Tears for Fears was like the headliner for that and they were singing a cover of creep of radio head at the time and I remember him saying I don't belong here and he was like and neither do you don't say that the Brits man you got to love him we've been joined by my Rudolph and she's very high right now quite high and quite High yeah I've never I'm not that tall so this feels this is extraordinary you're Larger than Life I feel Larger than Life
in a lot of ways I'm in the presence of one of Time Magazine's most influential people in the world okay congratulations hey thanks that's a nice thing isn't it it is you always think about that like Time Magazine cover that kind of thing it going to happen like oh me no it's lovely and then you and then you read the list and it's staggering all those special people being um celebrated so and it's so lovely to be celebrated I think so I
think it's nice to do work that you love um being celebrated is a whole other side of it that doesn't necessarily come with it so it's quite pleasant we also um tend to be a little embarrassed when we get celebrated I think sometimes it's like it's in it's in the hum um condition for a lot of people at least to shrug it off and be like a shs it's cool humility but now and then it's it's nice to reflect on your own Journey even just
for a split and say cool I've landed somewhere kind of impactful and it means something to me and I respect that and I like myself and that I'll take I'll take that into the future it's very nice especially at this time in my life I feel like I've lived a long life so far and um it's nice to appreciate and be appreciated it's not um especially in comedy you're not always people don't always like what you do you know yeah
you set yourself up for a fall I think that's what most people forget they think that comedians walk on stage and and the laughter is automatic it's the opposite you have to ear it yeah and I you know I come from a lot of live performance um in comedy which things tank sometimes things tank um I don't know if I can curse you okay I guess that's I guess that's a yes but we used to have this thing on Saturday Night Live that we we just for fun we'd
call it Can Alley where if something like if something was in a really bad place where the the audience couldn't really see you and the laughs tanked it was usually a canaly P what's worse being on stage when things tank but knowing you have the tools to move on or being on set when a scene's not working and you feel that the everyone around you knows it oh it's horrifying but uh when it's not working but um it makes you laugh really hard
and I think it I think sometimes it makes it a little bit funnier I mean it's brutal yeah it's absolutely brutal what was the transition like into um into you know working on camera and doing I know satday ala is a nice transition between the two because it feels like standup but it also feels like it lives forever I've never done standup and it's weird I I didn't realize that there was a a difference in comedy I was in college and um I
remember thinking I know I'm going to be a comedian and I really always was u i gravitated towards Saturday Night Live I gra gravitated towards sketch comedy and improv I used to see shows at the Groundlings when I was in my teens and um I really thought oh I'm going to be there with all those people cuz I liked seeing everyone together The Ensemble of it and then I thought okay I'm going to be a comedian I'd better start writing
material and it was terrible and I quickly realized being a comedian is not just one flavor there are several flavors and it's also really interesting later on especially when you get into an environment like Saturday Night Live some people are standups and some people are sketch performers and um the voices are very different and the pieces end up becoming very different I feel like if you're doing standup there is an element
of um how do I put this in nud very much so no but actually like there's an emotional nudity to it requir why I don't do it yeah there is no part of me that is interested in revealing every single layer of my soul to those that do not know me I like to keep some of those clothed yeah but then I go the extreme opposite I wear um armor so all of my characters are huge you know and I always say it it is a form of drag yeah for me I really I
I I think that my goal is is somewhat the art of drag is to be Larger than Life the most female female and um it's just wonderful to wear armor because you your little your sweet little sensitive Soul gets protected gets preserved yeah yeah but there's also this moment in in in in your life when you you're wearing the armor successfully people appreciate the identity you've developed and who you are to us that we start to confuse
the issue I see it all the time in the Arts with songwriters I see people write songs and then everyone starts to dissect the lyrics and try to figure out who it's about and then I'll talk to them off the Record and they're like they're just could be more wrong and you have to let that go a little bit was it a bit challenging to realize that some people don't real don't understand that this that they're different things it's
true I mean listen I do the same thing and I grew up in a time where you know listening to a record was listening to a vinyl record and um I would you know lay on the floor listening to it staring at the cover art and trying to dissect every single word and figure out and read between the lines and so I do like that game and I think I naturally do it still I mean I was just doing it on the on the car ride here listening to Cowboy
Carter like I was going to ask you what you were listening on the ride here oh Cowboy Carter good so good it's it's exceptional you know it's so funny to me everyone thinks it's a country record it's not it's like a rebel record to me it's like it's it's literally like an outlaw record she's an outlaw on that album to me well also she doesn't have to say a word about how wrong things are and she's using her Artistry to do that
that's that's that's huge and also really commendable for such a big artist it's very um difficult to put yourself out there and say I know I'm great and it's still never going to be good enough in certain situations and it takes a lot especially today I feel that creating art today is the most scrutiny I've ever witnessed it's the biggest risk I think you can almost it's one of the biggest risks I don't create a hierarchy of
challenge but it is backing yourself in a world this unknown with this many distracting factors and how hard is no Define channels to be able to carve out your place in the world is such a risk on you have to just back yourself so
hard now and like who doesn't who doesn't care what people think and sometimes even though you don't want to see what people say or don't want to read reviews you see them by accident it never feels good it never feels good because you're
