Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Michael Che Talks New Special, Standup vs. SNL, Gaining An Audience’s Trust + More

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INTERVIEW: Michael Che Talks New Special, Standup vs. SNL, Gaining An Audience’s Trust + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hold up.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club. Y'all finished or y'all done?
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: We are The Breakfast Club. Lola Rose is here as well.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: We got a special guest in the building.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: Yes, indeed.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: We have Michael Che. Comedian Michael Che.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Welcome. What's up?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: How you feeling?
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: Oh, this is amazing.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel great.
• 0:21
  Speaker 4: I've been waiting to see you, man, because I wanted
• 0:23
  Speaker 4: to ask you something.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: What's up? Can I curse?
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: Yes. Feel free to be yourself.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: When you wrote the joke about women being dressed like
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: whores in the gym for Shane Gillis, how did you
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: pitch it?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, shit. No, I didn't write that joke, by the way, please.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: I was just saying, there's two groups of people I
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: do not want beef with. That is very angry white
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: guys and very angry white women. And he seems to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: hit both of them. Yeah, I don't know nothing about
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: that joke.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: That's all I had.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Really? That's crazy.
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: He wrote for himself.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: I don't know who wrote that.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: Good answer.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't me.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Good answer.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: I want to know, so when people come on Saturday
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Night Live, how do you pitch them what they should
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: be doing?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: So, for instance, we've seen Jalen Brunson there.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: And I've seen some of the stuff To me, it
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: wasn't funny. It just seemed like it was.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Keep the same energy.
• 1:22
  Speaker 6: I did.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: The other day, Mike, when I was in here, like, yo,
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: it was whack.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Keep the same energy.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: No, like, I don't do that with y'all. I said
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: it wasn't funny. Nah, nah. I said it wasn't funny.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Did you write that down?
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: I start with that, leave with that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Nope.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the breakfast club.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: They think everybody black there are like that, the angry
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: black people.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: So it was like the first thing, it was like,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: all right, he's a rapper.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: That's the funniest part about doing SNL is like, you know,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: when a black person hosts... you have to be, you're
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: the one that's like, what happened? I'm not the head
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: writer no more. I stopped being head writer maybe like
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: four seasons ago. Why? It's a hard job. It's for
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: reasons that you guys are expressing right now.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: It's a very difficult job.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's a.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It's a fun job, but it's a lot. Especially with
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: doing update, you know, you kind of like are very distracted.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: It's hard to be on camera and to be responsible
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: for the rest of the show. It's tough.
• 2:22
  Speaker 7: Was that your choice that you weren't the head writer?
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't want to be head writer in the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: first place, to be honest with you. That's just more work.
• 2:30
  Speaker 5: It was everywhere. First black head writer.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: Yes. Yeah, I felt that comfortable because it wasn't like,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know, there was like a rule against it. You
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like it wasn't like a... I
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: didn't break a barrier. It was just, you know, I
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: just happened to be, I might've been the first guy
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to apply.
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: Well, people had that conversation with SNL though, about like
• 2:48
  Speaker 6: black comedians being there or not black women, comedians being
• 2:51
  Speaker 6: there or not.
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: And just the diversity there. So I think that's why
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: it was a thing too.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Of like, it was, it was fascinating because when I
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: first came to SNL, I guess it was 13, 2013.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I was the first, I was the only black writer period.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: So like I was the only one there. And then,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: you know, By the time I was head writer, there
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: was about five or six maybe black cast members. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: it was like maybe about four or five black writers.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: And it felt like a big change and a big shift. So, yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: it was kind of cool to see just that incarnation
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: of the show.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: How often do people say, I don't want to do
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: that or that's whack or that's trash?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: All the time. I mean, we write like 40 to
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: 50 sketches a week. We read about. 40 of them.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: And we pick about 10 of them. And then by
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the time we go to air, it's about seven of them.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: So like a lot, you know, and it's a lot
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: of different reasons why it could be two similar premises
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: that we can't have on the show. You know, it's like,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: it's like building a set, you know what I mean?
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: It's like building like any, any kind of hour set.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It's a 90 minute show. You kind of have balance.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: It's gotta be, pop culture. It's got to be something dark.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: It's got to be something taped. It's got to be,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: you know, it's different kind of real estate. It's a
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: lot that goes into producing a show.
