February 18, 2025 • 43 mins
Meet Heidi Gardner, a comedian and actress best known for her work on Saturday Night Live. After 9 years working at a hair salon in LA, Heidi decided to pursue comedy and worked her way up through the Groundlings. She joined the cast of SNL in 2017 and has brought us many, many laughs since then. I had an amazing time chatting with her and I hope you enJOY!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Craig Ferguson Pants on Fire Tour is on sale now.
It's a new show, it's new material, but I'm afraid
it's still only me, Craig Ferguson on my own, standing
on a stage telling comedy words. Come and see me,
buy tickets, bring your loved ones, or don't come and
see me. Don't buy tickets and don't bring your loved ones.
(00:21):
I'm not your dad. You come or don't come, but
you should at least know what's happening, and it is.
The tour kicks off late September and goes through the
end of the year and beyond. Tickets are available at
the Craig Ferguson Show dot com slash tour. They're available
at the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour or
at your local outlet in your region. My name is
(00:45):
Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I
talk to interest in people about what brings them happiness.
My favorite cast member on Saturday Night Live right now
is Heidi Gardner. She's professional, she's very very funny, and
(01:05):
she's very very good at what she does.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And she's here. Let's meet her enjoy. Here's the thing, Heidi.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I want to tell you this right now. I think
Heidi is the nicest name for a girl. I've always
thought that, and if ever I had had a daughter,
I would have coder Heidi. And I wondered if you
were raised in the Alps looking after sheep.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I wasn't, but I did have a good relationship with
my grandpa, which I believe Heidi also had.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So oh, that's right, I think. Did you did you
read the book Heidi when you were little?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think I've read different iterations of Heidi, but it
always has to do with a grandpa, the Alps, some sheep.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Some sheep, and I think there's a vampire in one
of theisodes where Heidi meets Dracula.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yes, Heidi meets Dracula is my favorite version.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I'm in London right now, and I just walked by
Bram Stoker's house where he wrote where he wrote Dracula.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And now I'm a bit scared. It's why it's on
my mind.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I would be excited.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, I'm excited and scared. It's a mixture of both.
I'm excited. So let me are you in New York City?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I am.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think I can tell by your fashionable bag hanging
on the thing behind you.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
That might be the only thing I'll hear, the screaming
fashion are you?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Are you in production right now for SNL?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yes, we have the fiftieth anniversary this weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Oh congratulations, and may I say fifty years on television?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
You look great? Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Did you see the movie, the new movie about fifty
the Saturday Night Live movie?
Speaker 5 (02:57):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
OK, And it's only because I'm saving it till I
not currently taping SNL because it's just a little too close.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know. It's funny.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It seems like I've over the years, I've run into
a lot of people who have either you know, current
or past cast members of SNL. And there is a
kind of you get to be part of a sort
of elite. You're part of the elite. Now do you
get like, is there a special roped off area of
clubs of New York if you're in SNL.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know, if there is? I don't know about it.
And it's my own fault. I'm from the Midwest. Yes,
and I think we're humble to a fault. And I
have been told by other cast members and I believe
this like in their life, and even former cast members
(03:51):
that you that they can walk into any restaurant in
New York and get a table, And I just have
never banked on that for one second in my life,
or that there's a secret section. So I'm always making
a reservation. I'm never assuming I'm gonna go a special room.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think that's the correct way to go about it
because that shows the correct approach to show business, which
is you never know where your next shock of humility
is coming from. Yeah, but you're not even as old
as Saturday Night Live. Did you grow up watching it?
And who did you grow up watching and who were
the cast member? Because I assume you grew up watching it,
did you?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yes? For sure?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I remember my parents and I'm not sure you know.
Obviously this is before YouTube and where you could rewatch
most things, but I think that my parents had some
of the early vhs because they showed me. They definitely
showed me Eddie Murphy as James Brown the Hot Tub
Time Machine, like that was the first sketch I ever saw.
(04:55):
And then I would start watching it on Saturdays with them,
and the first time I ever made my parents laugh
was doing or that I remember is doing an impression
of Dana Carvey doing an impression of Robin Leech and
so that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Woah, that is
I God, I remember that. What's the So are you
from a show business family where you are your parents
involved and stuff like that?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
No, they're definitely characters for sure, and they're like my
greatest source of inspiration. But my dad, my dad actually
did do improv for comedy sports, and so when I
was really little, i'd go and watch him perform that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I remember that comedy sports thing. Don Is that still
a thing to people still do that?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I do think it is.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, Well it's kind of like competitive improv, Is that
what it is?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And like they would wear ref uniforms. That's what I
really remember from it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, but you were you were a groundlings along now, right,
So how did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
How did you end up doing improv?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Because that's an LA based or alien New York based, right.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
So I moved to LA when I was twenty one,
and I moved out there to do hair and makeup.
I knew I wanted to like work in pop culture
in some way and I was good at doing hair,
so I moved out there and I was working at
a salon for about five years and made friends with
a woman named Rachel who was in the ground LANs
(06:32):
and she said, you know, you should come to my
improv show tonight. I'm performing. And I'd heard of the
Groundlings for sure. I mean, I was obsessed with SNL
and pop culture and everything. I went and saw the
show and I was like, that's the funniest thing I've
ever seen. I can't wait for my family to visit
so I can bring them to see it.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And she was like.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yes, But also I was hoping that maybe it would
inspire you to, you know, take a class here and
I was like what, and she was like, I think
you'd be really good at this. And I was like,
I'm not an actor and she was like yeah, but
you leave me like six minute voicemails in character and
they're funny.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, that was kind of how that started.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So you were because your hair is great. I didn't
want to bring it up right away, but your hair
is great. It looks like it's been done professionally.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
If you don't know it was done professionally, Yeah, yeah,
because I did a movie once where I played a hairdresser.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
In order to do it properly, I learned to cut
hair a little bit and I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
That makes me so happy to hear that, because my
biggest grievance is a hairdresser is if you watch someone
playing a hairdresser, they don't hold the scissors correctly.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
And so I love your commitment to the craft.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, but you didn't see the movie, did you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now, you didn't see the movie, but.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I'm going to if you told me you did that.
That is the best selling point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It was a movie called The Big Teas.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Nobody saw this movie and it was about a Scottish
hairdresser that goes to Los Angeles to take part in
the World Hairdressing Competition.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh my god, the high jinks and sue.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But I learned how to cut hair a little bit
and I really liked it, and I thought, I kind
of wish I'd done this instead of getting into show business,
but by then it was too late.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, I mean, I always think it's a good you know,
it's a good thing to go back to. I really
enjoyed it, and it was also a place where I
was meeting so many people every day, different types of people. Yeah,
but also was a good source of inspiration.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
And also and also gossip in Hollywood. I mean, it
is the absolute hive of all things. If you want
to know anything, you you would hear everything, and you
still went into show business.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It's funny when I told my clients when I finally
quit the salon, I never told them I had this
like side, I don't even want to call it side hustle,
because it was I was doing everything for free, just
this side obsession with sketch and improv. And when I
told them, you know, I'm leaving the salon, and they're like, oh, well,
what salon are you going to? If it's close, I'll
(09:18):
follow you. And I was like, no, I'm I'm I'm
going to pursue comedy.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And because I didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Consider myself an actor either, and they were like, are
you funny, It's like I think I am. And they're like,
don't do this, Like you moved out here. You did
the reverse of what people typically do. You moved out
here like to be a hairdresser, and you made it
like don't now do the cliche thing like they very
much told me.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Not to do I think the good thing about show
business though, was as a kind of as a place
to work on. One of the good things about it
is the fact that there are no really set paths,
except except maybe something like Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
If you're if you lucky enough to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Get into that, then that's kind of like you get
you get the rubber stamp. It's like the Ivy League
of Comedians. How long we have you been doing it?
Like six years or something?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Eight years?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Eight years?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Yeah, in my eighth season.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Do you still like enjoy it?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah? I do.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I love playing characters, so I can't really imagine a
world where I'm going to get.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
To do this to this degree again, right.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I will say the only thing that I've started to
feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue or idea fatigue,
in the way that at this point, after doing Groundlings
and SNL for so long, I'm like, I've written a
lot of sketches, and you know, you just get scared
and it does happen some weeks where I'm like, I
(10:49):
do not have an idea for a sketch, a game,
or a character, And then you know, luckily we have
amazing writers at the show that will be like, but
I have an idea for you.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
That's all. Only thing that starts has gotten a little tough.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How does the week get put together for Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Do you start? You start on a Tuesday or something?