not most people are not creating art to polarize and make people dislike them that's not what they're doing but if something is coming from you and people are blatantly saying in your face you don't belong here or you can't do that I think what for me back to the Cowboy Carter album which I could spend this entire uh time talking about I think what I really um uh what hit home for me was this idea of not belonging of being somewhere and
people saying you don't belong here that for me was the largest element that I when I listen to the album I feel it somewhere in my body it it's cracking open a little bit of a shell that probably will always be a shell and will never go away cuz when is this world going to be fair never I don't think it is no it won't and so I just think using her voice and her power to talk about it is huge and it's really making space for
other people and I find that to be so incredibly beautiful on top of the fact that I think some of the songs are some of the most beautiful vocal work I've I've heard in years yeah there's a few songs on there that's that co-writes with a guy called Ryan batty have you heard his keep looking him up because of this record I just got the chills that song projector there's an album that came out last year by Ryan that um has been the
just the word of mouth album of my of my recent times like incredible how many people are just talking about this record and Ryan is such a sensitive Soul safe to say he's very dedicated to the to the the concept that the album will
do what the album's going to do and he really doesn't do much of anything but somehow it finds its way in in Beyonce's hands and she's like this guy's really special what's greater you know when even you know in the work that
I do sometimes someone will compliment something that I've done and I'll say like I got that from them from this person this is my idol this is my inspiration and whether it's somebody brand new that's exciting me or somebody
that I grew up watching that's what it that's what it's about I was just you know this a great this is a great drop but it's it's such a good one I'm going to drop it anyway I literally was waiting to speak to you and I get these
phone calls every now and then from Alton John it's just brilliant just life is just brilliant he just calls me out of the blue like oh darling how you doing what do you think of Chapel rone I'm like Chapel R's brilliant he's like I played her first it's like he's just weirdly competitive with me about music it's just amazing because he obviously looks looks to you as someone who he can bully friend in a friendly and wonderful
way well that's very English but but somebody that he respects and that's the best way to have those conversations it's exciting to him I bet it is very exciting to him and and he lives and Bre by um yes of course he's written some of the he's written one of life's great song books but he also gets the biggest thrill out of doing what you just said which is telling people what inspires him what influences him what they should
listen to I think that's a big part of it I think I know for myself I I was saying all last year Ryan Gosling's performances in Barbie is is the most exciting thing I've seen in years it inspires me and I know a great performance when I want to do that when I see something and I say like I want to do that I want to be that I want to be Ryan Gosling that's when I know that's an incredible performance and if I'm not
inspired I'm not making something that's interesting to other people because I'm not inspired by it so I have to be I have to have a little bit of a boner in order to create and if you don't have that inspiration it's really
hard to inspire others it's hard though cuz sometimes you have to wait for that if if you're going to trust the process and let the universe and let the spiritual guide come come to you and tell you hey this is something you need
to do you have to have patience and Trust the process and that takes that that takes it that's a discipline is it not it is and I think most people that create know that it's it doesn't come all the time you you either tap into it or you don't and there's some there's some clunky ass mistakes along the way I think you get more comfortable with them the more you're used to being on that road well without them you don't get you
don't learn how to say no no no no you need to say a few bad yeses to figure out what no really means I've said I think I I'm well versed in saying so many bad yeses and you realize I'm not comfortable I'm not happy therefore I'm not performing well I'm not myself this isn't an environment that's that this is an environment that's stifling you know you learn from all those mistakes absolutely and it's so hard especially
as a parent you want to set your kids up to learn those things for themselves but it's so hard to allow them to make those mistakes is the hottest thing pain as a as a parent I think that is probably the great learning is how to guide and take your hands off the wheel as well it hurts more to watch them hurt that hurts way more I don't I don't remember a I've got an 18 14 12 and 10 oh wow you're in it okay this is brilliant I'm full on
you've got the whole spectrum of age in terms of identity development you've got the 10-year-old just watching his SI his or her sibling hers figure it out and they seem to be they seem to be able move in their owns so maybe I can do this ahead of and you got and you got the 18-year-old probably about to start coming home again probably figuring out life's actually pretty good and I gave you a pretty hard time and actually my
parents kind of rad and things but but give give me two more years and I'll be yours all over again on my terms which I mean what the human brain it's quite fascinating you know the frontal lobe development which is happening in my
house right now yeah it requires a lot of patience do you know what I learn how to me and my wife cuz we have a 17 and 15y old and they know everything obviously and uh and and yeah when did I when when did I wake up just
wrong most of the time it's based in absolute nothing they're like no it's not how it is and if you actually stop to listen and let your ego just subside for a second it's utter what they saying most but it's it's so healthy they need to do it yes otherwise they don't turn out the way they're supposed to and that first phase of identity formation is brutal on them so you got to laugh really I mean that's the thing that drives them really crazy
is when you have a little laugh behind their back that oh yeah no no I can't I can't do that well you can just they can't see I just do it yeah they can't see it they can't see that um I'm having so much fun already I knew I would I was so grateful um that this opportunity even came our way for me too you know I really I really love the opportunity to talk to people in the Arts on a broader scale and I love that
