Colin jost, welcome. Thank you for having me. Very nice to have you here. So as the story goes, you were 22 when you joined the staff . When i started snl as writer, yeah. On the show as a writer, just out of harvard. I was like ya know probably half a year out of, or year out of harvard, yeah. Right and id worked at a newspaper, actually. Id worked as an editor overnight on a newspaper back on Staten Island where i was from. Right, journalism good career. Journalism. Not quite comedy. No, i got to see, i got out right probably before it started crashing as a print. It was bad before, let me just tell you. It was a fun job, even if its not necessarily lucrative. Yeah, not at all. And so a couple of months and then you get to say. Its inconceivable to me what it must have been like at 22 having grown up presumably aware of the show, watching the show, fan of the show. To walk on there and suddenly be on the staff. Yeah, its very weird. I mean you kinda have to pretend like its not weird. cause otherwise its overwhelming. Right, be cool. Yeah, cause you just walk in and you see photos of ya know bill murray, and the whole original cast and the sketches they did that you remember, or dana carvey and phil hartman together. Things like that, that you think oh boy what am i gonna do . So this is 2005 . Yeah, 2005. So whos on the cast at that time . So, its an interesting moment because there was a cast that had been there for the last ya know few years. So tina fey was the head writer, so she hired me as a writer. And then the cast was kind of amy poehler, maya rudolph, horatio sanz, chris parnell, rachel dratch,finesse mitchell, Kenan Thompson who just started. So that was the group that was there. And then i started with andy samberg, kristen wiig, jason sudeikis, and bill hader. Well this is, what a great group of people. Which is a pretty cool. Are they coming or going . Both, both. So it was a really odd moment, so only for a year you had all that overlap, my first year. Coming in with those four was such a blessing yeah cause theyre not only are they now good friends, and still make me laugh all the time. Right but working with them was a joy. Write for them. Had to been amazing. Yeah, and has a new writer, to work for people that are just also trying to prove themselves and all come up as a group is pretty cool. Now i want to talk about that process of writing, but lets go back a little bit. Sure so you had been at the harvard lampoon. Yes. A famous producer of awesome people, who go on to do great things in comedy, and in writing. Yeah, and weirdly mostly noncomedy until like the, i mean not noncomedy, but mostly literary people. Right until ya know the 70s really. Right and then jim downey, who is a long time writer at snl right was kind of the first lampoon writer to go into television. Right and he went, he was at snl when it started, or right after it started. Did you go to harvard thinking i want to get to work on the lampoon . No, i didnt know what it was when i went there. I hadnt heard of it. So what was the path there . How did it happen . I went to harvard thinking i was going to study economics. It was like thats probably what i want to do. Yeah and then i got there, and i went to sort of they have introductory meetings at the lampoon. And i went, and theyre in this weird circular library. And everyone in theres smoking and even now, everyones there smoking all the time. And reading, ya know magazines and they introduce drinking a beer which seemed like the coolest thing in the world to me. Right as someone who didnt drink all of high school. And they just seemed funny, they seemed like funny people. Yep. It was people like b. J. Novak whos now from the office . Yes, was there. It was just people that were and a lot of comedy writers who now write for the simpsons or for the office were put. And they were the funniest people that i saw on campus, and it seemed like an island right within harvard that was a little bit more countercultural and i dont know, they just seemed like they wanted to make each other laugh. The very best networking environment if this was gonna be the career that you wanted, right . You couldnt ask for better people. And thats the odd thing, you dont know that til later, but the joy of the place is you kinda go because everyone there cares a lot about comedy. And its rare to find people right. In freshman, sophomore year of college that mainly want to do comedy especially at harvard yes. I was about to say, it is harvard right . It was a fact that i had to hide from my parents for a while. Is that right . Ya know, thats what you, that was a cool. You told them youre still gonna be an economist or whatever that was. Exactly, yeah. Im gonna be an economist, and a lawyer and a doctor. This is not the family business. Your mother is a doctor. My mom is a doctor. And your dad is a educator. My dad is an engineer. He was an engineer for a long