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Or yeah, we do go in on Monday. It's just
for a couple hours. You meet the host, you pitch
them a joke, sketch. It's just kind of an icebreaker.
And then Tuesday is riding Night, Wednesday, table read Thursday,
Friday or the rehearsals and when we tape the pre
tape sketches, and then Saturday rehearsal day, dress, rehearsal, show,
(11:30):
after party.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The after party is part of the day, is that
you have to go to the after party.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You know you don't have to, but I think, out
of respect for the show and the party and the
thing you just created that week, it's good to let
off some steam with everyone. Occasionally I've not gone, and
then I regret it because it's like you have so
much adrenaline pumping three that if you just go home
and try to go.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
To bed, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I kind of I used to always party after a
shore or do something after a show. And now I'm like,
I can leave a theater. I'm out of the theater
before the audience. I'm in my bed in a hotel
half an hour later, lights out, socks on, pajamas and sleeping.
It's funny because adrenaline I always thought as a performer,
(12:21):
I thought you needed it, And now I think it's
the enemy. I hate adrenaline on stage. I like, I
don't like to feel kind of nervous. I like, do
you do You still get kind of charged before you
you work?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I get charged, but you know, to tell you the truth,
the charge is all adrenaline and anxiety and untruths. You know.
It's just even when if I'm going to perform, you know,
I'll perform at like a local theater or do a
show at a college, and all suddenly before I go
(12:56):
out to this new crowd of people think that they're
going to hate me.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think that's normal.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, and it is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's just adrenaline and anxiety and you know, And so
I'm used to just like having that thought saying this
is how you think, but it's probably not true. And
you're a people pleaser, so you're still going to go
do this thing?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It's also it's funny. I remember working with an old comedian.
It's not that long ago, actually, and I was working
with an older comedian who you would know, and I
was like pacing up and down backstage and all that stuff,
and he was like sitting in a chair and he
was like, he said, well, what are you doing? I said,
you know, I'm just kind of getting myself ready for
what Who's this for? But so that all this posturing
(13:44):
backstage is just going to make you speak too fast?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and it kind of does. It's true.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I stopped doing it, and I feel like in the
past few years I've gotten much better the job because
I just like, I just go and if they hate me,
well that's fine. Be surprised though, because they know I'm
there so they could avoid me.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yes, they didn't have to buy the tic.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They didn't have to buy the ticket. They actually they
know who you are. They've come to see you, and
they've come to see you probably because they like you.
You know, I'm not saying there might not be a
crazy loaner in there somewhere who hates you and that's
why they're there.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
But I don't think there's that many of them. Maybe
I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
The way that your generation is now with performance, though
there's much more connection I think with the audience in
digital form. Then I my people of my generation and
even you know, I kind of separate myself from that
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I mean, I have social media, but I don't do it.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Someone else does it, and I occasionally will go on
and look at it and.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Go ah and go away. Do you have all that?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Do you have all the Instagram and the twigs and everything.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I have an Instagram, but you know, I run my
Instagram the same way.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I even saying run my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I just do my Instagram the same way I did
it before SNL, which was just like posting pictures and
stories for my friends for the most part, and I
think I did come around right before it was more
of like a necessary thing to post so much content.
(15:32):
I think if I hadn't gotten SNL, I would have
needed that release one hundred percent and would have done
that more. But I am able to get a lot
of stuff out on the show, and I just have
never found my gear on a social platform in a
way where I want to.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Be that vulnerable. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I think also What Happens SNL is famously produced, but
I don't know if it's still on a day to
day basis produced by Laurene Michaels, is it?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah? All right?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Because Lauren is like one of the great comedy producers
of all time. And I think that the thing that
people suffer from on social media, on the phones and
stuff like that is that they don't have a producer.
They don't have someone saying, you know, what would be
better about this joke is if you didn't do this
joke and maybe did a different joke that wouldn't make
(16:26):
everybody mad or make you look like an asshole or
something like that, you know what I mean. It's like
I feel like the role of the producer is removed,
the creative producer is removed from a lot of people's
Instagram And I think the people who are successful in
social media are people who have a producer's instinct themselves.
(16:48):
They understand, you know, I'll do this, And like if
you look at influencers even like that, like the royal
family of the Kardashians, they're all produced, they all think
like producers. They all have a kind of do you
have that do you think, do you do you censor
yourself or think about it or do you let you know,
(17:12):
you let the show do it and relax.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And that I mean you. I assume you trust Lauren
and give you the right advice.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I do trust his advice.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And at this point, I feel like, yes, I know
how to self edit. I know typically what the show's
going to respond to or not respond to, even to
just get it onto the show, like table read. What
I do like is the freedom of once the new
part is the live audience. So once I'm performing it
(17:44):
live in front of the audience and on.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
TV, I do like that.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
That feels like, you know, I'm just like, belts are
off and I'm just going for it.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But because we've had rewrite tables and we've edited so
much of it to that point, I'm like, oh, I
have I have the time to be a little crazier,
you know, or to take my time because we've already
cut it down. The only thing I will say is
I totally agree with that point that you're making. But
I was at a concert recently where the performer brought
(18:16):
out another act and what I was watching was certainly
something that had not been rehearsed. You know. The woman
performing was just pretty loose in her dance and singing, like,
and even the other dancers were like they weren't sure
where to stand or catch her. And I thought, I
was like, oh my god, I would never be able
(18:38):
to go up there and do I can tell this,
Like someone went out and like marked this for maybe
two minutes. But they were fine and the audience was fine,
and they still had confidence. And I was like, that's
interesting because I don't trust that at all and I
could never do it, but it was nice to see
one someone just be experimental. It didn't really work for me,
(19:00):
but I was like that, that's cool to have that
confidence because now I'm so like, you know, produced.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Well, you make an interesting point, because I when I work,
I don't have a rehearsed show. Even when I was
doing Late Night, I didn't have a like I would
turn up. Honestly, in the last like four or five
years of it, I turn up like fifteen minutes before
and then we go and then that was it. And
you know, and I would look at some ideas, but
(19:30):
I think that's repetition of I know what I do.
Even so you experiment within the parameters of what you do. Like,
I know the robot is over there, the horses over there.
I know if I say fuck, they're going to get mad.
But if I say asshole, they won't get that mad.
And you know, it's like you build a kind of
a little box that you can experiment within. Yes, I
(19:52):
think what would be difficult now in that environment? And
I mean, Lauren clearly knows how Saturday Night Live works.
I think if I were doing a show now, I'd
be like, I don't know what the rules are now,
I don't know the joke that I said last week
might be annoying. Everything moves very quickly, and you can
(20:13):
step over lines that are still the paint is still fresh.
You know, they're like, I didn't know that was a problem.
Why is that a problem? And it has to be
explained to you? And I do you find that in
the time you've been on the show that you have
I mean, presumably you've learned to speak the language of
the show. You know how to get a sketch on
the show, you know how to make a sketch work
(20:35):
in the show. But do you think it's boxed you
in in any way? Creatively. Is it something that you'd
like to experiment away from the show.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, I mean I think it's it's definitely boxed. It's
weird to say this, and I'll probably have another point
to it, but it's boxed my confidence in a little
bit because I so want to be I so want
to get something on the show. I want to be
(21:04):
accepted by the show, and I want to thrive on
the show. And I'm so in this world and I'm there,
you know, six out of seven days out of the week,
and it's my singular focus when you know, we're filming,
and so I'm like, if I'm not getting stuff on,
then I'm like, I'm not funny, I'm not doing my job.