I found myself in this music room it's my passion and it's what I love to do but I know that music is a magic that informs everything and I Know It informs you yeah and it always has um both in in your upbringing and the way that you've adapted it to yourself through your own identity formation so what in the most simplest terms before we sort of get into into how it's worked through your your work and talk about Loot and all
the things that are exciting in your life right now what is the fundamental principle that you drive that you draw from music the fundamental magic how does it affect your life I was raised by musician and music was normal in my house you know and and that's a funny thing to be normal because it is Magic and it's not that we took it for granted my brother and I it's just that it was what is it it was life so you know having musicians
come over and play music or talk about music or put on cool records and I I just thought that's what life was and can I just say one thing and I say it with the greatest of respect because I understand the you know the the guidelines of this conversation but it would be cherish of me not to find a way to thoughtfully and with heart express my gratitude in particular to your mother and the records that she made thank you I can't I can't tell you
enough how how they changed me and my friends lives and how I still I went into a record store and see and I'll leave it here I went to a record store and see I went to Seattle on Monday just spend the day with pill J I had half an hour to spare and I went into a random record store I don't even know what it's called and and I asked the same question I asked every and I'm like do you have any mini rettin any rotary Rec
connection at all on vinyl because I'm obsessed with getting it so it's like oh I can get get you all of it but I but I and listen I do it too family discount rate and I appreciate that this is like a 15% but I understand it comes up a lot but I just wanted you to know that you're in a house of music and it would be weird for me to avoid it even just briefly no I and and and it's where it's where it belongs it's so nice to talk
about who I someone who I think is um from a a generation of real musicians yeah um I was I was raised to believe that real music is music and you know my mom had this almost Supernatural gift her voice was otherworldly it floats
like no other voice I've ever heard in my life and it's just there's it's it's incomparable to this day even even her vocal range which some people have it's the way that she's saying that just is different it's actually the restraint
it's actually the respect that she had for the note and not the desire as a fan just as a listener to present her voice above the above what the song was required I agree she would let the song breathe and find a way to guide it and nurture that experience as a whole and you know she also was this was not my goal to talk about Cowboy Carter all day but no no please I was also in awe as an adult looking back on her career how different she was for
what was considered an R be artist she just did her own thing she did her own thing there wasn't anyone else like her there's never really ever been anyone else like her and that's completely ingrained in me and I never questioned it I never questioned that she wasn't like the other R&B moms you know she was just different in her own thing and everybody knew it I mean everybody then and subsequently still today knows it
and I and I really such a gift that she gave the world and the music that lives on so incredible and it's incredible now as an adult looking back I mean she was 31 when she died and the amount of music that she put into the world and the ability that came with her voice it's it's it's staggering she was you know she grew up in Chicago and she was singing um at chess records I think before she was actually signed there she
was a receptionist and so she would run upstairs and sing back up on stuff that's how I learned my dad told me later she's singing on rescue me the font tell Bass song Because know that yeah he was just like oh we got this
money out of the blue for this song I didn't realiz your mom saying on it she's saying on all kinds of stuff and that was just the nature of it and it was an outlet for her because she was wanting to do her own stuff it what do I
do with this I have this I know it's in there I know I've got it what do I do with it I don't have a a no one's charted a path for me here so let me just run upstairs and out charted her own yeah and she and my dad were just such a team like a songwriting team and you know such an unconventionally beautiful pairing and they made this thing they just created it and it I don't know I just never I never questioned how singular it was um when
you're a kid of course it's embarrassing mom and dad yeah oh oh yeah especially that one song when she's like talking about it like don't talk about I know the song I know the song I know the song I know the song it's like we okay you could put the meaning about five different meanings on that but we know what that word means yeah so embarrassing I never thought about what it must have be like to be a kid when
that song comes on cuz I must have been a little bit older than you the first time I heard it and I was like oh my God yeah I think I'm still oh my goding it's Mom and Dad yeah but it's good it's you know but yeah I you know and then and then you get like one tequila in me and I'm like my family's like oh my God but like I get on my high horse I'm like musicians used to be musicians you're not wrong though you're not wrong it's a
different level it's a different level and I grew I'm an MTV baby so I loved the visual expression of music that came into our lives and completely transforming I was talking about Madonna earlier I'm such a Madonna head from the
80s that those videos changed my life the the the and the way that she transformed herself every single time visually just rewired my brain she was so authentic and may I just say thank you so much for being so generous then in
that conversation it was really cool to have that conversation it's my pleasure because I I think it's exactly what I was saying about Elton John he knows you know so it's my pleasure Madonna just unbelievable the authenticity that she had at every stage of her career like okay you're literally homeless running around the streets of New York trying to figure it out hustling your way in decisions to make your name you know
what the fire inside is going to do but then she gets successful and she's like by the way I'm mad successful now yeah she's not trying to still be that person like back in the day she she's written she has written her story and told it and with authenticity every step of the way and that's what's so fascinating is like here I can say about her you know I was there for every step of the way of like you know the the the the truth or
