"There's this myth that goes 'round that Americans don't get irony." " What does that mean?" " It's..." "This is my impression of Danny Glover." ""Wait... there's a bomb... on my ( bleep )." "(female announcer) We'll hear from the most talked about comedy actors in television:" "Thomas Middleditch, SiliconValley;" "Will Forte, TheLastManOnEarth;" "Ricky Gervais, Derek;" "Jordan Peele, KeyPeele;" "Fred Armisen, Portlandia;" "Don Cheadle, HouseofLies." "( upbeat music )" "♪" "Welcome to Close Up, with The Hollywood Reporter." "I'm Stacey Wilson, Awards Editor for The Hollywood Reporter,  and your host." "Let's jump right in." "What bugs you most about comedy today?" "Is there a trend in the business that's irksome to you" "Yes." "It is... confusing, the target of a joke with the subject of a joke." "It's happening, it's getting worse and worse." "The last proviso, it's social media, it's everyone" "And this past week, Trevor Noah kind of experienced the downside of Tweeting just not" "But I don't even mean" "You haven't got a get out of jail free card, but it was just a joke." "I don't believe that, and I'm all for political correctness, right?" "But it's not about that." "It's about stupid people misunderstanding the joke, and then getting angry about it." "At least understand the joke before you dislike it." "I think it's a knee jerk reaction, people accept it." "There was a review once of one of my comedy gigs, and the guy said, "Ricky Gervais should be banned." "His subject matter deals with duh-duh-duh-duh." "Two of my friends went to see him, and they told me," ""What?" "So you...what?"" "But that doesn't count." "You know what it's like." " But he's got a blog." "So..." "And this is a national newspaper." "It was so-- Yeah, yeah." "Getting angry, in general, why?" "(Ricky) Yeah, I know." " Who cares?" " I know." "It's so funny." "How could they have that much time?" "They want to be heard." "They want..." "They just want to be heard, and they're okay." "These people, they aren't heard enough, so they demand it." "They can't believe we get away with saying stuff, 'cause they don't get it." "They don't get what we're saying." "And that's the problem." "Most people do, but it's-- They misunderstood the jokes" "It only takes a small percentage of people to sort of ruin it, essentially." "Well, it does really" "You've got to ignore them, really." "You've got to fight through them, even notes, which is a nice, calm, and much more collaborative thing." "I haven't had to take notes, but that's because I didn't go to places where they would demand them." "I--and so, my compromise was going to fringe channels that I knew wouldn't do it." "But that it's a" " That is a compromise, you know?" " Of course." "And less people watch my shows." "In the early days, it's like you're dealing with some of these notes I had with a" "I just--You just can't argue comedy." "It's like arguing with someone whether they've got a pain in their leg." "It doesn't make sense." "I think you can argue comedy." "Some people just-- Either it's your taste or your perceived everyone's taste." "You can be like, "That's not funny,"" "and someone can say, "Yes, it is."" "Exactly that." "If someone says, I'm not funny, they're right." "If someone says I am funny, they're right." "It's-  'cause, you know, it's taste." " Yeah, yeah." "I would say, for me, like, in feature comedies, right now, there seems to be a staleness-- in terms of mainstream feature comedies." "There seems to be some sort of formula, where kind of, like, everything works out in the end, and you'll see the two-minute trailer, and you might as well just already seen the movie." "There's nothing else to it." "So they make sure you know you're going to see the film you saw last week, and it's just as good." "You're not going to waste your $15 bucks, and it works." "But then again, I could be not the right person to be the arbiter of what is good or not, because there's plenty of TV shows that get millions of viewers, and I'm like," ""I can't even sit through 22 minutes of it, so..."" "Anyone talking about my show now?" "'Cause my show is like 22 minutes, almost exactly." "(all laughing and speaking at once)" " Because he looked at you." " I looked right at you." "But, so, then, like, "Who's going to believe me?"" "They're all like, "Yo" "But you don't like the things that everybody else likes."" "That's why you only do it" "You only have to please one person, and that's yourself." "And that's the only thing you can go on." "Everything else doesn't matter, because as many people are going to love it, more people are going to hate it." "Anything you say, someone will find offensive." "And it's like if you don't internalize that," "I think you stop trying." "You go to the safety, to the comfort zone, you don't reach for things that are going to possibly" "But it is very difficult to have that conviction where you go, "I like it." "I think it's funny."" "Thomas, I'm interested, on Silicon Valley, how much control do you have over the funny moments?" "I'd say it's fairly substantial." "I mean, we're all allowed to try things, and sometimes they're going to be like," ""Hey, enough of this."" "But that's mainly because they have a birds-eye view of the episode, and it's like, in their head, it's running like 45 minutes, and they got to get it down." "Or that it just..." "isn't funny." "Yeah, I feel like I have a fair amnt of contribution, and, either it's in the moment, or pitched before we roll, but, yeah, I would say the character is very much an amalgamation of my contribution" "plus everybody else's, as well as all the little bits in between." " Do you get to improv at all?" " Yeah." "Improv on that show isn't about rewriting a scene, or, like, creating a whole new storyline." "A tangent may evolve, but it's more about, like, character color, or finding a little moment that's, like," ""Oh, good, that's our little out to get to something else."" "I mean, a guy like Zach Woods, who's an incredible improviser." "His