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Everybody.
This is Mark Paun, long time seasoned veteran editor at The Daily Show since way back before John Stewart, and we are here today with as If Monby, former correspondent and current star of Evil streaming on our own Paramount Plus. Has it feel to be back in the building.
It's it's such a weird it's such a weird feeling, you know, because it's like it's going back to your old college campus or something, you know, and everything's like it's the same, but like new and better.
You know. Yeah, they added.
Walls and rooms.
Rooms became four, right.
They've gotten right, they got another edit room, and it's just like everything just feels like shinier and cleaner. It's really not really, but it's great. It's great to be here, and it's very It's like it's like, yeah, there's an energy that I just love, you know, Like I just feel like, oh, right back into like being in this building.
You were last year, like you were here as a guest with Trevor Right, yeah, seven.
My last my last officially, like it was like twenty fifteen, I think right when John left, I sort of I didn't like officially leave. I never got my goodbye show, which I still he still owe me.
Really, oh because you you hung around for like a month or.
Two, Yeah, I should like I'm leaving.
Trevor was like, I don't know this guy.
Yeah, yeah, I know. So like I was like, uh, yeah, come back, you know, just come back if I'm available, and so like I never really officially left.
Oh right.
It wasn't like I'm done now, I'm never I'm done.
That's it busy, and they were planning and bring you back.
Yeah, they were having me come back whatever, you know. And then Trevor was like, I don't know this guy, and I'm like, why don't you just watch the Daily Show. I did come back and do one correspondent piece with Trevor, and then I came back as a guest, yeah, with Trevor one time and then but yes, it was around twenty fifteen.
So you started in two thousand and six.
Two thousand and six, yeah right, yeah.
Now you have the distinction of you auditioned, yeah, and then you were hired on the spot and we're in that evening's Yes show.
Yeah. I think I may be the only correspondent had that experience, which was that. I got the call at like twelve thirty that afternoon saying the Daily Show is looking it's an audition for.
The Daily Show.
And I was at that moment writing a letter to my ex girlfriend, who I had found out had just gotten engaged. So I was really depressed and I was writing this letter and my manager calls and says, you have this audition for the Daily Show. And I said, listen, it's not a good day, like I don't feel like being funny right now, and so can we go? Can I go in tomorrow? And she said no, no, if you if you don't go in today, that's it. They're going to hire someone. So I was like all right.
So I basically just like put They were like, go down, just go down.
To three second Street in the afternoon.
Yeah, and then and then I and then I showed up here like I basically just put it on a suit and tie and I lived up just on the Upper West Side, so I just like walked down and I got here, and I remember they were like here, the here, the you know, the the grazes, the script
or whatever, and I'm like I'm looking at it. And I go in and John is there and and then I did the piece and whatever it was that they had written, I think it was a piece that they had written for that evening show, and they needed a correspondent, a Middle East correspondent, and they didn't have one. So they were like, well, hire guy, So I commit to meet John. John's very nice, and you know, I remember John saying to me like, if you ever performed in
front of a live audience before? And I was such a dick. I was like, I was like, yeah, I've been on Broadway, dude. She was like, oh, okay, enough.
Us if thank you for joining us. Do the people of the Middle East share this administration's clearly more optimistic view of the conflict?
Oh?
Absolutely, John. It's not often that an entire region is given this kind of chance. Every day, the cafes and outdoor markets of the Middle East explode in anticipation. We were like children on Christmas morning. From what I'm told, it's very exciting.
Really.
The violence and the instability doesn't doesn't color that view.
No, no, not at all. As one gentleman told me while standing in the smoldering remains of what was once his village, you can't get hummus without mashing some chickpieas and so, uh, I do the piece and then literally John turns to me and he says, welcome to the
Daily Show. You're you're hired, and but but I was on that night and then literally like everyone you know that it was like that was when everybody watched The Daily Show at eleven o'clock when it was actually on, right, and so people like my phone was blowing up that night like because yeah, no, nothing, and they were just like, were you just a guy who looks like he was just on the de Like I literally got like twenty phone calls like yeah, it looks exactly.
Like you was.