dare the I was saying all the concerts I went to in the 80s The Blonde Ambition truth or you know and every hair color every jeul gotier buer every single on cosplay madon cosplay where you like full hair out the whole I mean I wanted to be blonde this afro would have just fallen out but all of it the red lipstick I I mean when I was 14 it was all about it was all boas and red lipstick can you try to remember what it
was like being in that room in a room and by the way concerts back then a lot of them really were you go with your parents your parents step out of the way and you hang out with your friends I felt like Madonna was one of the first
eras where teenagers were allowed to sort of go to concerts with each with each other see things with each other and feel safe it's like okay this is a business now she's putting on a show True let's get our Coca-Cola our Pepsi
and let's go watch this show so what was it like being on the precipice of that and knowing that actually fan clubs were changing shape in in in real time I mean I'm trying to think the minute you said the thing about parents like letting you go I was like I don't think I ever with my friends like my parents took me to see Duran Duran and when I was in fifth grade I got to sleep in the next night it was a school night they still got it
by the way I still at the bow last I did too of course I did what about that moment when Simon he's so panto now did you see him get up there and he's just like he's like he was fabulous I love him but he's like so funny he's like he's like would you like to meet the band your wish is my command still it's the exact same thing he said this amazing thing where he goes all right up next The Reflex you lucky lucky people
and it's and it's the same thing as on like the live recordings that I memorized when in sixth grade it's all the exact same seven in the Ragged TI do you remember the video when they was playing on stage and the big fountain comes down and it's the worst graphics of all time and the front row geted by water and someone's just throwing bottles of water there oh my God I used to do the moves of I I really wanted to be a backup
singer when I was growing up like I I BJ Nelson I believe was one of the backup singers and I would do her moves yeah yeah oh who was your favorite member Nick rhods of course I used to sign my I told him this at the concert
he was like oh cool yeah like oh he did not appreciate that I used to sign my name Maya rhods cuz he would take the r and make the the leg of it real long and then you cross the H with it that is adorable you got Duran Durant the amount
of times I've tried to give John Taylor a compliment he's like well thank you very much oh but he's like the coolest I mean you talk to him now he's just like the coolest guy cuz he was handsome from the gym but you're also he very much I was a Nick I was a Nick girl from the beginning I never I I never sway like like I never faltered you're also dealing with a particular brand of British rock star and pop star that um
really doesn't know how to they don't take compliments very well so so so I went to see Tears for Fears last year at the bow and uh got to know Kurt from the band a little bit and I sent him a text on the day was a big tears for FS fan you're going incred you're going to love this I said uh dude Beyond excited for the bowl tonight and he replied I'm thinking of going myself you're reminding me of a crazy experience years and years and years and
years ago one of my first jobs out of college I played with a band called The rentals I toured with them I was never technically a member but um it was Matt Sharp from Weezer's band and they needed people to go on the road so I went but it was like it was a job you know it was like my first job out of school and I was just kind of looking around like this is great yeah that's '90s it was so 90 so this we played all of those
festivals so it was you know like us and no doubt and Oasis and there was one I think we were in Texas because that band the toes played remember the to remember the toes it like Billy corgan's favorite band he took them out on the road for like three tours it was like the height of it so this is probably what 95 I'm guessing 96 97 yeah and um Tears for Fears was like the headliner for that and they were singing a cover of creep
of radio head at the time and I remember him saying I don't belong here and he was like and neither do you don't say that the Brits man you got to love him so self-deprecating I mean look at Damon orine last weekend at Kella you're never
going to see us again you might as well sing the thing did he say that we got we did I have a big big affection for Damon we did um the rentals played with blur and that really that that really cemented that was a pretty
exceptional time like for a month we got to open for them well I I I don't mind telling you cuz you're a fan I had dinner with him last night he's a very old friend of mine and he was I was like you know what about the Cella thing was like a H man I didn't have a tantum all right I was just saying I don't know how many more gigs in America blurs going to do so you might as well sing the thing and the Press gets hold of it and it's
like 90s All Over Again by the way he's not even mad he's just British he's just British everything is that that loud I love him I love Damon so much I love blur yeah gorillas the whole creative he's incredible everything about it um so you move through into into comedy you find your voice find Who You Are music is in you but you've chosen a path where you want to express yourself differently how does music influence and become a
part of how you work I think I never really learned how to shake it and at first I thought I had to shake it and I realized oh it's just a part of who I am why did you feel you had to shake it probably just in terms of not relying on what I already knew and um yeah I think deep down if I'm really psychoanalyzing myself I wanted to set my myself apart in that way that I wasn't a rebellious kid and you know losing a parent when you're young you
you really look out for the other parent so I never did anything bad that like like I I wanted an asymmetrical bob but my dad was like well I'm like I'm not going to upset my dad you know like I never pierced my nose we're in this together and so um I think that was my form of rebellion somehow is like that's cool you guys are music I'm going to do this but it for me me I think deep down I always knew performing to me is
all the same place there is no category I love being able to Define myself as a comedian it feels very cool but um I'm all of those things I think it's just an it's just easier to say you so much more than that now and of course it remains at the root of all of it and just in the same way Beyonce will always be a songwriter and a performer at the heart of what she is but she's so much greater than different um how did it how did you make