character in the pilot is just, like, a guy who worked at Hooli, who was taken over to our side." "But it's all his little improvs that didn't even make it into the show that everyone is like," ""Oh, I know how to write for you now,"" "and now he's become this very, you know, weird guy with a lot of hidden secrets." "That's just, pretty much come out of him, and then people seeing that, and then, like, writing for that." "( dramatic music )" "Oh, ( bleep )." " Yeah, it doesn't matter." " Wow." "You okay there, Richard?" "Uh, yeah, I'm fine." "Sorry, I can't really throw it any slower." "Give it another cut, Richard." "Uhm, no, I'm fine." "I don't want to." "Uh, maybe someone else wants to?" "Who's next?" "If someone has to go, I'll go, but it seems very frightening." "That's why I think, sometimes, the second series of something is better than the first, because when you write it, you don't know who's going to play it, then you cast, then the second time" "you know who's playing, you build in their physicality there." "It's so funny, because the first time" "I shot The Office, lots of improv." "And in the cold light of day, the scripted lines worked better than the improv lines, because" "Once you cut you cut it down, and it made sense." "Yes, it made more sense." "A lot of times when you watch, you know, comedy, either on TV or film, where you can kind of just..." " You can tell, right?" " You can sense that it's, like, actors trying to throw funny lines in there, when it seems out of place, it's like..." "Yeah, they're above it." "Yeah, and they can kill on set, because it's unexpected." "Yes, exactly." "The crew laughs because they haven't heard it before." "This is your guy, saying, "Finally, I'm somebody."" "At last." "I feel sorry for boom operators, because when they're doing a great take, and they go boom in, everybody looks at them, whereas if an actor sort of laughs, everyone goes," ""Oh, isn't that cute?" He's ruined the line, 'cause he's laughing, "Oh, he's great."" ""He's ruined every take, and I went in once, and I'm like--"" ""Come on, Carl."" "And it is Carl." "Don, how about on House of Lies, there's a lot of I would say raunchy material, have you had to pull back on anything?" "No, I mean, on Showtime it's more..." " The more the better?" " ...can you do more?" "You know, and that is obviously funny about that show, that we get to really let our id run wild a little bit, and Matthew Carnahan, the showrunner and creator of it is really instrumental in that," "but the network's always really behind us, and we haven't run into anything that's-- that we've had a lot of pushback." "I mean, a lot of times you get really bad notes from the studio, but they're very smart, and really kind of have their ear to the ground about the things that they think would work and don't work." "Because your show really is an amalgam of drama and comedy, in a way that most of these shows aren't." "Are they weighing in on, "This is too dramatic." "This isn't funny enough", you know, sort of like, you know, a ratio" "I think, actually, we" "The cast is always pushing to have it be more funny." "When we have the guys to do it, you know," "Ben Schwartz, and Josh, and Kristen, they're all really, really good, and" "But it is a tricky balance trying to find, you know, how to--Which foot you want it to be on." "Some people believe in the dharma of non attachment." "Some people in the dharma of loving kindness." "( dramatic music )" "But I've come to realize that I believe in the dharma of search and destroy." "I believe in the dharma of take no prisoners." "I believe in the dharma of kicking ass!" "( upbeat music )" "How about the rest of you on your current shows?" "What were the best jokes you had to lose or notes that you were given that you just said," ""Okay, I have to make a concession on this front."" "I'm sure you guys have had a lot of conversations with Comedy Central about the boundaries" " Well, you know, you'd be surprised." "You know, this is a network that's...you know, been successful with South Park and Chappelle." "And the word "comedy" is in the name." "The word "comedy" is in the name, so they're not afraid of going for it." "You know, the strangest notes that we'll get are things like," ""Is Star Wars really a thing that people care about?"" "( laughs ) You know?" "When you write back, what do you say?" "And you go, "Uh, yeah." "People still care."" "You just write back, "No doy-oy."" "They did the sketch and not a lot of people cared, to be honest." "I mean, the younger generation are not as feverish for Star Wars as we are." "So questioning zeitgeistpiecesof" "So, the--Oh, yeah, the zeitgeist thing." "What's relevant?" "You have a very young demo on Comedy Central." "Yeah, I mean we're targeted at the kids, so we got to, like, write sketches about Drake." "No, but one of the main reasons our show has been successful is that the network has allowed us to go places, they've even pushed us." "We're very lucky to have found that home." "And have they weighed in a lot on a lot of the race stuff, which is kind of, you know, the cornerstone of the show?" "We have this wonderful thing called the race card, which we can play at any point, anytime you get a note you don't like," ""It's a black thing."" "And that's the end of the conversation." "Wait 'til they hire that black exec who's like, "That's not right."" "( all speaking at once )" "Thank God Hollywood does not hire black execs." "You're good, you're safe." "Will never happen." "Yeah." "You will be in room 237." "And you have free Wi-Fi there." "Also, from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, every morning, there's a free continental breakfast." "Mm." "Thanks." "Continental breakfast?" "Yes, from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM." " So it's continental, then." " Uh-huh." "Yeah." "Will, The Last Man on Earth was a notoriously hard sell for network television." "What was the toughest part about getting the show on the air?" "The hardest part about