And then and the funny thing is I went to a bar to watch it, and the fucking guys at the bar wouldn't turn off the game and put on the Daily Show, so like and so they put one TV out and I'm like, I'm on it and they were like whatever, dude, and they were like but they
were like, you can watch it, but on mute. So the first time I ever watched myself on Daily Show, it was in a bar on mute like now, and I was like with all these friends of mine and they're all like, what are you doing what are you saying? And I'm like, okay, so this is when I say that, you know anyway, But then uh then John just I wasn't officially hired, so John would just call me back. You'd just be like, hey, you want to go next week?
And didn't They just threw me in there and then they were just like do you want to come back next week? And I'm like sure. And then and then Flans would call and she'd be like, hey, you Wanna're gonna do another one? And I'm like sure. And then they just kept bringing me back and they'd be like, we got another piece, come back in And I think, honestly, it was just that John liked me and he just wanted me on the show, and he just kept calling
me back. And then it was about four or five months of that, and then they offered me a contract and then I got the office next to Bacon.
I love that guy. I love Yeah.
Yeah, it was the best, and you you had like most of the correspondence almost all of them really have come from like improv, stand up yeahgrounds, and you were like legit actor.
Yeah yeah, I was like, you know, actor like in theater.
Yeah, Like I was like I was like, you know, it was weird because I I had an old manager once who was always like, you know, like way before he was always like you should be on the Daily Show, and I was like the Daily shows, like I'm an actor, Like like I'm not a I'm not a stand up, you know, And so it was very surprising to me
that they that they wanted me. I had done improv and I had done comedy like in theater, and I'd never stand out, and so I was for the longest time, I had like this incredible imposter syndrome where I was just like, why am I here? Like I don't really belong on this show, and I was sort of like I'm and it was It was weird because it was for a number of years that I felt like, oh, I'm kind of not really supposed to be here, Like they're gonna figured this out at some point and they're
gonna be like now we'k. And I remember, like I did a field piece with Miles Miles Cohn, wonderful guy at one of our all time great producers on the show, and so I remember went out and did this piece and it was that sort of a man on the street like kind of thing. And I was terrible, Like I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. Like I was just like and and you know, Miles was neurotic enough already came came back and he was just like, we got nothing, we got nothing. I don't know what
we're gonna do. And and we've cobbled it together.
And you know, and I cannot tell you how many times I've had people come back and go to me, we've got nothing.
Yeah, and and and it's like really, and I'm like.
You shot for four hours and you got some three minutes of really funny stuff. You don't realize it because because you got three and a half hours of crap, but you got those three really gold men, and it's like it turns into a great piece.
And then I got other you know.
Other times it's like we got we killed it, we killed it. We got so much great stuff, it's so good, so amazing, and I go, there's nothing here. It's six hours of crap. We got nothing, and you know, and then the piece doesn't even air because we got nothing. You know, It's it's like people walking door. And I would never trust what you guys would say, because like.
You're yeah, you know, it's true.
You're out there and you're grinding through and you don't really.
Yeah, I know, it's like that was that was one thing.
I realized how much you're shooting and how many good you just and then when you start to put it together, like oh man, this is this is good.
Yeah.
That was the That was the learning curve. That was the learning curve for me to realize that like, oh, it doesn't all need to land, it's just that enough of it needs to land to like make that three or four minute piece, you know. And for a long time they didn't send me out in the field. I was like the in studio guy, and I didn't do field piece.
I cut your first piece.
You cut that first piece I did with clements.
Right the University of Illinois.
University of Illinois, which was which was actually a good piece.
It was solid first piece.
Yeah, it was a good piece. And then I did that you were.
Good in it. Yeah.
So like a lot of correspondence, it takes some the old the old the old rule around, like given three or four, given three or four pieces, like even even I remember, like Steve Carell's first piece not good, like everybody took but you're you're, you were right out of the gate.
You're a pretty style.
It was.
And that was a good a good subject and a solid like a really good subject matter, really good people to interview, Like the guy was like a white guy in full Native American war.
What we had there was a very clear premise when you had a we had a very clear good guy, bad guy, simple story. The premise was very clear. It was all like for.
The listeners, it was the University of Illinois. Yeah, chief a line I.
Was there was there, There was a mask, it was all.
Around that, and so they decided that it was obviously offensiveness. Man, we're going to get rid of it. And so it was a whole group of people that did not want to get rid of it.