it something that felt tangible and not a passion or a hobby or a dream when did it start to feel like actually there's some definition and some flesh in this experience I think I can do something with this I really never questioned it it it's a weird extension of what I was doing in my living room and my you know friends houses a couple times people would like you're really funny you should and I was already ahead of it in
my fantasy I sort of knew like oh no I'll end up there but there was absolutely no business sense I remember saying to my dad I really want to be on Saturday Night Live when I was graduating college and he said that's great what are you going to do for a living do you get it yeah cuz they pay they don't pay well oh no yeah no it's it's late night television yeah yeah yeah but also like you know you still got to get there and so I think at first
I'll be honest I used to think that it might might be a little bit lazy to just do what you've already been doing but I realized oh it's just naturally what comes out that is that is what I do so it wasn't so much that I was relying on old tricks it was that this is this is my form of of self-expression so they're not old if no one's seen them the thing is you can do them all day you can do them all day in your living room and
they can be old to you but until the people actually decide they work that's true that's really true I didn't think about it that way but yeah you're right I mean it does and listen I'm you know I'm a creative person of course I'm beating myself up about like well I've been doing this for 20 years in my living room but like nobody else knows that no one else knows that and I also had to have other people say to me you know you sing you're
allowed to do that too you can incorporate that and I used to think like no I don't think I should do it but also you came from a church where music was revealed how do I do it in a way that fits comedy and doesn't look like I'm actually being disrespectful in some capacity I agree and I think also I never thought of myself as a singer I think of myself as a musical person it's very music like I said music is normal so I sing half
the day in conversations think but I'm you know I don't think I should have a record deal I just sing music is a language that makes sense to my ears which is perfectly fitting because I have always been infatuated with the
idea of musicians and comedians being really the same and it makes so much sense that musicians rever Comedians and comedians rever musicians they're really the same thing they're this intangible magic and you're either really really
like just naturally gifted it's a language that you're born with it's whether you choose to cultivate it or not is the truth I but you know what I love about about comedy and about putting yourself on the line Rings true
for musicians too there's a sense of vulnerability and and courage that's required to present side of yourself in order to make others feel better or connected I mean and here's another like you know little secret about me I still
am so Mo like like moved by musicians doing just that that that there is a sick part of me that's like maybe I'll do that one day but my dad's a songwriter so I'm not going to be a songwriter my dad does it you know what I mean like the teenager of me is like you do that I'm I'm not going to but isn't it about the way you define it now not that I'm trying to convince you to like make a project or anything but I'm
going to try to convince you a little bit to make a project or something so um isn't it about the way that you define it I think when you're young you define it through the filter of what is successful what is loved how it how it's going to change me I think when you get older I certainly feel this way I think about am I going to enjoy it well I get something out of me yeah and I know for me the answer is absolutely yes plus I
don't I I do think I'd be far more comfortable in the fuckups whereas in the early days when I did fantasize like okay maybe I will make a record one day or maybe I will record music that is real music because I can sing but I sing
like other people I've never publicly sung like myself but you know where your own voice is no I don't think I do I really don't think I do I think that is a terribly fragile place that I'm too afraid to look at which is why we're not
I have not gotten there yet and that is something that's fair by the way yeah I've talked about it a lot with my friends who are musicians like you should you should really I like you know I'm not I don't know what my voice sounds like I know I can sing like Prince I can sing like I can't sing like Beyonce but you know what I mean I can sing in the style of people I can imitate I can do a Tina turn or whatever like that's not because
I'm an impressionist it's just because that's the way I can express it back okay Maya I'm going to ask a question I hope you I hope you still like me after this question but I can't not ask it if you don't know necessarily where you're in where that that that your real where your voice is right now you know it's in there yeah it's in there do you feel the effects of it waiting for you does it have some kind of effect
on you the fact that you haven't been able to access it yes it does call to me it beckons me for sure and I do feel like there is there has been a gradual shedding of what does not serve me anymore as I move on through this life
and I do believe that the years of not just not giving a are are imminent oh the zfg phase zero given phase I love it I do too I think it's it's it's a natural process that if we're lucky enough to get there in life if we're
still here I think it's waiting for us and so is your voice and that's the other thing I've learned as well because there are all sorts of things I'm discovering about myself as life goes on right I'm very very far from truly knowing where all the little Tricks and Treats are um but they wait for you actually quite patiently if you let them yeah if it's when you it's when you try to force it that your body reacts and
goes uh-uh there's an ache over here and there's an ache over here absolutely that's the body talking to you 100% or the brain saying don't do that yeah stop just stop just let it go over there yeah just get it over that side and you'll be fine yeah and we get tired of all the stuff that like just doesn't work you just get tired of it I'm like pass like it's it's like that freedom when you realize you really don't have to go to
that party you don't have to go to the party anymore the sixth one I got to just keep dropping him it's such a nice feeling it starts when you become a it started when I became a parent I'm like I'm so tired it's great you'll understand when you have kids and it's great because you can hide behind it you're like it's not me my baby and then they get older and everyone's like dude he's 18 I'm like yeah but man it took it out of me but
