Announcer tonight on late night with seth meyers. Cynthia nixon. Grammy awardwinning singer songwriter Michael Stipe. Host of wilmore, writer and comedian Larry Wilmore featuring the 8g band with sonny emory. And now seth meyers. Seth good evening. Im seth meyers. This is late night. Hows everyone doing tonight lets get to the news. President trump appeared at a town hall event in philadelphia last night for undecided voters. Said trump, hey, what are you doing here . After a town hall participant confronted President Trump last night over his lack of support for a National Face mask mandate, trump said, quote, there are a lot of people that think that masks are not good. Its true. I mean, not as many as there used to be, of course. During last nights abc news town hall, President Trump mistakenly claimed that people would be protected from the coronavirus when they develop a, quote, herd mentality. Now, obviously what he meant to say was i am bad at this and i resign. Thats right trump said people who developed, quote, herd mentality. You mean herd immunity herd mentality is what its called when you kill 200,000 people and supporters vote for you anyway. When asked at an interview yesterday about the upcoming president ial debates against former Vice President joe biden, President Trump said biden may be, quote, taking something that gives him clarity. Oh, like his Daily Press Briefings . During the town hall event, President Trump claimed that he, quote, up played the coronavirus pandemic. When asked if he made that term up, he said, i actually made it down i made down that expression. Hes a real hes a real jon bovi [ laughter ] in a new interview, veteran Journalist Bob Woodward said he wasnt sure if President Trump has it, quote, straight in his head what is real and what is unreal. Said trump, wait a minute you guys could see bob woodward too . Today was National Working parents day, and once again, it fell on Opening Night of billys play and finally the makers of mountain dew announced yesterday that they have developed a cocktail for seafood chain red lobster called the dew garita so, remember, thats not a margarita. Thats a dewgarita youre hosing out of the back of your uber and that was a monologue, just shrimp and dewgarita. You guys, weve got a great show for you tonight. Shes an incredible actress and activist, Cynthia Nixon will be here plus, the great Michael Stipe will be joining me to talk about vote. Org and his new music and Larry Wilmore has a new late night show coming to peacock i cant wait to talk to him. But before we get to all of that, the president participated in an abc town hall with undecided voters last night where he lied as often as he breathed for more on this, its time for a closer look. Seth abc invited trump to a primetime town hall last night for some reason. And honestly, im not sure i see the value in hosting an event like this. We know what hes going to say hes going to repeat the same deranged lies weve heard a million times. The only tv show it would be worth having trump on is ellens game of games. Then at least we could see him lie and drop into a pool full of jelly beans or get sprayed with a hose full of chocolate sauce of course, you know, thats probably what he wants oh, no, not the chocolate sauce hose. Really, the best you can hope for with a town hall like this is a new lie for reporters to debunk you know, they say coronavirus can be cured by swallowing a golf ball covered in emergenc while shining a laser pointer up your butt. And then the reporters say, oh, thats a new one quick, someone factcheck that this ones going to get us the pulitzer. Although, i will say the one genuinely valuable service with a town hall like this is watching normal people interact with a nut job like trump. Anchors and reporters, they all adhere to a certain level of decorum and tradition even though trump is an obvious crazy person but normal people react differently because they have had experience with it when you ride the bus or the subway to work every day, you interact with your fair share of trumps most people just ignore the dude on the subway yelling about mind control cockroaches stealing our cigarettes but if wolf blitzer ever rode the f train, he would have to say, sir, whats your proof of that and im sorry, were out of time well have to leave it there. Case in point, last night, a voter asked trump about his repeated attempts to repeal obamacare and do away with its protections for pre existing conditions, including a lawsuit his administration has filed with the Supreme Court and when trump tried to interrupt her, she asked him to let her finish should preexisting conditions, which obamacare brought into brought to fruition be removed no. Without please stop and let me finish my question, sir seth oh, its so cathartic to see someone put trump in his place like that. Can we please let her moderate all three debates . And can we hold them in a middle school so every time trump gets reprimanded like that he has to sit in the corner facing the wall thats what happens when trump steps outside his rightwing media bubble most of the time he surrounds himself with sycophants and yes men. So hes rarely treated like the idiot blowhard he is fox news hosts dont interrupt trump when he calls into fox friends and rambles for an hour the hosts just sit there staring blankly into the camera like theyre posing for passport photos they look like those out of town tourists in times square watching elmo