Ellie and Scott are joined by actor and comedian, Nico Santos. Nico shares his love of fashion design! We learn all about his wild times in high-end retail, what exactly makes a Bottega Veneta bag worth the dough, and how Nico wanted to be a comic book artist as a kid. Plus, Scott shares his love of discovering that no incredible feat - not even that of his cat perching on the very top of door frames - is without struggle.
Born Too.
Hey, Scott, Hey Ellie.
I'm Ellie Kemper. This is Scott Eckert. This is our podcast Born to Love, where every week we have a guest on the show come on and talk about something that they love, anything in the.
World, anything in the world. And today we have a good friend of yours.
Isn't that right, Ellie, A very sweet, dear friend of mine. Nico Santos is our guest this week. We are so excited to talk to him. I know him because I'm in a movie with him, not a big deal, a Hollywood movie called Happiness for Beginners.
And now we can talk about those because so for so long we couldn't talk about those movies. And now the strike is over and we can.
We can talk all about it. Scott.
You can show you shill for all your movies. Elle.
Oh, I'm gonna chill it up. Bebe Scott. How unearthed was your week?
Oh? It was great. In the holiday season buying gifts, I really enjoy that sort of thing.
I just want to point out you're a very smooth, thoughtful gift giver. I said smooth because you don't always anticipate your gifts, and then they just like arrive and they're like, so sweet and thoughtful.
Are you talking about a little thing called Uno Attack?
Yeah?
I gave your kids an Uno Attack, and I think that, to be fair, you were a little skeptical because I don't think that your family likes games as much as mine. But then apparently Uno Attack made it into an episode of The Crown.
Uno Attack is featured on this latest season of The Crown. I didn't even know it was around in the two thousands.
Wait a minute, it couldn't have been around in the odds.
The Okay, I love Attack, I love Princess Diana, Rip and Scott take it away, all.
Right, I'll take it away. Well, this is something that I loved this Ellie, and you're gonna have to bear with me here because it's something of a metaphor. Okay, I have a little cat named Calli than my family adors. She's the cutest cat ever. I think I may have mentioned her on our Samantha Bee episode. But something that she's able to do, I've seen her do this several times. She perchaes at the very top of a door, like an open door, you know, a door. It's like maybe an inch and a half wide, or something, And of course it's tall. It's as tall as a door we walk through them. So, like, what seven feet tall?
Right?
Maybe ballpark?
Yeah?
Yeah, yeah, ballpark seven.
So I imagine a door about seven feet tall an inch and a half wide, and my cat calli perchaes on it. She apparently is able to leap and balance up on this door, and it's a new habit she's gotten into, and every time I see it, I'm like, Wow, this is a marvelous this cat.
What is she leaping from? Please don't tell me the ground?
Well, at first i thought that it was the ground, but then I've since come to realize that it's other high things like a dresser or a counter. But see, Ellie, you've kind of anticipated the sort of payoff to this story, which is I imagined that she was leaping seven feet up and landing perfectly on the top of this like high wire act, and I was amazed. And then just the other day I saw her actually get to the top of the door. And do you know how she does it? She hurls herself against the door, her legs are over the top of it, and she screams as she like scrambles and thrashes to climb up.
So you just said her legs are over it. Her legs are over well no, no, no, no.
No, like like her front two legs, like it's a person in an action movie, like leaping across a chasm and like grabbing on with just their front two arms. Like, oh, but from what, from a counter or whatever.
But the point is that it is the least graceful thing I've ever seen a cat do. In fact, it seems enormously painful, and she's making cat noises of extreme exertion. Yes, yes, And the end result is that she is delicately balanced on the top of that doorway and it looks like magic. But of course the process of getting there was messy and horrible. Yeah, And I don't want to get philosophical, Ellie, because you know me, I'm no philosopher. But I was in awe of her perfect balance. And then I saw how she got up there, and at first I was horrified because I was like, oh, the magic is gone.
But then it only took a moment for me to be like, oh, wait, this is even more awesome. It's even more amazing that this cat is doing this impossible feat in such a crazy, potentially painful way, and I realized that's like kind of success. Most people's success in life. We see Scott people's successes and they look so elegant and wonderful, and what we don't see is the struggle Ellie Scott.
