Good Talk with Anthony Jeselnik 1x4

1. - Welcome to "Good Talk with Anthony Jeselnik,"

2. the show so easy to make, it got me back on television.

3. And baby, I hate television—

4. but not tonight.

5. My guest tonight is comedian,

6. award-winning co-screenwriter,

7. and all-around star Kumail Nanjiani.

8. Kumail, thank you for being here.

9. - Thank you for having me.

10. - Do you consider yourself

11. a stand-up comedian who's also a movie star,

12. or are you a movie star who now dabbles in stand-up?

13. No judgments.

14. - Well... "Movie star" is very nice.

15. I feel great about it no matter what is.

16. - You're star of a movie.

17. Like... - Correct.

18. - Movies, plural.

19. - Um, I think I'm still primarily a stand-up,

20. even though I haven't been able to do it

21. as frequently as I would have liked to continue doing it.

22. - Yeah, I mean, you've been busy,

23. but in your mind,

24. do you still think of yourself as a comedian...

25. - Yeah. - That's just doing this?

26. - Definitely, definitely still a comedian.

27. - Is one more fun than the other?

28. - Comedy or acting? - Yeah.

29. - Acting is more challenging.

30. I think with stand-up, and I'm sure you know this feeling

31. where you're like—

32. and any room, you could be like,

33. "Oh, I know I can go above a certain level."

34. No matter how difficult the room is,

35. whatever it is, you feel like

36. you got your bag of tricks,

37. you sort of know how to get there, right?

38. With acting, I feel

39. it's much more challenging for me,

40. so it's more exciting.

41. Just—but being onstage killing, it's so much fun.

42. Acting rarely is that much fun for, like, that long.

43. - Sure. - Acting's a lot of waiting.

44. - But there's acting, and you're like—

45. you don't really have control.

46. You're sitting in your trailer most of the day.

47. I understand why stand-up would be more fun.

48. But when you're a movie star,

49. when you're top billing,

50. that must be...

51. seductive.

52. That must be like, "Maybe I just do this."

53. - It's really fun.

54. I mean, there is a person whose—

55. if it's raining, there's a person whose job it is

56. to hold an umbrella over your head...

57. - You're like the president. - As you walk from the trailer.

58. - Yeah. - Kind of.

59. And so you see how people become assholes very quickly.

60. Um, I remember when we shooting "The Big Sick" two years ago,

61. and that was the first time I was the lead of a movie.

62. I was walking

63. to set or something,

64. and it was a very small corridor,

65. and somebody was, like, in my way,

66. and then he, like, got out

67. and I heard someone yelling at him, being like,

68. "When number one is coming, you get out of their way.

69. That's number one on the call sheet."

70. And that's when I was like, "This is pretty great."

71. - That is awesome.

72. Do you ever think you'll get to the point where you're like,

73. "Don't look me in the eye"?

74. - No, I mean...

75. I don't—I mean—

76. - 'Cause that seems fun.

77. - It does, but for me,

78. part of being good at it involves

79. sort of talking to people and feeling really loose.

80. If I'm, like, sort of sequestered

81. and in my head and doing that,

82. that's—that's when I start to get really in my head,

83. and I don't want to do that.

84. - I'm always interested in acting,

85. because I don't understand it or respect it.

86. Um... - No follow-up questions.

87. Great.

88. - How much of your acting success

89. do you contribute to your belief in Scientology?

90. - I cannot confirm or deny that but...

91. I was talking about this the other day.

92. We were walking by the Scientology Center

93. and someone was like, "Let's go in."

94. And I was like, "What if they don't want us?

95. What a slap in the face that would be."

96. - Please. They're taking any warm body.

97. They don't care.

98. Here's a fun question:

99. you ever play pranks on set?

100. - No, I don't really...

101. Who cares?

102. - Still sounds like a gunshot, still makes me laugh.

103. You once said in an interview—

104. we did our research... - Uh-oh.