(21:26):
And that has been the thing that then is weird
when I go to another show and I'm so like,
oh my god, I'm nervous.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Did it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I haven't done like live shows like when I was
doing Groundlings a lot. But then you go when you
do a show or you just do an improv show
and You're like, oh my god, it's fine, and people
are not judging me as harshly as I'm judging me,
you know, and even the show isn't judging me as
harshly as I'm judging me. It's just suddenly I got
(21:55):
this like standard, you know. So there's that, and then
also I know whatever I do next, which you know,
I'd love to have a show that I, you know,
co star in and co write and it's a character
and it's a world, and it's a character I get
to live in.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
For a while and explore more.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Would be like, what would that? Would that character be
a a hairdresser?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Maybe no, but I bet they'd have big hair.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I think, look, you already know how to hold the scissors.
You're halfway there.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I think that the idea of working because I used
to like avoid playing.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Scottish people all the time.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I was like, but I'm Scottish, you may as well
like over the part being Scottish.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Go all right.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I presume that if you go over the part playing
someone from Kansas, that would be okay.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It would be totally okay. I mean, I love like Kansas,
Missouri where I was raised. I love the people, I
get the people. I love Midwestern all the different levels
of it. So like that world I'm in on that.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I was always surprised that when I went to the Midwest,
like because I got to know America from the coasts
in so I knew in New York and LA that
when I started going to America in the middle that,
you know, because I learned that you go, hey, how
you doing, and people go, hey, how you doing, and
that's it. But if you say hey, how you doing
in Kansas, people tell you how they're doing.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Really they will. I'm okay, but my sister.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Had to have an operation and Po're like, oh my god,
is she okay? Well she's doing okay now. But and
you find yourself in conversations. Yes, yes, I worked with
a great improviser from the Midwest who played the character
of Mimi on The Drew Carey Show, which is the
show I was on the nineties, Kathy Kenny, who's from
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, which is about as Midwest as I
(23:52):
can think of, is maybe nearly as much as Kansas. Yeah,
they're very funny people, but there's a real darkness. It's
there's a weird undercurrent to it that I love.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yes, Oh, I totally feel that.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I mean so much of my stuff at Groundlings and
even sometimes at SNL, like you know, a note I
get is like it's a little too dark or you know,
like play up the joy. You know you can play
you know at work, they've told me before, like you
can play a loser, like, but you have to be
loving your life as a loser. Like the audience at
(24:29):
least our audience here at C and L does not
want to worry about you. So like you are having
fun all of this information that's painting the specificity of
your weird, down and out life, Like you need to
be loving it.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
And I get that.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
For a while, I was like, but this was my life,
like you know, like even talking about like being in
debt or something like just things that happened throughout my childhood,
you know. Or I was like, well, this was funny
because this is how we dealt with it, or this
is what my parents did to you know, And they're
like yeah. But a lot of people think, like maybe
(25:05):
that's something you should talk about in therapy to just
be careful.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
What do you think that the sketch format doesn't low
It can't really if you're doing a sketch, you can't
go hugely complex with the character if you've only got
three or four minutes to do it right.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
And that's like the exact thing that producers tell hosts,
especially hosts that are like seasoned dramatic actors who want
to get into their character. And I get it because
I love characters and I like to go a little deep.
But you'll just get lost in it for three minutes.
(25:45):
And I've never seen it serve someone very well to
go too deep and take it too seriously. It's always
about just like, yes, the voice you're doing is great,
Like we don't need to think about what they had
for breakfast, Like you're good.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Do you have a favorite I want to ask you
names Ransom, but do you have a favorite type of host?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Is there a type of person that is more that
is easier to work with and you get more out
of it than another.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, so there's a couple one of those being really amazing.
I'll say I should just say actors, but I like
to say dramatic actors because it catches me off guard
because when someone I remember my first season, I think
it was my first season.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Sterling K.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Brown hosted and he did a sketch where basically he
was just at a dinner table just saying Shrek is
the best, like DreamWorks movie or something, and someone else
was like, no, I think it's how to Train Your Dragon.
And there were jokes in there, but he was never
going for the joke. He was just playing it as
a man who earnestly believed this and had his moment
(26:55):
to say it, and he never went for a joke
or a silly face like anyone in the cast would.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Have been like, just going so goofy with it.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And I was like, I left that table read being like,
is he funnier than me?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Like?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Is he funnier than all of us? And I see that.
I see that a lot with really good actors. I'm like,
you're just a good actor and like you're doing i'm
sure what you learned in school, just playing the truth
of the character, and it's fully working and the writing's good.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
And then you know, I'm a big sports fan, so
I love when athletes host because personally, I think the
expectation should be super low. They're a fish out of water.
This isn't what they do. So if they are just fine,
it's like, yeah, that's fine. Like he's a linebacker. It's
like we didn't expect him to be the best. But
(27:46):
when they kill it, it's like, oh my god, like
there's this hidden talent in there or something they always
had that they got to the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So if you're a big sports fan and you're from Kansas,
oh yeah, you probably is not the greatest weekend you've
ever had, was it.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It wasn't the greatest weekend it you know, I've had
like so many great Chiefs years recently, lifelong fan, so
I am like grateful to a fault, grateful too that
they went to the super Bowl. The only thing that's
hard as like what I consider to be like a
(28:30):
sweet fan who has been through wins and losses and
all sorts of different season and I know what it
feels like when like another team is raining.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
It doesn't feel great. The only thing I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like is just that there are some stories that are like, well,
the Chiefs didn't show up, they didn't try, they didn't
and I'm just like, no player out there who made
it to the Super Bowl didn't try, Eagles included. I mean,
Eagles tried so hard and they blew us out. Like
I just find some of these narratives so insulting. And
(29:05):
actually I was talking to someone recently, I was like,
I fail all the time at work, Like I write
sketches three sketches a week usually because I want to
have good numbers to maybe get one in, and usually
I get zero in.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Like I fail and I lose.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
It's just that, and I think that's a loss because
I didn't get it on. But I'm like, oh, I'm
kind of protected because no one saw my loss live
because it never even went. They didn't see me lose,
and so I'm just like, they have to go lose
in public, but they try, Like no one's not trying.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It's an odd thing.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
But I think around sports casting espasically, when you think
about it, it's not you can't rehearse it, you know,
so if you're I feel like the people who are
actually commenting and live on the game, I have great
deal of sympathy for that because you have to keep
talking and you're not going to I say a lot
of bullshit that people are going to get mad at.
But I think afterwards, the idea of yeah, they didn't try,
(30:06):
somebody analyzing the game saying they didn't try it is
a ludicrous idea that you would get up in the
morning of the Super bow Gol and go, eh, all right, Well,
I'll go, but really, I mean, I'm more looking forward
to going out later on in the day.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I don't think anyone goes to it like that.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
No, No, So thank you for letting me get that
off my I think talk you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I'm glad you got it off your chest, and I'm glad.
It is an interesting thing though, But I think when
pop called very famously with the chiefs. Right now, pop
culture and sports culture are intersecting at you know, light speed,
and I think people that normally don't pay any attention
the super Bowl is always like this, when people that
(30:51):
normally pay no attention to sport suddenly it's it's the
day where they're going to sit down and watch sports
all day and have opinions about it. And I think
the thing about sports a little bit like performance, is
that everybody's kind of an expert. You know, you can
say things like, wow, he didn't do that because of this,
and no one can prove you one hundred percent wrong.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
No one.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
If you say, oh, Travis Kelsey, he didn't try, he
went well, he did, but no one can prove you
wrong and say he didn't but he did, he tried,
He just but it's the same thing when people say
that's not I mean, I'm interested. When we talked right
at the beginning, we talked about common improv sports, that
(31:32):
sports improv thing, and I was always fascinated by that
because the idea that somebody can be more funny than
somebody else seems an anathema to me. It doesn't it
doesn't seem possible to me that because it's so subjective.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
There are some things that people laugh at.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I'm like, I just just don't get it, and I'm
not funny. I get fucking Emmys and peabodies and shit,
I know I'm funny.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I've made money, so what why do I don't get that?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And the reason I don't get it is because it's
like all are it's subjective and I I mean, but
sport you kind of have to win or yes, and
I think there's.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So much more vulnerable in my opinion, it's just like
there's just a winner and a loser, and you're putting
it all all out there, and like with what we're doing,
it's like you're funny and maybe some people think you're not.