drop his pants and take a dump on the sidewalk. In fact, fox news is apparently so shocked and disturbed by the idea of trump answering questions from voters that Laura Ingraham played a montage of those questions with the lower third abc springs ambush on President Trump at town hall. Man, they just never ever stop making excuses for him look, its not a gotcha book when bob woodward tells you hes recording the interview for a book and its not an ambush if youre invited to participate in a town hall and you say yes when washington wanted to ambush the hessians, he crossed the Delaware River secretly in the middle of the night. He didnt send them an invitation on parchment that said rsvp for an ass kicking in trenton. The president youre telling me voters asking him questions about his record is an ambush you guys sound like whiney teenagers who just got called to a family meeting tyler, is this marijuana i found in your bedroom . You went in my room this is an ambush. Im going to scoochs lake house for the weekend. I mean, i was going anyway, but now im going to use this ambush excuse also, i need that weed because i sounded like i promised scooch and i feel like it would be a big deal if i dont show up with weed what oh, my god, thats a gotcha question. But the exchange about healthcare and preexisting conditions led to one of trumps most infuriating lies, that hes the one protecting pre existing conditions, when in reality he is currently suing in the Supreme Court to get rid of them and when stephanopoulos factchecked him to his face, trump repeated yet another absurd lie about his supposedly forthcoming Healthcare Plan that definitely does not exist. Youve been promising a new Healthcare Plan. We interview i interviewed you in june of last year you said the Healthcare Plan would come in two weeks. You told Chris Wallace that this summer, it would come in three weeks. You promised an executive order of a preexisting i have it already i have it already. But its youve been trying to strike down preexisting conditions it doesnt matter i have it already. And its a much better plan for you and its a much better plan. Seth yeah, man, totally. Im sure well see that Healthcare Plan as soon as we see those tax returns. It makes sense that this guy owned casinos because he talks about policy like an inveterate gambler whos in deep with a loan shark ill get you your money just give me two weeks, three weeks top. Tom bradys never let me down before oh, wait, hes on the bucs now. And if that lie sounds familiar to you, its because trump has repeated a version of it at least 16 times according to washington post. Trump lies about healthcare in interviews the way billy joel plays piano man at concerts. He might start out with the new stuff but eventually hes going to heave that heavy sigh and strap on the harmonica and, look, there were too many lies in this town hall to keep track of, which again, is why it makes no sense to do it in the first place. But if you are going to do it, then you should at least have a journalist like daniel dale on standby because after the town hall, he ran through all his factchecks on cnn as quickly as he could there is just so much lying, don. Im going to go quickly here so, literally just stop me whenever you need to he said again democrats wont protect people with preexisting conditions that is nonsense he insisted he didnt praise china on the virus he did so repeatedly he claimed that biden said in march that the pandemic was, quote, totally over exaggerated. I can find no evidence that biden ever said that he said that protesters took over 20 of seattle. It was a sixblock area. Nowhere close to 20 he said he essentially repealed obamacare by getting rid of individual mandate not even close to true he did his usual false boast about socalled bans on travel from china and europe. They were not complete bans. This is a preliminary list i have hours of factchecking tonight to do because there is even more than this. So this was just a fire hose of lying again from the president seth better than a fire hose of chocolate. Just kidding thats my favorite kind of hose. My god, someone get that man some oxygen. I half expected an arm to reach out with a cup of water like he was running a marathon trump lies so much, hes turned factcheckers into auctioneers in order to factcheck a trump town hall, reporters have to talk like theyre describing the side effects at the end of a drug commercial. So the lies were too numerous to count, but an especially revealing moment came when stephanopoulos asked trump about his repeated attempts to downplay the threat of the coronavirus. Last week we found out from his taped interviews with Journalist Bob Woodward that trump privately knew how dangerous the virus was and admitted in his own words that he wanted to always play it down. Remember, in public, trump was saying stuff like this its a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for a lot of people will have this, and its very mild theyll get better very rapidly. They dont even see a doctor they dont even call a doctor. We show cases 99 of which are totally harmless we lose thousands of people a year to the flu. We never turned the country off. We lose much more than that to automobile accidents we didnt call up the Automobile Companies and say, stop making cars, we dont want any cars anymore. Seth i mean, if someone made a car that killed over 900,000 people across the world in eight months, then, yeah, i mean, wed