Streeter Seidell and his writing partner Mikey Day figure they’ve cumulatively lost a year’s worth of sleep pulling in all-nighters over the last decade writing for Saturday Night Live.
That may not sound like a recipe for success, but it’s hard to argue with their track record. From Tom Hanks’ David S. Pumpkins, to Kate McKinnon’s Close Encounter, to Nate Bargatze’s Washington’s Dream, to Beavis and Butt-head, together they’ve produced some of the funniest and most celebrated sketches in recent memory.
This week on Inside Late Night With Mark Malkoff, Seidell shares the origin stories for each of those sketches (and many more) as he walks Mark through his SNL journey–from his first packet submission in 2013 to the present day, where, as one of the show’s co-head writers, he’s the one reading packets from prospective writers–300 of them this year alone.
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Show Transcript
Mark Malkoff: Streeter Seidell, thanks for talking with us.
Streeter Seidell: My pleasure.
You and Mikey Day together, your writing, your catalog is pretty amazing. Like I emailed you saying, and I really feel this is the truth. It’s been since 1986-93, when you had Smigel and Downey and Jack Handy and the Turners. I really feel like if you look at what you have done. You guys are the best writers that have come out. I mean, there’s a lot of others that have been very, very strong, but in terms of looking at your catalog and the critical response that you have gotten, especially in just the last couple years, I don’t, I don’t know anybody that touches you guys. For real.
That’s uh, well, that’s very nice of you to say I mean that to to me all those guys are such legends that to to be I don’t I I would never put myself in the same sentence as them but uh, we have you know, Mikey and I have had a lot of success there and each one feels Like we’re getting away with something truly, you know, cause we’re, I, I do want to say, I, I believe Mikey and I both think we’re, uh, two idiots. So whenever, so whenever someone says something nice about us, our reaction is like, “They know we’re stupid, right? OK.”
The show is at its best when people are watching the show and, and they ask themselves, “Who wrote that sketch?” You know Seth Meyers when he saw, uh, “Washington’s Dream,” when you had Nate Bargatze, did you going into that sketch with Nate Bargatze knew that you guys had something special? That people, I mean, people online were like, this is the best sketch that they’ve had in, in years.
I people get pretty hyperbolic. Like I’ve seen that set about any number of, of sketches. That have come out of the show, but that one did feel pretty special when it came out, but you know as you’re writing it, you don’t know I I knew that I really liked it I like that kind of stuff that I like the history. I like, you know I I like sketches that build and have little callbacks within them and uh kind of Are simple in a way. It’s a very simple sketch like it doesn’t ever veer too far from You know, where it started, and I do know that as we were writing it, it came very easy. And we had started it the season before, I think. I think it was, we, originally for, maybe for Woody Harrelson, and we kind of, like…
Did it get to dress? Did it get past the table?
No, no, we never even put it in. We kind of bailed on it halfway through.
Why?
Just, you know, we had other stuff we were working on and I think we started it pretty late and then it was like, ah, we have enough stuff. You know, you don’t want to put in too many things at the table. And Mikey and I have a very bad reputation for putting in too many sketches.
That’s what I was going to ask. One of my questions was how many sketches do you guys put in a table read?
I mean, we’ll put in the goal is always four and then. But then you’re just like, oh, I just want to I just want to hear this one, too And so sometimes it it’ll be six and then Erik Kenward, our producer, will call up and be like “I gotta pull a couple of these, man.You have too many things.” And so we’ve always been very like “Hey, pull whatever you want. It’s fine.” Uh, you know, we don’t want to we don’t want to be overrepresented certainly but like In the manicness of Wednesday morning, when you haven’t really slept and the table read’s looming, it’s, it’s like you kind of want to take as many shots as you can, and it’s exciting and fun.
Mikey Day is a machine.
He really is, yeah.
In terms of the sleep, how, he’s the only person I know in the history of the show, and probably there might have been other writers that, I don’t know if this is still the case, but he does not, He stays, you guys stay up all night, Tuesday night.
He does not. I’ve started. I’ve started sleeping.
He doesn’t sleep!
My first….
Yeah, please continue.
I know, it’s crazy.
But he doesn’t sleep between stopping the writing at like 8am and the, and the 2pm…
8am?
9? Are you guys going up until like 10?
2pm
Really? So most people are done by then, but you guys are writing up until 2pm And this is Mikey without sleep and then he’ll go into, is it both of you, and then you’ll go into the read through without sleeping at all?
I mean I’ve the last few seasons as i’ve gotten older, and you know, I have two I have two young kids So I was like I need to I have to sleep a couple hours, so I, the past few seasons I’ve been sleeping and i’m like, I don’t know three four hours, maybe. As far as I know, during that time, Mikey just stays up. And one time we calculated how many months of lost sleep, like how, how many days of lost sleep we’ve had. And it was terrifying in like 10 years, to be like, okay, that’s 20 missed nights of sleep per year. It’s a, you, you don’t, it’s like coming up on close to a year of no sleep.
People, uh, you know, sometimes when they hear cast members and writers talk, think they’re exaggerating, but 20 hour days on a Friday is not uncommon. But one time you said in an interview, it was like you were up for maybe 38 hours. Is that, was that the record?
I have no idea. For me, for me personally? Yeah, yeah, yeah, probably. I mean, that’s, that’s not. That’s fairly rare. And honestly, Mikey and I do it to ourselves. We, if we had a better, more organized method of writing for the show, we could write our stuff, be done by midnight, go home and sleep, come back in the morning or whatever, at a normal time, touch it up and put it in. But it’s, uh, That’s just the way we’ve done it.
When you and Mikey are going in Tuesday, do you have beat sheets that you were on, like on the weeks off and stuff? You come up with an idea and you have some of the beats going in, or how much of it is just in the moment that you’re just coming up with the idea?
It seems to be like a rolling process, you know? Like everyone just writes little notes down and gets little ideas and they kind of pile up, and then so you’ll look at those and maybe one jumps out for a host and you start working on it. But I used to be very good about my first few seasons like, Monday night, I’m gonna settle on my ideas I’m gonna write two things and i’m gonna have them settled out i’m gonna start them and then Tuesday i’m gonna you know Finish those and then maybe try to help some other people with other things. Uh, and that Just as time gone by, as gone by, that has completely gone away. It’s, it’s pretty haphazard now, but it works. You know, something like, if I had an idea like Washington’s Dream every week, I would write it on Monday and then I’d be done with it. And I mean, golden.
Isn’t that frowned upon to start writing before Tuesday or is it more lax these days?
