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Yeah, this is like this is like a car crash. Oh, wow.
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Hey, what's going on everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans and you're watching Hot Ones.
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It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings.
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And today we're joined by Ed Helms.
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He's an actor and comedian whose credits include some of the all-time most successful comedy franchises, including The Office, Daily Show, and The Hangover trilogy.
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His latest project, though, is True Story with Ed and Randall, an original comedy series streaming exclusively on Peacock.
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Ed Helms, welcome to the show.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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Before we get started, how would you gauge your level of comfort around spicy food?
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Um in my teens and 20s, I I took pride in in really going for the hot stuff.
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My brother called me Asbestos Tongue. Wow.
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Because I could I would always order the hottest version of whatever we were eating.
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I haven't done that in a long time, and I'm I'm I'm nervous.
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Like I'm I'm really nervous. Good.
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I mean, it's the classic, right? Right. Piece of cake. I mean, quite yummy.
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So, your new show, True Story with Ed and Randall, is a hybrid scripted unscripted series where regular people tell you and Randall Park their craziest personal anecdotes, which are then brought to life through dramatic reenactments.
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How much of a good story would you say is in what actually happened and then how much of a good story is in how the story gets told?
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Well, that's a great question.
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It it it it's it's going to come down to the balance between the two because something incredibly mundane can be so funny if it's told really well.
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I remember Louis Black back when I was on The Daily Show.
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We would be meeting up at a taping somewhere like a remote somewhere and he would just start talking about his trip to the location and about his interaction with the the cab driver that was crazy and then someone spilled coffee on to the dumbest sort of story, but he was so funny.
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He could just kill us with these these simple stories.
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Then if you have a really like a story that's inherently crazy then it actually doesn't need a whole lot of top spin.
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Where we got really lucky on this show is that the stories themselves are absolutely insane and the people that we got on the show are amazing.
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They're just incredibly warm and hilarious and vulnerable people.
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Like they really open up to tell us these stories. It's it's really cool. Mhm.
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Yeah, I'm getting that garlic. Um that's number two. Right. Holy [ __ ] All right. I mean, I like it. I'm still happy. I'm not angry yet.
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I'm going to take another bite. There you go. Because it is yummy.
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So, one of my favorite parts about your conversation on Pete Holmes's podcast is when that you recognized that the comedy club in Crashing is actually a replica of the Boston since shuttered comedy institution where you began your career.
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Thinking back on those days when you were hosting the Monday night new talent showcase, what about that time in your career do you miss the most and then what's a harsh reality about making a career in comedy that you had to learn the hard way? Great questions.
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Um I think what I miss most about that time was it's sort of hard to articulate, but there's this feeling when you're in the comedy clubs as a as when you're really starting out and you're young and there's nowhere to go but up.
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You know, you're at the bottom rung and it just feels like anything's possible.
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Your dreams are still like tangible and after you're in it for about a year or so and it's down to like a pretty core crew of really committed comedians, you really feel a part of something, like a part of a a comedy freshman class, if you will.
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And then you had upperclassmen that that were like slightly more established and then you had like, you know, the seniors that were out there tour like doing big tours and stuff.
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Um I don't know, I felt part of something.
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It was a special special time.
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Calabria, very sophisticated sauce. Yeah, I like it.
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Is it true that the bathtub scene in Jeff, Who Lives at Home Came About with the Duplass brothers basically just pointing cameras at you and Jason Segel and then just letting you riff in a 40-minute long uninterrupted improv session? Y- yes.
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Um but actually uh that was the whole movie.
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The entire movie was improvised.
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So I remember getting the script and being like, "Oh, this script is so great. I can't wait to do this. This will be so fun."
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And then Mark and Jay were like, "Yeah, but we're not doing any of those lines.
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You're not going to say any of it." What?
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"Yeah, we're going to improvise the whole thing.
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You and Jason are just going to like" This was improvisation in the service of like making the dialogue sound as real and visceral as possible.
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And that was really a fun challenge.
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I'm so I'm super proud of that movie.
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I'm glad you brought it up cuz it doesn't come up very often.
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And uh and it was a great great project.
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Is it true that there were no special effects involved in The just never had an adult incisor growing? Yes, that is true.
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Uh some of these sauces are talking back.
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But um it was it was in the script and so right away once we got into pre-production, Todd the director was like, "How are we going to do this?
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What are you comfortable with?"
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And I said, uh "Well, let's I don't know.
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We'll talk to the visual effects guys."
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And they said, "Okay, we'll we'll try blacking it out."
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So we did a little screen test with just like, you know, like Halloween pirate costume style, like just some black on the tooth.
