Transcripts For KQED Charlie Rose 20160824 : comparemela.com

And by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose Billy Eichner is here, hes the creator and star of the poppure comedy game show billy on the street. Tina fey. Will pharaoh, David Letterman and David Letterman made appearance on the show. Its currently airing on tv. They call gardner the cyclone of pop culture rifts and unfounded energy. Heres a look at billy on the street. Hey guys, im Billy Eichner and this is on tv this fall. In the circle if youre excited for the new james bond movie. Keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning. Keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning. There you go. Take it, bye. Rob lowe is back. Hello. Who is he. Rob lowe. I dont know him. At the gay. No. Name three clintons, go. Sorry. Name three clintons. Kennedy. Get out of here. Put yourself in demi lovato shoes. I dont want to. Is this on brand for you is it on brand for anyone. Were going to play a game called cate blanchett. If you need help. We can ask a circumcised man or tweet an elderly person. You win. The one and only jason Sarah Jessica parker. Bill cosby, i mean bill hader. Julie anne moore. What are you doing on this show. She seems more down to earth. Oh my god. Rose how did this come into being. Oh my goodness. I am an actor first. Rose North Western. I went to North Western. A theatre major. Rose Stephen Colbert. I grew up in new york city. Started in improv and comedy and started a live stage show called creation nation but i did it in front of 50 people because no one was hiring me to be on tv. I did my version of a late night talk show and in it i took on this persona of someone who was just irrationally passionate about pop culture. Rose yes. Had brings this crazy urgency and anger to these most superficial matters that i was genuinely interested in at the same time. And at some point i said what if we take this persona out on to the street. Because i would rant and rave on stage and the audience would eat it up. Rose you would rant and rave on stage. It was more like theatre because i was a theatre kid. I wasnt a traditional stand up. Rose and you consider yourself as a stand up kid instead of a comedian. When people started saying comedian Billy Eichner i thought who are they talking about because i was North Western not that that sounds so pretentious, i loved comedy i was always in comedy but in place. I wasnt a stand up someone who grew up saying i got to go to stand up comedy club tonight and try out 15 minutes, you know. I loved theatre. I grew up in new york. I went to broadway, i worshipped nathan lane and martin short. At the same time loved steve martin. I loved people who had over the top persona i guess. Its really drawn to that. Rose it was natural for you to fall into that. I think so. Rose you grew up in queens. I grew up in queens went to high school in manhattan. I was a real city kid. Rose you came back here. I came back to new york. Rose thinking you would be a theatre actor. Trying to be an actor, theatre, film, tv. I wanted to be on a sit com. You just wanted a job. Doing telemark is for the united jewish federation. Wasnt what i was planning on charlie. Rose when did you know. After creation and other things, did you say this will morph right into billy on the street. Well, we would show billy on the street videos during creation nation, my live show. It was a segment in my live show. And from the first time we showed one, the audience loved it. And then the videos kept getting tighter. I got more confident. Strangely enough im not someone, like a lot of actors, im not normal to shy off stage if i dont knou. But people loved this act. This billy on the street act. They loved the energy. I think a real savvy new york l. A. Audience who is basically what i was performing for at the time, this was before youtube really appreciated getting insanely worked up about entertainment, about the Entertainment Industry. So when the videos did well in my live show eventually youtube came along. I put the videos on youtube and they went viral as they say. And funny or die, will pharaoh and addict mick cabe, a guy named mike famer emailed me out of the blue and said like what youre doing. If youre ever in l. A. Came and see me maybe well Work Together. I was broke, poor, no health insurance, nothing. And i said to my dad, im not telling this guy im going to l. A. Just to see him. Im going to make up an excuse why im going to l. A. But im going to l. A. To talk to funny or die because this could really be something. I did and i went and talked to mike and told him i have an idea to turn these videos that you like into a half hour tv show with a very loose loose game show element. Rose outside. Outside. All outside and ill give out not big prizes or big cash ill give out a dollar or some terrible prize i bought at the supermarket or something. Rose was it an immediate hit outside. Yeah. I mean sometimes people walk away and sometimes they dont. Rose a number of people that you contact, that you go up to, how many of them sort of end up a really good so they give you usable material. Half of them . Less. Rose less. You have to shoot and shoot and shoot until you want to die charlie rose. And im close to death but at least im popular. Rose yes. So how does it work. You know what you want to say, you know its a dollar and you get people like David Letterman. Yeah. That became as the show evolved, we started out on a smaller tv network called fuse and recently moved to true tv and cbs for our Fourth Season and hopefully a fifth season. And then as the show got more popular it did develop a following among celebrities and in the Entertainment Industry amongst comedians in particular. I did the David Letterman show and i grew up worshipping dave. At 12 30, im not as young as i look charlie. I would say up when i was eight or nine after carson and watch letterman by myself when he was on at 12 30. Rose what was it about david that you loved . Did the antic quality of it, he was doing something nobody else done. It felt fresh and it still felt fresh years and years later when he had been doing it for a while. But particularly late 80s early 90s when i was coming into my own as a person. I was connected to what dave was doing. And years and years literally decades later, dave became a fan of mine which was a huge honor for me and joined me on the street one day for a segment. Rose did you initiate the call to him or did he initiate the call to you. I did a segment on the emmys and i believe lettermans show saw that and they were a fan and they called me to have me on the show. Rose then he came on your show. Rose what makes alana so funny. She was someone i ran into the street a woman a real new yorker although she was from oklahoma but she has the attitude of quintessential awe serbic. She became an audience favorite and we brought her back to play against the first lady. Rose michelle. Yes. Rose how did michelle happen. The first ladys team reached out. Funny or die had worked with the president. I had done a video with the president and the first lady wanted to do a video to promote the eat Brighter Campaign which she was working on with sesame street and they liked the idea of doing a billy on the street segment for the internet which we did, me the first lady, big bird and alana. Youre going to push me around on a shopping cart while i reach the acceptance speech for shakespeare in love. You stay here. Follow me flotus, follow me. Hold on flotus. Let me get in the car. This must be the highlight of your career flotus. This is it. Here we go hold on youre going to push me while i read gwenate paltrows acceptance speech. I would like to thank the academy, the cast and crew, i want to thank donna stop stop, i didnt get to say guardian angel, mary wigmore. Stop stop. Rose great to you. Thank you charlie. Honor to be here. Rose improv improvisatios become