I was sitting over here saying, in the back of my head silently, I really hope that is the point that he's going to make, the conclusion that he's going to draw from Callie's feet feat And indeed it was Scott. Nobody likes to see the sausage getting made. Everybody likes to think, oh man, they made it look so easy. They just did this really incredible thing, and it didn't seem like they'd put any work into it. One shriek from Callie's cat mouth, and we'll tell you this, what does it sound like that?
I mean, it sounds a lot more like yours than mine. This is why you are the fancy Hollywood actress.
It's why I do so much voiceover catwork.
That that cat cry of yours, we don't know. We didn't see the effort behind that. We didn't see the years of method cat training.
No, my sore throats, cat meal teas, Scott. What I also want to know is how did you happen to see Calli. I would have thought Callie would have hidden her struggle from you, not even like intentionally so, but just like, oh, I'm going to do this when no one else is around.
But yes, I think so too. It just was my happenstance. If she knew that I was there, I don't think she would have wanted me to watch, But who knows. I can't see inside the mind of a cat. All I know is that my respect for her is even greater than it was before. And trust me, I had a lot of respect for kitt and Calli.
Absolutely, to be honest with you, Scott, I don't know Calli except over mostly Zoom. I guess have I met her in person? I don't think I have.
I don't think so. And you know what, I think, you've been to my house since we've had CALLI no interest in meeting her zee.
Ro Having said that, so my respect for Calli, which was at a zero, has now gone up to five percent. So good Jock Kelly for showing us what hard is Scott. With that, We're gonna seg into our guest introduction as we said before our guest today. Nico Santo's very funny, very sweet, brilliant guy. We are thrilled to be chatting with him today. As I mentioned, I know Nico from Happiness for Beginners, a very sweet movie directed by Vicki White. It's out on Netflix now. I'm talking a lot about it because I couldn't say anything about it for ten years or however long the strike was, but now I can say it. You also might know him as Matteo on Superstore, or perhaps from the movie Crazy Rich Asians, or maybe Guardians of the Galaxy Volume three, or maybe Muppets Mayhem. The list goes on and on. With these credits, we are so looking forward to chatting with him. Nico is going to be sharing with us his love of fashion, design fashion.
I'm especially I don't know very much about fashion, so I'm excited to hear about it.
Get ready to learn when we come back. Nico Santos Too Love. Okay, everybody, we are here with Nico Santo's welcome too, Born to Love.
To Love, set up and something.
I just lost my job. I have been the only one singing so far, and he just gave me a rent with my money.
Give me, give me a melody. I will join riight in.
Nico, thank you so much for being here.
It's so good to see you.
Nico and I work together. As I mentioned before, Happiness for Beginners, a movie on Netflix. We shot that in like twenty twenty one. It feels like in Eternity time is bent and backwards, but one thing that isn't is fashion design. So, Nico, you have a background in fashion design, right, Yeah.
I majored in costume design in college. But as a kid, I've always had an appreciation for design stuff, especially clothing. I was born and raising the Philippines, and growing up, I would always watch my mom get ready. My parents owned a wine and liquor business, so she was constantly having to host people at her home for glamorous parties. So I would always watch her get ready. It was like the whole shipbang. So I was always just sort of like enamored by that whole process, and I would just like look at it was like, oh gosh, so glamorous, and I was just really super fascinated by that world. You know, just a little gay boy growing up in the Philippines, and I know we're talking about fashion design and people are probably going to look at this. I'm like, you are wearing a hoody in a baseball cappaney. I just have to say, I am not a Capital F fashionista. There are other people out there who are done up twenty four to seven. I am just as comfortable being a slub. But I really do have an appreciation for the fashion shows that come out every year, for the new handbags that are coming out of the year. Also, that was my job for a really long time. Well, I was doing comedy. I was working high end retail.
Wow, I want to know about that.
Well, this seems like something Ellie does not love.
Do you I have a bone to pick? Can you tell me, Nico, if you encounter this, well, what is the point of making a customer feel unwelcome? Do you know what I mean?
Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. And those are just people that are bad at their job. Because I worked high in retail. I'm so bougie.
I was.
I have to clarify high end retail. I didn't work on all night. It was high in retail, just a TV show exactly. That was afterlife. This is real life. But I worked in San Francisco where it was like stealth wealth. You didn't know. Oh yeah, some of my biggest clients were like.