A lot of people think you're winning. Like even the
most like subversive like left of center stuff, you know, like.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But also the thing is as well that if you
don't make people laugh, they get angry at you, the
same as the same as if your team doesn't win,
they get angry.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
It's like, and that's an interesting I don't I've never
understood that, Like, that.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Guy doesn't make me funny. He's an asshole? Why is he?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It just it just doesn't make you laugh. No, he's
an asshole. That asshole doesn't make me laugh. And I
think that there's a thing that somebody said to me
when I started Late Night I was always gonna haunted me,
which is you said, the first two weeks, maybe the
first couple of months are going to be rough because
they're going to have to forgive you for trying to
(33:13):
make them laugh. And I was like, oh my god,
that's a weird thing to hear.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Do you go out on the stage now on a
Saturday night, like when you go out because presumably the
first time you perform the show, that's when we see it, right,
Do you go out there now thinking fuck it, I
know I'm funny or is there still doubt?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I do think it's like, fuck it, I know I'm funny,
and I think I'm funnier when I'm confident and having fun. Definitely, Yes,
it's still hard to do if you are trying a
completely new character or idea, which we are for the
very first time. So to have all that freedom is
like and you have like it's your baby, and you
(33:58):
have hopes and you have expectation for it. But you know,
I am trying to lean a little bit more into
just the fact it's like the same way that you were, Like,
if people have bought a ticket to see you, like,
probably there's not going to be one in the audience
that hates you. Yeah, And I'm trying to believe that.
Like I've been at the show for a while now,
(34:19):
I still have the job the audience. I'm just trying.
It's even hard for me to say right now. I'm
trying to be like, the audience does love you, and
they might not love something you do a sketch one night.
They might not get this character, but it's not like
they're like, oh, I hate her now, you know. I'm
trying to just trust that the more I can be
(34:40):
myself and have fun, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I think the proof is the like, if you've been
on Saturday Night Live for eight years, you're funny. It's
just you just wouldn't have been on for that amount
of time if you weren't enough. People love you and
think you're funny. But it's an interesting thing that I
wonder sometimes. I don't think you have to be the
(35:03):
funniest person to succeed in calmedy. I think you have
to be the person that people like. I think it's
more about like than funny. Yeah, you know, I think
it's about some weird empathy thing rather than just ha ha.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
It's a weird thing who makes you laugh.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I mean, as far as who I work with at
the table read, I sit next to mikey Day and
I've known him for a long time now, and because
we sit next to each other at the table read,
it has felt like I am just working with one
of my brothers.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I have two brothers, and.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Just like the familial sense there, it really makes me laugh.
It's like at this point we can like mess around
about anything we have like a second hand our own
kind of languae, which that makes he makes me laugh
a lot ago at the show, like her characters and
her improv she's so quick and I've done some improv
(36:10):
shows with her recently where it's like when she gets
to be unscripted, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
And then my all time favorite comedian is Jack Black.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
All right, yeah, now that's into because Jack's very anarchic
and wild and this is do.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You know Jack?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I haven't, well, I know him, I just haven't really
ever gotten to like meet him, but I've you know,
he's sent me incredibly kind messages about my work and like,
I mean, he's my dream post. I was a tenacious
d fan. And yeah, I love what you just said
about him. Like when I'm totally like when I feel myself,
(36:51):
like on a weekend update, just free, I feel like
I have a moment of like what Jack Black is
able to conjure all the time, and I think that
and the way he does it and it works is
so singular and like such a specific thing that and.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So it's who he is as well. I've known Jack
for fifteen years. He still thinks I'm Irish. I'm not Irish.
I'm not Irish. I've said to him Jack, I'm not Irish,
and every time he's like, oh I was the old
I'm like I thought he was fucking with me, but
he's not. He just he decided early on when we
(37:32):
first met, I was Irish and I've just stayed Irish.
I got annoyed about it for a while, and now
I really I would miss it if it wasn't there. Yeah,
what about stand ups? Is there any Is there any
stand up that you would see? Male or female? Who
who you think that's because that's slightly it's a.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Different kind of discipline to the character work.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I mean, lately, stand up's always been something that I
love but also intimidates me. It's like when I have
to do a live show. For the last few years,
I've been a little bit like, well, I do characters
and that doesn't feel as embraced in this arena. So
you know, I've started trying to dabble and stand up,
(38:18):
but still very scared of it. I mean, what's been
really cool is the last two seasons Nate Bergetzi has hosted,
and you know, he's I believe he's from Nashville or Tennessee,
but it's like just close enough to where I'm from
that like, his observational humor feels just very spot on
(38:38):
for the people and places that I grew up in,
and I just love this simplicity. It's so not simple,
but it's like there is a simplicity to just like
what he's saying that feels so relatable to me.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
I've been loving that.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
I loved I love Nicki Glazer, but I love what
she did at the Golden Globes, Like that's such a
thankless job, but I feel like she won it back.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
She's an amazing woman. She she used to do. I
knew Nikki back in the day.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I still know her, but I haven't seen her recently
because I used to say her and I used to
do this radio show and she would be on it
a lot, and I used to say her, it's too much.
You're freaking me out. I'm scared for you. You're telling
me too much stuff. And she's like, don't worry about me.
I'm fine, and she would and her the bravery in
which she would just unload.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I'm like, I.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Don't have that. That's incredible. She's something, she's force in nature.
I'm I'm delighted for her me too, but I also
I still fear for her a little bit. I think
there is a type of and I think you know
this from from doing sketches. You get to build an
invisible kind of protection shield. If you have a character,
(39:50):
you got some protection. Even if that character is this
is who I am when I'm doing stand up, or
this is who I am when I'm doing a late
night show.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
But it's not really me. I don't really behave.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Like this, but I think some stand ups that's who
they are, you know. It's just they get up and
start talking on a machine that makes their mouth loader,
and that's it.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
I don't go searching for comments, but sometimes just someone
will actually tag your specific name and I hateful comment
about you, and so you can't kind of miss it.
And I've seen one come up a few times that's like,
oh at Heidi Gardner. I hate her voice. I hate
her voice. I hate her voice, and I think about
(40:35):
that as well. That is who I am. I genuinely
can't change that. And I do get to hide behind
that sometimes in a character, but you know, it still
comes out. And yeah, thinking about being if this, if
I was just doing this all the time, I would.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Get that a lot more. It's scary.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, I think though the thing really I'm really speaking
to myself.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
You can't look at the comments. You mustn't.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
You mustn't, mustn't, mustn't look at the comments because you
don't know where anybody's coming from. Some can have a something,
can have a horrible life and a horrible thing, and
they just want to get some hay out. And I
get that, I understand it, but I don't need to
let it take me down.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
No. So you know that the only time I've responded
to a couple where I'm specifically called out, they're sports related.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
And it's someone teaching me.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
If a man teaching me about sports are telling me like,
you know, it's football or something, and it's me like
just sarcastically being like, oh, thank you for teaching me
or something. That's like the most I'll do, but for
some reason I feel compelled to do it. But then
the person always writes me back and is like, oh,
I didn't realize you'd write back. I'm a huge fan,
(41:53):
and I'm like, I thought you were being so mean
to me. And then I start to see behind the
curtain and the and I'm.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Like I get it. I get what this all is.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
It's just about anonymity. But listen, it's been lovely to
talk to you. I'm so delighted to finally kind of
meet you in this odd digital post COVID way. But
I am a big fan of what you do, and
I wish you could tell you long. I had no
idea you were so such a talented hairdresser, and that
just adds to your mistaque as far as I'm concerned,
(42:25):
because I'm impressed with that artisanal skill.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Well, we can probably someday open a salon, even if
we were just open for a month.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Don't want to even say it as a joke. Don't
even say it as a joke. You're like, that's my dream.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Stars with shears or something. It's like our way, that
would be a come on in.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
We'll tell you about our show business lives and give
you a great dude. Yes, all right, it's been lovely
talking to you. Thank you so much for being here
and continued success on that TV show that you do.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Thank you all right, Thanks Aiding
The Craig Ferguson Pants on Fire Tour is on sale now.
It's a new show, it's new material, but I'm afraid
it's still only me, Craig Ferguson on my own, standing
on a stage telling comedy words. Come and see me,
buy tickets, bring your loved ones, or don't come and
see me. Don't buy tickets and don't bring your loved ones.