the most popular form of comedy. This was pioneered by bill close a chicagobased actor and comedian. He taught some of the biggest names in comedy from john belushi to steven colber and tina fey known as the up right citizens brigade. They moved to new york where they established a theater and a school. The New York Times called the up right citizens brigade the most influential name in improve today. Joining me are the four fowrnldz of the up right citizens brigade. I am pleased to have them with me. What do we say about the brigade. Its nice to hear our names said from your mouth. I would be described as a disrep annual bunch of neredowells like the little rascal and cobble together a successful theatre and school. Rose we did a sketch show together here at comedian central for a few years. Rose whats key about it. The name started the name of our comedy troop but what the name represents is a much bigger thing which is a Larger Community of improvisers and sketch comedians and writers. Its almost philosophy in many ways. Its a community and its made up of the people that inhabit it so theres many members. Yeah. A lot of comedy theatres have like the top ensemble like second city has the main stage rmt we didnt build our comedy theatre we referred to the 600 person ensemble. We have three to four shows a night. A different cast for every show. You can in a week have 300 different performers on the stage. Like amys saying it now represents a bunch of people. Rose were you inspired by second city. Yeah. But we wanted to be different. We fell into it honestly. Having a theatre and a school. It was all by need. We were doing our show and we came out to new york and then started doing an improv show along with our sketch shows and there were these people who had some interest and improvisation and said would you coach us. Start coaching enough coaching enough and people who didnt have teams wanted to do what we did and we started teaching classes. We were at a theatre renting space we were renting so much space we were paying the rent. At that point we said we should have our own theatre and teach our classes there and set up our shows there. Rose tell me about owe dell. He inspired us more than second city. He said second city does sketch and many prof six just a tool you use for coming up with sketch. That was their philosophy. He always said no improv can be its own art form. And he had a funny contentious relationship with them through the years where they would come back but eventually he left and joined a place called the improv olympic in chicago. And developed this form called the herald which has been developed years earlier but took a position at the improv olympic and thats where we started taking classes from him. But developed this thing with other people but we feel hes the one took it to the next level called long form improv cision. Rose what is that. Short form is games like youll get a suggestion, youll tell the audience now were going to rewind the scene we need a new film genre and do it like woody allen this time so you know the rules of the game. Long form is sprung from one word section usually and you do like 30 to 45 minutes off of one word. And hopefully seamlessly so that the best thing you get after you do an improvised show is you have people come up to you and say did you plan that did you talk about that did you know what you were going to do. We hoped that ultimate goal is at the end of the show that improvised scene is good enough to be written up and be a sketch. Thats what we say were writing sketches on stage is the easiest way. Not just the length but we mention its a scene can also be described as a long term scene as opposed to a short form scene. Rose is there a sense improv is sort of coming up, improvisation. When i start in chicago there was 120 people in the community and now theres probably a million improvisers worldwide. It was in new york but a less advanced kind of form. When we came here, it was like, you know, bring in silk to america or something. It was like what are you doing, were not doing that. Theyve seen the sketch like we were doing before but this improv was unique outside of chicago. Now, now we have this marathon where were getting people from finland, from japan, from all over the world. Its fascinatin to see how theyve taken this lessons and interpreted them through their own culture and doing long term improv improvisation but still in their own way. Rose explain the consent of yes and. Its a simple idea when youre doing a scene instead of shutting down somebodys idea right away, you agree to it and you add something to it. So its a way to make a scene continue, its also kind of a philosophy in terms of how you create together with another improviser. You Work Together to figure out a scene. For example if i came in and said the doctor will see you now and you say i dont know what youre talking about, this isnt a Doctors Office i came to get my tire changed. With a youre saying to the person on stage is i didnt listen to you and im going to decide where we are. The reality of the scene goes away and its hard to keep going. You have to learn to relinquish your own idea and build off your partners. Thats the big part of improv you listen and then build off together. Rose a key skill. Listening is huge. Rose heres what you said ill quote you from 2008 you told the ad club i think the hardest thing is to get to the points where you can live life on stage. Remember that or if not. So dell used to talk about were having this conversation here and a natural conversation was give and take, nothing is exaggerated and you want to try to transfer that feeling when you get up on stage. You dont want to try to be funny. When people try to be funny, they kind of disassociate from real life sometimes. Try to Stay Grounded and real so that the first unusual thing in a scene is what you catch and you explore that. Rose take a look at this. This is a sketch from a 1990s up right citizens brigade live show. Live show. Rose thats what it says. Well find out. Were going to be so young look. Im going to have to cater our reach. Affirmative, team one were now going to activate the arms and do a complete, hang in there. It wasnt worth this show. Last minute addition, son. Okay. Thats working without me. Im fully automated. Theres nothing robotic. Thats what the training was for. Deprivation, the vomiting. You tell me to get out. [laughter] this is modern Technical Glitch nothing to worry about. Lets load it and you tell me to get out. Theres nothing to worry about. Im sending the ramsey arm in to fix it. Cape canaveral to ground control. Theres that impression as well. [laughter] hello there cape canaveral. We were not informed mere of the ramsey arm. Ramsey arm needs no basis. Fair enough. Then it does not need to know the ramsey arm. All right. Does that look like ramsey arm specifically rest ling. The ramsey arm will be quickly defeated. Ramsey arm is the force field. Okay. Its taking over my flight booster. Yeah. Rose tell me what you see. Discovered a nugget. I have not seen that in a long time. It works from the arms, the robotic arms. That was real. That was me guys. Maybe. That was your addition for us, wasnt it . I cant believe the robot arms never got on us. That was in new york right when we moved here and we moved here to showcase our sketch shows for Comedy Central and they eventually bought it. And it never made it to the show but that was us working out a scene after the show just working out a new scene im pretty sure. But that was down in the east village, i think. Rose was that all improv cision. No, i think that was a written scene. So that was a written scene. What that scene shows is a good example of heightening the game. The scene starts with the astronaut ready to take off and the first thing he notices theres a robotic arm in the cockpit with him. And slowly but surely the two cape cause