Taran Killam

them quickly. By the time I got there. I don't think Bill Hater even went to like the first after party and it was like, what, you're crazy, man, this is the best job ever. We're never gonna die. Uh. And then like halfway through season two, Bill was right. It was right. Hi, I am Taran kill him, and I am so excited to talk to my brand new friend Brian all about me. Hello there, everybody, and welcome back too off the beat. I'm your host, Brian baum Gartner,

my guest today. Well, you just heard Arn kill him. An actor who has lived many, many lives. If you consider yourself a film buff, you'll probably recognize him from twelve years a slave. If you were a Disney or a Nickelodeon kid, you might remember when he was still just a teenage heartthrob. You might recognize him from on stage in Hamilton's as King George the Third, or if you're big into comedy you will know him for sure from his time on SNL or his new Amazon show

The NFL Pylon. What can this guy not do? Okay, he can sing, he can act, he can rap. Yes, this is true. He's wrapped with many people, including both Snoop Dogg and Rob Wriggle. And on top of that, he is a master impersonator, which actually helped him get one of his first big breaks. So yeah, it's safe to say, Taren, well, he is skilled at the art of entertaining and that's exactly what he's come here to do today. Well that and talk about the off the

beat moments in his life. Of course, with all that said, I am very excited to bring on Well the great and Powerful Taran kill him. Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every month left over from the night before. What's up? Karen Brian? How are you buddy? How good? How are you good? Good? I am in a hotel room in Atlanta, Georgia, so not the ideal not the ideal lighting situation at least understood. I didn't. It was either going to be hotel room

in Atlanta or like leftover Halloween mood lighting. Yes, speaking of which I do have to comment on the art behind me. Yes, is it? Is it an open pomegranate that I'm looking at? It is congratulations? Yeah, I'm a big Yeah, I don't. It seems weirdly disturbing to me. I'll be honest with you. Yeah. Yeah, there it's a it's a gruesome the the amount of magnification upon said pomegranate, Yes, too intense, it is. I I have named the piece of art gruesome Fruit. So, by the way, not a

terrible tie. It's for a horror movie. No, it's not dart writing Brian copyright me. Um, I think that's all I have to do, right, That's how the guilds work, that is. How are you doing? I'm very well, thank you. Yeah, My my wife and I were actually for the first time you heard about the pandemic. Yeah, so for the first time since the pandemic. Um, my wife and I were invited to like, you know, grown up Halloween parties without our kids and we went to two over the

weekend and we've aged out. We showed up, We showed up, we got a drink, We like made a beeline for people we knew, We said hi, and then literally did not know what to do with ourselves. We're like, I I miss home. Now I have to ask you a question. Did you dress up? We did? We did. I was sort of like, uh, we both kind of went classic. She was like a vampress and I was a wolfman.

All right, I mean that's a that's a d I will say my daughter's friends came over to hang like Friday night to do a little like early Halloween party, and one of her friends showed up in an FBI jacket with a with a warrant to search mar Lago. This is a This is a thirteen year old child who is hipper, funnier, more clever than any costume I have ever or will everwhere. Well you, I mean, obviously we're going to talk about your career and your variety

of elaborate costumes. You've had lots of lots of dressing. See that's my thing. I don't dress up. I feel like I dress up. I fulfill that itch. At other times, and when it comes to Halloween, No, it's just me. And other times you just mean like within your career, there's there's enough dress up, there's dress up. Yeah, yeah, I mean I I did. I was in I did put on makeup and get my hair done yesterday on Halloween, and I wasn't gonna go home and do it different. Yeah.

Do you know what you did? Do it? You did? You got Yeah, you got your voucher. Yeah. Um, all right, I want to go back. You're a California boy, Yes, sir. Your parents this is fascinating to me. Your parents both dabbled in the entertainment industry. Your mom singer songwriter with the Charlie Daniels band. Question, how many times have you heard Devil went Down to Georgia? I mean even just recently, many times? Because I feel like that's on a lot

of Halloween playlists a lot of times. A lot of times she toured as a as a background singer, UM for Charlie Daniels. Uh, two or three summers before I was born, something like that. So I am from Georgia. So I feel like that song is like, I don't know, it's one of those things when you're young you're like they said, pere job. It was Charlie Daniels and like Ray Charles right right, that's exactly, Um, your dad part

of a theater group. How how much do you think their influence are you know, their participation in the arts and performing that influence you as a kid, massively, massively. They were like we we attended Manhattan Beach Community Church, you know, the first decade of my life. Um, and they would do the sort of community church plays there. So you know, I was in theaters, I was watching rehearsals.