probably stop making that car you know, honey, i like the toyota camry a lot, but what do you think about the dodge death trap it has no doors or seatbelts and the air bags have been replaced with knives, but its a really cool blue. Second, we dont ban all cars because we know how to make cars safer. And we have laws regulating how to make them, who can drive them and how fast they can go if you want to compare the situations, then you should be fine with covid laws regulating large crowds but, instead, youre the one breaking laws in states like nevada and holding giant coughathons in indoor arenas you might as well make everyone lick the door knob when they walk in. So thats what trump was saying in public, but in private as we now know, he was telling woodward the virus was deadly, as we heard in yet another new tape released on monday. This thing is a killer if it gets you if youre the wrong person, you dont have a chance. Yes, yes, exactly this is a no, this this rips you apart this is scourge and it is the plague. Seth how is it possible for the same person to sound so completely different from one conversation to the next trump is our first werepresident he almost sounds semi coherent on the phone with woodward i think whats going on here is when he wants to impress he woodward, he tries to sound like he knows what and then when he wants to lie to his supporters, he goes out and says stuff like, coronavirus is basically just a rash. All you need is some ointment and an oatmeal bath. So trump knew how deadly the virus was and admitted in his own words that he played it down and yet he once again lied during the town hall when he was asked about those comments all through january and february, you were downplaying by your own admission the severity of the crisis that you didnt want to panic people. Not downplay let me just ask the question first. Im not downplaying but those are your words. I dont want to drive our nation into a panic. Why would you downplay a pandemic that is known to disproportionately harm lowincome families and minority communities . Yeah. Well, i didnt downplay it i actually, in many ways, i upplayed it in terms of action. So, that was called action, not with a mouth, but an actual fact seth well, its like they always say, actions are stronger than mouth i upplayed it not with the mouth but in actual facts sounds like a poorly translated bus ad youd see in a foreign country hot pocket is delicious, not with the mouth but an actual fact. The president is less coherent than a sim in fact, hed make just as much sense if he spoke the sim language instead of whatever language he normally speaks. He some pop zoom zeebledoob hergelm wassam fers. Seth so trump once again claims he didnt want to cause a panic. This is the same guy who says planes full of anarchists are coming to destroy the suburbs. All the guy does is panic. Hes like an old lady peering out her front window at a new neighbor across the streetm. I think hes antifa. Its the pizza guy. Ant tizza . Trump and his supporters and rightwing media have also been desperate to make the president ial campaign a referendum on the candidates Mental Fitness for example, twice on fox news, including during his interview yesterday with the fox friends, trump has repeated his deranged lie that joe biden is using performanceenhancing drugs, at both times the host either nodded in approval or teed up trump with a softball question how do you think he goes from incoherent to coherent i think theres probably possibly drugs involved. Thats what i hear you have suggested that joe biden should take a drug test i do. I would take one too yeah, i would say he should take a drug test. You think hes taking some sort of drugs to pep him up . I do. I do hes taking something. Hes taking something or, you know, what gives him some clarity. Seth probably what Bradley Cooper took in limitless. i think its probably a limitless drug. A drug that gives you clarity, either he knows something we dont or he has completely misinterpreted claritin. Also im sorry, you think biden is taking drugs . You sniffle like you just walked out of the bathroom at studio 54. [ sniffles ] seth so trump wants you to think joe biden is the one in cognitive decline. And yet when trump defended his lie that coronavirus would just magically go away, he tried to claim he would soon reach herd immunity, which is a lie and also incredibly dangerous without a vaccine. And on top of that, couldnt seem to remember the term. It would go away without the vaccine, george. But its going to go away a lot faster it would go away without the vaccine . Sure, over a period of time sure, with time it goes away and many deaths and youll develop youll develop like a herd mentality. Its going to be its going to be herd developed and thats going to happen. Seth thats what i herd. Oh, yes, itll go away once we have achieved herd mentality if thats the case then i guess Trump Supporters are already cured. Hes like a drunk guy at the bar who claims he has a home remedy for your cold. You got to try euthanasia. Do you mean echinacea . He meant to say herd immunity but couldnt remember it you know, if joe biden really is taking a magical drug that gives him clarity, then maybe you should try a little of that too. I mean, how much worse could it make you every time you do one of these insane interviews you sound like you just got done huffing asbestos these interviews with trump always go the same way he spews too many lies to count, and then factcheckers scramble to debunk everything hes a serial con artist and pathological liar, or to put it in trumpese, he upplays the nontruths not with the mouth but in actual fact. Seth this has been a closer look. Well be right back with Cynthia Nixon. For more of seths closer looks, be sure to subscribe to late night on youtube. Woo go go go go go go go go on a real vacation. Visit go rving. Com or your nearest rv dealer. Have your attention. [sound fx bing] pull up a seat begin the lesson ba da bum, lets go mmm, sorry i got that, you got that, we got that boom tonight, try pure zzzs all night. Unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. Well, if youre celebratingt by eating reeses. Ween . Then no, youre actually late. Not sorry, reeses. And take an extra 15 off s. Save on the ninja foodi 279. 