Adrenaline hits and you're bidding. You might lose that first one, but you bid again and win. And that winning rush? Incredible, because you beat everyone to it. Meanwhile, on eBay Live, you don't just watch the action, you're in it. Download the eBay app to stream and shop live. eBay Live, things people love.

• 0:38Amy Poehler?

  Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. This is our holiday episode. It's our Christmas episode and we have an incredible guest today who's going to celebrate Christmas with us. And you should know, we are off next week and then we are right back. So don't be scared. We just have one week down to give everybody a genuine break and then we're back in the new year. But we are with Anna Gasteyer today. And Anna Gasteyer, writer, singer, Broadway star, sketch comedian, does so many things well and a sweet, dear friend who went through the same SNL sausage factory as we all did. And we talk about that.

• 1:22Amy Poehler?

  We talk about being on the show and how fun it was to bomb. We talk about Christmas and our favorite Christmas songs. And we talk about Annie. Annie comes up, thank God, as does Once Upon a Mattress. And Anna's story about being in the White House. And we also, we talk about her record, Sugar and Booze, a Christmas classic. So it's a great episode and we're starting this episode with another titan, like a genius, comedic legend, a woman who has written some of your favorite sketches at SNL. You know her from AP Bio, from The Mapleworth Murders, from Wine Country, from Girls 5 Abba. She is the one, the only Paula Pell.

• 2:05Amy Poehler?

  Paula, I believe we're getting you in a car.

• 2:14Amy Poehler?

  This episode of Good Hang is presented by Walmart Express Delivery. Getting gifts to your doorstep in as fast as an hour. Who needs elves when Walmart Express Delivery can make Nespresso machines magically appear on your doorstep? And if you do happen to forget something, no judgment. You can even order gifts up until 5:00 PM on December 24th. Santa, you might want to take notes. Download the Walmart app or head to walmart.com and get your gifts delivered fast. Subject to availability, terms and fees apply.

• 2:54Amy Poehler?

  Paula.

• 2:55Speaker 01

  Hi.

• 2:56Amy Poehler?

  Paula, can you see me and hear me?

• 2:59Speaker 01

  Yes, I can see you and hear you.

• 3:02Amy Poehler?

  Oh, Paula.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  I need to... Can you hear me? I think I need...

• 3:06Amy Poehler?

  I hear you, but I don't see you.

• 3:08Speaker 01

  I think I need to hit the... I thought I hit the camera. Oh, hold on. Why isn't it working, Elaine? Yeah. Handing it to Janine to see if she can...

• 3:23Amy Poehler?

  Hi, Janine!

• 3:26Amy Poehler?

  Janine Brito, Paula's beautiful wife.

• 3:29Speaker 01

  I'm trying...

• 3:30Amy Poehler?

  There we go.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  There, my beautiful wife with the new haircut.

• 3:35Amy Poehler?

  Hi, Janine!

• 3:36Speaker 01

  Hi, Amy.

• 3:37Amy Poehler?

  Paula, it's so great that your beautiful wife is also your IT. For a person who just got off an airplane, you look beautiful.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  Well, I just did a... Which Tina Fey is very familiar with. In a car, a full face makeup in about two seconds. Because I did that in the cabs on the way to work all the time.

• 3:58Amy Poehler?

  Yep. We are all pretty good at... I mean, and most women are at like getting your...

• 4:02Speaker 01

  Throwing it on.

• 4:03Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, throwing it on.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  I've gotten really good at just the feel. Like, I can almost... It's like Love is Blind, but it's makeup is blind and you just have people do a full makeover without... by just feel.

• 4:18Amy Poehler?

  Well, it looks great.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  I'm also wearing my lesbian uniform in Los Angeles.

• 4:23Amy Poehler?

  Hmm, I love having you in Los Angeles, Paula.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  It's so nice. It's so beautiful here. We left so much snow.

• 4:31Amy Poehler?

  Well, you know, this episode with Anna Gasteyer is gonna be technically our holiday episode. It's gonna air before Christmas.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yay.

• 4:39Amy Poehler?

  And we are gonna talk-

• 4:40Speaker 01

  You guys better carol. You better sing a carol.

• 4:43Amy Poehler?

  I was like, I wish we could have you in stewed. You love to carol, though.

• 4:48Speaker 01

  I do. I love to carol. I love to harmonize more than anything on earth. If I get, if someone said to me, "This is your job for the rest of your life is just to throw in that alto line and just walk from group to group and throw in that alto line, lay down that bass," I would do it and be the happiest human being on earth.

• 5:08Amy Poehler?

  Although I have also heard you have a very fierce soprano. You can also hit those high notes.

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Well, sometimes. I do think lately in my 60s, I have had experiences where I thought I was nailing it and then I listened to it back on the video. Very mortifying. Just a little sharp. And I like to sing a certain kind of sharp for Janine that really makes her put her face down in the cereal in the morning. Because it's just a little bit. It's just, just a little overshoot.

• 5:37Amy Poehler?

  Um, could you give us an example of it?

• 5:39Speaker 01

  It's just the naivety of you.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  It's like finding it. You're just, it's like a level and you're always just finding it and then you finally get it.

• 5:52Amy Poehler?

  Only a good, as good of a singer as you, Paula Pell, can do good, bad singing.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  That's such a thing in comedy. You're always like, "Don't try to sing bad. Don't try to sing bad."

• 6:04Amy Poehler?

  It's funny. I want to talk to Anna about it. Like, what is the difference between good singing and comedy singing?

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:11Amy Poehler?

  It's, it's, it's very, it's a very fine line. Um, so we're talking to Anna Gasteyer today. What's great about Anna? Let's, let's talk well behind her back.

• 6:20Speaker 01

  Anna is-

• 6:23Speaker 01

  So many things at once speaking out and she's such a multi, multi, multi hyphenate. It's like every time you turn, she's doing a new job that's something where it's like, oh my God, like just Broadway and writing and movies and you know, she and Rachel writing that hilarious Christmas movie and then she's on really funny television shows as really funny characters. And then she's like playing the violin in a video she sends us to crack us up. That's like incredibly skilled violin. Um, so I just, I admire that so much in her, but I also, she came and stayed with us to

• 7:07Speaker 01

  write this Bobby and Marty recently for the 50th. And we sat in our pajamas at my house, at our house, and we just sat and just really broke it down. She's so good at sitting and just really asking questions. She's a curious, present friend. She's really, uh, such pure medicine to my soul to just really talk about everything.

• 7:34Amy Poehler?

  We should talk, we've been on many trips together. A bunch of the SNL ladies have gone together, uh, on, um, girl trips. Maya, you, me, Dratch, Tina, Anna, um, Spivey and-

• 7:49Speaker 01

  The Wine Country Gang.

• 7:50Amy Poehler?

  The Wine Country Gang and we have been, we're kind of overdue for a trip.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Very overdue.

• 7:58Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we need to-

• 7:59Speaker 01

  We're gonna all bring our grandchildren. Next time, it's just gonna be a playdate. We'll all be there with our grandchildren and I'll have, Janine and I'll have our granddogs because we cloned Barbra Streisand style.

• 8:12Amy Poehler?

  How are all the doggies doing? Can you name all the doggies' names while we have you?

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Yes, we have Ernie who used to have four buck teeth and now he has nothing and no chin. Ernie is a very obnoxious little, um, chihuahua with a penis the size of his legs. And then Gary is perfection. He's a poodle mix. He's perfect, perfect child. And then we have Dolly, who's like a Shih Tzu mix, who looks like she's wearing a wig and she's very tender and gives a lot of side eye. And then we have our only young dogs. We always adopt old dogs and now we've adopted a younger dog who makes us say about 30 fucks before 10 o'clock in the morning because she's so obnoxious, is Bunny a Beagle Basset and she starts at about

• 8:58Speaker 01

  5:30 and stares at you in the dark and you see her silhouette. She goes

• 9:06Speaker 01

  and just does that until you just go, just get up and she, you get up and feed them. And then who's, who am I missing? And then Tallulah is in a wheelchair, a little wheel cart, and she's an eight pound, tiny, tiny little mix. She looks kinda like a smooth haired Pekinese a little bit and she has no feeling in her back half of her body and is faster than any of the dogs, even without her wheels. She flies through the air, just running on her front two legs and she used to despise me the first year and then I left for four months to shoot something and I came back and she loves me now.

• 9:46Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so any question you think we should ask Anna today?

• 9:49Speaker 01

  I have, I have a legit one and then I have just one quick little funny one, if you want to ask her this. The funny one is, um, her dog Gloria, speaking of dogs, eats things all the time that she's not supposed to. I just wanted to know, I think we should all be updated on what the latest thing that she devoured and then hasn't come out yet.

• 10:09Amy Poehler?

  Great.

• 10:11Speaker 01

  And when it came out, was it recognizable?

• 10:14Amy Poehler?

  Great.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  And then, um, and then my real question is, because she's such a multi hyphenate, between writing, when she's writing, or when she's singing, or when she's doing comedy, which one of those makes her feel the most free? Just glorious, untethered euphoria? Which one gives her the biggest shawl that way?

• 10:43Amy Poehler?

  Perfect. Thank you so much. Paula, love you. Can't wait to talk to you in, in length one day and so happy here. Love you, love you. Bye bye. This episode is brought to you by hotels.com. Make your next trip work for you. Hotels.com just rolled out a game changing feature called Save Your Way, and it's as simple as it sounds. When you book a trip as a hotels.com member, you decide how to use your savings. Choose to take the instant savings now or bank the savings as rewards for later. It's your call. Turn discounts on this week's stay into rewards for a luxurious beach getaway next year. No complicated math, no blackout dates, just you choosing how to make your travels work harder for you.

• 11:28Amy Poehler?

  Only at hotels.com. Save Your Way is available to loyalty members in the US and UK on hotels with member prices. Other terms apply. See site for details. You've got, what are you wearing?

• 11:40Speaker 02

  I have my tartan. I have a tartan. Oh, it's a bad angle.