Didn't want to get rid of the And so we had a kid who like sat down with us in full Native and a white kid white kids sat out with his full Native American like like paint all of his right. As in dances with wolves, it will take one brave, brave to stand up for his people.
The chief was gone, and so all the spirit and all the joy and all the pride and the honor tradition and that's all been taken away from us.
They're saying, we don't care about your culture.
We don't care that you will hear first.
Yeah, the what a trustee is who I believe is all Caucasian. Get rid of the Native American chief.
Surprise, surprise, it's the white man and bullies like this couldn't care less.
I am really glad that the school retired chief a linework. I feel like it was the right thing to do.
Why pale faces like you trying to push Native Americans from their homes?
Chief Alnawork isn't Native American. He's a race based racist stereotype.
Aren't you a race based stereotype? Seriously, dude, have you looked at hi mirror lately? You look like a Wayne's brother playing a white guy.
That's a new one to me. I I've never heard that one.
And he was like he was like I remember, he was just like, should I wear the paint? And we were like, you, dude, with the paint, it's great?
Were it the conceited the piece? Was? You were completely on his side?
Oh yeah, well we always play that.
And then you talk to the Native American just like and she was so confused.
Oh my god, it was great. And then uh, and then I did that and then I didn't do pieces for a while, and then I remember I did a piece with Stu Miller which was the Whammo or the Yeah.
The toy factory toy was it was bringing they.
Opened up a factor factory in China.
And they got no, they got rid of their factory in Michigan or something.
Yeah, it was something like that, but it was it was. It was a great piece and it.
Was because again it was got to do a lot of sight gags with all the toys.
Yeah. Yeah, and we did that and we and the guy was great. And then I remember they were like, okay, Monvi's ready now. And then I was going out all the time and they were you know, And this job is weird because you would sit around a lot, especially if you were like doing in studio stuff, and you'd wait for your opportunity to get on, you know, in the on the show. But if you weren't doing field pieces,
then you were just sitting around. But then once I started doing field pieces, I was like on the road all the time. So it was crazy. The only thing I regret was I was supposed to go do the India piece, and it was right when I left, and then Jones ended up doing the India piece. And it was like because I always ended up going to like the shittiest small towns in America and doing these fucking pieces. If I remember with Burger, I went to like this
place in Canada, the Asbestos Mind one. Did you cut that one? It was about the asbestos mine in this town in Canada, which was literally like a town that was on its last legs. There was no business, like all the stores and we stayed in this fucking shit ass town. It was like three degrees. And I'm like, why is every one of my field pieces involved by
going to a shitty small town? And other people were like going to Hawaii and like like exotic places Iceland and stuff, and I was like, always like going to some shitty ass small town in Middle America somewhere.
What was your favorite piece? I have a couple.
I have a couple. So one of them is the Boise, Idaho one where I almost got.
Arrested, which people remember that piece because of the two had a fish costume. Yeah, but the great thing about that piece is that it was a real legit, like sixty minutes should have done that story because it was like that company Simplot, Simplot right again for the listeners. It was this large company, Simplot who basically owned everything in Idaho. Their main business was potatoes, I.
Believe, yeah.
And then and then they were basically dumping all their like stuff, and I think it.
Was it was like getting to the river and like, and so you interviewed an environmentalist and then you and we.
Went to the e p A right and walked in to complain. But we had this great idea that like, I would be a two headed fish from the Idaho River who had come to the e PA to complain
about my habitat, my natural habitat. And so I walk into the e p A office and the poor and cameras and Brennan is like, go go and we walk in and and the woman at the front desk was so because I pretended like it was just me, so she sees the guy in it too, and she's just like and so she just she buzzes me in as soon as I and she lets me in and.
Then and then the guy comes out.
And then so before she lets me in, she doesn't know there's a film crew so Brennan and the crew were a few feet behind. They were kind of like out of sight, and then she lets me in and then they barge it and she's just like, what the fuck. And then the guy comes out from behind from the back office and he was just like, so you have to leave, you have to leave. And I'm like, I'm like, sure, I'm a fucking two headed fish and you've ruined my river.
And I started braiding this guy. It was just like he was like and finally I remember him just being like sure, you were not a fish, please, And then we left and they called home insecurity and.