I was surrounded by the idea of like putting on a show before I could even kind of conceive of it or or an you know self analyze what that meant and what that what that required. And then my mother took me and my my two younger siblings to a commercial agent because she thought we were cute and precocious enough that maybe that would be a thing we would do well at. And of the three of us, I think I was the only one that was willing to go into a room full of strangers and be like, Hi,

you know, I'll talk about milkshakes. Um. So so absolutely, I mean, incredibly influential and encouraging, you know that that was It was like unconditional support before I was really even asking for it. Um. But it wasn't until like middle school for me and like getting involved in theater drama with my peers, with my own group, where it became a sort of a self passion where I was like, oh, no, I I do like this, and I I can excel at this too, but I'm I also enjoy the process,

and to me, I'm sure you agree. Just if you enjoy doing it, the end results don't become as um precious, you know, right. So it started out it sounds like as I don't know, hobby, maybe the wrong, but like an activity, I think it's fair. Yeah. It was like recreational pastime. Yeah, absolutely, and and just always around like you know, I was. I was in productions at the church from the age of four or five, um, because

it was fun to go hang out with kids. And I think my parents, having five children, needed extracurriculars to like, you know, find a moment to breathe. Um. So yeah, so it started that way. But in my own sort of history for myself, in my heart, in my mind, it was around six or seventh grade when I really started going like, oh, I love this, you know, and maybe maybe slightly earlier, just I remember seeing Tim Burton's Batman, the First Batman in like eighty nine and going, I

love the way that movie makes me feel. That movie makes me feel like things that I only thought were pretend before could be real. And that's I want to do that. That sounds awesome. Well, it sounds like right about this time, you were twelve years old, you made your first film appearance. Yes, Naked Gun thirty three and a third, the Final Insult. What do you remember about

being cast on that? I was just through this commercial agent this, you know, I think we'd moved on from from the first one and then and then they're like, um, the thing I was it was like Cunningham was the first commercial agency I was with, and then moved to a sort of more boutique agency off senset called the Sanders Agency, and I think that that's who this was through.

And yeah, it was just an audition and you know, you have to you have to get your vouchers, you have to become taft heartly before you can become SAG eligible. And Naked Gun is the thing I think is the job that got me taft heartly that like made me union eligible, and then doing a re enactor reenaction moment in an Unsolved Mysteries episode got me my card. Yeah,

but the Naked Gun was so exciting and fun. The director of that movie directed Tommy Boy, Like his next film was Tommy Boy, which is like a cool factoid for me. Had I but known, I would have been much more of a kiss up one of my favorite same same. We just showed it to our daughters and it holds up and they were laughing throughout. You know, it's just it's it's timeless, it's it's one of the

best comedies ever, I think. But it was fun to like be on set and my role was in a parody of Jurassic Park, so like they'd kind of recreated a Jurassic Park set and that was cool. And I had a stand in who was like twelve years older than me, like a full adult man who just happened to be short enough to be my stand in, and that was very exciting, and I was like, are we brothers? Now we best friends? We ended up not being Unfortunately he's he ghosted me. I mean, it's so so interesting

because you started so early started performing. Did you feel a specific affinity for comedy at this point or was it was it just about performing or finding whatever job you could get, or you know, yeah, I I loved comedy. I always as a as an audience member, always skewed towards comedies. You know, the works of Jim Carey were

incredibly influential to me and and inspiring. But in terms of like what I could do, I definitely came at it, you know, in the first third of my life or career, just from trying to do as many different things as possible. You know, I really love musical theater, I really love drama, I love Shakespeare, I love I love a good mystery and thriller. And so the sort of goal or or career path into comedy was not decided until I was

I was kind of a college that's when that. Yeah, I mean I saw some of your your earlier roles not decidedly not comedic, judging Amy, Touched by an Angel, Roswell. You start booking at a number of pretty big shows at that time. Was this difficult for you to continue to go to school where you schools where you set schooling? Were you good? Question? And and and there was a

moment in time where like kind of coming out. I went to a performing arts high school here in Los Angeles, and as I was finishing school, I was auditioning a lot more and I was getting these guest roles and doing well. But then was accepted to u c l A for Musical theater and the agency I was with actually disbanded, like they close shop, they just sort of shut down. And I was like, that's great. I'm just gonna focus on school. I'm gonna be a college student.

I'm gonna be here for four years. I'll train and then hopefully pick things back up once once I graduate. But a show I had done on Nickelodeon, The Amanda Show, called back halfway through my freshman year at college and they're like, we want to do more episodes with you, which was very flattering, very exciting. UM, and I said, well, I don't have an agent. I've sort of stopped. I'm just kind of going to school. And the producers were like,

we'll help you get all that, and they did. They're like, they got me an agent, they got me, they got me a manager, and which I've never had before. UM, so that's sort of like relaunched it. And then by the end of that freshman year sort of as a fluke, I've gotten I was allowed to audition for Mad TV, the sketch show that was on Fox, and got it. It's still funny that that happened to me because I had not taken an improv sketch stand up class, like

no training. Um, but just was loud and obnoxious and a good mimic I think you know, um and and yeah. So that that is when I became like comedian Taran kill him. Okay, so I gotta I gotta ask you

about that. So for first off, isn't it crazy? My manager and I we still have a joke about this, right that all if you're if you're having trouble getting a job, all you need to do is book a vacation, right like book something that was likely nonrefundable, or you have or you have dozens of people counting on you, you know, plan a wedding. You're gonna get a job. Um.