I don’t, I’ve never felt that it was frowned upon. It, it seems that that’s what everyone wants to do because you want to, you don’t want to work these crazy hours if you can avoid it. So, so you go, let me do a first draft on Monday and then Tuesday, I’ll just polish it up. And then I don’t know, Monday you’re, you’re hanging out, you’re doing bits with people, you’re joking around. The idea of sitting down to work kind of just starts moving later and later in the night, and then it’s like 10-10:30 on Monday and you’re like, well, I want to make sure I get a lot of sleep tonight because I’m being up late tomorrow. So you see, you can see how the best laid plans just kind of crumble.
I look at your career and it’s just, the timing was just perfect. Because you and Mikey are sharing an office. That wasn’t, you guys as writing partners, that just happened. And maybe it would have happened, maybe it wouldn’t have, but you’re both in the office together.
Yeah.
And how long did it take you to the light bulb go off that we have this because not everyone can write together. I mean, it doesn’t always gel. How long did you realize that? And it was his, was that his second season and your first?
Yes. So I, he was in there with Nasim (Pedrad), and she had left the show. And so my friend Sarah Schneider who I had worked with at College Humor prior to coming to SNL dad told the head writers and producers, like, “Oh I think Streeter and Mikey would go together because they smoke cigarettes so put them in the same office.” And so that’s I think that’s why we got put together, but we didn’t really, I mean the first few shows like I didn’t really know anyone, you know, i’m i’m kind of hanging with the new people I was writing with Jeremy Beiler a lot those first few shows. We got along great and did some stuff. But then one night Mikey was writing this sketch, um, for JK Simmons, where he’s like a dad coming to a classroom to talk about his job. You know, it’s a career day. And I just started I was laying on our couch and just started kind of pitching on it and we were laughing, it just made the night so fun. We’re just cracking up pitching on this thing. It became a decent sketch. It’s not like it was a breakout incredible thing, but I think from then on it was like, “Okay, we’ll each work on our own thing and then let’s make sure we do one together late night because that’s when we get goofy and silly.” And then that late night started to get earlier and earlier and then it and then That’s by the end of that season it was just kind of like, “I think we’re writing partners, I guess?” I guess people were starting to think of us as, oh, those two guys write together, you know, they’re like a team.
Do you think that Lorne Michaels is right that the exhaustion fuels the creativity and some of the best pieces are written when, you know, early and maybe an early Tuesday, uh, Wednesday morning, rather, just when people are exhausted, do you agree with that in terms of creativity?
Sometimes. Sometimes, what it definitely does is it, you know, when you have this deadline looming and you’re exhausted, you just all the filters that say no in your head to an idea or a move or a line. They just start to kind of fall away, because you’re like I have to finish this, so what comes out is like fever dream pure sometimes, and if that alchemy’s right with a host or or the cast or whatever, then you can get these kind of wild, fun, you know, very unique things.
Your trajectory is so fun to me because you know, you’re twelve years old. You’re at Daniel Hand High School in Madison. Your dream is to write…
You did your research.
I try. That’s what I’m kind of known for, you know. You’re growing up on the Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, Cheri Oteri cast, and you really, really want to do this and you know, I look at you and Mikey, people like Sarah Schneider, certain people that, you know, I just always assume that you got it on the first time, but you had to submit like three or four times as a writer. And a lot of times people will stop at the first time they don’t get it. When you didn’t get that the first time did you ever consider stopping or was it one of those things, like, this is my dream. Would you have kept going every year do you think?
Uh, yeah, probably. I mean, I, you know, I was fortunate in that I had another job. So I was at College Humor making money. I could pay my rent. I was doing fine. And so SNL…
You’re on TV…
Yeah, well… But SNL was like, Wow, wouldn’t that be amazing? But it always seemed like this impossible thing because even though I was working in comedy, and and performing and writing and basically doing everything I’d always wanted to do, SNL still was just this Golden Temple you could not get into. And then when Sarah got hired, it was like…
That was 2011.
Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it was like, “Oh my God, I know someone there like,” you know, you, you would kind of meet people from SNL doing shows and things like that. And that was cool. But like, I was like, this is my friend. And she was doing great. And so it kind of made you think like, “Oh, maybe, maybe I am good enough to to join them.” Because they the SNL writers in my head were always like, these are the gods of comedy writing, and i’m down here in the internet with my dumb friends like making garbage
Prank Wars was very funny.
Thank you. I mean, I love… I love a lot of what we did there and I love all those guys. I’m still friends with all them to this day, but you know, I think we were making it up as we were going along. Like internet video was not a thing. So the SNL people were like, Oh, those are like the real ones. And so, you know, I always had my eye on the prize, but I was like, I know they get hundreds and hundreds of packets. And, but you know, what’s, what’s the harm in writing a couple of sketches and sending it in?
Could you feel that your packets getting progressively stronger when every year that you were submitting?
No, I don’t think so. And I’m sure if I read them now, I’d be like, Oh, this is crazy. Just garbage. I would unproducible, totally misusing the cast, like all, all the things that, uh, you kind of learn once you’re in there. I’m sure they weren’t good.
How helpful was it with Sarah? Because when you finally got the show in 2014, obviously having an endorsement from Kate McKinnon, who was, you know, still relatively new and also from Sarah, but I, I read an interview with you or heard you on a podcast saying that Sarah, it’s not like she was helping you with the packet, but she would say maybe this idea is not good to put in the packet. This is, um, you might not want to do that. Was how helpful was that? What is an idea that you had that she’s like, you don’t wanna put this in the packet. Do you remember ?
God, I can’t remember.
Yeah. Long time ago.
No, I wish I could. I’m sure there were a lot. But I think what she was trying to steer me towards and what if anyone asks for advice from me, I always tell them is like they’re looking for what we’re looking for is somebody’s unique voice. What do you think is funny? And can you put that into the vernacular of the show? Uh, and so I’m sure that’s kind of what she was trying to push me towards She wasn’t like, Oh, this one’s not gonna work. That’s bad. It’s more like, are you trying to write what you think the show is? show wants, or are you trying to write what you think is funny in the show’s voice? And so I, that, that seems to be the best advice for the packets. But, you know, obviously having a good word from her and from Kate probably made all the difference for me. I can’t say. I wasn’t, I didn’t work there at the time.
Does anybody ever get hired on a blind submission without a connection to UCB or..?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It does happen.
I mean, we just read hundreds of packets. We just finished reading them. So, and, and a couple of the people who, you know, made it or making it through to the, that kind of final group, you know, no one really knows them. They just wrote a great, super funny packet.
That’s great to know. So when your packet… they want to meet you. They bring you and you’re with um, Brian Tucker and Colin Jost, and Rob Klein. When you, when you sit down with them, it’s, it’s basically you have to get all these different levels and then eventually you’re with Erik Kenward and then you’re outside Lorne Michaels’ door. What, what are these meetings like? They just want to make sure that you’re an okay guy. Is that essentially it? They know you’re funny from the packet, but is that what they’re looking for?