99. Take 50 off all serta bedding. Get up to 40 off sonoma bath and so much more plus, get kohls cash plus, free store pickup. Let the gifting start shop kohls and kohls. Com. Come on lets hide in the attic. No. In the basement. Why cant we just get in the running car . Are you crazy . Lets hide behind the chainsaws. Smart. Yeah. Ok. If youre in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. Its what you do. This was a good idea. Shhhh. Im being quiet. Youre breathing on me if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Lets go to the cemetery seth sitting in with the 8g band tonight, hes an incredible musician whos played with everyone from earth, wind fire, to the b52s and is currently working with rock legend eric clapton. His new album full tilt featuring sonny emory is available now. Sonny emory is here. Thank you so much for joining us, sonny. Our first guest tonight is an activist, advocate and an emmy, grammy, and Tony Awardwinning actress. She can be seen next in the upcoming series ratched, which is available this friday on netflix. Please welcome back to the show Cynthia Nixon. Hello, cynthia how are you . Im good, seth. How are you . Seth im wonderful its always good to see you. I want to ask, you know, im coming up on about 20 years being a new yorker youve lived here your whole life has this time has this difficult time reminded you of other eras of upheaval in the city i mean, new york, yeah. Ive been living here since i was born in 1966 this our city goes through a lot of crises from time to time. And i have to say, yes, its its been really reminding me of the early days of of the aids crisis you know i feel like the same way black lives matter protesters have have taken to the streets and are completely changing our world, i feel like that is what what aids activists did, what what lgbt people did, founding act up, taking to the streets, disrupting traffic. And because, similarly, you know, there was an epidemic going on in their community that the rest of the world seemed basically unaware of and in order to seize the worlds attention and demand an enormous change, thats what thats what lgbt people did then and thats what, you know, so many black lives matter protesters are doing now and i have to say when trump was elected, i was so inspired by the womens marches not only in this country but across the world. But i think now the estimate is Something Like 20 million black lives matter people have protesters have, across the country, participated. And weve never seen a Movement Like that in this country. Every every race of person, every ethnicity, every age, every gender seth you know, i think when you talk about these movements that demand enormous change, one of the most important things is just to educate, right like, people arent fully aware. And i think that what youve seen with just the last five years of how black lives matter is perceived as a movement, a lot more people obviously think of it in a more positive way as a necessary movement and i think thats also true in politics, the last time you were here, you were running on a Progressive Agenda of you know, for governor and while you didnt win, it does seem that a lot of what was maybe framed as a little bit more left, a little more, you know, out of the mainstream, has now been pulled into favor do you feel happy about the fact that, you know, while you did not, you know, obviously win the election, it does feel like a lot of your ideas are now viewed a lot more favorably yes i mean, i was 2018, there was an incredible blue wave in new york state that is that is continuing. And we took the new York State Senate back for the democrats. And we have been able to, in just a couple of years, weve been able to pass the Green New Deal for new york. Weve done major bail reform weve had drivers licenses extended to everyone including undocumented people. Weve updated our abortion laws. Weve passed the gender expression nondiscrimination act. It just goes on and on and on. And one of the exciting things is that were actually two votes away from a vetoproof majority in the new York State Senate and so when that happens, god willing very soon, we will no longer have to be dependent on the governor for passing all the progressive things that we want to have in new york state and can have seth you have been critical of both the governor and the mayor in their handling, particularly the early days of the pandemic but you wrote an oped that you had a unique angle on, because you are both in sort of the tv Film Production that is so vital to the city, as well as being a parent in this city. This is true of me as well can you speak about