it?" "They were... into it from the beginning, and very supportive, but the hardest thing was to have them buy into long stretches of time without people talking." "That was really tricky." "Yes, the network execs don't like that very much." "Yeah, yeah." "That was, by far, the hardest part." "So how did you overcome that?" "We were very honest about our intentions from the beginning." "The nerve-wracking part was just thinking that, at some point, they would force us to go against their promises of letting us do what we wanted to do, and there were battles along the way" "Not battles, just conversations which, you know, it was nerve-wracking, but ultimately they were going to let us do what we wanted to do." "So that was the scary part, though, was... entering into this agreement, and thinking," ""Oh, they're going to make us change it all around,"" "and they ultimately stuck to their promise." "Do you want whiskey, Gary?" "Whiskey?" "You sure?" "How about you, Jimmy?" "No?" "Okay, well, does anyone want a whiskey?" "Huh?" "Greg?" "Kevin?" "Anton?" "No?" "Really, nobody?" "Trevor?" "Terrence?" "Trent?" "Darby?" "Bryce?" "Marshall?" "Peter?" "Thomas?" "Max?" "Dashel?" "Diego?" "Clementine?" "Were there any minor adjustments they asked for or--?" "Oh, yeah." "Little things along the way, and, oh, God, we wrote so many drafts of that thing, but I will say that by having to do all these things that at times seemed like addressing crazy notes," "it ultimately made the show better, I think." "So I'm thankful for the crazy notes." "What were some of their notes?" ""Have more talking." ( laughs )" "Uh...you know, little" ""Can there be more people in this?"" "Things like you couldn't show, you know," ""Don't show a dead body,"" "which we thought was important in the beginning, and we still, here, to this day, like," ""Where are all the dead bodies?" And we've had" "'Cause we really don't know what happened, but..." ""Just don't use real ones," they meant." " Yeah." "( laughs )" "And we were taking a stand." " This is about realism." " Yeah, yeah." "But I like that in your show." "That the" "You don't see the bodies, you just" "Oh, yeah." "We didn't miss it" "TheWalkingDead's on the same night." "Yeah, yeah." "We're covered with bodies." "We'll be right back with more inside stories." "♪" "♪" "Welcome back to Close Up, with The Hollywood Reporter." "We're with six of the hottest comedy actors in television." "When were you the most wrong about a sketch, a joke or a bit that you'd written or performed, and it just--?" "I did--My friend and I, when I was senior in high school, there was a comedy store, and they had an open mic night." "And I was like, "Oh, it's-- I think we can do this." "We think of ourselves as being pretty funny." "So we went home, and we came up with a routine, and went back that night, and did five minutes, and it was great." "We crushed, and people loved it, and so we wrote up some more stuff," "We came back next weekend, we did it." "And I was like, "We're going to be" "I'm on my way." "We're on our way." "It's going to be fantastic."" "I invited my parents, and we already know where this is headed." "And the third weekend, we didn't crush so much." "It was very, very, very bad." "And there's no worse feeling I've ever had than being on stage, trying to do stand-up, and having it tank." " Then it's just you, it's just you." "You can't say, you can't suddenly say," " "I didn't write that."" " No." ""That's not what I really think."" "Yeah." "And I started pushing harder, and when you get into that sort of adversarial relationship with the audience, and they're just, like, the collective sound of 100 people groaning quietly to themselves that sounded like," "( groaning loudly )" "It was just a bunch of people going," "( groaning quietly ) but all together." "How about, Will and Fred," "I know you had a more eccentric taste on SNL." "So when you collaborated together, you thought," ""Oh, my God, this is going to kill them, they're going to love it, it's going to air in the first half hour, and then" "I remember this one where Liam Neeson was the host, and we put a German family, they all had blond hair, and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world that Liam Neeson as the dad kept sitting on everything." " That was the whole schtick." " Yes." "Obviously." "The dollhouse that the daughter made" "But he would talk to her about dollhouses, and as he's talking to her, he would sit on it." "It went to dress, and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world." "And it was very, very dead silent." "It wasn't a groan, it was the absence of sound." " Yeah." " I could hear everything being crushed that he was sitting on, and I didn't want to be able to hear it." "Was he game for this?" "Did he seem like he was really--?" "Okay." "Yeah, he sold it with a German accent and everything." " Okay." "Well" " Now that I've described it," "I'm thinking it's not the best idea... ( laughs ) Where is the joke?" "Are you kidding me, though?" "It's when he crushes all those tiny things." " Yeah, yeah." " What's the one line" "Liam Neeson sits on things, we have it." "I mean, we would do some weird stuff, so I think you go in knowing there's a chance of total failure, but there was one thing that Bill Hader and I did." "He just talked about a couple of days ago, called Fart Face." "And it's not like-- You know, you do something called Fart Face, you're not expecting it's going to win any artistic awards or anything, but this was complete silence." "You get to the end of the dress rehearsal, and you're like, "Oh, that's--Okay." "Well, we tried it out."" "Oh, just two people in an office setting, it's like," ""Jerry, I'd like you to... stop calling me Fart Face, please."" ""Oh, you got it, Bill." "Sure."" "And then Josh Brolin comes in, and he's like," ""Hey, have you met Fart Face here?"" ""I thought I specifically asked you to stop calling me Fart Face"." "And so--We thought, "Okay, office setting, and no laughter, and then