• 11:43Amy Poehler?

  There it is. Tartan shoe.

• 11:44Speaker 02

  Does that look natural?

• 11:48Speaker 02

  I wore my holiday pumps.

• 11:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, because I do try. I try to think about what the guest is gonna...

• 11:52Speaker 02

  It's tartan season.

• 11:53Amy Poehler?

  This is our Christmas episode.

• 11:54Speaker 02

  I know. I got excited, so I'm... How many times a year you think I can wear this sucker?

• 11:59Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, those are cute.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, aren't they cute?

• 12:00Amy Poehler?

  There, isn't it weird to wear it in like sunny Los Angeles?

• 12:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, it does feel weird. And it's a sweeter-y texture. It's a sweeter-y tartan. I don't know if you can see the texture. So it's very holiday. Anyway.

• 12:11Amy Poehler?

  We are gonna, this is gonna be our Christmas episode.

• 12:13Speaker 02

  It's our Christmas episode!

• 12:14Amy Poehler?

  And I have so many things I want to talk to you about today.

• 12:17Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah.

• 12:17Amy Poehler?

  Very excited that you're here. Thank you for doing it.

• 12:19Speaker 02

  Never enough time. Always so much to talk about.

• 12:21Amy Poehler?

  Never enough time.

• 12:22Speaker 02

  I know.

• 12:22Amy Poehler?

  And, um, but it's very exciting that you are the Christmas episode because I do associate you with Christmas in many ways. You have a Christmas album. You go on tour at Christmas.

• 12:31Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 12:31Amy Poehler?

  And you yourself love Christmas.

• 12:33Speaker 02

  Yes, I do.

• 12:33Amy Poehler?

  What do you love about Christmas?

• 12:34Speaker 02

  Well, I call myself the Duchess of Christmas. Actually, a nice gay called me that, and I took it, obviously. I love the, it's so weird. It's like, but it's, uh, A, I love the holidays. B, I mean, like the resume sort of... Leans in that direction because I my my like legacy moments at SNL were, you know, sweaty balls and the Martha Stewart topless Christmas, which was my first like thing that succeeded there.

• 12:57Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 12:58Speaker 02

  And they run every year on the Christmas episode.

• 12:59Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 13:00Speaker 02

  So on that special, so it comes up for people. And then Dratch and I wrote that Christmas movie, which is a parody of the Hallmark films.

• 13:08Amy Poehler?

  Tell everybody what it is again.

• 13:09Speaker 02

  It's called A Cluster Funk Christmas and it is a parody. It's a perfect parody. The goal was to make the perfect parody of the for the ultimate Hallmark lover.

• 13:20Amy Poehler?

  Right. Of which you are. You are.

• 13:23Speaker 02

  I love a Hallmark movie. I love a Hallmark movie and I love the holidays. I love the holidays.

• 13:27Amy Poehler?

  So what kind of decorations, because we are on a we're on a text chain. We send each other like our prep.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:34Amy Poehler?

  What decorations do you have up right now? What are you looking forward to for like in the levels of what's going on?

• 13:40Speaker 02

  Right. So it's all sort of contingent upon how much I'm traveling and how exhausted I am by visual clutter that year. So which is fair, right? So I'm actually going full tilt thunder hump on Friday. The boxes are out. I'm going to do New York for the first time in a really long time. I haven't done it in a long, long time. I've I've worked on Christmas a lot because during the Broadway shows.

• 14:01Amy Poehler?

  Because you're a pro babe and pros work on Christmas.

• 14:04Speaker 02

  Christmas, yeah. So you end up a lot of my things are which are so up your alley. I know like they're sort of hacks. They're like hacks to still be festive and still enjoy it and still be present in it, but maybe have it not be sort of enslaved by it. Do you know what I mean? So that so I have, for example, I can go full tilt thunder hump, which I'm going to do this year and I'm gonna, you know.

• 14:27Amy Poehler?

  What does that mean?

• 14:28Speaker 02

  That means like the trees and the lights and the garland and the swag and the, you know, all the Tik Tok hacks, like with the with the curtain rod and the, you know, garland going across it and.

• 14:38Amy Poehler?

  Let's slow down.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Woodland woodland forests.

• 14:41Amy Poehler?

  Let's slow down. I just heard my one of my favorites.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  Tik Tok hacks.

• 14:45Amy Poehler?

  Tik Tok hacks.

• 14:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know.

• 14:47Amy Poehler?

  And the scarland goes where?

• 14:48Speaker 02

  So you get yourself some like Walmart or, you know, the tension rod. And you can put it like in a doorway, like where you would hang mistletoe and you can basically. Go to Trader Joe's or Costco or whatever and get your garland and you can make a really beautiful archway if you use that tension rod.

• 15:07Amy Poehler?

  So you get what you would put curtains, right. So you have to go buy that hardware.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  But that's like $4.

• 15:12Amy Poehler?

  And wrap it in garland.

• 15:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:14Amy Poehler?

  And then put it in a doorway.

• 15:16Speaker 02

  And then hang it down, put a little teacup hooks, do you know those little teacup hooks that people, you can buy them at the five and dime also at the Walmart, you know, the five and dime.

• 15:26Amy Poehler?

  At Woolworths five and dime.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  At Woolworths, pop, pop, down Woolworths when you're doing your stockings, stuffing your stuffers. And you can put your garland down it and you could do lights, you can pre, Ikea has, or everybody now has, but I do an Ikea run every holiday because they're real cute.

• 15:41Amy Poehler?

  Anna Gasteyer is here and she is telling us about Christmas. I knew you would give me good stuff.

• 15:45Speaker 02

  And I love a craft brown paper, just brown paper packages tied up in strings. That's, that's the whole.

• 15:50Amy Poehler?

  Brown paper packages tied up in strings.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  That's, you just get it.

• 15:54Amy Poehler?

  That's how you wrap.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  That's how I wrap.

• 15:55Amy Poehler?

  I have a question about the brown paper. I find it a little heavy sometimes for tape.

• 15:59Speaker 02

  Because of the gauge, you've got to get a thinner gauge.

• 16:03Amy Poehler?

  A thinner gaged paper.

• 16:05Speaker 02

  Craft paper.

• 16:06Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 16:07Speaker 02

  It's called craft paper.

• 16:08Amy Poehler?

  What are we talking tree?

• 16:09Speaker 02

  I have a feather tabletop, tabletop, I have a tinsel like sort of medium and then I finally am just going to do live or bust. You know what I mean?

• 16:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and the one thing I'll say about live, I usually do a real Christmas tree. I like that we're calling it a live. Live from, live from Christmas.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Bring it alive.

• 16:26Amy Poehler?

  Is, and I know there's ones where you can even have ones that they repot.

• 16:30Speaker 02

  In California.

• 16:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:32Speaker 02

  You can't really find that on the east coast. I've tried.

• 16:34Amy Poehler?

  What, well, the thing that I always bamboozles me about a real Christmas tree, which I still do, is I think it's going to smell so good and it never does anymore.

• 16:42Speaker 02

  Because they've been cut so long ago.

• 16:44Amy Poehler?

  Christmas trees used to smell better. Now they don't smell like they used to.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Well, that's, you know, that's, that's genetic modification.

• 16:53Amy Poehler?

  Oh, God.

• 16:54Speaker 02

  Right there.

• 16:55Amy Poehler?

  It's so true.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  And I mean, sometimes you just got to do, well, I use the, do you ever do like aromatherapy or?

• 17:01Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I'll put in a pine candle.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  Pine candle. You know who's got a nice pine candle this year?

• 17:05Amy Poehler?

  Who?

• 17:06Speaker 02

  Trader Joe. I stopped by yesterday because again, California Trader Joe's are like.

• 17:11Amy Poehler?

  I like that you said it singularly.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Trader Joe has invested and it's at his, his eponymous shop.

• 17:22Speaker 02

  I love, I love my Trader Joe's.

• 17:24Amy Poehler?

  And you love Trader Joe's.

• 17:25Speaker 02

  But I like, I like, I do love Christmas, but again, I will not be overrun by it.

• 17:30Amy Poehler?

  Of course.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  I love, like, this is why I made a holiday album. I love my holiday album. It's very old fashioned. It's a little winky. You've seen my show. It's very like throwbacky.

• 17:40Amy Poehler?

  Your holiday album, Sugar and Booze, is so great.

• 17:44Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 17:44Amy Poehler?

  And your shows that, that you do to support it are so fun.

• 17:48Speaker 02

  It's a holiday spectacular.

• 17:49Amy Poehler?

  Yes, tell us about them.

• 17:51Speaker 02

  Well, I like to do, we, well, I like to perform with a horn section. So that's for starters, because I have a loud voice. And I like to wear a tart and, and get dressed up. And I like, it feels very like, so my, how do I answer this succinctly?

• 18:07Amy Poehler?

  Do you have to?

• 18:09Speaker 02

  I don't know. It depends, do we want to spend the whole hour on this?

• 18:12Amy Poehler?

  But I mean, this is, this is a real, this is a good, this is a real good question, which is like, talk however you want, babe.

• 18:19Speaker 02

  Okay, you're right. It's called Good Hang.

• 18:21Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, Good Hang. We don't have to get it right. We don't have to be succinct.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  No, we don't, you're right, we can cut it.

• 18:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we can cut the shit out of it.

• 18:28Speaker 02

  Let's cut the shit.

• 18:29Amy Poehler?

  We can make this podcast six minutes.

• 18:30Speaker 02

  You know what the name of this, this podcast should be called? Cut the shit.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  Cut the shit with Amy Poehler and Friends.

• 18:38Amy Poehler?

  We should do a clip show where we call it Cut the Shit, and it's all the stuff that we cut.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  And so, kind of in the, the 1959, early 60s entertainer's era really spoke to me. Because it was a time when a gal, you know, Rosemary Clooney would probably be like the idol. Like a gal who could tell a good story.