Yeah. Well, at the time you think, Oh my god, they’re gonna grill me about comedy and I have to be funny and cool, and I need to know everything and they’re, like maybe they’re gonna make me hitch on something or whatever and really I think if you’re at that point of coming in to talk to people, uh, you’ve been pretty heavily vetted and they’re doing like “the weirdo check” on some level, you know um and seem kind of like… Are are you fun in person it you know, and but I don’t think any of that knocks someone out. It’s like really the work matters, but you know, Lorne has this famous saying he’s always like and i’m gonna misquote him here I’m sure but he’s always like a big part of it is who do you want to run into the hallway at two in the morning? So I think that’s what the meeting with Lorne is about he’s he’s wants to see if you can talk to him.
Your meeting was so interesting because I would think the same thing, you bring in like a thick novel because you’re going to be out there for hours, based on everyone’s story. You get in there in 10 minutes, very, very quick.
I brought a book. I think Rob Klein made fun of me.
Who made fun of you?
Rob Klein, I think, was like, “What are you doing? What’s with the book?” I’m like, I don’t know. I heard I might be waiting.
That’s most people, at least a couple hours… get some reading. So you go in there and you’re, you know, Lorne’s going to want to talk to me about comedy, but it’s for the most part, it’s baseball.
Baseball. Yeah.
And that’s not what you thought going in, but you’d been going to some Mets games. He has those Yankee tickets behind the home plate and you both kind of bonded over the baseball?
I don’t, I don’t know if I would call it bonding necessarily. It was just, uh, that was what we talked about, you know, he said, What have you been doing this summer? And I said, I’ve been, I realized I could get Mets tickets for like 10 bucks.So I’ve just been going to a ton of Mets games and, and then he proceeded to make fun of the Mets and how they’re not good, and how they don’t have a winning tradition, how the Yankees do. And, you know, of course I’m realizing he’s talking about SNL. But he I remember, clear as day, him saying if you’re a yankee and you don’t win You don’t stay a yankee for very long and I was like, okay, he’s talking about the show here. Got it, but I left that meeting fully like I don’t know what just happened. He didn’t ask me anything about My background what I think is funny. Well, nothing like that. It was so I I was like, maybe I don’t know This hasn’t gone. Well, I could not tell and then later got a call from Colin.
That day?
Yeah a couple hours later. I think they must have met, all of them and said, Okay, here are the people we met with. What do we think? This person, that person.
You were quoted as saying the first year you’re thrown in the deep end, there’s no hand holding. And I know that you had quit smoking at one point in the fourth show. Your fourth show, Jim Carrey’s hosting, and you said There was just too much pressure and I broke.
Came right back to it.
What happened? Do you remember the exact moment? Like, where were you when you just couldn’t? In the beginning, it seems like that’s for everybody. It’s just, you’re thrown in the pool. You’re learning to swim.
I think I had a sketch on that was like, Pete Davidson, who is also new. So I was writing with Pete a lot where
I was at dress. I think I know which one you’re talking about. Is he like a zombie?
Yeah, he’s a zombie and Jim Carrey’s his dad. It has them on like a pool skimmer and is trying to talk their way in. And, uh, the way Jim. I’m saying Jim like we’re friends. The way Jim Carrey, I’ve met him two times. But the way, you know, he he is when you’re writing with him, he’s just so fast and his mind is incredible. It’s just like this comedy machine And so i’m just like furiously typing as he’s kind of riffing on this and he liked the idea, so he was just riffing on it a lot and it was just like, you know four weeks ago. I was going to Mets games. Now I’m here writing this thing for Jim Carrey and I don’t want to mess it up. You know, like I’m already thinking I’m going to get fired every week, of course. And that, you know, I, this one was going to be on the show and. I think I just got extremely overwhelmed with pressure and, uh, went to an old friend.
I have to say, though, to get something even to dress on your fourth show is pretty remarkable for a new writer. I mean, that’s, I mean, I talked to people that have been there and it took them sometimes months to get anything even in. So, I mean, just to get something to dress.
I was thrilled. I mean. Thrilled.
Oh, yeah. To get something. Beavis and Butt-Head with Ryan Gosling. I can’t believe it took five years. I mean, I know that you tried with Jonah Hill in 2018. It did get to dress. How did that play a dress?
It played good. It played good but our through line our straight line for it, was that Beck was like a Scott Peterson type guy who everyone thinks killed his wife and so the the straight line was a little heavy, and so between dress and air, Lorne was like, You gotta change the straight line. So I spent basically the rest of dress rehearsal rewriting it to be like he was a county commissioner had been accused of embezzling funds or whatever. I think I had two other sketches in that show. I did not get to go down to the bleachers I was just up there rewriting this thing. And then, you know, it was in, it was going to be on the show. And then it just got cut for time at the end. I remember Mikey just standing there in the full Butt-Head makeup, hearing, like, it’s out.
How many times did it go to the table before, um, Gosling? Were you submitting it?
Twice. No, no, no, no, no. I always, I’m. I’m always a fan of like, if we had something that I feel very confident will work, I’m like, let’s put that in again after enough time, and Mikey is just hates that he’s just, he gets so tense about it. He never wants to resubmit anything, but I’m like, “We have a decade of ideas here, dude. You know, there’s definitely some fun ones.”
That’s a good problem, but how hard is that on the table to put something that they had already heard to get the laughs, which you need, um, a second or third time?
Well, I mean it was pretty spaced out, so we did Jonah, who was so funny doing it. It was great, but like, the writing of it too wasn’t tight enough either, that was another problem, it just kind of like, went too long. And then I think we put it at the table with Oscar Isaac, with a different straight line. I forget what we went with and it got picked and we were like, “Okay, here we go This will be fun. We’re finally gonna get this one,” and then I think on Friday before we even did it, they, they a cold open got added or something and they were like, “There’s no room. There’s just no room in the studio for this,” so it got yanked again. And then when Gosling came around, I remembered saying to Mikey, like, “Hey, I know you hate doing this, but I think Gosling might be the guy for this.” And that was one of the few times Mikey was like, “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s definitely put that in again.” So I knew when Mikey, when I got buy in from Mikey, like this was, this, if we couldn’t get it with Gosling, we were never going to get it.
When you’re watching it on the floor, you know, you’re friends with Heidi and Mikey worked with Heidi at the Groundlings, and you wrote that really funny Michael Jordan piece with Heidi.
I love that one.