canaveral and houston started fighting. Somebody probably wrote it up. Rose that happens a lot. It did back then. We used to tape all the shows and comb through them for ideas we could then turn to sketches. Every so often you get one you can just about transcribe and then you know you really improvised well. We were before the internet generation so you couldnt film stuff and then put it on youtube and people couldnt go and see what you were about. They had to come to your shows. So whats very sweet about that video is we recognize about the laughs of the eight people in the audiences because there was probably two sets of parents. Rose Television Goes in terms of prime time and then all kinds of other alternatives you suggest from netflix to lots of other things. Television goes in terms of certain kind of a great period for drama and then sort of slow down and then youll see the rise of comedy. Where are we now if theres a kind of specular life. Were at a boom and content in general. So this ill plug it again, also a commission of the show where we shoot the best material from our theatre. Now everywhere in the country you can see it. Thats like an ultimate goal of ours. Back in chicago, we used to joke were going to have our own television station one day. Kind of we do. Rose you can do that now. Yeah, and you dont have to appeal to 30 Million People anymore. You have the rough even, you see the stuff like it happens on stage which is little more radical and crazier and more experimental. You can do the exact comedy you want to do and appeal and only appeal to millions that can still be considered successful. One more about dale sitting here in front of me. Guild know radner, john belushi, tina fey. This is really incredible history of comedy that he was part of. Certainly. He was probably the most famous person in comedy that people dont know enough about. He was very successful and hilarious peoples teacher and mentor. Rose beyond being funny he was also a teacher. He was. Primarily. Rose he was primarily a teacher. Yeah. I know we all, we were in chicago at a time when chris farley had just kind of gone, left to go on to success and i arrived at second city with steve carell and Information Services<\/a> worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications<\/a> from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Rose Billy Eichner<\/a> is here, hes the creator and star of the poppure comedy game show billy on the street. Tina fey. Will pharaoh, David Letterman<\/a> and David Letterman<\/a> made appearance on the show. Its currently airing on tv. They call gardner the cyclone of pop culture rifts and unfounded energy. Heres a look at billy on the street. Hey guys, im Billy Eichner<\/a> and this is on tv this fall. In the circle if youre excited for the new james bond movie. Keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning. Keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning keep spinning. There you go. Take it, bye. Rob lowe is back. Hello. Who is he. Rob lowe. I dont know him. At the gay. No. Name three clintons, go. Sorry. Name three clintons. Kennedy. Get out of here. Put yourself in demi lovato shoes. I dont want to. Is this on brand for you is it on brand for anyone. Were going to play a game called cate blanchett. If you need help. We can ask a circumcised man or tweet an elderly person. You win. The one and only jason Sarah Jessica<\/a> parker. Bill cosby, i mean bill hader. Julie anne moore. What are you doing on this show. She seems more down to earth. Oh my god. Rose how did this come into being. Oh my goodness. I am an actor first. Rose North Western<\/a>. I went to North Western<\/a>. A theatre major. Rose Stephen Colbert<\/a>. I grew up in new york city. Started in improv and comedy and started a live stage show called creation nation but i did it in front of 50 people because no one was hiring me to be on tv. I did my version of a late night talk show and in it i took on this persona of someone who was just irrationally passionate about pop culture. Rose yes. Had brings this crazy urgency and anger to these most superficial matters that i was genuinely interested in at the same time. And at some point i said what if we take this persona out on to the street. Because i would rant and rave on stage and the audience would eat it up. Rose you would rant and rave on stage. It was more like theatre because i was a theatre kid. I wasnt a traditional stand up. Rose and you consider yourself as a stand up kid instead of a comedian. When people started saying comedian Billy Eichner<\/a> i thought who are they talking about because i was North Western<\/a> not that that sounds so pretentious, i loved comedy i was always in comedy but in place. I wasnt a stand up someone who grew up saying i got to go to stand up comedy club tonight and try out 15 minutes, you know. I loved theatre. I grew up in new york. I went to broadway, i worshipped nathan lane and martin short. At the same time loved steve martin. I loved people who had over the top persona i guess. Its really drawn to that. Rose it was natural for you to fall into that. I think so. Rose you grew up in queens. I grew up in queens went to high school in manhattan. I was a real city kid. Rose you came back here. I came back to new york. Rose thinking you would be a theatre actor. Trying to be an actor, theatre, film, tv. I wanted to be on a sit com. You just wanted a job. Doing telemark is for the united jewish federation. Wasnt what i was planning on charlie. Rose when did you know. After creation and other things, did you say this will morph right into billy on the street. Well, we would show billy on the street videos during creation nation, my live show. It was a segment in my live show. And from the first time we showed one, the audience loved it. And then the videos kept getting tighter. I got more confident. Strangely enough im not someone, like a lot of actors, im not normal to shy off stage if i dont knou. But people loved this act. This billy on the street act. They loved the energy. I think a real savvy new york l. A. Audience who is basically what i was performing for at the time, this was before youtube really appreciated getting insanely worked up about entertainment, about the Entertainment Industry<\/a>. So when the videos did well in my live show eventually youtube came along. I put the videos on youtube and they went viral as they say. And funny or die, will pharaoh and addict mick cabe, a guy named mike famer emailed me out of the blue and said like what youre doing. If youre ever in l. A. Came and see me maybe well Work Together<\/a>. I was broke, poor, no health insurance, nothing. And i said to my dad, im not telling this guy im going to l. A. Just to see him. Im going to make up an excuse why im going to l. A. But im going to l. A. To talk to funny or die because this could really be something. I did and i went and talked to mike and told him i have an idea to turn these videos that you like into a half hour tv show with a very loose loose game show element. Rose outside. Outside. All outside and ill give out not big prizes or big cash ill give out a dollar or some terrible prize i bought at the supermarket or something. Rose was it an immediate hit outside. Yeah. I mean sometimes people walk away and sometimes they dont. Rose a number of people that you contact, that you go up to, how many of them sort of end up a really good so they give you usable material. Half of them . Less. Rose less. You have to shoot and shoot and shoot until you want to die charlie rose. And im close to death but at least im popular. Rose yes. So how does it work. You know what you want to say, you know its a dollar and you get people like David Letterman<\/a>. Yeah. That became as the show evolved, we started out on a smaller tv network called fuse and recently moved to true tv and cbs for our Fourth Season<\/a> and hopefully a fifth season. And then as the show