• 18:59Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 19:00Speaker 02

  Could, could, you know, belt to the rafters, play in front of a big band, carry a band. An, an, an evening of entertainment. So when we set out to make the holiday album, it was really to create a record that, you know, wasn't kitschy or like, you know.

• 19:17Amy Poehler?

  It's not a comedy record.

• 19:19Speaker 02

  Comedy record, it's not a campy record, but has, you know, it's me, so it's, there's fun to it. But really I wanted it, the goal was to have it play seamlessly with, you know, a Frank Sinatra Christmas record, or, you know, a classic Christmas record while you're... Making cocktails and wrapping presents and-

• 19:36Amy Poehler?

  It's a perfect record for that.

• 19:38Speaker 02

  Tree trimming.

• 19:39Amy Poehler?

  Tree trimming. It is so goo- tree trimming a live tree.

• 19:42Speaker 02

  It's a tree trimming a live tree, a live tree. Or Balsam Hill.

• 19:45Amy Poehler?

  Or Balsam Hill.

• 19:46Speaker 02

  I don't wanna, you know.

• 19:47Amy Poehler?

  It is, it's such a good record. And it, it is, it's just the right amount of like whimsy combined with really, really good singing and many original Christmas songs, which is hard to do to make an original Christmas song.

• 20:01Speaker 02

  Really hard. And I'm, I love Christmas rec- I love Christmas songs, but they're really, really hard.

• 20:05Amy Poehler?

  Do you love?

• 20:06Speaker 02

  Well, I like a lot of the ones that are on the record. I love Sleigh Ride. I love, um, Man with a Bag, which I just think is a structurally-

• 20:13Amy Poehler?

  Oh, it's on your record, yeah.

• 20:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's on the record. Um, there's, there's some bad Christmas songs that we listen to every year just because they're out there over and over again.

• 20:22Amy Poehler?

  There's, I have to say Deck the Hall is not my fave.

• 20:25Speaker 02

  No.

• 20:26Amy Poehler?

  And Wish, and We Wish You Merry Christmas is not my fave.

• 20:28Speaker 02

  It's boring.

• 20:29Amy Poehler?

  It's boring.

• 20:29Speaker 02

  They're boring. There's a lot of, a lot of them. I mean, even Rockin' Around a Christmas, The Christmas Tree is kind of a boring song.

• 20:35Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 20:35Speaker 02

  Structurally, in the kind of carol canon, I think God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen has a really great rhythm. We actually have a new arrangement of it this year, which we're doing on stage. God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day. Bum bum bum. You can hear it, right?

• 20:57Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 20:57Speaker 02

  It's got a nice- To save us all from Satan's power when he was gone astray. Oh tidings of comfort and joy.

• 21:07Amy Poehler?

  Comfort and joy.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a good song. It's a good tune. But also, um, I, so we tried to write a few songs that would fit into that. And so that was, I wrote the title track Showroom Booze with that in, in mind, because I wanted it to feel like an old fashioned song.

• 21:20Amy Poehler?

  When you were, when you were growing up and, and now, what are your like Christmas albums that are on rotation?

• 21:25Speaker 02

  My parents are classical music people, remember? So there's a lot of Messiah Jam, a lot of Messiah Jams.

• 21:33Speaker 02

  You know, a lot of Ceremony of the Carols, you know.

• 21:38Amy Poehler?

  Oh wait, if you do that, I remember my part from choir. If you do the dun dun.

• 21:42Speaker 02

  Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.

• 21:48Amy Poehler?

  I was the alto. I was the alto. And that was my part.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  Here come the bells, so many bells.

• 22:03Amy Poehler?

  Ding dong, ding dong. Here come the bells, so many bells. Here come the bells, here come the bells, here come the bells.

• 22:15Speaker 02

  Can you rock a desk count?

• 22:16Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 22:17Speaker 02

  Rock a desk count.

• 22:17Amy Poehler?

  What's the hello you wanna?

• 22:19Speaker 02

  That, "Oh come all ye faithful," was what I was just doing. That's the, okay, start singing "Oh come," and I'll do the desk count.

• 22:24Amy Poehler?

  Oh come all ye.

• 22:26Speaker 02

  You can go up a little higher. Oh come.

• 22:28Amy Poehler?

  Oh come all ye faithful. Joyful and triumphant.

• 22:39Speaker 02

  Keep going. Do the "Oh come," "Oh come," again. Let's adore Him.

• 22:42Amy Poehler?

  Okay. Sorry, do "Oh come."

• 22:44Speaker 02

  Oh come, let, do that. Oh come, let us adore Him.

• 22:46Amy Poehler?

  Oh come, let us adore Him. Oh come, let us adore Him. Oh come, let us adore Him in Christ the Lord.

• 23:05Speaker 02

  Aced it.

• 23:06Amy Poehler?

  You remembered.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  It's all in there. It's like your movie, in, uh, Inside Out. Those music things are all trapped in your brain. I know. They're all in there. They're in the deep gray matter.

• 23:17Amy Poehler?

  And they're so nostalgic.

• 23:19Speaker 02

  They're so beautiful.

• 23:20Amy Poehler?

  They're so melancholy.

• 23:21Speaker 02

  I know.

• 23:21Amy Poehler?

  They're so sad.

• 23:22Speaker 02

  I know, they're sad.

• 23:23Amy Poehler?

  See, okay, so I find Christmas sad.

• 23:26Speaker 02

  Yes, I know. I know. But, and by the way.

• 23:29Amy Poehler?

  I find it sad.

• 23:30Speaker 02

  A lot of people do.

• 23:30Amy Poehler?

  I find it sad, and I get, now I've gotten into, now I get into the sadness of Christmas like a cozy blanket. I used to fight it, fight it, because sad is not my favorite state.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 23:42Amy Poehler?

  It's often, um, not where I wanna, like, I'm uncomfortable sometimes in sadness, but Christmas allows me to get... Well, some people are just like a little bit more, um, uh, they can just tolerate it, or it's...

• 23:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, they know it comes and goes a bit.

• 23:55Amy Poehler?

  You know, like, it's like sadness and anger. I'd much rather be angry than sad.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  Same. And mostly am.

• 24:03Amy Poehler?

  So I get into the sadness of Christmas like I'm like, I'm just like looking like, you know, when you're in your own music video and you look in the,

• 24:10Speaker 02

  You like the post, fairy tale of New York.

• 24:12Amy Poehler?

  I love.

• 24:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. That's your jam.

• 24:21Amy Poehler?

  But let's talk about your classical music parents and your little Anna's beginning into music, because I'm very interested in that very like that early time.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  So, thank you. So I played the violin.

• 24:35Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Very seriously. It's so lonely. It's the funniest thing. And by the way, I'm grateful, I'm very grateful for obviously the sacrifice that, I mean, you know, we spent all this time resenting them and then you realize the things that they've done as you get older and they get older and it's kind of a relief, but I mean, the schlepping alone, like just the amount of times to like prac, you know, to lessons.

• 24:57Amy Poehler?

  Why did you choose the violin? Do you remember? Was it chosen for you?

• 25:00Speaker 02

  I think it was probably chosen for me. I had an aunt that played and I like, I love her. So I think I thought it was cool. And the violin I still play to this day was my aunt's violin that my grandfather was given in the depression in lieu of a payment for legal services at some point. So it's like 150 year old violin, but it's, it's not like fancy. It's not like a

• 25:22Amy Poehler?

  It's not a Stradivarius?

• 25:24Speaker 02

  It's not a Strad, but I have had it like looked at because it's kind of interesting as an instrument and I still play that instrument to this day. And I, I took it to fiddle camp with me last summer.

• 25:34Amy Poehler?

  Oh yeah, Anna went to fiddle camp.

• 25:36Speaker 02

  I did. It's a real conversation starter. And by that, I mean

• 25:41Amy Poehler?

  On an airplane?

• 25:42Speaker 02

  Everybody, everybody flees the area.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  My, yes. Anyway, I played violin as a little kid. I started and I played until I was about 17. And I, I was good and lazy. I was a Gryffindor.

• 25:58Speaker 02

  Which set up a lifetime of talented laziness and sort of landing on your feet. So I could fake it for a long, long time. And then there becomes a breakage point.

• 26:07Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 26:08Speaker 02

  In classical music.

• 26:09Amy Poehler?

  It feels that way with music and athletics, those two things especially, where you are like loving it and you're good at it. And then there's a moment where it's like, okay, now you have to decide, am I going to the next level? Am I playing in college? Am I going to join an orchestra?

• 26:22Speaker 02

  First of all, it's so solitary. And it is, it's two things. It's deeply solitary. And it is, I have, I am a perfectionist.

• 26:31Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:32Speaker 02

  And it is torture for perfectionists. Because even though I was lazy, I was a perfectionist. So it's a weird, I mean that, I mean that I'm not lazy. I'm gonna read.

• 26:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I, let's re-

• 26:43Speaker 02

  Let's cut the shit.

• 26:43Amy Poehler?

  You know, let's cut the shit.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  Let's cut the shit.

• 26:46Amy Poehler?

  Let's cut the shit. We'll be right back.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  No, I'm not-

• 26:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, let's reframe lazy.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  I wanna reframe, what I mean is that, I wasn't passionate about violin. So I didn't want to lock myself in a room.

• 27:00Amy Poehler?

  There you go.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  Because truly like athletics, like you said, it's, suddenly it is eight hours a day, six hours a day, like, going to school, like, you know, it's not going to school late or leaving early in the afternoon to practice, practice, practice, practice, till your hands fall off.

• 27:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:12Speaker 02

  And it's lonely. It's really lonely.

• 27:14Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  And unbelievably sad. It is a sad instrument.

• 27:18Amy Poehler?

  Violin is the saddest instrument ever, and that's, I, I do kinda love that about it.

• 27:23Speaker 02

  I mean, it's beautiful.

• 27:24Amy Poehler?

  I'm realizing now that Christmas and violins are both the way I get into my sad state.

• 27:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:28Amy Poehler?

  I love that.