We and they were rolling on that we got it in the piece. I remember like the camera guy went off sort of to the side where they the cops didn't really see. Yeah, and they rolled in.
They rolled in and they tried to look like a.
Movie like, yes, it was crazy. SUVs come come wheeling into.
The parking lot and then there's like the guys say on the side, like the guy's talking to you when you finally took the head off, the one head that was on your real head and the head was on the side, and.
I was like, I Am not going to prison tonight. And the two headed fish.
If you remember the other part of that piece that people forget about is when you start to go into the conspiracy. Oh yeah, when you're like digging in this this great very cinematic Yeah yeah, yeah, Brennon did. Yeah, and then you start to realize that the Simplot is everywhere in the complete control of Idaho Ida.
Hell yeah. Why would the EPA call Homeland Security? I needed answers, But everywhere I went, no one would talk. What is this Simplot run this whole state? Literally every single place I went in Idaho there was Simplot. So I looked him up and they're one of the largest privately held agribusiness companies in the world. The governor of Idaho worked at Simplot for thirty years and married Jr. Simplot's daughter. Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson chairs the subcommittee that sets the EPA's budget.
What the.
Is this an actual conspiracy?
There's certainly a conspiracy of silence.
This is really dangerous.
Yeah, what do you mean?
Yeah, well, I've received threatening phone calls from people who suggested that I don't work on this issue or come back to Cariboo County, Idaho again.
Okay, are you kidding me?
Next time a fake reporter comes to ask you to do an interview about simplot, you should lead with the stuff about the threats.
And then you talk to Aaron Brakovic.
Do you remember right she came and she did know.
You had her on like zoom, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I talked to her, how do I do?
What do I do?
And she's like, you know, you gotta set balls, man, you gotta go in. You gotta go after these fuckers. And then at the end you have a nightmare when you wake up with two heads, like you completely go. You know, at the end, you're like all on board with simp chicking out, you chicking out at the end of it.
Yeah, there's a great piece. My other favorite piece is the one UH with the North Carolina guy who Donyelton, Donnyelton, who basically that was such I mean that piece is like legendary because he got fired for it.
Went yeah, it went for the listeners. The North Carolina had had UH had passed the law that like basically was anti voting rights. He is like really an illegal law like restricting.
And it was basically like to keep poor people and and and African Americans from voting because they generally vote Democrats.
And he said he said that it would kick Democrats in the button.
Yeah, but then he went off, but he went off on this racist diatribe, right, So, uh, we had all the stuff and we didn't put it in the piece, a lot of it because we just felt like it was too much. So I remember John came in and he watched. You know, John would come in and watch the pieces before and he'd give notes on the edit. So he came in and he watched it, and and and and and we had Don Yeltons of like doing
some of his racist stuff. And then we as John was walking out, he turned back and he was like, he was like, by the way, do you have any more of that of him doing all that, saying all that racist stuff. And I remember Jenna and I both looked at each other and we were like, yeah, we have a lot more of him saying that. And John was like, I just put it all in there. And so we just did like a fade ye just saying all the like it's time he's just going one racist thing after the next.
The bottom line is the law is not racist.
Of course, the law is not racist.
And you are not racist.
Well, I've been called a bigot before. Let me tell you something. You don't look like me, but I think I've treated you the same as ever anybody else. A matter of fact, one of my best friends is.
Black.
Some one of your best friends black.
Yes.
And there's more.
When I was a young man, you didn't call her black or black. You called him a negro. I had a picture one time with Obama setting on a stuff as a witch doctor, and I posted that on Facebook. I was making fun of my white half of Obama, not the black half. And now you have a black person using the term nigger this, nigger that, and it's okay for them to do it.
You know that we can hear you, right, Yeah? Okay, you know that, you know that we can hear you. Yeah, okay, all right. And then at the end I had this line where I said, you know we can hear you, right, which became like the tagline of the whole piece, because I just was like, you know, you know, he can hear it. And it was such a great it was a beautifully constructed piece, and it was just so diabolical,
like it was just like that guy. And then he resigned and then time because basically the R and C was like, you can't say that stuff out loud, dude, like, and then the Republicans were like, you've done and then he doubled down. He was like, what what's wrong with it? Like he's like, he wouldn't.
Retract anything wrong.
