October 16, 2025 • 46 mins
Kyle connects with kindred spirit, actor, comedian, writer, and director Grace Kuhlenschmidt to learn about her incredible career path and creative process, what being a correspondent on The Daily Show is like, which Spice Girl she met while performing in London, who inspired her comedy, and where to get the best Chinese chicken salad in Grace’s hometown of L.A.. Grace rates Kyle’s limited reality TV experience, gets the scoop on his Desperate Housewives and Portlandia experiences, and teaches Kyle what magic shell is (and more) during an epic round of, “What Are We Even Riffing About?”.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What do we even do? What are we even doing?
Welcome to what are we even doing? Excellent question where
we sit with artists, musicians, creatives, people that are shaking
things up, and we ask them about their creative process,
(00:22):
what they're into, how they use social media, et cetera.
And today we have with us very special guest. We
have with us an actress, a comedian correspondent for the
Daily Show. That's pretty cool. Social media icon, Grace Kohlenschmidt.
Very good am I doing with gracelid?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah? See that was perfect. Just a little more of
the German accent. Just bring it out, especially for the
Grace part.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes, Chase, we'll make you very comfortable here. Sometimes I
go on then they can't help it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I feel comfortable.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Me too, Me too. It's so lovely to have you here.
You cracked me up.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you and did oh by the way.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh, thank you. I feel like we have some common
themes within our sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Definitely, okay, absolutely, and you're maybe my biggest competition on
social media.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That is the way it should be. Well, let me
ask you a question first. Let me start off with okay, so,
was there a trigger? Was there a moment was there
something that happened you were like, oh, you know, you
sort of saw the magic. I said, this is what
I want to do. Was there a moment or was
it more kind of a gradual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Like like it was semi gradual, but in college there
like was I went to Skidmore College. There's an upstate
New York and there's a like incredible comedy program there.
It's all like extracurricular. When I got there, one of
my friends was like, you should just audition for one
of the improv groups. So I did.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And because they knew you and they said, oh, you're
funny and yeah, my friend was.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Like, you're funny enough you could do it. I mean
most people can do improv, so true.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So I auditioned, actually did not get in the first
time I auditioned, came back after the summer to my
sophomore year, auditioned again and got in and got accepted,
And by like the end of sophomore year, I kind
of was like, I would be the worst psychologist of
all time if I continue with this. You know, my
two point seven GPA wasn't really telling me to keep
(02:21):
going with my psychology major. You were trying, so I
was like, I think it'll be comedy.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's so interesting. Kind of similar to me, I because
I was doing acting in high school and I really
enjoyed it, and I sort of said, I think I'm
better at this. I'm going to kind of have a thing.
Right went to college, was like, I'm gonna find a career,
you know, and I was doing these things and I
just was not happy. Took an acting class. I was like,
that's kind of good, and then kind of decided I
(02:48):
might try a summer and did summerstock for a summer
and came back to school completely changed and said, I
think this is what I have to do.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, sometimes I feel like that is what makes sense
with what people end up doing their careers. It's like,
do what maybe comes natural to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You, I know, but it's fun. We resist. I mean
I was resisting it all. I don't know if you
had the same kind of absolutely did okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I was My brother was like a theater kid growing
up randomly okay, and I, like to be fair like,
almost made fun of him for it. So then by
the time that I was doing what.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It really helps encourages.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I mean I had to bully him for something
I was the younger sister. Okay, yeah, we have to
have a leg up somewhere. Absolutely, And so by the
time I started doing improv, he was like, are you
kidding me? Now you're doing You're.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
In my world? Yeah, get out of my world. But
sorry to him, Yeah, well it worked out.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh my god. I love your videos. I love where
you go with them because where you start where you
end totally completely different, and I'm always surprised and you
always take me on this wonderful journey. Do you have
a process? Does it come to you? Does it like
does it happen as you're doing it? Or how a
little of both?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, So sometimes I'll have a full script written out,
like just in my iPhone notes Okay, Yeah. Sometimes like
I'll just some creativity will strike. I'll write something up
and then a couple days later, I'll film something and
do a voiceover for that. But I would say, like,
everything I do to a certain degree is like a
(04:17):
parody of something. Sometimes that's a genre, sometimes that's a
very specific video I've seen on the internet. My first
few tiktoks were just straight up parodies of things I
had seen, because when I started on the Internet, like
making videos. It was the pandemic, so it was like
I can't interact with people, so I do have to
(04:39):
just parody these strangers that I'm seeing.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And you have to create something, right, I mean, you're
compelled to do something.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And I was bored out of my mind during twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And also, you know, I hate to say it, but
I was quite happy during that time because I wasn't
working at the restaurant that I had been working at
before in the pandemic, and I was like, this is
fabulous news for me. I can't wait to not go
there again for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It was just because I hear you you were barista.
It was just that, Okay, so that's a experience.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I actually got a barista job two days before the pandemic,
so I was supposed to have my first day like
a day after the lockdown.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, okay, But I.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Was working at this like health food restaurant in Chicago
before that.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Okay, Like when you say a health food restaurant, was
it a name brand health food restaurant or.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The national they have them in LA You probably know
what I'm.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Talking, Okay, I do, I do, But I remember the
days when there was a health food restaurant in New York. Yes, yes,
and you didn't. There was no name, and you walked
in and they all smelled the same. It was kind
of this odd like sort of a sort of a
safflower oil mix, some kind of an.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Urb general cru de tee and there yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, and big bins full of like beans, yes, and oats,
right and things. And as a matter of fact, when
I was in college, I used to shop at the PCC,
the Puget Consumers co Op in Seattle. Yeah, and I
would go up and I started getting into my health
food stuff like that, and you know, nine times outher ten,
whatever you buy would be rancid just because it's been
city well and no one's minding the store, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And I still have that problem with organic vegetables, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
This is a sad little vegetable.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I'm always going to try and buy organic,
but sometimes you just see the non organic strawberries and
you're like, how could I possibly go for these tiny?
How could I do that?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I'm going to go for the bright red maybe that
are red dye forty, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But they look so good oh god, I do feel
sad for the little bad strawberries. But I know sometimes
I know you're compelled, helt, I am compelled. Comedy Club's
top comedy club in Chicago. There are a couple.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, I was mostly at Io. Okay, I did some
stuff at Second City. I actually mostly worked at Second City.
Like I was like a dishwasher. That was my actually
a first job in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
That's like, isn't that considered to be sort of a
gold standard? Second City is pretty.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Definitely yeah, definitely, this is disgusting. But when I was
a dishwasher, the money was so bad that if someone
would bring back like a plate that had like half
a burger that was just like perfectly cut, I was like,
this is my burger.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
I see no problem with that at all. I see
we are the same person. I would do exactly the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I mean, fries were like fair game. Everyone you know
in the kitchen was like, oh yeah, we can have these.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I am so happy. Sometimes when I go somewhere and
I use to and I'm like full, kind of like
and there's something left, I will say this, I didn't
touch this. This is all good. If someone would like
to have this I just hate the way I hate
to waste through the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Guys, it looks pretty good still, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah? Yeah, and I'm just telling you I'm not sick.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You made it. You know how good it is?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah? Yeah, please, I love that for you just hate
to waste food. Of course, I'm this the Scottish side
of me.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But I had one time in Chicago where working out
at this restaurant, there was a seven eleven across the street.
My boss came up to me and he goes, here's
five dollars. I want you to go across the street,
get me two Red bull zero sugars and keep the change.
The change was one dollar.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh okay, he gave me five dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Two Red bulls was four dollars. I got to keep
one dollar, and to be fair, that was a big
moment for me.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Nonetheless, I love that you kind of came into even
find social but you really started to really hit your stride.
It seems like during COVID, do you have a platform
that you love or do you like love them for
different reasons.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I honestly think Instagram is my favorite. Yeah, because I
do feel like I actually get to show more of
my personality on there. Yeah, but like Twitter was what
first kind of like elevated me.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I want to try that's good and well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So Twitter was like the pandemic hit. Two of my
friends in Chicago Holmes, who you know from Overcompensating and
Caleb Heern.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Who you know from Hilarious.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The two of them probably had like four thousand followers
on Twitter when when the pandemic hit, which was monumental,
I felt like the most followers you almost could have.
And they told me, like, you should just post some
front facing videos on Twitter. It'll probably go viral. And
we laughed about that because it seems silly. And then
(09:34):
I did post a front facing video and it did
go viral. So then I just was like, I think
I'm just going to post every single day and just
make videos like as much as I can. And I
genuinely loved it. So and that has pretty much stayed
true with my relationship with social media is like I
(09:55):
have always found it fun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I find it fun too. I really enjoy it because
my approaches. I mean, there's nothing in there that's particularly
politically motivated, and I just want to have kind of
a good time and maybe point to some things that
I think are good causes occasionally, but I like it
just to kind of entertain really, but to be silly,
you know. But I think you were able to there's
(10:17):
something more that happens with you. I really love it
because you take something and we think we're going to
go a certain direction with it, and then you completely
flip it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I do get comments sometimes where people like some people
have said, like, oh my god, she's such a good troll,
because that's like an internet word of like someone who
is trying to trick you. But really, I'm like, under
no circumstances would I ever want anyone to think any
of my content is real. Like I'm always going in
(10:49):
with the intention of joking.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, but you're not undercutting or denigrating or mean. There's
no means. Yeah you know what I mean. It's like
it's playful and it's fun, and I've kind of I
tried to do the same thing. Yeah, there's no meaning there.