(00:21):
I'm not your dad. You come or don't come, but
you should at least know what's happening, and it is.
The tour kicks off late September and goes through the
end of the year and beyond. Tickets are available at
the Craig Ferguson Show dot com slash tour. They're available
at the Craig Ferguson show dot com slash tour or
at your local outlet in your region. My name is
(00:45):
Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I
talk to interest in people about what brings them happiness.
My favorite cast member on Saturday Night Live right now
is Heidi Gardner. She's professional, she's very very funny, and
(01:05):
she's very very good at what she does.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
And she's here. Let's meet her enjoy. Here's the thing, Heidi.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I want to tell you this right now. I think
Heidi is the nicest name for a girl. I've always
thought that, and if ever I had had a daughter,
I would have coder Heidi. And I wondered if you
were raised in the Alps looking after sheep.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I wasn't, but I did have a good relationship with
my grandpa, which I believe Heidi also had.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
So oh, that's right, I think. Did you did you
read the book Heidi when you were little?
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think I've read different iterations of Heidi, but it
always has to do with a grandpa, the Alps, some sheep.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Some sheep, and I think there's a vampire in one
of theisodes where Heidi meets Dracula.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yes, Heidi meets Dracula is my favorite version.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
You know.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I'm in London right now, and I just walked by
Bram Stoker's house where he wrote where he wrote Dracula.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And now I'm a bit scared. It's why it's on
my mind.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
I would be excited.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, I'm excited and scared. It's a mixture of both.
I'm excited. So let me are you in New York City?
Speaker 4 (02:25):
I am.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I think I can tell by your fashionable bag hanging
on the thing behind you.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
That might be the only thing I'll hear, the screaming
fashion are you?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Are you in production right now for SNL?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Yes, we have the fiftieth anniversary this weekend.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Oh congratulations, and may I say fifty years on television?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
You look great? Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Did you see the movie, the new movie about fifty
the Saturday Night Live movie?
Speaker 5 (02:57):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
OK, And it's only because I'm saving it till I
not currently taping SNL because it's just a little too close.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You know. It's funny.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
It seems like I've over the years, I've run into
a lot of people who have either you know, current
or past cast members of SNL. And there is a
kind of you get to be part of a sort
of elite. You're part of the elite. Now do you
get like, is there a special roped off area of
clubs of New York if you're in SNL.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know, if there is? I don't know about it.
And it's my own fault. I'm from the Midwest. Yes,
and I think we're humble to a fault. And I
have been told by other cast members and I believe
this like in their life, and even former cast members
(03:51):
that you that they can walk into any restaurant in
New York and get a table, And I just have
never banked on that for one second in my life,
or that there's a secret section. So I'm always making
a reservation. I'm never assuming I'm gonna go a special room.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think that's the correct way to go about it
because that shows the correct approach to show business, which
is you never know where your next shock of humility
is coming from. Yeah, but you're not even as old
as Saturday Night Live. Did you grow up watching it?
And who did you grow up watching and who were
the cast member? Because I assume you grew up watching it,
did you?
Speaker 4 (04:30):
Yes? For sure?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And I remember my parents and I'm not sure you know.
Obviously this is before YouTube and where you could rewatch
most things, but I think that my parents had some
of the early vhs because they showed me. They definitely
showed me Eddie Murphy as James Brown the Hot Tub
Time Machine, like that was the first sketch I ever saw.
(04:55):
And then I would start watching it on Saturdays with them,
and the first time I ever made my parents laugh
was doing or that I remember is doing an impression
of Dana Carvey doing an impression of Robin Leech and
so that.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Woah, that is
I God, I remember that. What's the So are you
from a show business family where you are your parents
involved and stuff like that?
Speaker 3 (05:25):
No, they're definitely characters for sure, and they're like my
greatest source of inspiration. But my dad, my dad actually
did do improv for comedy sports, and so when I
was really little, i'd go and watch him perform that.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I remember that comedy sports thing. Don Is that still
a thing to people still do that?
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I do think it is.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, Well it's kind of like competitive improv, Is that
what it is?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And like they would wear ref uniforms. That's what I
really remember from it.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, but you were you were a groundlings along now, right,
So how did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
How did you end up doing improv?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Because that's an LA based or alien New York based, right.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
So I moved to LA when I was twenty one,
and I moved out there to do hair and makeup.
I knew I wanted to like work in pop culture
in some way and I was good at doing hair,
so I moved out there and I was working at
a salon for about five years and made friends with
a woman named Rachel who was in the ground LANs
(06:32):
and she said, you know, you should come to my
improv show tonight. I'm performing. And I'd heard of the
Groundlings for sure. I mean, I was obsessed with SNL
and pop culture and everything. I went and saw the
show and I was like, that's the funniest thing I've
ever seen. I can't wait for my family to visit
so I can bring them to see it.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
And she was like.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Yes, But also I was hoping that maybe it would
inspire you to, you know, take a class here and
I was like what, and she was like, I think
you'd be really good at this. And I was like,
I'm not an actor and she was like yeah, but
you leave me like six minute voicemails in character and
they're funny.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, that was kind of how that started.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So you were because your hair is great. I didn't
want to bring it up right away, but your hair
is great. It looks like it's been done professionally.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
If you don't know it was done professionally, Yeah, yeah,
because I did a movie once where I played a hairdresser.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
In order to do it properly, I learned to cut
hair a little bit and I really liked it.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
That makes me so happy to hear that, because my
biggest grievance is a hairdresser is if you watch someone
playing a hairdresser, they don't hold the scissors correctly.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
And so I love your commitment to the craft.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, but you didn't see the movie, did you.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Now, you didn't see the movie, but.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
I'm going to if you told me you did that.
That is the best selling point.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It was a movie called The Big Teas.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Nobody saw this movie and it was about a Scottish
hairdresser that goes to Los Angeles to take part in
the World Hairdressing Competition.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Oh my god, the high jinks and sue.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
But I learned how to cut hair a little bit
and I really liked it, and I thought, I kind
of wish I'd done this instead of getting into show business,
but by then it was too late.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, I mean, I always think it's a good you know,
it's a good thing to go back to. I really
enjoyed it, and it was also a place where I
was meeting so many people every day, different types of people. Yeah,
but also was a good source of inspiration.
Speaker 1 (08:40):
And also and also gossip in Hollywood. I mean, it
is the absolute hive of all things. If you want
to know anything, you you would hear everything, and you
still went into show business.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
It's funny when I told my clients when I finally
quit the salon, I never told them I had this
like side, I don't even want to call it side hustle,
because it was I was doing everything for free, just
this side obsession with sketch and improv. And when I
told them, you know, I'm leaving the salon, and they're like, oh, well,
what salon are you going to? If it's close, I'll
(09:18):
follow you. And I was like, no, I'm I'm I'm
going to pursue comedy.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
And because I didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
Consider myself an actor either, and they were like, are
you funny, It's like I think I am. And they're like,
don't do this, Like you moved out here. You did
the reverse of what people typically do. You moved out
here like to be a hairdresser, and you made it
like don't now do the cliche thing like they very
much told me.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Not to do I think the good thing about show
business though, was as a kind of as a place
to work on. One of the good things about it
is the fact that there are no really set paths,
except except maybe something like Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
If you're if you lucky enough to.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Get into that, then that's kind of like you get
you get the rubber stamp. It's like the Ivy League
of Comedians. How long we have you been doing it?
Like six years or something?
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Eight years?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Eight years?
Speaker 4 (10:13):
Yeah, in my eighth season.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Do you still like enjoy it?
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah? I do.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
I love playing characters, so I can't really imagine a
world where I'm going to get.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
To do this to this degree again, right.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I will say the only thing that I've started to
feel a little bit is just sketch fatigue or idea fatigue,
in the way that at this point, after doing Groundlings
and SNL for so long, I'm like, I've written a
lot of sketches, and you know, you just get scared
and it does happen some weeks where I'm like, I
(10:49):
do not have an idea for a sketch, a game,
or a character, And then you know, luckily we have
amazing writers at the show that will be like, but
I have an idea for you.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
That's all. Only thing that starts has gotten a little tough.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How does the week get put together for Saturday Night Live?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Do you start? You start on a Tuesday or something?