So that that's fascinating to me. Where you consciously say I'm gonna take a little break, I'm gonna go to U C l A, I'm gonna train, and then everything starts hitting for you. And now I read here that first off the Amanda Show, you almost missed your graduation. Yeah, yeah I did. Technically I was. I did. I wasn't allowed to walk because I had to miss the rehearsal.

Like I booked that job initially and it was very exciting, and the shoot dates overlapped with the graduation rehearsal Loxa, which is the name of my high school at that time. Graduation took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is where the officers used to happen before they build the Dolby Place, which is really cool, really fancy, nice, nice honor.

But the school was saying that it was the theater's policy that you had to be present for the rehearsal and if you weren't there for the rehearsal, you were not allowed to walk on the stage. And I was like, oh shoot. So I went to I said to the Amandage. I was like, I can't do this job. I'm sorry, I'm gonna miss out on my graduation and they were so they'll they said, we'll do everything we can to make sure you're there for the show to do you know, we can, we'll show you the dates ahead of time

and if they can reschedule. And they were so accommodating, and the high school for which I was being trained to be a professional actor was not that I Eventually I was like, you know what I'm gonna They're they're paying me money. So what happened was true to their word. The producers um shot me out early the day of my graduation, sent me in a limousine downtown l A to the Dorothy Chandler. But then I had to sit in the audience for my high school graduation and all

my classmates walking stupid. It all worked out, all right. You and this guy by the name of Keenan Thompson I here had the same manager. Mad TV calls for Keenan. You get pitched. You did twenty three impressions during your audition. I mean, you have twenty three people at this point that you can do. Yeah, it's again the mimicry thing, like you know, my party trick was too good in whatever movie was in theaters, and then come back and

kind of recreate it, satirize it. So at that point, like the WB network was a huge thing, so all the Dawson's Creek people, all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer people, cruel intentions, your varsity blues, like that was sort of my wheelhouse and knowing you know, if Matt TV was gonna hire a nineteen year old kid, they probably want to capitalize on a more youth oriented point of view.

It was those. But then you know you're thrown in a bono from you two or um at that point, Jimmy fallon, Like I did a follon for them, But yeah, for my like official audition, it's it's so kind of like juvenile but charming upon reflection. But I like made cards. I made, I like did craft cards with like name titles as if you know, there was a lower third

on the screen. But I was gonna be in an office, so I made twenty three different cards and I wore them around my neck and I would just take one off and then do the impression, and take one off and do the impression, and so like it and it and it helped it. It did help it, I think because it required me to do less work. But the best part always like even then I was so embarrassed because the audition ends and then I got to take a solid thirty seconds to collect all these paper cards

like these. He's a file eleven pieces of paper that have scattered all over the floor of this office at at Fox Studios. Um. But yeah, but it worked, it worked. It was. It was a very very fortunate, lucky thing and and an incredible learning experience for me. I talked to Kevin Pollock, who he's actually an amazing impressionist. Yes, I mean his walking his phenomenal. His walking is really good, he said. He also says like he helped Dana come

up with his George Herbert Walker Bush. He's yeah, Kevin was at one of those Halloween parties I was at. Okay. He talked to me about just finding that one hook. Is that how you operate as well? Are you looking

for one characteristic or speech pattern or what do you? Sometimes? Yeah, sometimes of physical affectation helps it, you know what I mean, like a mouth shape or I I squinted, you know, like, um, it usually starts outward in for me, for you, okay, or if there is a melody to it, if there is a sound or or a certain rhythm of speech, that's that's another way in for me. Like when when

I started doing bread Pitt again. It was that thing where I'd seen the movies and then just quoting it with friends, people be bold enjoying, going like, oh my god, yeah you sound like him, um with with no jokes at that point. But um like for Brad Pitt, I really really loved and still love seven And there's this, there's a speech he does with Morgan Freeman at the bar and he goes, you know what, um, I don't think you're quitting because you believe that. I think you

want to believe that. Because you're quitting. You want me to agree with you and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's funked it's all funked up. We should all live in fucking lord Cabins. But I don't agree with you. I do not. Thanks for the drink, and just like the rhythm of the Buddhaud but like and then twelve Monkeys, he's much more frenetic, and that he's much more physical

and he does always touch his face. He's always kind of licking his lips and his lips moist and there's a little like bounce, you know, a little shake to the head, a little like I can't even I don't even have the energy to be this cool. And then in Twelve Monkeys he does a lot of that. You know, I'm like, cham yeah, there's like a lot of these like on them on a pia sounds. So I started just button ing like Lou, great to meet you, very

happy to meet you. And that's that's just sort of how that how that one in particular developed and and it just always brought me great joy because he's just undeniably the most handsome, cool, most unique performers in terms of the types of roles he chooses. But at the same time, he has a very um limited vocal range. He always sounds like himself, you know what I mean. He's not like Tom Hardy, who's always gonna make some big vocal swing, always bred right right. I see, that's jenious.