But it's like, but sometimes you can poke fun at
something absolutely indirectly and if people some people get it,
some people misconstrue it. Yeah, you know, and it's just like,
(11:12):
you know, that's just what you have to do.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like most of my videos are
pretty harmless. Yeah, if I'm poking fun of a demographic,
let's say conservatives as an example. I still think pretty
much everything that I make is pretty lighthearted stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It makes you, but it makes you think. It is like,
you know, could you do it in a way that's like, oh,
thank you take away a little something and it's not
combative and you're insulting, you know, like right, it's just
it's but it's smart, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. I was
thinking back on when Twitter started, too, when you were
saying before, it's like, I really liked the constraint of
the original I think it was. Was it one hundred
and forty one hundred and forty four characters or something
like that. For characters, it's like, okay, so you have
to say something thinc interesting, hopefully maybe two or three
messages within one thing. You're saying a couple of different things,
(12:05):
kind of like poetry in a weird way. A longer haiku,
a longer haiku exactly. That's what Twitter is in its essence. Yeah,
and I really miss that, yeah, because I think it
was really really required you to be a little I
feel absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh. I had so many times on Twitter where I
would be like, I need to get rid of twenty
five characters, right, and it kind of is like a
fun brain exercise. But I feel the same way with
like making videos like TikTok. I know you can Instagram,
I know you can post videos longer than sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, but yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Usually like using that as a like, this is what
you get.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah. I agree with you say in the shortest amount
of time possible, as clearly as possible. And yet I
do understand that you like a podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I love a podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You have a podcast, and yet you want to get
rid of all podcasts Somewhere I understand this at some
techotomy confuses.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
At some point, we'll have to have none, Kyle, but
we have to let you have yours.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
First, may I You're so great much.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I'm really nice about certain things I.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Can see that. Tell me about your experience on the
Daily Show. This is one of my favor I can't believe.
I mean, it is so much fun. Thanks, and you
feel it feels like you were just making it up
as you go. I mean, I mean, tell me about
how that how that works.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Well, I'm really lucky because I mean maybe I guess
maybe all the correspondents in the history of the show
have felt this way too, But like I do really
feel like, are the epgen flans who's my boss? Who's incredible?
And the writers on the show like truly understand my voice,
which feels really special. I technically did like go through
(13:48):
a general casting process, but they did already know who
I was, and so that helped me because I'm really
not a political Yeah, I'm like, if you really were
to be like, what's the difference between the House of
Representatives and the Senate? I would be like, can you
give me a Can I call a friend? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Just same way.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It's been like helpful knowing that the show is a
comedy show. So I think any insecurities I had going
into it of being like, well, history is my worst
subject always in school, it's like, well, it doesn't matter.
You're a comedian going on to a comedy show.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's also just like there's so much history in the
building and John Stewart being back was like the coolest
thing ever happened. Smart, I can you can learn something
from him? By watching him for ten seconds. He's just
really is so smart and so good at what he does.
(14:51):
I feel really lucky to just be in the building
every day. Honestly, he's so confident. Yeah, I mean he
is like totally chill too, Like he is a really
just cool guy, and then he can flip right into
things and like kind of be laughing and be lighthearted
and then say something that is like so profound.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah. Yeah, he's super relaxed, which I think a lot
of times stuff comes out of you because you're in
that relaxed state, and he just whatever flows just kind
of flows out and you're absolutely so you didn't actually
well you said you auditioned for it. Did you sort
of say well I want to be on the show
or type thing or no.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
It came into my inbox, and I remember that was
a time where you know, a lot of auditions were
coming in and I wasn't hearing a lot back. All
the roles I was auditioning were going to you randomly. Yeah,
that was happening to me a lot. Data over compensating.
I audition for the data inside out I auditioned.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
For and you got both and I got both of
those roles. You know, I know people that was the
only thing, and I paid a great deal of money
to them.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right right, somehow it was nepotism for you, I'm sure.
But I got that audition and I thought, this will
be good practice like it, you know, because a lot
of auditions you're like reading sides. This was an audition
where I read something they wrote and then they asked
me to write something. So I was like, this will
just be like a cool little exercise. I remember the
(16:21):
thing that I wrote. It was like supposed to be
like sixty seconds. It was basically like me trying to
like being outside of the White House, trying to convince
the host, who at the time was Trevor Noah, but
trying to convince the host to just give me money
so I could go to the Space Museum in Washington,
d C. And get some asternized ice cream, which I
(16:42):
thought was funny and also I do love astronaut ice
cream really randomly, so really good.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I've been to the museum. Strangely good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean, like, technology is not really something that makes
sense in my brain anyway. I still don't know how
screens work, but like.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
The idea is.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Really fa that's what has to be. That's the only way.
Just little men inside, no women, just men inside there
on ice skates, skating around, but space is like. I
love going to a museum like that. Also, like the
Spy Museum. I don't know if you've ever been there.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
The Spy Museum also fun. Yeah, I just.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Love a museum that I'm kind of like, this is
cool and I never need to do anything related to
this in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right, but you can learn about it and I can learn.
Oh yeah, DC has some amazing museums. I really like it.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I was tempted, actually when I was in Ireland recently
to go to the Leprechaun Museum. I didn't have time.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
You go. I was in there. I'm one of the Leprechauns.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
No, no, I saw your photo on Yelp of that museum.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Now you understand. Maybe it was the Guinness. I was
drinking something. I don't know what. Something.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh god, it's just water there, delicious.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It goes down so easy, it does. What were you
doing in Ireland? What was it?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I was there for a friend's wedding. Oh okay, he
was marrying one of my closest friends who I like.
Started doing comedy with he was marrying a girl who
his beautiful wife, whose family is from this like small
town Waterford, Ireland.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Oh crystal, yeah, yes, south of Dublin.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Do you have many of those crystals? Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So many?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
The glass, the glass, crystal crystals.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It's so funny. It's hard to walk in the house
because he keeps following.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I mean completely but worth it every penny. I mean,
I'm like, honestly kind of pissed that I'm not really
Irish despite my appearance. I'm really yeah, you could definitely
give you could pull it off. I'm like German and
like English and Scottish. Oh well, which I wouldn't say.
Is that's me dissimilar? Is it?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yes? I'm German on my mom's mom's side, Oh my god,
and then Scottish for my dad's side, and then English
from my grandfather. So he was actually from Cornwall. Okay, cool, No,
we're the same.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I love this. Yeah, no, wonder we feel like said along?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Is it a crazy thing? Is that it's that kind
of Scottish sense of humor?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Do they have humor in Scotland.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I'm not they don't really in Germany, it's not really
but Scotland.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
They must they might.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Irish are hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Irish hilarious, that's true.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Ireland was amazing. I went to London the week before
to do some shows and which was very fun. And
I was loving London when I was there. It was
my first time. They do weirdly.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They get you there and get this.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You're not gonna believe this. I met a Spice girl.
That's I met Ginger Spice okay, and she was not
at my show, but she was standing outside of the
theater couldn't get in, and a friend introduced me. Yeah,
she couldn't get in. My shows were sold out. You
are craft.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I knew it. I knew it. Where do you go
to do comedy? And I'm going to London on Fridays.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I did my shows at the Soho Theater. I loved
it there.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Okay, it was good. First time.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It was my first time performing out of the States.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Wow. Wow, not your first time to London, but first
time performing well.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Actually was my first time to London to yeah, which
is weird. But I didn't go abroad in college because
my GPA was too low. I wasn't allowed, by the way.
When I asked my school if I could appeal that
like rule. They said my GPA was too low to appeal,
so I couldn't go abroad, which I feel like that's
when most people go to London, is like because they're
(20:24):
studying abroad and they just go.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
For a weekend atterence. They go there, they come back
in their gp A plummets, right, So.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I had to stay. I had to stay at Skidmore.
They wouldn't let me go abroad so that I could
improve my comedy skills and one day beyond this.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Podcast, you see full circle.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
It really does.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Okay, inspirations. First, let me ask you this question. Are
your parents funny? Where do you? Where does it come from?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Okay, my parents are both very funny. No offense to
my dad, but my mom is like I think could
have been a full blown comedian or at the very least,
I guess no offense to actors. Now she could be
an actor, like she is so right, No, I'm so glad.
She is like so expressive that and stunning, much like myself.
(21:13):
That's where I get it.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, the glow, I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Actually, thank oh my god that I really think she
could have done something, but she never wanted to.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So interesting yeah. My mom kind of was the actress.
She's the one who encouraged me in my family, and
she was on stage a little bit and she was good.
It was funny. I look back night, I said, she
was okay.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, sorry, Mom, she's not here to I love her
so much, but she had a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
She was okay. But my dad was a great supporter.
That's interesting, that's funny, and so and so. From there,
I want to ask influences people that you admire.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And growing up. I feel like the first comedy shows
I remember watching were like Faulty Towers, Oh my god, which.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You see a person, This is very amazing. That's why
I like you.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And then The Office, both the British and the American one,
which I do need to just be clear. Like when
I was ten years old watching The Office, I thought
it was a documentary and I would like kind of
throw fits and be like, why are we watching this again,
It's the most.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Boring show in the world. Understand this.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And then I got like two years older and I
was like, it's genius and it's my favorite show.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Now I get it. I get it. The English person
yea for me is just just something about that timing,
the edge, the straight stuff is so good. It's in
Faulty Towers is perhaps one of the greatest things. I's
not the greatest thing.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, we had like the DVDs of of the Seasons,
and like I think even before I understood what they
were joking about, I feel like I got a sense
of like their comedic timing, because also so much of
Faulty Towers was like physical comedy. But then after that,
obviously like Ben Stiller was major for me. I think
(23:05):
I watched Zoo, I've seen Zulander I think fifty times
in my life, which does damage to the.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Brain, but you don't show any damage at all. That's great, Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And then of course like Amy Pohlar, my Routelfh Christen Wig,
I feel like those are just maybe the most important
comedy inspirations that I can think.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, yeah, and I agree with you every which way.