sort of what you saw and what led you to write this oped about how, you know, were valuing one a little bit more than the other . Yes i mean, it was it was kind of a staggering thing i had both of these two phone calls in one day and the first was with the production that im going to start shooting at the end of the month and all the precautions that were being taken. And the second was with my sons school to hear about what precautions were being taken there. And just the contrast couldve not been more stark. In our production, they had an industrial hygienist walk through all the sets and they were reconfigured and there were air purifiers and the ventilation system was redone an entire department was created for covid safety in my in my sons school, which is not particular to him, but to all the schools across the city, i heard about how air flow was being gauged by a piece of toilet paper attached with a you know, in our production, you get tested before you start work our crew our crew is tested one to three times a week. Actors are tested every day. People entering my sons school building, whether they choose to be tested before they started work was optional. And then people entering the building once School Officially begins with kids, even temperature taking is optional so, the result is that even people who chose to be tested, by the time they got the results back, they had already started work and we have 55 schools and counting in which at least one person is infected, and they have now been exposed to many other people in that in that building i mean, its i could talk about this for a very long time. But i just keep having this thought, which is that starting on monday the only restaurant you can eat at indoors with a mask off, is going to be a new york city public classroom seth it was a it was a really nice piece to have written insofar that it brought so much attention to that because it is shocking when you realize how we are able to do it when we want to, and then we just make very selective choices of where we want to. I also want to ask about ratched. This is the first i guess the first show you signed up for after the election this is a prequel to one flew over the cuckoos nest, the famous nurse ratched from that but, yeah, i would argue you do not need to have seen the film or read the book to be able to enjoy this as a freestanding show absolutely not. And its a you know, its a ryan murphy production, which means that the actors and actresses in particular, are amazing and very varied. Its sharon stone, and sarah paulson, and me, and Sophie Okonedo and Amanda Plummer annd the list just goes on and on and on. And i get to play Sarah Paulsons love interest. And it is not very often that you get even one queer woman playing a queer character. But to have two queer women playing two queer characters who are romantically involved with each other, just almost never happens. Seth uh, well, its one of the many great things the show and it truly is an incredible cast and its always great to see you on screen again. And thank you so much for being here, cynthia. Its always a pleasure thank you pleasure for me too. Seth all right, Cynthia Nixon. Ratched is available on netflix starting this friday well be right back with Michael Stipe. Hola, soy j balvin and im dropping my mcdonalds order. Leggo a big mac no pickles please. There you go. Medium fries. Con ketchup. And an oreo mcflurry. Of course ooof the j balvin meal. Get it on the mcdonalds app and the mcflurry is on me. Im lovin it we can find a way to get through this together. Gonna go ahead and support him, get my hair cut, leave a big tip. Get my hair cut, knowinits hard. Re is hard. Eliminate who you are not first, and youre going to find yourself where you need to be. The race is never over. The journey has no port. The adventure never ends, because we are always on the way. Experience clean in a whole new way. Now roomba offers you personalized cleaning suggestions and vacuums exactly where you need it. By getting to know you and your home, roomba makes cleaning easier than ever before. So say goodbye to cleaning and hello to clean. Hey google, tell roomba to vacuum the dining room table. Roomba and the irobot home app. Only from irobot. Roomba and the irobot home app. Ythey customize yours lcar insurance. So you only pay for what you need. Wow. That will save me lots of money. This games boring. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. I have to fill up my gas tank twice just to see my parents. We try to make it up here as much as we can. It is a big commitment, but its worth it. I want my kids to learn as much as they can from my parents. Saving money on gas from walmart would allow us to see them more often. I love that. Dynanana, nana, nana, eh dynanana, nana, nana, eh dynanana, nana, nana, eh light it up, dynamite shining through the city with a little funk and soul so ima light it up like dynamite cause, ahah, shining through the city with a little funk and soul ima light it up like dynamite, whoa im voting yes on prop 19. Nineteen limits taxes on seniors. It limits property tax on people like me. Nineteen limits taxes on wildfire victims. It says so right here. If 19 passes, seniors can move closer to family or medical care. I looked at moving but i cant afford the taxes. Will you help californias most vulnerable . Vote yes on prop 19. Seth our next guest is the three time grammy awardwinning lead singer of the former band r. E. M. And a