It was really fun. When she’s breaking, is it one of those things where it’s like, a laugh’s a laugh and people are going crazy and that, or was it one of those things? I know she did that. felt bad that she was laughing. What was your take on it? And did she come up to you and Mikey right after me? Like, I’m so sorry. Or because she apologized in the press. And I didn’t think it was for this. It didn’t. It’s a brilliant sketch, regardless. And it played on both levels. It didn’t distract. I didn’t think from overall,
I was not mad at all. I mean, I I had ran, I had to run outta the studio at the beginning of that sketch ’cause I heard a weird, someone like had left the open mic channel or something. Like the band, like the, the music guest, like keyboard was still open and that I was hearing, like talking, coming through the monitor. So I ran to the control room and was like, “What?” You know, “What?” I’m sure I used stronger words than, “What the heck is that?” And then they were like, “Oh my God, there’s a mic, you know, some of whatever.” They fixed that. So I kind of came back into the studio, like tense, like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe we finally get to do this thing. And there’s like an audio problem at the start of it.” But I don’t think anyone remembers that at all because as soon as it got going…
Oh my goodness, the laugh.
And when, as soon as Heidi cracked like that. It was just, to me, it was like she could not help it, and you can’t be mad at that.
And the makeup was a little bit different, it progressed in between dress and live, right? It, like, the, the appearance and makeup and the costume, it evolved a little.
Jodi (Mancuso), I think, said she, she had tweaked the Beavis wig. But, you know, like the dress to me, it looked pretty close to what it looked like. I mean, I’m sure, you know, if you talk to Louie (Zakarian) or Jodi, they’d be like, “What is he talking about? Absolutely not. We did this and this,” you know, because they’re, they’re masters of their craft. I’m standing 20 feet away, you know watching it. But I mean she was laughing at dress, too. And so was Kenan. Kenan was the one who cracked at dress, and I was like, Oh my god I haven’t seen Kenan do that in a while. It was just such a delight and so fun. Like I think Mikey and I both felt like, Oh, thank God we finally got to do this one. We’ve always loved this idea. And Ryan was having fun. Everyone just seemed to be having fun, except the extras who were just stone-faced.
And thank goodness they were. I mean, that’s, I think what it was, I mean, my favorite stuff on SNL is the non topical stuff. I mean, I know that people want to see that, but I think the stuff that people remember for the most part is the non topical stuff. And it was just, it was so funny. Like Close Encounter, you wrote that, was it just you and Kate McKinnon? Was it, was Mikey involved on the first one?
Yeah. It was me, uh, me and, uh, Kate and Mikey,
Yeah. You said, you were “pretty sure that’s the reason I still work here.” Like seven or eight years later, you put that in a tweet. Was that a sketch that just killed at the table and just did great at dress and got right on? Or did, was there a progression of that?
I might be lying right now, but as I remember it, it was a Hail Mary that Mikey and I threw in. You know, we had talked to Kate about it. And she, you know, kind of pitched on it and then we wrote it, sent it to her like late. She was like, “I love it”. You know, I think it was near last in the read. It definitely was not like on the read. They weren’t like, “This is going to be great.”
That is very hard if you’re at the end of the read through because the energy at four hours, it’s hard. Everybody’s tired. Yeah.
Yeah. It can be. You can’t help but look when your thing is back there and be like, “Not a lot of confidence in this one, I see.” But sometimes they put ones at the end too that they think the energy it will bring the energy back up um, I don’t think this was that though, because it’s It’s all talking. There’s very little movement in that first one Kate did it at the table and she’s just so good at under playing things and so confident and comfortable in her character choice, you know. Even if she’s not even if her head is going crazy and she’s questioning everything what comes out is a very confident, clear, in-command character choice And it did well and it went in it might have been towards the end of the show at dress and then moved up. But it was you know, I I don’t think either mike or I thought like this is gonna crush, and then when it did, I remember at dress like Lorne definitely like looked at me probably Definitely looked at me And Mikey and was like, “Nice job.” Which you don’t, you don’t get a ton of those.
I was about to say to get that from Lorne. Something like that is like the biggest hug from, I mean, or the biggest compliment.
It was incredible. Yeah. And so I think, you know, I was like, he definitely learned my name after that, for rea.l And was like, okay this guy uh knows what he’s doing on some level and and I think I mean, honestly, all credit to Ryan Gosling as well. Every time he comes by, he just has helped Mikey and I out in an incredible way each, each of the three times.
He trusts you because you make him look good. You guys give him the best stuff. Like, somebody like Sandler, when he finally hosted, because he always said he, you know, he didn’t think he was going to host. For Sandler Family Reunion, it was you, Mikey, and Kyle Mooney. Do you, is Sandler around on Tuesday, and do you get him in the room when you’re writing this? Do you ever get the host in there on Tuesday?
Well, they come in, and we kind of tell them, you know, what we’re thinking. And, uh, And sometimes they’ll like riff with you on it. Sometimes it’ll be like, I don’t know about that one. And sometimes they’re, they’re just like, Hey, whatever you guys want. You know? Uh, I remember to me, with Sandler for, for me, it was just, you know, I grew up on this stuff. So I was just…
He did great, the whole show, yeah.
I was like, Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m talking to this guy and he’s being so cool and friendly and nice and… But yeah, I, I remember he had like a couple, just threw out a couple things, but he’s, he’s very much like, “Trust you guys,” you know?
Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted this photo, it’s from 2016, and it’s you, and it’s Jeremy, what’s his name?
Jeremy Beiler?
Jeremy Beiler, it’s you and Jeremy Beiler in a photo. You’re finishing the monologue at 3:30 Friday night AM. And you’re with Miranda. Now, is that one of those things you were assigned to that they said on Friday? You just sit down and you’re gonna write it? Or did you have an idea that you went to him? Or how did that happen? And by the way, that monologue absolutely killed.
And, uh, has not, did not stand the test of time, I believe, I believe in that monologue, he points out a picture of Trump and he’s like, you’re never going to be president. And there was like two months later,
I didn’t remember that part.
Uh, I knew Lin from, from earlier work and when he was doing Freestyle Love Supreme, like his pre Hamilton days. Uh, so I think when he was coming to host, he, I’m sure he was like i’m coming in with a song, you know, can these guys like help me with it? So I I don’t think that was either of our ideas.
So at 3:30 on a Friday, is it just so much adrenaline? Is that that’s what’s keeping you going? Just the enthusiasm of sitting there and stuff. Cause like, I just, I, like, I just can’t even imagine like having the energy level that to maintain that.