105. - That the greatest set you've ever had in your life

106. was your first-ever open mic your senior year of college.

107. That can't possibly be true.

108. Do you stand by that?

109. - Well, at that time—

110. in terms of—

111. that was my first set.

112. I'd never seen—

113. I'd never seen a live stand-up comedy show, nothing.

114. I went onstage, I killed, I came off, and I was like,

115. "Oh, I'm gonna be very famous very soon."

116. And so in terms of that feeling,

117. yes, still the best set I've ever had.

118. - And how long was it from that day

119. until you got very famous?

120. - Uh, not—we're not there yet.

121. - Do you think if you watched that set,

122. would you be embarrassed, or would you still be like,

123. "Yeah, I remember killing it?"

124. - I bet it'd be embarrassing. - Yeah.

125. - It would be horrible. - I mean, my first set—

126. - Don't agree so hard. You don't know.

127. - My first set I thought I killed,

128. and then I went back and watched it alter

129. 'cause one of the jokes I did in my first-ever set,

130. I ended up doing in my roast of Donald Trump.

131. Like, that's how good the joke was,

132. that even ten years later it was still good—

133. that I was like, "I gotta watch this again.

134. Maybe there's more hidden gems."

135. And I almost threw up watching it.

136. - Yeah. - It was so bad.

137. I had a heavy Dennis Leary influence.

138. Like, I was dressed wrong. Like, it was—

139. - I did not know that about you.

140. - In the very beginning. - Heavy Dennis Leary.

141. - A lot of "You knows" after everything.

142. Like, a lot of pointing fingers.

143. Well, here's what we're gonna do right now.

144. I'm gonna—I'm gonna give you a couple of quotes

145. you've done in movies,

146. and I'm gonna see if you can, like, fill in the blank.

147. Like, do you remember your lines from your old movies?

148. - There are—no. But go ahead.

149. - Let's see— I got a couple of 'em here.

150. Let's see...

151. - I haven't seen all the movies I've done.

152. - Really?

153. - There's a lot of them I have not seen.

154. - What's a movie you've done that you haven't seen?

155. - Uh, I never saw "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates."

156. - Have you seen "Flock of Dudes"?

157. - I did not see "Flock of Dudes."

158. - When I even just heard about "Flock of Dudes,"

159. I got excited.

160. I have not seen it.

161. Okay, this is from "The Big Sick,"

162. where you play the character of Kumail.

163. "Yeah, something like blank million hectares

164. are being irrigated."

165. - 14. - 14 million, that's right.

166. - Yeah. - I knew you'd get that one.

167. This is from "Stuber."

168. This is your character of Stu.

169. "Hang on, I'm gonna blank.

170. Nope, don't got it."

171. - I'm gonna... flip a U-ey?

172. - Bang a U-ey here.

173. - Bang a U-ey, okay. - Yeah.

174. - Bang a U—I think that's where the comedy comes from.

175. - Yeah, bang. - But you were close.

176. That was good. - It's a funny word.

177. - Last one.

178. This is from "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates,"

179. your second-favorite movie.

180. What was that about, by the way?

181. - I—there's no way to know.

182. You play the role of Keanu.

183. - I do.

184. I didn't know that that was his name.

185. - You're a masseuse. - Yeah.

186. I mean, I—that movie was a huge problem

187. for me and my family.

188. - I've seen, like, a clip. You have really long hair...

189. - And I'm naked. - And you're wearing a diaper.

190. - No, I'm supposed to be fully naked.

191. I'm fully naked in the movie.

192. - Gotta—gotta check it out.

193. Um...

194. "Physically, there is no penetration.

195. Spiritually, I'll be doing an..."

196. - Oof.

197. Physically, there's no penetration.

198. Spiritually, I'll be doing an— is it one word?

199. - No, it's like a—

200. it's five words.