• 27:29Speaker 02

  Well, I, it's funny, because I'm writing a song called Sad Violin at Christmas.

• 27:33Amy Poehler?

  Really?

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, you just made me come up with the title. But that is, I've been thinking about a sad violin. Because it's sad. It's a lonely, wistful, melancholic instrument. And I, there's something incredibly powerful about it, obviously, but, so then, what, I, in 7th grade, don't laugh, I had my first star turn. I was legally blind also, as a kid. So I, I mean, I still am legally blind. So I also had an eye patch a lot of my childhood, and I had a violin. So just put all that together.

• 28:01Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, hot stuff.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  And put it through the comedy Play-Doh machine. That's why, hot stuff.

• 28:07Amy Poehler?

  And were we wearing the patch during the day?

• 28:09Speaker 02

  We were rocking the patch.

• 28:09Amy Poehler?

  Not, not at home.

• 28:10Speaker 02

  We were rocking the patch. So, um, right, around, um, I did, went to camp for the violin, but around 7th grade, I got cast, wait for it, as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.

• 28:24Speaker 02

  So I was able to pull a lot of my story into the part.

• 28:32Speaker 02

  And that's what I was like, I mean, by the way.

• 28:35Amy Poehler?

  And you put that on your Tinder profile, yes?

• 28:37Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, I do. Yes, I do. And my grinder.

• 28:40Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and your grinder. Tinder and grinder, you're on both. And you're very unsuccessful on grinder. Very unsuccessful on grinder.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  So far.

• 28:48Amy Poehler?

  You're right.

• 28:48Speaker 02

  Not after today.

• 28:49Amy Poehler?

  Fingers crossed.

• 28:53Speaker 02

  So hilariously, Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker was like my aha. I think this is really fun.

• 29:01Amy Poehler?

  Right. You were, you got to perform.

• 29:03Speaker 02

  I got to perform.

• 29:04Amy Poehler?

  And you found passion there.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  Yes. And so then, and then it became Claire Goodsting. So I did all the parts and everything in high school. I'm sure you did too, but.

• 29:12Amy Poehler?

  As a kid, though, you know, because you, you have, you're, you're an exuberant, kind of upregulated kid. Like you're, you're, you're more extroverted than what, than the patch and violin would make me think. But were you an introverted kid? What kind of kid were you?

• 29:25Speaker 02

  I don't think of myself as an outgoing kid at all.

• 29:28Amy Poehler?

  Got it.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  Or even as an outgoing person, to be honest, or upregulated or exuberant. On stage, I am.

• 29:33Amy Poehler?

  Interesting.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  And with you, maybe I am.

• 29:35Amy Poehler?

  Interesting.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  But I, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know.

• 29:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you are. You feel how you feel about yourself.

• 29:40Speaker 02

  I mean, I was, I, everyone in my high school was super, super funny.

• 29:44Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 29:45Speaker 02

  And I was always friends with funny people.

• 29:46Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 29:47Speaker 02

  But I always liked SNL and people like, you're the class clown. Like, I was, no, I was not the class clown. I was the person in the back row who snickered and made jokes.

• 29:56Amy Poehler?

  You've told this on many podcasts and things, but I still think it's just fascinating that you were among many people that were your friends during that time. You were friends with Amy Carter.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  Crazy.

• 30:06Amy Poehler?

  Amy Carter, the daughter of President Jimmy Carter.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 30:09Amy Poehler?

  Who, for people who are not our age, Jimmy Carter was a president. But also, and the best ex-president we've ever had.

• 30:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure.

• 30:20Amy Poehler?

  And Amy was so exciting as a, as the presidential kid. She was like our Sasha and Malia.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:27Amy Poehler?

  Because he had young kids, Chip and Amy, and was that it?

• 30:30Speaker 02

  Yeah. And she was much younger than her siblings.

• 30:32Amy Poehler?

  I mean, my name was Amy, so I was like blown away.

• 30:35Speaker 02

  I know.

• 30:36Amy Poehler?

  And she was just like this girl in the White House. It was very exciting.

• 30:39Speaker 02

  And she was nor, well, probably for you too. I imagine you, I know you are a reader now. You were probably a child, a childhood reader. I was too. She was a violinist. I mean, boom. And she, yeah, we were in an after-school like GT program together and became friends. I mean, it was just an instant, like, whatever, books, books, books, glasses and violins. Am I right? Um, and Come on, guys. Come on, let's party. Let's party. And, um, everybody would get invited to these, you know, group events at the White House. Right. Um, many of which were in the beautiful East Ballroom, which has now been leveled by our Or made more beautiful, depending on who you talk to. Great point, great point. Um, it's gonna be gorgeous, Anna. You know what? I stand corrected. Let's wait and see how it comes out. I stand corrected.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  I have a feeling it's gonna be gorgeous. And I just saw the Christmas decor. And you're right. And it's gorgeous. It's warm as always. It's always so warm. Oh, so inviting. I wonder if it smells like French onion soup. Or wassle. When you walk in. Gorgeous. Okay. So, but you're going, you're in the East Ballroom. Multiple parties and things. And one of my early memories, this was, this was such an extra double brain blow of like early synaptic development. The cast, the original Broadway cast of Annie was performing at the White House Christmas party. Exactly. Exactly. Like the whole, it was too many things. It was too many things. I don't think I knew that. Like four feet away from us.

• 32:07Speaker 02

  It was like her little friends from, her, you know, Gift and Talented Program and her friends from school and various White House of people's children. Yep. And then like Andrea McArdle and actual Sandy, right over there. Oh, my. And Buckets, Hard Knocks Life in it. Buckets. And then I did Annie at the Hollywood Bowl like five or six years ago. What? And I didn't know this either. It was during, um, it was right after Wine Country. I think you were probably buried in editing. Who, you Miss Hannigan? Natch? Who else? What a I was Annie. I was Annie.

• 32:39Speaker 02

  I thought, why not?

• 32:41Amy Poehler?

  Well, there is that other part, the, we've got to, you know, there's the and ranking part. Oh, yeah. Oh, God.

• 32:47Speaker 02

  Lily. No, but the, uh...

• 32:49Amy Poehler?

  My, my mind is blown.

• 32:51Speaker 02

  So, mind blowing wise, when I did Annie at the Bowl, the same animal, there's one animal trainer on Broadway who does all, all animal training.

• 32:58Amy Poehler?

  And we've probably done, played her or him on SNL.

• 33:02Speaker 02

  He's the most delightful person. His name is Bill Berlone, and he does, he, he adopted the original Sandy from Animal Control, and he trained her for the good speed production, and then like traveled with every Annie production ever. And then now has become like sort of the Broadway, he does all Broadway animals, but he's a wonderful person. And he, and he's a big advocate for animal, um, rights and, you know, whatever. He's not the type that we had at SNL that would be like,

• 33:26Amy Poehler?

  I got a gecko in the van if you need it, you know, like, I'd be like, you gotta hit it with a stick till it have him let you go. I mean, uh, can a llama do that? I don't know, but you hit it with a stick.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  She's got seventeen out of van in her, so I don't know if it's gonna happen today.

• 33:41Amy Poehler?

  Dude, were you there with the dog? This tortoise is gonna bite you if you hold it the wrong way. What's the right way? Hell if I know.

• 33:53Speaker 02

  There was a donkey sketch? Were you there for the donkey sketch? No.

• 33:56Amy Poehler?

  No, I wasn't there yet.

• 33:57Speaker 02

  But there was, you know, like these donkeys like going down those floors, like, it's just the worst.

• 34:01Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my God.

• 34:02Speaker 02

  And then they doped them, and then like by live, they're like,

• 34:08Speaker 02

  and it's not moving. It was nightmare.

• 34:10Amy Poehler?

  Nightmare.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  Anyway, Bill Berlone has these beautifully trained show dogs. All things show, like, it's funny, even, even like showbiz children who I'm afraid of, and we all should be, are wonderful on Broadway, because again, it's all work ethic on Broadway. Everything is routine and work ethic. And so, a lot of the sort of like,

• 34:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 34:26Speaker 02

  crazy, it's different kind of crazy, but it's different, it's more like a proper OCD crazy, which I'm comfortable with.

• 34:32Amy Poehler?

  So, but just getting back, you're in the White House, Annie's performing.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  So, Bill Berlone had a picture. That's why, that's why I brought Bill Berlone up, because he, he had a picture from the 1977 White House Christmas party. With me, all these people, it's mind blowing.

• 34:46Amy Poehler?

  You're in the picture?

• 34:47Speaker 02

  It's insane, with the original.

• 34:48Amy Poehler?

  Oh, do you have a copy of it?

• 34:49Speaker 02

  No. But he showed it.

• 34:51Amy Poehler?

  You didn't even take it with your phone?

• 34:52Speaker 02

  No, I shouldn't have brought it up, now that I think about it.

• 34:58Speaker 02

  I also got a picture once with Paul McCartney and then lost my phone and don't have it. Um, oh, well. So, but so Amy Carter of it. Here's the Amy Carter story. Okay, that's the most my, so all of it gets munched together into this kind of crazy. Like, there was a movie theater in the White House and you would go and be like, please join us, you know, and the president to for viewing of Pete's Dragon with Helen Reddy, you know, like, yeah, things like that. That would be like, because nobody, we didn't have VHS or anything back then. It was like the olden times.

• 35:29Amy Poehler?

  Yep, sure was.

• 35:31Speaker 02

  And then that's the crazy, crazy story is that I went to the Camp David for the Camp David Accords with the Carters and we played the violin, which was crazy. And for, for the very first United States Middle East treaty.

• 35:45Amy Poehler?

  That, so you played violin for?

• 35:47Speaker 02

  For Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter.

• 35:50Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 35:51Speaker 02

  And me and Amy, and it was all in just one room. And we played, we played Suzuki violin.

• 35:56Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember where you played?

• 35:59Speaker 02

  She, um.

• 36:00Amy Poehler?