Lorne somehow put it into the show, and it met with even more silence." "Even more not laughing." "Even more people not laughing." "Yeah, yeah." "You know, I watched it the other day, and I still stand behind that thing." "You know, you can never guess." "The thing that's humiliating is there'll be a sketch right after, and the audience is on board." "So it's not that they're a bad audience, 'cause, you're like, "This audience is dead,"" "and the one right after that kills." "They let us know, they let us know, you know?" "One thing that it's not advised is doing sketch at a stand-up show." " Th does not work." " No." "That's not what they're expecting." " Especially when people have been killing, and then, so, yeah." "So, Keegan and I did this show between our first and second season." "So, the football names sketch, the East-West, you know, works on television." "I don't know how we got the idea to come out and just go back and forth, doing these names." "It was like a riot." "They beat us off the stage." "And it was one of those things where we're just" "We had to do like 15 minutes, and the crowd was just all lubed up drunk." "All we needed to do was, like, "Skip to the song."" "It's because he's asking too much of the audience." "They just had stand-up that cuts through alcohol." "Where the sketches are too demanding." "You got to change gears." "Yeah, I just...ugh." "So that was it, yeah." "That was a tough, tough lesson." "Even now if we did it--'cause the sketch kind of blew up, now I feel like the same junk audience..." ""( yelling ) Do it again!"" "( laughs )" "How about the most mortifying audition?" "You know, I've got nothing." "I had to write myself a part, so I didn't audition for anything, so I cheated." "When did you decide you needed to write your own stuff?" "Oh, I was sort of 36, and I worked in an office, but I wasn't thinking" "I was going to write a thing about this one day." " I was the funny guy, and" " I know." " I mean" " You don't have to yell at me." "We started out saying you're the funniest." "Obviously the other guys that worked there said..." "I fell into another job at a radio station, and then I started popping up on air, and it also happened from that, you know." "I think I went along for one audition for an advert, and it was dreadful, and I didn't get it, and I just--I never want to do that again." "I can't--I'm not good at auditions." "I hate it." "There is no good audition." "I mean" "That is an exquisitely mortifying experience for me." "One of the more recent ones I had, actually," "I went in for Ant-Man." "So, did you get it?" "The funny thing is, I actually did get it." " Whoa!" " Hey!" "But the audition itself was a nightmare." "I was" "This was--Edgar Wright was directing it at the time." "I went in, it was one of these things, they were like," ""You got the gig."" "Who, who's telling you this, by the way?" "It's...my manager, "It's a done deal." "They just want to see you on camera"." "And that's the worst, it's the worst." "It's already done." "And so I go in there, and it's like one of these things, it's like, you know, four lines, and I've" ""I'm an ant." "I'm an ant!"" ""Is this the script?"" ""Ooh, there's some sugar." "What are you doing?"" ""No improvising needed."" "Now you and your friends make a bridge, and you just climb up, climb up." "I'm like an ant." "I know that, I'm just like an ant." "And that's the problem, I came dressed as my aunt Arleen." "And you kept turning to the camera and saying," ""It's a Bug's Life."" "It was, it was." "It was one of those things you just start, and you think you don't need the script, and you're back in, and you..." "So what was the reaction in the room?" "First of all, I sold my own stuff." "I was like, "That was ( bleep )." "I've wasted your time," and Edgar was there, he was like, "It was nice, it was good, let's try..."" "He's doing a British accent." "Yeah, I was trying to-- It was all right?" "I was kind of doing you, more than Edgar." ""Well done!"" "( laughs )" "But I guess how Hollywood works now is that I had the worst audition of my life, and I got the role anyway." "Perfect." "How about the rest of you?" " I remember I went in, uh" " James Bond." "Yeah." "No, no, I went..." "What was that?" "AlmostFamous." "I went in to read for the part that Jimmy Fallon got." " He was like the manager." " Oh, yeah." "And I did it in this weird Southern accent." "They said, like, "Try it again, without the Southern accent."" "I think it got more Southern..." "I didn't think my own voice was interesting enough for" "I don't know what it was." "but that was a good thing about SNL, it's that you're doing your own thing" "You mean, the audition for SNL." "You have a certain amount of control." "Yeah, you can make up your own words, as opposed to trying to guess what other people are looking for." "You're like, "This is what I got." "Do you like it?"" "But that one was so nerve-wracking, I thought." "Oh, it was terrifying." "Did you audition for SNL too?" "I did." "It was fun in terms of auditions, but SNL is a bit of a gold standard, it's a bit of a gold medal that, were you to get it, you can wear it around, gold medal style." "And auditioning for it is so nerve-wracking." "You get your three characters, your three impressions, or whatever you want to do, you have such a limited time to do it, you're on that stage, where you've seen, every Saturday" "And it's, you know, Lorne Michaels, and the crew, and everybody, and it could very easily happen where you're just up there, and sweating, and no one's laughing, like" "Well, they generally don't laugh, right?" "I mean, they did for me, but... they were howling, they were on the floor, but it was also an honor just to audition." "I think that's one of the shows where you're like" "It's its own badge of honor, you might say." "Yeah." "The failed badge of honor." "( laughs )" "♪" "♪" "Welcome back to Close Up, with The Hollywood Reporter." "We're sitting down with the funny men behind the year's best TV