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: Everybody's not game for everything y'all write, like a Shane
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Gillis is.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Comedians are probably the hardest to write for because they
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: know how to be funny on their own. So, you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: they don't trust everything. They know how to get their laugh.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: You know, like if I tell you to read something
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: and it's going to be funny and you don't think
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: it's funny, it's going to be a hard time for
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: you to kind of give your all to it. But
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: for an athlete or for an actor, they're more trusting.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: They're like, yo, if you say it's funny, then I'll
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: do it. So they're like easier to write for. Comedians
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: are tough.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Are there more limitations on the cast than it is
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: for the guest host? Because I think about somebody like Shane. He's,
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: you know, he got fired from SNL, but then he's
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: hosted three times. So what changed? Did society change? Did
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Shane become too successful to ignore? Because he feels like
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: they can get away with stuff that the actual cast can't.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: I think when you sell out a football field, it's
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: hard to argue with you when you say you know
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: what you're doing, you know? So I think, you know,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: you see it too with Chappelle. You see it with,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you know, Burr. I feel like we sort of let
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: comedians sort of do their thing. That's what the show is,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: you know? It's supposed to be irreverent, you know? It's
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: supposed to be sort of exciting. That's kind of what
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I love about the show is that it's still... makes
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: people react. It still has people talking. Whether they like
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: it or not, I feel like it's like being a
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Nick or a Yankee. When it's bad, you gonna hear
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: about it in New York, for sure.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: So how do you prepare for Drewski, who's a comedian?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: He does his own skits. So how do you prepare
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: for that one?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: We'll see. I mean, we never know. We can't prepare
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: for a show before it's happening. It's like a boxer. Like,
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: you know, you don't think about fights that you're going
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: to have in the future. You think about what's in
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: front of you. So, you know, I think Drewski's, what,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: three shows away or two?
• 5:56
  Speaker 7: In November.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're not even thinking about it until he
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: gets there. The show happens so fast, it's crazy.
• 6:02
  Speaker 8: But y'all would give a person like him free range, though, right? Like, obviously,
• 6:06
  Speaker 8: to stay within the parameters of, you.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Know, whatever that is. I'm sure he's going to have
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: a ton of ideas. And it's going to be, I mean,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: that's why we want him.
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be dope. Really dope. I
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: think it's going to be dope for him. It's going
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: to be crazy for us. It's going to be exciting.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: It's interesting. I mean, does Drewski need SNL or does
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: SNL need Drewski?
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: I don't think Drewski needs anything.
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: No.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? And I think... But I
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: do think the show's made for him. Yeah. It's made
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: for his skill set and it's going to be really
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: cool to see him take advantage of it.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Does SNL adapt to his humor or does he have
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: to adapt to SNL?
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: He doesn't have to adapt to us at all. I think...
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: I don't think our humor is that far apart. I mean,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, SNL is, is tough in the
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: limitations of what you can do in the parameters. It's
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: not a taped thing. You can't just, it's not edited.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: It's live. You kind of got to go, you got
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: to have premise. You got to have story. You got to,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: it's hard. Even we do it all the time and
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: we get it wrong sometimes, you know what I mean?
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: But when it's right, it's, it's, it's exciting. It's iconic.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: You know, people remember that shit for the rest of
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: their lives. So, um, It's going to be cool to
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: see him in that space.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Ooh, that's interesting. Could the show's creative process make it
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: less funny? No, the reason I ask that is because
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: I'm sure Drewky doesn't do them sketches in one take.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Hell no, nobody does. I mean, y'all do on SNL
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: every Saturday. But SNL's SNL. If you were pitching SNL,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: SNL didn't exist, and you were pitching it, nobody would
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: want to do that. 90 minutes of live comedy with
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: a different star every week. That's impossible. It's hard to do.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: It's crazy that we even get it off.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: But I think that's why SNL has always been regarded
• 7:46
  Speaker 6: as this institution. Once you go through there, it's like, boom,
• 7:49
  Speaker 6: the world opens up to you. I don't know if
• 7:51
  Speaker 6: people feel like that anymore.
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: You are successful, but can SNL... Damn! I mean, straight up.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Do you think....
• 8:01
  Speaker 6: Do you think SNL makes stars the way it used
• 8:04
  Speaker 6: to or it's like a Drewski thing where people are
• 8:06
  Speaker 6: now stars outside of it and it just kind of
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: like helps to elevate.
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: Like it will help him, but Drewski is Drewski.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's no formula or no like concrete answer
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: to what makes stars and what doesn't make stars, you know?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think people, especially this generation, they pick
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: their own stars, you know? I mean, like, I mean, Jess,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: like you're from, you know, people know you from the internet.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: They picked you, you know, nobody had to say they
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: didn't groom you for this. It was just like something
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: that they picked naturally. And I think that that's, that's
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: true for everybody like Drewski, you know, same kind of thing.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: So I think like for us, we're not, we're just
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: trying to do the show, you know, we're just trying
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: to make people laugh. We got that, uh, that old saying, uh,
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: we don't do the show cause it's ready. We do
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: the show because it's 1130 on Saturday night, you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: and it's just time to, you know, so, uh, Making stars,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: that's up to the people who they want to be stars.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, listen, Weekend Update is the best part of SNL.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: There's no doubt about it. I'm not even saying that
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: because you're here. I say it all the time when
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: you're not here. I could watch that as a standalone show.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: Easily.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: With you and Colin.
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: If it's you and Colin.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: That guy. I'm just saying. Fuck him. Can I say that? Yes. Yes.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I got to ask. Yeah, say it again.
