Explicit

"Sponge" (w/ Hannah Einbinder)

Published Jun 19, 2024, 10:00 AM

Y'all are about to be sponge. Finally, Hannah Einbinder is on Las Cultch! Hannah and our hosts fight through tears to chat about her new MAX special Everything Must Go, acting across from The Legend (JS) on Hacks and being shocked it's happening, the current generational divide on the state of comedy and the happy challenge of balancing acting and stand up. Also, Bring It On as formative culture, Hannah's storied history as a competitive cheerleader and the emotional moment when she knew she had done her last ever back tuck. All this, Chappell Roan's wild ascendance, how every wig is a stepping stone, the sad state of Bennifer, the impossible task of packing shoes in luggage and how badly it hurts when you stub your toe. Watch Everything Must Go and Hacks now! FYC: Hannah Einbinder as iconic and exemplary LC guest. That's crockt.

Look, oh, I see you my own look over there is that culture. Yes, goodness, loves cult.

Love culturing. What voice are you picking today posts Fire Island? Well, okay, let's just here's the peak that comes behind the curtain every now and then.

If you're from the fight hours ago, we got off the ferry and say, ill off of what I would say, it was a really wonderful trip.

Lovely and shorter than you. We usually do sorter than usual, which is.

Not necessarily a function of the quality of the trip. It's like, certainly not. You can have a short trip that's awful, or a long trip it's great.

But what I love is that we typically go to Fire Island for days on end, where we scream and drink alcohol. Right before we sort of ambitionous well record the Pakistan ambitiously do the Culture Awards, sing and we put we put ourselves up there and we raise our hands and volunteer this thing difficult material.

Difficult to By the time this episode releases, the Culture Awards will have happened. Yeah, our guests will have storm the stage, storm the stage, and you will be able to judge in.

Posterity. Yeah, posterity, Yeah, posterity.

It's like when you know what this really bothers some people when you say looking back in retrospect, it's like you're sort of.

Double dipping atm machine. But sometimes you have to keep.

Reminding yourselves in a sentence what you're saying, like looking back in retrospect, I can remember. It's like this is all asked and answered. But it doesn't hurt no, to keep letting the audience know what you mean.

That's language.

That's language. Can we rail against people who say that we say like too much.

I see what you're doing. It's not going to work.

We see what you're doing, and it's giving gen x, non derogatory, but it is giving gen x.

I think that when sometimes when you say like in a sentence, it gives the other words power and context and no one's talking about Every language has filler words. One language we do speak pop culture. Now something has hit the headlines, and we actually laughed about it for about seven or eight minutes, which is a long time to laugh about one single news item in the car just now, but it was a really good one, and that was that Yolanda Saldivar, the I guess you know, murderer of Selena has come out and said that when she gets released, she gets paroled in twenty twenty five, she would love to work with Shakira.

She wants to work with Shakira. That's like where she sees her next move.

And then someone very funny quote tweeted quote hosted girl, you're not working with anybody when you're out. We're jumping with a pearl hit. We're jumping you what's not what's not clicking?

The what's not clicking was really an important part of it. Are we allowed to jump Yolanda?

I'm not gonna jump Yolanda, but I'm certainly not gonna I'm not gonna say to anyone out there that's gonna jump Yolanda upon her you know, freedom down.

Some people, you know did a bad thing and she is currently serving time for that thing.

But and that's a real culture victual culture number thirteen did a bad thing and she is currently serving time for that thing.

That's the rule. That's actually the rule.

And Yolan, I would prefer if y'all want to stay locked up. Yeah, I don't want to talk about parole when it comes to you.

I don't want to talk about parole when it comes to Yolanda because then I think and then I think about the prison system at large, and it depresses.

It's so depressing. I don't want to think about anything depressing, you know what I mean? Like, I want to live in a world of joy, happiness.

And more and more. I I constantly am waking up in the morning and I think, how can I make this a wonderful day that encompasses joy, that encompasses joy? Joy? What and more? Oh? Laughter and more joy? I think what I just say?

Joy? Laughter, and our brains are on too, but we're not complaining. No, Well, wait, what won the most Bowen Yang Coded Award? Oh it wasn't Matt TV's Tomato soap Tomato soapd Tomatoes. I suggested that what should win the award for most bonyang Coded Award was mad TV. I thought that would be humorous, you know, the humorous joke in the show. And Bowen got a little shy and he said, no, it should be tomato leaves. I don't disagree. I would have loved to have Matt TV be most bonyank Coded.

I just think what is most bon yank coded is still is the luave not to make this anymore. A lot of the girls are doing tomatoes.

And it soaps. Do you think it's because of this podcast? No, no, no, I think there was. People did their market research and.

Here I was thinking we were tasting No, no, never, listen. I do want to say I'm happy that my most Matt Rogers coded it was the expression not for nothing, for nothing. I think that was really good and not for nothing. This episode, this little overdue. This well, it's award winning.

It's award win.

We've we've just gotten news that this episode has already won awards.

It's in the front runner for a glad Ward. We're glad. Oh my god, Like you.

Just want to thank all of our LGBTQ plus supporters out there.

But you know who you are.

And I think we've picked a true representative of the queer community today to be on the podcast.

Well, I was going to say earlier that this is someone who encompasses the joy, laughter and more.

Joy, laughter and more.

I don't think about It's the opposite of me thinking about the prison system. I think about this person and I feel expansive, I feel joyful. I feel the opposite of depressed.

I don't think of prison at all when I think no, I feel like, in fact, my shackles are off.

Yes, yeah, this person say it was out with us into the dawn hours of the S and L finale.

And can I say something, well, of course, so it being an arcade, there was of course a game where you kill kills with a real gun. And the way I saw her use the gun, maybe she should be in prison.

Hey, lock her up, let her speak, Let's bring her in everyone, well, get a hold on before before we bring her in.

Yeah, she's the star of Hack. I have some respect.

Just finish its incredible third season, yep, and her special Everything Must Go comes out June thirteenth on HBO.

It's a big moment. Can I say, right now, Bowen Yang, do it again? Do that again?

Bowen Yang has his arm on my shoulder and it is a grip and if you don't know, let's go on tight on this.

Cow intense the grip he has on me. Bowen Yang has me. He's choking me out through my shoulder. Everything must go. The bony shoulder.

That was a fun joke from I Love That for you, like where they showed the best part of a woman, the bony shoulder.

That's really fun. But that show got canceled, but it's.

Coming back for season four is Hacks, and we we really want to see what happens next because it's a cliffhanger emotional.

Oh, but it's it gets flipped at the end.

The first time I saw our guests, I pointed to her and out loud to myself, I said star quality.

And I've been saying it to this day.

We will continue to say, continue to say. Everyone, please welcome into your ear.

Hannah, I'm blinder. Are you already bursting out? Don't cry? Joy?

Thank you?

Oh my god, don't you Why would you cry in front of us?

What do we do?

I'm sorry, this is so grit, but no, don't I really love you that? And now you know we love you.

We've loved you all along.

Read Are you bad?

Oh my god, it's ear. I'll tell you this.

Really, I'm so sorry.

This is iconic.

You got.

Truly a film. This is unreal. What's happening?

Is you see?

For me, it's like John Paul Ringo Georgie.

Like dumb because genuinely sobbing.

I run.

I want a radio contest to be here. I am a fan.

I literally like, I feel like it's so embarrassing you haven't been on It's crazy. It's a big, big, big over We're embarrassed.

Okay, was that?

Did that feel like a release of other things that week? What's going on?

No?

I I genuinely like I listened to every episode and I okay, here I go.

I'm sorry.

It's like, I just appreciate your guys love and I appreciate you guys.

Did you see the way he was grasping my soldier you felt how hard it was?

Look like, genuinely I appreciate you guys sharing your love with us. And also like I have you know, like maybe you guys have this experience where like you listen to podcasts when you are hello and you're like, I'm.

Not allowed it was this a pandemic thing? Did it happen during the pandemic?

Totally? Totally.

That's why I feel this way when I see poverty.

Yeah. Yeah, it can translate to film and television as well.

I want people to know that it can. I mean, here's the thing.

I really like, it's like bowls me over that you say that, because legitimately I do remember going to just for laughs and I saw it was not the New Faces set that you did, but it was one in a smaller.

Space with all the skulls.

The one was that.

Yeah, it was bizarre, like there are these satellite shows that happened around the big showcase events. I just remember like you going up there and you were everyone was amazing, but like you couldn't forget you, and it's like it is it's like an intangible that you have. It was like, well, I of course remember your bit with the mic standwhich I thought was truly brilliant, and I was like, I've never.

Seen this before, but like you really are.

It's just like, I mean, it's so unsurprising to see that you become this like fucking star and catch you in this moment is so great. I was so happy that you could come in this week, and like it has to be a feeling, like a very big moment, like you know how it feels when like you're having like that thing like this finale came out, everyone's so emphatic about it.

Now the special you're having a fucking moment bo thank you.

It does feel really good. It feels really warm. I am new to being able to receive it as well, which is so nice. Oh, you know, because it kind of bounces off or it sticks for five or fifteen minutes and then it leaves the body, of course.