got more popular it did develop a following among celebrities and in the Entertainment Industry<\/a> amongst comedians in particular. I did the David Letterman<\/a> show and i grew up worshipping dave. At 12 30, im not as young as i look charlie. I would say up when i was eight or nine after carson and watch letterman by myself when he was on at 12 30. Rose what was it about david that you loved . Did the antic quality of it, he was doing something nobody else done. It felt fresh and it still felt fresh years and years later when he had been doing it for a while. But particularly late 80s early 90s when i was coming into my own as a person. I was connected to what dave was doing. And years and years literally decades later, dave became a fan of mine which was a huge honor for me and joined me on the street one day for a segment. Rose did you initiate the call to him or did he initiate the call to you. I did a segment on the emmys and i believe lettermans show saw that and they were a fan and they called me to have me on the show. Rose then he came on your show. Rose what makes alana so funny. She was someone i ran into the street a woman a real new yorker although she was from oklahoma but she has the attitude of quintessential awe serbic. She became an audience favorite and we brought her back to play against the first lady. Rose michelle. Yes. Rose how did michelle happen. The first ladys team reached out. Funny or die had worked with the president. I had done a video with the president and the first lady wanted to do a video to promote the eat Brighter Campaign<\/a> which she was working on with sesame street and they liked the idea of doing a billy on the street segment for the internet which we did, me the first lady, big bird and alana. Youre going to push me around on a shopping cart while i reach the acceptance speech for shakespeare in love. You stay here. Follow me flotus, follow me. Hold on flotus. Let me get in the car. This must be the highlight of your career flotus. This is it. Here we go hold on youre going to push me while i read gwenate paltrows acceptance speech. I would like to thank the academy, the cast and crew, i want to thank donna stop stop, i didnt get to say guardian angel, mary wigmore. Stop stop. Rose great to you. Thank you charlie. Honor to be here. Rose improv improvisatios become the most popular form of comedy. This was pioneered by bill close a chicagobased actor and comedian. He taught some of the biggest names in comedy from john belushi to steven colber and tina fey known as the up right citizens brigade. They moved to new york where they established a theater and a school. The New York Times<\/a> called the up right citizens brigade the most influential name in improve today. Joining me are the four fowrnldz of the up right citizens brigade. I am pleased to have them with me. What do we say about the brigade. Its nice to hear our names said from your mouth. I would be described as a disrep annual bunch of neredowells like the little rascal and cobble together a successful theatre and school. Rose we did a sketch show together here at comedian central for a few years. Rose whats key about it. The name started the name of our comedy troop but what the name represents is a much bigger thing which is a Larger Community<\/a> of improvisers and sketch comedians and writers. Its almost philosophy in many ways. Its a community and its made up of the people that inhabit it so theres many members. Yeah. A lot of comedy theatres have like the top ensemble like second city has the main stage rmt we didnt build our comedy theatre we referred to the 600 person ensemble. We have three to four shows a night. A different cast for every show. You can in a week have 300 different performers on the stage. Like amys saying it now represents a bunch of people. Rose were you inspired by second city. Yeah. But we wanted to be different. We fell into it honestly. Having a theatre and a school. It was all by need. We were doing our show and we came out to new york and then started doing an improv show along with our sketch shows and there were these people who had some interest and improvisation and said would you coach us. Start coaching enough coaching enough and people who didnt have teams wanted to do what we did and we started teaching classes. We were at a theatre renting space we were renting so much space we were paying the rent. At that point we said we should have our own theatre and teach our classes there and set up our shows there. Rose tell me about owe dell. He inspired us more than second city. He said second city does sketch and many prof six just a tool you use for coming up with sketch. That was their philosophy. He always said no improv can be its own art form. And he had a funny contentious relationship with them through the years where they would come back but eventually he left and joined a place called the improv olympic in chicago. And developed this form called the herald which has been developed years earlier but took a position at the improv olympic and thats where we started taking classes from him. But developed this thing with other people but we feel hes the one took it to the next level called long form improv cision. Rose what is that. Short form is games like youll get a suggestion, youll tell the audience now were going to rewind the scene we need a new film genre and do it like woody allen this time so you know the rules of the game. Long form is sprung from one word section usually and you do like 30 to 45 minutes off of one word. And hopefully seamlessly so that the best thing you get after you do an improvised show is you have people come up to you and say did you plan that did you talk about that did you know what you were going to do. We hoped that ultimate goal is at the end of the show that improvised scene is good enough to be written up and be a sketch. Thats what we say were writing sketches on stage is the easiest way. Not just the length but we mention its a scene can also be described as a long term scene as opposed to a short form scene. Rose is there a sense improv is sort of coming up, improvisation. When i start in chicago there was 120 people in the community and now theres probably a million improvisers worldwide. It was in new york but a less advanced kind of form. When we came here, it was like, you know, bring in silk to america or something. It was like what are you doing, were not doing that. Theyve seen the sketch like we were doing before but this improv was unique outside of chicago. Now, now we have this marathon where were getting people from finland, from japan, from all over the world. Its fascinatin to see how theyve taken this lessons and interpreted them through their own culture and doing long term improv improvisation but still in their own way. Rose explain the consent of yes and. Its a simple idea when youre doing a scene instead of shutting down somebodys idea right away, you agree to it and you add something to it. So its a way to make a scene continue, its also kind of a philosophy in terms of how you create together with another improviser. You Work Together<\/a> to figure out a scene. For example if i came in and said the doctor will see you now and you say i dont know what youre talking about, this isnt a Doctors Office<\/a> i came to get my tire changed. With a youre saying to the person on stage is i didnt listen to you and im going to decide where we are. The reality of the scene goes away and its hard to keep going. You have to learn to relinquish your own idea and build off your partners. Thats the big part of improv you listen and then build off together. Rose a key skill. Listening is huge. Rose heres what you said ill quote you from 2008 you told the ad club i think the hardest thing is to get to the points where you can live life on stage. Remember that or if not. So dell used to talk about were having this conversation here and a natural conversation was