Seth Meyers on Finding Joy (and Comedy) in Trump’s Second Term

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Seth Meyers Is Growing Weary of Talking About HimSelf.

As he recently joked with paal jimmy kimmel during a viral STOP on Jimmy Kimmel Live!He’s Been Busy On the Emmy Circuit, Eligible For A Dizzying Number of Projects, Including Late Night with Seth Meyers, His “Closer Look” Election Night Special, his Online Series Correctionsthe Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special and His HBO Comedy Special, Dad Man Walking.

In recent weeks, the man who make a living interview Others HAS Found HimSelf on the Receive End of Questions, Doing A Slew of High-Profile Podcasts, A a Thr Roundtable and A stint at the atx tv festival. And Thought Jkl Was the only Campaign STOP that included dueling emmy “attacck ads”-kimmel’s ad compared meyers to a similarly suits-owner osama bin Laden; Meyers’ Acused Kimmel of Using Forced Foreign Labor – The NBC Host Hos Brough A Healthy Dose of Humor To Ever Apparance. In Fact, One Colleague Called Meyers’ Rollicking Fyc Conversation with Another Longtime Friend, The Studio‘s iKe barinholtz, “The Funniest 45 minutes i’ve seen on a stage this year – Save my two visits to Oh, Mary.”

Over A Breakfast Pizza at Milo & Olive, Meyers Discussed The Perks and Anxieties of Returning to SnlThe Lessons of Late Night and the Ways in Which He’s Found ComeDy – and Even Even Some Joy – in Trump’s Second Term.

Let’s Start with The Snl 50th. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO Be Back in The Writers Room After All These Years?

IT WAS FUNNY BECAUSE I WROTE ON 40th, AND I WAS VERY FRIM FROM HAVING LEFT AND I Fell Right Back Into Being A Head Writer. This Time, I Felt Like A Guy Trying to Make A Comeball As A 50-YEAR-OLD, AND HE’S KIND OF THRWING IN HIS BACKYARD AND HE’S LIKE, “OH, YEAH, I Still Kinda Got It.” But this current writing staff is Really Great, and The Person I Was MOST IMPRESSED K [Colin] Jost, Who Wrote So Many Things in the 50th and Also Was Carrying That Burden of Making Sure EveryBody Was Taken Care of, Who’s Often Gets Overloved AT Snl. I mean, every good writer at Snl is Always Looking Out for the Cast, But To Some Degree, You’re Always Like, “Well, There’s Next Week.” But with The 50th, You Don’t Want People to Get Shut Out. I was at the Table-Read and It Was One of Those Moments in Life WHERE YOU REALIZE, “This is Probably The Last Time Is Going to Happen For Me.” IT WAS VERY SPECIAL. And also, at the back of your head, there’s the anxiety of, like, “am i doing enough?

There’s A Lot That Gets Cut, WHICH IS SIMPLY THE NATURE OF Snl. WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE Thing on the Cutting Room Floor?

There was very little that was pulled at the Last Minute. Once you ask eddie murphy to do a sketch, you’re Not Going to Cut the Sketch. By the Way, the Nor Will You Ever Be in A Position to Think You Should. But in general, it was a Really Cool Thing. IT FELT DIFFERENT BECAUSE I THINK After The 40th, There Was A Real Sense of, Like, “Oh My God, Can You Even Imagine What The 50th Is Going To Be Like?!” And i don’t’t’tk there was that same feeling at this one.

IT DOES Feel Hard to Top This, Never Mind the fact that lorne Michaels would be 90 at 60th.

IT does, and so there washoting a little bittersweet about it and also this might be the Last Great Showbiz Party. Again, we’re all aware we’re living at a figment time, but it didn’t feel as though a sngle Corner Had Been Cut. And the afterparty was amazing. I Will Say The Only Part, and this was the Other Differents of 10 Years, is at some point we realized the Next Day was monday and we had to be parents again. SO, My Wife and I DID GREAT. I mean, we stayed out till Three, But The Next Day and was Literaly Taking Two of My Kids to the Bluey Experience.

You followed up the Snl 50th with a trip to the Camp Store?