You know, this show that Lorne designed is so great at keeping the nerves high and the energy high because there’s this ticking clock. And especially with something like a monologue or a cold open, you’re like. “I know this is going to be on TV in however many minutes I need this to be as good as it can possibly be.” And so you will fill all the time you have before it needs to go to the cards and it needs to you know get sorted with everything, but I don’t think you ever feel tired in those moments where you’re, you have work to do. It’s a, it’s when the thing has aired that all of a sudden it’s like a wave of exhaustion will hit you.
I don’t know if this happens that you didn’t get a sketch on for a week. Is it almost, I don’t want to say a relief, but there’s nothing you can really do. Maybe contribute to Update or contribute to other people, but it is in terms of like, I can go home and sleep and stuff. Is it ever a relief or that probably doesn’t happen to you anymore that you don’t get something on, but…
It does. It does sometimes. It’s. You get blanked or you, you know, you have stuff in dress that doesn’t make it. And then you just find yourself sitting there for the show. I mean, the, the more I’ve risen there, the less chance that I’m going to have nothing to do there is, you know, might maybe get put on cold open or, you know, um, help helping the younger, newer writers with stuff. I’d never felt relief if I didn’t have anything on, I always felt like. “Aw sh*t, I blew it this week,” you know?
Pedro Pascal, when you did the Super Mario Brothers piece, you tweeted that in between dress and live, the composer, was it Elijah? I don’t know the last…
Oh, is it Eli?
Yes. Eli Brueggemann. This is between dress and live, he was composing music and didn’t start until 11 p.m. and had it an hour later. Why would it be necessary for something between dress and life for the music to change? And are you supervising this since you wrote it?
That one I was. That one. I remember running back and forth between the editing room and Eli’s music room and kind of being like, you know, uh, It’s a riff on the different classic Mario songs, you know. And he had done such an incredible one for this, uh, Joker/Oscar the Grouch thing we did a few seasons earlier. He had taken, lik, done like a dark Sesame Street song for us. And so we were like, “Oh, let’s try to get a version of that.” But the, the, the music’s like changing, you know, based on the scene and stuff. So it was a lot of just kind of like running and being like, okay, “This part needs to be like, kind of big crunchy,” you know, and I think it’s it’s not like we just came up with that between dress and air. It just wasn’t done for dress. And so…
There just wasn’t time.
Yeah, there wasn’t time. And and we even had an extra day on that one.
It’s amazing how everything I mean, I know some of those you said the Chad sketch, one of them, was 21 hours. In between, you know, you wrapped on Saturday at 3 a. m. And it’s added in, this entire team doing it.
Those guys are incredible.
What you’ve been able to do… How many of the hosts that come in actually have good ideas? Cause I know that David Harbour came in with the origin story of, of Oscar the Grouch, which was one of the funniest pieces.
That was actually from Lily Allen, in fact.
Was it Lily Allen?
It was Lily Allen, who I was such a fan of, and I did not know that they were together, and so he was like, “Hey, this is Lily.” I was like, “Oh, what?”
So you write this thing up, and based on Lily Allen, I know Tina Fey came in and wanted to do a Dick Wolf, uh, Chicago improv.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And you and Mikey, so how often does this happen when a host will come in with an idea that’s actually good when you and Mikey will go together based on a host pitch?
Fairly often, I think. You know, I think the hosts are generally like, “I have these ideas. Take them or leave them,” and we’ll always Hear them out and listen to them and then kind of sidebar And talk about like, you know, “That could be pretty funny, you know, let’s put someone on that.” Um, we’ll try to match the writer to the idea like Pedro had, um, was it like that ike weird, he wakes up from a coma and is like, “ma, ma, ma,” whatever he was doing.
That it was just silly, but it was fun.
And I think Kent (Sublette) and Alison (Gates) took that one and just kind of like, gave it the container and you know, um, brought it to life. So Mikey and I are, are on the hook for those sometimes, and try to do a good job with it, you know. Generally the host knows what they’re funny doing or they know what they can do really well. Uh, so if they’re saying an idea and they believe in it, you want to give them a shot at it.
Tell me if I have this right. For (David S.) Pumpkins, which, you know, it’s funny because I know generationally I have my, nephew who’s like in second grade singing the song and kids are dressing up for Halloween and stuff up until you know, people our age and above but is it the reason it really did happen is because Tom Hanks you’re writing another piece and Hanks said he couldn’t break dance and use that for another piece later with chris pine But was that the that’s really what led Bobby to come in and you kind of pivoted. Is that what happened?
Man, it’s such a blur. I do remember it coming together at like three or four in the morning, because I… Mikey and I had another one where Tom Hanks was like Frankenstein that we were like, “Oh, let’s finish that.” And then it was based, like the song was based on that “Little Superstar” video, that like, Bollywood video and then I think like Mikey had separately been thinking about like, uh, you know, like, um, Tower of Terror, like the haunted elevator thing and it just kind of came together in this weird, again that, like, fever dream pitching on on this insane thing around the loosest possible structure of like scary thing, scary thing, weird guy. And what it was at the table was not even close to what it ended up being. It was so much longer.
That’s what I was going to ask, but it played well enough on the, at the table to get in.
Yeah. I remember again, like so sleep deprived at the table that people are like, how did that play? I’m like, you know, I honestly don’t, it must’ve played okay. Must’ve played okay enough to get picked. But that one was also very unexpected hit, you know?
Because the dress, it wasn’t what it was on live. I mean, if you, if somebody watched that, they would be like, this is not the sketch.
Yeah, just what, something was just like not quite there. Tom hadn’t quite got David Pumpkins like in his soul yet. But then he did, and it’s not like we’re it’s not like we have a ton of instruction for him. We’re like we don’t know who this guy is either. It’s just this weird guy who is, there’s no… Nothing about him makes sense I think the initial idea was like, there was a lot of talk about how was he like a, was he like a regional Halloween character that’s very well known in a certain area, but not outside of it. That was making us laugh a lot.
And then you have an animated special. I mean, you’re emailing Dinklage. Do you want to do this? What is he going to say? Of course.
I mean, that was so much fun.
It’s incredible, that progression. Eddie Murphy comes in, I didn’t know until you tweeted, he brought in his original, the two guys, Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield, that wrote a lot of his stuff.
Yeah.
Were they pretty hands on that week? Or was it just that they were just hanging out?
No, they were around. They wrote some stuff. They were so nice. And it was, it was cool to just like, You know, I, I feel like they had a good time being back there. Like, but they didn’t come in like, “It’s our show, we’re Eddie’s guys,” you know? They were very, they’re just like, “Hey, this is so cool to be back here, man. This is fun.”
I was shocked when he came back. I mean, it was amazing. I know you did Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood with Brian Tucker and Mikey Day.
Yeah, It was a dream, dream come true. So fun.