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Or yeah, we do go in on Monday. It's just
for a couple hours. You meet the host, you pitch
them a joke, sketch. It's just kind of an icebreaker.
And then Tuesday is riding Night, Wednesday, table read Thursday,
Friday or the rehearsals and when we tape the pre
tape sketches, and then Saturday rehearsal day, dress, rehearsal, show,
(11:30):
after party.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
The after party is part of the day, is that
you have to go to the after party.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You know you don't have to, but I think, out
of respect for the show and the party and the
thing you just created that week, it's good to let
off some steam with everyone. Occasionally I've not gone, and
then I regret it because it's like you have so
much adrenaline pumping three that if you just go home
and try to go.
Speaker 4 (11:56):
To bed, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
That's funny.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I kind of I used to always party after a
shore or do something after a show. And now I'm like,
I can leave a theater. I'm out of the theater
before the audience. I'm in my bed in a hotel
half an hour later, lights out, socks on, pajamas and sleeping.
It's funny because adrenaline I always thought as a performer,
(12:21):
I thought you needed it, And now I think it's
the enemy. I hate adrenaline on stage. I like, I
don't like to feel kind of nervous. I like, do
you do You still get kind of charged before you
you work?
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I get charged, but you know, to tell you the truth,
the charge is all adrenaline and anxiety and untruths. You know.
It's just even when if I'm going to perform, you know,
I'll perform at like a local theater or do a
show at a college, and all suddenly before I go
(12:56):
out to this new crowd of people think that they're
going to hate me.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think that's normal.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Yeah, and it is.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's just adrenaline and anxiety and you know, And so
I'm used to just like having that thought saying this
is how you think, but it's probably not true. And
you're a people pleaser, so you're still going to go
do this thing?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
It's also it's funny. I remember working with an old comedian.
It's not that long ago, actually, and I was working
with an older comedian who you would know, and I
was like pacing up and down backstage and all that stuff,
and he was like sitting in a chair and he
was like, he said, well, what are you doing? I said,
you know, I'm just kind of getting myself ready for
what Who's this for? But so that all this posturing
(13:44):
backstage is just going to make you speak too fast?
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah, and it kind of does. It's true.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
I stopped doing it, and I feel like in the
past few years I've gotten much better the job because
I just like, I just go and if they hate me,
well that's fine. Be surprised though, because they know I'm
there so they could avoid me.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
Yes, they didn't have to buy the tic.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
They didn't have to buy the ticket. They actually they
know who you are. They've come to see you, and
they've come to see you probably because they like you.
You know, I'm not saying there might not be a
crazy loaner in there somewhere who hates you and that's
why they're there.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
But I don't think there's that many of them. Maybe
I'm wrong.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
The way that your generation is now with performance, though
there's much more connection I think with the audience in
digital form. Then I my people of my generation and
even you know, I kind of separate myself from that
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I mean, I have social media, but I don't do it.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Someone else does it, and I occasionally will go on
and look at it and.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Go ah and go away. Do you have all that?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
Do you have all the Instagram and the twigs and everything.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I have an Instagram, but you know, I run my
Instagram the same way.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
I even saying run my Instagram.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I just do my Instagram the same way I did
it before SNL, which was just like posting pictures and
stories for my friends for the most part, and I
think I did come around right before it was more
of like a necessary thing to post so much content.
(15:32):
I think if I hadn't gotten SNL, I would have
needed that release one hundred percent and would have done
that more. But I am able to get a lot
of stuff out on the show, and I just have
never found my gear on a social platform in a
way where I want to.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Be that vulnerable. You know.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
I think also What Happens SNL is famously produced, but
I don't know if it's still on a day to
day basis produced by Laurene Michaels, is it?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Yeah? All right?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Because Lauren is like one of the great comedy producers
of all time. And I think that the thing that
people suffer from on social media, on the phones and
stuff like that is that they don't have a producer.
They don't have someone saying, you know, what would be
better about this joke is if you didn't do this
joke and maybe did a different joke that wouldn't make
(16:26):
everybody mad or make you look like an asshole or
something like that, you know what I mean. It's like
I feel like the role of the producer is removed,
the creative producer is removed from a lot of people's
Instagram And I think the people who are successful in
social media are people who have a producer's instinct themselves.
(16:48):
They understand, you know, I'll do this, And like if
you look at influencers even like that, like the royal
family of the Kardashians, they're all produced, they all think
like producers. They all have a kind of do you
have that do you think, do you do you censor
yourself or think about it or do you let you know,
(17:12):
you let the show do it and relax.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
And that I mean you. I assume you trust Lauren
and give you the right advice.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, I do trust his advice.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And at this point, I feel like, yes, I know
how to self edit. I know typically what the show's
going to respond to or not respond to, even to
just get it onto the show, like table read. What
I do like is the freedom of once the new
part is the live audience. So once I'm performing it
(17:44):
live in front of the audience and on.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
TV, I do like that.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
That feels like, you know, I'm just like, belts are
off and I'm just going for it.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But because we've had rewrite tables and we've edited so
much of it to that point, I'm like, oh, I
have I have the time to be a little crazier,
you know, or to take my time because we've already
cut it down. The only thing I will say is
I totally agree with that point that you're making. But
I was at a concert recently where the performer brought
(18:16):
out another act and what I was watching was certainly
something that had not been rehearsed. You know. The woman
performing was just pretty loose in her dance and singing, like,
and even the other dancers were like they weren't sure
where to stand or catch her. And I thought, I
was like, oh my god, I would never be able
(18:38):
to go up there and do I can tell this,
Like someone went out and like marked this for maybe
two minutes. But they were fine and the audience was fine,
and they still had confidence. And I was like, that's
interesting because I don't trust that at all and I
could never do it, but it was nice to see
one someone just be experimental. It didn't really work for me,
(19:00):
but I was like that, that's cool to have that
confidence because now I'm so like, you know, produced.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Well, you make an interesting point, because I when I work,
I don't have a rehearsed show. Even when I was
doing Late Night, I didn't have a like I would
turn up. Honestly, in the last like four or five
years of it, I turn up like fifteen minutes before
and then we go and then that was it. And
you know, and I would look at some ideas, but
(19:30):
I think that's repetition of I know what I do.
Even so you experiment within the parameters of what you do. Like,
I know the robot is over there, the horses over there.
I know if I say fuck, they're going to get mad.
But if I say asshole, they won't get that mad.
And you know, it's like you build a kind of
a little box that you can experiment within. Yes, I
(19:52):
think what would be difficult now in that environment? And
I mean, Lauren clearly knows how Saturday Night Live works.
I think if I were doing a show now, I'd
be like, I don't know what the rules are now,
I don't know the joke that I said last week
might be annoying. Everything moves very quickly, and you can
(20:13):
step over lines that are still the paint is still fresh.
You know, they're like, I didn't know that was a problem.
Why is that a problem? And it has to be
explained to you? And I do you find that in
the time you've been on the show that you have
I mean, presumably you've learned to speak the language of
the show. You know how to get a sketch on
the show, you know how to make a sketch work
(20:35):
in the show. But do you think it's boxed you
in in any way? Creatively. Is it something that you'd
like to experiment away from the show.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, I mean I think it's it's definitely boxed. It's
weird to say this, and I'll probably have another point
to it, but it's boxed my confidence in a little
bit because I so want to be I so want
to get something on the show. I want to be
(21:04):
accepted by the show, and I want to thrive on
the show. And I'm so in this world and I'm there,
you know, six out of seven days out of the week,
and it's my singular focus when you know, we're filming,
and so I'm like, if I'm not getting stuff on,
then I'm like, I'm not funny, I'm not doing my job.
(21:26):
And that has been the thing that then is weird
when I go to another show and I'm so like,
oh my god, I'm nervous.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Did it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I haven't done like live shows like when I was
doing Groundlings a lot. But then you go when you
do a show or you just do an improv show
and You're like, oh my god, it's fine, and people
are not judging me as harshly as I'm judging me,
you know, and even the show isn't judging me as
harshly as I'm judging me. It's just suddenly I got
(21:55):
this like standard, you know. So there's that, and then
also I know whatever I do next, which you know,
I'd love to have a show that I, you know,
co star in and co write and it's a character
and it's a world, and it's a character I get
to live in.
