The Dual Life of SNL's Steve Higgins

Night Live writing credits and counting. In fact, he's the guy in charge of the writer's room, along with Lauren Michael's. Steve holds the fate of America's young comedy talent in his hands. Lauren and Steve decide who gets hired and who gets fired from the show. But he didn't become a household name until he joined Jimmy fallon the Roots and the rest of the Tonight Show team in front of the camera, playing that venerable talk show character, the sidekick.

So Steve has two jobs. At four thirty every day, four days a week. Steve announces the Tonight Show, sticks around to play Jimmy straight man, and then runs back upstairs to produce that week's sn L. It's a heavy life for a kid from Iowa who started a sketch comedy troupe with his brothers out of high school. Steve's kindness and humility have stayed as sharp as this comedy. So it was a joy when Steve Higgins agreed to join me on stage at Guildhall in East Hampton. Hello, Hello, Hello,

I'm so excited, thank you all for coming. Let me just start out by saying that lately I've been doing you know who, all that crap. It's so pathetic. But anyway, uh, I actually said to our guests, I said, I just can't do it anymore. I texted me the the other day I go, so, who's playing trump this fall? And he goes, you are, and quite brilliantly, I might add, so I want you to please welcome to God. This is a dear friend of mine, one of the great great writer,

producers and now performer, Steve Higgins. Those are the kindest words you've ever said to me. Now, speaking of which, what was comedy in your childhood? Was it always class clown? And I had three brothers and a sister, and comedy that's all it was. We never yelled. It was sarcasm, and which now I learned as bad. It's good to yell sometimes, well not too much take my word for you know. Well, m um, it is the lingua franc of our house. Burned somebody and get a big laugh,

and you were the king of the house. I mean it was who was the king? My brother Dave was the king. I think he was one of the quickest people I've ever met. Like one time was this. I went to high school in Des Moines, Iowa, Thank you, um, and there was this thing, uh, there's a new part of the gym. Was the new part of the gym was built, and on each of the eight foot by seven ft piece of glass there was a thing that

said beat Aims, which was Aims Iowa. Where the was like we'd play them in the first high school thing there and he was walking by saw that ripped off the B and the A and the S or just said eat me that kind of thing. You go, my mathematicians. That's why I think, that's why I love like those celebrity jeopardy things that you know what I mean, where it's like a word play on a thing is all from that of me, just going, how did you fat like when they have uh, when Darryl would do Connery? Yes, yes,

and I can't think of exactly horrible. This must be my lucky day. I'll take the rapists. And that's the therapist. The therapist. Why would that be his lucky day? When you were a kid, I mean your brother's obviously it sounds like he's up that school. I grew up with guys like that. It wasn't that. Your house. To my family was things like we'd be standing there on a corner with like a little gang of kids and we

would play a game called He's Got a Gun. As a game you didn't announce, you just he erupted it into it spontaneously. So we'd all be standing there. We're going like six kids or like fourteen years old and fifty and he goes, you see Tommy, did he come back to his vacation and they live on a lake. Right, he's got a gun? You jump on someone, you pick someone. One person would announce the game, and he was like

sir Han, Sir Han at the Ambassador Hotel. Everyone he was the killer, he was the shooter, and we'd all picked and we'd all beat the crap. We'd stop him on the ground. Yeah, as opposed to you're gonna wear that? Yeah, yeah, that kind of like yeah that my brother and my girlfriend came over. He'd go, you put on weight, thank kind? And what was TV? Movies? Did you got? Were your family out to the movies? We did not have what it's called money, um, so we would watch a lot

of TV. And then my mom one day, uh took the chord to the TV, which kids to work with her, so we couldn't watch TV during the summer. And my brother Mike took a part the whatever weird toaster thing, remember that with the three products, and he just rewired and shoved it in the TV. And we'd watched him. Mom was coming. Yes, we thrown away. What kind of show did you watch? We watched the same as you as. I mean, we grew up in the same house pretty much.