give and take, nothing is exaggerated and you want to try to transfer that feeling when you get up on stage. You dont want to try to be funny. When people try to be funny, they kind of disassociate from real life sometimes. Try to Stay Grounded<\/a> and real so that the first unusual thing in a scene is what you catch and you explore that. Rose take a look at this. This is a sketch from a 1990s up right citizens brigade live show. Live show. Rose thats what it says. Well find out. Were going to be so young look. Im going to have to cater our reach. Affirmative, team one were now going to activate the arms and do a complete, hang in there. It wasnt worth this show. Last minute addition, son. Okay. Thats working without me. Im fully automated. Theres nothing robotic. Thats what the training was for. Deprivation, the vomiting. You tell me to get out. [laughter] this is modern Technical Glitch<\/a> nothing to worry about. Lets load it and you tell me to get out. Theres nothing to worry about. Im sending the ramsey arm in to fix it. Cape canaveral to ground control. Theres that impression as well. [laughter] hello there cape canaveral. We were not informed mere of the ramsey arm. Ramsey arm needs no basis. Fair enough. Then it does not need to know the ramsey arm. All right. Does that look like ramsey arm specifically rest ling. The ramsey arm will be quickly defeated. Ramsey arm is the force field. Okay. Its taking over my flight booster. Yeah. Rose tell me what you see. Discovered a nugget. I have not seen that in a long time. It works from the arms, the robotic arms. That was real. That was me guys. Maybe. That was your addition for us, wasnt it . I cant believe the robot arms never got on us. That was in new york right when we moved here and we moved here to showcase our sketch shows for Comedy Central<\/a> and they eventually bought it. And it never made it to the show but that was us working out a scene after the show just working out a new scene im pretty sure. But that was down in the east village, i think. Rose was that all improv cision. No, i think that was a written scene. So that was a written scene. What that scene shows is a good example of heightening the game. The scene starts with the astronaut ready to take off and the first thing he notices theres a robotic arm in the cockpit with him. And slowly but surely the two cape cause canaveral and houston started fighting. Somebody probably wrote it up. Rose that happens a lot. It did back then. We used to tape all the shows and comb through them for ideas we could then turn to sketches. Every so often you get one you can just about transcribe and then you know you really improvised well. We were before the internet generation so you couldnt film stuff and then put it on youtube and people couldnt go and see what you were about. They had to come to your shows. So whats very sweet about that video is we recognize about the laughs of the eight people in the audiences because there was probably two sets of parents. Rose Television Goes<\/a> in terms of prime time and then all kinds of other alternatives you suggest from netflix to lots of other things. Television goes in terms of certain kind of a great period for drama and then sort of slow down and then youll see the rise of comedy. Where are we now if theres a kind of specular life. Were at a boom and content in general. So this ill plug it again, also a commission of the show where we shoot the best material from our theatre. Now everywhere in the country you can see it. Thats like an ultimate goal of ours. Back in chicago, we used to joke were going to have our own television station one day. Kind of we do. Rose you can do that now. Yeah, and you dont have to appeal to 30 Million People<\/a> anymore. You have the rough even, you see the stuff like it happens on stage which is little more radical and crazier and more experimental. You can do the exact comedy you want to do and appeal and only appeal to millions that can still be considered successful. One more about dale sitting here in front of me. Guild know radner, john belushi, tina fey. This is really incredible history of comedy that he was part of. Certainly. He was probably the most famous person in comedy that people dont know enough about. He was very successful and hilarious peoples teacher and mentor. Rose beyond being funny he was also a teacher. He was. Primarily. Rose he was primarily a teacher. Yeah. I know we all, we were in chicago at a time when chris farley had just kind of gone, left to go on to success and i arrived at second city with steve carell and Stephen Colbert<\/a> on the main stage there and these guys were already performing and really Successful Team<\/a> in chicago. And there was just a feeling that something was happening there. There was hope frankly put your time on stage get better take risks and get a job. We think that that feeling the still the same at ucb. Rose get better and get a job. Do the are work. People always ask us you cant train someone to be funny but no doubt chris farley was hilarious when he showed up a dells door but he was also a force of nature that needs to be given a little direction. He really did have these techniques that you dont see just as an audience member. But in a class youre like oh yeah, if i do it this way it does work better. He taught us, because you can be funny within yourself but when youre working with someone else you need certain rules to be able to create something on the moment without a script. You cant just go out and everybody starts talking. The rules are great for writing too. The same rules used to imprevise improvise are the same rules you go from here to there. Any tv show or comedy you see there are those pattern. Rose thank you all for being here. Thank you charlie. Rose my honor. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Rose samantha bee is here she served as a correspondent on the daily show with jon stewart for 12 years. This year she became the host of her own late night series on pbs it is called full frontal with samantha bee. The new yorker writes that the show has a lash and burn slightly gonzo approach to political satire. She is the coproducer of the cbs sit conwhich employs her husband nathan jones. Im please to do have span they bee at this table for the first time. Thank you so much. Im so excited to be here. Rose i love the idea. Thank you. Well we did, when we were coming up, when we were developing the show we definitely wanted the show to feel audacious. Have that spirit. Actually one of my best friends, alana harken who i did comedy with the producer of the show came up with the title. She just forwarded it to me via text i knew. Rose full frontal. Its about an attitude about being open and being audacious, having a point of view thats obvious, being i guess being naked in a way just figuratively not literally. Rose whats interesting to me late night seems to be changing. For example youve gone from carson to letterman and leno which was stand up and conversations with some steps to fallon and what others are doing, what youre doing, what olivers doing. Somehow feels different. Perhaps its just of our time. I think, you know, within, theres a lot of late night shows but there is, you know, there is a diversity of style within a certain kind of format. There is people have their own, people do have their unique kind of, they have their take on that, thats for sure. Rose does everybody who was on the daily show think well sum day ill have my own show. I dont think so. I thought that for the most part. Rose you did. So many have. And do and are great at it. I dont think that everybody, i dont think that everybody thinks that. I dont think, you know, toward the end, like i love jon toward the end it was really a grind. You could feel the weight of all those years. Its not like he would think oh its pure glory. Rose but its also said and its not a but that he was very nurturing, very, he