I love that. I also love that for you. Physicality is so important for you. For me in terms of creating a character, I always said that is equally as as important how the character moves, how how they hold their body, where their holds are lets you know so much. Yeah, like I find it. I don't get as self critical when I start with the physical, right, like a bad example, someone who walks with a limb. You know what I mean.

You can feel you're feeling, and it's very real, it's very tangible, as opposed to journaling from the point of view of somebody or you know, all these internal exercises people do. If I start there, it feels false to me, like it like I I can get in my head, I'm like, what am I? Why am I writing that? What? You know, these things didn't happen, This wasn't really I'm

making this up. But if you go in physical and you start to feel that, then the thoughts behind it become a little bit more, become validated in a way to me, I just as I've always found that to be more helpful. You know. Yeah, and and shoes are really important to me, just because different shoes, different types of shoes ground you to the ground in a different way and literally creates different body postures, right like, And this isn't a job. I'm not even making a joke

right now, I'm wearing I'm wearing cowboy boots. I appear to be a different person when I'm walking down the street in these shoes. As my second favorite type of shoes a flip flop. You know, it's the dude in the Big Lebowski versus put Jeff Bridges in boots and he immediately becomes somebody else, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So even if you know, I try, it doesn't always happen.

I'm not gonna be totally high maintenance about it. But even like if I'm off camera or something and I'm trying to be there for somebody else, having the shoes is always important for me. Absolutely puts my body in a specific position and the way that it affects others too. That so, I mean, I've never thought of that, but it immediately makes sense to me. Because if you enter a room in cowboy boots, people here, you coming in

a different way than coming in and flip flop. Like there's just the sound that those two different kinds of shoes make effect. Like flip flops is like, who's this dude, you know? And cowboy boots is like, oh do I need to be on my guard? You know? Here comes something, here comes Here's comes the possibility of authority, right, And that's that's the great dichotomy of me. I wear both there you go sometimes the same day. It's great love that I don't mind that one bit, not to like

dig in on feet stuff. But I now have inflamed plantar fasciitis. You know. Oh boy, I shot I shot a film in Europe this summer. Came home with like a chronically sore foot. I was like, I tore something, I ripped something. I need surgery. I need to do it. And I go into the pedietry and he's like, well, now as you get older, and I didn't hear anything he said after that, are you over it? Now? It went away? But it it. I've now had like two

bouts of it. Like I was able to kind of curb it and it's excided and then I reaggravated it. And apparently it has everything to do with being an old dummy. Yeah kind of. But I will tell you this. I was shooting something for NFL Network and this has been I don't know, six seven, eight years and was there with two young NFL players at the time, and I was talking about flip things. I don't know why we weren't. It wasn't sexual, I promised, and they said, well,

you get pedicures, right. I was like, oh, I don't get pedicures. They're like, why not? Literally, you're walking around on those things every single day of your life. You gotta take care of them. Wow. And I was like, you guys, you guys get pedicures, and they're like absolutely, I'm telling you, It's totally changed my life. Interesting enquire about frequency. I mean, ideally we're talking every month to six weeks. Okay, that's very reasonable. And I you know,

I play. Everybody's tuning out now. I talk about this too much, but I play a lot of golf, and I like to walk, and I play golf tournaments and you know, sometimes golf shoes are a little pointed at the end. It can cause can cause issues. Since I started this, it is it is night and day for me. And I'm talking about playing three, four, five times walking. I mean, you know, you feet are gonna get so, you know, tired or whatever. But the pain that I

had before it doesn't exist anymore. Phenomenal. All right, you're giving me. That is the gift I am giving you today. Um. Now back to Mad TV in the Groundlings. You start studying at the Groundlings. Yeah, So many of the people that I really loved working with it Mad had come

from there, had trained there. Michael Hitchcock in particular, Jennifer Joyce, Michael McDonald and I had obviously heard of the Groundlings and knew of it, and actually even had a buddy from college going through it, mikey Day who's now on Saturday Night Live. But because I did come in so inexperienced but fell in love so deeply with the format of sketch and the people who I looked up to almost consistently across the board happened to be Groundling, you know,

so kind of just for fun more than anything. I signed up for a class with my buddy Kyle and the Seam who was also on SNL and me, and it was not, uh, result oriented. It was more like, let's just experience what this is like and what we can learn from it. And thank goodness because everything that has happened since I joined up with the Groundlings Theater

is because of that that establishment. Wow, um, you're doing a show at the Groundlings and you get an opportunity to perform for Lauren Michaels, Now did you know he was there? Know? What happened was I was in the Sunday Company, which is sort of like the Junior Come. This is prestigious people, the Sunday Company at the ground. Yes,