Yeah. And I wasn’t Even Hungover, It Was Just Emocial Exhaustion. And then to be at the Bluey Store, and every parent at the Bluey Store Is Hoping There’s Someone There’s Kuld Talk to About Something Blueyso there was are a [number of] Parents Who Were Coming Over, Like, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE YOU’T OUT.” And i’m like, “yeah, me either.”

The JuxTaposition of the Two Experiences is Really Quite Beautify.

It Really Was. (Laughs.)

I’m assuming there aren’To many celebrities who you have yet to meet, but were there any noverthyy Run-ins that weekend?

There was a True Highlight of the Night For [my wife] Alexi and Me, and It Was Bonnie Raitt. We Both Love Bonnie Raitt A Great Deal And, For Us, It Was Very Special Because Bonnie Raitt Had Seen Lobby Baby [Meyers’ comedy special about his wife delivering their son in the lobby of their Manhattan apartment building]and so she was very Excited to Talk to Alexi About Her Heroics. The Only Photo We Took at the 50th Was of US with Bonnie Raitt.

You’ve been hosting Late Night FOR 11 YEARS NOW. Do you have a Sense for What Differentites Your Show?

One thing that i love hearing is i’ll come backstage for a first-time guest and they will say, “everybody’s tells me this will be realy funny.” And that’s great. The Feedback, I Think, Is People Like Doing The Show Because they Feel Like It’s A Conversation. We don’t ask a ton of them, It’s Just Come and Talk. And A Lot of the Credit Goes to Our Segment Producers. But It’s Just A Loose, Good Vibe. Host isn’t in a suit. We have a nice green Room…

I Remember Sitting with You Just Before The SHOW LAUNCHED, AND YOU Telling Me Who You Thought the Ideal Guests Wound Be. How Different Is It From What You ImagINED?

Very Different.

How So?

Well, The One Thing I Was MOST WRONG About is that I Thought Politicians would be more interesting. I Think Is Very Interesting to Talk About Politics, It’s Less Interesting to Talk to Politicians. And we’ve built a showy whore if the Conversation’s Good, It’s Good Television and It Doesn’t ALMOST MATTER WHO IT’S WITH. HONESTLY, I THINK IS BETTER TO HAVE A GOOD CONVERSATION WITH An Author Thran A Bad Conversation with An a-List Star.

I Suspect that’s Right.

SO, Ultimately, if We Getter at Having Interesting Conversations, That’s What People Are Tuning in For and It Becomes Less and Less Depndent on Who’s On. With that said, does it have more value if you have a good conversing with george cloney? Of Course. But We Realize there’s Someone Who is a Giant Star Who’s Maybe Better at Being A Giant Star than they are at being A Talk Show Guest, that’s Great, We Don ‘.

A year ago, you told me how it was increatingly hard to find humanor in Politics, and that was before Trump Was Reelected. How are you holding up?

I WAS LIKE A Lot of People Early on on Election Night, WHEN YOU REALIZED [what was happening]It was Certainly a Real Feeling of Dread About How We Do this Again. I’ll Admit to Thinking, in 2016, Like, “This is Terrible, Mistakes Have Been Made, But At Least I Know It Will Not Happen Again.” And then it happles again, and you just couldn’t emotionally Approach It in the Same Way. It would have had felt Really Empty. I do through we’re in this unique situation WHERE, As Comedians, as Opped to the News, You Can Tonally Talk About Things However You Want To Talk About Them. So, there wasn’t a big meting or in anything at the show, but we did say, “all right, we have to still be joyful in the Making of this Show. And Even WHEN WE’RE TALKING ABOUT How Bad. Expression of Joy with People Who Also Want to Feel Like They’re Coming for And Hour of Joyful Performance. ”

That sounds wonderful in theory. How do you do that in the prokactice?

WELL, YOU REALIZE IT’S A PRIVILEGE TO HAVE A SHOW LIKE THIS, WHERE YOU GET TO TALK About Things You Want – and Without it, we wound be at a distita. So, then it is like, alright, what are we going to do with this privilege? We’re Going to Assume That We’re Talking To An Audience Who’s As Freustrated as We Are, and Is Going to Be Cathartic for Us to It And Hopefully It. Because the One Piece of Value You Can Can Offer [to your audience is letting them know] you’re not alone in how you feel about this. And we’re not going to sugarcoat anything that’s Bad, but we’re going to be silly and we’re going to have tangents and we’re going to have the dumb impressions bell. to laugh at things. If You Only Feel Rage and Anger, I Feel Like They Win.