member of the rock and roll hall of fame. You can find his new music on his website michaelstipe. Com please welcome to the show, Michael Stipe. How are you, michael im good. How are i mean it was a rough summer, but, you know, now were back to school not bad. Seth yeah, its not bad to try to bring a little semblance of normalcy into our lives a thing that was very abnormal for me is when we met. We met on an amtrak train in 2011. We were both on our way to that white house Correspondence Dinner i remember. I remember meeting you that was a great joy because im a fan. But what an epic night that was. What a crazy you called out, you shot down you called out donald trump and then and then your followup was obama calling down donald trump and who might have guessed where that would have gone seth i know. It would have been a lot nicer if it has just been a footnote of history instead of a tipping point. Exactly i mean, thats the point where he was so he started as, what, a failed midtown real estate developer, then became a successful reality tv star, which is where this happened and now we get this bloviating, puff adder, sack of lies what next . Seth it is its a certainly an interesting progression his career has taken. You youre obviously i think we share a lack of fandom for the current president. And youre actually taking steps with vote. Org, and a really i guess its sort of a bit of an online art installation. Is that a safe way to describe planyourvote. Org planyourvote yeah, planyourvote. Org was a setup to vote. Org, and its working with artists to make sure that people get out to vote and that people plan what they have to do in their city and their region and their their state to be able to vote. Seth and were you always passionate about politics . Or was it something that you came to later in life . You know, it started really with the band, with my former band r. E. M when we were travelling outside of the country we sat in this was during the reagan years, and we suddenly, in europe, were representative of america and people were saying, you know were there to play a show, and a completely unknownbe thinkingd to, in a way, kind of politicize ourselves and educate ourselves about who we are, who we are to the rest of the world, and who we are to ourselves. Seth it would and i would at least hope, in most foreign countries, they would assume that r. E. M. Wasnt necessarily a reagan band. Yeah, well, we werent making a whole lot of sense back then neither was he people figured out pretty quickly that we were not giant fans of that particular administration seth you talk about not making a whole lot of sense early on and i dont know if id agree with that. But you again, youve had an interesting progression. And now youre writing solo music. It must be a very strange experience, having worked with a band for so long how have you found it . Well, i had for 32 years through r. E. M. , i had, you know, for me, the greatest the greatest possible cowriters working on and composing all of the music. And then my job was to listen to what they did and respond to it. Im now composing myself and its the first time in my life that i have written music and i found it weirdly satisfying i cant say that it sounds very much like r. E. M. , but im really happy with where its gone and ive been able to, because of r. E. M. , and because of all the fans across the years, im able to take all the money that i make for the first year of the release of every single that im putting out as a solo artist, and donate it or dedicate it to organizations and movements that i feel very strongly about pathway to paris Extinction Rebellion the equal just the equal justice initiative, who have that incredible Legacy Museum down in alabama. And, so, that feels good i feel like, as an activist, im kind of doing my part. Im trying to. Seth you know, i feel like some artists found this time difficult, in so far as being creative how how is it for you extremely difficult i learned that im a better cook than i thought i was ive learned that im better on my own than i ever thought i could be im comfortable with myself when im alone. But, its been a very its been a very hard year for theres no i think about it. Its been this has been, perhaps the most difficult year of my long life. Seth one of the most difficult things that happened, obviously people were you know, many people losing those that were dear to them loved ones and we have had a friend in common who passed away very sadly hal willner. I knew hal from working with him at snl. You knew him a lot better. I will say hes one of those people that very selfishly, one of my first thoughts was i just wish i had talked to him more i just wish i had spent more time with him, because hal was someone who his wisdom and his kindness will be very hard to replace i found some i found some Text Messages that i didnt return, from him you cant fathom that type of loss until its happened that dramatically and unexpectedly i will say im sorry, i really loved that guy a lot. Paid me the greatest compliment ive ever been paid in my life, and i will never forget that for my whole life. But, hal and i were working on a project that hasnt come out yet. And, so, the last thing that we did together is a tribute to his best friend, i think, lou reed so, that will be released probably very soon and most certainly as a tribute to his genius seth i also remember one or two compliments from hal, and the thing that you can take to the