I mean you'd watch I mean I remember when my mom said, my mom loved comedy, so she would let bob and yes, she was funnier than your dad. She was a funny one. Well, my dad died when I was in tenth grade, so you know when you're that you don't but my dad was funny, but in tenth grade he was he died. But I remember one time my little brother al uh was He would go, oh, Alan Alan, Joel thinks, bring me my room and off, so bring me my running not even run, this says

to be laughing at out. Did you do this thing too? Did you do that one? You know? I think I want to know what's that. That's the thing where you go like this and if the guy doesn't see, you get to punch him. But if he puts his finger through it and breaks it, you get to punch him. So it would be one of those elaborate and punching games of like who won the Kentucky Dry to reach Charlie Horse, Spider bites Dutch RBS does anything that would inflict pain in a controlled manner, we laugh. We just

each other. Mom, did your mom? Like in my house? My mom? You know, we'd have to speak in code, so we'd say vulgarity and code. So if somebody was an effing asshole, we told that, we use the word fung and we call him a zoul. So we'd be having lunch. We'll have a dinner in our kitchen. Tip have you seen Larry Lady, did he come back from upstate? Is he back? Yeah? He's a fung zul Right, we'd say lima. I told him to lima. You know, I mean just lima. Lick me. We have all these like

funky code like lick me was lima. And finally my mother would be like, like, you know, like after like one whole summer of this, Mom was like, what are you saying? What does this lima? What do you what is lima? What did your mother do to control you? Guys? The silent treatment? That would be the big thing, because you didn't hit, so you just go like that, No, had four sons, Yeah, but we did his hand you cash.

You said you had no money, No we didn't. Would just go work a thousand different jobs and things like that. It wasn't, No, it's not. And so mom would just take care of the thing and she would make sure everything ran smooth, and you know, everybody did, and it would just be one time, Oh my god, she goes, I'm gonna come back. I want this house clean. That was the big thing, because our house was a big sty. She left and I don't know why we got a

pudding fight. Why the why would you do that. I mean, was depit about on Dad's South. It was in the dry clan. It was like to this day, if I think about that, it just gives me ship. Was feathers exactly was There was like an episode of the Brady Bunch, like that doesn't happen in real life. No kids getting pudding fights with tapioca pudding awful. My dad had four sons, he had no money and uh and other people you know in the neighborhood they had something you could control

and managed kids with. Like you know my friends people with money lived on the water with my friend's parents would be like, if you don't get in there and do your homework, they're not getting any gas for the boat. ID be like in my bedroom, going not gonna get any gas for the boat. I do my homework. If it got me gas for the boat, you can bet on that. My dad had the fear program. Like we go out at night and my dad would be like, what time are you coming home? Will You'd be like,

oh God, please don't yet. And he did an iron finger. He had to figure he like, grind it into your into your muscle of your chest, and he goes you come home at ten thirty, I'm gonna break every bone in your body. Were like, okay, we'll bear God please, Well you have to as a parent, you have to find things of your children love so you can take away from them nothing. Now we had no money, yeah, now barely making rent. When do you decide you're gonna you're gonna try to get up in front of people.

You formed a comedy group, and how old are you when you sit there and go, I want to get but I want to try to do stuff in front of people. Because we were all in plays growing up. There was a thing called Summer Upper at a workshop which did Gilbert and Sullivan plays in Des Moines, and my sister joined that, and then everybody in the family joined that, so we were in all the place in high school were you know, it was always and my mom and my dad, I found out later went to

announcer school. My aunt Pat told me and my aunt I didn't know about this. He went to ann and I'm an announcer. How weird is that? But my mom had like pictures of Lucille Ball autographs that she sent with so show business was always we knew no one an in show But like when we went to do show business. People thought we were crazy because nobody from des Moines chloris Leachman except chloran Um, what would be in show business. It was just the craziest thing. So

we did wasn't scouting in des Moines? No, he didn't show up and yeah, yeah, so what's the first thing you did? You got up in front of people? Well we did, Yeah, we did comedy comedy. Who's we me? My brother Dave and a guy named Greuber. So it was the Higgins Boys and Greuber would good name and uh we would he was. They started a club, like in the seventies, seventy nine, they started a club to do comedy in des Moines and so they would perform in Omaha the Spaghetti Works in the moment of the