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Which actually looks good in person, but on camera it looked terrible.
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But I was like, "I I wasn't going to say anything, but this tooth is actually fake in my mouth and uh and I I can ask my dentist if we could take it out.
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I mean, it's been a permanent implant since I was a teenager."
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I went to my dentist and he said, "Oh, yeah, no problem.
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We can just take the crown off and like put a little little thing in there to keep your gum healthy."
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And I had to go back and shoot The Office at the same time.
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And he So he made me a retainer with a fake tooth on it, which made me sound drunk cuz I was like my tongue couldn't form words. But we got through it.
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Angry Goat Pepper Company. Let's do it.
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I thought like maybe I got a very light coating on my wing.
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But upon further investigation But yeah, then it it it it it sort of has a afterburner. Right? Ooh, yeah. Still delicious though.
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So, some people watching this may be surprised to learn that in addition to being a prolific actor, you're also an experienced banjo player and still perform alongside your band Lonesome Trio, which you created in college.
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What's your defense of the banjo to people who lump it in with the accordion or the ukulele or other instruments that don't get the respect they deserve? There's no defense.
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They're they're exactly right.
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It it There's There's very little redeeming about a banjo.
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Um I love the banjo and I love to play it. I consider that a curse. It's obnoxious. It's It dominates.
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It's very hard to play well, so most of us play it kind of badly.
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I have some little gene or um clump of brain cells that is drawn to it and I can't explain it, but uh I would never try to defend a banjo.
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I'd never try to convince someone that banjos are great.
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You either like it or you don't.
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Well, I appreciate the education, Adder.
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You ready to move on here to the midway point, Los Calientes Rojo?
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And your That's about bluegrass, Helms.
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Shut up about the goddamn banjos. Let's eat some wings. All right. Uh where are we? Los Calientes Rojo. Okay.
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Somebody Somebody in the crew just moaned because they're scared for me right now.
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I feel like when you take that first Whoa.
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When you take that bite and you're like Okay. All right.
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It's kind of like when you sit on a roller coaster and the lap bar comes down and you're like, "Okay. All right, no big deal."
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You You're going up the hill.
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And then once the sauce kind of like hits your hits the whole your whole mouth, that's when the It expresses itself. Right. All right. All right.
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We have a crane segment on our show called Explain That Gram where we do a deep dive on our guest's Instagram, pull interesting pictures that need more context.
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So, we'll pull a picture over here on the monitor and then you just tell us the bigger story. Great.
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Can you give us one highlight and one lowlight from competing in the Malibu Triathlon? That's hilarious.
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The lowlight uh of the Malibu Triathlon for me was that I was entered in the celebrity heat.
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And what that means is that you know, that the heats of the triathlon are go from fastest to slowest.
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So, the first heat is the actually the professional triathletes and then they get slower from then out.
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But they stick the celebrity heat second, okay?
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So, the celebrities, no matter how fast or slow you are as a celebrity, you're in the second heat.
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And I'm a really good swimmer.
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So, I actually did pretty well in the swim.
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But then for the bike and the run portions, the entire rest of the time I was just getting passed the whole time and really humiliated.
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Everyone's like, "Seriously, Helms, you can't even keep up at this point?"
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Like But I just was uh I was doing my own thing, moving at my own pace.
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This next one is the Queen Majesty, Cocoa Ghost. Okay. Oh, chocolate. I like right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Not what you're Not the kind of chocolate you're thinking.
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Cocoa Ghost is like a Coke chocolate. yeah.
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It's like a like a cereal or something. Cocoa Ghost. But then ghost is scary. I don't know. It's yummy.
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It's It's yummy and it's hot. Mhm.
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But it's not kicking my ass yet. This one isn't.
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Oh, it's a It's such a That's a rather poetic segue into this question.
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You know, sometimes when guests come onto the Hot Ones set and they're and they're really confident or think that it won't be a big deal, there's a degree to which I sit here knowing that they don't realize that the game is more or less been rigged to ensure that they fall into a trap at some point.
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And I'm wondering if you think there's a connection that could be made between that and doing Daily Show field pieces.
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Like, to what degree are you guys playing 3D chess where even if you go in there and who you're talking to knows what you're there to do, maybe it's just still impossible to stop. Mhm.
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So, you're telling me that I'm going to die.
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That's what you're saying.
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You're telling me that I'm I have a I now have a false sense of security.
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The last chapter has not been written yet.
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Um no, actually um it really felt like you were you were turning a lot of gears to draw that metaphor, but it's good.
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It's a good one because shooting a Daily Show field piece, it was always surprising to me, first of all, that certain people were just willing to talk to us.