bank is that he meant it, because there was no way that he would waste his time lying about a piece of art yeah. He was the great champion of the people that are easily overlooked, the artists who are not so easy to put in to categories and he championed people, like myself and other people who havent had the success that ive had, his entire life. And, so, theres a theres a powerful and strong legacy seth well, thank you so much for sharing that i could talk about hal all day i could talk to you all day. Thank you so much for being here, michael. I really appreciate it seth, thanks for having me and stay strong. Seth will do vote. Vote vote seth agreed. Agreed on all counts Michael Stipe. His new music is available through michaelstipe. Com well be right back with Larry Wilmore. Right now at jimmy johns, you can get half off your second sandwich by using promo code saveon2. Greg booked another 7am meeting . Wizards wizard status perfect for you, and your new coworker. Just use saveon2, online or on our app. Just one jar was named best retinol cream, want the cream winning abeautys best . Worker. Best retinol moisturizer, and best overall night cream. Olay retinol24 faced the test to be awarded the best. Olay. Face anything. Has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. Thank you we undeniable finally, a mopping cloth that kills 99. 9 percent of germs. From clorox. Patience is not a virtue, it is a weapon. Whats your wild rabbit . Whats your wild rabbit . Its ohey. Think youre managing your moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or Crohns Disease . Are you ok . I did. But even when i was there. 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Your rules. Only with xfinity mobile. Seth our next guest is an emmy winning writer and comedian behind such shows as insecure, grownish, and the nightly show. Hes the host of wilmore, which premieres on peacock september 18th please welcome back to the show Larry Wilmore. Larry, how are you hey, seth hows it going nice to see you. Seth its nice to see you as well now, youve launched some shows in your day but never during a pandemic how much more difficult has that made an already difficult job . Well, normally its just during a racial pandemic for me. Its never during, you know, a medical pandemic seth right [ laughter ] isnt it nice to have white people involved in your pandemic [ laughter ] yeah. Im used to the other kind of pandemic but, you know, its crazy. I love this look you have too, seth i mean seth yeah. It looks awesome. But who i mean, all the things we have to do, we have to get tested all the time, doing this stuff even press is weird. Doing this remotely. You know so its all bizarre. But what are you gonna do, right . Seth now, all of us through this pandemic all the late night hosts are growing our hair out im just saying, larry i know. Yeah you dont want to see me do that seth hey if i grow my hair out, it comes out of my ears is whats going to happen. [ laughter ] seth thats not going to test well. You you have this very long resume you also very early on worked on as a writer on in living color. Yes seth i mean, there was a period of time i feel like its a little lost to history how important this show was. And obviously snl has endured and is still on tv right seth but there was really a time that that was the show, the sketch show that everyone was talking about on monday when we were back in school. Oh, yeah. Seth what were some of the sketches you wrote that were too risky for even in living color because it was sort of known for having an edge certainly about racial issues that you werent seeing anywhere else and its amazing how the sketches we wrote back then wouldve been valid for right now. You know, there was we made ourselves laugh so much. There was my favorite one remember that show quantum leap . Seth yeah. With scott bakula, yes scott bakula, okay. I love those types of shows. You know so of course i wrote one called compton leap. Seth so for those who dont know bakula, he would just jump into a historical figure and the whole exactly seth episode was him living out their life yeah hed jump into, you know, a person and live out their life so on compton leap, unfortunately, the i wrote it for David Alan Grier he would jump into a brothers life at exactly the wrong second [ laughter ] you know, its always right when the police are pulling you over. [ laughter ] its all those the worst moments to jump into a brothers, you know, life is in those moments. So things like that. Seth compton leap is a fantastic sketch idea. I think its classic. Seth yeah. Im retroactively angry on your behalf that i didnt get to see it we have so many of those. Seth what can we what can we expect for for wilmore, which starts on friday im very excited about it its pretty straightforward. Its almost modelled my podcast that i do where because we dont have an audience, theres no big peacock has zero money. [ laughter ] i borrowed, like, a starbucks crew next door for my staff basically. And its me just talking to the audience guiding them through the selection. And ill have a couple guests on big screens to talk about some of the cultural issues that are happening. So its weighing in on this period right now and were doing it as kind of a special, seth. Were doing it through the election and then well see if we want to do it after that so, it was kind of put up pretty fast to cover whats going on. So im really happy that they wanted to do that. Seth one