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You seem to be saying trust is broken without question. How can trust be restored? What's at stake? Public confidence in our rule of law in general. For a moon rocket this massive, this is what one small step would looks like at Kennedy space Center. The 3 1/2 million pound rocket and crew capsule rolled out atop an Apollo era crawler, inching four miles from the assembly building to the launch pad there to watch the four astronauts who will soon go back to the moon. What's going through your mind? Don't screw it up. The Dutch are famous for their windmills, their canals, their bikes, their comedy. Not so much. So you might be surprised to learn that some of America's funniest figures sharpen their comic chops at this improv club in Amsterdam. Yes, Amsterdam. Dutch people. Not the most giving laughers. I was going to ask you about that. Dutch people laugh like this. Ha ha. And they immediately get quiet. I'm Scott Pelley. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Nora o'. Donnell. I'm Leslie Stahl. Those stories and in our last minute, a treasure from America's attic. Tonight on 60 Minutes, ordinary checking. A $300 head start on checking. Ordinary savings, high yield savings that grow your money. Ordinary mortgage. A mortgage with a rate that drops when the market does. Why settle for with Oregon State Credit Union you get all sorts of welcome to human to human banking. Oregon State Credit Union insured by NCUA. Equal housing lender $25 minimum balance required, subject to change terms and conditions. Who can you kill and when can you kill them? Those are questions Republican Senator Rand Paul asked last week after the deaths in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, shot by officers of the Department of Homeland Security. Senator Paul is chair of the Homeland Security Committee. And against the grain of many in his party, he has scheduled a public hearing. Minneapolis Paul told us he doesn't trust the Trump administration's investigation after top officials failed to tell the truth. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Alex Preddy was a terrorist who attacked federal officers. That led Senator Paul, Republican of Kentucky, to watch video of the killing again and again. I saw no evidence. I saw a man that was retreating. I mean, he went to the middle of the street. He didn't even obstruct traffic. He let a car go through. As the agents advanced on him, he retreated to the side of the street. A woman is violently pushed to the ground, and he turns to help her, and that's when he is grabbed from behind. I saw no evidence of him assaulting the police. Should Secretary Noem be fired? I think we have to get through our hearing February 12th, and I think we have to see what the people who work for her say. But my advice to them, if they're watching and they come to testify, is if you come in and you're going to justify that this man was aggressively assaulting your police officers, that cannot be acceptable. And that's why they're lacking in trust. He also says he's concerned about the misstatements of others. The commander of the Border Patrol operation. This looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement. The FBI director didn't tell the truth about Preddy's right to carry a gun. You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It's that simple. You don't have that right to break the law and incite violence. The President's advisor, Stephen Miller, called Preddy an assassin. That's a lot of people telling the truth. It sounds. It sounds like terrible judgment. I mean, terrible conclusions, incorrect conclusions, stating things that no one else believes. You can lie to your heart's content if there's no video, but the video doesn't support what they're saying. You seem to be saying trust is broken without question. There's been little trust in Minneapolis for a month. The city is led by Democrats and is a sanctuary city. By city ordinance, Minneapolis does not allow its police to assist in federal immigration enforcement. Last month to sweep up illegal immigrants, the Trump administration ordered in 3,000 officers of the Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Known as ice. It's a force five times larger than the Minneapolis police. Images of brutality inflamed protesters, who in turn harass the agents. You should be marching with us, blowing whistles, blocking streets, pushing the limits of the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble. The Department of Justice Sundays last week, 16 people were charged with assaulting officers or property. In your view, do the protesters in Minneapolis bear any responsibility? Well, sure. I mean, the thing is, if you were my son or daughter, would I tell you to spit on the police? Absolutely not. Would I tell you to yell and scream at them? No. I would tell you to go to a primary and knock on doors, sign up people, and try to convince people, particularly in a primary, of who to vote for. That is the way I would protest. But is it illegal to protest? No. January 7th, Renee Good was blocking a street. As Good moved forward and to the right, an agent who had been in front of the car opened fire. That day, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noemi described Good as a terrorist. It was an act of domestic terrorism. What happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle, and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. Did