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The other thing that surprised me was that every time someone thought that they knew the show really well and that they could sort of like outsmart us in the interviews, kind of like me, like I'm like, "Yeah, I can handle some hot sauce."
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That's they would fall the hardest because they just they really don't have any idea like how we do it, like what our techniques are in the interview, and especially in in the edit, like what we're able to do in that.
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And it's like the more hubris, the harder they fall.
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That's what I've found, too.
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I Sometimes I make the analogy it's like a professional wrestler.
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You know, when you start showboating, that's when somebody smashes a chair over the back of your head, you know? Yeah. Ooh.
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Well, speaking of, are you ready to move on to the next wing?
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This is 13 Angry Scorpion's Jekyll and Hyde. Oh, wow.
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I mean, couldn't it be either or?
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Like, 13 Angry Scorpions feels like enough of a name.
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But you have to also be Jekyll and Hyde. All right.
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I mean if it's If it's Dr. Jekyll, we're fine. This one's Hyde. This This one's Hyde. This one's Hyde. Mr. Hyde. All right. Here we go.
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Oh, and this has got a lot on it. It's shiny. This one's shiny.
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I feel like this is like 20 or 30 scorpions.
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I don't know if they told you, but I have to go do another interview after this.
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I can tell because of like where the time slots are. You know what I mean? Like the 1:00 start.
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I'm like, "Oh, well, they probably have more to go after this."
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I'm going to be a disaster.
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Or No, I think it'll be better.
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It'll be better as a result. You're right. You're right.
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We're going to provide the rocket fuel for the rest of your press day.
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Yeah, that's That's got a lot of That's got a lot of kick.
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So, I've heard you describe the process of creating the Andy Bernard character as one of the most thrilling creative endeavors of your life.
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Was there a particular Andy Bernardism or piece of backstory that helped you crack the code on that character early on?
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I'm I love that character so much and I'm so proud of that the work on that show.
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Um But uh We might need to call a medic.
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Just saying, if there's like a mouth medic, like somebody who's Specific. No.
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Dom, just hover over the button.
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Like I feel like maybe a Like I could sit in front of a fire hose and just that that would feel good right now.
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Um The most exciting part about the creation of that character was the tit for tat between performing and the writers writing.
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So, they would endow Andy with something really funny and then I would put some top spin on it when I was improvising during a a take or something, they would see that, like that, and add more to that.
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And so, it really was this feedback loop.
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And uh in that first season, we just he became a very rich and complex, nuanced character very quickly because we were just having so much fun kind of psychoanalyzing this guy.
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So, that's how the eight-episode deal turns into a six-season That's right. Yeah. All right. Ed, how we doing? How we doing? We're good.
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I mean, my nose is sprinting, but let's do this. Beyond Insanity.
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And it actually has a biohazard symbol on the label. Here we go. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. That's different.
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That's There's nothing redeeming about that. Mhm.
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It's not It doesn't taste Ow. Ow. Ow.
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So, I always think it's funny when things like boiled peanuts from the Methodist Men of Inglewood Church in North Carolina become coveted items in the gift guides of fancy food magazines. Oh my god.
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As an Atlanta-raised polite Southern boy yourself, what role did roadside boiled peanut stands play in your life?
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Are you seriously trying to do this interview still?
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Like This has turned into like a uh Yeah, this is like this is like a car crash. Oh, wow. That so brutal. Wow.
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Roadside boiled peanut stands was very much a part of like southern backroad or highway culture.
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And uh my dad loved boiled peanuts.
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He was from Alabama and I just grew up eating boiled peanuts out of paper bags a lot on road trips and I loved it and I missed it and there's not much more to that story. Are you happy now? Uh Oh.
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For the uninitiated, what is a pimento cheese sandwich and then what distinguishes a good one? Um Okay.
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A pimento cheese sandwich.
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I mean, it's amazing how good you are at just staying on track.
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So, I'm just going to try I'm going to rise to your level.
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I'm going to try to answer these questions. Connect wavelengths.
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Even though I'm going to need a defibrillator very soon. Dom, get that medic.
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There is no bad pimento cheese.
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I've had the gamut like my elementary school would give pimento cheese sandwiches on field trips and it was like Wonder Bread with like the crappiest ingredients. Delicious. I loved it.
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And then my mom would make like this exquisite recipe with like all kinds of spices and stuff. Also amazing. Um I'm throbbing.
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My face is the front of my face is throbbing.
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This is doing permanent damage.
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Like this is doing damage to my mouth and it's doing neurologic damage.
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Like I can't think straight.
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I'm unable to like carry on a clear conversation with you.
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Equilibrium Think things are coming out of my mouth. I can barely feel it. Oh, man.