But now you're feeling like it's it's it's keeping a bit.

Yeah, it's really nice.

What do you think is the instinct I want to toss that off when someone is like, hey, I see you and what you're doing is fucking great. Like, what do you think it is that makes you want to respond the way where it's like no, because I.

Do get that.

I mean, I think it's just low self esteem and the inability. I don't think it's a tossing off so much as it is an inability to grasp it at all. Ah, you know, I think like it's just you know, you cannot you have to have like that feeling in yourself first, so cliche, but it feels like I also think it's like conditioned in comedians who are just so like sharks, like just you're just swimming around and then after you've eaten, you're hungry again, and it's like every set is like, Okay, that was good, and then you're only as good as your last set, and it's like this thing of like you're constantly having to reevaluate your worth and you're constantly being told externally whether you're doing.

And sometimes you could get three different things in one night. Yeah, Hannah.

Hannah and Tim Heidecker witnessed me spiraling at the snl F and now, oh my god, okay, really no, because my fucking update got cut.

Which by the way, and it's like the costume was so like, it was so grand and I want to be in that drag and it getting cut and I.

Associated, and then I was in paint cans and then you and Tim came and my brain was like wait, like that's a friend. And then I like that was my body not receiving this like stimulus of like you should be happy that this is happening now, but you are so upset and sad and furious.

I cannot tell you how much I understood in the moment and now of of course, like you're in this thing. I had never seen the show in that capacity before. It is crazy. Yeah, that is psychotic.

What's the thing that people don't get is like when things get cut, they get cut, and you're in the costume, a.

Costume or the prosthetic or the whatever, like oh my god, You're just standing there and it's like, okay, now, like you have no time to process that is fucked up. That is fucked up.

Yeah, it was an update that got cut during air, which I'm telling y'all doesn't happen, and the fact that it happened was what was upsetting.

I'm sorry, no, no, no, it's okay.

We turned to you and you broke down. Both felt that felt like he could say this here with you, and I think that is kind of nice about like seeing other comedians in these spots where you never really fucking saw yourself, Like I don't know if you and you can answered this question, did you ever see yourself leading a dramedy like that really does because it's obviously hilarious show, but like you are doing some stuff on there, you are pulling a big, heavy emotional.

Bags and you look across the table and guess who it is. It's the legend. It's JS, and it's JS.

And I think we've all had version of this where you're like, what the fuck am I doing here? I'm supposed to be at Union Hall for like a fifteen time and I'm paying them to let me go, Exactly like I'm used to I'm used to meeting the poutine at Union Hall before I go. Yeah, literally, and that was the whole bit, was my fart, like and like they're supposed to pay me in two Brooklyn Laggers after we performed Suck. Yeah, you know what I mean, Like it's and then all of a sudden you're there with the legend. Did you ever see that for yourself? Was it comedy ever a means to an end to acting for you? Or is this like something that has happened.

It is, in every possible conceivable way, something that has happened. I never once even thought about this being my life or path. I had no TI. I mean, I was in the fucking I you know, I just it was not so I didn't.

Yeah, I saw you doing the stand up.

I was like, I know what she does is stand up, and then all of a sudden you get up there and you're doing the thing with jam and.

I'm going, what did you get your taking a risk? Paul Jenny Legia? How did you know?

Oh?

I could have done like, but how did they know? I'm like the audition scenes that I did, yes, there was there were some that were serious, but like I never cried or anything like that, Like, how could they have known it was a big I mean, I'd see it as a big gamble on their part. I'm glad they rolled the dice, yes, but like I mean, yeah, I never I never thought that I would do this at all, and it has been such a gift because, as you know, like solar performance is very isolating, and you almost don't know how isolating it is until you do it in a group. And you know, I am very much. I was just you know, stand up comedian vibes featuring touring road dot com. And now it's like totally different and I love acting. It has become a deep, deep love of mine. But I would say, yeah, stand up is definitely my first love and it was what I hoped to do it just you know, Hacks has totally made being a stand up comedian in the capacity that I have always wanted. Single handedly made it possible. Like you know, I would be the fuck Holiday and Express and goddamn wherever the fuck you know without.

That's a good they actually they have good records. That's really good. And the coffees well too hot.

But give it some time, give some cool.

I think it's very Special that Sandy Honik directed the sashion You're I mean, just the best my bestie, bestie, but this is like, this is the thing that maybe takes it out of an isolating experience, which is bring a friend in collabor vision, you collaborate on it.

Like Sandy and I were like, I mean we've just always been like, dude, you know, it would be sick, dude, you know, I'd be sick, like back and forth over the years, like if I ever got to do a special, even when it was like so far off into the future, like we'd be like stoned in the backyard, like arranging sticks and leaves, like what the stage would look like, like like legit like and also like you know, with the special, we really wanted it to feel filmic and beautiful and create a certain aesthetic and reference various like like film hormances, and it just was this thing where like we had total creative synergy on this, like in the post process, like every single day, like literally she would be behind me and we'd be looking at the edit and we'd be trying to tell our editor like where we want to cut, and we'd clap in unison and it would be like i'd turn back because we're just like on the same wlad.

Like when it's two people. When when too consciousness is you for mind, you create a mind totally.

And she's a comedian as well, obviously. Yeah, so she and I would she would open for me on the road sometimes, and like she's seen My Hour in its various iterations, and so she really knew the material and she has the ability in the live performance to go now you know all that stuff because she is so in it with me and we just laugh and laugh and laugh and go what would be the most gorgeous thing? And then we do that. It's awesome.

I just feel like she is so limitless in terms of her talent. I mean, like like I just get so excited about Sandy all the time. I get excited about Sandy on screen. I get excited about what she does with photo. I get excited about this, like her writing, Like I would imagine that it's not just about.

Her being so talented in terms of knowing what she wants and knowing what.

You want, but also her being really gifted at being able to hold space for you as someone who I'm gauging is like very emotional, like you know what I mean, Like it matters a lot. I know that they always say, likeways, you always say, don't take yourself so seriously, don't take yourself so seriously. And we get to a certain place because we've followed that advice, and then all of a sudden, you're forced too, and it's like, I.

Don't know how to do this.

So just turning around and looking and seeing someone that you really trust, that's like we're figuring it out together. I'm here, I'm not gonna let you look stupid. If you look stupid, we're both gonna look stupid. So let's fucking go for it and do the thing that we know we can do it. Just you believe it because that person has never given you like reason to doubt them.

Yeah, and I'm literally pointing at him because that's who it is for me.

That's what I was going to say, Like, you guys know the specific type of synergy that occurs when you are creating something with someone you really love, who really knows you, and you do create one mind Ah, that is really that is as good as it gets.

Like you did you feel like when you did the special, like you were able to walk away and be like I did it.

I feel like I did it the best I fucking could.

Well, Okay, I have a question for you. Did you do two shows?

Did you do one to one right after another?

And because it was singing, I felt really scared, And then once it was done, I was like, Okay, thank god we did too right back to back because.

It was fine in the edit.

How much did you use of like split?

We went like song by song.

If I thought I gave a better performance than the one, I just used the whole take of that song, and then there was some creative stuff. But because it's music, it's a little different. But yes, we used a lot of both, a lot of both, and sometimes there was a little vanity in it.

So I and this definitely also speaks to the like it's good to have someone there who knows you and who can be like holding. I use majority late show because I think just generally, like the first show is filled with the people who bought tickets early. They were there on time, they lined up at five pm. They are there for the early show. They're like just applause after every you know, after every joke where I'm going like too much.

You're excited to see me, was that good?

Yeah, Like I definitely ended up using more of the late show, and I was in a place after the early show and people constantly say this to me, and they have always said this to me, and I am happy that this is the case. But it is that, like, you know, I'll feel a certain way after a set and people go, are you serious? You look so confident because my like if you will persona is like a very heightened version of myself. It is confident, like swaggy whatever. And so like the first performance, like I wanted to kill I literally, I know what it's going to be after I say, good evening the first thing, and it's like they were warm and they were there, but like there was the crowd, no shade, thank you for the support. They lack of sexuality, you know what I mean. I want people to have be a little licked up. I want a couple of drinks in like you know what I mean. I want them loose. And so the first show was giving you know, there was a platonic energy in the crowd.

That's a beautiful energy to when you're committing it to film.

That's right, that's right, that's right. So it did end up being like, you know, first show, I was like, like I genuinely was in the back going like maybe maybe stand up isn't meant to be film, Maybe maybe it's all for not. Maybe maybe we we shouldn't have it was a fool's era, and we I should stay live, I should stay on the road. And then the second show, I was like I am a god.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, So you're able to exist in both those things. I wonder like when you were younger, when you were like first starting out, were you someone that was like, I can do this because I know I can do it, or were you someone that was like, I'm being trepidacious and I'm going to prove it to myself.

I mean, it definitely was like show to show, Mike to Mike, performance to performance, like oscillating, but I definitely think that I quickly learned that, like, yeah, we go up at the open mic with things that we think are like I think this is as good as and all my other good ship, and they just are telling you no. They are telling you now, no problem, and it's like agree to disagree. But also like audience is king like they actually ultimately never wrong, They're never wrong, and they decide so and they decide I'm glad, which is so yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're talking about it. I love talking about that.