comedies." "What would you say is the worst job you've had coming up in the business?" "And this can be in showbiz or otherwise." "I used to install cable, in the crawl spaces of apartments, and probably crawling over asbestos, and rat ( bleep )." "It was pretty bad." "But stealing from the apartments that you had to get into was like stealing their weed stash, and stuff like that." " That was fun." " Gervais?" "Not that that's, you know, condoned." "No, no, no, no, no." "I wouldn't." "If there are kids watching." " Why?" "Why are you watching?" " Yeah, why are you watching?" "Why?" "Why are you watching?" "Go to your favorite viral video site, and see someone get hit in the nuts." "Anything but this." "How about you, Will?" "I mean, this is going to sound weird, 'cause it's not" "You know, it's an office job, but it was" "I was doing what my dad did." "I was working for a financial consultant, and it was just really tricky, 'cause I started thinking" "I wanted to go into comedy, but, like, it was really scary to break away from what I had thought I should be doing with my life, and go for this crazy thing." "I've had jobs that were harder, and jobs that were not fun to do, but this was the one that really, like, dragged me down, 'cause it was really hard to go away from the thing that my dad did." "How did you do that?" "I just stayed at it for so long, that it was breaking my spirit, and finally...it broke me, I bottomed out." " You know, I hate-- - "Father, I'm leaving."" "I wasn't working with him." "And then-  "I'm moving to L.A." - "After all the success" " I've brought you, boy." - "I'm going to be a comedian"." "Of course I'd be, you know, the second I called my dad, and said, "You know, I don't want to do this." "I want to try to do comedy", he was incredibly supportive." "He was like, "I don't know why you were doing that in the first place."" ""'Cause you're terrible at this job."" ""I've been trying to fire you for three years." "I just couldn't work up the courage."" "And those jobby jobs, were you, like the funny guy?" "I find I shut down on the jobby jobs, and I'm not me." "Like when I think about the old jobby jobs that I had, people weren't there, actually, being like," ""You're going to be so funny, 'cause right now you're being funny, right now."" "I'm just like, "I don't know, just trying to walk these dogs and pick up that poo."" "Sure, the more manual labor it was, the more... ( all speaking at once )" "Anyone else, Fred or Jordan?" "I had this job once where I worked for this nightclub, like a disco nightclub, and I had to go around leaving piles of passes in stores all over the place, so this bag, it was really heavy," "and I had to go in the stores and sort of, like, just, like, leave a little pile of "get into the nightclub free."" "And that was long hours carrying a lot of stuff, and no one wanted me there." "You so wanted to be a dancer in the cage, didn't you?" " Yeah." " At last." "Yeah." "What was the return for that?" "I still don't know how that worked." " It was a joke job." " Yeah, exactly." ""We're going to do that, get some kids to get out there and put some passes out."" "Totally." "Watch them, they'll do it." "So I would like to know who or what first taught you what it means to be funny." " I'm going to start with Ricky." " Oh, wow." " Please." " Oh, no." " The funniest." " ( clears throat )" "( unintelligible )" "( all laughing and speaking )" "But if you don't count-- Do you mean as soon as you understood that it was a career?" "'Cause my first thought was my family and my older brothers and friends, like five, six, I realized it felt good to laugh and make people laugh, and that was very important to me growing up, that..." "I was always attracted to funny people before anything else, you know, and I sort of kept that, really." "But the first time I understood it was people doing it for my pleasure, was Laurel and Hardy." "And I still think it began and ended with them, 'cause it wasn't just a joke or the lines or the craft." "It was the fact that I sort of loved them, and I wanted to be their friend." "See?" "Now I've gone first, right?" "And given a serious, pretentious answer." "He's going to give one line and he's going to be funny" "A real laugher." "How about Will?" "Are you going to be funny?" "No, I mean, now, I-- You know, you talked about going first, and I had to go second after a wonderful answer." "Now I got sucked into the answer." "I don't know how to answer." "I mean, that--You know, so much of it it's exactly his answer, you know?" "Wanting to please Ricky's family and make them laugh." "So, you know, it's all the same stuff." "SaturdayNightLive was a big deal for me, and then Letterman." "It was before he was on, wasn't it?" " Yes, I was right before that." " Way before that." " Thank you." " Yeah." "But, you know, those things just make me so happy." "I was like, "Oh, my God, what a delightful thing, if I could do that for a living, it seems like so much fun"." "And, Thomas, how about you?" "Well, I'm the token Canadian, and for me it was KidsintheHall." "You know, just like click on over to the CBC on Monday nights or whatever it was and see those guys." "They were so weird and absurd, and they always sort of, like, challenged absurdity." "Best answer." "A vote?" "Yeah." "That was pretty good." " ( unintelligible )" " Yeah." "I like that as well, 'cause I think that's when" "I became aware that I was jealous of grown men acting ridiculous, and I thought," ""Whoa, I get told off at school for being a fool, and mucking around, but they're doing it for living"." "And that was the thing I thought, "This would be great." "No one can tell me not to do it, 'cause it will be my job then."" "Yeah. "And I can finally dress as a lady, and people will think it's great."" "That's rule one." "That's the funniest thing you could ever do as a comedian if you're a man is dress up as a woman." " Yeah, that's rule one." " It's so true." "Fred, how about you?" "I'd say early on was probably friends, and