was the first in, last guy out, was vention in a sense dedicated to the nuts and when both of the show. There was not, every moment of the show passed through his editorial voice theres no question. He was very the nuts and bolts of the show and for good reason. I totally get that. He was nurturing. I mean i think that he always encouraged me to dig deeper into my own point of view. And i think that was very important. Rose dig deep as your own uniqueness. Dig deep into your uniqueness and find ways to push the humor that are unexpected. Rose where do comic and comedians and comic actors come from. Theres no question, theres no chance in hell that anybody who knows me from high school or even the early years of college would ever think oh youre a National Born<\/a> comedian youre going to go entertain, youre a fan of the stage youre going to stand in front of millions of people and just shout. I mean i think i was quiet and subversively humorous person, subversive thats a natural instinct. Rose that comes across, subversive. Im also an only child and a lot of times we spend much times entertaining ourselves. Rose imagination grows and being coafortable with yourself too. Theres nobody else to entertain. No friends. You stair out of your attic windows and read your lines and listen to your disco records. Rose what do you want this to be. First of all, its one day a week. How hard can that be. Its a breeze. What time do we take the show, 6 00 on monday. Rose five nights a week, colbert is five nights a week. Yes, you know. Its all by design. We wobbled to do a show once a week. Rose is it different. It is different. It gives you, its incredibly hard work. Were working, its a whole time experience. Rose its harder because youve got one time each week to make it happen. Where we can be a little bit not as good today as we were yesterday and perhaps tomorrow better than. You can follow the news. You have a little bit, theres an immediacy of following the news more closely. What we have to do is sit back from the daily news and focus more on more of an, its more of an analysis of the week that has passed. And what we think is coming in the future. So it does, its actually freeing. We thought that it was going to be a hinderance when we were first putting the show together and we found out it was, we have nothing to do with the scheduling of the show so when we learned that we were scheduled for mondays, we thought oh this is a tragedy, how are we going, how can you do a show at the beginning of a week, nothings happened yet. But it actually gives you the freedom to sit back, watch the patterns, like watch the stories that are emerging in a more long term way. So it has actually what we thought was a huge, what we thought was a huge handicap is actually an asset. Rose it really is. When a week progresses you can see the turn of events it gives you. We dont have to do hot takes, do you know what i mean. We can sit back. We can reject stories that actually arent fruitful for us. Stories that have emerged and disappeared quickly. You can see those thats really helpful to us. And doing the show once a week gives me the freedom to do field pieces which i do love to go out in the world. Rose this is a great year to be in comedy. It keeps on giving. Its either a gift from jesus or a gift from satan. Were trying to figure out who its from. Rose but it is. The characters are so interesting. And theyre all drown out in an interesting way. These are not button down people. No. Rose may be button town but we all know so much that is not button down. Its fascinating. We could not have asked for, when we were pitching this show to pbs and when you have all your documents about what you want the show to look like you could never have anticipated that the field would be what it was and that it has toned down to. Rose you are the executive producer. Were writing partners. Rose do you sit down and where write together. More specifically we actually bring two completely things to the table. Hes a very big picture person. Hes really great at kind of figuring out an overall art to something. An art to an episode, an art to a season and im very surgical. I like to come in and really poke holes in all of the story d of like a great birdseye view person and im more surgical so the two halves of the whole actually work really well together. Working the detour and creating the detour was one of the happiest things. Rose is the skill you have writing. I dont know what it is. Its a little bit of rose mind set in writing. I think mind set. I think you know as i recall my earlier years in Theatre School<\/a>, actually, as i reflect because i did go to Theatre School<\/a> at one point, i was always really good at making a performance of pastiche and i think that continues. I think that making shows that i would want to watch is definitely something. Rose people watch the daily show and say i know her, i think i know her. Comes away from what is clear e comedy is an insight into who she is. I think that, you can know me more from full frontal. I think that the attitude, i think that the passion is totally authentic to who i am. Some people interpret it as anger. Rose its slash and burn. A slash and burn which is not a reflection of who i am as a person. Actually im a really low key person but i do achieve total catharsis. During that 21 minutes to get it right. Rose and get on with the search for some. I think its just meaning and point of view. Were so about point of view with the show and about stating our point of view so firmly and forcefully i think that we just want to make a show that lives vigorous and visceral and have a saying. We want to make a show that we want to watch and i think that we have done that. Rose it seems to me the mistake people make all the time, they dont satisfy themselves. And theyre basically saying who is the audience were trying to satisfy the audience or trying to satisfy somebody other than who . Well you know when you work in television for the most part there are a lot of masters, you know. There are a lot of people wrestling for control of your end product. Lots and lots of voices. And i do think rose you have that. We have the advantage of actually to be perfectly honest our network has given us the power and control. They understood this is not the type of show they ever made before. And so they want to trust us. They trusted us to bring in a product that was strong and that had that point of view. Rose how do you see the show changing, evolving. That i dont know. Rose do more what you do i use i like doing what were doing. I think well eventually work our way through this president ial election and then next year well have a president in place and we know who will have for four years and that will change the show. Rose the first female or the first whatever. Or the first whatever. So i think it will evolve naturally. I dont really have an agenda for ourselves. Certainly we enjoy what were doing and were so new at it, really. I think wed like to enjoy it for a little while. Rose every article i read about you and there are lots of articles when you decide to do that this show whether the new yorker or the other publications they all ask this question. Did she want and should she have been considered for the daily show. Right, right, right. Im much happier doing this. Im so happy to a rose in the moment. In the moment, i mean i dont have any regret. It doesnt feel like, it didnt feel realistic to be honest and then pbs was there wanting really wanting me to do a show. Rose about somebody elses show. Who can resist someone who really wants you. You know, thats an awfully delicious place to be. Rose the it is, it really is. Very compelling. Rose people who dont appreciate that really need that lesson. If you really want to make somebody happy explain to them how much you want. Its a wonderful rose and how happy they make you. To have been courted by pbs