spaghinning and they just yeah, spaghetti works. They go there and then they do circus you play around and so then we moved to l A and eighty four. So I joined the group. I was what was it like for you? Like you were you were gung home? We were like yeah, l A. Yeah, No, I wanted to go to New York. Why because my whole life I wanted to live in New York because everything in the

world was New York. To me, it was like, you know, live television and you know the street, you knew you know, like you go to New York and there's no culture shock. In my opinion, if you've seen French Connection, you've seen New York. You go to l A and I love l A. But it was never for me. It was like, this is Hollywood Vine. Wait a second, I thought it was exactly yeah. And so we lived out there and we performed and would do colleges and gigs like that.

And then um Joe Hodgson, who had MSS Mystery Science Theater three thousand and if you guys know that show, knew us and he they this place called the Comedy Channel. We're doing shows and we would we had performing clubs and stuff like that, and he goes, you guys would be good in the show. So he paid for us to go to Minneapolis and shot a pilot and recreated our house and we smoked cigarettes, strake coffee and goofed

off on this show. And that's how we came back to New York and so and there was Comedy Channel that moved out for John moved to l A. And then John Stewart, who I met at the Comedy Channel, said Hey, I'm doing a show. Why don't you come out and help me? Not the successful John Stewart show, the show before and that one. Yeah, and he so he could come on out and we'll go here. And well, my brother was working on the show and we had fantastic and that got canceled when Farley and all those

guys left. That was my first year at S And first year was when when you when you hosted the show, you had done the show more times than I had, right, and you never let me forget. But but but when you come on the show in how does that happen? How do you get what's your first job? You're a writer? I think I was like head writer with fred Wolf. Maybe like it made you the head writer right out

of the gate because I was head writer at John Strange. Okay, so you you so you have credentials where you're head writing. You know, a serious show, the show that's go on the air. So when you come and they poach you, you go to SNL. No, it got canceled. It was canceled.

So when you come to Lauren, you come to SNL, you become the head writer, you w wolf, how long were the head writer for I don't know because titles, as you know, are nebulous there, so I know I was head writers, like the head head head writer right right, nine, producer or something for this Lauren with Lauren took didn't. I think he switched. He didn't become executive producer. He

went down a producer. And then I think Fred and I were head co head writers, and there's been other head writers, and he wanted to give the executive producer title to somebody else. Lew of pain that money, yeah, yeah, and I'm gonna pay you forty dollars a day. What was it like for you, the transition. We were getting the ship kicked out of us. Every day. Every day

was Saturday night. Dad. You'd read a article in American Heritage about the Battle of Shiloh and they go, the Battle of Shilo was long, but not as long as a Saturday live scatch, and you're like, come on, and it was just on the bed. They were just a you know, and so it was you're just and you're scared because you know it's a real deal. You know, You're you're sitting there and with all these people who

know way more than you. But everybody was so kind Shoemaker and Marcy Klein and Jim Downey was everybody was so accepting and opening with exactly. But they were pain about the hours that Dad. Yeah, it's it's so. I lived there, just stayed there in the city and then we'd see my wife would come in on Sunday, I'd see the kids and Christmas. Yeah, exactly. But you're there, you're living now, and it really has an effect on

people's lives. When you go to SNL and there's a weird camaraderie because they're in a submarine together for like week after week to work, and you feel like you see somebody who you weren't in the cast with or wasn't even at the same time with you, and it's like your marines together or something like that, you know what I mean. It's like because it is such a soul crushing and soul exhilarating experience. It is just strips and by show three of a three week run or

a four week run, there's no filter left. I've seen people there. They're right around the table and somebody look out the window and go. People are skating on the skating rink. Christmas is coming, you know, and someone's like, yeah, come back. So the guy has a penis transplant and they go right back to the comedy coal mine, you know. But it's like they're in that bubble in that building and that unique building where the where the world of New York is out the window, and you know, and

even like it's hard goes. Yeah when the tree goes, the tree goes something like you just stay in side more because you know, there's too many people. We can't fight the clouds. We gotta go at the backboard. Now sleep here now in the time you've been there, there's the video department, and there's a set design and camera and talent meaning the cast and their schedules and the hosts.