Yeah, and so they fired him and he lost his seat, and uh, yeah it was it made it made like legit news. That was the one time there was the one time I feel like The Daily Show actually like did something that actually made a difference in the world. Like so much time it felt like we were just sort of preaching to the choir.
And yeah, there's been a few pieces like that that kind of.
Made Yeah, occasionally I think we just we did penetrate, like you know, so much of the time it was like we were just like talking to ourselves. It felt like, you know, we're like, yeah, we this all makes sense and it's funny and you know, but like it didn't feel like we were really like changing anybody's policy. But that was one of the few times I felt like we actually so I was proud of that, Like I was proud of the fact that we actually made a real difference in the world.
You know, yeah, yeah, don Yelton man Man, We'll be right back.
And then there's the Rick Scott.
Oh, the Rick Scott. That was a great one. That was a great So.
That's another one that so Florida had passed the law that anyone getting money from the state, meaning basically they were going after welfare recipients is what it was, they had had to get drug tests.
You're in tests. So so you went.
No, and we did, and we were talking to, you know, the Florida legislators, and we found.
Out and you talked you talked to another thing that's forgotten about that piece was I cut the pieces.
Yeah, it's the guy you talked to. The well for a guy.
It's a very funny interview with him where you were like you're trying to convince him that he should be being in a cup.
Yeah. Yeah. Suddenly you go all like, everybody who works for the Florida government also is money shouldn't be peeing in a cup because they're getting money from taxpayer money. Because the whole argument was if taxpayers are.
Right, and you went you went into before you went to Rick Scott sort of wandered the halls of the state legislature, like.
Trying to get.
This flow is on constitution and it and violates the Fourth Amendment.
You're poor and on drugs.
What do you know about the Constitution.
I served in the United States Navy.
You're a veteran, Yes, I took.
An oath to support and defend the Constitution.
Any citizen, whether a veteran or not, should be happy to take the drug test. As a veteran, I would think that he would be concerned about the freedom of the taxpayers, the taxpayers that are working day and night, sometimes two and three jobs, and he won't even do this very simple thing to help his family. I just don't get that.
So who pays your salary?
The taxpayers the state of Florida.
I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need you.
To be into this cup. Those are the greatest moments when you just like I could actually like sort of speak truth to power in that way.
You didn't and didn't that one also did the law? Didn't that law get reversed to down the road a little bit? It may have, yeah, I can't remember, but it went viral too.
I remember like it got a lot of attention because also we were in that room with all when we went to the Rick Scott.
Uh Pres it was just like it was just like weekly or Yeah.
It was like every outlet in the state of Florida was in that room, you know. And the funny thing wasn't when we did that thing Brennan, I remember it was also another Brendan piece, and he said to me, He's like, just just get up and just ask him to be in the coup. And I was like, all right, And Brendan's standing off to the side. These guys are all like like everybody in the room.
And if you remember, in the piece we cut to we cut to between our footage, we also cut to.
Locals.
So what happened was that what happened was that the Channel five is covering this at all, whatever local stations around Tallahassee and Tampa and Miami and Jacksonville, they're all covering it. And I asked him to pee in the cup, and it's like and all the cameras turn on us because they're all in the room going and so obviously
the whole place goes silent. We come out of the room after after we have the interaction with Rick where he's like, I'm not doing that, and then all the press guys come up to us and they're like, oh my god, that was amazing. We wish we could do that. And then it's on the news that we were there, and my dad in Tampa sees he watches the news and sees me on the news asking Rick Scott's and then he calls me like right after we come out, and he's just like, what did you do? What the
fuck did you do? Because he was watching it a lot, like on Channel eleven or whatever in Damp eight.
But not everyone knew that it was the Daily Show right away.
No, right away, no, I think it.
Was just like they were like, oh, reporter asked Rick Scott's pen a coming, and then it went, oh, it's a daily show but like but also one of the really funny visuals in that is passing the cup because you're all the way, you're all the way in the back of the road, you pass and all these people passing it down, like like eight people get guy in the front is like and he just like puts it on the steps forward, He gets out of his seat, he steps forward, and he puts it on the floor
in front of Rick Scott's podium. And then he sits back down.
