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Chapter 1: Who is Bowen Yang and what makes him a notable figure?
Okay, we got Bowen Yang. Bowen Yang. One of the more recent SNL greats that does a solid job.
I think five Emmy nominations and a win or something like that.
Wow, wow, wow. That's more than me, I'll tell you that much.
You heard me. He ties me. Whoops.
You didn't. Did you get that many? What a ripoff. I want a recount.
I'll tell you how it's done later. Anyway, Bowen Yang, this is a really fun podcast. He's a cool dude, funny, interesting, and humble.
I think he was coming off of Wicked before Wicked 2 came out.
Yes. Yeah, we caught him right in that because he's hot as a pistol.
I think what happened is he's doing a lot of movies, doing SNL, and I think I read at a certain point, He felt like, well, it can go on without me. And he said, Lorne called him and said, maybe do another half season and then help with the new guys. And he said, great. If Lorne asks for something, I'll do it. Which is nice. So here he is. He's going to tell you all about everything. Yes. Onyang.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Bowen Yang share about his experience on SNL?
They're like, this is his life. He was always getting beat up. And so my descendants would not like that, I hope.
The start of the movie is Chris Farley holding you over his head and throwing you across a basketball court. That's the cold opening. That's in between takes.
Yeah, that's real.
And what would be the sound that our sweet friend Chris would make? Oh!
Then he goes, that's good.
Yeah.
He gets nervous.
It's great to have Bowen on because now we're talking to you. Cause when I went on smart list, I said, Oh, I'm going to make this easy. I know how to, I know what a guest is like. So you do a podcast. So it's already, you get the whole thing as opposed to do. Can I ask questions or what do I say?
I might not, but I think every show has its own unwritten set of rules or whatever. I guess so. You just gotta learn how to get in there. You guys are really good at it, though.
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Chapter 3: How does Bowen Yang balance his career in comedy and acting?
What's wrong with her?
Oh.
Are we all like in this limerence phase with Sarah? I think the three of us are all equally obsessed with Sarah Sherman. Yeah. And we're coming at different angles.
She's a one-off and it's so refreshing. I mean, you can't even, I couldn't know, I wouldn't know how to describe her.
Yeah.
She's so charming.
She has this, she has like an intergenerational appeal. She has like an inter, whatever, gender appeal. But I think like as a gay guy, I'm obsessed with her. And then in YouTube as straight guys are obsessed with her. Like she just has this universal appeal that I need to get to the bottom of. And I would love to have this whole episode be about her.
We have to get to the bottom of it because she has, she had me at mullet and then she was funny and then she's bananas. And then, uh, cute as a button. And then she goes on the road and she's so funny. Cause I just see clips and I'm like, Sarah, what's going on on the road? She goes, I don't know exactly, but, It's very funny and she's got a great show. But really enough about her.
Let's bring on our second guest today.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges of writing sketches for SNL?
And sort of like someone, at least on the surface, who knows how to navigate life a little bit. Maybe not take it too seriously. I don't know. You know her so much better than I do at this point. Because you've seen her under pressure, under stress.
Sure, sure.
How is she under stress?
And how are you under stress?
How bad is it getting? On that freaking show.
Uh-huh. I think we're okay. She is, you know, her and Dan Bulla, bless them both, but they will stay at 30 Rock until like 2.30 in the morning on a Thursday trying to like get every page right. And I am someone who is going to call it at like 9.30. Okay. and be like, it's time to go home.
The writer's table is what he's talking about. Probably the rewrite day. They read the sketches on Wednesday. I'm telling our audience, it doesn't know anything. 200 episodes, they don't understand it at all. And then Thursday they pick the sketches and then the writers would come in maybe with one of the cast members or whoever wrote it together. And the table rewrites.
Is that sort of still how it goes? They go sketch by sketch?
Yeah. sketch by sketch ends with I mean now now I'm sure people told you like we usually don't have a cold open until Friday so the cold open does not get a rewrite table usually does a cold open do a read through most of the time you don't get a cold open read through until Saturday at Saturday tables it's pretty it's pretty wild
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Chapter 5: How does the creative process work for sketch comedy?
Don't know. But I was just curious about how relaxed you seem. I mean, it seems like this is a trajectory of... On camera, you know, it's like for our audience, you were first a writer and then you became a feature player and you seem to, then the audience discovers you and then there's this sort of, massive leap that you make forward when they know you.
Here comes Bowen, and you've made them happy every time they see you. What phase of that are you in right now? I think you're in the last one.
Maybe, but I... Did you guys ever... Did you guys ever, like...
take this time let's say this time if you're recording this in in like late august like right before the season starts you buckle down just a little bit and you're like let me like get stuff in the tank and it never gets used but you're like let me just like make some of course whatever that's the thing for sure is that you start thinking of sketch ideas in august or anything you think of
It'll never make it onto the show. You just feel like you want to have ideas, but then the week comes and there's nothing like that week. Right.
But to answer your question, I think I'm in the stage now where, and I don't know if this is me tricking myself into anything, but I always want to go into each season as if it was my first year. Does that sound pathetic or something?