for my money. If if you happen to be in Los Angeles and want to see good sketch comedy, for my money, the Sunday Company shows the one most worth seeing because what you're doing is writing a brand new show every week. Um, so we were, so we were doing the show comeback at intermission, and they've written on

the dry race board. By the way, Lauren Michaels was an audience tonight, and the dry race board in a sketch comedy theater very frequently is used for stupid bits and not for any since your messaging, so I kind of laughed it off. It wasn't like toward like later in the second half where people like, no, he was he left, He he was here, but he left. And I believe he had come to see the seam in particular because she had put it. She had done a

one woman show, she put together a tape. So he came and and that was Yeah, that was the first chance that I had to be seen by s n L. And then they flew four of us and seeing myself, Gillian Bell and Greg Roman out to audition, like less than a month later, was this another opportunity, another job for you or did this hold a special significance for you at that time? I mean, I my my process with SNL was I had auditioned twice that year, didn't get it, audition a third time a year later, and

that's when I got the job. By the time I was working my way up in the groundlings, in the writing lab and advanced class s, n L had become like the dream goal, right like that, And and I had confidence that if I have had the opportunity to be seen, because there's a little bit of circumstance, right It's like some some of the most talented, funniest sketch performers in the world just didn't fall in a window where SNL needed people or needed that type, or happened

to be looking whatever. There's so much luck and circumstance in this industry. But I did know if I got seen and if I was able to audition, I would have a good shot. I just felt confident about that. And so the first audition was like validation of that. Like it was kind of a party. It was like me and three of my favorite people to perform with flying to New York, which was so exciting, Like I even paid for a limousine to like pick us up

from the airport and drive us into Manhattan. And I made a mix c D of all New York theme songs, um and it was just it was a party. It was just like I've been invited there to perform, you know, in this inside, this hallowed ground to me, this like this institution, this temple of comedy, if you will. So the first time was just fun and just about soak it all in and no matter what, they saw you and they said that, yes, you're good enough to be considered,

you know, and that was enough. And truly I was had already made peace with that before I even auditioned, you know what I mean. It's it's just like great, great, that that's that's a thumbs up from a show that truly has shaped my sensibilities. They're going like, yeah, we like what you do good enough. Then I find out a couple of weeks after my audition they like you

and they want to bring you back. And for whatever reason, that like just changed the molecular structure of it for me, because then it became like, oh, now it's mine to lose. Now they they said yes, but now they're they're like on on a razor's edge of whether or not to do it. So if I give everything I can, then

then it's it's within my grasp um. But also I've got to give them five new minutes of material, and so it's all gonna be the stuff I cut out of the first audition, right, And the second one went fine ish, and they even said after it like, it's not now, but it's not never, and he's on our radar. And I took that with a grain of salt, and then true to their word, a year later they called out of the blue. Really, they hadn't even seen me perform again. They just kind of called me up and uh.

And the third time was a charm. What was your favorite character you created on this? And now? I mean I really loved the French dance sketches we would do, which was like a really weird warped like what is the CW for France based off if you had to design what a teen show is in France based off of American stereotypes? Those are like putting on a show. They were like a little different because they weren't like written joke sketches. They were performative, physical pieces. So they're

always so joyful to perform. Um. A character that I had done at Groundlings, like was this character Eddie who we did it with Justin Bieber, and like, he's this insecure older brother who's trying to intimidate his younger sister's boyfriend who's nothing but impressive, and the only thing he can hold onto is that the guy says, it's glass to meet you. Sorry, glad to meet you, Nice to meet you, and he won't let up about that. Just

the pettiness of that. Um and then and then I loved the Meryville Brothers that we did, which was kind of like based off of a physical thing I've done a Groundlings, but we kind of created its own structure. Rob Klein and Ken Sublett and I did like these possessed animatronic creatures that like if you go to like, you know, a state fair carnival, the poor manufacturing is

horrifying in itself. It's like even if it's the sweetest little like you know, like hey, come to Lollipop Land, it's somehow more terrifying than if it was like a killer clown, your favorite impression or person you impersonated. Coming onto the show, I was I was always proud out of my Brad Pitt, but like, you put something on a national stage and it's a very good indicator of how subjective something like I love it, and there are groups of people who love it, but it was not

like widely received. Um. But one that I kind of like developed on the show was Christoph Waltz. Was always really really fun to do and just such a great character in him in and of himself, and he hosted while I was there, and then I got to do him for Celebrity Jeopardy at the fortieth anniversary, and that was that was really cool. That was genius. You got to meet so many incredible people who hosted who surprised

you the most with how funny they were. It was always the like former kid performers, like anybody who came from like multi Cam Disney Show or Nickelodeon show who then most likely transitioned into music. So I'm thinking like Timberlake or Miley Cyrus or Dre even Drake had done Degrassi Junior High before becoming Drake as we know him now. But they just have it built into their d NA, like how to perform for a crowd, how to cheat out how to play to the fourth wall, how did