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Has SNL made you a better comedian? Like, you know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: you got your stand-up special shot in Minnesota. Has it
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: made you a better comedian? Or a more cautious comedian?
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: Because you know you got SNL.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: No, it doesn't. Well, it's made me work less, which
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: has probably made me worse. But it's also made me
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: more thoughtful. With a broader audience, you sort of have
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: to be more thoughtful, you know? So I think like,
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: uh yeah it's probably rounded me in a lot of
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: ways but everything is you know it's a give and
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: take for everything yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: Even when you say more thoughtful you really don't know
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: what's gonna piss people off.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Now you never know you never know i mean i
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: i shouldn't say this but like even that monologue like
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: that wasn't the joke that I thought was going to be.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying, I'm just, that wasn't the joke I thought.
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: Which one did you think?
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: The hiking one?
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: No, I don't, I'm not going to say which one.
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: He said, I'm not joking.
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: The hiking one, I was like, did y'all miss this one?
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, that's not what I thought, but, you know.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: I didn't think the backlash was warranted. I mean, I
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: didn't particularly laugh. I didn't think it was hilarious. But
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: they treating him like he said, free Palestine or something.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It sparked the conversation. I mean, I think to me,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: that's what makes comedy interesting is when people get talking.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: And I think the people that are saying stuff about it,
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: it's on time. Isn't that what this is about?
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: But you know what, though? We're probably not the people
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: to ask. Because I mean, you know, I was born
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: in 1978, but I grew up on bitches ain't shit,
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: but holes and tricks.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, I got to change my
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: whole playlist.
• 11:12
  Speaker 7: Well, congratulations. Netflix special.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. Thank you so much. It's fun. We opened
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: at like number four. That's good, right?
• 11:22
  Speaker 7: Yeah. Why did you choose to shoot it in Minnesota?
• 11:24
  Speaker 7: What does that mean to you?
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: Ah, man, Minnesota's just one of those cities. It's like,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I call it the new Selma. There's always something going
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: on over there.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: It's definitely a double entendre.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's a lot going on, man. It's like,
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Minnesota also, too, Minneapolis in particular, is just like sort
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: of a great place for shows. They just get it.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: They hot there, you know? They receive comedy really well.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: So I kind of just love playing there. I knew
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: they was going to get it.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Why didn't you do it in New York? Where you from?
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: I don't like doing shows in New York. I love
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: New York, but I don't like announcing shows in New
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: York because I'm from New York. So being from New York,
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: it becomes a different responsibility. When I'm doing a special,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: you kind of want to be out of town. That's
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: all you're thinking about. In New York, I got the
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: who's coming, accommodations, all of that. It just becomes sort
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: of a nightmare. It's a home game. So, you know,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: I got to worry about Everybody wanting tickets. I gotta
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: worry about who's heard this stuff, who doesn't know this stuff.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: I'm in New York all the time. So doing it
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: on the road, you could kind of think clear and
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: it feels a lot more comfortable for taping. What makes
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: this special a special nowadays? Well, for me or for
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: everybody else?
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: It's in general. That word special, sometimes I feel like
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: a lot of this stuff ain't special.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people feel that way. I
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: think I feel that way too. I mean, for me, I...
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: What makes it special to me is, you know, it's
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: like a good meal. It's got to have balance. You
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: got to walk away from it being like, man, I
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: could do that again. We got to come back. We
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: got to tell people about this. I think now, once
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: people started finding out how much money people get for
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: specials and it started to become sort of this big deal,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: this big honor to be given a Netflix special or
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: HBO special, everybody just wants one.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And they don't really need one. Yeah. And I'm, like
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you said, I'm 83, so I remember when Chris Rock
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: would drop or when Cat would drop or when Dave
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: would drop. It was a big deal because he only
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: got about four or five of them. So that's kind
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: of just how I think. I do them about every
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: five years anyway.
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: This seemed like an extended conversation for you, though. I
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: know on Weekend Update you get into certain things on SNL,
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: but with your special, it seems like a lot of
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: the political stuff and things that you don't have the
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: time to do on SNL, you could really have a conversation,
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: a funny one, with the audience.
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: That's what this felt like.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's sort of the difference in just the nature
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: of it. Me and Colin are together. So once I
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: deliver the punchline, the camera's off me. Or if I'm
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: doing a feature, I'm just setting it up. So I
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: get maybe two to three minutes of actual joke time
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: in that segment. So you don't really get time to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: dig deep. It might feel slight. I was having a
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: conversation with Trevor Noah about that when he was still
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: hosting The Daily Show. And I remember he was like, man,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: I love that you could just kind of just do
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: a joke and move on. And I was like, I
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: love that you have the real estate to just sort
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: of sit and expound on a subject the way Seth does,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: the way you guys do. So it's like, I guess
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: the grass is greener where the dog shits.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: I was reading your Ringer article. Do you really feel
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: like you're navigating two worlds? What's the difference between the
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: Michael Che on SNL and the Michael Che we see
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: doing stand-up?