of the unfortunate things about the end of the nightly show is when it ended, which was yes seth august of 2016. I dont need to tell everyone, that was right before an election that was a pretty big deal and had a you know, a fair amount of you know, it affected racial relations in this country and i should say yeah. Seth as someone who had a show at that time, it was very cathartic to be able to talk about it are you at least happy this time that you are guaranteed to do the show through the election at least . Definitely had electus interruptus, you know, back then and im not going to say that thats been the cause of the racial unrest is getting rid of our show im not going to imply that. Seth right but certainly, we cant well never be able to know if it wouldnt have happened had your show been on the air we will never know for sure but as you know, seth, with what we do, this is kind of what we do you know and its its kind of weird to say its fun to do it you know because sometimes its very dark material that were dealing with but it does it does drive us to want to find, like, how are we going to find jokes in this or how are we going to find humor . Or where can we find the right point . And thats always a challenge for us i loved your closer look and that stuff that you do you do such a great job in that, too. Because there are some things it seems like itll be impossible to find any kind of lightness or jokes in so, it keeps us on our toes, you know, in especially this election this election is that in spades, you know so i mean theres so many seth yeah. It does feel like, you know, even more of a storm cloud than last time because yeah. Seth i think a lot of people never thought he would win you, however, were not one of those people you predicted this basically in november of 15 he was going to win. Yeah, i did seth how are you feeling now . Well, you know, yeah. I was mad at myself for predicting that. And a lot of that was based on how people were reacting to him. And we called it the unblackening on my old show but it was also his reaction he struck a chord that i had never seen before. Now im starting to get some hope, but i still feel like i cant predict his crowd. Theyre just too unpredictable, seth you know, because there is a lot of people out there that will vote for trump but arent going to say they will so theyre not going to show up in polls so its a real sneaky kind of its a real sneaky kind of election like that you know but seth its very true. Right. He has his base that goes to his rallies. Like, obviously, theyre happy to tell anybody, but they will not be the deciding votes come election day and, you know, people who are kind of antitrump, i guess you can say, im not a fan of his. I love how when people get excited when all these books come out because they always think the book is going to do good things. You know, like anybody in america reads enough for those to really make a difference. [ laughter ] with this whole woodward thing, its almost forgotten already. And look at all the damning things in there. Its crazy seth i know. [ laughter ] its true. These books i dont know if the books are flying off the shelf. Yeah. Seth but their memory flies right out of the brain after a couple days. Im very happy its like the men in black seth were going to have you for these next few weeks at least and through to the election and cant wait for wilmore, and thanks so much thank you, seth and, by the way, amber ruffin from your show is going to be on that peacock block too so, well be in the peacock black block together so im looking forward to that. Seth very much looking forward to the black block thank you so much for being here Larry Wilmore. Wilmore premieres friday on peacock. Well be right back. Wild thing, you make my heart sing wild thing i. Think i. You know what i think . I think you owe us 48. 50. Wild thing. If you ride, you get it. Geico motorcycle. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. This halloween will be just like last. Well buy tons of reeses cups for the youngins. laughing then eat them all ourselves. Reeses. laughing then eat them all ourselves. Hey mama, whats up . Im confused. Confused about what, everything ok . I only see one price on my phone bill. That doesnt sound confusing mama. Youre on tmobile, taxes and fees are included. Oh come on, its always extra fees not on tmobile mama. Why cant all my bills be like this . I dont know mama. Bye mama, love you. Anthony . Umph at tmobile,taxes and fees are included. Get 4 free 5g Samsung Galaxy s20 fes with 4 new lines. Get new charmin ultra strong. Getting clean . It just cleans better, so your family can use less. Hello clean bottom enjoy the go with charmin. Have your attention. [sound fx bing] pull up a seat begin the lesson ba da bum, lets go mmm, sorry i got that, you got that, we got that boom this was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. I felt gross. 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Follow us on instagram and twitter latenightseth and be sure to check us out on youtube and facebook head over to itunes to subscribe to the late night with seth meyers podcast youll get a closer look and more downloaded right to your phone. Im looking at your mri. Your shoulder seems to be healing nicely. Im sorry baby. I dont want you to play with that. singing twinkle, twinkle little star. How i wonder what you are. How are you doing . Schedule a video visit with your doctor. Kaiser permanente. Thrive