she aim to hit the officers or simply drive away, as others believe? Her death stoked anger into rage. Days before he was killed, Alex Preddy spit at and kicked a federal officer's car. A scuffle followed. Preddy had a gun in his waistband, for which he had a permit, and in Minnesota, the right to carry officers let him go. Then on January 24, Preddy was shot after an officer shouted that he had found the gun again in his waistband. Based on what I can see in the video, there isn't a clear reason for the use of force. Sam Trepel investigated police shootings for the Justice Department. She led the federal prosecution in the death of George Floyd in 2020. Trepel says the Preddy shooting isn't the only concern in the video. For one thing, when the federal agent pushes the woman that Mr. Preddy was helping, it's not clear from the video why that would be justified. There's the spraying of a chemical agent on Mr. Preddy and the woman he was trying to help, and the justification for that isn't clear either. Until she resigned last year, Trepel was A prosecutor in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Traditionally, the Civil Rights Division investigates cases like these and makes the decision on whether to press charges. In the Trump administration. Sam Trepel says the Civil Rights Division has been hollowed out. Since January of 2025, the division as a whole has lost over 75% of its career. Nonpartisan attorneys. The Justice Department tells us the Civil Rights Division is reviewing Preddy's death. But in the Renee Good killing, the department says there is no basis for a civil rights investigation. One of many decisions Trepel finds troubling. What's really different and striking here is that the federal government appears to be shutting the state investigators out completely. And that's very unusual and, in fact, unprecedented in my experience. Typically, the federal investigative team and the state investigative team work very closely together, and they coordinate and they collect evidence in close coordination with one another, and then they share that evidence. But in Minneapolis, state investigators tell us that federal agents are not sharing the evidence. What signal does it send to other federal officers and to the public if a case like this is not thoroughly and transparently investigated? I think it sends a message that federal agents are above the law, and that's a very dangerous message to be sending to them and to the public at this moment. There's a real question in people's mind about will this incident be looked at appropriately? Daniel Altman recently retired from U.S. customs and Border Protection, where he led more than 50 investigations into officer shootings. How unusual is this investigation? What is unusual about it is that we're not following the established protocols. And given the amount of concern from the public, there hasn't been the type of explanation that's needed. Explanation, Altman says of the scope of the investigations and what will happen in the end. We should have a commitment from the Department of Justice that when that's concluded, regardless of what they decide, whether to indict somebody or not, that there'll be some feedback provided to the public about the decision that was made and the basis for it. What's at stake in having a transparent investigation? I think at this point, public confidence in law enforcement, certainly federal law enforcement in this country and. And public confidence in our rule of law in general is at stake. Last week, the administration responded to the criticism. The leader of the Minneapolis operation was replaced by Tom Homan. Homan is the top White House official on deportations and reports to the president. Homan met with the Minneapolis mayor and Minnesota governor about Secretary Noem's comments. She now says she was working with the best information she had at the time we asked for interviews with Noem Homan and others, none was made available. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate it. Friday, Todd Blanche, number two at the Justice Department, called the shootings tragic. He said there is a civil rights investigation into the Preddy killing. But he also said this. I don't want to overstate what's happening. I don't want the takeaway to be that there's some massive civ investigation that's happening. This is what I would describe as a standard investigation by the FBI when there's circumstances like what we saw last Saturday, and that that investigation, to the extent it needs to involve lawyers at the Civil Rights Division, it will involve those. Could the FBI have a credible investigation? That's. That's a question. I don't know the answer to that. Maybe not, is what you're saying. Well, there were some pretty immediate conclusions on whether or not you're allowed to carry a gun at a rally, which were incorrect and not really reflective of the Second Amendment or the law. So I don't know who should do this. I think, really, if it were an independent group outside of the federal government would be better, actually. It turns out there was a federal indictment Thursday in Minnesota sought by the Civil Rights Division. Not in the good or pretty cases, but charges against reporter Don Lemon, who covered a protest at a church. The Department of Justice accuses him of intimidating the congregation and interfering with