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I get to be more personal. I get to be thoughtful.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: I get to explore. I get to not be sure.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I feel like set-up punch, the punch has to sort
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: of hold a lot of weight. And I feel like
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: in stand-up, it doesn't have to hold as much weight
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: because there's something coming. You know what I mean? Something
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: else is coming. So it's like a little bit more flowy.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I don't know. It's just, it could be yourself.
• 15:22
  Speaker 8: And you, yeah, you get to say retarded on stage
• 15:26
  Speaker 8: in the special.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I just brought that word back. Great word.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: That word was banned for years.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: It's back.
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: Yo, you said crack on SNL.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Cut it out. I did say crack up. A lot
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: of stuff that I say goes under the radar. That's
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: why I try not to say too much about Shane.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Cause when he start doing deep dives, I'm like, I
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: don't know what you're talking about. I ain't even hear
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: that joke.
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: So who's closer to who you really are?
• 15:52
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think I'm all of it. You know,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: like we all work. We all got a job where we,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: you know, we got to sort of, practice a different
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: type of decorum. And then we got a place where
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: we could be a little bit more free. Even in stand-up,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: there's stuff that I really can't say that I would
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: say at a barbershop or that I would say in
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: the group chat or whatever. There's levels to everything. I
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: just think with more time, you could offer more context.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: And with more context, you could be more of yourself.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: There's a shorthand. If I'm talking to my homies or
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: talking to my friends, we already know certain things. I
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: can say stuff that they won't take personally. And I
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: feel like the same thing is in stand-up, same thing
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: is in SNL.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: So what's your special? Are you intentionally trying to make
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: people feel a little uncomfortable?
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: No, I'm trying to make people realize that they don't
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: have a reason to be uncomfortable. Talking, being honest, like
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: whatever you're thinking, someone else's thought too. You don't got
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: to feel alone because we're not allowed to say certain things.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: So it's sort of just licensed to be free. For
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: an hour in a basement. And then you can go
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: out and be corporate after that.
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: I think attention got to matter, man. Like if you
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: know somebody's intention is to make you laugh, even if
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: it's cringy, even if it's foul.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: But that's because you're you. You know what I mean? Like,
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: you have that sort of.
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: I think people look at you like that, too, though.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: I think so. I think so, too. I think there's times, but,
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: you know, there's times where they don't. Like, to me,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: it's like, comedy's like, it's like if you're somewhere and
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: you bring a cake, somebody might be allergic to dairy,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: somebody might be allergic to eggs or flour or whatever,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: but you brought a cake. You didn't try to offend them.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: It could hurt them, but you wasn't trying to offend them.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: So you kind of got to think of it like, Well,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: he was trying to make you laugh. It didn't work,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: but he was trying to make you laugh.
• 17:48
  Speaker 8: Now, I'm going to use that next time I offend
• 17:51
  Speaker 8: a community.
• 17:53
  Speaker 7: I brought y'all a cake, man.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: I brought a cake. I brought something I thought you'd like.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: But comedians defend their right to offend people because they're comedians, right?
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: I feel like they have the license at least.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: To offend people?
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, because your jokes may offend.
• 18:08
  Speaker 7: Not intentionally, but like you said.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: You know you write some stuff, you be like, yo,
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: I know this is going to piss some people off,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: but it's worth it because it's funny.
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: You know what I mean?
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: There's like teachable things behind it too. Or like things
• 18:18
  Speaker 6: that you want people to, if you didn't know this
• 18:20
  Speaker 6: was happening, my joke going to make you go look
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: at why I said that.
• 18:22
  Speaker 5: And now you're aware of what's around you.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's sort of the magic of the joke
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: to me. Like, it's like, I mean, do you want
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: to just hear what you already know is funny? For me,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: I want somebody to make something funny that I didn't
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: think could be funny. I think comedy kind of comes
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: from one place. Either it's from pain or something that
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: is too dark to laugh at or something that you
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: see every day that you never noticed was even funny.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Something just completely boring, but I made it funny. That,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: to me, is the trick. So when I'm doing comedy,
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I want to kind of give you something that you
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: didn't think could be funny, make it funny so that
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: you can look at it different the next time you
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: see it.