I've been tired for 18 years 18 years just give me another 18 to get over it I'm so tired also and then you know you know what's up then you get to the point where you can't even sleep in if you wanted to I know I can now I'm at
6:00 a.m. every morning now Al like you guys go I don't want to go you go I'm working I'm making a new season of loot sorry I can't do it sorry I can't do it I got to get that by the way inspired doing your 73 at the top of the the new
did you like that oh my God it's one of my favorite things hey Action Sports hero Tony Hawk the way he on this game just like oh what a Little Dream B that guy is he's the B and he's doing like honestly a pretty substandard OE on the grass it's like that's the best thing about it it's like the worst trick I've seen Tony Hawk do since he was 12 years old he said that day I believe he had just recovered from like knee surgery
truly like I was like dude don't do that then yeah you don't have to do an Olie he's like no no no no no it's good it's good but it wasn't it was a really average Olie he would be laughing right now he'd be like I know dude the knee I had the knee you know what he could have fooled me any skate trick I grew up in Los Angeles skating is like it's like it's more Punk than Punk 100% I used to do it as well until it hurt until I
really fell and I was like ah yeah Peter Griffin ah you will never you will yeah no that's it looks dumb I was a social skater after that I was just like you know everyone else was possessed to skate I was just like hanging out with those who were possessed to skate I thought it was very cool it was all the Venice kids they were like they were like Suicidal Tendencies and I just had Tendencies you know you know thoughtful Tendencies good
time to grow up though in Los Angeles very I feel like did it feel dangerous definitely that side of town was dangerous yeah and I and it and we did things we weren't supposed to do like we were young and went to places we weren't
supposed to see shows I remember going to a fishbone show sick in at the Santa Monica Civic with my girlfriends it was it was fishbone Public Enemy and oh I know that tour it was Anthrax it might have been now that you said that and
there was and um and I think In Living Color was playing and like there was a mosh pit and at one point someone just started getting their their head kicked in and we're being like I I'm a good girl I should I should not be here what am I doing we yeah we used to go to Fishbone and Red Hot Chili Pepper shows all the time cuz they were local La they were you know cool like Punky hot it's one of the weirdest success stories in
music history the red do Chili Peppers yeah they are a weird band well they were the most fun band to see when I was growing up I mean I was truly like 15 16 we would go to the Rock seat it was also like there were the days where fishbone Chili Peppers Jane's Addiction Mary's Danish and fonus monster were all kind of and so they would all pair up and do each other's bands and there was one called trulio disgraca the like they were funny 88s
Los Angeles alternative like like dreadlocked band name I've heard in a long time was so cool it was so cool to like yeah and in those days like we would just these ratty little little teenage girls we would just go to all these shows and and get pushed around I would stay away from the moshh pit I don't care for that kind of angst yeah you have to have for me I like to jump up and down I was never really a fan
either I would go in there and then I would be like I would I would I would mosh to be seen M and then as soon as the people I wanted to see me in the mosh going raging seen I'd get out and then at the end I'd be like yo that msh was Wild tonight wild and then they'd always go yeah man we lost you where'd you go I was like dude I didn't even know I was just and I was the the bar watching these guys just y dude it was just crazy like what about
that one song where everyone went crazy that was just crazy I was like nowhere near that I was nowhere near that I was in the bleachers when that guy got his head kicked in but I mean the Chili Peppers thing like the answer is those guys were hot they were so cute dude I was so up that I thought like Perry farell was hot that's how up I was that does feel like early California that that's early Los Angeles to me it it was a
little bit of a golden sprinkle magical time being here it was it La was very Punk to me in those days and I feel like that is those glimmers are are pretty gone it's very industry now and I'm not mad at it I was talking to to D about this last night he was like I love coming out here because I feel like every time I go to a session someone else might hear a little bit of that session I get another session and I
think he he likes the chess of moving around where everyone's just being creative and doing their thing yeah and by the way in Los Angeles it's so big here you can still find nooks and crannies and if something's going on
here and it's it's all mainstream you just go over there it still exists those weird fun little areas still exist but you you have to know where to find them there's definitely two Los Angeles is still to the day the one that that's
that's bright and sunny and everyone's just paying their Sunshine tax out here and then it gets dark and then the lights come on and they still haven't fixed the lights and modernized them there's still a dark weird sepia they
don't really light anything properly and so there's huge gaps in between the street lights and it just all of a sudden it gets a little bit a little a little bit quirky and interesting and dark a little ghosty here little ghosty
right there's definitely ghosts in this town people talk about how there's no history here I feel a lot of history in it's absolutely here I just for whatever reason and I don't know why cuz I'm a I'm a little oky woooo lady I don't have ghosts they don't Bo they don't they don't have paranormal experien don't with me can I can I tell you something I've never said in I've never actually cop to this before neither have
I and yet I find myself in stories where I feel so out of place that I'm like well I was in AEL tell once where something felt a bit weird cuz I'm trying to be in the conversation but I don't get visited have so many people get visited and I don't I do believe that the reason I don't is because whoever's looking out for me is like oh you would yourself yeah she's good leave her just leave her alone alone she does not want that yeah my wife
definitely has and and I mean yeah we were talking about this last night everyone had stories and I was like yeah yeah cool I was like there's like one hotel I remember I stayed in years and years years ago my friend Rachel j has a podcast called woooo M and she was talking about a hotel and I was and she had a really weird experience and she's not that person either and I thought you know maybe I'm going to ask her if it's
