Craig Ferguson is thankful for young people’s love of online video.
Richard Kind joined Ferguson on his show Joy, a Podcast and the two talked about what it means to be a recognizable personality in the online age. Ferguson credited Late Late Show clips on YouTube with giving him a whole new generation of fans.
While Ferguson explained that Richard Kind has been a star ever since 1990s sitcom Spin City, Kind argued that he’s a character actor that people were unable to place until recently.
“Once you’re off TV, a year later, they don’t know you,” Kind asserted.
Ferguson agreed that was once the case, but not anymore.
“That used to be true, until YouTube and the internet created a whole new repeat structure for old shows,” Ferguson argued, adding that it’s been a decade since he stopped hosting The Late Late Show.
“And I still get people coming to live shows who clearly never were old enough to watch me when I was doing the show, who say ‘I watch you on YouTube,’ like I’m someone who does a YouTube channel,” Ferguson shared.
Kind quibbled with Ferguson’s point, noting that online clips often get in the thousands of views while traditional network television received millions. Kind said that he’s often had people approach him asking if he was still acting, to which he’d reply, “I am, you’re just not watching the channels I’m on.”
One channel Kind appeared on this year is Netflix, where he served as announcer and sidekick on John Mulaney Presents Everybody’s In L.A. Kind is set to join Mulaney again this December in former Saturday Night Live writer Simon Rich‘s Broadway debut, All In: Comedy About Love.
It remains to be seen whether Kind will join Mulaney on the new edition of his Netflix talk show, set to debut in February.
You can watch Richard Kind’s episode of Craig Ferguson’s Joy, a Podcast in the video above, or listen wherever you listen to podcasts.