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Do comedians have a hard time accepting that freedom of
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: speech works both ways? Like, you can say what you want,
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: but I'm an audience member, so I can, you know.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of comedians have a hard time. Yeah.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: And especially black comedians. I think we have a really
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: tough time with it, specifically because we're not really we
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: don't have a history of freedom of speech. That ain't
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: the shit, we more right to remain silent. Shut the
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: fuck up, you know what I mean? Yeah, but freedom
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: of speech is like having a sports car. It can
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: go 200 miles an hour, but this is a school zone. So,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like kind of, you kind
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: of got to know the rules of the road still too.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Even though you have the ability to do it, you
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: kind of got to, you know, drive with caution.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: What about a subject?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, comedy was safe for a while, right?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe I would say maybe three, four years ago, very safe.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: No, it wasn't safe. It was just bubbling somewhere else.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: That's true. It was just bubbling somewhere else. As you
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: can see, there's a lot of comedians that the mainstream
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: didn't even hear of, and they were selling out arenas.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: They was doing huge numbers because people wanted that dirty shit.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: So it was never safe. And I don't think you
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: want it to be so.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not supposed to be. I feel like comedians
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: were scared of cancel culture.
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: I think black comedians, to Michael Che's point, are more
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: scared of cancel culture.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: I think it's a lot harsher on us. It's a
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: lot harsher on us. And also, we're tough on each other, too.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Because we don't have a lot of opportunities, traditionally, historically.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: So when somebody... is the only black guy somewhere. You
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: represent a lot of people. And that means you can
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: disappoint a lot of people. Now, if there's a hundred
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: black comedians out that's cooking, then you could be nuanced.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: Then you can be yourself. Then you can kind of
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: not have to worry. The pressure's not on you as
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: much to represent as many people when there's more diversity.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: And I think that's my biggest hope for diversity is like,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: it lets people be themselves, you know? as opposed to
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: just being the only black guy.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: And I remember you were supposed to be one of
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: the writers in the Kevin Hart role.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: No, I was supposed to be a roaster.
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: Oh, I thought you were supposed to be a writer.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no. But you dropped out, though.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Are you happy you dropped out? Yeah.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: I'm definitely happy I dropped out.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: Did you drop out because you got a preview of
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: some of the jokes?
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't get a preview of none of the jokes.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: I just.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I knew who was going to be there.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, who's going to be there?
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: I saw it and I was like, maybe not, maybe
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: next time. But I wanted to do it for Kevin
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: because I do think Kevin, as successful as he is,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I do think he's really underappreciated.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: I think there is a, I don't know, it's not
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: even just us, it's everybody, but I do think there's
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: a level of fame and success that you can reach
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: where people start to want to see that balloon come down.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: And it's exciting to watch this shit crash. And I
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: think it's a sad kind of joy people take and
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: being like, see, I told you he ain't shit. I
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: think Kev, what he's done is incredible. And I had
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of respect for him. And when they was
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: roasting him, I was like, man, it would be really
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: cool to be a part of that. And then when
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: I kind of saw how they was booking it, I
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: was like, It ain't going to be about that. And
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think it was. But I think that's what
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Kev wanted. I think he picked who he wanted it
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: to be. It's just not my kind of thing. I
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: think a lot of those white guys, no disrespect to them.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: Comedy's comedy. But I think they joke different.
• 23:05
  Speaker 7: You know what I mean?
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: They kind of joke a little different. And it's what
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: it is. It's not my thing. I'm not against it,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: but it's not my thing.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: I saw you post five of the writers. You posted
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: five white writers.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. And people were really upset. Yeah, they
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: were upset. They didn't know. I guess I didn't know
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: that they didn't know they was white. Like, you know
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: these ladies don't be white when you... I just posted
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: a picture. And I reposted it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: Okay, okay.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: It wasn't like, oh, let me show you.
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Oh, see, I thought it came from you.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: No, they posted the picture like we wrote it. And
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: I was like, these niggas wrote it. And I know
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: those guys. I know like half of them. But they
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: were very sad that I pointed out that they were white.
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Do you get calls about that? Like the writers or
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: other comedians? Like, come on.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, of course. And it makes me feel bad because
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: I am a comedian and I know these guys. And
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: it wasn't to shame them. It was more like, if
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: you could do all of those jokes, you can't take
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: The context of, you don't find this funny too?
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Absolutely.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: You know? So like, if you think those jokes is funny,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: why can't we, why can't I do this joke?
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Which is why I should have done the roast because
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: clearly we play different. You know what I mean? So,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: I thought in the context of what was happening, I
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: don't know why people were so upset. Because people were
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: trying to figure out where.
• 24:23
  Speaker 7: About what?
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: About him posting the.
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: Writers or being so shocked, like, oh my God. Because
• 24:28
  Speaker 6: people were trying to figure out who wrote what and
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: who were the black writers with and where were they in?
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: But in the comedy world, we don't really expose that.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: If they didn't post that, I would have never posted that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Because it's like, you know, comedy, if I write something,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: I've written a lot for people. It's like in hip hop,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: like a ghost writer's not going to say, Yo, I
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: wrote that. Unless he's clout chasing. That's kind of like
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: bad etiquette. So I would never say who wrote what,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: even if I knew. And I think that's probably what
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: they were alluded to. But they posted it. It was like,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: we wrote this.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: So Mike, as great as a writer you are, when
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: you're giving white comedians tips on how to write racist jokes.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Is that a thing?
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: What are you doing there?