A bunch of rich dorks.
Yes. The first retail job I got was at a store called Arthur Baron. They had a call center, and I knew that the salespeople at their retail stores were making big money. So I was just like, put me in, coach. I know I can sell them as out of these shoes. And they gave me a chance because I logged in the most calls and the average customer was literally seventy five years old. So I was just like sweet talking to old ladies and telling them they need their ferragamos. And this business specialized in hard to find widths of shoes. I don't know if you were familiar shoes coming withs. So a regular narrow is a double A, but mister Baron carried shoes up to a quadruple A.
Oh my gosh, that's more narrow. Still, it's like a.
Finger with a women's size twelve in a quadruple A. They're like, skis, how did these women survive? I know that's what they call. I'm like, well, ma'am, if you were a twelve quadruple A. You were in a need all these shoes?
Yes, How did you get the job making the call.
I got a job as a dresser for a theater company, fixing costumes, running the shows, and the manager who hired me saw that I thrived in high stress situations, so they were like, well, put you in a call center. And I was just like so happy that I got the job because I was really really broke. And then they gave me a chance at the retail store, and when that job ended, I moved over to Dior, Neiman Marcus, Jimmy.
Chu Oh wow.
Yeah, but Tega Venata was the last job I had in retail. But Tega Venata really was like it was a label that didn't have any logos. This logan was when your own initials are enough, and that was such a huge selling point. You know, women coming in like ten thousand dollars for his handbag. I'm like, yeah, right, that's when your own initials are enough.
I love that.
I have a question for you. I'm unsophisticated when it comes to all of this. My chief clothes year is Costco or maybe Amazon Basics. So I assume that fashion is sort of like wine insofar as everyone can enjoy it. But if you're in the know, you can be discriminating in a way that an idiot like me can't be. So is that true, Like if you saw a Jimmy Chew, would you be able to be like, Yep, that's that's the one, in the same way that a somalier could be like, oh, that's a Merlow.
I mean there's different levels to it, right, Like I really do enjoy like going through the magazines and seeing what's on trend, and that came from working the job in retail and at the time, I was just like a broke comedian, so it was a way for me to sort of be in this world. And going back to your thing about like white people are so rude and make people feel like when they walk in the door, yep, the salespeople will take on the persona of the brand. Yeah, I'm like, honey, you just work here, You're not.
Every brand you named. I started sweating just thinking about entering because I don't go into those stores that often, and when I do, I'm just scared, yeah and unwelcome. You just kinda walk in like you Yes, that's what I'm gonna do next. It's either like you mean business or you don't. So if you mean business, come talk to me. I don't know.
Certainly, there were days when I was working there, I was like, I know this person isn't going to buy. Oh, yeah, that's interesting, and you sense that they're going to need a lot of attention and they're gonna end up wasting three hours of your time.
Three hours at a shoe store, you're the perusing.
Oh, I've had clients stay longer.
What do they do for three hours? They already know their side.
Niko. When you are saying you enjoicing what's going to be on trend that season, I'm envious of that because I would love to look forward to that. What is it about it that makes you so happy?
Yeah? For me, it's the craftsmanship and the beauty and the design of it. Having it back when it costs a design, knowing how things are made, what techniques in sewing and beating are a lot harder to execute. When I worked at Dior, we're charging two thousand dollars for cotton bag that says Dior, and people will buy it because they want a piece of the label. But then when I worked at Protecta Veneta. I was like this Vegas, twenty thousand dollars. I can tell that the quality of the leather is absolutely top notch. That's why when I worked at Protecta Venata, I was a lot more comfortable selling at that price point because I could be like, no, you have the money, you want a quality product. This is what you want.
What is the most expensive? Like at the end of when the receipt printed out.
They do not print a receipt.
What do they do?
Who?
All right, there's a printed receipt.
Wait, rite you a thank you note.
We have to write thank you us our clients.
I mean, that is such a different world.
Well, that's part of the thing about selling in that sort of level. It's about building relationships with the repeat customers because only a handful of people can afford to truly shop there repeatedly. You get people who saved up their money and are treating themselves and want to buy their their first designer handbag. But there are people who are very wealthy who treat those stores like the gap.
What is the hype? Can you even remember the highest priced?