  Cuttin' that joe.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  I mean, it was literally like, yeah, lightly row or some, you know, minuet and G or, I don't know, something.

• 36:07Amy Poehler?

  Oh, that must have been so tender. Right?

• 36:11Speaker 02

  Maybe, as I've said before, maybe that could have worked a little harder to make Middle East peace.

• 36:17Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 36:17Speaker 02

  Set it, set it on the right road.

• 36:19Amy Poehler?

  It didn't work.

• 36:19Speaker 02

  It didn't work.

• 36:20Amy Poehler?

  Um, and then you, am I right that you watched Star Wars there too?

• 36:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, we watched it with the Sadats. True story.

• 36:28Amy Poehler?

  Star Wars with the Sadats?

• 36:29Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 36:30Amy Poehler?

  And then you also, uh, watched SNL in the White House.

• 36:34Speaker 02

  That is the most interesting of all of the stories because, so President Carter was the president. You rarely saw him. Um, there were, you know, a little bit, but we were there a lot, though. Kids were at that house a lot, you know, her various friends. So, um, I have a very, very, that's my first memory of Saturday Night Live because we went to get a snack in the middle of the night.

• 36:57Speaker 02

  And it felt like the middle of the night was probably 11:45. Yeah. And we went to, and we walked by and the president who we hadn't seen very much was sitting in a chair with a, I remember he had like a snack and a beer and Ackroyd was playing him on TV live on Saturday night and he was laughing hysterically at the impression of him. And to me, that was the most powerful, whatever you call that, early building block or core memory of putting in place the power of parody and the power of comedy and the importance of being able to laugh at yourself, you know, all of those things, which obviously we're in a really different time around, but super, super, super impactful.

• 37:43Speaker 03

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• 38:28Amy Poehler?

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• 39:12Amy Poehler?

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• 39:57Amy Poehler?

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• 40:19Amy Poehler?

  And so, you get to Northwestern, we talk, you're a voice major. What makes you go from Northwestern after you graduate to LA?

• 40:27Speaker 02

  A very bossy gay.

• 40:29Amy Poehler?

  Great. Yeah, follow.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Get in line.

• 40:34Amy Poehler?

  Wherever you tell me to go.

• 40:35Speaker 02

  My friend Peter was like, you're gonna... So I knew, I mean, the other... I went to go see The Second City, and there were two women in that cast, and they both played girlfriends at the time. And I remember being like, I want to see the girls do something fun. And then I came out here to LA, and I went to a Groundlings show, and it was like, literally, Coolidge?

• 41:02Amy Poehler?

  Jennifer Coolidge.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  Jennifer Coolidge, Kathy Griffin, Lisa Kudrow, this girl Heather Morgan. I mean, there were so many crazy, funny women, wearing wigs and glasses. And I was in the improv scene in Chicago, and like, at Northwestern, it was same as it ever is, which is just a bunch of smart, quick-wits guys that were like... I remember the main improv guy was, you know, star guy was like, you're more character. That's what he said to me. You do more like, characters. And I knew that that was an insult, like, that they thought of that as an insult. And then I came out here, and I saw all these wigs and glasses, and I was like, that seems really fun.

• 41:37Amy Poehler?

  And who did you meet in your early years at Groundlings?

• 41:42Speaker 02

  We had an insanely talented group. It was, um, so I was right behind Will and Sheri.

• 41:47Amy Poehler?

  Will Ferrell, Sheri O'Terry.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, and Will is who suggested me for SNL. Um, and I had, uh, in my group, I had, um, Stephen Craig, Chris Parnell, Scott Wainio, um, a lot of writers that came from our era as well. And then right behind me was Maya Forte, Will Forte, Maya Rudolph. Like, yeah. I mean, it was, you know, and, and then I, I befriended a bigger collective of, you know, Tim Bagley and Mike Hitchcock and Minnie Sterling.

• 42:18Amy Poehler?

  And then we always love to talk about SNL audition stories on this show.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  I know. We like to.

• 42:23Amy Poehler?

  I know. We don't have to. But it is, it is interesting, like, you know, with the 50th anniversary and like us looking back and all of it. How, do you feel any differently about that, like, the story that you tell yourself about your audition? Like, do you feel badly about your audition?

• 42:38Speaker 02

  You know what? I didn't even ever feel bad about it. Um, I'll tell you why. Because there have been a couple of times in my life, and, um, Wicked was one of them, and Saturday Night Live was another, and they were both incredibly challenging jobs in their, and difficult workplaces in their own ways, both just in terms of physical demand and artistic demand and just complicated, uh, creative workplaces, as you know. Um, both times, SNL being one of them, I left no stone unturned. Because I felt, and I, I really believe this to this day, if you, so sort of to totally double back on the lazy thing, like, if you give everything your all, if you give something your all, you don't have regret. And if you

• 43:21Speaker 02

  don't have regret, you can face any consequence. For, for me. So I knew that if I did the best audition I could, I would feel fine if I didn't get the job. Um, because I, I wouldn't have left something on the table, you know? And so Will Ferrell had told me famously that they don't laugh, and like, we always, people whisper that to one another in advance. Did you know that?

• 43:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I knew that they, there's, it would be absolutely silent, which it was.

• 43:46Speaker 02

  Which it was, yeah, me too. And, um, I told Parnell, and so Charlie, my now husband, and I were engaged at the time I got the job. And he, I would, I wrote my, I wrote the whole thing out as a monologue, and I would just run it relentlessly. And he would sit like Mount Rushmore.

• 44:02Amy Poehler?

  Oh, and practice not laughing?

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Repeatedly, because it was all stuff I had been doing at the Groundlings. So I needed to know what it felt like. The cadence is so different. If you have a character that you're used to landing in a certain way.

• 44:17Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, that's actually a really good point. I think a lot of people don't know, a lot of stand-ups and sketch performers, when they come and audition, they're doing stuff that has succeeded somewhere else. And there's a rhythm to it and laughs that you're used to.

• 44:30Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 44:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 44:31Speaker 02

  Exactly right. So I just rehearsed it in front of him and I knew it, you know, six different directions well.

• 44:37Amy Poehler?

  What characters and/or people did you do in your audition? Do you remember?

• 44:41Speaker 02

  Yes, I did the NPR lady, who I ended up doing on the show. And I did kind of a ridiculous pantyhose-wearing woman. And I did, who did not end up on the show, in a shocking twist.

• 44:52Amy Poehler?

  She was, she ended up on Cut the Shit.

• 44:53Speaker 02

  She was on Cut the Shit.

• 44:54Amy Poehler?

  Did you do any impressions?

• 44:55Speaker 02

  Well, so somebody, of course, was like, they're gonna ask you in the 11th hour to do impressions. But I didn't do impressions, right? But I kind of knew that it might come, because I'd heard that the people that were involved were never particularly organized around the

• 45:10Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  advanced prep, shall we say?

• 45:11Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  So I just had it up my sleeve. So I went and I knew that I liked Martha Stewart. I thought she was funny and interesting, even though The Groundlings doesn't really do impression-based comedy. And so I wrote an introduction as Martha Stewart and I got a Martha Stewart wig. And this was so funny to me. I did Koki Roberts.

• 45:31Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah, I remember her.

• 45:33Speaker 02

  But like, nobody, it was like an NPR reference, literally. But she was on ABC News, and so I did Koki Roberts.

• 45:38Amy Poehler?

  But Lauren is good friends with Koki.

• 45:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, literally. I like.

• 45:41Amy Poehler?

  I had dinner with her last night and it's very, it's, it sounds just like

• 45:44Speaker 02

  I think Koki liked the impression.

• 45:46Amy Poehler?

  Koki, I talked to Koki.

• 45:47Speaker 02

  I talked to Koki. Koki thought it was a winner.

• 45:51Amy Poehler?

  Koki thought it was a little mean.

• 45:55Amy Poehler?

  Martha, your Martha impression is so good.

• 45:58Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 45:59Amy Poehler?

  What do you do vocally to get into Martha? How do we do a Martha?

• 46:04Speaker 02

  So much of Martha. It still is. She's so rehearsed in front of the camera. You'll never have her do this.

• 46:12Amy Poehler?

  Martha Stewart does stuff with Miss Piggy and she's a little thrown by Miss Piggy.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:17Amy Poehler?

  Because Miss Piggy is improvising and Martha doesn't love to improvise.

• 46:22Speaker 02

  No, and I've had a few situations with her. In fact, where I've had to dress up as her and be with her.

• 46:29Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 02

  Which is...

• 46:30Amy Poehler?

  That's a very unique thing about SNL. I had that with Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, where you are dressed exactly like them, standing next to them.

• 46:37Speaker 02

  So I have had a few events with Martha. And recently, I did the Drew Barrymore Show.

• 46:42Amy Poehler?

  Oh, right.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  And showed up as her. And she... It's just the worst. And you're just sitting there fully dressed like a person.

• 46:51Amy Poehler?

  Well, that's why... Listen, this is why I love our people. This is why I love sketch comedy. Sketch comedy is embarrassing.

• 46:57Speaker 02

  So embarrassing.

• 46:58Amy Poehler?

  Stand-up is cool.

• 46:59Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 47:00Amy Poehler?

  You go outside, you wear a leather jacket, you smoke a cigarette, you put it out, you go and do your set.

• 47:04Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 47:05Amy Poehler?

  Sketch, you have a friggin wig and you're schlepping a box with a weird bow tie.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:10Amy Poehler?

  And you've got a...

• 47:11Speaker 02

  And it never ends.

• 47:12Amy Poehler?

  And it never ends.

• 47:13Speaker 02

  Don't think that I'm not still doing that. Like, there are days where I'm like, I still have a wig area in my house.

• 47:21Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 47:22Speaker 02

  I one time got pulled over for speeding and had a wig in my glove compartment.

• 47:27Amy Poehler?

  That could be considered dangerous.

• 47:29Speaker 02

  It could be. It could be.

• 47:30Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember what the wig was?

• 47:32Speaker 02

  No, it was during Growlings days, in fairness, but...