time with proctor gamble. Right. And then as a mechanical engineer. Yeah and then hes taught for the last, he just retired, but he taught for the last 20 years at a Public High School on Staten Island. Now ive heard jimmy fallon and other people who went on to do great things on that program, talk about their own families, again not coming out of a family business. And how they had to essentially persuade their families some of it was easy, some of it was hard. No, really this is gonna be okay that im trying this. Well its, it was kind of the other blessing of saturday night live besides it just being and awesome place to work, is it was probably the one show on television that my parents knew. Oh, right. You know what i mean . Like they grew up watching it when it started. Right for them, it was an easier sell in a way. Yeah. Then if i were working on robot chicken as my first job, which i love. Not that robot chicken is bad. Which i would have loved to do, for them they would have been like and what and so its a chicken and its a robot . And is that how you go to law school . We dont understand. Right that was the nice thing. My mom is a doctor, her main job is she works for the Fire Department in new york. So she runs the whole medical office there. Yep. And shes done that, and so my grandfathers a fireman, my great grandfather. All of my cousins who all grew up on the same block as me, all firemen. And so she was in a place, a job where i think. Firemen, i find very funny generally, and have a good sense of humor. So i think that was what my mom liked being around. Right and that was what my grandfather liked being around. So i grew up with that kind of vibe. Yep of always hanging out with people that would make me laugh, and that was always what i liked the idea of in a job. Right, and also being on Staten Island growing up. Yes. Saturday night live is one of the most iconic new York Entertainment properties. Yeah its a new york show, so from your mothers prospective. Well its this thing thats right here too. Yeah, exactly. It was an institution nearby in new york. Right that they understood. Right and now its crazy that there are two people from Staten Island on it. Pete davidson on our show. Right also from Staten Island, also Fire Department family. Also a child of the Fire Department yeah, and its kind of an insane, occasionally we just look at each other like whats happening . This is Staten Islands moment yeah how is lorne letting this happen . I wanna know what it took to get you from the lampoon or from the paper on Staten Island, to saturday night live. Again, in the realm of stories of how people go to the show, there are people who tried, and tried, and tried. Year after year, after year, and finally got on there. People like marc maron, who tried and tried and never got on and are still mad about it. Of course, yeah. You made a pretty quick path right there. Yeah, ya know obviously i was very lucky on a lot of levels that, thats the way it shook out. Right. I mean when i applied for the lampoon. It took me a year and a half to get in, out of college, ya know when i was in college. Yeah. So that process was writing as much as you possibly could. People who look at it, give you notes, youd submit, there were different kind of levels that you could get to. And i got really close twice and didnt get in. And then the third time i got in. Yeah. And so it was kind of similar when you apply to places as a writer, thats the mentality you have to have. Right. You just have to do it a lot. More likely not to do it, or not to get it. Youre almost guaranteed to not get it. Right. So you have to to, its just a crap shoot. Even if youre really talented and really good, its a crap shoot, its a luck thing. If they have a spot open, or they dont. But you have to go in with it, into the process thinking i have to be writing constantly. Yep. So thats what i did at the lampoon, and thats what i did when i graduated. I applied everywhere i could, so i applied to letterman, twice within that year. I applied to conan, i applied to daily show, i applied to, i wrote a spec script for arrested development at the time. Ya know, i wrote a pilot about the Fire Department with a friend of mine. Right. And while i was doing the other jobs, because i knew thats what i wanted to do, and i didnt know where anyone would take me. And right when i was finishing harvard, i submitted a packet to snl, also. That i dont know if anyone even read or saw, and im sure it was terrible. But then i did another that year later, and was lucky enough to get it. But you realize its. Were you invited to submit, or did you just do it cold . I wanted to submit a packet. Did you know anybody there . So i contacted a person who id met who is older, who i didnt know particularly, but i asked hey where can i send this. And then as youre there through the years, you realize if someones in a range that you want to