And Amy was in Inside Out and did such a beautiful.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Job inside Out. A friend of mine, Lewis Black, was
on The Daily Show. Yeah, that's right, he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
He is incredible.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He said that you got no one really got to
interact all that much, not that much.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
No, I was in I think I went in uh
with Diane Lane because she played the mom and I
played the dad. So we had one one only one
time together where they put us in a room and
we kind of interacted with each other on the first one. Well,
the rest of the time it was just individual.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And where did you do the voiceover for that Disney
We la, okay because he told me that he I'm
gonna like kind of butcher what he said. But he
told me that he just sometimes if he's near that studio,
he'll go back because he said, the lunch is so good.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You know, it's a little thing. That's why we do
what we do.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Absolutely, acting as one of the hardest jobs in the world.
Everyone knows that, and so when you find.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Good food makes it all worthwhile. Absolutely, they don't even
need to pay us as long as they feed us.
I often say, you know, it's pretty pretty much one
of the easiest jobs in the world.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It's true that you come to where you have to go.
Sometimes they even pick you up and bring you there,
and then they tell you what to wear, They make
you look good, they give your hair, they fix you
all up, they give you a shave if you need
a shave. They tell you what to say, yeah, where
to stand? I know, I mean if he does.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Someone who is in charge of every single thing you
could possibly mess up, and they're there to make sure
you don't.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You don't, yeah, and then they can edit all the
I had stuffing whenever.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I'm on a set and then I you know, wrap
and then I leave and I'm telling, you know, my
family or my girlfriend or my friends like how fun
it was? They're like, so, what was so fun about it?
And I do think it is usually what was so easy?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
There was nothing. I'll learn a few lines, and if
you can't learn them, they put them on a card
they just read, or they put it in.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Your ear, let me tell you, or a script coordinator
is just losing their mind.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You're fine, Yeah, honest to god. I grew up like
also loving same things Faulty Towers. Grew up with comedy
comedy albums when I was a little kid.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Actually, huh Cosby I understand.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, back in the day, I can I hate you
for it, don't hate thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But yeah, I might talk shit later.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're not getting off this easy kid. But I do
remember finding money Python.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Oh yes, I was in college. Absolutely, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
What is this? This is speaks to me like nothing else,
just the insanity, the care characters, and the sustaining of
the characters, you know what I mean, and the language
holy Grail to me is truly.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I think Spam a Loot was the first thing I
saw on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Oh so before even watching the films, I think, so, yeah's.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I remember, like my brother and I had we both
had a spam can that said Spam a Loot on it,
and I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Put here on the board.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Every day from the first time I had spam. Every
day I would see that spam can and think I'm
going to crack that open sometimes just inside there.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Do you like it? Fried fried spam?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I mean that is really the only way to go.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It's so fabulous. It is so completely delicious. If I
see a little sign in New York that says spam Masubi,
I'm running in there. I don't care if I'm late
for col McLaughlin's podcasts.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So that's what happened today. Okay, yeah, now I understand
it's spam. We can all blame it on spam. Now, wait,
you also I need your help with this because you
love reality TV, and I do not. I know really
nothing about Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I was curious you don't watch it at all.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I don't watch it, but I have watched episodes and
under I think I understand the appeal. Okay, but but
what do you what's your What.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Can I ask what you've seen? Well?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I watched Early Survivor.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Okay, and that counts. That's a staple, is it? I
would say it's one of the best.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
You can rate all myself. And then I think I've
watched like I tried to watch a housewife from some city.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I think it was domestic, right, You're like it was
it Desperate Housewive.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I don't know what it was, and it happens. I
do sometimes get Desperate Housewives and sex and the city
mixed up.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
By the way, when I watched Desperate house so I've
sorted it just.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I watched it at an age where like I probably
shouldn't have been watching it, and like I was probably
like eleven, and I was. I remember the theme song
would come on and I would get this like overwhelming
sense of my body like I'm doing something bad. It
was like the same time that I would watch like
shitty reality TV shows on MTV where I was like,
(28:13):
two people are gonna kiss in this and I'm gonna watch.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I don't watch. I get that again at I know, right, It's.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Like, what a cool show to have been on Housewives. Yeah,
it was a really cool show. And I got to
work with marsh Across. I don't think I knew this
when I joined Marsha's graduate in Juilliard. So she went
proper training all the way through. I went to the
U dub proper training all.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The way through. So we're like, we should really be
doing theater, we should be doing some kind of you
know somewhere, you know. So occasionally we would get a
scene where the writing was really snappy.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It was tough because they had they had a lot
of people to take care of, and it was like, okay,
here we go, and we just had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
And her humor was great because she's super dry. Absolutely,
it was really a good match.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The show had a really cool tone to it. Honestly,
my girlfriend I rewatched the first season about a couple
of months ago. It's good, and it is it I
think fully holds up.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, Mark Cherry did a great job. They had a
great writer's room.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, I think it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And I think I joined. I joined at the beginning
of the seconds, I think, so I think I did. It.
Brought me in for one thing, and then I then Mark,
then it was Marshall, and then I stayed. So I
was supposed to be the killer then back and I
wrote to Mark. I actually I met Mark earlier. I said, hey, man,
I'm having such a good time.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Slipped him a little hundred dollars bill.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
One hundred dollar bill. Can you see too that I
was staying on the show. It was literally ten minutes
from my house, so getting to work was easy. It
was like clockwork, you know. And the writing was great.
I love March. I said maybe I can stay, you know,
is there any way we can kind of change the
direction of the storyline, right and they said yeah, so yeah,
so we'll try to do it. So they switch it around.
They put everything on my mom, Dixie Carter. She became
(29:56):
the villain, which she loved, and uh and so I said,
on for a while. So now he didn't know what
to do with me. It's like, oh, you were the
killer now I love that. That's some good inspiration always great.
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now it makes me think that Jennifer Coolidge can just
go back to Mike White and be like, oh maybe
I somehow knew how to breathe underwater.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And yes, anything is possible. I held my breath for
a really, really long time. You can always get back
onto a TV show, you can. There's a way that
they always find a way. She was rescued. We didn't
see the rescue exactly, you know, exactly something happened. We
just saw blood in the water. But that happens. That's
always in the water. Yeah, and that was the shark.
(30:38):
The shark, so it was all good. Then. I also
want to ask you because we had we did some
research and you're a Chinese chicken salad.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Person that's growing up in LA. I think is like,
I agree, that is what LA does best. In my opinion,
when I go home, it's not even like I'm trying
to be healthy. It's like LA just does have the
best salads.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
They have great salads. Yes, but do you have a favorite.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Chinese chicken salad?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
But oh of where where?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah? Well?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I love Jones on third is good? Do you have
four hours Kyle.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yea because We're going to go through every chicken salad
is the one.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
God, I don't know what I mean, is it no,
not chinchin? But I do love chinchin.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
My brother, my brother loves chin Chin Chin is great. Yeah,
my brother, he always says he comes to La and
he gets a Chinese chicken salad at chin Chin and
that's just like his thing.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
But I've discovered another one, Goop Kitchen.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Okay, I've heard that food is fabulous.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It's fab it's actually Goop. It's Goop. You were doing
a Goop commercially now. But it's really good and they
do a great one. The other one that I really
like is Mendocino.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, Mendocino is great.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
They do good, but you have to they give you
the giant bowl. There's no way you can possibly mix
the dressing in the thing, and that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Has is a huge pet peeve of mine. I agree
something I find disgusting.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
It's very difficult because it spills and everything. So I
take it. I put it into a bowl, a giant
bowl because you need extra room to mix. And then I.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Honestly like when I like started making money enough to
like buy a kitchen wear from a place outside of
like the thrift store or Target. One of the first
things I bought was like a big salad bowl because
it really is like, I'm not going to eat a
salad if one piece of arugula is not dressed.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I know you need I'm coated. Yeah, am right? Williams
Sonoma Is that where it was? He went actually the
most expensive kitchen store.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It actually was from Waterford, Ireland, Crystal's.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I can see with this helbut I just need to
get it off you sixty pounds.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
But here we go. Nothing to declare officer God.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Okay, So we have some friends together, Mary Beth, bron
absolutely and Ben. Aren't they the best?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Unbelievable? Yeah, they're also a relationship is like they're brains together.
Are freaky. I agree, They're so good.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
There is nobody dryer than Marybeth.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm stunned at her and on the show too, because
we did over compensating together, and I would just watch
her work and I'd be like, does she break? Can
we can we do this? Can we get her to
break some?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
She kind of going back to something we were talking
about earlier, of like doing comedy that doesn't harm anyone
A lot of her stand up is like making fun
of herself as a bisexual and making fun of other
bisexuals in a way that like is not harmful to bisexuals,
even though they are no bisexuals. She's fully ripping bisexuals
(33:39):
to you know, but they also are like this is hilarious.
She's really and he's very special. I mean, I remember
the day that Benny followed me on Instagram, Like, actually
really remember it.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
That's cool. Yeah, confetti very exciting. He is such a sweetheart,
so smart, and so it's like because there's a joy
absolutely in him that I that I really really appreciate. Yeah,
it hasn't been knocked out of him yet. It will,
of course.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Oh of course season two, are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, this is gonna be challenging.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Gonna be horrible.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Oh my god, you're.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Gonna hate working with him?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Am I really going to become a real asshole?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I can't wait for that. Tell me a couple of
tricks for improv? What what do you love the improv?
Is there anything you sort of think about when you say, okay,
now it's natural, I'm sure, Well.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know, I feel like with improv, the first rule
is always yes, and yes, but gosh, I guess besides
that is like think of a character and stick with it. Yeah,
because I had some you know, horrifying moments when I
was first doing improv where you start the scene with
like a ridiculous amount of energy or accent and two
(34:49):
minutes later you cannot.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Maintain it like done.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
So you need to know your you know, your cardio
of improv.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yes, yes, I find it because I worked with Fred
Armiston and Carry Bouncy, and of course Red is a genius.