religious freedom. Lemon denies it. In Rand Paul's scheduled hearing for February 12, witnesses in this room are expected to include the heads of the agencies with boots on the ground. In Minnesota, Paul says he is reserving judgment and will examine all aspects of the mayhem. In Minneapolis. There are officer cameras that should be released at some point in time and haven't been. But if one of them shows evidence that's different than what I'm saying, I'm perfectly willing to be, you know, corrected. Can the American people trust the Department of Homeland Security? I think to restore trust, things are going to have to improve. But I'm not going to say it's all on one side. I mean, Minneapolis. The mayor of Minneapolis has said explicitly he will not cooperate. That is a significant part of the problem. Republicans have been most often in lockstep with President Trump, and I wonder if you think that's beginning to fracture over these incidents. My job is always to try to ascertain the truth and try to do what's right, regardless of party. People are going to watch this and they're going to say, oh, you're cooperating with the Democrats. You're having a hearing and it's not. I want ICE to be able to work and I want ICE to have trust. So I'm not some bomb thrower from the left that wants to get rid of ice. I want ice to function, but I want to restore trust in ice. The families of Renee Good and Alex Preddy are seeking the truth. And I wonder what you would say to them in this moment. It's hard to know, you know, what to say and I'm not sure exactly how to respond to the emotions of it. I think that no one who is protesting, you know, deserves to be shot. You know, should the police have de escalated? Absolutely. Could the people have de escalated? Yes. None of it justifies what happened. But there were off ramps. All along here there were off ramps and neither side chose to to choose those off ramps. Well, the holidays have come and gone once again. But if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now, you call it an early present for next year. What do you have to lose? Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch limited time, 50% off regular price for new customers. Upfront payment required $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for 12 month plan taxes and fees. Extra speeds may slow after 50 gigabytes per month when network is busy see terms. This month, NASA is aiming to launch four astronauts atop a 32 story rocket on a 10 day mission around the far side of the moon. And the flight of Artemis 2 will be NASA's first human mission to the Moon since Apollo 1753 years ago. NASA sees it as a critical stepping stone toward its ultimate goal. Landing astronauts on the lunar surface again, establishing a sustained presence there and using the moon as a gateway to future Mars missions. After a number of delays, President Trump set a goal of returning Americans to the moon by 2028, while China plans a lunar landing by 2030, making Artemis 2 a key leg in a 21st century space race. For a moon rocket this massive, this is what one small step looks like. About two weeks ago, we went to Kennedy Space center in Florida to see the 3 1/2 million pound SLs rocket crash crowned by the Orion crew capsule roll out atop an Apollo era crawler, inching four miles from the assembly building to the launch pad. Top speed less than one mile an hour. Hundreds of employees who worked on this NASA's most powerful rocket brought their families to see their towering achievement. Also there, the four astronauts who will make a solitary arc of around the moon. We met them at launch pad 39B. What do you feel when you see that? A lot of pride. A lot of pride for the nation and a lot of pride for the international partnerships that have put this thing together. Reid Wiseman is the mission commander. His crew includes pilot Victor Glover and two mission specialists, Jeremy Hansen and Christina Cook. This is kind of a monument to the fact that we as humans decided to pour resources into sending people off the planet. And that's just an amazing thing to me, an amazing thing to be a part of. Cook, Wiseman and Glover have all experienced the wonders of space on board the International Space Station. Hansen, an experienced fighter pilot from our long time space partner Canada, has never before gone into orbit. I wonder what is that really going to look like and what is that going to feel like? I have this sense that it can't not touch your soul to see the Earth from the perspective of the moon. So if all goes according to plan, you are going to be the first astronauts to travel to the moon in more than half a century. What's going through your minds? Don't screw it up. I'm joking, but partly not joking. But I think the real thing today is what it took to get that rocket out to the pad. And so I hope our team is celebrating this because it's a big part of, you know, the next thing to come. The United States has been to the moon several times. Why is it important for us to go back? So many countries right now are realizing the value and what we can bring back by going to the moon. The industry gains, the knowledge gains, the scientific gains, the inspiration gains. There's so much to gain that I'm happy that we are leading the way back. Artemis 2 is meant to lay the groundwork for future Artemis missions that will put Americans back on the moon and establish a lunar space station. The