consider them. Youre really happy to tell them to send it in. Really . Yeah, because you want to find new people that are eventually gonna be your friends and are gonna make you laugh. But its perceived to be a closed club, maybe thats unfair. And its also perceived to be harder rather than easier to get anybodys attention there, again, all the stories of people who wanted to get on, and never could really figure out a way in. Right lorne is such a weird figure in the minds eye and hard to access. Oh yeah and how do i crack the code, sounds like its more like send stuff in. Well definitely, but even though when youre talking about people like marc maron or people who audition for the show, and theyre clearly on his radar. Right. You know, he might have even auditioned in the studio. Right as a screen test, ya know . Its getting anywhere in the range thats hard. But when you do submissions, like when i was head writer, we would read 200 submissions every summer. Really. And these are packets that are. Right ya know, each packet is say 30 pages yeah so youre reading a lot of pages, and you try to do that because occasionally weve hired someone that we have no idea who they are, because they submitted a packet. Yeah and we really liked it. So youre 22 and you get there. Are you the youngest person ever to be on the writing staff . I doubt it, i feel like theres a few people that are in that range, i would guess. Right, but among the youngest. Maybe, theres another thing theres a whole history to the show. Like in the 80s i dont know what age the writers were. Right ya know what i mean, like i dont know in the eddie murphy years. This is literally before you were alive, there was a show. There was a show. Right. Im told. You hear it, you see it occasionally. Ive seen clips and photos. On comedy central, they run reruns. They do reruns, yeah. But like eddie murphy was 19 or something. Right when he started in the cast, so i imagine there must be have been people. Did they give you hell, did they razz you . Was it the kind of thing where youre the young guy on the totem pole and so you have to do all the scut work. No. Or they order a bunch of pizzas to your room or whatever it is . No, in a weird way, that would have seemed more natural. Right. Ya know, but the weird thing is, i was very lucky they treated me well. Yeah. And i came in there, again all these new people that were also trying to make it. In the same boat. Same boat, which was awesome. And then people like seth and amy who were there, when amy poehler was there too. It was, they were really, they really took me in, not only helped me with writing. Right and wrote with me, which is the hardest thing when youre new getting someone to write with you. Or read something that you wrote. Right they were great in that way, but they also took me out socially, like wed go out after table reads or something. If it went poorly, wed all go out. And it was at least fun, and you felt part of a community. Right so im very grateful for that. So thats how it works. You write on your own, but you also write with other people. Yeah, well its an interesting, certain people, writers have different approaches. Some writers on our show might go and just write on their own in a room, submit it, cast it, who they want in, but dont talk to anyone ahead of time. And do that, and that can totally work. In a way jim downeys been there for a long time, does that. Yeah he writes a lot of political stuff, and he would do that. And then there are people who really write with cast exclusively. Like there are people who really pair up with certain cast members and write with them a lot. And i was always somewhere in between. I liked working with cast a lot, but i also liked having independent. Yeah. You know something independently that felt like my voice. Right. You were one of how many in the writers room at the time . Or on the staff at that time . I dont know, i feel like its always somewhere in the 15 people range. Right. So its hard because on a table read at snl, we probably have 50 sketches get submitted each week. And so 50 sketches get submitted. And then about 12 get picked even to go to dress rehearsal. And then maybe 9 or 10 get on air. Right so 1 5th of the sketches that are written get on, and youre competing against at the time, ya know what tina feys writing, what seth meyers is writing. So when you come in, you realize its very hard to get something on. Yep, well it toughens you up. The odds are hard. Its also like facing a really great pitcher. You tend to hit better. Right, and you always want to play against the best competition, thats what makes you better. Right. Seeing them write, seeing how tina would write a sketch, there was so many jokes in it, that it always made you think, why dont i have more jokes in my sketch . Right ya know, so it drives you to get better. So how many years between the top, well let me stop before