then cartoons, I suppose." "You know?" "Like watching Bugs Bunny and stuff and then" "Friendscamebefore the cartoons?" "I'm saying friends, my own friends." " Oh, your own friends." " You're talking about the sitcom," "I thought you meant the series Friends." "It's like they stole that." "Oh, no." "But that's good." "No, take it." "Ross and Rachel, will they or won't they?" "See?" "When I said "friends" they knew what I meant." "When you said "friends", they thought it was that show" " on television." " But that's my" "But that's my appeal, is the mystery." "How did you know that being funny had value in your life?" "I felt like it had currency with my friends when we talked about SCTV, where it was kind of, like, a secret show in a way, and you could kind of talk about something you've seen, you know, the night before," "and same with SNL as well." "There's a sort of way you could kind of impress each other by, like doing impressions of impressions, or characters." "And also survival." "I mean, you may see me and say," ""That guy is a really cool guy, he was probably always really cool, but--"" " Yeah." " There was a time where," " laugh if you want to." " You're violent." "I thought you were probably the bully." "Yeah. 100%, yeah." "I was the bad one." "I was definitely the bad one." " And so I'm this" " The bad Canadian." "So I made laughter my weapon, and I kill people with it." " There goes the comedian." " Yeah." " Watch out." " ( whistling )" " Jordan, what about you?" " Yeah." "I'm seven years old, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed," "Ricky Gervais comes on the screen." " Oh." " I--No." "( laughs )" "Ricky actually is very instrumental to me." "I think you're just a rare genius." "Oh, that's a bit much, this early on." "That will be cut." "Let's cut that, 'cause I feel uncomfortable with it." "Mm, no, early on it was SNL, and In Living Color." "You know, I was a huge fan of Phil Hartman, just a utility player on a sketch show." "I just loved the fact that he could take any role and just bring such truth to it, amazing just vocal work, and when In Living Color came around, it just showed me how important sketch is to push boundaries," "to walk this tight rope blind, and step over the edge, and sometimes it went too far, and it was just exciting, and it was just magical to watch." "And, of course, Eddie Murphy on SNL as well." "(Stacey) And Don?" "I think, probably, first it was my family." "I just remember really having a connection with my mom, because she would say anything, and just going," ""Wow, you can really just say anything"." "And if it's in the right spirit, it's--you know, it's really bonding, and it was the same thing with my close friends and family." "I don't think it's that much different." "We learned early that making people laugh, and you laughing yourself it's kind of the best feeling" " you can get." " Yeah." "And when you can share that, just" "And bullying too." "And then the ways that you can reach across to people that you thought you would have no connection with, and you guys laughing, like, "Oh, wait a minute." "We're not that different."" "And this is actually a way we can" "And then they get back to kicking your ass, but... at the beginning, there was a moment, where you're like, yeah, it was nice." ""You're a funny guy."" ""You think you're pretty funny, huh?"" ""Well, well, well, look who the comedian is."" "♪" "♪" "Welcome back to Close Up, with The Hollywood Reporter." "We're talking with the men behind TV's funniest comedies." "I'd like to know, from each of you, who's been most influential on your comedic style or what you think it's funny now?" "I just saw Dave Chappelle come back after a long time gone." "And it was unbelievable to watch." "It was like a high wire act." "And somebody would say something, and it would immediately turn into a thing, and that would be five or ten minutes, and it was killing, and it was like improv, it was like jazz to me." "And really, it feels weird to say it, but it really is true that I'll watch all of you, guys." "I just YouTubed you the other day, and showed it to my kids, the bit you did with Peyton." " Oh." " The coach at the dance." "It just kills me." "So, I mean, I look at you guys all the time, and when I sat with you and Louie C.K. at the Emmys, and I was literally just watching them go." "and just--It was great." "(Ricky) We saw each other." "It's my" "He's sort of an American you, in a way." "Well, I would hate that." "Keep that in." "That's amazing." "No, but it's true." "You're" "I think the two of you really get to the heart of the humanity piece of comedy." "Yeah, I think that's his sole secret." "He goes out and he says the most horrendous things, but you know he's a struggling father bringing up two kids that he loves, so he can say anything." "It's a brilliant piece of placement, and then he can be angry about everything." "You can get away with murder if you like the guy, 'cause he's doing it for a good reason." "'Cause it's all about intention." "Well, and the thing is also, I mean" "I love, love, love just despicable characters." "You know, like Brent, like the politician character that, you know, you played on SNL, I forgot the name, Will." "Oh, ah, Tim Calhoun?" "I mean, these characters that are just" "They're hateable." " They're delusional." " Yeah." "And, I think one of the first guys that taught me that black people can do this, was Martin Lawrence." "You know, in his show, Martin Payne was" "Was a dick, he was kind of an ( bleep )." "His only flaw, he was like this Ralph Kramden type." "And still you loved him." " Still you empathized with him." " Yeah." "I find that fascinating, that these characters" "You know, Brent, you hate him, but" "Yeah, but he's so flawed and so desperate." "You want someone to come out full over, and go," ""And that's the second time today."" "They're falling over for your pleasure." "You want to know they've had a bad day too." "I think at its best, comedy lets you know that there's