And there's a music department for the music. And you basically run the writer's department, where again you have had writers, but you're the producer that oversees that. And when when when people come into are tough, they send me to meet them. Yeah. Yeah, uh, it's funny used to say that. But the because because you are like that, you're like, what's wrong? I am like you know what I am like? Did you read c biscu. Your wife's having a baby,

you can play trump that? Why not? He literally, he's like, they're like this, you've already had four babes, isn't the novelty? Warn If you're gonna again and again, TiVo it, TiVo it better view. But in the time you've been there, No. One of the things you do is you have to scout talent. You do do this every explain to them that rhythm this. The season ends in May and everybody takes a bit of a break and then you gotta

go out. You gotta go do what In the summer, we usually we go to people go to l A and I go. I go to Chicago now when Lauren goes, and we'll go see people every year, so we just know who's out there. Yeah, in the sketch people's comedy world, because it's a weird sketch comedy is a weird it's not stand up and it's not acting. It's like a merge of both, especially SNL's like it's not film, it's not TV, and it's not live theater. But it's all you know what I mean, it's a very odd skill set.

Why would you want to work anywhere else. Why would you want to go to movies, you know what I mean? You sit there, they roll it again and again and again to no audience alone dark theater. I'm not making any money yea in the movie business. Now. Um, Now, for you people who are in comedy world, they all as the trade just to say, ankle out to l A as quickly as possible. L as. L A still a big hub of comedy writing. And there's a lot

of sitcoms out there. But you have no desire. You don't want to go out there like you want to develop shows sitcoms. I think once I exceeded my dream so far. I hope my wife is not listening to this. That my it was like, why would I want to go anywhere else? Because it's not There's not one part of your brain that doesn't get used, you know what I mean. When you're doing on the show, it's like, they're good, what's this sketch about? It's about the you know,

the Norman invasion. Well I know a little bit about that, you know, whatever it is. And it's still amazing to me that some you'll think of some crazy idea Wednesday morning at noon, right it up Thursday Friday, it's done on Saturday. They've got costumes, they've got the beer. The makeup is amazing. The costumes are amazing, the sets are amazing. Many many Emmys for all their makeup very quickly. It's

insane how good people are there. And I like living in New York because I think that it's it's more for me. It's not a one industry town, you know what I mean. So it's like you'll meet some my neighbor as a banker, and this guy's a plumber, and this guy does this, and mone there's a range of mountains to climb, and you know what real wealth is because it's not show business, you know what I mean. And so you're in New York and you'll see like, oh my god, look at that. And it's a different feel.

And again, my brother's my brother. I lives in l A. He writes uh on shows. He loves it there, but desire to make films. I would write films for some people, but it's like that thing of SNL would consume so much my time and I'm really quite lazy. I don't like working like you do a lot of things. Jerry Sein felt, something to me goes you don't like a lot of blank pages on the gal You're like a van, gotta book everything. Your joy is to be busy while

you're talking to some of your phone. I'm heading out to the opening of a Burger candidates out tree signing. You'll call me every time you call me, you're busy. I'm just sitting there. Yeah, you call me, what's going on? I'm busy. It's like John Alexander, my friend who's who's very dear friends with Lauren. He said to me, they'd say, come on over, we're gonna have blunch with Mick Jagger. And I'd say, well, I can't do that. I gotta go to an event at guild Hall. They were like Jesus.