So great. Remember I said to him, I said, don't worry, you could pete the cup. We'll all turn around. It's okay, we'll all I was like, we could all just turn around so you could have some privacy. Oh my god. It was such a great. That was so great. Those moments I do miss like that, just those moments when you caught somebody in that way or like you got someone to you know, those are things that always felt incredibly satisfying, you know.
And your signature move was to look to the camera.
Oh yeah, yeah, at those moments when you're like something crazy, you just look over.
Like, yeah, yeah, can you believe this?
Rhap the wall? You know?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was good.
Now there was something else you and Miles were involved in, which was I fit believe to this day, the most expensive slash field piece, not really a field piece, but the Quasby show.
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Well never like Miles was all in on this thing.
You went, you went to soundstage in Connecticut, right, yeah, we shot this thing.
Shot this thing like a real real scom listeners. It was a.
Parody of the Cosby show Muslim family living in a Cosby.
Show Quostrophy by Right Osby Show, and then we did that.
Yeah, and it was like a massive budget. I don't remember exactly, but I remember at the time it was huge budget. It was like the piece it was. I don't remember how we were using it in the context of the show, but it was like a twelve minute edit that Miles did and would not I did not cut it, but I remember the time he did this like ridiculously long, and he was so in love with
it and would not make it sure. And John comes in just like, this seems to be like three minutes, you guys, and then he leaves.
Because I figure figure it out, and Miles is like heartfro you know, Miles like, it's just like heart.
And then he like they had to trim it down and down down there there it is like you know, the stream minute like.
Because then we had to do a thing with the with.
The and then it turned into a web series.
Web So then Miles and I ended up turning it into a web series called.
Family because he changed it after this.
After Cosby kind of got itself in a little bit of hot water, so we had to change all in the Family. And then We won like a Peabody for that for that web series, which is still out there.
You can.
Die Funnier Die. It's on YouTube, like you can watch it. But we so Miles got his dream because he wanted to make that. He wanted to do a full on like so we did like four episodes of this and it was all based around like Islamophobia and anti Muslim bigotry.
And you know, because you're in like a white neighborhood. Yeah.
The premise was that it was a Muslim family who was terrified that anybody would find out that than Muslim, so that the whitest most like American Muslim family, like they like.
Like, but just aren't the kids kind of rebelling against that.
The kids are, yeah, but the likes.
He's like, let's have our pork juice everyone, you know, and he's like serving pork juice and like trying to be like we're not dangerous, you know. But it was great. We actually ended up.
I don't even remember how, like I remember how that got even like how we got it into the show, like you're just like, okay, let's.
Just do this.
Well, the premise was that we did it, and then we showed it to a focus group, and the whole idea was we had this focus group of people.
No, I mean like in the original Daily Show. Yeah, you know, it was like that was was something that was pitched.
Oh and then and then like they were like, you mean how to get green lip?
Like yeah, yeah, because I don't know if if it was, it was must have been a reaction to some news story that.
Was really no, it was a reaction to Katie Couric said that what Muslims need is their own cosmic. There was a sound by a little headline a little side from so she said it seems that what Muslims need right now is their own you know, cosby show because it solved racisms.
Right right.
And so then we were like we're going to make that and then we're going to show it to people and see what they fake. And I just remember like we showed it to all the this this focus group, and and I remember one of the guys was like, I don't believe this family, and we're like why not. It was like, well, because they're just two Americans. They're not well, they need like they need like an uncle and the basement who lives with a goat and has a gun or something, you know, like literally it was
like that. So we got the response was that if they were too American, then we didn't believe that they were Muslim, you know. So that was that was the sort of takeaway from the from the the Daily Show version of it. And then we did in the Family, which is a longer version.
And uh, it's an election year. Yeah, do you remember going to the convention? Oh my god, your convention memories? Yeah, you like, would you like to be back doing it this year?
Honestly? It's so depressing right now. What's happening is.
Also different for us.
Yeah, we're you know, back when you were doing it, we were still.
No, we were you know what we were Actually, I take it back.
You came into that and six we were already like we were already like on the map.