in the way they courted me it really was unique. Rose i didnt really care i didnt want it, i didnt need it, i didnt care about it. Listen if pbs hadnt been there it sure would have been a conversation, i dont know. I cant speak to what was going in their minds but im so happy, i so prefer to do my own thing. I so prefer it. Its so much better for me. I wouldnt be able to do the show, i dont believe that i would be able to do the show that i would want to do if im still there. Because the operation is immense. Its the behemott. They have a strong previous license and they create a world for you that you wouldnt, theyre just not wishy washy. I need to feel the presence of a strong creator in a show. Those are the shows that i like. Rose because its who you are want to have a sharper edge than anybody out there. I dont think thats consciously rose do you think thats a reality even. I do think that is happening. Rose i do too. I think thats happening absolutely but its not a conscious. We dont come to work and go how can we be more sharp. Rose but you been come to work how can we be at were percent and what turns us on. How do we find ourselves in the most precise way. Thats what the goal is. Yes. Rose its become as you said sharper and more of an edge than almost everybody out there. I think its a really rose being true to yourself. Yes. I think we have a real edge to us. It comes out really naturally. Theres just a flow to that. And i dont, we dont build the shows by comparison to any other show. Were only doing, we cant do it that way. We just have our heads down and our eyes forward. Were always looking in the purest clearest way to use and throw up to do on the show. We dont care what anybody else is doing. I dont really read anything. Rose you dont read anything. Ive only read rose you should read it, its good. I only read a couple reviews of the show really two or three maybe. I try to stay out it. Rose out of respect. The New York Times<\/a> we read because honestly we get it delivered in the morning and the section was on other outside. Rose i think youre somebody everybody was interested in because you had the role you had on the daily show. People were really interested. When you were on we loved it, we s the truth. Ore of you. And they want, all of a sudden youre getting a show. So people who want to find out more of you are now finding more about more of you. Thats what happens. Yes, its great. Its great. I try to stay out of it. Its easy for me to stay out of it. Im really disappointed about not reading about myself. Rose when you have a husband to put to work. When i leave work and go home i am off duty. It is full scale parenting. Rose is there a sports fan at all, is jason. Im not a sports fan. Hes not a football person. Well watch the olympics. We will watch simone biles for shire. Rose thank you for coming. Great to you. This is so much fun, i love it. I love it here. Rose you have little place over there. Lets a refrigerator over there. Ill be fine. Rose samantha bee full frontal. Back in a moment. Stay with us. Rose seth meyers is here. He ended his run as head writer and weekend update anchor on saturday night live. After 13 years on that program, he took over host of nbc late night in february 2014 he is the fourth person to helm that show following David Letterman<\/a>, colon obrien and jimmy fallon. Im pleased to have seth meyers back at this table. Thank you. Rose how has this changed since you began. We made a choice i guess almost two months ago now to start the show behind the desk. That was probably one of the bigger cosmetic changes we made. Rose is that your instinct or producer instinct. You think like a producer dont you. I think based on my role at snl i learned prehistoric skills. We were talking about ways i think even though these are year round shows you think of the fall as the new tv season and were wondering is there any way we could shake up the waive we present ourselves. One thing i always felt doing my show i always felt when i was doing the monologue i was the warmup comedian and now the show starts when it starts which i really like. Rose do you come out and see the audience before the show. I do. I like to come out and say hi to the audience not only to make them feel more comfortable but thats when i get a good sense what the house is like that night. Rose it varies night to night. Yes, it varies night to night. If its a brutally cold day in august people are in a bad mood or if its a sunny day in february theyre in good mood. Since we dont have any windows i dont know what the weather is. Rose you have one or two people you might not expect they might have influence with the crowd and how the crowd reacts. If theyre loud or enthusiastic the crowd will be more enthusiastic than normal. Of course. And an enthusiastic crowds gives you a little bit more license to have fun in those moments between the jokes. If you get a long tail of laughter thats when you can sort of go a little bit off script. If theyre laughing is and cutting it off cold you get a sense to keep this thing moving. Rose it changes than sitting behind the desk. Just getting better. A lot of the staff we hired was their first job in television. We liked that idea. I learned thats really nice to hire people who dont know how to do these things and then you get to teach them the way you want to teach them. Nobody has bad habits. Everybodys sort of gotten better as we do it. Is luxury of these shows you can do one every night so the learning curve. Rose its the best thing about television. Its the best. Rose i cant imagine people to do Something Like<\/a> once or twice a year. Yes. Rose because if it goes wrong your year is wasted. If its not quite perfect for me today there is tomorrow. Right. Being less precious about it. And then that again just when i feel like people are watching 12 30 at night you want to see somebodys comfortable when the jokes going well they want to see them comfortable when the jokes going badly. One of the things i hammer myself the First Six Months<\/a> i was doing the show was not just to sweat a bad joke or piece of comedy. Rose you knew that didnt you. You know as much as you know and then doing it, its so funny. You theorize what its like to do a late night show and until you actually get out there and youre road testing you how you actually process it. Rose do you watch other shows. I only watch stuff that sort of gets picked up viously when new people start im always curious how theyre doing their shows. I was excited for stephen as i was for trevor and enjoy watching how theyre doing. And reality sets in when you put together a late night show you dont have time to watch other late night shows. Rose do you have any regrets about leaving snl to go here. No. I mean afirst rose you knew snl was an institution and you followed a rather Remarkable Group<\/a> of people. You know the nice thing was i also doing the weekend update i followed remarkable people as well. So i at least knew its possible and one of the ways its possible if you try not to think too hard about the footsteps youre following in. But yes, i was really sad at snl but i was also reaching the point where i was the oldest guy in the room as far as the staff and the cast. Rose could you do both. No i dont think you could do both. Its full time. If anything, you know i wish i had more time to work on my show as opposed to that i wish i was split somewhere else. Rose what would you do with more time i i wish i could get in at 5 00 in the morning. We start at 89 00 in the morning because thats ultimately the amount of sleep you need to function. You always want two or three more hours especially when youre writing something day of whether its a store that broke that night or something that broke that day just the logistics of pulling together the clips. Rose you have a great gift for in addition we know you were head of the snl writers. Yes. Rose so you