Carry is a genius too. They're both brilliant. And I
was sort of did I mean in school, I sort
of did, I'm prob, but I wasn't. I didn't, you know,
I didn't really know. But we'd literally start the scene
with just an idea, okay, Fred's here, there's there, You're
coming in and you've got this and and we're gonna
(35:18):
see what happens, and you just go okay.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
So there was a ton of improv on that.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, it's the first season. There was a ton of improv,
and then is this as it kind of went, you know,
and but there would be a few things written in
and then each subsequent season there was more and more
writing pretty seen you had a scripture, you were like okay,
and but at the same time you could also just
drop the script and go. So it was pretty cool,
but it was exhausting. My brain turned. It's like because
(35:43):
your brain is on, it's like it's like too warm,
it's like melting, it's like it burns two fever pitch.
You get that feeling of like absolutely because you're thinking,
you're just like you're spinning, and.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Then you have a hard time listening yes, because you're
already thinking about what you're going to try and say next.
I used to have a problem in Chicago when I
would do improv of like thinking of some funny line
earlier in the day and like thinking, well, maybe i'll
try that line on stage tonight. Yeah, and the scene
has nothing to do with what you have said, and
(36:16):
you kind of have to be like, never mind, but
I'm just feeling crazy today.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It is maybe the secret because I think it's just
it's sort of relaxation mm hmm. But the problem with
that is I think i'd go to sleep. It's like
if someone say something and you're like, I don't know
what to say to that. Maybe these I don't know
it's weird.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Do you know TJ and Dave in Chicago who do
like they're like the top improvisers.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Okay, no, I don't, and they perform.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I think kind of everywhere now too, but all their
shows sell out and they do like an hour of
improv and they start the scenes like really slow and
really calm, okay, and just fully like world built for
the first like five minutes, which it was not something
I ever did when I improvised.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
But that's smart world build.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
That's important, definitely. It's a second of where you are. Yeah,
I mean I had teachers who were always like, you know,
if you put your you know, coffee cup down, you
got to remember where you put it, otherwise you lose
some of your audience.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
You can't just ignore that. You got to there's a callback.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Right when you know, you grab something else and you're like, well,
now looks like you're sipping your knife, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Which is a choice. It's a dangerous people do that,
but they don't have tongues at the end of the
evening and it's a terrible exact. So we have a
little little section that we're going to do, and it's
a segment that we designed just for you.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, it's not called just for you, Okay, it's called
what are we even riffing About?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
So this is going to be exciting. Please don't touch
that dial. So we are back with a segment that
I call what are we even riffing About? Because we
have fabulous Grace Guenschmidia. If you're going to go into
(38:11):
the gray sorry, that's I don't know what's happening to me.
But we have themes that will be shouted out from
our audience here, our producers and I have the magic
microphone here.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And everyone gets thirty seconds.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Great, this makes everybody super funny. So this is this is.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Thank God, I'm gonna hate that one.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Okay are you ready?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I'm ready, Okay, Okay, we're starting starting.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Magic shell so cans. You know, when you're eating your
ice cream and you're thinking this is too slippery, this
is too soft, You're gonna need to get yourself some
magic shell because it's gonna completely change and transform your life.
You take that soft, squishy ice cream, you make it
rock hard. You're gonna need that chocolate. Add it onto chocolate, vanilla,
(38:59):
added more chocolate onto that strawberry. That's a perfect combination.
You guys need this stuff in your pocket at all time.
It is completely shelf stable. Think God, you don't actually
have to refrigerate.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
It, and that's time I'm gonna have to refrigerate it.
That's the best. When they have magic shells they showed
me before, it's like, what is the magic shell?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Are you serious? It was really like the moment I
saw that kind of in the grocery store, I knew
it was going to be important to me in my life.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You felt it? Yeah, was it a similar thing? When
what's this stuff called fluff? It's like a marshmallow thing.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I would say those are in a similar genre of
like random toppic.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah, yeah, so they'd be in a similar place on
the grocery store. You'd be like, other's your magic shell
and yeah, so we get definitely okay, okay, I'm ready
and I go.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Okay, And the prompt is pumpkin spice latte.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Pumpkin spice latte. I mean this is a very confusing
mix of three things, pumpkin and a spice and a latte.
First of all, you can't fit pumpkin into a cup,
you know, impossible and this is a very very small pumpkin.
And the idea of actually mixing pumpkin with a latte,
like pumpkin and milk together. Does that sound appealing to you?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I mean it's like and so do you blend it?
I mean, how do you make it work? I don't understand,
Like if you just took pieces of pumpkin and poured
milk on top of it like a cereal, that would
not be appealing to me.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
We need the scientists in the room to answer this.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I agree with you. I think what we need to do.
Let's call up the Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Shame that he could have gone for another when I
was I was going in.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I think this is us. Okay, okay, hey Grace.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Your second topic is softball, a sport that seems like
the sport that men would play softball, but is actually
a completely different sport in its own in a way
makes lesbians and in a way how so many straight
(41:00):
girls that it ultimately kind of defies sexuality. But despite
its stereotype, although I am a lesbian who played softball,
I want to be crystal clear with you, Kyle. When
I was on my softball team, I was the straightest
girl on that softball team, and that's time, all right, Kyle.
(41:25):
Prov topic is cardboard Baby.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Cardboard baby. I mean, I have a bone to pick
with the writers, to be quite honest, a cardboard baby.
Is there a humor in that I don't understand. They
came to me and they said this is your this
is your gonna be your your swan song for the show,
and they said cardboard baby. And I said, I mean,
I feel like I'm a fairly intelligent person, and I
(41:51):
think I understand what's funny. And I said, I don't
think this is really funny. And I presented it to
Kristin Davis and she also didn't think it was very funny.
And I think that's when she kicked me out. But
maybe that's what they wanted to do, is to kick
me out of the house. But a cardboard baby I
didn't really know what to do with. Of course, I
have the baby at home with me. Autographs and that stuff.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Autograph Oh, even the audience hanging there, they'll never The
next prompt for Grace is the Bachelor franchise.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh, my gosh, the Bachelor.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
What franchise?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Oh, the Bachelor franchise. Oh, this is something you should well,
it is reality.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yes, it is, oh, probably my favorite reality TV show,
even though I think many people would argue it is
one of the worst. I don't see it. I watched
my first season two thousand and nine, I was fourteen
years old. I watched every single season since. Wow, it's
about two seasons a year. Okay, And I'm not gonna
say I believe they fall in love, but I think
(42:50):
that like it is one of the best reality TV
shows of all time. Really, I almost get emotional talking
about it, okay, because it's so important to me.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
But do they have a.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Point five camera lens?
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Point five camera lens? This is a new world for
me because I was only used to one one x
and I thought that was sort of the end. But
in fact, there is more. There's a point five And
when that option suddenly made itself known to me, I
felt the world opened up to me. And I suddenly said,
(43:29):
I can be taller, the room can be larger, Yes,
and I can feel drunk without having to get drunk
when I look at an image in point five. So really,
it made life so much easier.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And that's time. I too, am a point five guy.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I love the way I look. I love the way
I feel.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Look at.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Freezer meets.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
You gotta have some meats in your freezer, Kyle.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I love you, yes, and I love meating my freezer.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I love meat in my freezer. And I'm talking every meat,
any animal product. Vegans turn off the podcast right now.
I want salmon in my freezer. I want ground turkey
in my freezer. I want ground beef in my freezer.
I want a steak in my freezer.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Why because protein is the most important part of my day.
That's why I got to be on this podcast is
because I've been maintaining my protein goals.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
My whole life.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Well, we knew that, that's why you had me on.
We didn't get to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But isn't there's something very when you know that you
have meat in your freezers, Like I am okay for today.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Completely because I know there's pasta in my pantry. I
know there's rice in my pantry, So why don't we
have more meat in our freezers?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I agree, and that's time. Well, thank you Grace so much.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This was very, very fun.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I had a great time too. I'm glad to hear that.
I'm glad to hear it, so I want to know.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I'll say that to you, but the moment you leave
the room, I'm gonna be like, this was the worst
podcast I've ever done? Who is this guy?
Speaker 1 (44:58):
No? I feel that? And why did you think you
can damage my career? Dramatically finished? I mean, honest to god,
came on my show. It's done. So the thing is
we call it what are we even doing? And now
I want to ask you what are we even? What
are you even doing? Next?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Well? I am on the Daily Show about once a week.
Is when you'll see me on air?
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I have a podcast out called Believe with Grace Cool
and Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Goodness? What else?
Speaker 1 (45:26):
You have a freezer? Meat?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I have meat and my freezer. I have magic shell
on my ice cream. And you can see me do
live comedy. Follow me on Instagram and you'll see whenever
I have my next live shows.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah yeah, I highly recommend, highly recommend your comedy and
my comedy is.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I think so very much. We hit a little jackpot here.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
We did, we did so anyway, thank you, thank you
everyone for for being part of this journey on what
are we even doing? Here? Did we answer? The question.
I don't think we did today, but we're going to
keep trying. Maybe we answered it a little bit, all right,
See you next time. What Are We Even Doing is
a production of iHeartMedia and the Elvis Duran podcast Network,
(46:10):
hosted by me Kyle McLachlin and created and produced by
Full Picture Productions Yay, featuring music by Yata and artwork
by Danica Robinson. For more information about the podcast, please
visit our Instagram and TikTok at wawed with Kyle. Please rate, review,
(46:31):
and subscribe to What Are We Even Doing on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or anywhere you get your podcasts. Exclamation pointgras
What do we even do? What are we even doing?
Welcome to what are we even doing? Excellent question where
we sit with artists, musicians, creatives, people that are shaking
things up, and we ask them about their creative process,
(00:22):
what they're into, how they use social media, et cetera.
