Robert Smigel’s Humor Me podcast is closing out its first season by attempting to answer a question no one asked but everyone should appreciate: can you make Christopher Lee laugh from beyond the grave?
That is the mission of a special live finale featuring Will Forte, Patton Oswalt, and Dino Stamatopoulos, taped July 6 at the Hayworth Theatre in Los Angeles.
In the episode, Smigel and his guests help a Christopher Lee superfan craft a message funny enough to impress the late actor in the afterlife. Because this is Humor Me, that doesn’t just mean punching up an email. It means workshopping the pitch live, bringing in an actor who worked with Lee, and eventually inviting a medium onstage to see whether the message can actually be delivered.
Smigel, who opened the show in character as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, told LateNighter the live format forced the show to find assignments that could resolve in real time. “All of our shows are designed to have payoffs, where we see if our advice was actually helpful,” he said. “So for live shows we have to find tasks that can pay off in the room.”
The Hayworth finale was actually the show’s second live outing, following a performance at SF Sketchfest.“Both payoffs were not exactly what I’d call productive, but they were two of the funniest moments of the season,” Smigel said.
The live finale caps a first season that made good use of Smigel’s comedy Rolodex, bringing in late-night and sketch comedy names including David Letterman, Bob Odenkirk, Jim Downey, Jim Gaffigan, Dave Attell, Ellie Kemper, Mikey Day, Streeter Seidell, Andy Breckman, Colin Quinn, and Bruce McCulloch.
The episode also gives Forte room for one of the season’s strangest set pieces: a song medley meant to summon Lee, adapted from a number Forte says he originally performed at his own wedding reception with Kristen Wiig.
Smigel told us the show’s format evolved quickly during production. The original plan was to interview each “client,” dismiss them while the comedians worked out ideas, then bring them back to hear the pitch. But during the first taping, Smigel said, they realized the interview, brainstorming, and pitch should happen together as one organic conversation.
“It streamlined the show,” he said. “I’m just glad we figured it out before we wrapped that one. But, honestly, by our second taping—with Mikey and Streeter—we felt we had it down, at least format-wise.”
That second taping became the podcast’s debut episode, with SNL’s Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell helping a Harvard a cappella group punch up its between-song banter.
As for whether Humor Me will continue beyond its first ten episodes, Smigel says yes.
“We made a deal to do ten shows to find our footing,” he tell us, “and we’re planning to do ten more fairly soon.”
Watch the week’s Humor Me finale at the top of this post, or watch it on YouTube to participate in the live chat.