Then like, you know, two weeks they're like, come on over. You know, McCartney's gonna come over and have a sing a longna have a sing a long. Gardener's gonna tea us how to play the days. Yeah, he's gonna tell us stories about the Beatles. No one's known the Beatles

that nobody's ever heard. A dinner is gonna be you and me, and he's gonna play you some barber strikes and and I'm gonna play some tapes on the cab and then every cardener is gonna take us to a secret trap door we had, like a recording studio, and I'm like, no, I can, I gotta go host the thing at guild Hall and uh and um see you think the fact that you've got me even to come here. I don't like leaving my house. SNL producer, writer and

Tonight Show announcer Steve Higgins. If you're enjoying all the SNL talk, take a listen to Kristen Wigg who joined me on Here's the Thing for an exit interview of sorts. Every Saturday, you do something that you're scared to do. I will miss that feeling. And of course you have absolutely no prospects whatsoever. It's a really ballsy move on your part because who the f can hire you? I

don't know. I'm made open up the canoe shop. The rest of that interview and more that Here's the Thing dot Org when we come back with Steve Higgins more of my favorite SNL moments, and he tells the story of how he got started with Fallon on the Tonight Show. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Hi'm Alec Baldwin, and you were listening to Here's the Thing. Now more from Steve Higgins on the hard work of hiring for us. And now that's the drag about being

in comedy. How do you make somebody hate their hobby? You pay them? Because now you look at something you can't It's like I'll go to my children's graduation and go, can't they speed this up? Why do they take it so much time base versus name? They can't just get it to go? So you look at things differently. So I see it when people perform and they make me feel like an audience member, and you go, how did

you come up with that? You know what I mean, Like like Leslie just barrels over you, you know, eighty does something just delightful thing that some crazy to us Cecily or do some character that is like so deep that you're going, like people from the town that she's doing will go, so did she spend a lot of

time in Manx? You know? I mean like that? And then Kate will just come up with these, but you know her Giuliani, It's just it's just like you're going, like, where did that so to me, it's very And the calendar, yeah, she said, I'm doing all the talk shows. It's like an advent calendar. So that's like just a treat. And it's like, oh the dudes, Keenan, come on, Kenan Thompson. It's like, you know, and just all the dudes are great.

I mean because I've seen I've been there for twenty or years and you see these people and it is the same thing. It's like, I love talent. That's why I love you. I love talent. People who are talented, you'll move heaven and earth so that their talent can be seen by people. And I think that's what my job is, to help them get out of their way so that they can be the best them they can be. So my notes, hopefully are more like to get you to do what you need to. You need direct you

can't s I'm not go out there. I'm like, it's this weird sound thing. It's a it's a it's a it's a an acoustic thing. Like you know, all my memories are all about line meetings and somebody would do some little thing, you know. I always tell the story about how I never laughed on the air ever, until I worked with Phil Harpman, the late Phil Hartman, And there was a scene righte did my bad Marlon Brando.

There's an explosion at the chemical factory and I'm taking Victoria Jackson with me and we're gonna leave the town. And Phil Hartman is her father who runs the chemical plant. And right as we're about to leave and he's about to try to stop us, his side kick comes in and says, hey, you know, telling him a night just blue, sir. You know there's chemic, there's a there's a there's a FOG's a mist all over you know, the back yard.

And Phil Harmon like completely never did it this way in any of the recause that on the air, you see him grab me, go kick me with you, and I spit up laughing on the air. I fucking lost it on the air. It's like back I had to stop myself from laughing. When Beck is putin and Beck says, you'll take this alphon the shelf on the mantel next to your intern the route. Yeah, and I just thank

you very much for your gift that of here. I'm sorry I didn't buy you a gift, and he says no, Mr President, you are the gear, and he says that line. Just say every He's like, you are the gear, and everything is their sound, their lines and readings and this and that. Now speaking of Trump, because we're gonna take some questions. Speaking of Trump, now, you and I both know, and I think it's necessary for us to be honest with people. You voted for him that I thought, I

thought you want to keep that secret. But let's face it that in the halls of SNL you had like forty people. I mean, I was told you wanted Eddie Murphy over me to play Trump. Is that true? You want Edie Murphy by trumped Murry, come him do anything? Yeah? Come on? Yeah. But when this comes up out and we have to how did you feel? Not in terms of because I think the essa L people are pretty mercenary. When Trump won the election, we hope that on that morning, Hot, damn,