i ask that question. Let me ask this, what was the first sketch that you wrote that got on air . So my first show, the first sketch of the show i wrote. Thats like back to baseball, thats like somebody getting up to play for the first time in the majors, i didnt know. Home run, right . I didnt know. cause then the next few shows i didnt have anything. Yeah. So i was like oh this is normal. But it was a sketch i wrote. My first host and musical guest were steve carell and kayne west, which is pretty awesome. Pretty good. Pretty awesome booking. Couldnt have lined that up better. Steve carell and amy poehler in the sketch and it was the early days of jet Blue Airlines and there was a mechanical problem on the plane. And people were watching televison and they were watching coverage of their own eminent plane crash on the. Hilarious yeah, luckily the plane landed safely. And it was okay, so you could joke about it. It was this rare moment that people were actually watching it. So it was her watching and freaking out, her watching and freaking out and him being oblivious and watching like a cartoon and being really happy. Yeah. Ya know, it was topical for that week. Right. And it worked out and it got on, but it was kind of a crazy, shooting the moon for a show. Yeah. So how do you go from being a writer to being the head writer, you were cohead writer at one point . Yeah, its crazy when you start youre so anxious. Yeah. You dont know whether youre gonna make it, and you dont know how it works. And then every year gets more and more anxious. You think its gonna get better. You think it would get easier, like oh my god, at least i know i have a job. It gets more and more, more and more anxiety because each year you have a little more responsibility, you usually get a few more sketches on. Yep. Ya know you might have a sketch every week or maybe eventually two every week or three every week. And that gets really stressful. But its a slow process of building up the responsibility and getting to that position. So i was a writer for a while and started having more success has a writer, more regularly. And then got promoted to being a writing supervisor. And thats a stage sometimes people go through. Because seth was still there. Yep and Andrew Steele who was the other writer when i started, whos great, was still there. So i kind of worked up and got that position, and there are two writers now chris kelly and Sarah Schneider on our show who have that position. Right. Who are gonna move up at some point. Theyre in the shoot. Yeah, who are great writers and that. But its a way you can right step out that and you start going into meetings with lorne and seeing how things are picked. Which always seem when youre on the other side, feels like the biggest mystery in the world. Of course. Its like seeing behind the curtain. Even within our show. And who makes decisions and how that works. So you start getting glimpses of that, and occasionally he might say, ya know colin what do you think of that sketch . And youll be like ahh i didnt know i had to have an opinion, its great, i love it. Ahh god i blew it. Yeah. You dont know what to say. Yep. And then you get more comfortable in that space and then i probably did that for two years, or three years and then became head writer with seth when he was still there. Right. So seth has been head writer, and seth went on to weekend update, tina had been head writer and went on to weekend update, right . Yeah, they both had different tracks though. Like seth was a regular cast member. Right. He was a featured player, and then he bascially stopped the acting side of it, and just wrote. Yep. And then became head writer when he did update. And tina had never been on the show. Tina had never been on the show. Until she became weekend update. Until she did update. Yeah. Shed been head writer for a couple years i think. Right then did update, and then started doing more sketches. Yeah. So it kind of went the other, she started opening up and doing other things after. You had done performance. You had done comedy, right . But you were never on the program until very small things. Small things, but you were never even acknowledged as a featured player or cast member. Oh, no. Until ofden acknowledged as a featured plone day, yre handr. Thkeys to maybe the t franchise within the franchise. Yeah, yeah it was a pretty weird experience. But isnt it like enormously huge pressure, i have to believe. Of course. Not only because of who came before you immediately, and it was a really hay day of weekend update at that point. Oh it was great. But if you go back over time, this is really a thing. Yeah, thats, by the way thats what my parents would bring up. Is that right . Theyd be like you know it was amazing from the beginning, the segment was always so good. Oh boy. Right, oh great. Sting me up to fail, here it is. Here comes law school. Of course its terrifying on