understand stand up comedy you understand skit comedy, you understand jokes and all of that. Is that a learned skill or is that something thats mostly youre funny or youre not funny. Youre funny or not funny bt with any talent you have to refine it. I dont think anyone who is born and has the equal opportunity to be an nfl quarterback like you need to have some stuff. The funny thing about comedy though is you know, look ive been writing it for my entire professional life. And were into the second decade of doing it and to some degree like youre constantly blown away by how little you still know. Like how wrong you can be with a piece of comedy or a comic choice. You bring out a joke that youre sure is going to work. Rose does it happen every night. To some degree it happens every week but it is the part. Rose its most likely something didnt work or worked or something that went through the roof. Its the other way. Thats what is the flame that draws comedy writers is it is like an a, you can never crack it completely. You just always trying to get better and better at doing comedy. Rose you get better and better by doing it just sort of that i think is again at some point you cant be influenced by things as much as you were when you were young. Youre always very lucky my parents introduced me to monty python, snl to richard pryor. They did not wait until it was age appropriate to introduce it to us. Rose because they enjoyed comedy. They enjoyed comedy but i said this before my mothers a very beautiful woman and my dad as very funny man and my brother and i learned at a young age. Rose you were attracted to the man because he was funny. You can try to be funnier. Rose and you get less handsome as you get older but you get less funny. Yes. Old guys can be very funny. Probably the very funniest. Rose did you go to amsterdam after college. Yes. Some guys in chicago went to amsterdam, they were a few years older than me and they started a second city of amsterdam called d additions in chicago sothey right after i graduated from college, we saw an addition notice and i went and auditioned. I think the audience can tell if somethings not genuine that the host doesnt believe in. You have to be true to your own sense of humor. Rose you have to be authentic. You have to be authentic. People are really hip to stuff thats authentic versus inauthentic. Its amazing when i run into the Younger Generation<\/a> its not the comedy of today theyre self educating their self on the internet and watching stuff i grew up with. What my parents passed to me i couldnt go watch your show of shows when i was watching snl. Rose that means what to you. Well loren brought me into show business. Thats the first thing. He plucked me out of relative animosity. And the question is what was he doing. Nobody ever asked loren that. But no, you know and then he was patient with me because i wasnt, im willing to be the first to admit that i wasnt a great cast member at snl. I really only started adding value commensurate with my pay when loren made me a right and left me do weekend up date. If he had been less patient he could have moved on and the show would have been worse for it. Rose he gave you a chance to be where you are now. Yes. Again when i think back to the doubts and fears, i feel are consistent with the doubts and fears when people have on snl with loren calling me up saying i think you would be good at late night host. Rose when you see politician and other people reasonably good at having done a good round of humor or comedy in a speech, it used to be thought that obama for example would reach out to the daily show or to saturday night live. Does that happen a lot that politicians and people with a fat pocketbook can reach out and get you and others when youre a writer only to do comedy for them. You know i think when youre a president you can probably reach out and to jokes but below that. Rose you wrote that one. Exactly. Beyond that i feel like were all sort of two busy to overcommit to those other things. But i think famously obama has had some like very high end write jokes for him and i get it. Rose whats your day like before we go. Youre in there about 9 009 30. You have a meeting at 10 0010 30. Yes some writers will email the night before to sort of rose like categories. Like is there anything going on thats going to be something that will be better tomorrow than any other day something really timely because timely is important for the show as well because these shows dont age particularly well. Like i dont think anybody goes back and binges oh i missed june. Rose it doesnt work. We try to do that. And then over the course of the first two hours its talking with the writers and try to recognize those things and around 11 00 we start reading through written pieces both for that days show and the rest of the week. Rose again blocking at what time. We go down to the theatre at around the studio i should say around 4 00 in the afternoon. Rose and you run through it once. Yes, we run through it once. Rose the whole show. Yes but ultimately so much of the show is interviews you dont have to run through that. We run through the comedy and that takes about 30, 40 minutes. Rose youre still cutting and editing. Youre always tweaking. We always like add three jokes right before the show because the writers do, the monologue writers are taking one last mass and its kind of fun to be honest to walk out knowing there are going to be three, the very first time you say them are going to be in front of an audience. Rose this is a stupid question but im genuinely interested. Is there a secret to writing great monologue jokes. I think there is but if there is, i dont know what it is. You know, we brought, the one person i poached from snl when loren gave me this job he said you cant take alex ba. I said no hes the one person i have to take. Rose he had a reason. Yes. So i went to alex and said you know i would love for you to come with me on this because i truly believe hes the best joke writer. Rose who was the best joke right working today. Alex baze. And he just was an incredibly good joke writer. Tell bazes page because he uses less words than everybody else. Theres something, Jerry Seinfeld<\/a> always talked about hes driving sports cars because theres not a wasted sort of inch on thinks sports cars behave you to move fast by a little engineering. You know how baze writes jokes as well. When i worked at snl even when i was doing updates i would get a joke but i was a far better sketch writer. I needed the space of a sketch and the value of characters and performance. Rose congratulations. Thank you very much. Rose nice to see you. Great to he you as well. Rose thank you for joining us. See you next time. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications<\/a> captioned by Media Access Group<\/a> at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org rose funding for charlie rose has been provided by and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and Information Services<\/a> worldwide. Captioning sponsored by announcer explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Magic moments announcer tonight Public Television<\/a> brings back the Magic Moments<\/a> from the 1950s. Sincerely the mcguire sisters, pat boone, patti page, debbie reynolds, and your favorite artists from the 1950s pop era bring back the music that makes memories. Love is a many splendored thing join us for my music Magic Moments<\/a>,","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"archive.org","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","width":"800","height":"600","url":"\/\/ia800502.us.archive.org\/12\/items\/KQED_20160824_190000_Charlie_Rose\/KQED_20160824_190000_Charlie_Rose.thumbs\/KQED_20160824_190000_Charlie_Rose_000001.jpg"}},"autauthor":{"@type":"Organization"},"author":{"sameAs":"archive.org","name":"archive.org"}}],"coverageEndTime":"20240625T12:35:10+00:00"}