we're gonna have some fun. I wish um that was crazy. Yeah. We did three shows before he was gonna lose. Yeah, we thought everybody thought he was gonna lose. My wife would go, he's gonna win, He's gonna win. I don't know, He's not that wife. Yeah, she knew it she was on Facebook. I don't like the Facebook, so I stay off. We did three shows. People say to me, you know, your Trump really isn't that good. I go, well, I try to make it like as two dimensional as the

man himself is trying to make it very like. You know, there's a couple of quick moves and uh the uh wait till they see this year's oh and totally redesigned like like an Apple phone. Yeah, I mean we were taking away to the botton wireless charging you never know charging, but the uh no. But when we did it, I mean I remember you, mum gonna do it three times? And how much could I get hurt if I fucking three Trump shoving it off? And then also when I turned out, I gotta do it eight teen more times.

It's like whoa, No. Ninth coming up. But when you do the show, obviously because I learned this from Lauren, you do back off. There's sometimes you sit there and go, well, we can't just like hit the guy with a coutl because that's the drag of it is. We try to be even handed, you know what I mean, And it's hard. It is hard, Like the best evern't been the olden days when it was like Bush and Gore try to

be fair. It's hard, though, it's very hard. You try to make it because you don't want to because it just gets boring. Does to pound something over and over? Just go there's got to be something, you know, It's just something that's not crazy. It's like a televangelis. They're hard to make fun of because it's just like they're

they're already yeah, yeah, you'll come into my room. I like you change this page nine, page fourteen, and you'd walk out and be like, I gotta help a meteor hits this building, but now and just kills all of us. I just I can't go out and do this goddamn show one more time, please God. Now, who are people

who have left the show? Who are some of the ones who you really admire, Like the careers like Farrell and McKay and work really well together, to Tina and Carl Tina and Carlo were forgetting, and then writers to like Mike Sure and people like that. It's like there's so many people. It's like if you go through an IMDb page and do a thing in comedy, I would say it's probably of the people worked at s and now who are you? Know what I mean. It's like

a giant percentage you forget like I'm Greg Daniel. You know everybody Conan and if they haven't done it, they've hosted it, you know what I mean. So it's a very weird. That's another reason I never need to go to l A or leave because everybody I know comes to visit. Eventually, you either down a Jimmy or up on SNALYSIS just like you sit there long enough? Is that calfinagas? How's it going? Um, We're gonna bring the lights up and take some questions. Everybody gotta their hand up.

We have some mics in the audience. There's Mike Peters, I see Mike Johnson, and you got a question for us right here? Go ahead, So we have a great let's wait for the Mike. That's a very casual stroll you have there, Mr Mike. When I first started with SNL, I was no problem staying up. Now I see SNL on Sunday morning and I just wonder how you deal

with the demographics of your television audience. Well, I think that the thing that we learned when SNL as Lauren would be went from a show to being an institution, because when when I came there, Farley Spade, all those guys, it was reviled that New York magazine cover, and then they all two years later going, oh my god, that was the past year's ever. So whatever year you watched it in high school or college, that to you is the best. Everything before that is garbage. Everything after that

is garbage. So it's like a thing and you go through and then and it is. The Democrats should be like the Simpsons, where there's you know, as Longe calls it, a big tent show where there's something for everybody. You know, there's a sketch that that and also hopefully all the references are correct and the costumes are correct and every so there's something to enjoy, but it is aimed at where the money is not us anymore. What's the biggest f up you saw on the show live? Where even

you sat there and it doesn't happen that often. Believe me, they were all very very very good and smart at what they do. But there must have been something you saw you were like, oh god, one time, I think it was a Mikey Today sketch. It was this forst Centaur vodka. Bruce Willis was hosting Who's a Delight, and uh, he just got the cards mixed up and walked out in the middle of the sketch, and I was like, what you're freaking you know what I mean? Because cars

are it's very confusing, all these things like that. You didn't do it on perfect We did that on the air with the Trump thing where we ran out of the shot. Run back about that. So that person that sucked up Bruce Willis, they're still there. Yeah, yeah, there, they got a promotion. Sucked me up. It makes good television. Who else? Right back, bro, I'm a leo. So has there ever been a time where you could not come up with anything? Have you ever been really stunned? Yes?