The highest When I worked at the coworker of mine ended up selling two couture pieces. Those dresses are completely made by hand. They'll send somebody from France to fit those dresses for you. And each dress was over six.
Figures over six Wow.
That's another level. But that's the thing about fashion is like there's an entry point for everybody. It doesn't matter if you're like super poor or super rich. Right, only the super rich enjoy these sort of handcrafted, crazy expensive materials. But the great thing about fashion is that those sort of design elements trickle down.
Yeah, exactly. There was just some article I was reading about very few people can tell the difference between a Chanel bag and a knockoff. And I know that there are different issues at play here, but as a Maxinista, I should say, as a TJ Maxinista, I do love a bargain, but again, I don't want to do that at the expense of bad labor practices.
Right.
The idea of it is nice because it's making fashion accessible to anybody who's interested. Right.
I try not to shop fast fashion brands as much as possible.
I'm sorry to interrupt. Nigo is fast fashion like Zara.
Zara h and M Forever twenty one, where literally they will get new styles like every day that's crazy, and it's just about churning, churning, churning new product. They'll watch a fashion show and then literally the next day they'll have a knockoff of that design, and it's just shady labor practices.
You want to be very conscious and careful about where you're buying what. But I will say the idea that something is worth that much money is reassuring because when you're looking at somebody say, oh, well, this is why this is priced so high because it is like a work of art.
Yeah, exactly. And I didn't feel like I was tricking my client and to spending this amount of money, because girl, I mean, look what you're buying. And I've talked clients out of stuff before. People were just like, I really want this bag, and I'm like, I know you want this bag because Paris Hilton cared this bag. But you will love this for two months and then you'll be tired of it.
You're a very upstanding sales person.
They should be writing you to thank you notes if you're talking about a twenty thousand dollars back.
That's what I wanted to ask. Has there ever been a time when you felt a little bit icky about selling a piece to someone, not piece.
But you know there are your sales quotas, so at the end of the quarter, when you haven't met that quota yet, you are calling just like hey, missus someone so I know you were just here a couple of weeks, but I just got in this beautiful hand than ship. Please come in. I need to feed myself.
And would they like, do you think they're aware? Nico, no offense.
I don't know.
If you could charm me into it, I may be like, thank you, I know what you're doing.
They are aware, and you know which clients you can depend on for certain things. I have clients that would only buy during the sale period. But then there are those two came back like every other month.
I just wanted to bring it back to your childhood caause something you mentioned before we started recording was that comic books somehow played a role in the whole fashion Yes, yes, which is a surprise to me. When I was a child, I liked comics and have not fallen in love with fashion, So where where was that connection?
When I was kid and did collect a lot of comic books, I was like a huge X Men Explores, Excalibur and For a little while, I thought that I was going to grow up to be a comic book artist, and so, yeah, an artist. Yeah, So I would draw and invent my own superheroes. Then when it came to the women, I would start drawing not only their superhero costume, but what they would wear for the day.
Oh, Nico, I love that. How old were you do you think when you were doing this? This?
Or like first and second grade? And that was one of the reasons my mom wasn't surprised that I was gay. She's like, you know, when you told me you're gay, I was not surprised because your homework when you were a kid, your homework gowns on the You would draw these gowns as a kid on the back of your homework. So I thought, I think it's gay, that's yeah. So she was not surprised at all.
Please tell me you still have those sketches.
They're probably in the Philippines somewhere.
I do this every morning. I look at my closet. Nothing new has appeared, nothing has changed since the night before. But I'm always expecting to like put together that outfit that's going to make me feel like I'm taking on the day. Yeah, and it never happens. I don't have an eye for it. I've accepted it. But do you feel better when you are.
When you're put together? Yeah, you do feel better. I mean, listen, there are days when I'm feeling really crappy where I'm just like, you know what, today is a sweatpants and hoodie day. But there are days where I'm just like, maybe you should get out of the house and get some air and yep, try and feel a little bit better about yourself. And I will go through my closet and be like, what can I put on to feel like I am just a million dollars?
That's it?
And I really relish that fact. I'm also the type of person who might wait you so much. I've been skinny and fat all my life. I'm like Liberaci, I have so many different sizes in my closet.