• 47:35Amy Poehler?

  Just to have one around.

• 47:35Speaker 02

  It's just... The schlepping. It's so uncool.

• 47:39Amy Poehler?

  The amount of props. It's so uncool. And that's why I love people who do it, because they're, to me, the coolest people. Because they sit in the embarrassment and the commitment of it. You have to be really committed.

• 47:50Speaker 02

  Which is why the bombing is the funniest thing in the whole world. Which is why Will Ferrell sitting into a bomb is one of my favorite things I've ever seen in the world.

• 47:58Amy Poehler?

  It is. At SNL, we used to watch old sketches that bombed. And just, like, love it in a way. It's what the kids would call cringe, but it's even post-cringe. It's like beyond cringe. It's almost like a delicious... What would you call, it's not a serotonin boost, it's like a, um, I don't know, it's the closest you feel to-

• 48:17Speaker 02

  Well, it's like a community therapy experience, really is what it is.

• 48:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's like a primal scream.

• 48:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 48:22Amy Poehler?

  Like a comedic-

• 48:23Speaker 02

  For sketch performers.

• 48:24Amy Poehler?

  What are some fun sketches that you used to watch, that you loved watching, that bombed, or-

• 48:28Speaker 02

  So, we did a Zoo Crew sketch once.

• 48:31Amy Poehler?

  Which is like a DJ-

• 48:32Speaker 02

  Like morning DJs, and we wrote, I mean, it was the loudest sketch ever. I mean, it was just literally like- (singing) Like, every single thing was just like, everybody like- (singing) "Well, Misa Horni, da-da-da-da, go get 'em rocked!", like, non-stop, everybody, it was me and Parnell and-

• 48:51Amy Poehler?

  Oh, my god.

• 48:52Speaker 02

  Somebody, and the host, I can't remember, and Will, and it was this basic premise, really loud Zoo Crew, and then the, um, the weather chopper goes down, like, crashes, okay, really basic, and then everyone's like, "We've lost Weather Chopper 5." (singing) Like, just, anyway, people at the table were screaming with laughter, so funny, and then we set it up at home base, the, I mean, a dramatic play, a Tony-winning, Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic play about a Zoo Crew. I mean, deathly silent, like a wall, like the audience and A.H. looked like a painting, and the whole time, you're, you're like, screaming, and there, it was a, the wall of sound.

• 49:34Amy Poehler?

  Did you get giggles in, in-

• 49:36Speaker 02

  I mean, yes, because it was so embarrassing, and it was also just hilarious, because it was like, the whole time, you're like, "They don't think this is funny, they listen to morning zoos."

• 49:43Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 49:44Speaker 02

  Like, there's nothing, this is what it sounds like, if you like driving to work and listening to that, then that's just kind of a pleasant thing for you.

• 49:48Amy Poehler?

  Right.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  Um, that was embarrassing. Do you remember that set that we called Shitcan Alley?

• 49:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so there's, there's all these little areas at SNL, like, where you get to perform, home base is like, right in the middle, and it's kind of a prime spot, it's where Update is, and then there's some areas that, like, where sketches go to die.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  Right, because you have the audience and you have the balcony, and so the main three sets, you know, where the, the, uh, musical guest plays and whatever, you usually are gonna play things okay, there's one that's like, way in the back-

• 50:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:16Speaker 02

  That has no immediate audience in front of it, and really, sketches go there to die. I mean, nothing ever comes out of that corner.

• 50:23Amy Poehler?

  And it's also a real vote of no confidence, when your sketch is put there, you're like, "I see, I see, this isn't gonna make the show."

• 50:35Speaker 02

  The sort of quietness of like, it's in shit can, Ellie.

• 50:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:38Speaker 02

  It's in shit can.

• 50:38Amy Poehler?

  We're not gonna, we're not gonna. I'm gonna call my parents.

• 50:43Amy Poehler?

  It's not gonna make it.

• 50:47Amy Poehler?

  But you had so many hits and NPR, that NPR, that sketch remains.

• 50:53Speaker 02

  There was no confidence in that sketch. That sketch was supposed to bomb. And I knew, because I'd played at the Groundlings, that the quietness of it, that was the comedy of it.

• 51:00Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, it's, it was, it's so, so funny. And I should circle back just quickly to Martha. When we're doing Martha, what are we doing with our lips? And how do we talk?

• 51:09Speaker 02

  Well, one of the things she does.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  So many of what the things that she says and does are things that she has learned.

• 51:21Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  To do on camera. And she is very aware

• 51:31Speaker 02

  of how the camera's going to look. On her.

• 51:38Amy Poehler?

  It's a very, barely moving mouth.

• 51:43Speaker 02

  Almost nothing moves.

• 51:46Amy Poehler?

  Why should it?

• 51:47Speaker 02

  And nor should it.

• 51:50Amy Poehler?

  We're gonna make a Christmas meal and barely, nothing is, nothing is gonna move.

• 51:53Speaker 02

  She, she's, I am obsessed with her.

• 51:56Amy Poehler?

  Uh, me too, I'm obsessed with her. I mean, I mean Martha is, Martha, I.

• 52:02Speaker 02

  She said.

• 52:03Amy Poehler?

  I'm not gonna buy you on the show because I'm too scared. But, um, but please listen and know that you're something else.

• 52:11Speaker 02

  She also says, I love her rules. Amy, her rules are so comforting. Her rules are so comforting when you talk to her.

• 52:16Amy Poehler?

  Her rules?

• 52:17Speaker 02

  Her rules. She's just got, she's like.

• 52:19Amy Poehler?

  Oh, I like rules.

• 52:20Speaker 02

  I don't take alcohol alone. I don't take drinks if I'm alone. That's what she told me. I don't take. Do you remember when she briefly took over The Apprentice? And it was that we were, but we're so obsessed with this. She, she would, and the zoom at the end, but she was always handwriting a termination note.

• 52:38Speaker 02

  A little touch of class.

• 52:40Amy Poehler?

  You're fired.

• 52:41Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm. I so enjoyed your contributions to The Apprentice.

• 52:49Amy Poehler?

  But I'm here to tell you.

• 52:50Speaker 02

  I sent her flowers. I sent her flowers for one of her birthdays many of the years. Anyway.

• 52:55Amy Poehler?

  Um.

• 52:55Speaker 02

  Cut it. Cut the shit.

• 52:56Amy Poehler?

  We'll cut the shit.

• 52:57Speaker 02

  Cut the shit.

• 52:58Amy Poehler?

  Um, I want to talk about Bobby and Marty for a second.

• 53:00Speaker 02

  The best.

• 53:00Amy Poehler?

  And the culpts. Because those two characters that you and Will did, I think are a perfect example of like kind of combining all of your talents. And before we get into them, what is the difference between good singing, like singing and then comedy singing?

• 53:17Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 53:18Amy Poehler?

  And is there one, I guess?

• 53:20Speaker 02

  Um, well, it is interesting. It's an interesting question. I definitely think the training informs what's fun about the characters, meaning she's, you know, they're quintessential choir teachers. So her technique is very important to her. So I probably lean more into that, that quality of the, of the, of the voice. And I've met people over the years that are like music people. I hit notes as her that I would be very worried about trying to hit as me. And I know this is true because my friend Seth Radesky, who has the Sirius XM Radio Broadway show, who I met because he wrote for the Rosie O'Donnell Show at the same time as I was in 8G.

• 54:00Amy Poehler?

  A lot of people don't know, when we were doing SNL, Rosie was in her studio right next door.

• 54:04Speaker 02

  Right next door. Yeah. So we met in the NBC gym and he was like of a certain part of my life, like I instantly recognized him as a person who understood what that music part of me that I didn't even talk about was. And he, he said, he was like, oh, I love how consistently you go from a B-flat to a C. Like, again, I wouldn't have thought about it and I wouldn't have even thought that Bobby sings that high, but she does all the time, which is kind of wild. Like, if you wanted to tell, ask me to hit a C, I would get like, my butthole would tighten up and I probably wouldn't be able to do it. So there's something really fun about that. And I think there's, for me, I can't speak for other people, like I would never, there's a freedom around it and a chance-taking that I will play in character any day of the week. Till very recently, I wouldn't have done it as a vocalist.

• 54:47Amy Poehler?

  So cool.

• 54:47Speaker 02

  Does that make sense?

• 54:48Amy Poehler?

  Absolutely. And that is what you guys do as those characters. Also, I just love Bobby and Marty's look. Their looks are excellent.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  Their looks are fantastic. And we knew early on, so they were disparaged by some of the men, by the cool guys. People thought it was a medley bit and thought it was dumb and hacky. But we had so much fun rating their passive aggression as characters.

• 55:11Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 55:12Speaker 02

  The dynamic of the two of them, the people giving them the finger all the time and just the inherent bummer of having those people perform at your prom or whatever. Like, we always loved, that's what was so joyful about it. The music was fine. Like, the music was a super fun component of it, but it wasn't the point, ever. The point was, why are these people performing at my, you know, sobriety birthday? You know, it was always like finding the premise. And so that's what made it so fun. I have to say honestly, like, at the 50th, which was so special because that was always my favorite thing to do at SNL. It was the most fun writing it with Will and with Paula. We were infamous, infamous is the term, because we would, as you know, not start writing

• 55:57Speaker 02

  until 4 o'clock in the morning.

• 55:58Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 55:58Speaker 02

  And we would finish at 10 a.m. And it was always like a laugh fest that was, that so heavily featured procrastination. It was extraordinary. And...

• 56:09Amy Poehler?

  Well, it's very, very funny that you say that, because we do a thing on the show where we talk about, we talk to people who know our guests. We talk well behind their back and we get a question to ask them. And so I spoke to Paula Pell.

• 56:21Speaker 02

  Uh-oh.

• 56:22Amy Poehler?

  And for people that didn't see the SNL 50th music special, which was amazing, there was like sketches in between acts and a lot of musical sketches. And Bobby and Marty came out and crushed. That was not an easy audience. It was an audience of truly every single person was either performing or a performer, or like, it was a cynical audience.