some level, and again its a thing of you cant think about it too much. Right. Because it becomes overwhelming, but you also have to. Even now, you know, i watch the desk get rolled out every week, you know as part of my ritual, i watch it get rolled out past me and theres a reverence for it. Sure that you still have. Yeah. Because you know lorne always says that our current show is so much built on the backs of that first cast, ya know. Right. And to never forget that. And even whatever dealings we have now with anyone in the original cast, like were lucky to see them now. Yep. But back then, we are lucky to have jobs because of them. Yeah. And chevy is that same thing with weekend update, i mean he made that what it was. Right. And so you never, i think its important to never forget that even though, you know, you always have to move past it too. Like thats the thing, you have to, and thats the hardest thing for me when i started is how to make new. How to make it your own. So how did you make it new, but even before that though. Sure tell me was it your idea, or their idea to get you on the set . I dont know exactly. I mean i had conversations with lorne. Right. Six months before that. Did you go into the show at either 22 or at a later stage thinking god one day i want to be in front of the camera . Yeah, on some level. But i didnt really think about it when i first started. Because the job of writing was already so hard. Yeah to figure out that i just wanted to focus on that. I used to perform a lot, all growing up, and so that was a real joy in my life that as a writer i lost a little bit. But i loved writing too, and i got into that and i felt, i drew a lot of joy from the success of writing. Yeah but i missed that other element of it. And so as soon as i started on snl, i also was doing standup. Yeah. So i was going to open mics, ya know i was going to try to get into clubs and stuff in new york. So this other part of yourself was being satisfied. Other part to some extent, yeah. Yeah. And then as i did that more and more and did that side and had gone through the process as a writer, i was hungry to do something else. And get back to that part of me that i missed from childhood and high school and college. Did you doubt yourself when they said do this, cause this is different from being in sketches and acting, right . This is more of a very specialized skill, fake news. Oh very, very specialized. I was more excited to do this, than i was to do sketches. Yeah. Just because as a standup it made more sense to me. Yeah. And i liked being some version of myself, even if thats a strange version of yourself. Like i liked that idea, figuring that out more than. Well youre playing colin jost, youre not playing a character. Thats the strange thing. Yes, when you go into it, your name is announced, and thats like well early on, if youre a cast member early on, and people dont like a sketch youre in. Theyre like oh, i didnt like that character, right . I didnt think his impression was very good. But if you screw it up, they dont like you. If i screw it up, i dont like that human. I say youre a human, your colin jost, and youre not a character, but in fact, you have become, and maybe it was inevitable, a character of sorts. Of course, but i think in a weird way, i started as more of a character cause i didnt know what i was doing. Yeah. And was not really myself. And now have gotten closer to myself. Even though its still on camera, ya know. And i think thats part of. Tv colin jost has become more like real colin jost, or real colin jost has become like tv colin jost . Tv colin jost has become more like real colin jost, i think. Thats pretty good. Yeah, and then you feel more settled. Yeah. Because you think this is me. Yep. Versus, how do i do me . Right. Ya know thats a really weird feeling. Now go back to when Dennis Miller did it, go back to when kevin nealon did it, go back to when Charles Rocket did it, or when individuals, chevy did it. They were by themselves. Yes. Theres been history of weekend update as a sole practitioner deal. Yes. But then there is the partnership. Yes. And there have been great partnerships. Tina and amy. Yeah. Jimmy and. Jimmy and tina. Tina. And then tina and amy. And then tina and amy. And then amy and seth. And then amy and seth. So you and michael che get thrown together. And i remember michael che briefly as one of the reporters on the daily show. Yeah and he was terrific and terrifically funny. I dont know if i would have imagined him in this role, but you seemed to have almost instantly, despite what twitter may say occasionally. Sure. You have a thing, the two of you really work well together as a team. I mean i love michael, its great working with him. Did you know him before . Yeah, i knew him as a standup, and i brought him in as a writer at snl. Oh great. Only because he was clearly very funny. Right. I mean anyone would have hired