Danny Ricker
speaker
101 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Danny Ricker’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, we're under no illusions that it's like, you know, we're still just a comedy show. But, you know, I do feel like, you know, if we can make people feel seen, you know, like, you know, we always feel like if people watch our show and they go, yes, exactly like that. Maybe I didn't have that particular thought, but like you're so right in the way you're thinking of that.
And I think one of the... One of the great things about Jimmy is he's just a, you know, even with all his success and everything, he's just a real kind of every man kind of regular guy. And I think that's how we try to approach even complicated stories, whether they be political or, you know, whatever it is.
And, you know, we just try to point out like what seems weird about it or, you know, hypocritical or, you know, whatever it is. And, you know, we don't get too academic about it, you know, unless we need to. And we have that ability to do it if we need to. But I think like we just try to make everything digestible.
And, you know, we know some people get their news from us, which we don't necessarily recommend, you know, but but not you should like, you know, you should read some like real newspapers and stuff.
But, you know, I but I think if you are coming to us, we try to, you know, kind of explain what's going on and then also just kind of break it down in a way where you can, you know, understand it and then also hopefully find a little humor in it, whatever it may be.
Yeah, yeah. I was a college intern there for like three months. And then right when I actually graduated college early, like I didn't pick up a minor so I could graduate early and go work at Jimmy Kimmel Live when I was 22 years old. Yeah. And and so, yeah, but this job exists there and it's we still have it to this day. I think we were kind of one of the first shows to really do it.
But, you know, again, like when I started, I was watching, you know, I'd watch The View. I'd watch The Bachelor. I'd watch Tila Tequila had a dating show that I watch all those all those shows. And so, yeah, I would sit in this like disgusting little office with three other people. And that's crazy. We just watch TV.
And it's funny because like it sounds like so chill, you know, like you're just sitting around. But it's like, you know, it's like a professional workplace we work in and you have to deliver clips every day and you got to get stuff on the show.
So it was weirdly kind of like a sales job where it's like every day, you know, at like 11 o'clock, you'd show up and be like, OK, here's all the things I found. And hopefully Jimmy likes some of them and they get on the show. But.
it was a really great like kind of entry-level creative job for me like i i knew i wanted to be a writer someday and so with this i got to kind of look for funny things i could go on the monologue um you know i would work with the writers at that time a bunch where they might have an idea for a bit that involved footage and i'd actually sit with one of them and find all the stuff so it was really good training for me and i kind of got to know the the writers you know through that too um
Yeah, so I did it for two years. I think that my last day was the day Barack Obama got elected. So I had like a full like election cycle I did, which was crazy. But I think I'm really glad I had that job, too, because I think it made me a good like kind of mental editor. Like when I'm writing, I can go, oh, yeah, I sort of know like what's a reasonable piece of footage to ask someone for.
you know, and how things will fit together. And, um, but yeah, no, that, that was a, that was a crazy job. Um, weirdly that the amount of time I did that for like 18 months, that time feels longer than the like 15 years I've been a writer. Somehow it was, it was just like a, it was so, it was like a clockwork orange.
It is. And I'm very lucky that I work at a place with a group of people who promote from within and can foster people. And I mean, there's a lot of places you could work that would just kind of keep you where you're at. But
You know, I, you know, I just when I was a TV watcher, I'd said to the head writer at the time, this guy, Steve O'Donnell, who's a late night legend, he was Letterman's head writer for many years. And he was our head writer at the time. And I just told him, you know, I went like, Hey, I'm like, interested in learning about writing. And he's like, great. And he, you know, gave me some great advice.
And Then the two head writers who came in after him named Molly McNearney and Gary Greenberg, they hired me as a writer's assistant. And so they taught me so much. And now they're two of the other head writers at the show with me, which is like, that's a really special thing for me.
So, but you know, again, at that time they could have just been like, all right, well, you're our assistant, you order the lunch and whatever. But they knew that on top of doing that stuff, I was also really interested in learning how to write. And so they taught me so much. And I, you know, for me, it's like, that was kind of like,
my comedy writing like college or whatever, where it's like, Oh, I get to work with the writers and I can, you know, write some material and have professional writers like really look at it and give me notes. So I, I just, I feel I'm forever grateful that Jimmy and the team there were able to go, yeah. Hey, like we see that you have a goal and we're going to help you get there.
My parents are wonderful and very supportive and always have been. So they were really excited for me. I mean, I was literally I mean, I got a psychology degree in college and I literally was like I was I was like wrapping that up so quickly so I could go watch Dr. Phil for a living, you know. Yeah. But they were excited. And, you know, we're from Southern California.
You know, I've lived here my whole life. And so, you know, I... You know, Jimmy was on the radio out here. There was a morning duo called Kevin and Bean, legendary morning duo out here. And Jimmy was on their show. He was their sports guy. But, you know, he wrote a ton of their sketches and their Christmas albums. And so I... I had been a fan of Jimmy since I was like really young.
And my parents knew that, too. And my parents were a fan of him, too, from being from Southern California. So like they just thought it was the coolest thing that Jimmy Kimmel had a late night show and I was going to go work on it. And so they've just been nothing but supportive. They're still like really, really big fans. And that's always been great for me.
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