And today we have with us very special guest. We
have with us an actress, a comedian correspondent for the
Daily Show. That's pretty cool. Social media icon, Grace Kohlenschmidt.
Very good am I doing with gracelid?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah? See that was perfect. Just a little more of
the German accent. Just bring it out, especially for the
Grace part.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Yes, Chase, we'll make you very comfortable here. Sometimes I
go on then they can't help it.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
I feel comfortable.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Me too, Me too. It's so lovely to have you here.
You cracked me up.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you and did oh by the way.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh, thank you. I feel like we have some common
themes within our sense of humor.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Definitely, okay, absolutely, and you're maybe my biggest competition on
social media.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That is the way it should be. Well, let me
ask you a question first. Let me start off with okay, so,
was there a trigger? Was there a moment was there
something that happened you were like, oh, you know, you
sort of saw the magic. I said, this is what
I want to do. Was there a moment or was
it more kind of a gradual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Like like it was semi gradual, but in college there
like was I went to Skidmore College. There's an upstate
New York and there's a like incredible comedy program there.
It's all like extracurricular. When I got there, one of
my friends was like, you should just audition for one
of the improv groups. So I did.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And because they knew you and they said, oh, you're
funny and yeah, my friend was.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Like, you're funny enough you could do it. I mean
most people can do improv, so true.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Maybe.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So I auditioned, actually did not get in the first
time I auditioned, came back after the summer to my
sophomore year, auditioned again and got in and got accepted,
And by like the end of sophomore year, I kind
of was like, I would be the worst psychologist of
all time if I continue with this. You know, my
two point seven GPA wasn't really telling me to keep
(02:21):
going with my psychology major. You were trying, so I
was like, I think it'll be comedy.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
That's so interesting. Kind of similar to me, I because
I was doing acting in high school and I really
enjoyed it, and I sort of said, I think I'm
better at this. I'm going to kind of have a thing.
Right went to college, was like, I'm gonna find a career,
you know, and I was doing these things and I
just was not happy. Took an acting class. I was like,
that's kind of good, and then kind of decided I
(02:48):
might try a summer and did summerstock for a summer
and came back to school completely changed and said, I
think this is what I have to do.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Well, sometimes I feel like that is what makes sense
with what people end up doing their careers. It's like,
do what maybe comes natural to.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
You, I know, but it's fun. We resist. I mean
I was resisting it all. I don't know if you
had the same kind of absolutely did okay, Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I was My brother was like a theater kid growing
up randomly okay, and I, like to be fair like,
almost made fun of him for it. So then by
the time that I was doing what.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
It really helps encourages.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, I mean I had to bully him for something
I was the younger sister. Okay, yeah, we have to
have a leg up somewhere. Absolutely, And so by the
time I started doing improv, he was like, are you
kidding me? Now you're doing You're.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
In my world? Yeah, get out of my world. But
sorry to him, Yeah, well it worked out.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh my god. I love your videos. I love where
you go with them because where you start where you
end totally completely different, and I'm always surprised and you
always take me on this wonderful journey. Do you have
a process? Does it come to you? Does it like
does it happen as you're doing it? Or how a
little of both?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, So sometimes I'll have a full script written out,
like just in my iPhone notes Okay, Yeah. Sometimes like
I'll just some creativity will strike. I'll write something up
and then a couple days later, I'll film something and
do a voiceover for that. But I would say, like,
everything I do to a certain degree is like a
(04:17):
parody of something. Sometimes that's a genre, sometimes that's a
very specific video I've seen on the internet. My first
few tiktoks were just straight up parodies of things I
had seen, because when I started on the Internet, like
making videos. It was the pandemic, so it was like
I can't interact with people, so I do have to
(04:39):
just parody these strangers that I'm seeing.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
And you have to create something, right, I mean, you're
compelled to do something.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
And I was bored out of my mind during twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And also, you know, I hate to say it, but
I was quite happy during that time because I wasn't
working at the restaurant that I had been working at
before in the pandemic, and I was like, this is
fabulous news for me. I can't wait to not go
there again for a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
It was just because I hear you you were barista.
It was just that, Okay, so that's a experience.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I actually got a barista job two days before the pandemic,
so I was supposed to have my first day like
a day after the lockdown.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, okay, But I.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Was working at this like health food restaurant in Chicago
before that.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Okay, Like when you say a health food restaurant, was
it a name brand health food restaurant or.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
The national they have them in LA You probably know
what I'm.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Talking, Okay, I do, I do, But I remember the
days when there was a health food restaurant in New York. Yes, yes,
and you didn't. There was no name, and you walked
in and they all smelled the same. It was kind
of this odd like sort of a sort of a
safflower oil mix, some kind of an.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Urb general cru de tee and there yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, and big bins full of like beans, yes, and oats,
right and things. And as a matter of fact, when
I was in college, I used to shop at the PCC,
the Puget Consumers co Op in Seattle. Yeah, and I
would go up and I started getting into my health
food stuff like that, and you know, nine times outher ten,
whatever you buy would be rancid just because it's been
city well and no one's minding the store, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And I still have that problem with organic vegetables, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
This is a sad little vegetable.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I mean, I'm always going to try and buy organic,
but sometimes you just see the non organic strawberries and
you're like, how could I possibly go for these tiny?
How could I do that?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I agree with you.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
I'm going to go for the bright red maybe that
are red dye forty, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
But they look so good oh god, I do feel
sad for the little bad strawberries. But I know sometimes
I know you're compelled, helt, I am compelled. Comedy Club's
top comedy club in Chicago. There are a couple.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, I was mostly at Io. Okay, I did some
stuff at Second City. I actually mostly worked at Second City.
Like I was like a dishwasher. That was my actually
a first job in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
That's like, isn't that considered to be sort of a
gold standard? Second City is pretty.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Definitely yeah, definitely, this is disgusting. But when I was
a dishwasher, the money was so bad that if someone
would bring back like a plate that had like half
a burger that was just like perfectly cut, I was like,
this is my burger.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
I see no problem with that at all. I see
we are the same person. I would do exactly the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
I mean, fries were like fair game. Everyone you know
in the kitchen was like, oh yeah, we can have these.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
I am so happy. Sometimes when I go somewhere and
I use to and I'm like full, kind of like
and there's something left, I will say this, I didn't
touch this. This is all good. If someone would like
to have this I just hate the way I hate
to waste through the kitchen.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Guys, it looks pretty good still, don't you think.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah? Yeah, and I'm just telling you I'm not sick.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You made it. You know how good it is?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah? Yeah, please, I love that for you just hate
to waste food. Of course, I'm this the Scottish side
of me.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But I had one time in Chicago where working out
at this restaurant, there was a seven eleven across the street.
My boss came up to me and he goes, here's
five dollars. I want you to go across the street,
get me two Red bull zero sugars and keep the change.
The change was one dollar.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Oh okay, he gave me five dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Two Red bulls was four dollars. I got to keep
one dollar, and to be fair, that was a big
moment for me.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Nonetheless, I love that you kind of came into even
find social but you really started to really hit your stride.
It seems like during COVID, do you have a platform
that you love or do you like love them for
different reasons.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I honestly think Instagram is my favorite. Yeah, because I
do feel like I actually get to show more of
my personality on there. Yeah, but like Twitter was what
first kind of like elevated me.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I want to try that's good and well.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So Twitter was like the pandemic hit. Two of my
friends in Chicago Holmes, who you know from Overcompensating and
Caleb Heern.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Who you know from Hilarious.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
The two of them probably had like four thousand followers
on Twitter when when the pandemic hit, which was monumental,
I felt like the most followers you almost could have.
And they told me, like, you should just post some
front facing videos on Twitter. It'll probably go viral. And
we laughed about that because it seems silly. And then
(09:34):
I did post a front facing video and it did
go viral. So then I just was like, I think
I'm just going to post every single day and just
make videos like as much as I can. And I
genuinely loved it. So and that has pretty much stayed
true with my relationship with social media is like I
(09:55):
have always found it fun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I find it fun too. I really enjoy it because
my approaches. I mean, there's nothing in there that's particularly
politically motivated, and I just want to have kind of
a good time and maybe point to some things that
I think are good causes occasionally, but I like it
just to kind of entertain really, but to be silly,
you know. But I think you were able to there's
(10:17):
something more that happens with you. I really love it
because you take something and we think we're going to
go a certain direction with it, and then you completely
flip it.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I do get comments sometimes where people like some people
have said, like, oh my god, she's such a good troll,
because that's like an internet word of like someone who
is trying to trick you. But really, I'm like, under
no circumstances would I ever want anyone to think any
of my content is real. Like I'm always going in
(10:49):
with the intention of joking.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, but you're not undercutting or denigrating or mean. There's
no means. Yeah you know what I mean. It's like
it's playful and it's fun, and I've kind of I
tried to do the same thing. Yeah, there's no meaning there.
But it's like, but sometimes you can poke fun at
something absolutely indirectly and if people some people get it,
some people misconstrue it. Yeah, you know, and it's just like,
(11:12):
you know, that's just what you have to do.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, I feel like most of my videos are
pretty harmless. Yeah, if I'm poking fun of a demographic,
let's say conservatives as an example. I still think pretty
much everything that I make is pretty lighthearted stuff.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
It makes you, but it makes you think. It is like,
you know, could you do it in a way that's like, oh,
thank you take away a little something and it's not
combative and you're insulting, you know, like right, it's just
it's but it's smart, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. I was
thinking back on when Twitter started, too, when you were
saying before, it's like, I really liked the constraint of
the original I think it was. Was it one hundred
and forty one hundred and forty four characters or something
like that. For characters, it's like, okay, so you have
to say something thinc interesting, hopefully maybe two or three
messages within one thing. You're saying a couple of different things,
(12:05):
kind of like poetry in a weird way. A longer haiku,
a longer haiku exactly. That's what Twitter is in its essence. Yeah,
and I really miss that, yeah, because I think it
was really really required you to be a little I
feel absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh. I had so many times on Twitter where I
would be like, I need to get rid of twenty
five characters, right, and it kind of is like a
fun brain exercise. But I feel the same way with
like making videos like TikTok. I know you can Instagram,
I know you can post videos longer than sixty seconds.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah, but yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Usually like using that as a like, this is what
you get.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Yeah. I agree with you say in the shortest amount
of time possible, as clearly as possible. And yet I
do understand that you like a podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
I love a podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You have a podcast, and yet you want to get
rid of all podcasts Somewhere I understand this at some
techotomy confuses.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
At some point, we'll have to have none, Kyle, but
we have to let you have yours.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
First, may I You're so great much.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I'm really nice about certain things I.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Can see that. Tell me about your experience on the
Daily Show. This is one of my favor I can't believe.