four Artemis II astronauts will sling around the far side of the moon in the Orion capsule, just about 5,000 miles above its surface before heading back home. This mission is to test whether the rocket life support systems and crew controls work as designed for the crew. This has been almost three years in the making. They trained in simulators, launch in 10 seconds and learn to live and work inside the cramped Orion capsule. And liftoff of Artemis 1. Artemis 1, which flew in 2022 without a crew, was a full system test flight to prove the rocket and capsule are mission ready for humans. To travel around the moon and back. Splash down. It splashed down safely in the Pacific. But on inspection, engineers found the heat shield was damaged on re entry, though the interior of the capsule was not. Is there a level of concern about the heat shield on this one? We're hitting Earth's atmosphere at roughly 39 to 40 times the speed of sound. There's concern we're going to modify our entry trajectory. We're actually going to come in a little bit hotter, a little bit faster than Artemis 1. And based on the issues that we have with the heat shield that will keep us safe. I know you expect that everything is going to go according to plan, but what are your concerns? I'm sorry, Bill, was that a joke that everything goes to plan? According to lead flight director Jeff Ratigan, a flawless mission is NASA's never ending quest. I expect things will go very well, and I also expect there's going to be something unexpected. I think every space mission we've flown, something has come up and we've had to deal with it. Ratigan told us he has great confidence in the Artemis II mission and crew. NASA's challenge is what comes next. Getting Artemis 3 astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon's surface. To do that, NASA in 2021 awarded a nearly $3 billion contract to Elon Musk SpaceX for the lunar lander version of its starship, the biggest, most powerful launch vehicle ever built. Made of two components, the lunar lander will sit atop the reusable super heavy booster. After several spectacular failures and explosions, Starship rebounded with successful launches this past August and October. But the setbacks and technical complexity have contributed to the delay in America's return to the moon's surface. NASA's target for putting American astronauts back on the moon is now 2028. Are we going to make that? I think there's a lot of things that need to happen to make that successful. You know, first step, fly Artemis ii. And I'll tell you, I spend most of my time on this mission, but we're going to need our SpaceX partners to get a lander out there for us, get back down to the surface of the moon. Artemis may be Apollo's mythological twin, but upcoming missions with SpaceX bear little resemblance. For example, the massive SpaceX lander that will rendezvous with the crew in lunar orbit has to be refueled in space, a complex process requiring the launch of 10 or more fuel tankers. Nothing like this has ever been done before. Elon Musk says it's needed to propel Deep space exploration and we want to have epic futuristic spaceships with lots of people in them traveling to places we've never been to before. But first he has to get starship to the moon. With the complexity and delays, NASA has doubts SpaceX can meet the President's time frame and is seeking a plan B. The purpose of this hearing is, you know, are we going to be able to get to the moon first? Jim Bridenstine was NASA administrator in President Trump's first term and launched the Artemis program this past September. He told Congress America's moon landing system has since grown too complicated. It is extraordinarily complex. In some cases, you know, it hinges on us, me saying here today that it is highly unlikely that we will land on the moon before China. What would it mean if China were to put humans back on the moon first? Of course, it would be massively embarrassing. Scott Pace was Executive Secretary of the National Space Council during the first Trump administration and helped NASA develop the Artemis program. He says establishing a presence on the moon is important. Who gets there first this century is not. I don't downplay the embarrassment and bad headlines and everything else that would come from the Chinese, you know, returning to the moon before we're able to do so. That said, from a longer term strategic approach, that is a relatively short news story. Whereas who sets the rules for the space domain? Who is there permanently? That's a story for the next century. Pace told us the competition with China should force NASA to rethink what he calls an unwieldy and expensive approach. The agency spends more than $2 billion on each single use SLS rocket, while private companies, he says, are pursuing a more sustainable path with reusable components like SpaceX has demonstrated for a decade. He encourages commercial competition, which is intensifying among cosmic 1 percenters. After NASA called for a backup lander plan, Musk's SpaceX posted that it is assessing a simplified mission architecture. On Friday, Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin announced at least a two year pause of its space tourism flights to to focus on moon missions. In November, Blue Origin sent its powerful new Glenn rocket into orbit and returned the booster to a platform in the Atlantic. A first for Blue Origin to bring back. That