201. - I'll be doing— I don't have a shot at this.

202. - An intimate tour of her...

203. - Chakras? - Chi.

204. Chi.

205. - Tour of her chi.

206. - Okay. - God, it's like you—

207. it's like you weren't even in

208. "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates" at all.

209. - It's a lot like that.

210. How did you find that quote?

211. IMDb?

212. - Writers. - Okay.

213. I wasn't gonna watch that piece of shit.

214. Great job, Kumail.

215. Thanks for being a sport.

216. - Thank you.

217. - Now, Kumail, whenever you do stand-up,

218. I imagine you're a "take the mic out of the stand"

219. kind of guy.

220. Am I right? - Mm-hmm.

221. - Yeah, yeah.

222. You bet your sweet ass I'm right.

223. And if taking the mic out of the stand is right,

224. then I don't wanna be wrong.

225. Let's watch this thing based on what I just said.

226. We'll be right back with more of this.

227. It's "Good Talk."

228. - Welcome back to "Good Talk."

229. I'm here with distinguished gentleman

230. Kumail Nanjiani.

231. Kumail, are you still just flying off the success

232. of "The Big Sick"?

233. - Flying? - Flying.

234. - Not at all. - No, you've moved on?

235. - Yeah. - 'Cause I still watch it

236. all the time.

237. In fact, I wanna show you

238. what I think is the funniest scene in the entire movie.

239. In a movie filled with hilarious scenes,

240. this one's my favorite.

241. This is hardest I laughed

242. in a movie theater in years.

243. - Every time she sees a bird, she's like...

244. "Look at this, it's a bird."

245. I'm always like,

246. "Yeah, they're all over the place.

247. They're birds."

248. But she, like— she likes that bird, you know?

249. Every bird she sees, she sees it.

250. You're a monster.

251. - I was watching this movie... - Oh, my God.

252. - Friday afternoon, packed theater,

253. everyone's dead quiet.

254. And I am laughing so hard.

255. Like, I'm emotionally invested.

256. But I have known you for years, so it's like I can—

257. I understand you're acting in this moment,

258. but the idea of having a set that bad

259. where you just start crying and talking about birds...

260. - Right.

261. - To me is absolutely hilarious.

262. - Well, you know, the thing that I'd seen a lot

263. in, like, comedies was

264. when someone's really honest onstage, they kill.

265. So we were like, we should do the opposite.

266. Someone's really honest onstage, and they bomb,

267. because that's what would happen.

268. - Yeah.

269. I even like that they, like, start to laugh

270. like they think you're doing a character...

271. - Right. - And then they realize, oh no,

272. he just sucks at this.

273. - Well, that's— what we did was,

274. we did—so we had that audience there

275. for like three or four days,

276. and it was, um,

277. just a bunch of extras,

278. and we filmed all the stand-up comedy stuff together,

279. so this audience was, like, having a great time.

280. So before that, we did not tell them

281. what was gonna happen.

282. So when I went out,

283. they thought it was just gonna be another comedy set.

284. We weren't like, "Hey, this is gonna be weird."

285. And so their reactions are real,

286. 'cause they're kinda like ha-ha-ha,

287. and then they're sort of realizing,

288. "h, something horrible is happening,

289. and I don't want to be here for it."

290. - Yeah.

291. I read in an interview that you said that you wanted

292. to get into stand-up comedy

293. after watching Hugh Grant in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

294. Explain yourself.

295. Keep in mind I have never seen that movie.

296. - Okay. - Is that true?

297. - It is true.

298. So, the—

299. one of the first scenes of "Four Weddings and a Funeral"

300. is Hugh Grant is the best man at this wedding,

301. and he gets up and he gives this best man speech.

302. - Mm-hmm.

303. - And it's basically he was doing stand-up.

304. And that was basically the first, like,

305. stand-up routine I'd ever watched.