it you know, the timing of a joke. So they were always the most fun, just because you could tell that they got it, you know, right away, and they made things better. You didn't have to write around them. You could write something for you to do together and know that they would pull it off or make it even better. I also hear Drake hosted a big after party, yeah, because he hosted a few times. I think he even

hosted once after I was on the show maybe. But the one I think you're talking about is he rented out the David Busters and Times Square and free drinks and everybody got like a cup full of tokens to play games. But he also flew in I guess, a bunch of dancers from a strip club that he's like a co owner of in Toronto. So there's a very wrong divide of attendees at that after after. This isn't

the after party, this is the after after. So this is getting going at like three am, and it's like half of the David Busters is filled with like comedy performer writers who are actually playing the games, and half are just like very attractive stripper girls who are just doing everything they can to position themselves close to Drake, who's standing with his buddy at the DJ booth. So it's just like it's just a really great kind of

like dichotomy of of people with different goals. Yeah, the after after parties at SNL, well, I've been lucky enough to go to a few. Yeah. I think it was probably good that I never never was a cast member on that show. I don't know that I could have done twenty of them, just the stamina wise. I mean definitely, like when you start out, you want to go to as many as you can possibly can, and then you

kind of grow out of them quickly. By the time I got there, I don't think Bill Hater even went to like the first after party and it's like, what, you're crazy, man, this is the best job ever. We're never gonna die. Uh. And then like halfway through season two, Bill was right, it was right. So did you do you've done like after afters? Like, oh, no, I've done it. Do you remember what locations they were? Because it changes

the after after especially well the after after. Yeah, I will never be able and probably shouldn't pull the name of that. But very dark bar, Very Dark and I'm sure that's all intentional. One of them was it was a season finale, so I think it was like there in Rockefeller Center was the after and then there was somewhere else. And here's the thing. You have to understand. You don't leave the show until after midnight, and so you're like, have dinner at one thirty in the morning,

and suddenly things get later. But it doesn't. It weirdly doesn't feel that way because it's the whole energy of it. And they it's always it's like this dark, dark bar and suddenly you're like, okay, it's time to go, and you open that door and it is bright. It is bright, bright on the streets of New York and everyone is moving fast. It's uh, it's a it's a thing like what what other job ever? Is it like that? And that's that's a weekly occurrence too. I know, yeah, I know,

I know. It's it's insane. Around the time you were leaving us an l you took on another just such an exciting project, writer director star killing Gunther with Arnold Schwarzenegger. How did Arnold get become part of this project? Again? Just just sort of random circumstance, um like we just overshot the mark, like that film was conceived and and always intended to be like scrappy production, let's put on

a show. We'll put on a show. And the benefit of snl IS is that it's such a respected place people will listen to you and and I was not used to that in any of my previous job. So I in the script in its original form, there was always going to be this cameo at the end of the movie, and I was like, Oh, it would be fun to like casually get a name, Like could you imagine if we got Jeff Goldbloom, Like how cool would

that be? And I we sort of went down the list, and Bruce Willis had hosted and I'd had a really good week, good experience with him, so we reached out. He took a while to consider it and then ultimately passed. But his reps were also Arnold's reps, and they're like, you know, Arnold hasn't been doing a ton of acting, and he says he's ready to kind of get back into it, and he loves doing comedy and he thinks that this place do his strang like they're selling me

on Arnold Schwartzeneger like, let me think about it. Um, so yeah, so he read it and said yes, and him coming on board was like the biggest, most exciting thing ever. But I also, I know, in hindsight now like was not prepared enough to pivot the project when you have the world's biggest action star agreeing to do

your silly, little scrappy hitman comedy. If I knew then what I know now, I definitely would have like used as him as in a much larger capacity, you know, not necessarily with more shooting days or whatever, but you want to build it around him because I think what I what I hear from the biggest criticism of it is like, we love Arnold, but we do have to wait an hour and fifteen minutes before we see him. And I'm like, yep, that's fair, that's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um.

But he was the best. He was a pro man. He was like the pro of all pros. And I don't just mean prepared, which he was such a pleasure to work with, the graciousness with every person he crossed paths with on the street and from our crew, from our cast. He's he is a movie star, capital M capital s and it was so so fun to work with him. How great is that to hear? I love to hear that. Yeah, you see it, you see the extra gear. Like that's what it was for me, is

that it was It was a master class. And like complete authenticity, that was the other thing. Like it never felt contrived, never felt forced, And he was very good at also setting boundaries and limits and like good to see good, Like he just clearly had been in a thousand bajillion interactions and had really honed how to be a man of the people. You know, obviously also through his political career. But yeah, but just a just loving

the process. Again, Like if you just love the process of hanging out with a group and collaborating and being artistic, all the all the money for status, fame stuff ultimately becomes less important because you're already so fulfilled in in just the craft of creating. And and he had that. He was awesome. You have this experience you direct killing guntherer you then now I'm I'm really gonna fanboy here