I mean, it is so much fun. Thanks, and you
feel it feels like you were just making it up
as you go. I mean, I mean, tell me about
how that how that works.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Well, I'm really lucky because I mean maybe I guess
maybe all the correspondents in the history of the show
have felt this way too, But like I do really
feel like, are the epgen flans who's my boss? Who's incredible?
And the writers on the show like truly understand my voice,
which feels really special. I technically did like go through
(13:48):
a general casting process, but they did already know who
I was, and so that helped me because I'm really
not a political Yeah, I'm like, if you really were
to be like, what's the difference between the House of
Representatives and the Senate? I would be like, can you
give me a Can I call a friend? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Just same way.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It's been like helpful knowing that the show is a
comedy show. So I think any insecurities I had going
into it of being like, well, history is my worst
subject always in school, it's like, well, it doesn't matter.
You're a comedian going on to a comedy show.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, you're going to be fine.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
It's also just like there's so much history in the
building and John Stewart being back was like the coolest
thing ever happened. Smart, I can you can learn something
from him? By watching him for ten seconds. He's just
really is so smart and so good at what he does.
(14:51):
I feel really lucky to just be in the building
every day. Honestly, he's so confident. Yeah, I mean he
is like totally chill too, Like he is a really
just cool guy, and then he can flip right into
things and like kind of be laughing and be lighthearted
and then say something that is like so profound.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah. Yeah, he's super relaxed, which I think a lot
of times stuff comes out of you because you're in
that relaxed state, and he just whatever flows just kind
of flows out and you're absolutely so you didn't actually
well you said you auditioned for it. Did you sort
of say well I want to be on the show
or type thing or no.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
It came into my inbox, and I remember that was
a time where you know, a lot of auditions were
coming in and I wasn't hearing a lot back. All
the roles I was auditioning were going to you randomly. Yeah,
that was happening to me a lot. Data over compensating.
I audition for the data inside out I auditioned.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
For and you got both and I got both of
those roles. You know, I know people that was the
only thing, and I paid a great deal of money
to them.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Right right, somehow it was nepotism for you, I'm sure.
But I got that audition and I thought, this will
be good practice like it, you know, because a lot
of auditions you're like reading sides. This was an audition
where I read something they wrote and then they asked
me to write something. So I was like, this will
just be like a cool little exercise. I remember the
(16:21):
thing that I wrote. It was like supposed to be
like sixty seconds. It was basically like me trying to
like being outside of the White House, trying to convince
the host, who at the time was Trevor Noah, but
trying to convince the host to just give me money
so I could go to the Space Museum in Washington,
d C. And get some asternized ice cream, which I
(16:42):
thought was funny and also I do love astronaut ice
cream really randomly, so really good.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I've been to the museum. Strangely good.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
I mean, like, technology is not really something that makes
sense in my brain anyway. I still don't know how
screens work, but like.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
The idea is.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Really fa that's what has to be. That's the only way.
Just little men inside, no women, just men inside there
on ice skates, skating around, but space is like. I
love going to a museum like that. Also, like the
Spy Museum. I don't know if you've ever been there.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
The Spy Museum also fun. Yeah, I just.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Love a museum that I'm kind of like, this is
cool and I never need to do anything related to
this in my life.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right, but you can learn about it and I can learn.
Oh yeah, DC has some amazing museums. I really like it.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
I was tempted, actually when I was in Ireland recently
to go to the Leprechaun Museum. I didn't have time.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
You go. I was in there. I'm one of the Leprechauns.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
No, no, I saw your photo on Yelp of that museum.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Now you understand. Maybe it was the Guinness. I was
drinking something. I don't know what. Something.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Oh god, it's just water there, delicious.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It goes down so easy, it does. What were you
doing in Ireland? What was it?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I was there for a friend's wedding. Oh okay, he
was marrying one of my closest friends who I like.
Started doing comedy with he was marrying a girl who
his beautiful wife, whose family is from this like small
town Waterford, Ireland.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Oh crystal, yeah, yes, south of Dublin.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Do you have many of those crystals? Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So many?
Speaker 2 (18:18):
The glass, the glass, crystal crystals.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
It's so funny. It's hard to walk in the house
because he keeps following.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
I mean completely but worth it every penny. I mean,
I'm like, honestly kind of pissed that I'm not really
Irish despite my appearance. I'm really yeah, you could definitely
give you could pull it off. I'm like German and
like English and Scottish. Oh well, which I wouldn't say.
Is that's me dissimilar? Is it?
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Yes? I'm German on my mom's mom's side, Oh my god,
and then Scottish for my dad's side, and then English
from my grandfather. So he was actually from Cornwall. Okay, cool, No,
we're the same.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I love this. Yeah, no, wonder we feel like said along?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Is it a crazy thing? Is that it's that kind
of Scottish sense of humor?
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Do they have humor in Scotland.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
I'm not they don't really in Germany, it's not really
but Scotland.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
They must they might.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Irish are hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Irish hilarious, that's true.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Ireland was amazing. I went to London the week before
to do some shows and which was very fun. And
I was loving London when I was there. It was
my first time. They do weirdly.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
They get you there and get this.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
You're not gonna believe this. I met a Spice girl.
That's I met Ginger Spice okay, and she was not
at my show, but she was standing outside of the
theater couldn't get in, and a friend introduced me. Yeah,
she couldn't get in. My shows were sold out. You
are craft.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I knew it. I knew it. Where do you go
to do comedy? And I'm going to London on Fridays.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
I did my shows at the Soho Theater. I loved
it there.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Okay, it was good. First time.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It was my first time performing out of the States.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Wow. Wow, not your first time to London, but first
time performing well.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Actually was my first time to London to yeah, which
is weird. But I didn't go abroad in college because
my GPA was too low. I wasn't allowed, by the way.
When I asked my school if I could appeal that
like rule. They said my GPA was too low to appeal,
so I couldn't go abroad, which I feel like that's
when most people go to London, is like because they're
(20:24):
studying abroad and they just go.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
For a weekend atterence. They go there, they come back
in their gp A plummets, right, So.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I had to stay. I had to stay at Skidmore.
They wouldn't let me go abroad so that I could
improve my comedy skills and one day beyond this.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Podcast, you see full circle.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
It really does.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Okay, inspirations. First, let me ask you this question. Are
your parents funny? Where do you? Where does it come from?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Okay, my parents are both very funny. No offense to
my dad, but my mom is like I think could
have been a full blown comedian or at the very least,
I guess no offense to actors. Now she could be
an actor, like she is so right, No, I'm so glad.
She is like so expressive that and stunning, much like myself.
(21:13):
That's where I get it.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, the glow, I get it.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Actually, thank oh my god that I really think she
could have done something, but she never wanted to.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So interesting yeah. My mom kind of was the actress.
She's the one who encouraged me in my family, and
she was on stage a little bit and she was good.
It was funny. I look back night, I said, she
was okay.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, sorry, Mom, she's not here to I love her
so much, but she had a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
She was okay. But my dad was a great supporter.
That's interesting, that's funny, and so and so. From there,
I want to ask influences people that you admire.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And growing up. I feel like the first comedy shows
I remember watching were like Faulty Towers, Oh my god, which.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
You see a person, This is very amazing. That's why
I like you.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And then The Office, both the British and the American one,
which I do need to just be clear. Like when
I was ten years old watching The Office, I thought
it was a documentary and I would like kind of
throw fits and be like, why are we watching this again,
It's the most.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Boring show in the world. Understand this.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
And then I got like two years older and I
was like, it's genius and it's my favorite show.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Now I get it. I get it. The English person
yea for me is just just something about that timing,
the edge, the straight stuff is so good. It's in
Faulty Towers is perhaps one of the greatest things. I's
not the greatest thing.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Yeah, we had like the DVDs of of the Seasons,
and like I think even before I understood what they
were joking about, I feel like I got a sense
of like their comedic timing, because also so much of
Faulty Towers was like physical comedy. But then after that,
obviously like Ben Stiller was major for me. I think
(23:05):
I watched Zoo, I've seen Zulander I think fifty times
in my life, which does damage to the.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Brain, but you don't show any damage at all. That's great, Okay.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
And then of course like Amy Pohlar, my Routelfh Christen Wig,
I feel like those are just maybe the most important
comedy inspirations that I can think.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yeah, yeah, and I agree with you every which way.
And Amy was in Inside Out and did such a beautiful.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Job inside Out. A friend of mine, Lewis Black, was
on The Daily Show. Yeah, that's right, he's incredible.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
He is incredible.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
He said that you got no one really got to
interact all that much, not that much.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
No, I was in I think I went in uh
with Diane Lane because she played the mom and I
played the dad. So we had one one only one
time together where they put us in a room and
we kind of interacted with each other on the first one. Well,
the rest of the time it was just individual.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
And where did you do the voiceover for that Disney
We la, okay because he told me that he I'm
gonna like kind of butcher what he said. But he
told me that he just sometimes if he's near that studio,
he'll go back because he said, the lunch is so good.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
You know, it's a little thing. That's why we do
what we do.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Absolutely, acting as one of the hardest jobs in the world.