306. It's like a three- or four-minute stand-up routine,

307. so—and I just really, really loved that

308. and I was like, "I wish there was a job where I could

309. just stand up and give best man speeches,"

310. and then I realized there is one.

311. - When you're onstage,

312. do you, like, picture yourself as Hugh Grant?

313. - No.

314. But there's a picture that someone tweeted at me

315. the other day where I have exactly Hugh Grant's hair.

316. When I first started stand-up,

317. I was basically doing a Hugh Grant impression,

318. like with the...

319. like, the sort of being nervous and stumbling and stuff.

320. - Doesn't sound at all delusional.

321. - All right, Kumail, we're gonna do a segment right now

322. called Agree or Disagree.

323. I'm gonna read you a statement about comedy.

324. You tell me if you agree with it

325. or disagree with it, all right? - Okay.

326. - Pretty simple.

327. Agree or disagree:

328. under no circumstances should you ever run the light.

329. - Every time I've run the light, it's ultimately

330. helped me,

331. so it's not...

332. don't do it if I'm after you,

333. but if I've already performed, run the light,

334. do whatever you gotta do.

335. - I used to always say no, you should never do that,

336. like it's—other comics need their time,

337. but now that I'm, like, headlining shows around LA

338. and they light me...

339. - Yeah. - I just laugh at them.

340. I'm like, I'm gonna run this like an ambulance.

341. - Dude— - And go as long as I want.

342. - Dude, there's a show here where if you run the light,

343. they like, turn the smoke machine on.

344. - Oh. No, I don't know about that.

345. - So I did not know that's what would happen.

346. So I'm onstage, I'm doing my set,

347. and it's going fine.

348. It's not going great, but it's going fine.

349. And then I see the light,

350. and I'm finishing up my last joke,

351. and the smoke starts showing up,

352. and I'm like, "What the fuck is going on?"

353. And I kinda like— I'm, like, a little worried,

354. but nobody else seems worried.

355. So then I get offstage,

356. and the gun who runs the show is like,

357. "Ha-ha, that's our thing.

358. If you run the light, we turn the smoke machine on."

359. And I yelled at this guy so hard—

360. harder than I've ever yelled at anyone, maybe—

361. and I was like—I said,

362. "Tomorrow I'm gonna feel really bad about this

363. "and I'm gonna email you an apology,

364. "but don't believe it.

365. "This is what I mean right now.

366. "So don't believe when I apologize to you,

367. "and I will apologize to you

368. 'cause I'm gonna feel bad about this,

369. but I won't mean that."

370. And then of course, I emailed him and I was like,

371. "I'm so sorry."

372. - That is such a great idea,

373. to tell someone in the moment

374. you're gonna apologize tomorrow,

375. but right now, you've gotta get this off your chest.

376. - Right, but also that—

377. I was like, "I won't mean that apology."

378. - Yeah. - "And I will say I mean it,

379. but I won't mean it."

380. - But I bet the next day they were still like,

381. "That's sweet of Kumail."

382. - "That's nice."

383. Agree or disagree:

384. it's fun to cast a younger version of your wife

385. in your life story.

386. - Agree.

387. I was wondering how you'd handle that,

388. and you knocked it out of the park.

389. That was perfect.

390. Uh, agree or disagree:

391. America has never been in a better place politically.

392. - Oh, disagree. - Disagree?

393. - Yeah. - Why?

394. - Oh, well, I don't know.

395. I mean, you know...

396. ugh, next question.

397. - Okay. Okay.

398. - But when this—

399. by the time this airs,

400. we might have figured it all out.

401. - I'm sure, I'm sure. - Yeah.

402. - So I'll give you another answer:

403. agree.

404. - Okay. - There we go.

405. - Great. - Now we got it covered.

406. Let's soften it up a little bit.

407. Uh, agree or disagree:

408. Woody Allen did not actually molest his own daughter.

409. - Why...

410. why would you do this?