Okay, So I had like this is an analogy. I guess it's like do doctors performing surgery for a crowd, like have them weigh in, and it's like, wait, should I'm I'm the expert. Actually, you know what I mean? Like sometimes I do feel that in my jadedness where I'm like, yeah, wait, but it's you, I'm It's I'm the one, and it's I know that isn't the case. And ultimately, like they do win every time and thank you to the audience, but sometimes it's frustrating.

This is a thing that I like about working and as is that the people who run it have always abided by this notion of the audience is always right. Yeah, they know better than me do Like it doesn't matter what I let's say, Lorden Michaels thinks, like is the best piece of comedy. They are the arbiters in every situation, no exceptions, and like that is I think for me, what's getting a lot of like getting in the way of like this generational divide.

In terms of like what comedy is.

It's like it's these comedians who are like, oh, like the audiences have changed, and they're not they're wrong now. No, it's it's just that they've they've always been right. They were right back in the day. They're right now.

It's you who's changed.

You who's changed. It's you who has not changed, right right, right right.

You are the fixed point. And maybe that's the problem. And like I think this is a good thing for everyone to have personally, Yeah, totally, Like is just this this way of like.

Filling in the container. Yeah, and you hold like.

Look as a performer and as someone who gets on stage, like you have this feeling of like, ah, I had faith in this thing. I believed in this thing, in this joke, whatever it may be. But yeah, like at the end of the day, really it's just not up to you. And that's like fine, that's what it is. Yes, And ultimately, like you do get that feedback, especially when you tour, like you do get that feedback across the board. Yeah, it's really rare that it's like, oh, it's didn't work everywhere and then it worked here, Like it's very ye. And then if it does it's like you can't trust that. You have to trust the failure actually, and you're also not.

Going to win in litigation against the audience, you know what I mean. It's like afterwards, it's it is over. It should live and die there, and there should be something to be learned from that. But it feels like a not only is this conversation that a lot of people are having about how like older comics and from another generation and you know the icons that are like constantly reilling against this, it kind of just feels like this is not an interesting topic and if you haven't discovered that, you can't say anything funny about it.

Now move on.

I was like really happy about what Julia Louis Dreyfus was that she said it was in response to this idea of like kind of everyone of that male generation being like, you know, the audiences are fucked up. You know, Seinfeld says what he says, et cetera. And we've all heard odd nauseum from the usual suspects about how woke culture is killing comedy. But she was like, I feel like it's a huge red flat when we're so fixated on this, And she was like, what's really killing comedy, and what's really killing content is the consolidation of wealth and power, which is in and of itself kind of a way to drag them and not for nothing, not blown, not like revealing anything here, but she knows wealth, I mean, like Julia Lewis dragon total like she you know what I mean, Like it's like she understands like.

How it all works and how it all moves.

And to be in power in comedy, I mean, she's been one of the brand names of comedy since the nineties. So to look around and see everyone fixating on this thing and it's not getting funny or a more interesting from that vantage point, it's like this is also a worthwhile opinion here, which is just like maybe we need to look a little bit about how we are uncomfortable with the fact that we can't necessarily swing our dicks as.

Big and as loud anymore. Maybe that's our issue.

And it's like the greatest numbers, like what Dave Chappelle's Netflix deal was like sixty million dollars and they offer like our peers, like two hundred k all told all production costs to pay every single person on the crew, every single fee, every single everything yeah, you're in the you're in the in the red. By the end of it, it's like, what's that you guys don't have like you know what I mean, It's it's just crazy.

Like we're all doing a comedy show on Saturday.

Not that it like compares to like anything that like is out there in the sort of content mass, but like we are putting up a show where we're not necessarily like walking out with a big like not at all.

Yeah, that's not what it's for, Like all that is going into the show itself.

And it's like totally fine for like an older generation of comedians to be like, well, culture is killing comedy. But it's like Seinfeld is taking a step further by saying that's why comedies don't get made anymore, right, He's like he's like that's why like comedy movies don't open or don't get like theatrical releases. Like he's like blaming it on that, which I think is like so interesting, because there are means to make comedies every day we are doing on our little scale, like and it's fun and it's we think it's different than like what's out there.

I don't know, like not not that I'm like, no one knows why anything doesn't work either.

It's like again, it's just like the audience didn't want to see it, and they're again they're not wrong, and they're not wrong.

Well, I think often sometimes people in power are inherently risk averse, and so like our job is inherently we are prone to risk, and so that is where the incongruency lies. And it's like they're just not they they need something that is so so obvious in their minds to work in their minds to take a chance on it, which is just I guess like a product of you know, the new streaming era and all of the growth that they need to create and this like ever rising level of monetary gain that needs to be in place. It's like just you know, to Julia's point, that is what's happening.

It's just like so shitty, Like what there's so many like young comics that are like rising up that are like and yet this dominating common Harry is like, well, comedy is dead, Like comedy is not happening. This is what's killed comedy. It's like, look around, like there's there's great comedians and it does feel obviously very sexist and you know, homophobic and racist, and it's undertones and all those things.

But it's just like, where are the jokes about this?

Make it funny, Make it funny, you know, dance for us monkey like you did in the beginning, Jerry Seinfeld. Literally in my first job, Jerry Seinfeld, really given, My first job was in a sketch on comedians and cars getting caught and Michael Richards. It was the Jimmy Fallon episode. And this was back in the day when it was on Crackle Crackle, and like I came out and like played like a some version of a gay assistant who was like, you know, taking their pressed juice order and everything. But it was me, Michael Richards and Jerry Snfeld and it was the first time I had seen Michael Richards act or do anything since since, which I have to imagine does inform the way that a lot of people like seeing people get canceled in like an o G way, like notwithstanding whether they absolutely deserved it or not. But she's like, huh, this could happen. I'm I have my guard up now, and now it's the opportunity for this brown swell of like.

How do we like theirs their right right right.

I will say I love comedians and cars getting coffee, but it is like, so oh my god, all of the like like Jim Carrey and Gary Shandling and like, no, it's great, all of the fucking incredible, just like a window into like these people in a way that we've never seen them before.

You like cars, I do like cars.

I like to drive.

You like to drive. I love driving. You love the open road?

I love driving?

Yeah, Freedom, great show for your season two. Must have felt incredible.

Yeah, yeah, totally in the bus in the sticking my head out like a dog. Oh yeah, tongue clapping around the wind. Yeah that's me.

That's yeah. I do picture it. Go ahead of the special or handa driving, handah driving. What do you listen to in the damn car?

Oh?

A lot of classics, A lot of classic classic rock America. Bread, hand read, you know what I mean, Steely Dan, you know what I mean? Fucking the Eagles man, Okay.

I wonder Hanson is probably clutching their heart to be able to be mentioned. Bread. People really like right off? Bread? What's with that?

What's with that?

We're also tired. You got to come out of here. And workshop these jokes to find out doesn't lie. That wasn't good. They didn't like that bread joke. It got a respond.

Maybe there's an absolute value to keep coming back a response. Then it means it's something.

All right. So we're talking about getting on the open.

And when I think about you driving and listening to music, I think about you consuming culture, which leads me to sort of like as the question, the big question from the podcast, which is Hannah, I minder, what was the culture that made you say culture was for you?

Here we go, bring it on.

You?

So I saw bring it on when I was far too young to see it. It would have been considered quote unquote inappropriate.

Got it number.

I would say, I was seven, and you know, they're talking BJ, they're talking F, they're talking you know several other letters, you know what I mean. Yeah, so so in the air well that actually, you know, I would say that my liberal Los Angeles Jewish family was actually being like, okay, slay to that. But words et cetera, yea, like a douchew that's not for my child, crocked, crocked. Sorry, that's that's one of my little me and me and Sandy. We actually Crocked c r O c K Crock Time c r O c K T well titled that rock Crocked Sandy feels. Ok Oh, if I may just a sidebary, I have a couple more words that we've kind of please have been in the rotation, So if and you guys can please feel free to use this, no need to credit me whatsoever. Like I just kind of want this to permeate the culture, if you will. So this word is sponge. Sponge would be said when you take something in so completely that it becomes you fun.

So it's kind of that's sponge spun.

But you know what I mean if somebody says something that feels like it's almost church, you know, gospel sponge, but I'm absorbing that sponge, I like, you know what I mean, I like. And then another one would be something is so left And that's just when something's not.

Right right, you know what I mean, Like it had done been gone left.

Exactly, I would say, exactly, the discourse is less, it's left left, the party.

Left, it was left.

We we had fun and then like around like one kind of left, know, like.

After Hannah shot down the zombies the arcade.

It just went left.

It just left. There was no right after that.

Yeah, say that you really tore it up. Yeah, that was kind of my first time on the on the g on the gun. Well you know it was, but you know I kind of got into my like mister and missus Smith to see a little bit picturing you. Yeah, I was like I was Angelina in that moment. It was kind of that.