Everyone knows that, and so when you find.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Good food makes it all worthwhile. Absolutely, they don't even
need to pay us as long as they feed us.
I often say, you know, it's pretty pretty much one
of the easiest jobs in the world.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Very much.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
It's true that you come to where you have to go.
Sometimes they even pick you up and bring you there,
and then they tell you what to wear, They make
you look good, they give your hair, they fix you
all up, they give you a shave if you need
a shave. They tell you what to say, yeah, where
to stand? I know, I mean if he does.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Someone who is in charge of every single thing you
could possibly mess up, and they're there to make sure
you don't.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
You don't, yeah, and then they can edit all the
I had stuffing whenever.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
I'm on a set and then I you know, wrap
and then I leave and I'm telling, you know, my
family or my girlfriend or my friends like how fun
it was? They're like, so, what was so fun about it?
And I do think it is usually what was so easy?
Speaker 1 (25:16):
There was nothing. I'll learn a few lines, and if
you can't learn them, they put them on a card
they just read, or they put it in.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Your ear, let me tell you, or a script coordinator
is just losing their mind.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You're fine, Yeah, honest to god. I grew up like
also loving same things Faulty Towers. Grew up with comedy
comedy albums when I was a little kid.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Actually, huh Cosby I understand.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Yeah, back in the day, I can I hate you
for it, don't hate thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
But yeah, I might talk shit later.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
You're not getting off this easy kid. But I do
remember finding money Python.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Oh yes, I was in college. Absolutely, and I was like.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
What is this? This is speaks to me like nothing else,
just the insanity, the care characters, and the sustaining of
the characters, you know what I mean, and the language
holy Grail to me is truly.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
I think Spam a Loot was the first thing I
saw on Broadway.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Oh so before even watching the films, I think, so, yeah's.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
I remember, like my brother and I had we both
had a spam can that said Spam a Loot on it,
and I remember.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
Put here on the board.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Every day from the first time I had spam. Every
day I would see that spam can and think I'm
going to crack that open sometimes just inside there.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Do you like it? Fried fried spam?
Speaker 2 (26:38):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
I mean that is really the only way to go.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It's so fabulous. It is so completely delicious. If I
see a little sign in New York that says spam Masubi,
I'm running in there. I don't care if I'm late
for col McLaughlin's podcasts.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
So that's what happened today. Okay, yeah, now I understand
it's spam. We can all blame it on spam. Now, wait,
you also I need your help with this because you
love reality TV, and I do not. I know really
nothing about Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
I was curious you don't watch it at all.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
I don't watch it, but I have watched episodes and
under I think I understand the appeal. Okay, but but
what do you what's your What.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Can I ask what you've seen? Well?
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I watched Early Survivor.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Okay, and that counts. That's a staple, is it? I
would say it's one of the best.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
You can rate all myself. And then I think I've
watched like I tried to watch a housewife from some city.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I think it was domestic, right, You're like it was
it Desperate Housewive.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
I don't know what it was, and it happens. I
do sometimes get Desperate Housewives and sex and the city
mixed up.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
By the way, when I watched Desperate house so I've
sorted it just.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
It's all good.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I watched it at an age where like I probably
shouldn't have been watching it, and like I was probably
like eleven, and I was. I remember the theme song
would come on and I would get this like overwhelming
sense of my body like I'm doing something bad. It
was like the same time that I would watch like
shitty reality TV shows on MTV where I was like,
(28:13):
two people are gonna kiss in this and I'm gonna watch.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I don't watch. I get that again at I know, right, It's.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
Like, what a cool show to have been on Housewives. Yeah,
it was a really cool show. And I got to
work with marsh Across. I don't think I knew this
when I joined Marsha's graduate in Juilliard. So she went
proper training all the way through. I went to the
U dub proper training all.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
The way through. So we're like, we should really be
doing theater, we should be doing some kind of you
know somewhere, you know. So occasionally we would get a
scene where the writing was really snappy.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It was tough because they had they had a lot
of people to take care of, and it was like, okay,
here we go, and we just had so much fun.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
And her humor was great because she's super dry. Absolutely,
it was really a good match.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
The show had a really cool tone to it. Honestly,
my girlfriend I rewatched the first season about a couple
of months ago. It's good, and it is it I
think fully holds up.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Yeah, Mark Cherry did a great job. They had a
great writer's room.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Yeah, I think it makes sense.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
And I think I joined. I joined at the beginning
of the seconds, I think, so I think I did. It.
Brought me in for one thing, and then I then Mark,
then it was Marshall, and then I stayed. So I
was supposed to be the killer then back and I
wrote to Mark. I actually I met Mark earlier. I said, hey, man,
I'm having such a good time.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Slipped him a little hundred dollars bill.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
One hundred dollar bill. Can you see too that I
was staying on the show. It was literally ten minutes
from my house, so getting to work was easy. It
was like clockwork, you know. And the writing was great.
I love March. I said maybe I can stay, you know,
is there any way we can kind of change the
direction of the storyline, right and they said yeah, so yeah,
so we'll try to do it. So they switch it around.
They put everything on my mom, Dixie Carter. She became
(29:56):
the villain, which she loved, and uh and so I said,
on for a while. So now he didn't know what
to do with me. It's like, oh, you were the
killer now I love that. That's some good inspiration always great.
You know.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Now it makes me think that Jennifer Coolidge can just
go back to Mike White and be like, oh maybe
I somehow knew how to breathe underwater.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And yes, anything is possible. I held my breath for
a really, really long time. You can always get back
onto a TV show, you can. There's a way that
they always find a way. She was rescued. We didn't
see the rescue exactly, you know, exactly something happened. We
just saw blood in the water. But that happens. That's
always in the water. Yeah, and that was the shark.
(30:38):
The shark, so it was all good. Then. I also
want to ask you because we had we did some
research and you're a Chinese chicken salad.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Person that's growing up in LA. I think is like,
I agree, that is what LA does best. In my opinion,
when I go home, it's not even like I'm trying
to be healthy. It's like LA just does have the
best salads.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
They have great salads. Yes, but do you have a favorite.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Chinese chicken salad?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
But oh of where where?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah? Well?
Speaker 2 (31:05):
I love Jones on third is good? Do you have
four hours Kyle.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yea because We're going to go through every chicken salad
is the one.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
God, I don't know what I mean, is it no,
not chinchin? But I do love chinchin.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
My brother, my brother loves chin Chin Chin is great. Yeah,
my brother, he always says he comes to La and
he gets a Chinese chicken salad at chin Chin and
that's just like his thing.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
But I've discovered another one, Goop Kitchen.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Okay, I've heard that food is fabulous.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
It's fab it's actually Goop. It's Goop. You were doing
a Goop commercially now. But it's really good and they
do a great one. The other one that I really
like is Mendocino.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Yeah, Mendocino is great.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
They do good, but you have to they give you
the giant bowl. There's no way you can possibly mix
the dressing in the thing, and that.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Has is a huge pet peeve of mine. I agree
something I find disgusting.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
It's very difficult because it spills and everything. So I
take it. I put it into a bowl, a giant
bowl because you need extra room to mix. And then I.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Honestly like when I like started making money enough to
like buy a kitchen wear from a place outside of
like the thrift store or Target. One of the first
things I bought was like a big salad bowl because
it really is like, I'm not going to eat a
salad if one piece of arugula is not dressed.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
I know you need I'm coated. Yeah, am right? Williams
Sonoma Is that where it was? He went actually the
most expensive kitchen store.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It actually was from Waterford, Ireland, Crystal's.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
I can see with this helbut I just need to
get it off you sixty pounds.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
But here we go. Nothing to declare officer God.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Okay, So we have some friends together, Mary Beth, bron
absolutely and Ben. Aren't they the best?
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Unbelievable? Yeah, they're also a relationship is like they're brains together.
Are freaky. I agree, They're so good.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
There is nobody dryer than Marybeth.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
I know.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
I'm stunned at her and on the show too, because
we did over compensating together, and I would just watch
her work and I'd be like, does she break? Can
we can we do this? Can we get her to
break some?
Speaker 2 (33:17):
She kind of going back to something we were talking
about earlier, of like doing comedy that doesn't harm anyone
A lot of her stand up is like making fun
of herself as a bisexual and making fun of other
bisexuals in a way that like is not harmful to bisexuals,
even though they are no bisexuals. She's fully ripping bisexuals
(33:39):
to you know, but they also are like this is hilarious.
She's really and he's very special. I mean, I remember
the day that Benny followed me on Instagram, Like, actually
really remember it.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
That's cool. Yeah, confetti very exciting. He is such a sweetheart,
so smart, and so it's like because there's a joy
absolutely in him that I that I really really appreciate. Yeah,
it hasn't been knocked out of him yet. It will,
of course.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Oh of course season two, are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, this is gonna be challenging.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Gonna be horrible.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Oh my god, you're.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Gonna hate working with him?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Am I really going to become a real asshole?
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (34:18):
I can't wait for that. Tell me a couple of
tricks for improv? What what do you love the improv?
Is there anything you sort of think about when you say, okay,
now it's natural, I'm sure, Well.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know, I feel like with improv, the first rule
is always yes, and yes, but gosh, I guess besides
that is like think of a character and stick with it. Yeah,
because I had some you know, horrifying moments when I
was first doing improv where you start the scene with
like a ridiculous amount of energy or accent and two
(34:49):
minutes later you cannot.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
Maintain it like done.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
So you need to know your you know, your cardio
of improv.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Yes, yes, I find it because I worked with Fred
Armiston and Carry Bouncy, and of course Red is a genius.