411. How is this helping anybody?

412. I... - What do you think?

413. - I don't have an op— I don't—oh, God.

414. Ah...

415. - That was Kumail talking about Woody Allen.

416. - Don't go anywhere. Things are about to get filthy.

417. Next.

418. - Welcome back.

419. So, Kumail, is there a comedian you know

420. or watched growing up

421. that like really influenced you

422. that you, like, wish you had one of their jokes?

423. - Yeah, well, one of the reasons

424. I started doing stand-up was this guy Jake Johannsen.

425. - Mm-hmm, of course.

426. - I was obsessed with him.

427. I remember he had a website—

428. I think it's still JakeThis.com—

429. and I emailed to get, like—

430. there was an HBO special called "This'll Take About an Hour."

431. - "This'll Take About an Hour," yeah.

432. - Which is a great title for an hour-long stand-up special.

433. And he, like, emailed me

434. and he, like, made the tape and sent it to me.

435. Like, it was just— - Really?

436. - It was just him doing it, yeah.

437. - Oh, that's crazy.

438. I once, like, bought one of Todd Barry's CDs

439. through his website and never got it.

440. Emailed and Todd wrote me back

441. and was like, "I'll send you a new one."

442. And I was just like— as a kid,

443. I was just blown away that, like...

444. - Yeah. - He had that much time

445. on his hands.

446. - Which one was it? - Uh...

447. - "Medium Energy"? - "Medium Energy," yeah, yeah.

448. - "Medium Energy." I had "Medium Energy."

449. - Let's take a look from Jake Johannsen's

450. "This'll Take About an Hour."

451. HBO, 1991.

452. I'm good with years.

453. - I—I feel pretty good tonight.

454. I'm a little—I'm trying to quit smoking,

455. so I'm a little tense about—

456. I can't believe how hard it is to quit,

457. especially since I didn't even like cigarettes

458. when I first started.

459. I had to use that nicotine gum to get going.

460. And, uh...

461. - When you said Jake Johannsen was an influence of yours,

462. I didn't really quite get it, and then watching him,

463. I can see some of the mannerisms early on.

464. Like, your comedy's evolved,

465. but that kind of—that cadence was definitely there

466. when I first saw you,

467. that playful, uh...

468. kind of staccato rhythm.

469. - I definitely had to work to shed Jake Johannsen's cadence

470. very, very early on.

471. I really, really sounded a lot like him.

472. And I remember, uh,

473. he was performing at Zanies in Chicago.

474. Like, I was two years, maybe a year and a half

475. into stand-up when I really sounded like him,

476. and I didn't know I did.

477. So I asked him—

478. I was like, "Oh, he's my favorite.

479. Can I open for him?"

480. And I opened for him,

481. and that's when I was like, "Oh, this was a terrible idea."

482. Even Jake was like, "What's going on, buddy?"

483. - Yeah, yeah. - Shouldn't be doing this.

484. And so that's when I started trying to actively shed it.

485. - Yeah, I think that happens a lot.

486. And you know me, I'm very pleased with my own act.

487. But every once in a while, I do see a comic

488. where I think, "Oh, I wish I had that bit."

489. So here's one of mine.

490. This is from, uh, "The Awkward Comedy Show."

491. This is a bit from Victor Vernado.

492. You guys are probably saying, "Victor..."

493. "You're a black albino."

494. "What are your superpowers?"

495. Now...

496. you telling me I wouldn't crush with that?

497. - I really want to—

498. I want to see you do this joke.

499. - You think if I did his set,

500. like just like front to back,

501. just didn't...

502. - What would the reaction be, do you think?

503. - I think for a while, people would be like—

504. - I guess he is.

505. - 'Cause if I said I'm a black albino

506. and you didn't know me...

507. can you really call me on it?

508. - Yeah.

509. - A black albino.

510. - I could be a black person without the black color.

511. - Mm— - Right?

512. - This is a very difficult road we're going down.