I do want a Hannah Einbinder movie in which not to glorify this, but in which she holds a gun.

I'm ready to do that. I'll be honest with you. I'm ready to do action because you should as as aforementioned. And I will circle back. I was a competitive cheer leader for years and so I am agile.

So let's go back to Bring it On.

Okay.

So, so.

I saw Bring it On at like seven or eight, and I said, this is my life now.

So I uh my first year from I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular, but like from.

Yes first vivid and uh uh uh wait, I'm sexy, I'm cute, I'm popular, the boys all up to stare. I'm wanted, I'm hot, I'm everything you're not.

I smile, I'm cool. I dominated this school. I just guys, I want to touch my chest.

I rocking, I smile and anything.

Vile, I sile, I jump. You can look, but don't you humph. I'm major.

I roar, I swear a whore.

We cheer and we lead. We act like ground.

CEA hate us because we're beautiful, lowlea like you either weren't your leaders.

We aren't your leaders. All come eating Red, I'm Courtney round. I made my color.

Yeah, just godzzy, I'm still big Red.

I sizzle, I scorched, and now I pass the torch. The ballance are in and one girl has to win Turkey. She's lying and now she's in kicking the chorus you're taking.

I'm gonna made rs your captains.

We are the mighty monitors were so terrific. It must be guitars. Wow, that lived right.

Anyway? So I saw that, and obviously I was radicalized.

Yeah, how do you know what I mean? Did you just see us all chip like?

It is an iconic opening to a movie, iconic that they should teach in school.

Yeah, yeah, that's one million and and I would have liked to see that in film school. But you know, they got to show. I gotta watch the Bicycle Thief, whatever.

The many times brutiful Laundrette.

No exactly, thank you, thank you anyway, but that but.

That film you're seeing it in the theaters. You can remember saying it saw that.

I got it. I saw it at home. I believe it was PHS and or possibly a DVD. And I saw that and I said I have to do this. And so that summer I was enrolled in a cheer camp.

Not being comedy, you're acting, actually cheerleading. Actually how you know? It really works?

It really worked. It is culture that made me say life was for me. Yeah, okay, I said, I'm going to keep living.

Actually, now I was like, is any is it all the cheerleading or is any part of it the tickle which is what I call it when you start to feel a little bit LGBTQ.

Plus well, of course, missy guy, I transferred from Los Angeles your school. It's a dynastics team.

This is the last visitor, I mean.

And by the way, it's like and then like, y'all remember stick it.

I didn't. I never saw a sticket, but I suggest.

I suggest seeing it. It's really really awesome and also very LGBT, of course specifically l if you will and I will, you know what I mean. So yeah, it definitely was, of course, I mean and then like, but I'm a cheerleader obviously, like okay, well and I saw that when I was already out, but you know, so, so yeah, I enrolled in cheer camp and then I joined a competitive team that was a co ed team in Marina del Rey.

And what age is this? Now?

This is now I'm kind of blurry on my past generally, but this is probably nine because I've been like from like seven, I was like in cheer camp, and then like nine to maybe eleven, I was on this one team in Marina del Ray and then I switched to an all girls gym in Pasadena and we competed all over the country and it was like wow, yeah competitive, Yes.

Like y'all were in Yes, yes, like you were the Ranchocarnates.

Even more so, I would say, like even more yeah, which you know, it is hard to do, especially in LA in the LA area, it's more of like the middle of the country South type thing.

You and CD Green need to really connect on this because she has done a lot of research on like youth cheers.

Yes, cheerleading, Yes, yes, that is. It's a wild world, wild world. And I will say that I credit a lot of my determination for perfection and hard work to cheerleading.

Because you know, nothing else was acceptable.

No, it's hurt, genuinely. It's like, do you want to fly? Then you better? You better sore for perfection, darling. You know what I mean, because I'll knock you back down to backspot in a second. You want to stay on the ground, then hit the goddamn heill strike.

I am very afraid.

I'm giving you one tent right now. I'm giving you one ten.

I believe that you're only give me one ten.

Looks and you are looking at me in my eyes, and I am not stepping You know what I mean when you say so, did you ever like sort of because you are you do have this power.

Did you rise to the levels of leadership?

I was captain of the varsity cheer My god, this is high school. So then, of course I went to my high school career, which was actually quite tragic, because you know, I came from this intense world and this was such a huge part of my identity. And then in high school, you know these girls, you know there were a couple of girls. I want to shout out Kayla countrymen and how to use the LAC and how to use the LAC. They came from competitive cheerleading. Kayla came from competitive cheer in Central California. Heidi from Georgia. And so these girls they were coming into JV try out standing tucks, you know what I mean, Like they were they were ready to got you. You know what I mean, they were ready to go. And the rest of the girls, you know, I shouldn't speak, I shouldn't speak out of turn. I'm sure they had. You know, Look, it just we were on different pages. We were just on different pages.

No, And that's that's nobody's fault.

It's nobody's fault.

It's just how it's what the configuration wasn't exactly you.

Kala and Heidi were coming from yea a particular let's say, stocks of cheer That's right.

We were striving for perfection. And the other girls were, you know, they were they were on the team.

Sure. So then when you get to the end of high school, is there a moment of torrents where you're like, what is my life now?

So I was used to like very intense conditioning, springboard, like professional cheerleading equipment, all of these things, and I was kind of you know, I went from tumbling on like a gymnastics floor to grass and track. So at football games, we'd be on the track and I'd be doing like, you know, seven back handsprings in a row or something, and it would be like this thing of like I'm kind of it's hard on the body. Yeah, And over time I gradually lost skill, and I will never forget the last time I threw around up by canspring tuck and then I got swooped.

I got scared, and it was like it was like this is the last oh you felt leave.

I did a round off by can spring and I sprung up to do the tuck and I couldn't, Like I genuinely, I genuinely could not do the back tuck. And it was just like I walked away like it was just gone.

I was.

I was, yeah, I left me, and she was you do.

You think, in confronting that moment that that was an emotional slash mental block or do you believe that it was physical and your body was just like we have exceeded the time where this is like a safe thing for us to do.

It was emotional and mental. Wow. I had poured so much time and effort into the team into trying to get gym space for the girls to tried up their skill, to try to work on. Okay, how about everybody goes for a back can spring? We try to make that the goal and the whole team can do a standing by can't spring? And you know, the amount of effort and time and concern I poured into the high school team was you know, it was a lot. You could call it unhealthy. I was very very serious about it, like very serious, but I know what I mean.

Y'all were high school students. You know what I mean.

It's like this is you don't know what how big the vessel is for you to pour all your yourself into. And you sound like you were a great, great captain, Thank you fantastic, But well probably.

Because it was because if you weren't, then what you know what I mean? I just remember, like I was captain on my track team, and I also got to like a place where I remember it just it became my identity in a way where it was like okay. So then at the end of it, when you do ultimately decide to walk away the breakdown you have, like do you have like a breakdown? Because I remember calling my father and telling him I had done a week of the track team at n y U, and then I was like it was became so clear that I was meant to pursue other things and actually try to become myself and stop and track was amazing, but like it was a crutch for me to get through high school being good at that and having purpose and having authority. No one could like check you or fuck with you because you were an effective part of something that was like accepted in the school as being a worthwhile social and physical thing. He's on the diversity team, et cetera. And when I had to call my father and tell him that I was leaving the team, I didn't even know I was going to get that upset because it's not just you quitting that, it's you quitting this thing that's been definitive. Yes, that thing that's defined you, that's been most associated with you and being productive and successful.

Was your dad, like sports dad at the games, like super cheerleader vibes.

My dad was pretty much if he didn't start as the coach of everything I did, finish the coach of everything like that. Like he I remember, he was very unhappy with like the coaching I was getting in track and field season wise. Cross country wasn't good enough, swinder trap wasn't good enough, springtrack wasn't good enough. So he ended up learning how to coach it and then was the pretty much the best track coach I had ever had.

Wow. Yeah, okay, so it was it was a loss for both of you.

I mean I don't think so, because he was like, I don't care. I just want you to be happy and do something. He was like, go right for the school paper or whatever, whatever's going to like motivate you. But I didn't get that because, like you're saying, it's like it has to be this thing that's like because I don't know what I even am. Yes, So that's why it's frustrating, is because like I don't know who I am, and us all being I think closeted queer at the time, probably that is extra scary because you're like, no, it means something like I have to have an identity. If I don't have an identity, especially like when you're going to college and we went to New York for college where everyone knows who they are and everyone knows where they're going, and everyone's busy and everyone's plugged in, and suddenly you're like, whoa, I'm not that and I'm.

Used to being that.

Yes, it is a huge identity crisis. And it's like you see did y'all watch the Kelsey that documentary?

Kel see the Jason Kelsey Dogs Jason.