first stage was game changing because now, like an airplane, you're now able to reuse that vehicle. John Coloris is senior Vice president of lunar permanence at Blue Origin. NASA tapped the company to develop a human lunar lander for future missions. With the Artemis program behind schedule, NASA is pressing contractors to pick up the Pace So it's public knowledge that NASA asked all the Artemis vendors on how can we accelerate our efforts. Coloris showed us the first and smaller iteration of Blue Origin's lander, the Mark 1. This unmanned cargo lander will be the company's first vehicle to land on the moon. So this vehicle will be the largest and heaviest lander to ever land on the moon. The almost 30 foot tall lander is wrapped in gold colored insulation to protect it from solar heat and radiation. Until now, the lander has been kept under wraps. Our cameras were the first allowed to see it, Coloris told us later this year, Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket will carry the Mark one into space to descend to the south pole of the moon. The reason for that is there's ice there. So we can take that ice and create water to sustain humans, to break that water down into propellants to then fuel future vehicles that then can go from, from the moon to anywhere else in the solar system. What do you think about this moment? It's incredible. Artemis 2 represents that first effort in decades of deep space exploration of humans. I can't wait for them to go. The Artemis 2 astronauts could fly deeper into space than any human's ever. About 250,000 miles from Earth. And once the spacecraft goes behind the moon, the astronauts will be out of all contact with Earth for about 40 minutes. Flight Director Jeff Ratigan told us he'll be counting the seconds if something should go awry. You've got the lives of four astronauts on your hands. I do. That's a heavy weight. And I think about that every day. You know, my job is to bring Reed, Victor, Christina and Jeremy home safely. These are my colleagues, these are my friends, and they're my responsibility. There will be a period of about 40 minutes when you will be out of contact with the Earth. That's when we will be closest to the moon, farthest from the Earth. But it also is a human moment, you know, and I would love for us to have a moment of togetherness for humans to just go, hey, there's a part of humanity that's not in touch with the rest of us. And let's just get them all back and then we can go back to the hustle and bustle. But I hope that that inspires folks to just have a moment of togetherness. These can be unnerving times for American comedy. The TV sitcom is going by way of the Cannes Laugh Track, while the President tries to heckle late night comedians out of jobs. But funny persists and funny travels Internationally, in the early 90s, two opportunistic comics decided to open an English language improv joint in Amsterdam. It sounded less like a winning business idea than a punchline given the Netherlands reputation as a comic. Well, Netherland. But 30 plus years later, their club, Boom Chicago has imported American funny folk and then exported them back as future stars including Seth Meyers, Jordan Peters, Peel, Amber Ruffin and Jason Sudeikis. Could it be that America's ultimate laugh factory is an improv theater position near an Amsterdam canal? Yes, and the Bush days seem quite good now in retrospect. Oh, I know. WMDs, Colin Powell comedy Rice. What a lark. Comedy, they say is hard. Improv comedy harder still. Then imagine doing it in a country not generally known as a barrel of laughs. Dutch people, not the most giving laughers. I was gonna ask you about that. Dutch people laugh like this. Ha ha. And they immediately get quiet. Seth Meyers needs no introduction. He and Peter Gross, actor and Emmy winning comedy writer, were college pals who then develop their comic chops in Amsterdam. They so lovingly tell you they didn't like things. The honesty, the Dutch honesty, withering candor. Exactly like. It's so funny. I've never been in a place where there's less malice behind deeply cruel. Cruel. It's not rude at all. It's not rude at all. I'm doing you a favor. This part was not good. I did laugh a little bit at that part. So do more of that. No, but we came out and the guy was like, hey yeah, can I buy you a drink? And I was like, oh yeah, of course. Did you see the show? He goes yes I did. And I said, did you like it? He goes, no, I did not care for it. And I was just. And I go, why are you buying me a drink? Then he goes, well, maybe I will like you. Are you ready? Improv is not stand up. You're not performing a pre written routine. You're working in real time. What's something you have at home that you care about? A watch. My shoes. I hear a watch right here. You're relying on the audience for material and direction. I got a watch on my wrist, it looks so fine. It helps me when I don't know what to die. Chicago has Second City, LA has the Groundlings, and New York has Upright citizens Brigade. In Amsterdam, there is Boom Chicago. Last summer, hundreds gathered outside a charming Dutch theater which stands as a national treasure of sorts. Though it's unclear if the true benefiting nation is the Netherlands or the US this is Part of your commute? This is part of my commute. Just about every day. The setup. It's the early 90s. Pep Rosenfeld and Andrew Moskos, recent Northwestern grads, are struggling to make