513. - Not for me. - Okay.

514. - I'm in an SUV, just flying.

515. I think you should do it.

516. - Kumail, you emigrated from Pakistan

517. when you were 18 years old.

518. Was that fun?

519. - Was that fun? - Mm-hmm.

520. - The question is, was it fun to emigrate here?

521. - Mm-hmm. - No, it wasn't fun.

522. - No? - No.

523. - No. - It was very difficult.

524. - Have you ever done stand-up in Pakistan?

525. - No. - Would you ever want to?

526. - Oof. You know, um...

527. Pakistan doesn't have it so much,

528. but India has actually a huge stand-up scene now.

529. They have—they have a Comedy Store in India now.

530. They do. - Really?

531. - Yeah. Weird.

532. Uh, but it's huge over there.

533. Like, I'll see sometimes some guy, like, tweeting at me

534. with an Indian name, and I'm like, "Who's this guy?"

535. And I'll look and they'll have, like, 10 million followers,

536. 'cause India's like a billion people, you know?

537. - Oh, yeah.

538. - Uh, so I would love to definitely do it in India

539. because I know they have an audience for it,

540. and I'd love to try Pakistan too.

541. - Does Pakistan still think of you as one of theirs?

542. - I...

543. it's complicated, I think.

544. I think they don't really—

545. I don't think they really think of me as one of theirs.

546. That said, whenever there's something that happens with me

547. in the news— something gets announced,

548. something comes out—

549. it's always covered there in all the newspapers,

550. but I think they have a difficult relationship with me

551. because I married a white woman

552. and I'm not there,

553. so I think it's complicated.

554. - Yeah, I see that.

555. I understand where they're coming from.

556. Stay tuned for the D-block,

557. or I'll bring back "At Midnight,"

558. and you do not wanna test me.

559. - Welcome back.

560. Kumail, thank you so much for being here.

561. I like to end every show

562. with a segment we call Make God Laugh.

563. Is there a comedian who's no longer with us

564. that you felt a particular fondness for?

565. - Yeah, this comedian Kevin Barnett

566. who I was also friends with,

567. and he was just really, really funny and really young,

568. and he had a lot, a lot of great stuff ahead of him,

569. and he's just, um...

570. gone very, very...

571. very early, uh, and he just had an amazing point of view,

572. and he was like, you know,

573. it's hard for comedy to be cool,

574. and he was just really, really cool.

575. - Yeah. - And I'm just sad

576. that the world won't get to see more of him.

577. - Yeah, I didn't know him,

578. but I know a lot of people who did

579. and who were affected by him who just—

580. everyone spoke so glowingly.

581. - Yeah. - And it was just a big loss,

582. uh, for comedy this year.

583. Let's take a look at Kevin Barnett

584. from "Adam DeVine's House Party."

585. - Like, if I died tonight,

586. all the news stories that would come out would be beautiful.

587. Like, "Comedian Kevin Barnett was killed last night.

588. "He was a great young comic,

589. could've been the next big thing."

590. All types of foolishness like that.

591. But if I die 10, 20 years from now, who knows?

592. There's potential it'd be like...

593. "Walmart employee Kevin Barnett was murdered last night.

594. "Fellow employees described him as an incredibly lonely man

595. "that complained when he wasn't allowed

596. to bring cats on the bus."

597. I feel like...

598. that ain't the legacy I'm trying to leave behind, yo.

599. - I hope you enjoyed that, God.

600. I hope you enjoy your cruel, cold laughter.

601. Kumail, thanks again for being here.

602. You were hilarious as always,

603. and congratulations on your continued, incredibly success.

604. - Thank you, and congrats on figuring out

605. how to get back on TV.

606. - You can see Kumail and Emily's new show

607. "Little America"

608. streaming on Apple TV+ this fall.

609. And thank you for watching.

610. I know you must be pretty busy.

611. Good talk.