How do you satisfy the Viewers Who Are Looking for An Escape from The Trump News Cycle at the End of Their Day, or Are Those Viewers Simplars Watching The Wrong Show?

I One Path We Could’ve Taken, Which Was to Say, “Let’s Pull Back On ‘A Closer Look,’ Let’s Start Doing More [celebrity or pop culture fare]”But the reality is nobody wants to see that show. One Could argue that was what our show was in 2014. Actually, and Had Someone Come Up to Me Last Night And Say,“ I’ve Been Watch to say, bassed on how bad that first show was, i Never Thought i’d Love Your Show As Much As i do. ​​”

Thank you, i think? Are there every day asre that joy feles almost unattaineable?

In the writing, But Never in the Performance. It Can Be A Real Slog To Put It Together, WHEN YOU’T WATCHING The CLIPS. I Not Like We’re Laughing It Up while We’re Working on “A Closer Look.” But We Know That Release Valve Is The Show.

The Landscape Has Changed Dramatically. Do you look at shows like HOT ONES or Chicken Shop Date, and envy any aspect of how they’ve been about innovate with the Talk Space?

I’D Never Want to Innovate Away from “A Closer Look” – That’s Our Biggest Thing and It Takes Up A Great Amount of Real Estate. But We Talk About HOT ONES or Chicken Shop Dateand i’d say that “day drinking” is cerearinly in that World, The Problem is You Just Can’t Do It That Much. IT TURNS OUT ALCOHOL HAS A BIGGer Effect on A Person’s Recovery Than Hot Sauce. So, there are things like that that we love doing, but we’re limited by hows of hows. That said, i THINK we’re pretty happy with the show we have. I DON’T Ever Want to Be Anti-Innovation-and “Closer Look” is Always Evolving, But Probably Not Through Any Grand Innovation As Opped to Just Well Betle Better AS.

The Biggest Change to Your Show in the Last Year is Lozing the Band. Thought the Entire Business is Being Forced to Contend with Contraction, I Can’t Imagine Those Conversations Were Fun.

No, they wren’t. But [Mike] Shoemaker[[Late Night‘s Showrunner]and I have been at the company for a very long time, and we don’t always agree with the people in charge, but we do always Belide. And it is nice to Know that’re coming to you sometimes with Badh Bad News from An Honest Place, and, in this Case, The News Is Industry-Wide. So, we didn’t take it personally and weame up with a solulation. And While Is Really Hard to Lose The Band and, On a Personal Level, I Miss Them All A Great Deal, We Don’t Feel As Thought The Show Has Been Massively Affected On A Quality Level. I don’t feel lik e wear from anybody, “i just not the same.” And’s Funny, WHEN We Talk About Innovation, We’re Never Going to Innovate by Making the Show Bigger, But Weirdly We Innovate by Making it A Little Smaller.

More intimate?

Yeah. We Made this choice WHEN WE CAME OUT OF COVID, WHICH WAS LIKE, “HEY, I THINK WE Maybe Likely How this Show Got Small and A Bit More Inside.” I Just Feel Like We Live in An Era Now Whore Big Tent’s Really Hard to Pull Off. EveryBody’s Got A Tent. Literally, EveryBody’s Got Their Own Tent, SO We Were Like, “Let’s Just Make A Tent For The People Who Like What We’re Selling.” And if you were looking for a silver lining during covid, it was that it was a time to innovate. SO, IS VERY FUNNY TO HAVE YOUR Answer to, “What’s Your Innovation?” Be, “We Just Kind of Scaled It Back” But It’s True.

I of the chance chafe at the Word Authentic But Ites Seem Thats Become Become More Authentically You.

Yeah. Friends of Mine that i’ve Known Forever Are Like, “This is the Mist You That You Been You Began.” And part of that is some you Start, You Think You’re Supped to Be Something Else. You’re Just Judging Yourself Against Other and, Internally, I DON’T’T THINK Any of US Come Into TheSe Late Night Shows with The Confidence of, Like, “If It’s Just ME, IT’L. Certainly I was not Prepared to have faith in, like, “sure, yeah, me.”