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: What are you talking about? What the fuck are you
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: talking about? This nigga came with a stack of landmines.
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: Like, you like your job, nigga? Goddamn. What the fuck? Seriously, though.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: I was like, Sean, man, that's my friend.
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: It's going to be a softball interview. What's the difference
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: between a comedian making fun of racism and a comedian
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: using racism to get a laugh?
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: I think it's trust. I think the audience needs to
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: trust you. Comedy is a lot like sex. There's a
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: lot of shit you can get away with if you
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: have consent and she trusts you. You know what I'm saying?
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of comedians don't really get that.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: They don't know that they don't got that pass and
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: they think they could play in a way that they
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: can't necessarily play because they were able to do it
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: somewhere else. And I think it's tricky. Nobody's perfect. I mean,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: come on, man. Y'all got these mics. Y'all talk enough
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: where I'm sure there's been times where you're like, I
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: gotta walk some shit back or it was irresponsible, but
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: you didn't know. You got too comfortable. And it happens
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: to us all the time. So I don't like to
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: kick nobody back in when they're going through some shit
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: that I went through and I was like, ugh. But,
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: you know, because I know what, like you said, I
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: know what the intention is. I know we just trying
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: to entertain people.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: You're just trying to come up with new ideas. You're
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: just trying to push the envelope a little bit, but
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: you go too far.
• 26:42
  Speaker 4: I love that consent analogy. It's true.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: It's true. Yeah, I think that's sort of where a
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: lot of white comedians have trouble with, and I think
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: a lot of black comedians a little bit. Playing for
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: black audiences or growing up in a black household, you
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: know there's shit you can't say. And that's what I
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: mean about the free speech thing. We know there's shit
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you can't say. We know there's not everybody playing like that.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: So you kind of got to, we know how to
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: navigate in a different kind of way. So it's like,
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: for them, they like, oh yeah, I can say whatever.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: That's going to be the headline from the interview, by
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: the way. Michael Chase says, Shane Gillis feels like.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: * * * *.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Good God. Wow. That's your friend?
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: How are your friends like that?
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: Good Lord.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: What the hell? Hold on one more.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: What comes first, your blackness or comedy?
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Well, what came first, my blackness or comedy? I've only
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: been a comedian for... That's a dumbass question? What the fuck?
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: No, the reason I ask that is because a lot
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: of times... What came first?
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: What comes first, your blackness or your comedy?
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: The reason I ask is because a lot of comedians,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: especially black ones, will be like, well, I'm a comedian.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: Even if racist jokes are being said, you know what
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: I mean?
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: By white people.
• 28:02
  Speaker 8: Ooh.
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying no names.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: No, that's right, Lauren.
• 28:05
  Speaker 7: I should think of one person.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Mike's like, fuck that, I'm black.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: I know exactly what you mean. I'm trying to give
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: you a good answer because I understand the question a
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: lot better now. And I don't want to give you
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: a joke answer because that's a really fucking good question.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Because you've been saying the same thing the whole interview.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: I'm a comedian. I may say some things that people
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: may not agree with.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: Well, to quickly answer the easy part of the question,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: I'm black first, obviously. But I do think as a comedian...
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: There's a level of compassion of knowing what it's like
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: to try. As an artist, period. To know what it's
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: like to try. You got that, you're like Daffy Duck.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: You know, that sweaty shit. But it's hard. It's hard
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: when it misses. And it's like, I think one thing
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: that people that don't do comedy never understand, that we understand,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: is that the bomb is painful enough. We know when
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: that shit don't work. We know when we fucked up.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: We know when we.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Wish we could take it back. Your friend over there?
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: We know though.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: He love a bomb.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: But he knows when he bombs. He knows when he
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: say some shit and the audience is like, uh-uh. And
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: it's like, ugh.
• 29:13
  Speaker 7: Gotta quickly pivot.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: It don't feel good. It don't feel good. To people
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: that try to be provocative and try to, that's because
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: they don't know how to be funny. It's awkward. It's
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: just like, you know, when dudes don't, feel confident in themselves,
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: they don't think they have a shot with a woman,
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: they'll be meaner to her and they'll almost self-sabotage. And
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of comedians do that shit too.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: They'll self-sabotage because they don't think they can be funny.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: They'll try to say the word. shit possible to make
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: people be like, oh, he's going, he don't give a
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: fuck about my... He gives a fuck. You know what
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: I mean? He gives a fuck. Because as soon as
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: you start liking it, now he's going to pick his
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: words different. And now he's going to start behaving different.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Now that he knows he got a shot, he's going
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: to go for the win. And I think for comedians...
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: We know what it feel like to bomb. That shit
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: is not fun. If you really care about making people laugh,
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: that shit is not fun. So it's its own punishment
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: when it bombs a lot of times.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: What you're saying is true because there's a lot of
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: comedians that have just, they don't even, I don't even think,
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: they've lost their funny because they're, So angry at the world,
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: it feels like.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: And they just mean it. Yeah, that could happen. That
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: could happen. When you feel like nobody can hear it.