nothing wrong with you." "There's nothing wrong with you." "Fred, how about you?" "Who inspired you?" "I think Amy Poehler, in the way that she just keeps making things, the fact that she's behind Broad City." "She's selfless, but she still wants to make comedy, and also, like Don said, I'm inspired by everybody here." "I'm not shy about-- Well, he wasn't shy about saying it either." "I, absolutely-- All of your shows." "I'm so glad that we all get to do all this stuff together." "You know?" "How the rest of you get inspired?" "Comedy is not an easy thing to keep fresh." "Real life is obviously the biggest influence on me, and as do most comedians who do anything that could be called observational." "What about Derek, specifically?" "It's such an odd concept" "Well, I try to write about what I know, and I've always done that, and a lot of my family were care workers, and I supposed I wanted to be a bit of an antidote to all the stuff I'd done," "and I've done a lot about fame." "David Brent was about a normal man getting famous, and I want to sort of getting back to ordinary people." "It's my favorite thing, making the ordinary extraordinary." "That--I think that resonates more." "Are you early enough?" "The early bird catches the worm, babe." "What if--?" "What if the worm's having a lie in?" " What?" " What if... the early bird gets up and goes down to catch the worm and it gets there, but that day the worm's overslept?" "In your characters but there's always a sweetness to everything that you do." "Well, I just want it to be real." "I want the characters to be-- I want you to care for the characters, even though you're laughing at David Brent." "I think comedy is really a normal person trying to do something big and they're not equipped." "What, they're going to put a jacket on me?" "That'll ruin everything." "But you deserve a jacket, Ricky, you deserve it." "I know, I just-- I don't know." "It's that sort of thing that things are not equipped." "Not being ready or equipped is so funny." "And with that arrogance." "Arrogance and stupidity, thinking it's okay." "You're either laughing with them or at them, that's the thing." "You laughed at David Brent, because he had the blind spot." "That was the difference between how he saw himself and how we saw him, whereas with Derek, it was more-- You're sort of on his side." "They were saying funny things and they're meant to be funny." "So it depends what angle." "I learned that from Laurel and Hardy." "In The Office, there were lots of idiots, there were lots of Stans, and one Ollie." "There was one Tim, just thinking..." "And, you know, you always going to have that group of Stans and your Ollies." "There's nothing funnier than real life." "It's euphoric." "It just feels great." "And that's my inspiration, really." "And, Fred, on Portlandia," "I know you're given a lot of creative freedom." " We are." " And I'm wondering what are the challenges of keeping it fresh." "Well, it's mostly for us and for our fans, you know?" "We feel like when we've done a season of a type of sketch we just think, "Well, let's just change it up this year."" "So we just, at the beginning of every writing session we think, "Okay, what's the goal for this season?"" "And we've done that every year so far." " Hi, welcome to Tinytown." " Microvillage." "Little Place." " And that's a tiny micro house." " Yeah." "It's very, very efficient." "Everything is thought out." "No waste of space anywhere." "This is a bathroom and a home office." "Can you hand me the shower gel, please?" "Yes, coming up." " Here you go." " Thank you." "And how are you finding inspiration now?" "It's neverending..." "so far." "You know, we-- Because we haven't seen each other in a while, after a few months, we'll just check in with what each other's experiences have been." "We usually write it in our phones." "Like, "I noticed this happened," and if it resonates with the other writers, then we think," ""Oh, this might be worth writing a sketch about." "Or an episode about."" "(Stacey) Stay tuned for more surprises from this year's kings of comedy." "♪" "♪" "Welcome back to Close Up, with The Hollywood Reporter." "We're getting the inside scoop from TV's most intriguing comedy actors." "I would like to know who are your dream comedy collaborators, aside from everyone sitting at this table." " Let's start with Fred." " Mm, Prince." "Someone--You know, like someone in music... ( all laughing speaking at once )" "Somebody who doesn't take himself too seriously." "Someone who makes a living as a comedic performer." "I worked a little with Louie C.K. on SNL, but something with our show will be really fun." "That's the first person." "I guess Tina Fey would be great, even though we worked together on SNL." "(Stacey) She doesn't count." " She doesn't count?" " ( laughs ) No." "Has to be people we haven't heard of or--?" "No, no, no." "People you haven't worked with before." "Woody Allen, just to see what his take on something would be." "That's a hard one, though, because a lot of the things that turned out best are the surprises, you know?" "And there are maybe a lot of dramatic performers who are funny." " Yeah." " Who you know are funny." "Yeah." "I would say Jim Carrey, but Jim Carrey in The Truman Show or Eternal Sunshine kind of way." "Jim Carrey is the best." " And he can do everything." " He can do everything, yeah." "And then, on the other side of the spectrum," "Wes Anderson, after seeing Budapestsomanytimes, just be like...