Now, is Eddie on, Murphy on that Tuesday, is he, is he at all improvising some of that with you or is he, are you just, do you just write the thing? How much input did Eddie Murphy have? Cause I know back when he would write with the two gentlemen, he would be very much um, you know, acting stuff out and they’d be writing down the, down dialogue.
I don’t recall him pitching too much on, on that one, because we, I think there was another Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood idea. That was like a tape, like a big pre tape and a lot of locations. So I, I think Tucker and I, at one point we’re like, “Should we not do this one that we thought of?” And they were like, “No, do it, because we might, you know, if that’s too much to film, it’d be good to have this live one, as well.” I think, uh, but I mean, he definitely had thoughts and ideas and we changed stuff, but it, but you just feel an incredible amount of pressure taking this, like, beloved characters thing that used to crack you up. And I was, I was raised on Mister Rogers. I, you can’t see, I have a signed birthday letter from Mister Rogers behind me.
We’ll share Mister Rogers stories.
I’m going to cover my mom’s address here but.
Oh my goodness! Now that is very, very cool. I have, I have, um, I have the trolley here and then I have, um.
Yeah.
I have the lyrics that he, he, um, signed from that. But I was, I love the fact that he wrote you. I’m a huge fan.
I wrote it, I invited him to my birthday party and I think I was four. And he wrote back and politely declined.
I absolutely love that. Could you tell, because, you know, I was talking to somebody who was an extra in a sketch that Tina Fey wrote, and on Saturday they were doing it with cameras in rehearsal and Tina Fey in front of all the extras said, “This doesn’t work.” Could you and Mikey sometimes have that feeling when you were rehearsing?
Totally.
And how often are you right that this doesn’t work? Is it, is your instinct normally right that it doesn’t play that well at dress?
I guess you never really know, because anytime we say “This isn’t working,” we change it, and then sometimes it does work, and sometimes it still doesn’t work, uh, so it’s hard to say. But like, I remember one sketch we did was, It was like Mikey and Steve Carell are like astronauts in the ISS, and they’re giving like, everything’s going wrong. They’re trying to hold it together because they’re on like a broadcast with middle schools, and It was like this huge rig they had initially like, you know, some, like Leslie Jones was gonna float by on this, like a big contraption.
It was so big and we were like “This is not… this needs to be like a tight locked off little shot and they’ll just fake the floating. We don’t have to try to do real floating and stuff.” So I remember like in those instances where you’re blocking it, and you’re like, all this, this isn’t working. We’ve been there long enough that we can kind of say like, “No, we have to change it. You know, we can’t, we can’t go in like this.”
Who had the best packet that you ever read that was submitting that you were just like, I can’t believe this is so good. Is there, is there one that stands out?
Dude, I read like, I just got done reading like 300. So, we read so many, I can’t remember them.
Is it just pretty clear right away on the first page that you’re like, they have it or they don’t with their voice or like the first two pages? Is it pretty clear, I’m guessing?
I mean, you know, there’s some kind of dead giveaways that someone doesn’t watch the show really and their agents just told them, “Hey, you should just put in for the show, you know?” Cast member names are spelled wrong or cast is called like they’re calling each other by their own names. You know, I’m like, “That’s not, we don’t do that. You know, we don’t do that in live…”
Really? How do the guest writers get selected that come in and who are some of the guest writers that you thought were really good when they came in?
We haven’t had any in forever.
Why do you think? Because there’s so many writers?
I think there was like, there was like a guild rule change that was meant to protect writers from super short contracts or mini rooms or something. But that spilled over onto us, that made it like us not allowed to have guest people. I mean people, you know will show up with a host sometimes, like Shane (Gillis) had his boy, Uh, (John) McKeever there, who was, I thought was great. He was super funny. Kind of like, you know was… He got it. He, you know, I was like, “Oh, in another world, he’d be, you know, we would have tried to hire this guy for sure.” I mean, I don’t know, anytime old writers come back, it’s always exciting too, like, sometimes James, James Anderson will pop in or Paula Pell. And you’re like, “Oh, great! This is fun.” You know?
When you were at Fordham, your senior year, how much were you actually able to study versus doing College Humor? Because you were hired, right? Your senior year. So you’re doing both,
I was. But I wasn’t like working full time. I was hired to write a book with a couple other people that we would start like right after graduation and then while we were doing that, they kind of were like, Do you guys just want to stay and work here and be like writers here? And we’re like, “Yeah, I mean, obviously.”
The timing was amazing. When you were an intern at Gersh, was that before or was that like your senior year?
That was before.
What was that like being in an agency setting for a creative?
It was awesome. I I mean my I don’t even know how i’m related to him But it’s like my like fifth cousin or something is a agent there. I think a partner now. He’s a great dude. He was really awesome. And and so he was like, “Hey, you can, you know, come be an intern here.” And I brought my friend Tim. I got him in there as well. He ended up working there after for real, but it was cool. I got to I got to do coverage so I would read just screenplays. I would just read screenplays all day, and then I’d have to type up little, you know, character and plot synopsis.
That’s great that you’ve got so much hands on stuff, because a lot of interns do not.
And the best part was they had a pilot library, so all the pilots from every year, unproduced ones and then ones that did get picked up. I got to watch all those so i’ve like seen some weird never aired pilots of like a Jessica Simpson, like, three-camera sitcom that that quietly went away.
You have to tell Kenan about the one with um, because my brother worked on it, I actually saw the one with Sisqo. It was Bob Newhart and Sisqo and Kenan is in it, and it absolutely exists.
I never saw that one
People think it’s a joke. But Kenan was in it. It was amazing.
I have to ask him.
And do you, 50th anniversary? Is there any plans other than Radio City that you know of? Or what? Do you have any?
I mean…
It’s unbelievable. You know, October ‘75, that the show is still still so culturally relevant.
Yeah, it’s it’s amazing. I feel so honored to be part of it. Whatever small little part. But I started, my first season was the 40th, and that was mind blowing.
Oh, you were at that show with like,
I was, yeah.
At the Plaza where it was like celebrity overload. I mean, I’ve talked to people that were there.
It was unbelievable, unbelievable. So I’m hoping for a repeat of that, I guess, but. I don’t know what the plans are. You know, I hear like vague, vague things, but I’m sure when we get in there the next few weeks, we’ll start hearing more and more.
I have to ask you about Larry David when he came in when you did Flight, uh, the FBI Simulator. I talked to somebody that was there at the time, and they told me that they were going back and forth during rewrites. They’re like, “Is this gonna play?” It, like, kind of like, I don’t know. Did you have that conversation? Feeling that going in that you just weren’t sure was your confidence on that pretty, um, pretty good going in at dress.