It was so cool, it was like this, It felt like it will resonate because it like explored this thing where like an athlete has to walk away from their sport and like because your body just whatever, whatever the reason. In my case as well, I was also graduating in the college that I went to didn't have like their tier team was dancers with mom moms. It wasn't actually and like for whatever reason, like walking away. It is a huge identity crisis and it's so devastating and frankly not to get dark, but you look at some of those episodes of Intervention, a lot of them were like I was an athlete and then my knee got whatever and then blah blah blah, Like it is really like truly having your identity be like roped into athleticism or any career that has like an expiration date on, like it's connected to your body in any way, Like it's really fucked up. It's really dark.

At the Culture War because she that athletic Anderstry had to go somewhere.

It's legit. It is so dark and real.

That movie was so much better than.

I think My Lucky Stars. I found comedy because that.

Yes, when did this come in? This came in in college.

I just was kind of loitering and I started talking to a kid who you know, was working on like I went to film school, I went to Chatty University, I went to Dodge College, and I just was talking to this kid. I was appeaying on a film set and he was like, you're funny. You should try out for the improv team and stuff. I did try out for the improv team, and I did do that, and I was really not good at it. But I I then lost cultures dos Fath. Nicole Byer came to my college, came to Chapman, and she asked if anyone from the improv team wanted to open for her, and I volunteered, and that was the first time I did stand.

Up that allowed you to volunteer. Well.

I loved to stand up so much, and I also felt so bad about how bad an improv I was because I really was so in my head in a way that you cannot be to do that.

Well sure, and and you being someone who's a perfectionist, she's like, You're like, I will be good at it.

Yeah, I got it.

I will not fail.

Yeah yeah. And just being like I love stand up so much. I listened to albums all the time, like maybe I could do that, Maybe I could try that the way I tried Improvin. So I wrote like eight minutes and just open for her, and it was like literally I never went back. Ah yeah, changed everything she made. She made it possible for me.

You you've talked about this before.

I have told her since I ran into her. I was like thank you, and she's really she was really sweet about it.

You know what's so funny, Like not funny, it's just like I love that that can then be something that you were able to tell her.

I remember, like years.

Ago, you know, you remember how Michelle Buteau performed our Welcome Week and I just remember feeling so wrecked because like I had quit that.

Team and like comedy was something I knew I could go to.

Because everyone's gonna we were all gonna laugh, and at least that would be a release and it being her like someone who I thought was genuinely so funny and like like we will all have that cathartic moment. And then to know her later and see her get the success that she's had obviously Nicole is also huge, yea. But to have the outlet for that be like you really fucking made a difference, Like that's like this major.

Yeah, it's so major, and it's like the most I mean, especially to like watch Nicole is also sets an example for you, like to continue to kind of pay it forward and be like how can I reach back and like figure out how to like facilitate that for other people the most incredible gift and honor to be able to do it as well. Truly, my god, I love this ship. I love this as good as hell.

Recently, I'm sponge the entire time with you?

Is that?

Am I using that right? Fun I'm spunge. You don't say I am sponge. You can just say sponge sponge, but.

You can say like genuinely like it's like we made it up. You know, I am Sponge.

The grammar is very Sandy and Hannah, and I know I want to honor that it is rocked.

We're very crop said that.

But speaking of Sponge, like the bringing on of it all like that, especially formatively at a time when you're seeing kids like again kids they're played by adults, but like you see that world of high school. I remember being so blown away a that high schools could have hallways that were outside California must be the promise.

I was like, what is going on here?

And all those La high schools were all outside hallways like the Cuckoo one where She's all that, which, by the way, watch that again.

Easy movies, hold up, Easy School.

Like all them like, but that was wild to watch them and have bit the space and how I hot they all were, et cetera. I will also point out it opened a door to that type of comedy for me, yeah and maybe for you too, where it was like, well, Kirsten Duns was huge, yeah, and then playing on stars all the time was bringing on. And then also there was drop dead gorgeous and I think that was also the that opened the door to like character acting for me. I was like, wait, she's in this, and she's in this and it's different, and I know her from Jumanji. Let me find out everything I need to know, Like, do you get like whenever you see an actor from that movie, whether they're doing a lot or doing a little, you must like completely my.

God, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. I was watching like I was in a hotel room. I had a random channel on, you guys. I literally saw Missy acting in a courtroom drama like a couple weeks.

Ago, Eliza out there. Yeah, yeah, like I and I had.

Not seen her since, and I was like, hell, mother fucking yeah, she's killing it. She's serious, she's acting, she's gorgeous, She's still incredibly gorgeous, and she I just was like I could not believe it had been so long for me personally, you know my part. Yeah, And it was such a moment, so iconic, so iconic. She have an impact the way she did. It's like you can never even imagine.

No, you can never can She don't watch a true calling.

She that type of impact doesn't even I don't, I can't. Does it exist today?

I don't think it probably, you know, I see again, but there's something happening with Chapel Roone where we called it a while back, And that's not to take credit like for us, but it's just like what has happened in the past couple of months, and I noticed it from I've seen her live a few times now, Like over the months, it gets more and more intense. People are very emotional about it, and you get the sense that she really speaks to people. I think maybe if it doesn't happened in film and TV now, it does happen in a time.

Yeah, the time. That's a good point, YEP.

I saw one of her concerts in La right before she blew up.

I think I saw you there. I was at the Fonda, wasn't it.

Yes, Yes, I did see you there, Yes, at the Fonda. Yes. It was incredible and it was just like you could tell by the energy in the room like I was. I saw the diehard fans, everybody was kind of dressed up, and then I would look at these executives like a bunch of people had gone to see her as the last I think it was the last job on her tour, and I just was like, Oh, something's happening tonight, Like something's happening tonight, like she's about to go up and off, up and off.

Up and off.

I went to both of her Brooklyn and Steel nights. I went to it was Your two nights at her first night. Was the only time I skipped a Tuesday writing night. I didn't skip, I just like took a break because talent people at us and now were like, we're going to see Chapel.

Do you want to come with? I was like I got all right, but yeah, yeah. I didn't want to be there to like talk to them about like what would booking her be like, and like not that like again she should do the premiere? This is oh absolutely.

This was not like me being like pressing my thumb on the scale being like you should be. I was just me being like, oh, I want to see you guys experience her.

Yeah.

So I went with them, and during casual, I think, m hm, this person on the talent team turns to me and great shaker, love you.

She turns to me, she goes she's special.

She is.

I was like, yeah, totally. Casual is a very special moment.

When when everyone is actually living that like and I feel like everyone's singing it as if they've gone through the same thing.

I don't know that.

I've never been in a relationship like that, but I am so fucking angry at the fictional person that put me through.

I am angry. You can go that she is doing cathartic pop.

My kink is karma is cathartic fucking pop, and justin tranter, I'm pointing at you. But like legend, but like much big feelings in the music and that good luck Babe Bridge.

I told you so. They don't sing like.

That, They don't sing like that, but she's but then on good luck Baby, it's like that's her giving the most cape Bush she's ever getten given.

And then you were saying you saw her live and she really did hit that note of coach.

Her vocals are not alive.

I mean I left that first concert being like this is when I saw the fond of the show we were at and tell me if this makes sense, But at the time, I said, it's giving Annie Lennox meets Kesha.

Wow, that's that's like the only way I can really describe it.

Like this, like soul f I see that pop sound like ethereal, but big voice and this idiotic sort of like ridiculous, like refusal to take herself seriously in a way that I loved so much because I think it reminded me of like being at the beginning.

When like talk about Union Hall like I will always I will always cherish those days and I still love going, but it's like those were good days when like you could fuck up and fail and it didn't really matter.

Yeah, if you guys are around, we're doing Sandy and Peter are doing pig at Union Hall. Wow, we're just gonna be vibing. But this is this week, Yeah, thirteen gorgeous, but yeah, I feel you. I feel like the la version of Union Hall is very much the Virgil like the hot tub, hot tub of it all.

Yeah, I used to do the picture of this sure, Like it's it's funny like some of the bookers from that time are still booking shows and they'll email now and I kind of say, like, I don't really do that anymore, but they're like, hey, and we know you don't really perform live anymore.

But and just seeing that sentence like break my heart a little bit, like and I think that truth though, well, you know, I was that kind of person that was I don't think of that. I think it was like really free.

And then during the beginn in the years of the podcast, I was out there all the time, but we did more character stuff, Like we were out there like doing character driven stuff, and we did a lot of sketch and we took our sketch comedy very seriously. But then it translated into more individual performance. But by that time it kind of didn't really get the chance to develop because other things started happening. And now to know that I perform live for my Christmas shows and try to push everyone to there so they can do well. But you know, you missed that, you know what I mean, you miss being able to go out there and like just it you feel easier about it, you know, And are.

You still out there a lot?

I am, Yeah, that I let the success and other things like stop that for me, and I envy that about you. You still have the raw passion for it and you're able to get out of your way and you're like, I'm.

Going up there.

Well, I mean, do you feel like that comes from a place of like I don't feel the freedom to try new stuff. I don't I feel like I have to come with a finished product, because I'm going to be like evaluated.

Is that part of the same way as you?

Yeah, and if I'm not, And.

I have always been way harder on myself than everyone else, And I know you know what I'm talking about. And I feel like most of the time I'll be like, well, I'm not prepared to do that, and then I'll go up and do it, and I'll understand that I was prepared the.