Speaker 4 (22:14):
For a while and explore more.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Would be like, what would that? Would that character be
a a hairdresser?
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Maybe no, but I bet they'd have big hair.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I think, look, you already know how to hold the scissors.
You're halfway there.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I think that the idea of working because I used
to like avoid playing.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Scottish people all the time.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I was like, but I'm Scottish, you may as well
like over the part being Scottish.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Go all right.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
I presume that if you go over the part playing
someone from Kansas, that would be okay.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It would be totally okay. I mean, I love like Kansas,
Missouri where I was raised. I love the people, I
get the people. I love Midwestern all the different levels
of it. So like that world I'm in on that.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I was always surprised that when I went to the Midwest,
like because I got to know America from the coasts
in so I knew in New York and LA that
when I started going to America in the middle that,
you know, because I learned that you go, hey, how
you doing, and people go, hey, how you doing, and
that's it. But if you say hey, how you doing
in Kansas, people tell you how they're doing.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Really they will. I'm okay, but my sister.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Had to have an operation and Po're like, oh my god,
is she okay? Well she's doing okay now. But and
you find yourself in conversations. Yes, yes, I worked with
a great improviser from the Midwest who played the character
of Mimi on The Drew Carey Show, which is the
show I was on the nineties, Kathy Kenny, who's from
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, which is about as Midwest as I
(23:52):
can think of, is maybe nearly as much as Kansas. Yeah,
they're very funny people, but there's a real darkness. It's
there's a weird undercurrent to it that I love.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Yes, Oh, I totally feel that.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
I mean so much of my stuff at Groundlings and
even sometimes at SNL, like you know, a note I
get is like it's a little too dark or you know,
like play up the joy. You know you can play
you know at work, they've told me before, like you
can play a loser, like, but you have to be
loving your life as a loser. Like the audience at
(24:29):
least our audience here at C and L does not
want to worry about you. So like you are having
fun all of this information that's painting the specificity of
your weird, down and out life, Like you need to
be loving it.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
And I get that.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
For a while, I was like, but this was my life,
like you know, like even talking about like being in
debt or something like just things that happened throughout my childhood,
you know. Or I was like, well, this was funny
because this is how we dealt with it, or this
is what my parents did to you know, And they're
like yeah. But a lot of people think, like maybe
(25:05):
that's something you should talk about in therapy to just
be careful.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
What do you think that the sketch format doesn't low
It can't really if you're doing a sketch, you can't
go hugely complex with the character if you've only got
three or four minutes to do it right.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
And that's like the exact thing that producers tell hosts,
especially hosts that are like seasoned dramatic actors who want
to get into their character. And I get it because
I love characters and I like to go a little deep.
But you'll just get lost in it for three minutes.
(25:45):
And I've never seen it serve someone very well to
go too deep and take it too seriously. It's always
about just like, yes, the voice you're doing is great,
Like we don't need to think about what they had
for breakfast, Like you're good.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Do you have a favorite I want to ask you
names Ransom, but do you have a favorite type of host?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Is there?
Speaker 1 (26:06):
Is there a type of person that is more that
is easier to work with and you get more out
of it than another.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Yeah, so there's a couple one of those being really amazing.
I'll say I should just say actors, but I like
to say dramatic actors because it catches me off guard
because when someone I remember my first season, I think
it was my first season.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Sterling K.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Brown hosted and he did a sketch where basically he
was just at a dinner table just saying Shrek is
the best, like DreamWorks movie or something, and someone else
was like, no, I think it's how to Train Your Dragon.
And there were jokes in there, but he was never
going for the joke. He was just playing it as
a man who earnestly believed this and had his moment
(26:55):
to say it, and he never went for a joke
or a silly face like anyone in the cast would.
Speaker 4 (27:01):
Have been like, just going so goofy with it.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
And I was like, I left that table read being like,
is he funnier than me?
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Like?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Is he funnier than all of us? And I see that.
I see that a lot with really good actors. I'm like,
you're just a good actor and like you're doing i'm
sure what you learned in school, just playing the truth
of the character, and it's fully working and the writing's good.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
So I love that.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
And then you know, I'm a big sports fan, so
I love when athletes host because personally, I think the
expectation should be super low. They're a fish out of water.
This isn't what they do. So if they are just fine,
it's like, yeah, that's fine. Like he's a linebacker. It's
like we didn't expect him to be the best. But
(27:46):
when they kill it, it's like, oh my god, like
there's this hidden talent in there or something they always
had that they got to the floor.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So if you're a big sports fan and you're from Kansas,
oh yeah, you probably is not the greatest weekend you've
ever had, was it.
Speaker 3 (28:09):
It wasn't the greatest weekend it you know, I've had
like so many great Chiefs years recently, lifelong fan, so
I am like grateful to a fault, grateful too that
they went to the super Bowl. The only thing that's
hard as like what I consider to be like a
(28:30):
sweet fan who has been through wins and losses and
all sorts of different season and I know what it
feels like when like another team is raining.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
It doesn't feel great. The only thing I don't.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Like is just that there are some stories that are like, well,
the Chiefs didn't show up, they didn't try, they didn't
and I'm just like, no player out there who made
it to the Super Bowl didn't try, Eagles included. I mean,
Eagles tried so hard and they blew us out. Like
I just find some of these narratives so insulting. And
(29:05):
actually I was talking to someone recently, I was like,
I fail all the time at work, Like I write
sketches three sketches a week usually because I want to
have good numbers to maybe get one in, and usually
I get zero in.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Like I fail and I lose.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
It's just that, and I think that's a loss because
I didn't get it on. But I'm like, oh, I'm
kind of protected because no one saw my loss live
because it never even went. They didn't see me lose,
and so I'm just like, they have to go lose
in public, but they try, Like no one's not trying.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It's an odd thing.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
But I think around sports casting espasically, when you think
about it, it's not you can't rehearse it, you know,
so if you're I feel like the people who are
actually commenting and live on the game, I have great
deal of sympathy for that because you have to keep
talking and you're not going to I say a lot
of bullshit that people are going to get mad at.
But I think afterwards, the idea of yeah, they didn't try,
(30:06):
somebody analyzing the game saying they didn't try it is
a ludicrous idea that you would get up in the
morning of the Super bow Gol and go, eh, all right, Well,
I'll go, but really, I mean, I'm more looking forward
to going out later on in the day.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
I don't think anyone goes to it like that.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
No, No, So thank you for letting me get that
off my I think talk you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I'm glad you got it off your chest, and I'm glad.
It is an interesting thing though, But I think when
pop called very famously with the chiefs. Right now, pop
culture and sports culture are intersecting at you know, light speed,
and I think people that normally don't pay any attention
the super Bowl is always like this, when people that
(30:51):
normally pay no attention to sport suddenly it's it's the
day where they're going to sit down and watch sports
all day and have opinions about it. And I think
the thing about sports a little bit like performance, is
that everybody's kind of an expert. You know, you can
say things like, wow, he didn't do that because of this,
and no one can prove you one hundred percent wrong.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
No one.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
If you say, oh, Travis Kelsey, he didn't try, he
went well, he did, but no one can prove you
wrong and say he didn't but he did, he tried,
He just but it's the same thing when people say
that's not I mean, I'm interested. When we talked right
at the beginning, we talked about common improv sports, that
(31:32):
sports improv thing, and I was always fascinated by that
because the idea that somebody can be more funny than
somebody else seems an anathema to me. It doesn't it
doesn't seem possible to me that because it's so subjective.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
There are some things that people laugh at.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
I'm like, I just just don't get it, and I'm
not funny. I get fucking Emmys and peabodies and shit,
I know I'm funny.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
I've made money, so what why do I don't get that?
Speaker 1 (32:01):
And the reason I don't get it is because it's
like all are it's subjective and I I mean, but
sport you kind of have to win or yes, and
I think there's.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So much more vulnerable in my opinion, it's just like
there's just a winner and a loser, and you're putting
it all all out there, and like with what we're doing,
it's like you're funny and maybe some people think you're not.