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Because it's like, you know why it's funny. It's just
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: frustrating when you can't communicate it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: I was going to ask, you spent decades making people laugh, right?
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: SNL, over a decade, I should say.
• 30:36
  Speaker 7: You're trying to make him old.
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, man.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: On the road. How do you make sure that you
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: make people laugh that you're not?
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Sad, right?
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Because I look at your hat and you say grumpy
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: on your hat.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: This is a gift. That's my nickname. They call me Grumpy.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: I'm like, are you that upset?
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: Are you that sad?
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: You need therapy.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: Dang, you done been sad.
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: You don't know what I'm talking about.
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: This is a lot.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: Grumpy's good. I like a good... grumpy disposition. It's fun.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Grumpy makes me smile. You ever see a grumpy old man?
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: That's fucking the best. Love it.
• 31:10
  Speaker 7: I see one every day. As soon as I walk
• 31:12
  Speaker 7: in the station.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Are you grumpy?
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: Every day.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: I'm always happy. Yeah, you don't seem like a grumpy guy.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, some people don't work it either.
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: That's a fact.
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: No, you don't work it.
• 31:21
  Speaker 6: It's like the pop-pop. You love your pop-pop, but he
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: has those times.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty much.
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: Fussy.
• 31:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah, but it be in good reason and good intention
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: and love, but it's like, oh, here he go.
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: You've been around long enough and have had enough success
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: that the new generation just does things a little bit different.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 31:40
  Speaker 8: And he constantly reminds us of the old generation and.
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: How dumb we are and what we don't know.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: No, I got you. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Pick
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: a switch.
• 31:51
  Speaker 7: You read the wrong.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: You're all right. You're all right. You're all right.
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: Do you ever feel like your success on SNL overshadows
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: you as a stand-up comedian?
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Of course. Yeah. But I mean, I don't mind that.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Because I think it's sort of... It comes with it.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: I don't get to pick what people like about me
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: or what people don't like about me. I can just
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: do the work. It frustrates me, but at times, but
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: it is what it is. I'm not embarrassed by the
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: work on SNL. SNL taught me how to be a professional.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: It taught me a lot. I got to work with
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: all my heroes. I got to work with Eddie Murphy.
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? I got to work with
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Dave Chappelle. Everybody's come through those walls and it's kinda cool.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it a lot.
• 32:43
  Speaker 7: That's what I was trying to say earlier.
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: That's what I meant. It's like the institution of life.
• 32:48
  Speaker 6: It's like going to college where you get there and
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: you learn how to go out into the world. That's
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: what SNL felt like. I don't know if it feels
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: like that anymore.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Well, in particular, from my perspective, SNL puts you on
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: the hook as a writer to learn the entire business.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: You got to learn casting. You got to learn writing.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: You got to learn blocking. You got to learn.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: You got to learn everything about what you're producing and
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: you got to see it all the way through and
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: then you're responsible for it. You have to watch it
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: with Lorne at dress rehearsal. He has to ask you questions.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: Why is this not working? Why did you do this?
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Why did you make that choice? You're on the hook
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: for it. He's your responsibility. So that's why I think
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: it was important to have more black writers and more
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: younger writers to kind of come in and get that
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: crash course in professionalism. Because it prepares you for the
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: rest of your career. And there's no, it's not a
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: mystery why Tina Fey and why, you know, all these
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: people are doing so much. Adam McKay has done so
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: much after SNL. And, you know, because people trust them
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: and they've worked with them already and they're not intimidated
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: to give the rock a note. You know what I'm saying? Like,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: you gotta be able to do that. You can't just
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: learn that, you know, by yourself.
• 34:07
  Speaker 7: What was the most challenging thing you had to learn
• 34:10
  Speaker 7: being there?
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: The most challenging thing was how to let everybody eat.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: So like as a stand-up, you writing jokes from your
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: perspective and why it's funny to you. When you're writing
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: sketch and when you're writing for stars, everybody need a line.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Everybody needs a purpose to be out there. You can't
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: just have Kate McKinnon out there holding a tray. You
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: know what I mean? No, you got to give us
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: something to do and you got to kind of see
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: everybody's superpower, what makes them special. And you got to,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: you got to write something that makes them look good.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: So that, that's important when you're, when you're writing anything.
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: Like, you know, I'm listening like as a writer of music, right?
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: How do you decide what joke is good for another
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: comedian and what joke you keep for yourself?
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: That's a really good question too. I think it's, again,
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: you learn casting. And I think your allegiance has to
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: be to the joke and to the point. And if
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: it's funnier for me to say it, I'll say it.