• 56:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 56:47Amy Poehler?

  You guys crushed. What was that feeling to do that, that night?

• 56:53Speaker 02

  It was so fun, for lack of a better word. Like, it was so, for, there was something, you know, as you go back to these reunions and you bring all of your kind of history and baggage and whatever with you.

• 57:09Speaker 02

  Again, kind of speaking to your point of the fact that this is all just so embarrassing. Because first of all, like, it's Radio City Music Hall. It's 6,000 seats. I mean, it's a huge epic space. Yeah. We followed Lauryn Hill. Sure. That's who you want to follow. So you have to understand that in the wings, That's right. there are like thousands of cool music people. I mean, like, my dressing room is next to Jack White and his band. And I'm dressed as Bobby Mohan Culp, okay? I've got the giant glasses and my, like, striped dress. And Will's got his bald paint and his, you know, we're rehearsing in the keyboards. So already, we're like the losers in the wings. Do you know what I mean?

• 57:54Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. I mean, the winners for me, but yes. It was fantastic. I mean, actually, you're like, you've got the violin and you've got the eye patch. 100%. And so we're already just like, what is happening? What is happening? Why are we here? And who invited us, you know? And then we just started to giggle because we, we, it was so cute because we, doing the sketch and doing the, like, we just, it was very easy to imagine how excited Bobby and Marty, Would have been. the people would have been to be at Radio City. And what was it like backstage? What was it like backstage? Did you see Jack White? Who else were you seeing? Mayhem. I mean, mayhem, like, possies and people with, like, you know, music people. So they got like, Yeah, they're so cool. big, cool hair and glasses and, like, Lauryn Hill's a fur coat and an Afro.

• 58:37Speaker 02

  And, like, everybody's got, like, floral pants that come up to here. And there's possies and, you know, weed everywhere. You know, Chris Martin's in the corner, like, cool people. Actual cool people who just looked right past us. Like, they were, they did not know that we used to be on Saturday Night Live. They were just like, who brought granny and gramps? Like, just right past us. That actually probably was fun. It was so fun. That's fun. And then going, and then we, like, you know, going out there and all that stuff just suddenly worked. You're right. Now that I'm remembering, Lauryn Hill had a surprise incredible performance. Insane. And then it was just...

• 59:14Speaker 02

  There's like smoke and like

• 59:15Amy Poehler?

  And then it was like

• 59:17Speaker 02

  Test, test, test.

• 59:19Amy Poehler?

  And you guys cry. And that's what I mean is that is a

• 59:22Speaker 02

  I knew it was streaming and I also knew, I mean, it was really funny because we were like they just and all of their stuff was about how they'd come to New York for an ophthalmology appointment. You know, did they were just lucky to slip in and it just everything about it was so fun. And so we're sitting there and yeah, and I did have the feeling I was like, this is streaming. Cause one thing about SNL for me, again, I don't know if you've ever had this, but it's a little bit of an A student girl, you know, nerd girl thing. I was always, my greatest regret about this show, not that you would go back in time, is that I couldn't, I never like settled into it and enjoyed it because I was always so aware of the time and of running, somebody, running down the clock, somebody else's sketch is going to get cut. Like I was always, and when we were there, it was such a, you know, like explosive surfeit of, of talent

• 1:00:06Speaker 02

  that there were always three sketches a night that might not make it, you know?

• 1:00:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:09Speaker 02

  So I always felt like I had to like, keep it moving, keep it moving. So I was suddenly very aware that it was streaming and that I was not going to be rushed.

• 1:00:18Amy Poehler?

  Ooh.

• 1:00:18Speaker 02

  And I was like, I'm gonna be bopping out. The funniest thing in the world to me is this woman and this man, these, these choir teachers getting people to settle. Cause there's just nothing funnier.

• 1:00:29Amy Poehler?

  So that's what they did is they just kept telling people to settle.

• 1:00:33Speaker 02

  I need you to settle. I need quiet in the back. Hand goes up, mouth goes shut. Hand goes up, mouth goes shut. Just this idea, I was like, I'm gonna keep going until they settle. I'm not gonna worry about it. And if I had been at 8H, we never would have done that.

• 1:00:47Amy Poehler?

  Right. Very good point.

• 1:00:49Speaker 02

  We took a full, probably 45 seconds to, you know, get people to pipe it. David Spade piped down.

• 1:00:56Amy Poehler?

  That's right. You guys called him out by name.

• 1:00:57Speaker 02

  I don't want to hear it, Pierce Brosnan.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  So stupid.

• 1:01:04Amy Poehler?

  Okay. We have so much more to talk about.

• 1:01:06Speaker 02

  I'm sorry.

• 1:01:07Amy Poehler?

  But Paula, Paula had two great questions.

• 1:01:10Speaker 02

  Uh oh.

• 1:01:11Amy Poehler?

  One was a, um, a funny one, which was, your dog Gloria loves to eat things.

• 1:01:19Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:01:20Amy Poehler?

  Um, and you often keep us updated as to what she eats. What has she eaten lately and has it come out already and was it intact when it came out?

• 1:01:31Speaker 02

  It never comes out. I don't know where it goes. It's upsetting. Like you're like, it was a full hairbrush. Where did it go?

• 1:01:37Amy Poehler?

  Where did it go?

• 1:01:38Speaker 02

  And honestly, because she's also like many dogs, like it's the more personal, the better. You know, so it's a retainer or

• 1:01:45Amy Poehler?

  A pair of underwear.

• 1:01:46Speaker 02

  She would eat my IUD if she could pull it out.

• 1:01:49Amy Poehler?

  She could get in there.

• 1:01:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, sorry, but it's true.

• 1:01:51Amy Poehler?

  Dogs are gross.

• 1:01:51Speaker 02

  It's gross bras, all that kind of thing. Most recently, to answer the question, it was a massive thing of cheese. I mean, it was a manchego, it was a Costco manchego wedge. You know, those are big ones for a party. And Charlie, Charlie sent it to me. I was out here and he sent, he'd taken out the cheese, was gonna have himself a little snack, came back, the cheese was gone. He felt crazy. That's always part of the story, that he's walking around like, I swear to God, I brought the cheese out. Where's the cheese? And then hours later, there was like this much left, which also I find upsetting because it means that she has eaten to the point of physical discomfort, which for a dog is a long time.

• 1:02:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

  I just, I want to know what happens in her dog brain where she's like, that's enough for now.

• 1:02:34Amy Poehler?

  Maybe there's some kind of evolutionary thing where they show you just a little to be like,

• 1:02:39Amy Poehler?

  just to be like, and I, and just, just to

• 1:02:42Speaker 02

  Nice vintage.

• 1:02:44Amy Poehler?

  Just a tiny bit of like a trophy of like, and here's what I did.

• 1:02:47Speaker 02

  She's such an asshole.

• 1:02:48Amy Poehler?

  Um, okay. And then Paula's, um, real question was, and it's kind of what the theme of our interview today, which is basically like, um, it's such a sweet Paula question, which is, um, you know, between writing and singing and acting, uh, which one makes you feel the most free?

• 1:03:08Amy Poehler?

  It's an interesting word.

• 1:03:09Speaker 02

  It's a great question. Um, I think that inherently I'm the most natural singer. I mean, I think that's like my first gift, meaning like that it's just sort of beyond me. And as I've gotten older and more into it, like, Even in the last couple of years, I feel, I feel more comfortable just accepting that it's something that came from somewhere besides me and I got lucky to have a career that kind of nurtured the muscles of it all, literally. Writing is the most in the flow, I probably feel, but I hate writing. And I hate having to write. I love having written.

• 1:03:46Amy Poehler?

  Yes, having had written is the best feeling in the world.

• 1:03:48Speaker 02

  I feel like you're a more confident writer than I am.

• 1:03:50Amy Poehler?

  Oh, God, no.

• 1:03:50Speaker 02

  No, that's not true. You're very good about it.

• 1:03:52Amy Poehler?

  I've got to, I've got to, um, no, I've got to.

• 1:03:56Speaker 02

  What, your Uber's here?

• 1:03:57Amy Poehler?

  My Uber. I'm so sorry, my Uber's here. First of all, you are a member of the Wicked verse. You, you opened Wicked in Chicago.

• 1:04:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was the, you know, fourth overall Elphaba, so, you know, so now, when you go, like, last year, two years ago was the 20th, and again, I have people in my wicked life that are like, I'm not going back. It was torture, because it is trauma bonding. It's a really hard job. It's a really, really, really, really hard job. It's a hard role to play. It is a physically demanding, and it's incredibly hard to sing. So I'm, I'm actually, in retrospect, I was so, I'm going to actually take a minute to tell a story.

• 1:04:33Amy Poehler?

  Yes, please, of course.

• 1:04:36Speaker 02

  Because I actually think it's so life lesson important. I am so hard on myself, and again, I've realized this about myself recently. I'm not competitive. I'm a perfectionist. So I actually hate competition, but I want to be really good at things. So it's a weird mix, but when you do a Broadway show, everybody comes at the end, because it's all your friends or whatever. People want to see you before it closes or you leave or whatever. And, you know, whatever, here's Idina Menzel, the most incredible vocalist, originated this incredibly demanding vocal score.

• 1:05:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:10Speaker 02

  You're, when you take over in a role, you, you're thrown into their track. So there's a lot of things that were designed around Idina's instrument that other people have a harder time with. Her phrasing, her lung capacity, things like that. So I was sort of mercilessly hard on myself, and I also just didn't have the Broadway credits that other people did. So I felt like I was proving myself, and especially then, on Broadway, I think people felt like, who's this TV bitch who just thought she could show up and sing Elphaba? You know, there was not like a, I didn't feel like warmly welcomed into the Broadway community. I felt like I was proving it, you know?

• 1:05:45Amy Poehler?

  Sure.

• 1:05:45Speaker 02

  So every day.