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This is also bringing out like the inner masochist in me. Like I'm having fun.
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Like I do want to keep going.
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Oh, I should have taken a Pepcid before this. Yeah.
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Um Okay, extra mean green, pucker butt, great name.
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Well, I couldn't tell you what it tastes like or what it feels like cuz My mouth is totally numb.
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That's the blessing that's the blessing of the bomb.
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That's the blessing of the bomb.
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But but just having something in my mouth is a little bit soothing.
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So I'm going to take another bite. Wow.
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You're putting on a show. Mhm.
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How would you describe your complicated relationship with a cappella music?
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You once told New York magazine that it's the most paradoxical art form there is. It is, right?
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When people are performing a cappella music, there's there's like even even if they're the most benevolent, wonderful, kind human beings, it just comes across as kind of like smug and self-indulgent.
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I don't know why that is. It's a weird thing.
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That said, it is the most fun thing to do.
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Like if you're in a good a cappella group, which I was in college, Shout out Oberlin. Oberlin Obertones. We were so tight. It was so fun.
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Like it just is really fun to do.
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Um so yeah, it's a weird I think anyone who's into a cappella music kind of understands that that uh paradox. All right, Ed. Yeah? Are we shaking it up?
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You don't have to if you don't want to. Of course.
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I'm I'm not going to buck a tradition. Are you kidding me?
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That that that Seriously?
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Like two drops That was like four drops.
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And you and and you were like Just looking out for the rest of your day. Thank you. I'm going to trust you. Cheers, Ed. What a ride.
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Hey, that Yeah, this is super fun and cool and harmful. Here we go. Okay.
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The lap belt's coming down.
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I don't know what ride I'm in for yet.
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This one it billows a little bit. It grows a little bit.
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But don't worry because while you enjoy that wing, I have a nice long a nice long windup for you because at long last, we can call for the check here on our bizarre dinner date with the wings of death.
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And if we've learned anything along the way, Ed, you're a man of many talents from stand-up comedy to acting to playing the banjo.
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But I know that it all began, the roots of it all were in commercial narration.
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People might be surprised to know how prolific you were as a voiceover actor, but have you ever done an ad read with a billion Scovilles coursing through your body?
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Today, just maybe, if you'll humor me.
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I have some ad copy for you and I'm hoping that we can close out the show today with some throwback Ed Helms commercial narration. Yeah.
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You did your research, by the way.
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You asked some very like some sort of deep cut questions here. I'm very impressed.
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And yeah, not a lot of people know I used to do voiceover for for commercial, but but I did and I will do it for this.
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If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you you may be entitled to financial compensation.
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Mesothelioma is a rare cancer linked to asbestos exposure.
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Exposure to asbestos in shipyards, mills, heating, construction, or the automotive industries may put you at risk.
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Call that 800 number right now and look at you, Ed Helms.
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Did I just endorse something?
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Is some like ambulance chaser law firm or something? What just happened?
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Taking on the wings of death and living to tell the tale and now there's nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you.
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This camera, this camera, this camera.
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Let the people know what you have going on in your life.
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Well, thank you very very much.
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This was super fun and yeah, I have a new show coming out on Peacock.
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It's called True Story with Ed and Randall.
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Randall Park and I sit down with real people and we hear real true stories from their lives.
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It is incredibly funny, it is incredibly warm-hearted and poignant.
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It's just a fabulous show and I'm incredibly proud of it and so proud that I would even drink all this hot sauce just so that I get 10 seconds to talk about it. Well, LUCKY FOR US. CHEERS.
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ALL RIGHT, THANKS so much. Yeah, cheers. Thank you. Super fun. And you did it. You did it.
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Thanks for doing so much research.
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You guys really like you got into some like obscure stuff. I appreciate it.
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Well, you know, if we're going to have you eat these wings then we got to meet you halfway. Make it worthwhile. Absolutely.
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And we're going to package up the sauces for you to take home. Don't bother.
24:28
Hey, what's going on Hot Ones fans?
24:28
Sean Evans, just want to say thank you so much for watching today's episode and if while you were watching you thought to yourself, you know what?
24:36
I would love to try that at home. Well, guess what?
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Now you can because the season 17 Hot Ones Hot Sauce box is now available. Heatnoss. com, Heatnoss. com, Heatnoss.
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com to get your hands on the sauces.
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Look at how it looks on the inside. So pretty.
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Whoa, whoa, we got boom mic problems. The box is so big. And you know what?
24:59
Always with the cautionary tale, be careful around the eyes.
25:01
Hot Ones season 17, the full sauce lineup now available at heatonist. com.