for a second. And also I think that one of the greatest comedic, powerful characters on the stage over the last twenty five years is King George the third in Hamilt, in which you have the opportunity to go and play on Broadway. I cannot tell you how much I love that role. I love it so much. Talk to me about that, Like, what was it like for you after all of this time on SNL to kind of go back to those theater roots and play a part that quite frankly has a really low lift job night tonight,

yet consistently steals the show. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly was symmetry to it of like I achieved this dream goal, you know, I can't believe how fortunate I am and then found my way back to musical theater. Did not just any musical theater, but the most popular, beloved musical theater production certainly of the last twenty years, but but arguably in history like that shows is just a masterpiece.

In my humble opinion, it was certainly surreal. I suddenly, um, I hadn't felt that level of nervousness because it was such a beloved piece, because the reputation of this show was bigger than any part in it any person. Like you know, my daughters at school and there's six and seven year old kids with like a dot Ham hats and a dot burr. Um. It just it just penetrated culture in a way that few things have on that level,

and you were constantly surrounded by reminders of that. So jumping into this well, well oiled machine, I put a lot of pressure on myself to to kind of, you know, step up and match the caliber of quality that Hamilton's deserves, and and worked really hard at that and eventually was able to settle into the joy of doing eight shows a week, and and that you go okay, and you get more confident, and you can try new things, and you discover new moments that, oh, that's good and that

always gets a laugh, and you discover a thing where you go like, no, that's off game. We tried that once and we'll never go back to it. Um. I loved it. I loved it. And you know, I did the show for three months, which was like a really healthy, very short period of time comparatively because sort of like the minimum run anyone doesn't in Broadway shows about six months.

So but it was just it was just rewarding on a daily basis to work with such a talented group of people in such new ways, you know what I mean. These incredible dancers, these incredible musicians, the designers, the directors, that everybody, and then to create an experience eight times a week for people. Each show never lost its um. It was always emotional, quite honest, like you'd finished the show and you'd feel emotional. It never felt like a

grind or it never felt not special. Each performance there was always something happening either in the audience or on stage with with with the cast that just made made it so special and that will forever be like what's your favorite job you've ever had? It's hard not to think of that one first. You know, I don't know Lenn Manuel Miranda, and I certainly don't mean any disrespect about this. This may this may be the craziest theory in the history of of anything. Here's my theory. Okay.

When I was a kid, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow, the ten Man, these were all I had zero interest in. These characters. I had zero in And by the way, there they maintain most of the screen time of The Wizard of Oz spoiler alert for those of you who haven't seen The Wizard of Bryan. No,

the Wicked Witch, to me is the greatest role. But more than that, I want to talk dis these early Disney movies, The Little Mermaid, Ursula, the Sea Witch, to me is hilarious, and these were the always the parts that we're fascinating to me, like the evil villain roles, because you know, to me, comedy always brings a complexity. That's my problem with so much like straight drama, if you will, is just like wait a second, like people do make jokes occasionally or like use sarcasm or whatever.

I love that and I see that role in that history. There's no question here. By the way, I'm just telling you this is the theory that I have. I think you're right on the money. It's there's a there's an archetype there, and you know, Ponscious Pilot from Jesus Christ. Superstar was always something that I referenced. But Little Mermaid

and Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. This is Howard Ashman and Alan Mankin seemed to really um understand the necessity of exactly what you're saying, of of of brevity within darkness, right of humor, within the shadow that exists in all of us. And Little Shop of Horrors has that in in the dentist, the dentist, Yes, totally yeah, so yeah, No, I think you're absolutely right. I mean, yeah, that Ursula's song is so phenomenal because it's really your

first intro to her, to that character. This is not a character as you you know, you pointed out with the Wicked Witch of the West. You don't spend as much time with that character. But by the end of Poor Unfortunate Souls, you know everything and want more from this character from her, you know. Yeah, Well, anyway, and I love that you said that will always be the

favorite role you ever played. Um. But out of that, your first time headlining a sitcom, Single Parents, Latent Meester Brad Garrett, what was it like for you after spend so much time creating new shows and new characters week after week Mad TV S and L specifically, was there a difference for you in terms of exploring that singular

character week after week. Absolutely, yeah, the consistency of it, and as opposed to starting from scratch every week, you kind of got to create a collage, you know, and you kept adding PC, kept discovering new things about this character. From the performance standpoint, I mean, I got I love that job so much because we all just really liked each other off camera too, which is I'm important hopefully

you've been. Yeah, it's a shame that it needs to be said that that special, but it is, you know, um, we really it was really a great group. And I just love the premise when when Liz Meryweather pitched me

the idea originally she's like a group of single parents. Figure, I'm like, I can't believe that hasn't been a world explored in a show yet, because I think that there's no or admirable plight than a than a single parent, you know, trying to work and trying to raise and the balance of that is it's hard enough with two parents, you know. And yeah, and just really really enjoyed it and and you're I mean, your question kind of hit