I was gonna ask Nico about this. This may be apocryphal, but I'm a sort of the Barack Obama fashion school. What's that When he was president he was like, I want to wear the same suit every single day because his reasoning was like, I make enough decisions during the day deciding what I'm gonna wear is not worth the effort. I am like that, except I don't make very important decisions. I'm just lazy. This Amazon Basics red sweater that I'm wearing, it's been worn several times this week. Of course, once you're in a groove, is there anything wrong with staying in that groove?
Nah?
Here's the thing that really annoys me about being a public figure is that people expect you to be in new clothes every single day of your life. I don't prescribe to that. I buy clothing because I love that piece and I want to wear it more than what.
That's exactly right. Kate Middleton, Princess Princess Middleton, I just call her Kate.
We're friends, really, because I'm more of a Meghan boy myself.
She famously wears clothes twice, doesn't she? She wears stuff occasionally, she'll wear a well priced item.
I think that we're holding her to a pretty low bar if we're patting her on the back for wearing an item of clothing two times.
Do you think Queen Victoria would have done that, Scott, I think times are a change in Queen Victoria.
I don't want I don't want to start on queens me, what is your favorite garment of all time? In the spirit of re wearing stuff.
I'm not fitting into it right now, but there is. I have a teal leather bomber jacket.
Teal bomber jacket. I love it. I'm loving it for the record, googling this right now.
It's really cute and I love it. I love the way it fits on me. I love the way it's got. So that's one of the pieces I love.
What about you, Ellie, you have a favorite article of clothing.
I don't. I don't have appreciation. I think of the artistry that goes into it, Like when you are having a wardrobe fitting for work. Okay, how strong an opinion do you have about what the character is wearing. I never do. I very rarely do, because I don't trust myself to have a good view of how some thing should look.
Do you I do. It's actually the part of the process I look forward to the most because you developed the character in your head. But for me, the last piece of the puzzle is the costume.
Mm hmm.
So when I go into a fitting, I really enjoy that process of seeing what they've pulled and if it's not what I was picturing. Then I'm not shy about having a conversation of like can we gravitate towards these lines, these silhouettes. And it's never a conversation of like I wanna look hot. It's always like, how does the clothing serve the character of the world. And it depends on the production because when I was working on Superstore, some of the clothes they put my character in were like our money Paul smanth and I'm like, he works at a big box store, Like, why is there an eight hundred dollar card again on me? I'm not complaining, right, I love it. There are certain projects like for Marvel, for Guardians, costume designers at that level, I wouldn't dare give notes on something they created because I'm just like, this is Goodture.
I've always had this thing where if you walk into a room and you address a certain way, it does sort of speak before you do. This is so funny, Scott. I was actually thinking of you specifically.
Oh, I'm terrified of what's about to come out of your mouth.
It's a very nice thing. You always look respectful, you always have.
I always look like a high school history teacher.
That's the most respectful of all. When you put a little bit of attention and care into your appearance, it speaks a good volume about how you approach the world. That you're conscientious and you're considerate.
Yeah, I totally agree, But you sort of pull yourself together a little bit really does sort of like it changes your outlook and the way people see you. I mean, that's the thing like walking into the fancy stores. Let me tell you the way I'm treated when I walk in in a hoodie versus when I'm put together to shop for the day, And it is very different when I'm actually wearing my door bag and they're like, right, oh, sir, can I get you a glass of water like a temper?
I gotta start chopping it to your Bringing champagne to the customers.
They don't do that at Amazon Basics, No, they sure don't.
Not a Costco.
That is our trick, honey. Yes, when people come in and you know that this is going to be a two hour session, that's the first thing we bring out. Champaion coffee, prosecco.
Oh my gosh, that would trap me. If you get a drunkie buying high end clothing.
I love it. This has been outstanding, Miko. If you have time, would you stick around for a little game that we like to play with our guests.
I have nothing to do today, so yeah.
So the way this game works, Nico is we're going to just fire a couple of topics that you okay, and all you have to do is tell us if you love them or you love them.
You can't be lukewarm up. I kind of like it. No, No, that has no place here.
I like this game already.
All right, here we go. We'll jump right in as a shoe aficionado. Love it or loathe it? Toe shoes still load it?
Absolutely loath it? Yeah no, just we're sue.
That's the right answer.