the same Hotel cuz I remember having bad dreams but that's as far as it went well have but the thing is people like you and I who don't have significant paranormal experiences we always have one hotel cuz I have one hotel as well I'm like well there's a hotel in Liverpool by the called the adelphie you know the adelphie that is definitely haunted but I know cuz everyone else ran out of their room at 3:00 in the morning
and checked into well also that's the thing I know for a that they're telling the truth and they had those experiences I just don't know why I don't have them but I'm I'm not continue I'm not mad at it and then you have friends who are like I love my house it's haunted I'm like you're weird to me you don't need that I don't need that in my life no get out of get out just get out wait get out get the out seriously get out seriously get the
out yeah this is my house could you please get the out well that's probably why they're there they're like I live here yeah I was here first go who wants to be caught in the dry wall of the spiritual realm but you know what's messed up what if since we don't understand any of the spiritual realm really what if we're the ghosts and they're like what the hell are you doing here I've thought about this get out do you know I've thought
about this and this is not to bum you out this is actually I'm totally cool with this and everything is good in my life and it's the order of things but my mom has pretty significant like bout of dementa and she's defitely in that place now and so the conversations are just like scattered very tough to stick to and I had this moment this realization the other day when I was talking to her you know my conversation she'll be like
look look at that oh that's a fat little bird hello fat little bird and there's no fat bird on the ground and I'm like that is a fat little bird mom there's no bird on the ground I suddenly had this realization that what if she's there going but not being able to communicate you've always been a bullshitter I know you can't I can't see the bird why would you see the bird and then actually somewhere kind of quietly judging me going why are you
even pretending to keep up with me here she's she's testing me because she's somewhere that I can't get to and maybe I'm the one who's like lost the plot I love not I love the idea that there is something else that we may not know I just can't you just tell me I just want to know just tell me now like I've I've done my time now I want to knowe tell me now yeah please please is there something I should know T la la la T la la
la we're so happy that L is back um I Lov the first season I thought you walked that line between making a point and making it funny really really well it's nice to laugh at you know there's a lot of uh wealth in the world and it's so fun to have fun with how big it is it's it is the magical quality of the show and I love that but it's also nice to try to ground it and try to bring it into reality because nobody lives like
that and there's real moments in there where um you take a beat you take a breath like great comedy does and you allow us as as viewers and fans of the show to just think for a second and just stop laughing for a second and go oh
yeah that's right it's funny cuz it's true yeah that's what I love about the show and that it's actually trying to be human through all of the Ridiculousness yeah I think that's the only way to connect and I also I just don't think I
could have played like a total like just an outof touch jerk yeah she had to have some sort of human soul that you could relate to Molly is a good person deep down I like Molly is unfortunately you know when you have means to that extent I mean that's why the opening season 2 is so good she's like I just downsizes like how many pools you got just the five just the five just the five see I'm trying she's trying I'm trying out here and
she's you know she's open she's she's open to interpretation she's open to trying like to to learn along the way I think yeah and so let me ask you this how do you process feedback when you make a show like this how do you how open are you to what people say because that that is there's the opportunity to receive that all the time but at the same time you have to try to give yourself the space to create something and in a private place so that it
realize the vision um how do you sort of adapt to that time now and how do you utilize that whether it's complimentary feedback critical feedback or anything of that nature do you use it and if so how does it help or Kinder I mean I'm usually in agreement with with criticism because I'm I'm always criticizing I'm always looking at what could be better what could we make funnier what could we make better the next time but I
definitely don't surround myself in the criticism I try really I'm so hard on myself already like there's no room anybody I've done all that and and I don't want to be that guy that's just so hard on myself I try to be nice to myself um I think what's been interesting too is since covid began um people have complimented me more of saying like thank you for making comedy I really needed it which wasn't really always the norm and so that's been an
interesting thing to hear but it's back to what I was saying about creating in a time where there's so much criticism I find it incredibly difficult and I I find it personally more just in um being myself far more than my comedy I feel like people want to take a sound bite and create problems and that's become a business and it's so ugly and it's so not at all my life it has nothing to do with me so it just makes you kind of shy
away from wanting to put yourself out there the internet will do what the internet will do exactly and so that's a place I really don't I I stay away from that I don't really want to participate in that game cuz it's just not it's not my reality it's not my and and it's like that that saying of like what what you think of me is not my business yeah yeah I love that saying it's great and it's really hard to remind yourself of but
it's true but I do I do still like I don't think I would be creating the things I created on Saturday Night Live if I work there today that was probably the most that's the most H environment you could put yourself in there because I feel like the next day you know one skit Rises and falls and all of a sudden it's the only thing anyone's talking about and people didn't have access to the show in the way that they do now
when I was on it you know people weren't watching it from their phones the next day in just one sketch instead of watching the entire show you would watch in it in it in its entirety yeah but yeah I do the best I can to stay out of other people's um opinions yeah no it's good Sage advice honey I don't need it yeah is it like and I know we're running out of time it's a shame has been I have it's been the fastest 55 minutes of see was right