Whole time, and I should stop myself.

So that's just probably a reminder we should always just tell ourselves. It's like, you can do what you are prepared. You've worked really hard.

The way that I have tried to like foster a space where I can do this is by billing it as a new material show and being like, oh, this is loose, this is open mic vibes like come if you want, I should really you know what I mean, just like it's a new material show and just being like that's the vibe, or like literally if you even need to, And I mean I do this sometimes and it is kind of a cop out, but like I do sometimes go like okay, like I earned your trust with those, can I do a new thing right now? Yeah, it's like, you know, it's like it gives you a little more grace to like try it and then you know whatever. So but but yeah, I mean, but I just don't want to. I honestly, you guys. Guy Bronham, he's a writer on Hacks and he was one of my first days on set was a scene with him where he was like the head of the Little Debbi's like Deborah fan club outside the pizza shop in season one and he said something to me that I never forgot and at the time it was so like out I couldn't imagine how it could ever become true. And then I saw like, oh yeah, I could see how this would become true. But he said because you know, he's a comic too, and he was like, I've seen you, like I appreciate your comedy. I really think you're great, and I don't want you to stop like you are now acting and that is a like, you know, that is far more glamorous than stand up and I he just was like, don't stop, because you're good and it'll be really easy to like, you know, this isn't a better life, Like going on the road is fucked up and it's hard no matter what and it's very isolating, and you know, you can be lonely, but like, just don't like walk away. And he said that to me the first day, and I at the time, I was like, I love stand up, How could that ever be true? And then I started to see, like, yeah, like it is fucking really brutal, and it's really a hard life, and it's one you know, if you can tour and be a headlining comic, that is an immense privilege. But you know, on a personal level, when you're sitting there looking up at the ceiling in the hotel room alone and you're like in a town and it's raining and you're just like kind of on your own, it's fucking you know, kind of sad. But every time I feel that way, I just remember what guy said, because like he is someone I look up to so much as well, and I'm like, if he's telling me that, I needed to hear it, it's a beautiful message, Like, and I just I don't want a let go of stand up because it's the only thing that like I really can do on my own and control. Like it really is like this beautiful, bountiful well of opportunity for me, and it always has been, and like I do have this like thing of like the comedy gods, Like the comedy gods, like if you appease them and make this sacrifice and do get on the stage, you know they will smile upon you. And like I have this like thing that I've always kind of had with that, and I feel like still I have to like pray at the altar of the comedy gods and you know, like continue to do that because it's given me everything that I have. You know, It's made it all possible. So I think that is probably a big reason why I have maintained like this love for it and doing this hour. I was very uninspired for like a year before I did the Hour because I just was like, I'm ready to put this out, but I still need to do it on the road and workshop it and get it in final shape. Ye, But I didn't feel like I was writing as much new material. And the second we locked it, like I just felt like new again, Like I felt like new possibility. I feel like the end of that project made it so that I could do fifteen minutes on driving. You know, I could talk about that, I could really open up and I could say like what is the deal with stuff?

Again?

You know what I mean? And that is really powerful.

So this is so this is such an important Sponge moment.

This all the way Sponge, especially to internalizing a Guy Brandham piece of wisdom is.

Never a bad idea.

One hundred unge ass.

He's we gotta have him back on the pod. You do get the sense that, like the answer to all this is to just keep creating. Yeah, And I am sitting here and I'm like thinking about how and I'm like I do miss like not how stupid I used to be, but how brave I used to be, you know what I mean. Like it's like that's that like I'm a little yeah, you know what I'm saying. You know what I mean, I totally know what you mean. And I'm about to say something that's gonna sound so.

Terrible. I feel like I feel like I was braver before this podcast, before us and now you.

Know, well, I think like anytime there's eyes on you, yeah, yeah, of course there's also that. I remember there came a moment where like I like went back on Twitter or something was like like popping off on Twitter, just like tweeting like I used to tweet and the amount of like weird bad faith and like the weird takes on. It's just like, oh, this is why I got nervous, and this is why I'm less brave now, is because like people aren't as forgiving with like stupidity, it's harder to get things across. And also maybe people forgot people that follow me forgot that I am and this kind of brand of idiot, you know what I mean. But like like you're talking about, like in the beginning, like we would go.

On stage in any old wig and do any old monologue.

And like let it rip, and like sometimes it would be sometimes it would be good, sometimes it would be bad. But we always felt like we were creating after it and that was never the thing. Now it feels like creating means like did we sell a show, did we get did we book this thing? And that's like that's not creating, that's not being an artist. And also, like you know, sometimes with this podcast, I can feel like we talk about art so much that that's like you know, why the Cultural Awards is fun or why this is fun or that's fun, because like.

That's closer to who we are than like now. On track six of eternal sunshine. I thought what she was getting at was interesting because we know stuff and it's just like, where are the where are the fools? Where are the clouds? Where are the idiots? They're here, They're within, They're locked up.

They are you, they are you. But I will say the Culture Awards like that is okay. First of all, I was there last year, I believe, and that was Woodstock. Okay, that was literally I was like, oh, time machine copy that, I'm in a time machine. I'm now in the past. This is Woodstock. Literally, this is no legitimately. I was so like, I have never seen a better crowd in my life before or since. Okay, that was insane. That was insane. And you guys are like writing that show in isolation, Like there is something to be said for that as a skill that you get to because you threw on the way, because you took her, because you went down.

Every wig was a.

And that for real, Like that is real, and that is an incredible skill to be able to pull off something that is so air tight with just within like isolation, and you're not like bouncing it off a crowd Like that is a beautiful thing and that is so that is a true deep connection that y'all still have, like even if you're like, okay, maybe I'm not doing you know, like I see that as as something that is so pure.

Still it's just attached to you're always harder on yourself.

That's what it is like every single week, you know what I mean, Like you have to you probably have had to get a little bit better about it about what about like the amount of self emolation totally because it's just like you can't happen week after a week.

No, no, no, And like I would say, identify I formerly identified as a perfectionist and have now loosened.

That's identity sense.

Where do you feel like you have landed?

I am going to get at least five hours of sleep? Yeah, yeah, yeahs enough.

I know it's not still it's still about it's still like a line totally. It's still something for me to be like all right, time to put this down.

And you've associated amount of sleep with that idea of like you beating yourself up or like wondering what's enough?

Yeah, I think so it's like it literally should not keep me up thinking about it, assessing it in hindsight, like all of it, like working on it.

I love work. I love the process capital T, capital P. But I'm like, let's just set it.

Down and it'll always be better in the morning, when we have a fresh out of like anytime you run on Tuesday, it's like, Okay, I don't know what this is, but let's look at it in the morning, and it's and then like it's means celestium like laughing, laughing, laughing, like typing type typing on zoom, and it's like I love that so much.

But the actual process of being like a little fair creator, a little fairy creator.

But you know, like.

Especially now, I feel like and I think you guys probably understand this too, like perfection, Like perfection is a little overrated.

It's like it's nice when it's it's rough.

You know.

I kind of don't have that perfectionist like hindsight when I'm like, oh, that could have been better, that kind of better anymore, because I'm just like, no, I kind of like that, especially on us. And now it's like it's nice that there's this like weird sort of error and stimulus in the way that it is like made, in the way that it's performed. It's like this is so unpolished because there is no other way to polish this, there is no time to polish this, and so therefore this is what you get, and here it is, here's your product.

I enjoy.

I wish everyone could see what I saw, because I cannot overstate how going to the show just the weight of this thing. It like it just took like my understanding of it to a whole new level, and I like I wish everyone knew, and in some small ways through listening to this podcast, I feel like people get a look into it, but like to be able to see the inner workings of this.

It's so hard, it's amazing what we do is like it's just purely emotional, I.

Think, I mean, just the demand, Like sure, you know, like the demand and the pace and it's exciting and it's incredible, but it's just like I go, yeah, I am. It puts into context how much of a mere mortal I am and how much like you guys are operating on such a higher level.

That's nice.

I feel like we're all like we're all on the same level here of like we get emotional about the things that we make, and so therefore, like no matter what.

No matter what the context is. Yeah, of course it is.

I'm just sitting here thinking like there's some confronting going on, like of self, and I'm like, that's probably why I've done that same fucking Christmas show for six years.

Not that it's like not that it's like the same. It changes every year and I get better every year.

But now I'm fully like Matt Rogers, if you don't write a new show, if you don't write a new material, I am disappointed in you. Like I will be disappointed in myself if I don't create something new, because I have and it's almost like comical now. And that's part of what makes that idea funny to me, is like it comes back every year like Christmas. But I'm like, stop using it as a.

Crutch, you know what I mean. That's like me genuinely telling myself.

Like these things you have to stop using them as crutches, and like, I don't know, it's just we needed we needed sponge today, we need I needed to tell myself that anyway we need it, just like we all at this point in our careers and in our lives, like we're so lucky to even have retrospect, but you do have to force yourself to change because it's that comfort in like the quote unquote success that can get you to a certain place, like you know what I mean, Like you blessedly won't be at SNL forever one day, like you know you'll have another role that is different from hacks, Like if I I'm any good at what I do, write something new at some point, you know what I mean, Like and but there it is nice to get to that point totally, Like it almost feels like no, not everyone like gets to say, like what's the next act going to be?