No, it’s always, always. shaky because even if I remember Larry was laughing a lot or he he found it very funny.
During the broadcast he was laughing.
Yeah, like, he found it funny and you know when we were rehearsing it and stuff and so we felt great about that but you know sometimes comedians and comics laugh at stuff that regular people just absolutely hate or just don’t find funny at all. So there’s always the kind of nagging fear that like, well, we all love this, but are they going to love it too? And. That one, that one worked great.
It was the rehearsal. That’s what I saw when he laughed.
Yeah.
Someone in like space pants with Peter Dinklage, which made me laugh is again one of those things at the table is Peter Dinklage getting up and dancing for that at the table.
I don’t know if he got up at the table.
I know sometimes they do.
I think I remember the dancing being something he, you know, cause I’m sure we just told him like, yeah, if you dance, whatever, like do the robot or something. And then he had his own, his own whole way to do it. That really added so much to it.
What is it like being in that room after the Wednesday read-through? Because you were there when they’re selecting sketches.
It was cool to, to get in there and see kind of how it all came together and, and, and what some of the various factors were. Cause a lot of times you’re like…
What are those? That’s what I was going to ask.
Well, there’s tons of them, but sometimes you’d be like, Why… How come that one didn’t go so funny or whatever? And then you realize, like, oh, it’s, that would be the fourth, you know, Kate-led sketch of the show. And it was the, but you know the least funny of the four so that’s why you know It didn’t go or they’ll say like let’s hold this because it’s not really host dependent We could do it with another host or something like that. And I I mean, you know after the first few times you hear your own piece kind of, dunked on, you you get used to it It’s like you can’t blame anyone for being the worst thing you could do in that room is is make people feel bad for not liking your thing. And I think everyone who’s in that room is generally pretty honest about how their stuff went. You know, you can say, “I know that didn’t go great, but I, I think I could fix it, and here’s how,” but you don’t want to do that unless you really honestly, truly deeply believe in something.
Between dress and live, when Lorne is picking with the host and Steve Higgins, are you there for that as well in the room?
Yeah, we’ll go, we’ll go in for that. Cause there’s often a lot of questions about… Did they change this part or what what can we do in this part to make that work? Can we cut this chunk out or, you know, what did you lose from this? uh because he’s you know doing all the mental math about you know, the cast and the timing and taking into account what the host wants to do as well. Sometimes host even if something didn’t really work They just love it and they really want to do it and they’re like, “I know I can get it.” And so he’s got to weigh that as well You
Are the hosts sometimes right? Like it’ll play better live or?
Uh, I think like if it’s a, if it’s a trusted host who’s done it a lot, it’s, you know, you’re a little more inclined to be like, “Okay, okay, Tom Hanks, I believe you.”
Thursday night though, you, back in the day, they would stay up until 4am rewriting the show. You don’t do that anymore. Does that, the rewrites still happen, but not in the middle of the night?
Yeah, we don’t we typically are not staying up super late on on thursday We do our rewrite tables during the day And try to get them try to get them done as as fast as we can. I mean you still be there till I don’t know midnight one in the morning, but…
Yeah, Jim Downey was big into like 4 a.m. In the middle of the night. And yeah, it was rough I think for for people.
I think it’s yeah, it’s it’s tough, you know after Tuesday and Wednesday is always a late one as well, to then be like, “Okay and Thursday, we’re also gonna all stay here till 4,” because a lot of times, you’ve got a you’re up at 7, 6:30 in the morning if you have a tape that morning.So it’s like you get you have to sleep at some point.
It’s unbelievable what you have in Mikey have done and I mean yourself and just the timing of everything from you know, you’ve been at Fordham to to getting College Humor and just the best timing sometimes is not getting it right away when you submit it and it just it seems like when you did get in Mikey being there and stuff and you both complimenting each other so well.
Yeah, I’ll never claim that like my career has been anything but just good timing and and being willing to work really hard. I don’t think I’m funnier than anyone…
On silly stuff, too. I love that you were talking about how some of the stuff I mean, that’s the best stuff on SNL is like the Jack Handey, silly stuff. I think, like…
Oh, yeah.
I really love that.
I think it’s, you know, the strength of SNL is always that it’s. And I think the reason it’s still on, is is that it’s so many different types of, of humor. It has room for all different styles. And like, I always say, like, if I really, truly loved everything in an episode, that’s probably not good because that means there’s someone else who just hated everything front to back
I never thought of that.
So it’s like there should always be a piece or two that I’m like, that’s not for me But people are laughing and you got to trust the wisdom of the crowd, you know?
I love that Nate Bargatze is giving you and Mikey so much credit for that sketch and for him.
I know. He’s so sweet to do that
I mean, it’s the truth. It’s helped his career so much. Do you ever hear from some of these hosts that you write for? Will they, like, send you something or a note or anything? Does that ever happen?
We don’t get like a thank you note, but a lot of times when they, when they come back, you know, they’ll, they’ll be like, “Oh my God, last time you guys did that one. That was so fun.” But they, you know, they’re, they’re generally, I think a lot of the hosts are pretty nervous going into it. It’s so strange that like, there’s been, like, Oscar winners that I’m having to reassure, like, “No, it’s going to be fine. You’re going to, this is going to be good.” I’m like, what do I know? Who am I? You know, this person won an Oscar, you know?
Don’t name the names, but you can see, you can just see the fear on their face sometimes?
Yeah, because this is not their venue. This is not what they are so great at doing, and they they’re kind of putting themselves in your hands and being like, “Please make me look funny You know, give me some give me funny stuff to do.” And so I think you know if you talk to them after the show often there there’s just this immense sense of like relief that it came off, and Everyone has always been super nice and complimentary to us.
I love that you and Mikey, um, wrote for Chloe Trost, who is so funny…
Yeah.
And the first season is very, very hard.
I know it’s tough.
And I feel like the stuff that you were writing, the, um, the Cass Elliot, and then the, the duet that she was doing, um, are so in her wheelhouse too, really, cause that’s the thing. You want to get these cast members to show off their strength. And the first year is very hard. And I feel like. That she knocked it out in the park with those two things, the vehicles that you, you gave her.
Well, she, I mean, it’s, I don’t want to put it all. And certainly it’s not all on Mikey and I, and I think Mikey and I, in terms of that, the Little Orphan Cassidy one, I think Mikey said, had just said to her like, “Hey, you should do a thing where you’re singing to the moon or whatever.” And, uh, you know, she… did that whole song, like the music and everything, the voice, all her, even Mikey and I were like, “You’re going to do that voice? Okay. Hmm. All right.” You know, we weren’t like, “Don’t do it,” but it was like, “Okay.” But she just kind of had, she just had this vision for that. And then, I felt like our role with that one, especially when a new cast member wants to do something ambitious is to just say, like, “We will structure the jokes and the pacing of this thing,” because we’ve just done this a lot. And you know, we’ll, we’ll, not like we’re always right, but we’ll give it the best chance it has. And we’ll make sure the production is on point, that every, all the technical things and the music rehearsal is happening. But you know, like put all that on us. You just focus on your performance, because that’s what’s gonna make this thing work. You know, like you can have the greatest production in the world, but if the performance isn’t there, no one’s gonna care at all
She knocked it out.