Carry is a genius too. They're both brilliant. And I
was sort of did I mean in school, I sort
of did, I'm prob, but I wasn't. I didn't, you know,
I didn't really know. But we'd literally start the scene
with just an idea, okay, Fred's here, there's there, You're
coming in and you've got this and and we're gonna
(35:18):
see what happens, and you just go okay.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
So there was a ton of improv on that.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Yeah, it's the first season. There was a ton of improv,
and then is this as it kind of went, you know,
and but there would be a few things written in
and then each subsequent season there was more and more
writing pretty seen you had a scripture, you were like okay,
and but at the same time you could also just
drop the script and go. So it was pretty cool,
but it was exhausting. My brain turned. It's like because
(35:43):
your brain is on, it's like it's like too warm,
it's like melting, it's like it burns two fever pitch.
You get that feeling of like absolutely because you're thinking,
you're just like you're spinning, and.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Then you have a hard time listening yes, because you're
already thinking about what you're going to try and say next.
I used to have a problem in Chicago when I
would do improv of like thinking of some funny line
earlier in the day and like thinking, well, maybe i'll
try that line on stage tonight. Yeah, and the scene
has nothing to do with what you have said, and
(36:16):
you kind of have to be like, never mind, but
I'm just feeling crazy today.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It is maybe the secret because I think it's just
it's sort of relaxation mm hmm. But the problem with
that is I think i'd go to sleep. It's like
if someone say something and you're like, I don't know
what to say to that. Maybe these I don't know
it's weird.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Do you know TJ and Dave in Chicago who do
like they're like the top improvisers.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Okay, no, I don't, and they perform.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
I think kind of everywhere now too, but all their
shows sell out and they do like an hour of
improv and they start the scenes like really slow and
really calm, okay, and just fully like world built for
the first like five minutes, which it was not something
I ever did when I improvised.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
But that's smart world build.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
That's important, definitely. It's a second of where you are. Yeah,
I mean I had teachers who were always like, you know,
if you put your you know, coffee cup down, you
got to remember where you put it, otherwise you lose
some of your audience.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
You can't just ignore that. You got to there's a callback.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Right when you know, you grab something else and you're like, well,
now looks like you're sipping your knife, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Which is a choice. It's a dangerous people do that,
but they don't have tongues at the end of the
evening and it's a terrible exact. So we have a
little little section that we're going to do, and it's
a segment that we designed just for you.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, it's not called just for you, Okay, it's called
what are we even riffing About?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
It?
Speaker 1 (37:46):
So this is going to be exciting. Please don't touch
that dial. So we are back with a segment that
I call what are we even riffing About? Because we
have fabulous Grace Guenschmidia. If you're going to go into
(38:11):
the gray sorry, that's I don't know what's happening to me.
But we have themes that will be shouted out from
our audience here, our producers and I have the magic
microphone here.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And everyone gets thirty seconds.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Great, this makes everybody super funny. So this is this is.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Thank God, I'm gonna hate that one.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Okay are you ready?
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I'm ready, Okay, Okay, we're starting starting.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
Magic shell so cans. You know, when you're eating your
ice cream and you're thinking this is too slippery, this
is too soft, You're gonna need to get yourself some
magic shell because it's gonna completely change and transform your life.
You take that soft, squishy ice cream, you make it
rock hard. You're gonna need that chocolate. Add it onto chocolate, vanilla,
(38:59):
added more chocolate onto that strawberry. That's a perfect combination.
You guys need this stuff in your pocket at all time.
It is completely shelf stable. Think God, you don't actually
have to refrigerate.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
It, and that's time I'm gonna have to refrigerate it.
That's the best. When they have magic shells they showed
me before, it's like, what is the magic shell?
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Are you serious? It was really like the moment I
saw that kind of in the grocery store, I knew
it was going to be important to me in my life.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You felt it? Yeah, was it a similar thing? When
what's this stuff called fluff? It's like a marshmallow thing.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I would say those are in a similar genre of
like random toppic.
Speaker 1 (39:37):
Yeah, yeah, so they'd be in a similar place on
the grocery store. You'd be like, other's your magic shell
and yeah, so we get definitely okay, okay, I'm ready
and I go.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Okay, And the prompt is pumpkin spice latte.
Speaker 1 (39:51):
Pumpkin spice latte. I mean this is a very confusing
mix of three things, pumpkin and a spice and a latte.
First of all, you can't fit pumpkin into a cup,
you know, impossible and this is a very very small pumpkin.
And the idea of actually mixing pumpkin with a latte,
like pumpkin and milk together. Does that sound appealing to you?
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Not really?
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I mean it's like and so do you blend it?
I mean, how do you make it work? I don't understand,
Like if you just took pieces of pumpkin and poured
milk on top of it like a cereal, that would
not be appealing to me.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
We need the scientists in the room to answer this.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
I agree with you. I think what we need to do.
Let's call up the Starbucks.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Shame that he could have gone for another when I
was I was going in.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
I think this is us. Okay, okay, hey Grace.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Your second topic is softball, a sport that seems like
the sport that men would play softball, but is actually
a completely different sport in its own in a way
makes lesbians and in a way how so many straight
(41:00):
girls that it ultimately kind of defies sexuality. But despite
its stereotype, although I am a lesbian who played softball,
I want to be crystal clear with you, Kyle. When
I was on my softball team, I was the straightest
girl on that softball team, and that's time, all right, Kyle.
(41:25):
Prov topic is cardboard Baby.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Cardboard baby. I mean, I have a bone to pick
with the writers, to be quite honest, a cardboard baby.
Is there a humor in that I don't understand. They
came to me and they said this is your this
is your gonna be your your swan song for the show,
and they said cardboard baby. And I said, I mean,
I feel like I'm a fairly intelligent person, and I
(41:51):
think I understand what's funny. And I said, I don't
think this is really funny. And I presented it to
Kristin Davis and she also didn't think it was very funny.
And I think that's when she kicked me out. But
maybe that's what they wanted to do, is to kick
me out of the house. But a cardboard baby I
didn't really know what to do with. Of course, I
have the baby at home with me. Autographs and that stuff.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Autograph Oh, even the audience hanging there, they'll never The
next prompt for Grace is the Bachelor franchise.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Oh, my gosh, the Bachelor.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
What franchise?
Speaker 1 (42:23):
Oh, the Bachelor franchise. Oh, this is something you should well,
it is reality.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yes, it is, oh, probably my favorite reality TV show,
even though I think many people would argue it is
one of the worst. I don't see it. I watched
my first season two thousand and nine, I was fourteen
years old. I watched every single season since. Wow, it's
about two seasons a year. Okay, And I'm not gonna
say I believe they fall in love, but I think
(42:50):
that like it is one of the best reality TV
shows of all time. Really, I almost get emotional talking
about it, okay, because it's so important to me.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
But do they have a.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Point five camera lens?
Speaker 1 (43:07):
Point five camera lens? This is a new world for
me because I was only used to one one x
and I thought that was sort of the end. But
in fact, there is more. There's a point five And
when that option suddenly made itself known to me, I
felt the world opened up to me. And I suddenly said,
(43:29):
I can be taller, the room can be larger, Yes,
and I can feel drunk without having to get drunk
when I look at an image in point five. So really,
it made life so much easier.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
And that's time. I too, am a point five guy.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yes, I love it.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I love the way I look. I love the way
I feel.
Speaker 3 (43:50):
Look at.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Freezer meets.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
You gotta have some meats in your freezer, Kyle.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I love you, yes, and I love meating my freezer.
Speaker 2 (44:00):
I love meat in my freezer. And I'm talking every meat,
any animal product. Vegans turn off the podcast right now.
I want salmon in my freezer. I want ground turkey
in my freezer. I want ground beef in my freezer.
I want a steak in my freezer.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (44:16):
Why because protein is the most important part of my day.
That's why I got to be on this podcast is
because I've been maintaining my protein goals.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
My whole life.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
Well, we knew that, that's why you had me on.
We didn't get to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
But isn't there's something very when you know that you
have meat in your freezers, Like I am okay for today.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Completely because I know there's pasta in my pantry. I
know there's rice in my pantry, So why don't we
have more meat in our freezers?
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I agree, and that's time. Well, thank you Grace so much.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
This was very, very fun.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
I had a great time too. I'm glad to hear that.
I'm glad to hear it, so I want to know.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I'll say that to you, but the moment you leave
the room, I'm gonna be like, this was the worst
podcast I've ever done? Who is this guy?
Speaker 1 (44:58):
No? I feel that? And why did you think you
can damage my career? Dramatically finished? I mean, honest to god,
came on my show. It's done. So the thing is
we call it what are we even doing? And now
I want to ask you what are we even? What
are you even doing? Next?
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Well? I am on the Daily Show about once a week.
Is when you'll see me on air?
Speaker 1 (45:19):
Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
I have a podcast out called Believe with Grace Cool
and Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Oh I love it.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Goodness? What else?
Speaker 1 (45:26):
You have a freezer? Meat?
Speaker 2 (45:27):
I have meat and my freezer. I have magic shell
on my ice cream. And you can see me do
live comedy. Follow me on Instagram and you'll see whenever
I have my next live shows.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Yeah yeah, I highly recommend, highly recommend your comedy and
my comedy is.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I think so very much. We hit a little jackpot here.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
We did, we did so anyway, thank you, thank you
everyone for for being part of this journey on what
are we even doing? Here? Did we answer? The question.
I don't think we did today, but we're going to
keep trying. Maybe we answered it a little bit, all right,
See you next time. What Are We Even Doing is
a production of iHeartMedia and the Elvis Duran podcast Network,
(46:10):
hosted by me Kyle McLachlin and created and produced by
Full Picture Productions Yay, featuring music by Yata and artwork
by Danica Robinson. For more information about the podcast, please
visit our Instagram and TikTok at wawed with Kyle. Please rate, review,
(46:31):
and subscribe to What Are We Even Doing on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,
or anywhere you get your podcasts. Exclamation pointgras
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