A lot of the show. It is like the muse hits you, and the muse can leave you and you just hope it comes back someday and you'll be sitting there and I don't write, um even when I did, right, I was like writing with people because I'm in my as I tell new writers, you can either be paid

to laugh or be paid to be miserable. Your call up to you, and I always chose to I would lay on a couch and you know, Keim word or Mike sure Carl like what said at the typewriter, and we do sketches and we and you know, we do stuff. But the thought of me writing alone in a room. I did that. I wrote pilots and things like that, and I hated it. So it was more fun at goof off like it was more like you do in real life. It was like I wanted to put what I would do at home with my brothers. I'd be

more Saliary than Mozart. And there is stuff that ends up, you know, on the cutting room floor, so to speak, because if you're laughing too if we're laughing too hard at something, we know it's not gonna make it because we are jade. You know. When we first did Tony Bennett Show, Paul Appelle wrote all the Tony Bennett Show sketches and the very first one didn't get on air.

So I'm Tony Bennett, I'm hosting my talk show. We're gonna bring out this rabbi who's written a book about the looting of Jewish art and treasures by the Nazis during World War Two. And I said, Nazi gold, this great, great great, great book written by my first guest, Rabbi Gush Thedeman. Come out out here, Rabbi Sedeman, and I say, so, you wrote this book, and I want to ask you my first question. What's your beef with the Nazis? Yeah? And the Jewish holidays were that time of the show Humans,

and I like it goes, maybe we'll call this one. Yeah, like there's some great stuff, but maybe not such a good idea. Yeah, you know it's weird. Got over here Trump at side. Who's the funnest person for both of you that you've made fun of? You know, we we we We've had a lot of fun. But the greatest moment for me was when we got Tony Bennett to come on and do the Tony Bennett Show. And I cried when we were done, I cried. So we leave and he goes to the cast. Everybody wants a picture

with him. He's got his assistant there with a suit bag. He's like a real show business, old school guy. And he turns to the cast. They take the picture of him by the elevator bank and he's leaving. He goes, I want to say thank you all very much. Your kids are fantastic. That was a million dollar night on Ironically and ironic. I was getting married to my wife, who is a little bit younger than I am, a little bit his wife, and we're going to his school

out in Queen's to do this benefit. And we're sitting there and the woman who's the principal of the school that he runs and says, us he's getting married. I saw in the paper that here getting married. And I said, yes, I have said, well, my wife was a lot younger than I am. And I said, but you know a

little bit at what that's like, Tony. And he's there with his wife, Susan, who's even younger than even more of an age difference, and I said, you know that worked out for you, and without waking, he looks at me goes, I always tell people, consider the alternative. Is it okay? Yeah, all right, I'm gonna go with that. Consider the alternative. I said it to the priest during my way. I consider the alternative. Father. I'm just saying,

who else a couple more right here? Right here? That was to as I ended up on the Tonight Show. Because when Jimmy was on the show, uh, we would just do bits and goof off constantly, and we had an affinity towards that, and we would you know, I wrote Jeopardies that Jimmy was in, and Barry give talk show and think whatever. He'd you know, Mick Jagger at

the Mirror. And because Jimmy, to me, what I loved about him the most was everybody thought of him as like this cute little mop top creature, and we knew him as this well of comedy knowledge. And so when he started that, you know, it's you know, he goes, you want to be my sidekick? I go, if it's okay with Lauren because I still work on SNL, and

so Lauren gave it his blessing. So exactly like on Wednesday's after run down from read through on this like four sketches, I'll rundown, do the show and run back up because I'm only out there for ladies and gentlemen. Jimmy fallon ha yeah, and then so I guess comes on, I'm out of there. You know, I'm back upstairs to my day job, getting like seven and a half eight million a year for the nine an episode nine an episode. So who else we got than Trump got elected? Back