• 1:05:46Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:47Speaker 02

  And I, you know, that role is. Very, very challenging. So my last like three weeks, because I did Chicago and then I came and I did the Three Penny Opera on Broadway and then I did Wicked up on Broadway. So my last like two, three weeks wicked, all these people, you know, come out of the woodworks, composers I admired, people I admired, people to see, want to see me in the world before I left. And I was so mercilessly cruel to myself. Every day I would come backstage and I messed up the bridge on Defying Gravity or oh my God, I hate it way that I, you know, I didn't, I didn't like the, my upper register here, there. I was screaming in this part. It was such an interesting experience because the sound engineer gave me,

• 1:06:33Speaker 02

  like snuck me, I hope I'm not getting him fired, recordings of my last 12 shows. He had just like stuck in a thing and recorded them. I didn't listen to them for 15 years because I was so mortified. I was like, I don't want to hear myself. And then I cracked one open one day and I started, I wanted to listen to Defying Gravity to see like if I could like Frankenstein, the perfect version together, whatever. And it was so

• 1:07:02Speaker 02

  chilling how similar they were.

• 1:07:06Amy Poehler?

  Oh, wow, Anna, that's wild.

• 1:07:08Speaker 02

  To listen to them in a row, it was like, it took my breath away because I, and I tell my kids this all the time now because you know, Ulysses, my son is such a, he's such a perfectionist. I'm like, the difference

• 1:07:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:21Speaker 02

  between 98% and 100 is imperceptible to anyone but you.

• 1:07:26Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:27Speaker 02

  And if you're hitting the general ballpark

• 1:07:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:30Speaker 02

  of being able to, oh, I don't know, sing alphabet, you're probably cool.

• 1:07:35Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:35Speaker 02

  So you are not a reliable witness about yourself.

• 1:07:40Amy Poehler?

  Oh, never. And that's why I give 75%. I don't even get.

• 1:07:43Speaker 02

  But honestly, most of, it can apply to anything.

• 1:07:46Amy Poehler?

  Oh, absolutely.

• 1:07:47Speaker 02

  And making that decision of being like, did you show up? Were you nice to people? You know, did you know your lines? Okay.

• 1:07:53Amy Poehler?

  The way, and, and also the way, the lovely way in which you circled back and you were able to kind of like go back to that younger version of yourself and be like.

• 1:08:02Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. I can't believe how unnecessarily relentlessly mean I was to myself.

• 1:08:07Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:08:08Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't know if I'm able to take it now in everyday life, but it's such an important, I don't know, it felt like such an important lesson. And, um, obviously like that's the SNL wisdom pearl. I'm like, I wish I could have enjoyed it, just enjoyed it. It was a great experience, you know?

• 1:08:21Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. I mean, the fact that you had physical evidence that they weren't that different.

• 1:08:26Speaker 02

  It was mind blowing.

• 1:08:27Amy Poehler?

  Is something else, isn't it? The mind is a, um, terrible place.

• 1:08:31Speaker 02

  A real dick.

• 1:08:32Amy Poehler?

  Um, it's a terrible, terrible place.

• 1:08:33Speaker 02

  Yeah. The mind is a dick.

• 1:08:34Amy Poehler?

  Uh, the mind is a raging dick. Okay, Mean Girls. What are your memories about us doing Mean Girls together?

• 1:08:40Speaker 02

  I remember being on the plane with you.

• 1:08:41Amy Poehler?

  Yep, we were on the plane. We got in a fight with a guy.

• 1:08:43Speaker 02

  I remember sitting, yeah, you got in a fight with a guy. Um, and the baby, baby Francis was early empowering.

• 1:08:48Amy Poehler?

  Baby.

• 1:08:49Speaker 02

  Baby Francis was on the plane with us. Do you remember that?

• 1:08:51Amy Poehler?

  Your baby Francis, who is now in her twenties?

• 1:08:53Speaker 02

  My baby Francis is 23, yeah.

• 1:08:54Amy Poehler?

  She was on the plane and I still got in a fight with the guy with the baby around?

• 1:08:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, I hope so. I, because the guy got mad that you were swearing in front of the baby.

• 1:09:02Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, right. I was, yeah, it's a long story, but what happened was a very, uh, stress, a guy who, like a first class guy.

• 1:09:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:10Amy Poehler?

  We were in first class too. He was like, excuse me, I'm trying to, you're being too loud in first class and I, uh, my Boston came out.

• 1:09:17Speaker 02

  It was the best thing I've ever seen.

• 1:09:18Amy Poehler?

  Okay, but, but, but the shooting of, of Mean Girls, what do you remember of it?

• 1:09:21Speaker 02

  I remember hanging out with you in that hotel one night and having drinks. I remember, um, I remember when Tina, I have a memory of her sitting at the table on 17 and saying, I think I'm gonna try to option this book.

• 1:09:33Amy Poehler?

  Uh, me too. I, I have an image of her sitting at her computer and being like, oh, and having the book.

• 1:09:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:09:40Amy Poehler?

  Um, near her and, and just like working on it, being like, I'm writing this movie.

• 1:09:45Speaker 02

  Incredible.

• 1:09:46Amy Poehler?

  And I was like, good luck with that. I'm gonna go write a sketch about a lady who has a snake around her neck.

• 1:09:54Speaker 02

  Have you ever heard of fart mouth?

• 1:10:00Amy Poehler?

  And last question is, what are you listening to, watching? Where do you go to laugh these days?

• 1:10:05Speaker 02

  I am like, I am not very, for, for all my quiet comedy, like, I, I am like, Mel Brooks is what makes me laugh. Like, big, silly-

• 1:10:13Amy Poehler?

  Okay, what's your favorite Mel Brooks?

• 1:10:15Speaker 02

  I mean-

• 1:10:16Amy Poehler?

  Let's Google it.

• 1:10:17Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, Madeline Khan and-

• 1:10:19Amy Poehler?

  Should we go to the producers?

• 1:10:20Speaker 02

  Young Frankenstein, producers. I mean, when Dratch and I write together, it feels like Mel Brooks is, you know, the, the-

• 1:10:27Amy Poehler?

  Dratch is, has, you, yeah, Dratch is of the Mel Brooks world.

• 1:10:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, so writing with her is very goofy and very fun.

• 1:10:34Amy Poehler?

  You know what I love, and I know it's underrated, I love Mia Spaceballs.

• 1:10:38Speaker 02

  Oh, not, deeply underrated. Yeah.

• 1:10:41Amy Poehler?

  God, Spaceballs made me laugh.

• 1:10:42Speaker 02

  My friend Philip Tarotula is doing, does this character called Official Pam Goldberg on Instagram. He plays a member of Actors Equity since 1968.

• 1:10:54Amy Poehler?

  I know my Uber is here, but I have to see this.

• 1:10:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, you do.

• 1:10:57Amy Poehler?

  Official Pam Goldberg?

• 1:10:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:10:59Speaker 04

  Pam Goldberg here, and I recommend what to bring with you to tech, so here we go. Snacks. Don't rely on other people's snacks or anyone else bringing snacks for you. These are Crassdale peanuts. I don't think they're organic.

• 1:11:12Amy Poehler?

  Pam's telling us what to bring to tech.

• 1:11:13Speaker 04

  Or try a good coffee. I like this from Fairway. They say management will coffee themselves, but life's too short for Folgers. Again, I recommend Bananagrams because it's short and cordial, and you also will find out-

• 1:11:25Amy Poehler?

  Bananagrams are short and cordial. Also, Pam has got a real severe haircut.

• 1:11:31Speaker 02

  Real severe.

• 1:11:32Amy Poehler?

  And, and a real squinty eye.

• 1:11:34Speaker 02

  She's been a regional theater actress for a long time.

• 1:11:37Amy Poehler?

  But anyway, Merry Christmas.

• 1:11:41Speaker 02

  Thank you, friend. Thank you, friend. Merry Christmas to you.

• 1:11:46Amy Poehler?

  Anna Gasteyer, thank you so much. That was so fun. And that time went by so fast, and I love talking to you. And, you know, this is our holiday episode, and for those of you celebrating the holiday in all different ways, I just want to say thank you for giving us the gift of listening to this show. It's meant a lot to us, and this is the, this has been an amazing year that we've launched it. So, thank you. We cannot wait to make more, which we will be doing for you. And it has been a real gift to do it. So- I'm gonna do, uh, end, end this episode and dive into the polar plunge by sharing my favorite Christmas movie with you.

• 1:12:27Amy Poehler?

  And that is a little known classic, Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. I don't know a lot of people that, that know it, but it's, um, it was, um, look, I don't love puppets all the time, but this one has the, the Muppet Puppet Family. Um, uh, Jim Henson's workshop made it and it is the cutest, most tender, best music movie. Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas. Check it out. It is basically the gift of the Magi. There is an incredible, uh, bunch of villains called the River Bottom Nightmare Band. That is basically a snake and a weasel and they are incredible.

• 1:13:09Amy Poehler?

  Um, so do yourself a favor and I, I don't even know where to find it. I, I think I have it on VHS. But, um, but, um, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah. Um, whatever you celebrate, thank you, uh, uh, for, uh, listening and, um, we can't wait to, uh, see you in the new year. Bye. 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, Kaya McMullin, and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:13:56Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Sephora. Holiday gifting can be a tough gig. You're frantically searching, second guessing everything, and accidentally buying your dad eye cream he's never gonna use. Thankfully, Sephora is here to save us from ourselves. Whether you're shopping for a total beauty guru or someone whose whole routine is hand soap, Sephora has the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And if you're still lost, don't panic. Their beauty advisors can guide you to safety. This holiday season, we all Sephora. Shop gifts at Sephora and give something beautiful.

• 1:14:29Speaker 05

  Pink Pantheress here. Coach and Spotify are teaming up to bring music and style together, and they want you to be part of it. Grab your friends and head to the Tabby Tour, hitting cities around the country with live performances from special artists, exclusive experiences and personalised products. And discover custom playlists on Spotify, booked just for you based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at coach.com.