( sighs )" "How can I get inside such a particular dollhouse world?" " Will, how about you?" " It's a hard question." "It really is, isn't it?" " Being in SNL" " We got to meet everybody." "Yeah." "We've all at least been in a scene with--Yeah." "With whoever, yeah." "Christopher Guest, Catherine O'Hara, that whole crew, those guys are legendary and, man, if I could be in one of his movies, I'm done, hanging up the gloves." "You have an audition next week." "( laughs )" "Christopher Guest, Ant-Man." "But don't worry, bro, it's in the bag." "You know who would be great, who I haven't seen in a long time?" "Is Rick Moranis." " Yeah." " What is he up to?" " He's retired." " He's great." "Somehow I heard something's coming out." "He's doing something with somebody." "We interrupted Will." "Will was about to say something." "Oh, yeah, Will was going to say something." "Uh, John Cleese?" "John Cleese." " That's a good one." " Can we pick non living people?" "Peter Sellers." "Uhm, sure, why not?" "Sure, of course." " Alec Guinness." " Dead." "Remember him in and Kind HeartsandCoronets?" " Did you ever see that?" " Oh, no." " He was great." " We perked up now dead people." "Also, Dracula." "That's a fictional character, isn't it?" "No, I think he's dead." "No, he needs to be real." "He needs to really exist." "That was Prince." " But he was on film." " Yeah, he was on film, yeah." "Ricky, are there American performers who--?" " Uh..." "Bill Murray." " Bill Murray?" "Kristen Wiig." " He worked with Kristen Wiig." " I know, but you can't just" "Does this count now?" "Have I worked with you guys now?" "It does, actually." "This is work." "Okay, Mickey Mouse." " ( laughs )" " He's dead." "He died." "He's not dead, and he's fictional." "He's nor dead and he's fictional." "Mickey Mouse didn't die?" "He's still alive." "From the 1920s." "Steamboat Willy." "That guy's still alive?" "( all speaking at once )" "Steamboat Willy, that's what I called you in the toilet." "He said, "Who's going to have a wee now?"" "And it's getting out." "You have to cut this, right?" " 'Cause you" " No, you have to put it in." "This is live." "And so he starts playing with the urinal and going..." " ( whistles )" " Yeah, yeah." "( singsongy ) Here comes the train into the station." "Wee, wee, wee, wee, wee." "And, most importantly, for today," "I need to see your best or worst impression of someone." "Oh, no, you are joking." "You do a killer Sam Waterston, so I'm going to start with you." "Okay." "Why didn't you call the police?" "Why didn't you call 911?" "Thank you." "And my worst impression, should I pick someone--?" " Okay, worst is good too." " Sam Waterston." "I thought that was the worst." "That was me at my best." "You are nasty!" "How about do your best Ricky Gervais?" "Ah, come on." "Ah, come on!" "What's this?" "What's this?" "What's that?" "Now go on." " Oh, oh." " No." " It's going to be ( bleep )." " It's low." " That's low." "Yeah." " It's low?" "Why?" "It's you, yeah?" "That's the best I can do." "Excellent." "Jordan?" "This is my impression of Danny Glover." ""Wait." "Wait." "There's a bomb... on my ( bleep )."" " Why don't we force one on you?" " Yeah, George W. Bush." " George W?" " Oh, that's great." "I didn't-- I surprised myself with that." "Yeah, that was pretty good." "That's always how you get into an impression, just saying the name." "The easier ones are the ones when you do an impression of someone else doing an impression." "That's Will Ferrell's George Bush." "Yes, that's true." "I can do--I can do you" " a little bit, but" " Go." ""I'm an ant." "I'm like an ant, Tom."" "That's from the story I told earlier, but there's no high-pitch." "See?" "That'll be cut out, and I'll just be going," ""I'm an ant, I'm an ant." What ( bleep )?" " Don is in the hot seat now." " I don't know." "I can't--I don't do" " Beyoncé." ""If you--." No." "Ooh, if I crushed that, you guys would be like..." "He's done it before." "He's done Beyoncé." "Yeah." "Billy Bob Thornton." "I need Angelina Jolie to be able to do it properly." "Could we get her?" "Angelina!" " Well, luckily, I can do that." " Fantastic." " Okay, Ricky." " I can't do impressions." " Yes, you can." " Do some JFK." ""Oh, when's--?" "When's the last supper, Jesus?"" " Uhm, uhm, Judas." " Yeah." "He never asked-- He never asked in the Bible." ""What do you mean, the last supper?"" ""Nothing." "When's supper?"" "But I don't think he asked." "( all speaking at once )" " You just gave it away." " Yeah, yeah." ""Did you say 'last supper'?" "Uhm, no, I said 'supper'."" " So, all the Romans are like..." " ( muttering )" " You're ruining it." " "What did Judas say?" "Did he say 'last supper'?" "Why did he say that?"" "I don't know." "Keep eating." "Okay, Will." "I know that you do a mean Christopher Walken." "Oh, yeah." "Give me a line, give me a line." "I'm the guy that's going to kill your kids." ""I'm the guy who's going to kill your kids."" "You're not even trying." "That sound." "I'll tell you what that sounds like." " That sounds like Saddam Hussein." " Yes, I was going to say that." " Sounds Middle Eastern." " Yeah." "I was--I hear you do George W. Bush right there?" " I tried for" " Do it, do it, do it." "Do it now." ""George W. Bu--"" "I can only do Kermit the Frog." "All right?" "That's it." " Go for it." " "Kermit the Frog here."" "It's 'cause your voice is already a little bit there." " Isn't it?" " Yeah." "You know what?" "I knew that I could do Kermit the Frog, because Fred did an impersonation of me, and I was like, "Oh, that sounds like Kermit the Frog."" " "Oh, I can do Kermit the Frog."" " Great." " Okay." "Thomas?" " Oh." "I've been really into going down a YouTube wormhole of Paul Lynde lately, and so one of his bits would be, you know, he was on The Hollywood Squares, so the guy would be like," ""Paul, what makes a baby chimp cry?"" "And, you know, he'll say, "Mm, finding out that Tarzan swings both ways."" "Yeah, he's so crazy, all like the straight men of, like, the 60s are like, "He's so colorful, bless him."" "All the wives are like, "I'd leave my husband for you"." "And he's like...( yelling )." "It's just so...incredible." " On that note, gentlemen" " Wait, no, no, no, no." "What did we learn?" "What did we learn?" "You didn't do an impression." "You didn't do... ( all speaking at once )" " Do Hillary Clinton." " Oh, my God." " "Which e-mail account was that?"" " Nice!" "Thank you all, and I think you should give yourself a round of applause." "Thank you." " Well done." " Yeah." " Whoo!" " It's a wrap."