Ye, like it's a really exciting thing it.

Is, and reframing it as exciting and it's not like it's not a negative judgment on you if you don't do it. It's more so like I can do it, and I'm excited to do it, and like I and the audience deserve more and I deserve to feel connected, you know that spark when something's new. There's nothing like it, Like you deserve to feel that feeling, Like we all as artists crave that feeling. And it's like when it comes from you a gifted artisan, like you're operating on a higher level as well, like by virtue of like the things that you have done and who you are as an artist, Like that is exciting, and we all want to feel that. I watching you want to feel that, and I want to watch you feel that, you know what I mean. I like to watch you know what I'm saying.

This is another reason why though, that like the older generation of comedian is like it bumms me out so much. Is because it's like, I know, when they say shit like that, it does get in people's heads a little bit, like when the industry constantly tells you like, oh, we don't want this type of show, or like this type of thing isn't working right now, especially like as it's getting worse and worse, like and harder and harder for like marginalized voices. Again, you know, we're officially you know, it's not like twenty fourteen anymore where they're like, what's the what's the deal with this queer thing?

You know what I mean. It's like it's kind of more difficult again.

That is something I resent, you know what I mean, because yeah, it is in response to like these uninformed opinions.

Yeah they're shouting us down, Yeah, you know what I mean. And that feels like so opposite of the spirit that I know uplifted our entire peer group and like it that I guess does piss me off that it's like you're trying to make us afraid to do what we do because you're trying to tell us, as an authority figure that you know better and that you see the future. But you don't see the future. You can't even participate in the present. So why should the function I listen to you about what the future is or like what the past even was. You had you perspective on that too, So like, why are you trying to make it an uncomfortable, scary atmosphere.

New John Waters Coaches dropped in an interview, and this supplies to us, me and you once you turn third, each shut up just to just stop talking.

Actually major, Well, I'm twenty nine, so I have one.

Yeah, it was a bit more time. You got about a year. If anyone's favorously, Oh my.

God, that was so awesome. It was in that chair.

She was in that chair when she rocked the world.

That was crazy.

Did definitely get in the head that went hard. Yeah, but she she's the smartest, she's like, so it's just like it is what it is.

Well, it's not every time. I don't think so, Honey.

Just sort of that one minute segment bo when you say or you rant and rave against something in pop culture, that definitely make a noise. Okay, So I have something and it's sort of it's sort of a sequel to one that I did a while back. It's even the same words, but it's different content.

Oh that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, Okay, this is Matt Rodgers. I don't think so, Honey's time starts now once again.

I don't think so, Honey. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez critics. Do you think that they wanted this? Do you think that they wanted to get back together and then have it dissolve in this way? Guys, please, they are both trying the best they can. Maybe they don't even know how to try the best they can, but they're definitely trying. I have to say, like the amount of attention they get, of course, it's their responsibility a little bit, like they you know, it's not like they they don't traffic in it a little bit. But this can't be what they wanted, and so don't pile on the people. You know what I mean they want to be happy, just like everyone else. We all saw the movie, and by we all, I mean however many people out there that actually streamed it like we did, but we can in the culture.

And I don't think there was like a false bone in that.

I think she really genuinely thinks this is all the things that we're gonna make her happy, and it didn't work out.

So don't punch the woman when she's down.

She had to cancel the goddamn tour, Like do you know it's so it's that that was the last resort canceling the tour, Like just leave j Lo, b and Ben. I let him get his dunkin Donuts and peace. Clearly the man is like just wants his dunkin Donuts, you know what I'm saying. So I say, swiped a card. I'm sure he's got, like, you know, a certain card there that gets like VIP status. Swipe the card, Ben and Jlo You're gonna be okay, just take a break and that's one minute. Yeah, Jayla's going through it right now. In every way.

I just people treat their I.

Like you.

They're not zoo animals, guys and kids and yaff like we not so crazy.

It's just like that.

And I remember, I remember I said years ago, I don't think Santy ben afflegain Jaylo critics let her get her best nut. I feel like she really she followed her heart back to her best nut. And how can you blame her for doing that?

You know what I mean?

Like in times of struggle, we sometimes will just go back to our best nut and it's a reminder. And maybe she didn't have the person a reminder, but don't just go back to your best nut, because the best nut is a nut that stopped for a reason, you know what I'm saying. Yea yeah, And it's like this actually can be a great reminder to everyone, Like just because it was your best nut does not mean that it's gonna be the nut.

It can't be the final that but you can't.

Jlo will not sponge that because she doesn't want to, because she's like, is a nan it's romantic.

She wants that fantasy, I know, And I wonder when she'll realize that the fantasy is not something that can ever be real.

But it's like, wow, she figures it out, you can't like.

And I also wonder, like how much of it is them like being photographed without the ring and like trafficking, and that's sort of like two thousands paparazzi mentality that maybe some.

People think is still a thing to engage in.

But I'm like, the whole thing is exhausting and also like we don't need the narrative, the press narrative again, like and like the whole thing is just like I really thought they wouldn't break up, and.

Now that they are, I'm like, oh no, we all got it. We all got it, We all got everybody.

But that was exciting in the beginning, wasn't That was really fun for us.

Because it made you believe that it could happen again.

I remember I even said on this podcast, like that really fucked me up, knowing that they found each other again. And Bowen Yang was like, well, and now we found out where the le divorce.

All we can say is that we hope Jennifer Gardner is doing well and protecting her peace.

Probably doing good, I know, but she's I I do want to She's in.

The garden, she's overalls, dirt on the overalls.

Yeah, but like she must not be feeling great things either. She must feel so complicated about all of that.

Father were kids, Yeah, what are they going through?

You know, my god, it touches everybody.

You know. You mentioned Jennifer Garner in the Garden. Have you ever noticed that Jennifer Garner does a lot of movies where like her kids are plants or her plants are kids, Like a lot of times, Like she definitely did a movie where her kid was a plant and then like she was upset when the plant died because it was her kid, and it's like, well, you know, the kid is a plant. I think it was The Odd Life of Timothy Green. Just feel like often times Jennifer Garner is in a film where her kids are in mortal peril or dead already or like gonna die because they're.

A plant, and it's gay love Simon. Yeah, So that's what I'm saying, Like kid and emotional. You can breathe now, Simon.

Like she clearly is someone whose heart is like touch that by like I want to do a movie about the power of like me protecting my kids, love for my kids. So at least that you know what I mean, Their mom is rock solid. Daddy and stepmom figure it out right.

But she she has been she has seen every angle of motherhood. Yes, and she knows how to direct that in the best way for her children to it.

From both sides.

Now you ready bowen, Jevin. I don't think so wanted to do well, this is good, this is bangs.

I don't think so. Twenty time starts now.

I don't think so money packing shoes in luggage. It's taken up two thirds of my space all of a sudden, for one hair.

One hair.

And the best I can do to stuff into that shoe is maybe a pill case, maybe a glass's case, maybe a toothbrush if it's being covered. But shoes in suit We have to think of a better way to travel with shoes because they the footprint literally is too big.

It's too big in the suitcase. And I don't that means I do not pack my portable steamer.

Oh, Hannah's got a stomper, and I bet you didn't love solving me that A little puzzle in your away bag maybe whatever whatever your luggage is. I just think we need to I can't believe technology is not advanced enough to solve for this. I don't know what we have to do. There's certainly no political section to this. I'm not confident or hopeful in a technological one. So I think we just need to invent something that's smaller than shoes, but we can wear on our feet.

And that's a minute. Like, I guess we're gonna have to figure out how to fold up a shoe.

We need a foldable shoe also because they are the last thing you think to put in the bag, because you're like, oh, I need my sweatshirts, my socks, my underwear and my this, and then you're like, oh god, because then you know, it is always an acrimonious between like the dob kit and the shoes. Oh know what I mean, they're fighting the fighting, they're fighting for time. The piece of the pie is.

That's all right, So how did it go? Were you able to get everything back? Well?

I have to say all I had were white sneakers play and white sneakers for Fire Island, and these black I'll say, like loafers.

Yeah, but you wore some pretty sick loafers on the island. But that's not the ideal shoe situation. Period. No matter where you go, you want, you want at least three pairs of shoes with you, don't You I do.

And and this is you're not checking, You're you're on a faery. How do you get the fire on take? You gotta take a fer So, so what if it is the like the zipper bag that goes over the handle of the luggage, and that's just shoe bag, it's shoe toiletry bag. Interesting, it's a secondary bag. That's my only that's my first thought.

Thank you and thank you and thank you for like thinking of of that. I think we should all meet at some point NASA at NASA to figure out a foldable off the guys, girls, guys and girls.

And whoever is working there. We're coming down.

The worst is when you have tried to figure out and and finally figuregued it out like a spot for that like third pair of shoes, and then they never get worn on the trip, and then you're like, oh god, like, do you remember those blue loafers I wanted to wear?

You didn't wear them?