it in the Chicago comedy scene. Do I even ask what drew you to Amsterdam when you were in your early 20s and fresh out of college? Yeah, fresh out of college, 23 years old. I mean, sex, drugs and rock and roll. I mean, right? What brings anybody to Amsterdam when they're young? Along with a third classmate, Ken Shaffel, they cooked up a half baked idea, as one does in Amsterdam. Man, you know what this town could use? An English speaking comedy club. It was probably the best stoner idea ever. You know, let's quit our jobs and move to Amsterdam and start a business. Aware that good comic acts often require a straight man, a straight woman. In this case. They soon roped in Saskia Moss, a local who, amid the yucks, brings a measure of sobriety and savvy. She also became Andrew's wife. I mean, these are two goofballs and I'm the businesswoman, so. But that seemed that worked out perfectly. Thirty plus years later, seems like the dynamic still holds. Still still holds. Yes. Accidental entrepreneurs. They wrote to the local tourist board asking for advice, seeking validation. What'd they say? Said, this won't work here. Don't do it here. It's not an Amsterdam kind of a thing. The Dutch don't want to see a show in English. They don't. The tourists don't want to see a show at all. Andrew reads the letter and goes, yeah, based on this, I feel like we should definitely do it. They named the club Boom Chicago, a nod to their hometown. They found a stage in the back of a bar and eventually their own proper theater off the Times Square of Amsterdam, the Leidseplein. And our little summer project became a year round business. As for the small matter of recruiting talent, Moskos and Rosenfeld went back to Chicago and made their pitch to two recent Northwestern grads, Myers and Gross. What was your level of knowledge about the Netherlands? It was so bad that I think my first thought was, I think Hamlet takes place is Hamlet. And then the other thing I did was, I remember just in my head, I think I pictured just Sound of Music. And I was like, well, first thing I gotta do is get some hiking shoes. And then the next thing I'll do is I'll buy a guidebook. So it was like, bought the shoes and then the next thing was like, like flattest place on Earth. Once they assembled a cast, we've only been here for a few weeks. It was time to assemble an audience. So the way it worked was that before the show, I'd be there selling tickets. And we didn't have a bank account, so the money went in my boots. I wore cowboy boots then. He was eccentric. I was eccentric. I still am. I would go out on this on the Leidseplein, which is a big square, and just tell people, what are you doing tonight? Oh, yeah. Well, we don't know. Now you know. You're coming. Boom Chicago. Can we just discuss. You talked about the finances of this club being stored in his boot. Without irony, we just glossed over that as one time. Oh, this is so funny. I was in my room after a show. It was evening, nighttime. I get a knock on the door, and Pep is over there and goes, yeah, I brought this girl home, and I don't know if I want to leave her in the room with the boot. And he handed the boot over to me for safekeeping that evening. Business before bl. That's right. Back in US Comedy circles, word spread. Josh Meyers, Seth's younger brother, and Ike Barinholtz were hired 25 years ago. I had extensions put in. Dad. Oh, my God. I'm sorry, dad. Today, Barinholtz is an actor in Ascent. Do I smell? I didn't go home last night. Yes, you really smell like vodka. Oh, just vacuum. That's fine. Nominated for an Emmy for his role in the Apple TV show the Studio, the Pope on a roller coaster. An early Boom Chicago comedy lesson. Avoid cheap jokes. The references to the Cleveland Browns or the Olive Garden don't cut it. When you get here and you're playing for 300 people or so and their English isn't all their first language, you have to learn how to be bigger. You have to learn how to own a room and make references that are a little more universal and deal with concepts and themes that someone from Australia or someone from Finland or someone from New Jersey can all relate to. Yeah, I remember in an early show, I said I was gonna key someone's car. And then our director's like, people don't know what keying a car is over here mean. Sloten and auto. Yeah, you can't eat Slotel and alto here. If you happen to live here long enough to have, like, one or two Dutch words in your pocket and can throw one Dutch word into your improv, you are a God to them. We want you to know that Americans aren't about hate. We're about love. Brendan Hunt arrived to BOOM in the late 90s. Like many other comedians, moving to Amsterdam sounded like a risky career move. Or maybe not. When I was doing improv in Chicago in the late 90s, there was this thing called Boom Chicago that you would hear about and it was sort of in hushed, mythical tones. Like, apparently they do improv in Amsterdam. Amsterdam. You ever been there? You've been there? You haven't been there? None of us ever been there. Like, wow, that's cool. But I mean, no one would ever do it, right? I mean, some people do it, but we can't do that, right? You'd be gone for a year and our flourishing careers will be interrupted where we're making 10 bucks a show twice on a Friday. If you want to be in the Netherlands, you gotta behave, do normal. Then as now, the 10 or so comedians in the troupe commit to one year