there right there, I se there you go. Yeah, there are so many times either candidates officials are so over the top the writers sometimes feel kind of super I think that it's it's the it is the hard thing. As you said of Trump, it's like men, you go when he goes farther than you would have ever gone, Like the when you're telling them about the McCay sketch that guy now would have won. The guy wiped his ask with a flag and stuff like that. So it's like,

it's hard to keep it real. Who else we got a couple more yes right here, and there was somebody up top. We're gonna get you right over here. Then we're gonna have you shout. I need shout, all right. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Kelsey Grammar actually announced that there is going to be a reboot of Fraser. And uh, the question is, in this current climate of comedy, how do you think a Fraser reboot will be received? And should the TV industry stop relying on reboots and come

up with more new material? Well, yes, but I think it is. I find that besides the you know, it's just hard to get anything made that somebody's gonna say yes to. And I do find I'm guilty of this. If I flipped through and me TV comes on and there's some show from my childhood before all this Michigun stuff was happening, I will sit there and watch it and go, oh, that was a good time. It will it will take me out of this. So I think there's also a giant nostalgia thing. But do I wish

they'd quit making more? Who coo am I to say, I'm just a sketchwriter apparently, But I think that that, you know, obviously, these reboots, it's like, if you think it's unoriginal, they don't care. Is there an audience for that? Sent Comcast? Comcast cares, but they don't care if that people might criticize that reboot thing. If they get uh, David Hype Pierce, if they get all the original gang

back together, What could be wrong with that? When those guys were really, really, really funny, but um now, please stand up and give us your best operatic performance. It was Chris and Sarah who had another song, and then Leonard Cohen had just died, and so that's how the Hallelujah thing came in it. But that wasn't until dress, wasn't it let me do it air. We did a different Yeah, it was like a very very up until the last minute, you know, it was one likes the

sweet when it works. Sometimes we do some very tender things and they're very kind of if it's at the right moment. Everything I look at critically, I look I divide it into three parts. So a third of the shows suck, a third of the shows are okay, and

a third of them are really wonderful. And if you hit that march, if you're bating three thirty three, then you're doing well because to grind that out, you know, you're you're in a room on a Monday, and uh, then the show was on the air, and the sets are built in your broadcasting a live TV show on

a Saturday, it's it's nothing short of a miracle. And when you host, when you've hosted a few times, you come the writer's uh tell the ideas to the host on Monday, and when it's Alec, they don't put out any effort because they go, we'll get it, we'll get hang on, what do you got? That's okay? I'll never forget down. He's there, he's the head writer down. He comes to me and I go, so, what's the monologue?

Because I was always obsessed. If we don't have a good monologue, it might be tough to be coming about. I'm like, what's the monologue? It's like Thursday night. He's like, oh, I got some great and I want to showt you now by so good, I mean, I don't want to well, I'm still kind of playing with the but this is gonna be really good. Friday comes, I'm like, can I see the mone Like, oh, it's so good. It's really good. He doesn't have a fucking idea what we're gonna do.

And then finally he hands me the monologue. On the Saturday, I just got divorced from my first wife, and I come out there and he has me come out there, and I'm like, you know, this is a time of transition in my life. And uh, you know, I've had a lot of changes in my life, but one thing that's always been there for me and like a home for me a Saturday night love and out comes Daryl Hammett as Clinton and he comes in. He goes Alec Baldwin.

Alec Baldwin, he said, you gotta put your oars in the water and row your way towards the island of Poonani and I'm saying I'm not. He goes, You're gonna be having it hot and cold on tap my brother, and he starts saying all these vulgar euphemisms. Um, but I want to say that, you know, you are, besides me, unbelievably funny and God knows you are. But you're also

such a gracious, gracious colleague. Whenever I've done that show, I mean, you're one of the main reasons I come back, because even though we don't enjoy always Trump himself, you know, embodying him. It's been such a joy to work with you these last years. And thanks for doing the show with me. Thanks, thanks for coming you k Thank the incomparable Steve Higgins of des Moines's finest sketch comedy troupe, The Higgins Boys and Gruber. I'm proud to call him

my friend. I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.