the nail on the head. It was definitely a different sensation to like, oh, I'm playing this guy all the time. I found it very comfortable. I found like, I really enjoyed it, and I found there's such an endearing nous to a network sitcom where you know what they're trying to appeal to sort of the broadest audience possible. But yeah, I loved it, and it was also like moving back to Los Angeles, new city, trying to get settled. That

job really held me. It's like the consistency of it and the stability of it was such a beautiful gift for me and for my family. And I would have done it if they'd let us do it more of it, I would have done it for forever. Yeah. Uh, youth sports fan. I'm a very big football fan. Okay, Um, that's my new my new job. And I know you just you let me trans just well, yeah, I give it up as an open ended question. This is not Jay Leno. This is this is I grew up playing

sports Los Angeles. What's the deal with I hear you've been in Los Angeles but primarily football. Yeah, I grew up playing baseball and soccer mostly like for you know, a solid decade. Um. Always really enjoyed the culture surrounding football, the gathering on Sundays, the Super Bowl parties, the rooting for your team. Um. I just was always drawn to that and surrounded by that. But being from l A, did not have a team of my own to identify

with for for most of my life. So always promised that when we got a team back, which I was confident we would that I was going all in from the new ground ground floor, which one the St. Louis Rams were, you know, obviously a huge part of the franchise history, and then Los Angeles before that. But um, I've been I've been all in since they returned in two thous You can't watch football now without seeing this guy talking about his new show, The NFL Pylon. It's

a brilliant idea. I have worked in the world of sports as well, and here's the thing that I find so amazing is how engaging, fun personable, funny, talented so many of the players are. Um. Have you had any opportunities to meet players that have surprised you thus far or have been some of your favorites that maybe you didn't know before from working on We've had some people. Initially we had like more casual players turned commentators, UM,

rich Orneberger, UM, UM, Jered Quick Campbell. Claius is younger brother who did actually you know, he played on a practice team professionally, Um. But then we got DeMarcus Ware, which was fantastic and intimidating and what's this going to be?

And he set the precedent of as you said, in your setup, Like there's so much charisma and there's so there's there's so many other uh facets to the to these professional athletes where you think they're driven, you think they're jocks and singular focus and win win, but I think more often than not, they need to have a flip side to that, right, Like because they're so driven in their athletic career, they they want to laugh and make fun of themselves and a football more than anybody.

Um and DeMarcus was phenomenal and he hated DeMarcus Is. Remarkus Is was the segment we wrote for him, and he was just a huge Anglio Anglo file and very excited that that he loves he loves England first and foremost in football second and was really funny. And then we had Ricky Williams come on and he killed it. He was amazing. And then people we've had Sherman, Richard Sherman's done stuff for us, Andrew Whitworth, we had Jimmy

Johnson code you know. So we have found in our very new eight episodes of this NFL produced comedy show that particularly athletes and coaches are very excited to participate in something ridiculous because everything else is so laser focused and buttoned up. So it's, uh, it's cool to be that outlet for them. It's it's genius too, because look, the NFL, if they're not taking over the world, they're

taking over live television for sure. And you know, nobody watches anything sports included, uh, like they watch the NFL. And so you know, I've been saying forever giving alternative programming, that's fun, that focus is still on the key storylines and people of the NFL, that people eat it up. I'm so happy for your success on that. I is really really fun, and just keep keep killing it, keep

entertaining football fans. But here's the thing, you don't even have to be a football fan to enjoy you and that, yeah, I mean you know that that's the weird juxtaposition of my interests, right, Like I am a I'm a legitimate football fan. That's that's why Prime reached out to me, just because I'm If you happen to follow me on social media, it's pretty much the most dominant topic in my Instagram feed. It's my passion for the RAMS. So they knew that there was a legitimacy to my interests

and my love and knowledge of football. But listen spoiler alert exclusive. We're opening up with a Sweeney Todd bit this week, So I gat to you there's no other football focus show on television or in the streaming universe that is doing that is mixing so on time with the NFL. Yes, that is that is amazing. Tarn, thank you so much for taking the time and coming to talk to us. Your career is fascinating. You are hilarious.

I hate you for playing that role. I there's so there's so much here, but I will continue to enjoy you and watch both the NFL and you. Thank you for the NFL pylon. Thank you so much. The enjoyment is mutual and I so appreciate you having me and making this time awesome. Thanks Taren, Thanks Brian, take care, Tara. Thank you so much for stopping by. Awesome to get to know you just a little bit better. And I cannot wait until December ninete when the Packers beat the

Rams again. Listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. And if you're wondering where I'll be next Tuesday, the answer is will here of course, and who will be joining me? Well, let's just say they're a master of all things mathematical and savage. I'll see you then. Off the Beat is hosted an executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr.

Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary and are In Hearn is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,