minimum and are paid enough to make it a full time job. Performing six shows a week means a lot of reps on stage with little time to wallow after the inevitable rough nights. Even though you don't understand sports. Oh, get em. What are they? They're. Stacey Smith is in the current Boom Chicago troupe. Our ensemble works together so often that we can at intermission also, like, discuss, like, what's working, what's not working, what kind of crowd are they? What are they resonating with? You do that? Yeah, it's like halftime. Well, because. Yeah, it's exactly like halftime. When I say meow, you say cat. Stacey also heads Boom's Comedy Academy, which teaches improv to more than 200 students. Improv has an unpredictability and reliance on teamwork that makes it the ultimate building block of true humor. Less joke telling than acting and reacting. When you're working on a team, you do need to come in with the mindset that you're building that piece from start to finish as a unit. You want to be the class clown? Go do 10 minutes on open mic night. Yeah. Because we do believe that if you are a good improviser, then you already have the tools to be a good stand up comedian. And action. To wit, seth Meyers. In 2000, a touring show he developed with Boone caught the eye of Saturday Night Live. He was offered a writing job. It was like a baseball player getting called up to the big leagues. Chris. No. It was also a Boom Chicago moment of arrival. It was really special to know. It was the sort of thing that made people want to see more of you. That was a great source of Success, right? Totally. And you can draw a direct line to Boom Chicago. 100% direct line. So too for Brendan Hunt at Boom, he became obsessed with European soccer. He and two other Boom cast members, Jason Sudeikis and Joe Kelly, began to develop a partnership. Going out to the pitch the grass here to watch practice training. They call practice training. Oh, it's vernacular. Won't be tough. You know what? I'm gonna get it, though, because training makes perfect. There you go. You don't need wise coach beard to tell you where this story is going. Does Ted Lasso happen but for Boom Chicago? No, I don't think Ted Lasso does happen without Boom Chicago. It opened us up to the view of Americans abroad and like, viewing yourself outside of your own home. You know, one of the rules of Boom Chicago was because we'd make fun of all countries, basically. But, like, the rule was we make fun of ourselves first. We earn it, and then we go out. So it turns out Keith met Pale at Boom Chicago. The Boom Chicago footprint goes well beyond the five days of shows each week. Our opening speaker is a veritable superhero of management thinking. In fact, one of Boom's biggest sources of revenue has long been global corporate events that braid banter with business. You've got two cats. With annual earnings measured in the millions. No longer kept in a boot, the business formed in the 90s in a haze. Well, booms Genevieve Brown. In June, Boom Chicago held an alumni reunion from the back. May we please have the suggestion of another object? A can opener. A can opener. Sex with me is like a can opener. You're better off with the electric version. Former cast members came back. Sorry, I kind of forgot your name again. What was it? Joie. Oh, Joie. Like Joie de vivre. Not just to reminisce, but to perform. I'm so grateful for Jeff Bezos. Yeah, me too. I think it's cool that he's sending people up in space to work out their problems and, of course, rib each other on stage. I don't think you guys look alike. Okay. Okay. I don't. All right. You're the one. Yeah. I think you look like a Jewish orthodontist in upstate New York. And you look like you were born on a fjord. Which of those two is handsomer? Both handsome. One of you just might be more prone to stomach trouble. All those laughs from such an unlikely windup. We heard people say you carry something from this place with you when you leave, no matter what. Yes. Yeah. Just don't put in your suitcase. Just fly home without it. Pull it off. From Amsterdam to snl. He had too long of hair at the time. It was going to curl out like a little Dutch boy. At 60minutesovertime.com, The Smithsonian Institution holds more than 155 million items. It's such an eclectic mix. It's been called America's attic. As Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch III is in charge of all of it. We asked Bunch which object is his favorite representation of America. I would argue the great strength of America is the desire to enlarge freedom. And for me, the object is a freedom paper and a case. There was a man named Joseph Trammell who was enslaved in Northern Virginia. He gained his freedom in the 1850s, and he had a freedom paper. And that paper said that he was not a slave, that he could have some of the best of America. But he also knew that if he lost that paper that he could be resold into slavery. So he wasn't very good with his hands, but he made a handmade tin wallet, and he put that paper in the wallet so when he's working during the day, it wouldn't be destroyed by perspiration. And then every night when he would come home, he'd take the paper out, put it on the mantelpiece, and talk to his family about the importance of freedom, the fragility of freedom, the power of freedom. I'm Leslie Stahl. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes. 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