So you'd recommend I get rid of mine.
There maybe is a function to that design, but it is atrocious to look at.
Fair enough, Okay, Nico, love it or loathe it? Karaoke love it.
I'm Filipino, honey all the time.
What's your go to?
This is how we do it? Mantel Jordan anything by Rick Ashley?
What is rick? As is escaping me? Right now?
We're gonna give you up the luck, dude.
There never around, Nico. You are taking my job as in house singing. But that's fine. I gratefully pass the baton.
Now do you like be karaoke songs or do you like sort of like slow jam ballady songs.
I want a ballad song that's like sort of haunted Halo. Of course.
No, no get here by Aletta Adams. You who reached me by well way, you who reached me by tray way. Remember that. I don't care how you get.
Get here when you can. Now we see our voices side by side, and we see who's winning. It's uniko. But I love that song.
That's a great karaoke song.
Do you know what, Scott, I am so terrified of this. I was terrified of the shoes, terrified of the fashion, terrified of the songs. I was literally before you guys started soulfully singing, I was gonna be like, what about Disney songs? Are those good ones? Because my go to is under the Sea.
I mean, that's a great one.
Thank you for validating me, Scott, don't question yourself. Well, thank you. I gotta love it or loath it for you. Nico as a comic book fashion expert pouches on belt.
Pouches and bells loathe it. I'm just like, carry a purse, hilarious, carry a purse?
Wait, does that extend to like a fanny patch? Like in real life? That's a pouch on a belt, right.
I know it's super trendy, but I don't like fanny packs. I like wearing the fanny pack as a crossbody.
That's what I do.
Nico.
Yeah, I don't like having that extra bulk on your waist. I already got a belly. I don't need.
I don't need a pouch on pouch.
Yeah, belly on belly. We don't like.
Nico love it or loathe it? Big box stores, Oh love it.
I love it. My absolute favorite thing to do actually is go to Costco.
There we go, Kindred spirits. I'm suddenly feeling comfortable again. Costco?
What do you love about it?
Every Costco is localized, so they all have different items for sale. The whole experience is a fun discovery maze. And before meeting me, my fiance Zeke was not a Costco person and didn't understand the point of Costco. Uh oh, and I was just like, honey, we are gonna need laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper, towel. Yeah, dishwash is soap. The sheetcake come.
On, Oh you had a sheet cake?
Sheetcake joke, It's like a blanket size.
It's so good. Guys. I'm in the wilds of Manhattan. There's not a Costco that close to me.
When are you gonna be in Los Angeles, LA? We should go to Costco.
I'm there all summer, so watch out.
Love it or loads it? Nico. You I noticed I have one of my dream credits is a Muppets credit, so I have to ask love it or loads it? Working with Puppets love it?
It was great. I only did a day of the Muppets, but it was truly just like, I cannot believe that Animal and Zuit are just two feet away from me. This is insane.
Would you look at that puppeteer or the puppet.
It was very easy to forget that the puppeteer was there. Yeah, because you've known the Muppets since you were a kid.
It is magic.
There was a moment where we hadn't shot our scene yet, and I was walking around and I stumbled upon Animal talking to a bunch of kids. And the way these kids faces lit up, they were just so like, oh my god, what is this creature that I'm talking to? It was really really amazing.
Okay, Nico, you claim you love working with puppets, love it or low that working with me the.
Love at Hello, that's the right answer. That truth was so much fun. I miss our crew.
I miss our crew, Scott. All of these I'll call them children. They weren't really. It felt like they were all in their twenties, felt so young in him. But we were all just like hiking in the woods. It was It was fun.
It was really great.
Yeah, that's the end of our game. Nico. We have so enjoyed talking with you today. Thank you for being on Born to Love. We loved having you.
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. It was really good to see you after all this time.
I know.
Thanks for listening to Born to Love. We'll be back next week with brand new things that we love.
We want to hear from you. Leave us a review in Apple Podcasts and tell us what you love. We might even ask one of our guests in an upcoming love it or Load it.
Born to Love is hosted and created by Ellie Kemper and Scott Ecker.
Our executive producer is Aaron Coffman. Our producers Areshena Ozaki and Zoe Danklab.
Born to Love is part of Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network in collaboration with iHeart Podcasts. Special thanks to Hans Sonny.
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