you're great thanks Mara it's true that's why he likes you if you were like kind of milk toast like boring guy now you're quoting helmet we're just in all the 90s milk toast I just feel like yeah you're you're exciting to him it's someone that speaks his language so I'm just going to continue I've never been out and joh in my life I can only work with the people I can work with exactly this has been great um I just want to I
want to kind of finish our conversation talking about chemistry yes because I think in comedy in particular you sort of need you need something generally to kind of was someone to bounce off it's better when there's when there's a few of you and SNL is is a perfect example of that a chosen family that I'm sure still feels that way because of what you went through in your era right yeah what have you learned about great chemistry
what have you learned when it comes to Casting somebody on loot being a part of that process or walking on set and and someone else has cast to this and figuring out how do I make sure that this is believable on screen what are
some of the things you've learned about creating great chemistry it's not it it's not fabricable you cannot fabricate it it is so it's really lucky to spark that chemistry with someone I think the the big the big fun and the big cheat in
knowing someone all those years and having them be chosen family is that you know exactly what that chemistry is and it's like being with an old friend you just pick up where you left off 20 years ago and it's the exact same conversation where it's the same tone and so when I work with people in that way I'm not and I've known each other since our 20s and you know that you're going to be setting each other up for success that's
what makes things funnier to me is that I know that if I you know I guess I guess it's kind of like a sha and Kobe Vibe like you know that if I'm passing it to you it's for you to score and so that I think is what's exciting about it is that if I say this like little fun thing it's going to give you something to play off of so I know hierarchies are difficult especially in your business because everyone wants to stay on the right side
of of of the process and it's important that no one shows up to sit and goes I was your third favorite person to work with but but I think if we're talking about specifics in chemistry I think it's a safe place to at least ask the question you can swerve by all means that who is who is somebody or who is the person that whenever you show up on set um in a sort of returning capacity that it just is an unspoken very easy
thing well I mean my person of choice over the years that I've worked I mean Fred dson and I might as well have the same mother like I think we were we were separated at Birth we just came out loving the same things we also speak music so we don't really have to explain anything to each other comedy's Jack anof Jack anof is music Fred Amison I always think those are just I think he said that about himself I I think he
said that in Andy Samberg or something like that he is all of those things isn't he but I never ever have to you know sometimes I'll just get a text from Fred and it's just like you know almond milk lattes and then a question mark
like yeah I get it you know and and I love that we do not have to explain ourselves to each other that's someone that I saw before he came to the show and I knew I'm going to have a special time performing with that person yeah
and also like I just want to I just want to play with that person I just want to do you know it's the the the creative excitement the inspiration like we you know we used to do a warm-up for the show before when the audience is is
piling in we used to sing a song and and get the crowd going and stuff and like you just know you're that was fun to do and we I just I feel like Fred and I still have more projects in our in the can for ourselves we don't know what
they are but can I give you a compliment as we exit the door yeah I'll take it yeah of course well no no I'm British I'm very British British and I'm in successful 80s band I'm British and I'm half Jewish there you go um I would like to say that you strike me as someone having met you now for the first time um who has a just a very very sort of young I I used to hate the term old soul when I was a kid cuz I was like that just
means you're going to dump your on me yeah yeah you're such an old soul oh yeah is that what you're telling me about the problems in your marriage and I'm 12 years old that's great thanks a lot I love being an old soul oh 13 Going On 40 I only say that because what I'm about to say might sound weird but you have a young you have a young soul and I think that what you do following your heart and your and and following your love of what you do the
passion for what you do and immersing yourself in it seems to keep it really young and and open and that's so nice it's really amazing that's a beautiful compliment thank you I feel like um sometimes we can stray from remembering why we're doing what we're doing and um I mean you know my my husband is that person too I feel like he just lives and dies by what he creates and I feel like he's not really interested in what
anybody else is doing because it's so important to um do exactly what motivates him and it's very inspiring to be around and I it helps it does help me redirect sometimes like why am I doing this if there's no reason or if it doesn't thrill me or if it's not coming from a place of um authenticity why why are we doing this and it's a really beautiful thing to watch so I I do I do commend him for that but it's really him and my parents
honestly I really feel like like I got the best instruction what a great house for music too because I know PTA loves his music he loves his music I mean the way he uses music in his films is so phenomenal I mean I'll never forget watching boogy nights for the first time and being like that is a masterclass in how you actually me too I didn't know him in those days so I could just watch it as a fan and I felt the same way same
with Magnolia which was an an earhole Extravaganza yeah and also like wow what a human film my God I mean to use to use Amy in that film the way he did was just like that's one of the most affecting moments of music and Cinema I've ever
seen yeah and I also think that music some of it came before the came within and writing and all just it feels like she just wrote it for that moment I mean but still one of the greatest things he ever gave us was You
Got The Touch I know it's just John C Ry like just running on the spot like just like doing the running Dan it's like oh this is so good you just you're crushing it you're crushing it and the engineers just like oh my God how long has this session got oh my God Michael Penn it's perfect perfect so was this one of my favorite conversations I've ever had thank you so much man what a thrill thank you this was lovely