Comedy
Our comedy desk runs on the working comic's actual craft, not the highlight reel. Across conversations with SNL veterans, arena headliners, and Second City survivors, the recurring lesson is that failure is the training: guests keep describing bombing as a pleasure, kindness as an underrated tool, and the bit that only works once you stop asking the room's permission.
Jack Whitehall says Channel 4 pulled his show at 11 p.m. because Michael Jackson died after it had a pedophile sketch about him
On Club Random, Whitehall described the sort of pre-smartphone comedy near-disaster that now sounds less like showbiz lore than a deleted scene from Broadcast Standards Hell.
Lisa Kudrow says Sam Kinison was shooting heroin on set while they filmed a sitcom together
The Friends icon drops a genuinely startling piece of TV history buried inside a very pleasant chat about mushrooms and Spartacus.
Tina Fey Has No Beef with Timothée Chalamet, and God Is Fair
The 30 Rock creator stops by New Heights to settle the great Knicks game manspreading controversy once and for all.
Tina Fey on Athletes, Almonds, and Why She Can't Get Her Kids to Watch 30 Rock
The Kelce brothers haul in Tina Fey and Nate Bargatze for an episode that somehow covers manspreading at MSG, a Cleveland Guardians ownership stake, and the origin of Nashville hot chicken.
Ari Matti Came to America for Stand-Up and Ended Up in Stanley Park
The Estonian comedian tells Theo Von about gay cruising, communist censorship, and why a wet foot at 34 is a medical emergency.
Pete Holmes Teaches Bobby Lee the Way of the Whites
Baking soda in the freezer, gas before the light comes on, and other mysteries of white American life, as explained to two men who never learned.
Steve Carell and Amy Poehler Compare Notes on Bombing, Boston, and the Baritone Horn
Two Second City survivors swap war stories, and the most revealing thing either of them says is about failure.
Will Ferrell Didn't Know He Wrote Elf, and Other Things Harland Williams Told Him
The Harland Highway podcast reunites two Superstar co-stars, produces a fake ancestry reveal, and somehow ends with a cappella cowbell.
Pete Holmes Retells the Prodigal Son and Somehow Makes It Funnier Than His Standup
The comedian and podcaster walks a live audience through evangelical upbringing, mushrooms at Bonnaroo, and why awareness is the only God worth arguing about.
Jennifer Lawrence Knows Exactly What She's Doing
On Good Hang, Lawrence shows up as the rare famous person who is simultaneously very funny, very real, and apparently very willing to flash Amy Poehler on a podcast.
Kristen Wiig Tells Amy Poehler She Packed Up Her Car After a Dollar-a-Minute Psychic Told Her to Move to LA
Two SNL legends talk Groundlings, ghosts, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and the particular horror of being asked to tell a story at a dinner party.
John Mulaney, John Mayer, Jimmy Carr, Jim Gaffigan, and Jim Downey Walk Into Conan's Podcast
Five guests, one episode, and a running lawsuit fantasy that somehow becomes the most coherent bit of the whole thing.
Aubrey Plaza Tells Amy Poehler About the Gorge Inside Her Grief
The most requested guest in Good Hang history shows up with sunglasses on, a sick dog, and more to say than she lets on.
Mike Birbiglia and Conan O'Brien Compare Catholic Fathers, Pope Shoes, and What Kids Actually Think of Their Famous Parents
Two Worcesterites with doctor dads and a shared audience with Pope Francis spend an hour discovering they have basically lived the same life.
Tina Fey Tells Amy Poehler She Has to Kill Every Time
The first episode of Good Hang is less a podcast debut than a reunion special where the guest happens to be the host's comedy wife.
Bill Murray Eats the Hottest Wings on Television and Doesn't Even Wipe His Face
The man who survived a wild groundhog and wrote Wes Anderson a personal check for a helicopter shot was never going to let some hot sauce rattle him.
Adam Sandler on Happy Gilmore 2, Bobby Boucher's NFL Career, and Why He Still Gets Nervous Around Taylor Swift
The Sandman shows up on New Heights and turns a sports podcast into a forty-minute masterclass in being exactly yourself.
Will Ferrell Drafted Ron Burgundy as QB and Bombed His SNL Debut. He's Fine With Both.
The Anchorman star visits New Heights to talk hockey stunts, getting rejected twenty times on Anchorman, and why Lorne Michaels is constitutionally incapable of a compliment.
Bill Hader and Ted Danson Bond Over the One Thing Funnier People Are Supposed to Hide
Two of the most decorated comedy actors alive spend ninety minutes comparing anxiety attacks, SNL nightmares, and the specific horror of bombing in front of a Sarah Palin crowd.
Bill Hader on Celebrity Text Chains, Van Halen Brothers, and the Oompa Loompa Union Meeting That Went Nowhere
The Barry creator stops by The Best Show to discuss fake press conferences, David Lee Roth's inexplicable EP, and a pitch to the Roald Dahl estate that died on arrival.
Tina Fey on Las Culturistas: Great Americans, Mozzarella Stick Math, and the Danger of Having Opinions
The woman who wrote Mean Girls shows up, delivers a masterclass in institutional wisdom, and tells Bowen Yang his podcast career has maybe one year left.
John Mulaney Ate Hot Wings at 11 a.m. and Told the Truth About Rehab
Baby J is Mulaney's best special, he says, and on Hot Ones he gave you the receipts between tears and fish-food flavors.
Pete Holmes Went to Ayahuasca, Neal Brennan Is Scared of His Dog
Two comedians closing in on 20 years of friendship talk God, plant medicine, body dysmorphia, and whether love is just a dog following a turkey leg.
John Mulaney Tells Theo Von About the Gorilla in His Head
Two comedians who have spent serious time in the wreckage compare notes on cocaine, sobriety, and chasing the version of yourself that existed before things got dark.
Chevy Chase Walked Into Bill Maher's Living Room and Refused to Leave
At 79, the original Saturday Night Live star is still the funniest guy in any room, and he knows it.
Will Ferrell Runs a Hamster Wheel 50 Feet in the Air and Still Had to Sing
A quarantine-era Conan interview that doubles as proof Will Ferrell genuinely cannot stop performing, even when strapped inside a steel contraption above a film set.
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in 1978: Two Guys Who Weren't Sure the Show Would Last Seven Episodes
A newly surfaced interview captures the Blues Brothers at 26 and 29, still sleeping on foam slabs and genuinely unsure if any of this was going to work out.
Will Ferrell Thought the Last Dab Was Just Ceremonial. It Was Not.
The comedy legend shows up without Julia Louis-Dreyfus, with an active ulcer, and still eats every wing.
Gilbert Gottfried and Artie Lange Do an Hour of Bits That Would Get a Network Fired
The Compound Media show is less a podcast than a controlled detonation, and somehow that's the whole appeal.
Jane Curtin Never Begged for It, and That's Why She Lasted
The original SNL anchor on improv, Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, and the one rule she never broke.
Al Franken on Ted Cruz, Tom Coburn, and Why Democrats Can't Fit Their Message on a Bumper Sticker
The former SNL writer turned U.S. Senator explains why being funny in Washington is less a liability than a diplomatic tool, and why the Republican healthcare bill has the same approval rating as ghost sightings.
Harry Shearer on Spinal Tap, The Simpsons, and the Art of Being Famous in Public
The voice of half of Springfield explains why anonymity on the London Underground is basically the ideal career outcome.