My first convention was the two thousand and eight dnc UH in Denver when Obama was the nominee, right, and I yet to experience anything as crazy as that, Like it was we were if there was any ever a moment where I felt like being a Daily Correspondent was like being a beatle, Like it was like at the d n C when it was me Wriggle, Oliver Jones, Sam I think Wyatt was there, Yeah, and we couldn't
even walk through the DNC. It was crazy, Like it was like because that was our audience, that whole everybody in that building were Daily Show fans. So we like we walked through that and I remember, like remember Lindsay Crystal and and she was our one of our director producers, and she was just like like she was trying to hold people back, like he were just like shoving people back, and she had me do that. Oh my god, it was horrible because she every dew was She said, okay,
I want you to go down. Well, the fucking worst things about Like she said go down. All these press guys were on their laptops and she's like, I just want you to run through the whole line of people who were all like live on there and just shut their laptops as you walked by. And so I run through. It was like we were fearless, Like it was like I would run through this thing and I shot everyone's laptop and they're live, some of them alive broadcasting. Just
shut up up. People were furious and I and the guy got up and started chasing me, and I remember Lindsey being like just she's like run, just running down the hall and there's a dude some report. He's like you motherfucker, and he said chasing me, and Lindsay like is hiding and I run into like who's uh, you know, I just I just was running into people and it was just like and I'm like literally hiding from this guy who was chasing me. At the DNC, it was it was.
Crazy and they RNC.
I don't think we even had the right credentials because that's if you remember, that's where Oliver met his wife.
He hid him.
She was they were running him and the crew were running from like security because they didn't have the proper credentials.
They're like snugging or something.
And she was there with some veterans group and her and her people like hid him in the crew in some room or something all in there and they got to know each other while they all waited.
So crazy. That's that's a.
Movie right there. Yeah. R n C was uh. I mean the Republicans also treat you guys.
Yeah, yeah, well the Republicans also watched the show. That was the crazy thing. Like when I remember being at the r n C and uh some Republican uh person came up like they were like, forget who it was now, but they were basically like, can we get our client on the show? And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like they were fans of the show, and I thought they would hate us, but they were actually like, oh, we love we love the Daily Show. You know, yeah, it was all good and and uh and.
So also also threw uh. I hate to say it, but the Republicans throw a better party.
They did. They know, it was definitely.
It was they had how to throw a party. The Republicans.
The Democrats were the Democrats party was all like kegs and booze and stuff, and the Republicans had like ice sculptures and it was like champagne and stuff.
And that, and then everything was really high end in DNC.
It was just like there's royalty.
I remember, it was like video games and like a keg.
You know. So now you're doing.
Evil Yeah, well yeah, you just finished four seasons.
Yeah, but you're hoping for more.
I mean I think, look, the reality is that we are currently like the second most popular streaming show original streaming show anywhere, and the first two seasons were on Netflix and they're doing incredibly well, and so I think the cast and the creators would love for the show to get.
And the first couple of seasons were on like regular broadcast CBS.
First two seasons, well, no, the first season was on regular broadcast and then we moved to Paramount. But I think they you know, it's a really smart and cool show, and it was actually kind of more of a streamers type show, and I think being on a streamer gave us a lot of leverage and gave us a lot of room to play with things that we might not have been able to. We might have been restricted on network in terms of how much we could play with stuff.
You know, did the Daily Show health right? Well, it's like, so you go from like real actor Daily Show back to like real actors, So like is there is there a do they help each other or is it just like this is like, this is this is basketball, this is football.
They're both sports. But like you know what I'm saying.
I mean, I always I've always, even my work on The Daily Show, I always considered an acting gig. It was never not at I was playing a character. I was playing a character who had my who had my name, you know, but he was a character and uh, you know he was way smarter than me, and have a bunch of writers that he you know, who writes stuff for him. But like he was a character that I so to me, it was always an acting gig and and you know it was. It was a tremendous experience.
And I think coming off the Daily Show, people knew who I was in a way that that I didn't. I mean I went from like relative like obscurity, like a guy who's like been on low order and stuff, to like people actually knowing my name and knowing who it was. So it was a tremendous logic order.
Man, you're like, you're no one in New York.
If you're an actor in New York and you have you have to have been in at least one episode of Law Order or you might as.
Well quit acting. I guess for you should wrap this up in a while.
Yeah.
Sure, Well hopefully you'll be you know, hopefully you'll be back again a stranger.
Yeah, and you know, absolutely, well it was great. I'm glad we got to chat.
Yeah. Always a pleasure. Oh yeah, man, good right.
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