No, she did great.
If you write an Update piece with Mikey, do you have to go through proper channels, like Dennis McNicholas? Will you go to someone?
Yeah Yeah
For an Update piece, and does it is that how it kind of like goes through to try to get something on Update?
If you have an Update idea, you kind of, uh, you’ll just, we just go over to the Update office and say like, “Hey, here’s the idea, you know, are you guys, are you into it? Are you full this week?” You know, “Should we try it?” And, um, yeah, and then you write it, and it’s, they’re, they’re kind of their own little operation within the show. So if you have that piece on Update, your’re at some point, you’re going over to the Update area. You’re with them for a little bit.
What is your favorite Update piece that you ever wrote?
God, I’ve written so few. Um, I really loved. All right. Can I tell a brief story?
Yeah!
Mikey and I wrote this one called, his name is Mort Fellner, I think. And he’s a 120 year-old man, and he’s doing something called “The Super Centenarian News,” where he’s gonna tell news about other 110+ year old people and what they’re up to. And he’s like, it’s Mikey playing him. And he’s just like, little old guy who’s like, “Hi Colin…” We wrote it. And the thing, the joke is all the stories end when the person like, “died peacefully in her sleep later that day.” They always end up dying or something. And so we, we loved this thing. We had it. We’re like, “Oh, this is so fun. We did it at dress. And it did incredible. It did so good. We’re like, “Oh, nice. This is great!” Then Che goes out to do the warmup for the live show. Right. And he’s doing it. He’s doing the kind of warmup he’s doing. Jokes and stuff. And he’s, you know, he always asks like, “Hey, is anyone here, you know, from far away, has anyone traveled to be here?” This guy in the back goes, “I’m with my dad. We’re…” I forget where they’re from. He’s like, “I’m with my dad or my grandpa. It’s his hundredth birthday and he’s a, he’s a world war two veteran.” And there’s this old man with a veterans hat on, in a wheelchair with a balloon tied to it up in back of the bleachers. And I was like, “Oh no.” And Che went up to Mikey. He was like, “I think it’s going to go better now. And it did not, it did not.” It still went on air. And it was, you did. You could feel how uncomfortable the room was the whole room was just, like, “There’s a hundred year old man over there. Like, I don’t want to laugh.”
Just because of the warm-up.
It wasn’t it wasn’t Che’s fault.
No, no, no, but just those factors that the people at home have no idea.
We were all laughing. Oh, it was so funny. I remember Lorne going, “Never.Never in 40 or whatever years has that happened.” And so, I mean, even though it was like, we were bummed that it didn’t go as well. It was just one of those things you’re like, that’s so funny that that happened. Everything about it, the veterans at the balloon on the wheelchair. It was like. “Oh, no. We’re so screwed.”
It sounds like a sketch in itself, almost.
It does. It’s, it feels like a sketch, but I promise you it happened.
It happened.
And it was, and it was magical. And Mikey, I think Mikey would tell a very similar story if you asked him.
Streeter Seidell, thanks for doing this. How did this go? I really appreciate this. I’ve wanted to talk to you for a long time, so.
I… You tell me.
Oh my goodness. No, this is amazing. This was incredible. And just
I’m just sitting here blabbing.
No, no, no.
You caught me on a day where my my kids are with my wife. So it’s not like nobody’s running in behind me screaming about a Lego.
I really feel like in 10, 20 years or maybe even now, like, like you and Mikey will be like mentioned with Smigel and Downey and Handey, and there aren’t many people on that list. There really, really aren’t.
I think that’s absurd, but man, if that happened, that would be…
It’s the truth.
I do not feel that we are due that honor, certainly. I think we’re just, every week, just struggling to get through.
You have the Robert Smigel modesty and he was a really big fan of some of your pieces and he loved the Beavis and Butthead especially, so can’t do much better.
I mean any time one of those guys, you hear even the faintest compliment from one of them, you’re just you know you’re blown away like you had mentioned that Seth had said nice things about Washington. He came up to our office to just say he liked it, and you know, I, I’m sure we acted like absolute morons. Cause like that doesn’t happen. We’re like, “Oh, thanks. That’s amazing.” But like, it means…
I don’t think he’s ever done that before.
It means… it meant so much to me. Cause like, those are the people who kind of taught you what to do. They didn’t teach you directly, but you watch their stuff and you, and you’re like,
Oh, he was a heavyweight. So prolific.
Yeah, amazing. And you’re like, ”God, if I can, if I, if only I were as good as one of them.” Like that’s, they teach you this art form and you can just, the best you can hope is a pale imitation. So I’ll, I’ll never think that we’re as good as any of those guys. Uh, but it’s very nice to hear you say it.
It’s the truth. You have the Smigel modesty. Thank you for doing this. I am beyond grateful and hope you have an amazing year and you don’t have to read any more packets, right? You’re like done.
We’re done with packets for now, but I, I hope so. That was a lot. It’s a lot. It’s a lot, but you know what? It’s like, important that we read all of them. And we really truly consider them because you know, we’ve all been that one sending it in, crossing our fingers, and hoping someone looks at it.
You know what it’s like. How many of those actually did you laugh out loud? Like, a lot of comedy people can read and be like, “Oh, this is funny,” but did you laugh out loud at all?
There was one this year that really made me laugh, and I don’t know what the wri… I don’t know what will happen with the writer of that packet, but hopefully they will come work here.
I hope so.
Uh, but I was like, that is pretty rare, especially after you’ve read, you know, 20…
And you’re with the best people. I mean, you’re with the Yankees as Lorne says and stuff. So I’m going to have somebody to be able to do that.
Yeah. It’s just, It’s it is pretty rare to laugh, but like you said, you know, you’re more analytical about a lot of it. You’re you’re going “That’s clever. That’s fun.”
Exactly. Exactly. Well, thank you so much for doing this. This was such a thrill.
My my pleasure My pleasure.
I hope to run into you sometime and say hi and stuff.
You know where I live now, so…
With Miste Rogers, we can, um, yeah, swap stories. All right, well, it was really good talking to you. Good luck with everything.
You too, Mark. Thanks man.
Have an amazing season.