No, Because I actually, like I was excited about the blue loafers that I honestly forgot I had. They were in the back of my closet. They're cute, and then I just didn't have an outfit that they would go with, which I didn't think when I was packing up. I just thought, Wow, my loafers fit, and I didn't look at the corresponding closed to see if anything would make sense. And then I go to Bowen Yang, who I trust very much sartorially, and I look at him and I say, do these loafers work or are they too much? And to his credit, he really tried. He looked at me and he was like yeah, and then he goes, maybe too much, and I was like too much? And they never got worn, right, But.

You packed them and you did not pack to coordinate with the shoe because you were so worked up and amazed. But you were so amazed the shoes literally fit. And so that is the wind. That is the victory.

I don't have to think of anything else.

Yeah, right, I have started to do the like fitting before the packing. Where I'm going, I'm creating outfits, I mean, and that's the luxury of time, of course, but if you can get if you can work that in, that's just going. Here is the pant, Here is the shoe. These are the shirts, right, These are the shirts, and so that kind of consolidates and it's like it's two shoes. This is the one I'm wearing on the planet's bulkier. The other one goes, you know, in the suitcase. That's that's how I've been been doing it.

I mean, you're an expert at this point. You've been on the road.

Look, you know, folks, I'm going really small bag on the road. Okay, you got to have economy going on.

You're usually not checking, never, never checking. Well, because it's adds so much time, so much time.

I'm flying the day of the first show. Yeah, I'm in, I'm out.

Period.

I also feel like we need to stop the culture of going at putting an outfit together. Shirts forward, pants, well, start from the pants, Start from the pants, or start from the shoe. That could be a moment and a half, ground up ground speaking of them, But isn't it tragic that you might be limited to two shoe options in a given trip, That's all I'm saying. And then here I am with a third pair that are perfectly lay but I just didn't have anywhere to wear them.

Ah, it's brutal.

It's brutal. It was brutal. What a brutal trip.

That was a moment and a half. This is going to be a minute and no half. This is a minute, which is I don't think so, honey, this is your sort of moment. Are you ready for this? I have to be ready and that's actually dead ass. Yeah, cyana Einbinders, I don't think so, honey. Time starts now.

I don't think so, honey. Stubbing my toe, Oh no, that hurts you, guys, I'm going ouch, that's what I'm saying. I'm saying ouch. I'm screaming in pain. So you're telling me, I'm on my way somewhere, I'm trying to get something. I'm actually typically in a rush, and I'm stubbing my toe and nothing's ever hurt more. I've broken bones, I've broken bones. I'm fallen from heights. You guys know my past. I explored that very extensively on this podcast episodes. I've fallen from heights. I know pain, and no pain is more severe than the ancestral pain that rages through the foot when you stub the toe. I don't think so, honey. Stubbing your toe on the side of the thing that's never been sharper shut? What is up with the sharp stuff around me? I'm stubbing my goddamn toe and the big toe. I'm not walking around if I lose access to that. It doesn't stop hurting, It doesn't alleviate the pain. The pain is persistent. And I'm just supposed to keep walking around here. But I can't. I can't live in this world. I don't want to live in the world where I'm stubbing toes all the time. I don't think so, honey, stubbing your toe and that's it.

And I think we all felt that like energetically, and we also all felt that physically because at one point, but what just goes?

Oh? And I could tell it was because he was having a flash. I had sensed memory flashback. But why does it hurt like that? Well? Anytime I stub my toe?

You know what I first thought is, if I'm in any sort of physical accident that hurts any other part of my body, I will perish. I will pair it my body well, will will not know how to process it. That it is the deepest pain anyone's ever felt when I stiffed my toe. Yes, and I get it makes me And as you were saying this, I how twisted is it that my thought was, well, we should eliminate corners.

I almost thought, touching to you, you should baby proof your house if you're that concerned.

And then down the road it's already done if you ever want to have kids, like, it's already babyproofd I baby proofed it for myself because I remember that's what it was like.

It's you know what it is.

It's from like the paper cut school of senseless, worthless pain. It's just like why, it's so stupid. It's not even like, it's not even like, yes, one time I was in an accident and as a result I learned something. It's like, no, I got a paper cut. Now I'm in pain for a stupid reason because I'm so dumb. I could barely hold paper.

I was so it was it was such a such a page turner that I'm slicing my fing the weakest substance a piece of paper. That's the most bullshit thing in rock paper scissors, and now bleeding.

It's like, come on, not for nothing but your toe, something you barely need. Is getting careful now what I mean? Some people need their toes, you.

Cind, I mean, isn't there that right you? I don't want to speak out a turn you might need you might need them. It's just like you could walk in It's like if you lose the you know, it could impair balance.

When I had athletes foot, I wanted to cut my foot off. No, I had athletes foot so bad. I heard I thank you that I wanted to cut off my foot. I felt like that would be preferable. You remember what it's like to have an injury from from the billion back in the day. You ever get like ten iish or something. My god, I had got so bad one time, I was like, take my leg, take it out, take it off, pay gato. I would rather not have this part of my body than experience the paint. And when you stub your toe.

Oh, I've broken toes, it's the same feeling. Are you broken fingers? Oh yeah, how many breaks I've broken fingers. I've broken this elbow. I broke several toes, and it's the same feeling.

You're so. I've broken this arm twice in my childhood. Same pain.

It's the same pain, you guys. I can't even say, there's nothing worse than what that is.

Broke, nothing worse.

I'm just scared because you just said I've broken bones, eye, broken bones, and now I have to say out loud, I've never broken a bone, and that is something you never.

Said because my side and I'm gonna get hit no butt, it's gonna hurt just as bad as you.

You don't know what. You can't do it.

Don't do it, don't do it.

You've gone this long, You're not gonna can I just say on the paper cut note, on the paper cut note. This is the only time you'll catch me saying thank God for screens. I don't miss the stuff. I don't miss the sheets. Oh ship, keep the rings at home. Wait the screen like.

Like screen prefer like like like phone. I'm sorry, should clarify. I thought you meant like a screen door. No, I'm saying like digital everything. Well, you've blessed you these horror stories. Get the documents away.

Yeah, well, you've heard these horror stories about people just walking into glass doors. You've heard the horror stories. There are so many people out there, that's an epidemic. Some people are so good at cleaning their windows and doors that you cannot see them from being seen through. So you'll go right into your flocko whatever that the owl flock of the owl who died by crashing into a building a glass.

A terrible story, so sad. But birds everywhere are doing this, crashing into buildings. It's so terrible. Have you ever really been there when a bird hit a window? No, I don't want to think about it.

Oh my god, I can't.

Well, we were talking the other day about how birds are so amazing.

Oh my god. Crows please, crows, crows love them. Crows are highly intelligent, highly intelligent they are. They can remember faces, they can do tasks. No, crow are crazy.

I have a joke.

Go ahead.

What do you call it?

When a crow tries to throw a party but no one comes? An attempted murder?

It's really good?

Is that good? Hey? Hey?

Hey? I was cinderellas? How bad? It's sports? Why runs from the ball?

Yo?

I want like that kind of that needs to make a comeback, that kind of set up punchline, lappy tappy ship?

Yes, what here we go?

Is a pirate's favorite letter R? You'd think it be R, but tis the C that he loves.

That was elect.

Special.

That's my opener with the murder joke.

Could never know she could have?

Wouldn't letter.

Is in charge? Well?

This has just been joyful, triumphant. In the words of a Christmas song, You.

Guys, thank you really truly for having me. I'm so number one fan vibes, and this is so genuinely the true gift of my life.

You are the true GT. Thank you God.

So awesome fucking thing special, the show, the many things, the abundance of Hannah.

Yeah, I just remember, like I'm excited for you and happy for you, and I understand why you're here worth emotion because like it is like sharing a piece of yourself with everybody when you release that special. If you ever get lucky enough to do that, I'm sure you will, like whenever you really put something into an hour and then give it to people. So I hope you enjoy it, and I hope it's like a really beautiful the premierees night. We're gonna go, and I hope it's a beautiful night, and I hope that you can work on in the next few hours. Uh, taking all that love and just being like I'm gonna hold it because you deserved it.

Well. When I hear it from the two of you and I look in your eyes, I feel it.

We must have fun.

Because the title episod would be Sponge maybe Sponge. We end every episode with a song, Oh my god, this is perfect because what were we watching in cherry Grill the other night last night? Who lives in a pineapple under the SpongeBob square bats.

And yellow porns? Disease, SpongeBob square Bags. I'll know that there's something you went touch bare.

A Benpongebob Ra, Sugebob square Bet, suge Bob square bets, Sungebob square Bets, Sungebob square beat, Do do do doo?

Why was that square pant? Why was that such emotional note? If you see those sheet music, that is an emotion. Pungebob square Everything to God, To God by Lost Culture.

Recis is in production by Will Ferrell's Big Money Players in iHeartRadio Podcasts.

Created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Executive produced by Anna Hasnier and Hans Soni

Produced by Becka Ramos, edited mixed by Doug Dami and Nikla Board and our music is by Emi Komirski.

Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang

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