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: But if it's funnier for you to say it, then
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: you should say it. And I think you got to
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: be honest with yourself. And you can't be a ball hog. And, yeah.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: I hope that answers that. Because it is tough. It
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: is a struggle.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Now, when you write jokes and you do these jokes
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: on SNL, how many times has an artist come up
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: to you and be like, yo, Mike, let me talk
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: to you for a second.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: I wasn't feeling that. That wasn't funny.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Oh, man. Well, I can say this, because I think
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: he said it in an interview before, but I remember
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: when Eddie Murphy hosted, I was doing a monologue, and
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: he did not, at table read, he did not like it.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: He really didn't like it. But before we read it-
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: You were joking on him, or just- Well, he just didn't,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: I don't know, for whatever reason, he just didn't like
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: the monologue. But we was about to read it at
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: table read, and I was like, well- I mean, we're
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: about to read it, so let's just read it and
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: then we could make all the changes that you want.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to write it. And we read it
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: and it got a big laugh and it settled them in.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: And afterwards, after the table, he came up to me
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and was like, I'm sorry, you was right. But it's
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: a thing like, you don't know. You know what I mean?
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: He doesn't know. He's Eddie Murphy. He didn't know that
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: he would like it or it would work.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Did that hurt you, being that it was Eddie Murphy?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Of course it hurt. It's a huge shot. But I
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: also understood, because I worked there. I know that, hey,
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: there's some shit that you're going to do that's going
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: to bomb. It's going to hurt, but that don't mean nothing.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: It ain't personal. He's Eddie Murphy. He knows what the
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: fuck is funny. So I understood it. It wasn't like
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: it hurt me like you a bad guy. It hurt
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: me in a way of, damn, I feel like I
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: let my hero down. But as he heard it, he
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: believed in it, and when he did it, it worked.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: So it was like, you know, vindicating, but also lets
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: you know that nobody knows until we know. You don't
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: really know until you hear it. You gotta fucking hear it.
• 37:05
  Speaker 4: And I'm sure you reserved the right to pull people
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: to the side, because we saw you do that with Kanye.
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: Pull them to the side and let them know you
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: wasn't feeling it.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I didn't know that. I feel bad about
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: it because I didn't know that that was on camera.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: I try not to ever, like, beat people up in...
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: the media about being on the show because the show
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: is so stressful. It's so hard to do. We're there
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: all the time and it stresses us out. It's scary.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Shit is unnatural. Shit is intimidating. It happens so fast.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: If you're having a bad week at that show, I
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: get it. And sometimes people behave really poorly and people
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: are like, I know he was a dick. You're like,
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: maybe he was, but also that's a time to be
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: a dick because that's a hard thing to go through.
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: You're watching people with a really vulnerable personality uncomfortable you
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: know what I mean like they have full control of
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: their careers a lot of these stars and then they
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: come here and people just pulling them it's hard to
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: do and I really hate to be critical of somebody
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: doing a difficult thing especially when I know how difficult.
• 38:07
  Speaker 7: It is to do did you get to talk to
• 38:09
  Speaker 7: him afterwards Eddie Murphy.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Show he came up to me everybody in black Hollywood
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: was you there Not everybody was there. Almost everybody was there.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: You see him next to me.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: I remember being at a party with Eddie, but I
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: don't know if that was an SNL party.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Then that must have been. That must have been it.
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: Oh, the one that he had here in New York?
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: It must have been, yeah. When he was hosting.
• 38:37
  Speaker 5: I know you got an invite. We talked about it.
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: I just remember Eddie being there the first.
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: Time I met Eddie. Eddie Murphy is a different type
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: of fan and a different type of legend. He's like
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: the legend to the legend. I watched Dave Chappelle and
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Chris Rock go to my dressing room because everything was booked.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: Every room was filled. They was hiding in my dressing room.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Dave was smoking. They both called their moms to tell
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: them they was at the show and Eddie Murphy was there.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I watched my hero's Geek out. You know what I mean? Like,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: it was that kind of special. But to answer your question,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: I remember I was in the hallway, like, you know,
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: making changes or whatever. And out the elevator bed, Kanye
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: comes out. And he was like, hey, man, I owe
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: you an apology. It was the first time I'd seen
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: him since that happened. And I didn't know anybody knew
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: about it. He was like, I owe you an apology.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: And he said he was sorry. And it was huge
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: to me. that he even, first of all, remembered and
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: that he was man enough to say that because he
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: definitely didn't have to. He could have just kept going
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: about his life and been the billionaire or whatever. But
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: him doing that made me look at him in a
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: different light because not a lot of people apologize in
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: this business. Right.
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: Especially when they don't have to.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: Make sure you check out Michael Che's special, man. Shot
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: in Minnesota.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: It starts with me defending Shane and it ends with
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: me apologizing for Kanye. That's what this interview did for
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: my career.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: Cool, cool, cool.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: Cool, cool, cool. Appreciate you for joining us.
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: It's the breakfast club.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: It's the breakfast club.
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: I think we're set.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: Hold on.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. It's
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: the breakfast club. You all finished or you all done?