A lot of people think you're winning. Like even the
most like subversive like left of center stuff, you know, like.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
But also the thing is as well that if you
don't make people laugh, they get angry at you, the
same as the same as if your team doesn't win,
they get angry.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
It's like, and that's an interesting I don't I've never
understood that, Like, that.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Guy doesn't make me funny. He's an asshole? Why is he?
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It just it just doesn't make you laugh. No, he's
an asshole. That asshole doesn't make me laugh. And I
think that there's a thing that somebody said to me
when I started Late Night I was always gonna haunted me,
which is you said, the first two weeks, maybe the
first couple of months are going to be rough because
they're going to have to forgive you for trying to
(33:13):
make them laugh. And I was like, oh my god,
that's a weird thing to hear.
Speaker 4 (33:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Do you go out on the stage now on a
Saturday night, like when you go out because presumably the
first time you perform the show, that's when we see it, right,
Do you go out there now thinking fuck it, I
know I'm funny or is there still doubt?
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I do think it's like, fuck it, I know I'm funny,
and I think I'm funnier when I'm confident and having fun. Definitely, Yes,
it's still hard to do if you are trying a
completely new character or idea, which we are for the
very first time. So to have all that freedom is
like and you have like it's your baby, and you
(33:58):
have hopes and you have expectation for it. But you know,
I am trying to lean a little bit more into
just the fact it's like the same way that you were, Like,
if people have bought a ticket to see you, like,
probably there's not going to be one in the audience
that hates you. Yeah, And I'm trying to believe that.
Like I've been at the show for a while now,
(34:19):
I still have the job the audience. I'm just trying.
It's even hard for me to say right now. I'm
trying to be like, the audience does love you, and
they might not love something you do a sketch one night.
They might not get this character, but it's not like
they're like, oh, I hate her now, you know. I'm
trying to just trust that the more I can be
(34:40):
myself and have fun, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
I think the proof is the like, if you've been
on Saturday Night Live for eight years, you're funny. It's
just you just wouldn't have been on for that amount
of time if you weren't enough. People love you and
think you're funny. But it's an interesting thing that I
wonder sometimes. I don't think you have to be the
(35:03):
funniest person to succeed in calmedy. I think you have
to be the person that people like. I think it's
more about like than funny. Yeah, you know, I think
it's about some weird empathy thing rather than just ha ha.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
It's a weird thing who makes you laugh.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I mean, as far as who I work with at
the table read, I sit next to mikey Day and
I've known him for a long time now, and because
we sit next to each other at the table read,
it has felt like I am just working with one
of my brothers.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
I have two brothers, and.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Just like the familial sense there, it really makes me laugh.
It's like at this point we can like mess around
about anything we have like a second hand our own
kind of languae, which that makes he makes me laugh
a lot ago at the show, like her characters and
her improv she's so quick and I've done some improv
(36:10):
shows with her recently where it's like when she gets
to be unscripted, it's amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
And then my all time favorite comedian is Jack Black.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
All right, yeah, now that's into because Jack's very anarchic
and wild and this is do.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
You know Jack?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
I haven't, well, I know him, I just haven't really
ever gotten to like meet him, but I've you know,
he's sent me incredibly kind messages about my work and like,
I mean, he's my dream post. I was a tenacious
d fan. And yeah, I love what you just said
about him. Like when I'm totally like when I feel myself,
(36:51):
like on a weekend update, just free, I feel like
I have a moment of like what Jack Black is
able to conjure all the time, and I think that
and the way he does it and it works is
so singular and like such a specific thing that and.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So it's who he is as well. I've known Jack
for fifteen years. He still thinks I'm Irish. I'm not Irish.
I'm not Irish. I've said to him Jack, I'm not Irish,
and every time he's like, oh I was the old
I'm like I thought he was fucking with me, but
he's not. He just he decided early on when we
(37:32):
first met, I was Irish and I've just stayed Irish.
I got annoyed about it for a while, and now
I really I would miss it if it wasn't there. Yeah,
what about stand ups? Is there any Is there any
stand up that you would see? Male or female? Who
who you think that's because that's slightly it's a.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Different kind of discipline to the character work.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I mean, lately, stand up's always been something that I
love but also intimidates me. It's like when I have
to do a live show. For the last few years,
I've been a little bit like, well, I do characters
and that doesn't feel as embraced in this arena. So
you know, I've started trying to dabble and stand up,
(38:18):
but still very scared of it. I mean, what's been
really cool is the last two seasons Nate Bergetzi has hosted,
and you know, he's I believe he's from Nashville or Tennessee,
but it's like just close enough to where I'm from
that like, his observational humor feels just very spot on
(38:38):
for the people and places that I grew up in,
and I just love this simplicity. It's so not simple,
but it's like there is a simplicity to just like
what he's saying that feels so relatable to me.
Speaker 4 (38:52):
I've been loving that.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
I loved I love Nicki Glazer, but I love what
she did at the Golden Globes, Like that's such a
thankless job, but I feel like she won it back.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
She's an amazing woman. She she used to do. I
knew Nikki back in the day.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
I still know her, but I haven't seen her recently
because I used to say her and I used to
do this radio show and she would be on it
a lot, and I used to say her, it's too much.
You're freaking me out. I'm scared for you. You're telling
me too much stuff. And she's like, don't worry about me.
I'm fine, and she would and her the bravery in
which she would just unload.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I'm like, I.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
Don't have that. That's incredible. She's something, she's force in nature.
I'm I'm delighted for her me too, but I also
I still fear for her a little bit. I think
there is a type of and I think you know
this from from doing sketches. You get to build an
invisible kind of protection shield. If you have a character,
(39:50):
you got some protection. Even if that character is this
is who I am when I'm doing stand up, or
this is who I am when I'm doing a late
night show.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
But it's not really me. I don't really behave.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Like this, but I think some stand ups that's who
they are, you know. It's just they get up and
start talking on a machine that makes their mouth loader,
and that's it.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
I don't go searching for comments, but sometimes just someone
will actually tag your specific name and I hateful comment
about you, and so you can't kind of miss it.
And I've seen one come up a few times that's like,
oh at Heidi Gardner. I hate her voice. I hate
her voice. I hate her voice, and I think about
(40:35):
that as well. That is who I am. I genuinely
can't change that. And I do get to hide behind
that sometimes in a character, but you know, it still
comes out. And yeah, thinking about being if this, if
I was just doing this all the time, I would.
Speaker 4 (40:51):
Get that a lot more. It's scary.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Yeah, I think though the thing really I'm really speaking
to myself.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
You can't look at the comments. You mustn't.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
You mustn't, mustn't, mustn't look at the comments because you
don't know where anybody's coming from. Some can have a something,
can have a horrible life and a horrible thing, and
they just want to get some hay out. And I
get that, I understand it, but I don't need to
let it take me down.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
No. So you know that the only time I've responded
to a couple where I'm specifically called out, they're sports related.
Speaker 4 (41:27):
And it's someone teaching me.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
If a man teaching me about sports are telling me like,
you know, it's football or something, and it's me like
just sarcastically being like, oh, thank you for teaching me
or something. That's like the most I'll do, but for
some reason I feel compelled to do it. But then
the person always writes me back and is like, oh,
I didn't realize you'd write back. I'm a huge fan,
(41:53):
and I'm like, I thought you were being so mean
to me. And then I start to see behind the
curtain and the and I'm.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Like I get it. I get what this all is.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
It's just about anonymity. But listen, it's been lovely to
talk to you. I'm so delighted to finally kind of
meet you in this odd digital post COVID way. But
I am a big fan of what you do, and
I wish you could tell you long. I had no
idea you were so such a talented hairdresser, and that
just adds to your mistaque as far as I'm concerned,
(42:25):
because I'm impressed with that artisanal skill.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Well, we can probably someday open a salon, even if
we were just open for a month.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Don't want to even say it as a joke. Don't
even say it as a joke. You're like, that's my dream.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
Stars with shears or something. It's like our way, that
would be a come on in.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
We'll tell you about our show business lives and give
you a great dude. Yes, all right, it's been lovely
talking to you. Thank you so much for being here
and continued success on that TV show that you do.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
Thank you all right, Thanks Aiding
Host
Craig Ferguson
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