him. I liked his style, i liked his comedy a lot. Yep. Meeting him you could tell that he was just a humble guy, even though he is confident. Yeah and i dont know, i just liked him. And then he was a great writer at our show. Hes still a great writer at our show. Right. And then he basically just in a summer, he did the daily show when we stopped writing. It was just a cup of coffee right . It was two or three months. And when that happened. Right. The thing with he and i working together is, he really pushes me, and pushed me from the beginning to make it our own. Yeah. Which was something i think because i had been in that system so long. Yep. And when i came in, i didnt push as much immediately to say, no this is how i do things. Right. All the writers were still there. Yeah. From when seth was doing it. Do the two of you write the segment part yourselves or others write as well . There we have writers who are great, who write for us, and we write stuff for it too. Yeah. And sometimes, especially this year, weve been doing more where the two of us will go off and write some of the things that are more back and forth, and well talk through it the way we would ya know in real life. Right and that feels both fun and efficient. Two things occur to me about this show, we have about three minutes left. One is that wow i goes by very fast. One is that this year especially the real news is funnier than the fake news. You must have a hard time trying to top reality on that show. It is hard, even if i tweet something, i remember i said something during one of the republican debates. I just said Something Like i cant believe donald trump just called john kasich the n word. And so many people were like i cant believe he did that. I was like no he didnt do that. Oh no it was a joke. But you dont know unbelievable, right. Maybe he did. Yeah. Ive said its got to be hard to think, i need to be funny in a context that isnt just reporting what happened. Right. Right . Yeah you have to have sometimes i see the political sketches are like often what actually happened. Yeah, and its part of the joy of that is someone recreating the performance and finding other versions of it, but you think that, but then you look back in time and certain things, ya know tina said as sarah palin, sarah palin didnt really say. But now you think she did, cause tina said it. Its become, yeah. Like with dana carvey, ya know like let me finish, or not gonna do it. Not really things that they said, but then now thats the only thing you remember they said. Well very quickly, the other thing that occurs to me is that you used to have this space the fake news space to yourself, weekend update i mean. Right and now youve got jon stewart, trevor noah. Youve got stephen colbert, youve got larry wilmore, youve got john oliver. Sure. Youve got all the late night guys, who some of whom used to be the weekend update guys. Of course. So its salad days for fake news. Theres a lot and so thats the other challenge is during the week, you have to find how to tackle the biggest stories, that they may have also tackled in a way thats different, a different angle. Yeah a way thats more personal to you guys. You know, whatever it is. Thats the other challenge is finding your own space with all these other people out there. Well youve done amazingly well in a short time. You are absolutely part of the history of that show. Its so much fun to watch you. Thank you, thank you very much. We wish you good and continued success. Oh man, thank you. Colin jost, thank you very much. Thanks for having me here. Total pleasure. Thank you. [voiceover] wed love to have you join us in the studio. Visit our website at klru. Org overheard to find invitations to interviews, q as with our audience and guests and an archive of past episodes. At some point lorne was like lets see what happens, and he called larry and larry picked up the phone and was basically like is this about playing Bernie Sanders . Hes like id love to do it, and it was that simple because i think everyone in larrys life had been telling him. They were saying the same thing. Yeah, you gotta do this guy, you know. And its pretty rare that that casting comes along. [voiceover] funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by mfi foundation. Improving the quality of life within our community. Also, by hillco partners, a texas Government Affairs consultancy. And by the Alice Kleberg reynolds foundation. Maybe you have some Energy Saving appliances, like an Energy Starrated washer and dryer. But what about your tv . Chances are its on more than your washer, dryer, and Kitchen Appliances combined. Did you know that if half of us in the u. S. Replaced our regular tvs with an energy star model, the change would be like shutting down a power plant . You can find the energy star on everything from standard to high def to the largest flatscreen your heart desires. Ow that makes sense