No, no, I think that's good to never not kind of worry a little bit is healthy.
You know, I got this. But you have to, but like that place will always knock you on your ass. Like no matter how developed you feel like you are, right? Like, and especially like, I, I'm really curious about what will happen if the show is still around for when I return and just say hi to people or something. Just to visit the halls and say hello.
I wonder what that'll feel like because that'll be bizarre.
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Chapter 6: What role does audience reaction play in live performances?
Yeah. I think there's, when you're in the summer and you're trying to think of ideas and you're just really doing anything to get a head start, that's kind of terrifying. Do you have a writer? I think Punky, we just talked to Punky and she said she had a writer or she... She was great. or she was assigned a writer, or maybe, or just one kind of gravitated.
Do you have someone they let you bring on, or you just work with everybody?
I think I tend to work with everybody. I was working with... Sudi Green, who I went to college with and she got hired for, she was like the first person in our little like coterie of like comedians doing sketch at UCB, like mid 2010s. She kind of got like raptured up into that spaceship first. And we were like, oh my God, like someone made it. And then she kind of,
shepherded my like little lamb ass for the first season at SNL and then um and then she ended up working with Maya and um Marty a lot and then she helped Maya with her Kamala and so I think I think she'll be back for the fall um when Maya's back and then um I so it
So it was Sudi Green, and then she left, and then there was a writer, Celeste Diem, who also works with Sarah, but they were going to leave. But I try to sort of, like, my goal every season is just to, like, see, like, I don't know, just throw a wide blanket on everybody.
Sure, you want everybody to write something. You want to be available for every idea, any, anything. Exactly.
Yeah, and I think this is just something I think you might find flattering or interesting. It was for us. So we first started this. Tina Fey was like our fourth guest. Oh, I heard this. And so we got to discussing SNL and comedy. Yeah, and then she just said, have you seen Bowen Yang do the Titanic iceberg? She just said, I'm not saying it as eloquently as she did. She said, it's something new.
It's an angle that's just different. And I thought that was cool.
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Chapter 7: How does Bowen Yang view the evolution of comedy and representation?
I hadn't met you at that point. I thought, what an interesting thing to say. But it was...
I don't know how to describe that coming about because that kind of that landed hard yeah and I you know no one expected it to but it was this thing that we did at read through and it kind of just happened and people were like oh that was cute but it was this idea that Anna Dresden who used to work there was the head writer there for a season had where we were just on a hiatus and
She was like, maybe in April for the anniversary of the Titanic sinking, you come on as the iceberg and you just want to promote your album. And I was like, oh, that's funny. But what would that look like? I don't know. So weird. What's the attitude? Blah, blah, blah. But then April rolled around. So a couple months had passed.
And then I was like, hey, were you still thinking about that Titanic idea? I think that's... I still don't quite know what it is, but I think it's like, I was like, it sounds really funny. So let's like, just like put clay on the table and like get to the bottom of what it is.
And then it sticks with you. It's also a good idea because you're like, I was just thinking about it.
Yeah. Maybe that's like one little secret, right? It's like if the idea is still... If it's still sticky in a couple months, then it's probably worthwhile in some way. Like anything in life.
You think of something later, you think of it again, and you're like... That was kind of funny. Even though you don't haven't cracked the code yet, you're like, there's definitely something there. There's something there.
I think that you had to see it. Like once the thing was on your head and the whole thing, and then there's no wink or tiny nod to that. You just are the iceberg.
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Chapter 8: What lessons does Bowen Yang offer about resilience in the entertainment industry?
And how did you get there? Why aren't you freezing? Why are you on Saturday Night Live? I mean- I would say if you can get to five questions for a sketch, then you're in this magic area. Wow. And that has a lot of questions, yeah.
Wait, have you guys talked about this, this five questions thing? I think so. Dana's been holding it. I love it. Yeah, Dana, what the heck? I love that.
How did he get there? What is the iceberg? Why is he on update? Is he on another sketch? Does the cast know the iceberg's there?
Right.
It's something that hit me at one point. I don't know if it's that profound, but it is fun to think of sketches that really crush.
Does it have five questions? Wait, I'm writing this down. I'm writing this down. Analog, I'm not even typing it everybody. I'm picking up a pencil and I'm ready to five questions. That's hip No, and then so we did it a table read it was fine.
It was kind of in the mix throughout the week and then I Forget what it was like Pete might have like there might have been questions about like whether or not Pete was gonna come back that week because he was kind of like dipping in and out because you know, that was his want and so it was Pete and I think there was just a question mark on what the lineup was going to be for the show.
And then Friday night at midnight, we get the call from one of the producers. We get the text from one of the producers after the meeting with Lauren on Friday night. They were like, okay, I think Bowen's update is a go.
And then at that point, Anna and I were like texting each other pictures of like kids in Halloween costumes from 1998, like dressed up as the Titanic and dressed up as the iceberg. We're like, maybe it's this. Maybe it should be like... a dinner jacket. No, maybe it should be, like, a white leather jacket instead.
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