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Seth Meyers
Hey, pudgy.
Josh
Hey, Sufi.
Seth Meyers
We haven't talked since Thanksgiving. Is that right?
Josh
I think that's right.
Seth Meyers
So much has happened.
Josh
Yeah. I mean, we went our separate ways for Thanksgiving proper.
Seth Meyers
Yep. After. Let me just say after. I feel like we had maybe our strongest Myers family Thanksgiving show of all time.
Josh
Yeah, it was a winner.
Seth Meyers
You Brined. I do recommend anybody who hasn't seen youn Brined, just go look it up on YouTube. It's a spinoff of youf Burnt, the Popular ish, I think.
Josh
Very, very popular in my mind.
Seth Meyers
And it was great. You and mom and dad were just absolutely tremendous with your performance.
Josh
There was one moment in it where mom and I sort of volley back and forth on the same monologue, ripping people who unbutton their pants on Thanksgiving.
Seth Meyers
Sort of Shakespearean in your disdain for those who would unbutton their pants.
Josh
And I did. I rarely read comments, but I read one that. Cause apparently there's a two shot. Well, now I know there's a two shot because I've watched it. And they were like, it's so cute to watch Hillary Myers mouthing along with Josh, saying his words. And then someone pointed out that I kind of do it too. And you can see my mouth just making the smallest movements because, I mean, in our defense, we are looking at cue cards.
Seth Meyers
Right.
Josh
That have all the words written on them. So it's. Yeah, I don't know, it's subconscious.
Seth Meyers
It might be genetic as well because early on in my time at snl, I was often caught mouthing other people's lines. Yeah, I think it's like a little bit of anticipation. You're just sort of gearing up for your next time to say what you're supposed to say. But yeah, it was really fun. It was such a special show. Also, my kids were guests on the show. Yeah, we had pre taped that a week earlier and we went our separate ways and I got mom and dad and they came with us to spend the holidays with our family. And a bunch of people kept coming over to the house and they. People kept asking to watch it. So, like, I just want people to know I'm not the guy who's like, you gotta see the kids.
Josh
Yeah, yeah.
Seth Meyers
People were coming over. They're like, oh my God, we wanna watch it. So the boys and Addy got to watch it three times in, let's say, an hour.
Josh
Wow.
Seth Meyers
And on the third time, they started yelling out their lines before they set em on tv. And I had to pause it. I had to pause it and say this Is. This is worse. I will say they all. They were like, oh, right, right, right, right. I'm like. I go, you're going to get your laugh. But don't. You don't get two laughs. Yeah. If you say it twice.
Josh
Do you think they're getting a big head about it?
Seth Meyers
No, I think I was a little worried about it. And I mean, I think they're going to want to do it again. I think it's exactly what happened with mom and dad. Look no further than what happened with mom and dad. Yeah.
Josh
I will say, though, like, because mom and dad and me do that episode, like, mom will get stopped in the produce section. Like, they'll get recognized out in the world from people who don't know them, who are like, hey, are you Larry Myers? Are you? And it's.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, yeah. That's great. It was. It was a lot of fun. It's one of my favorite little parts of the week before Thanksgiving is that we get to have dinner with all our friends and then we do Thanksgiving show and then we come back to my apartment and we play some games. Very good games this year.
Josh
Very good games. We played this game. I don't know if it's Dixit D I X I T was one of the Spel D Jaris winners, which is the German game of the year.
Seth Meyers
Oh, if they listen to family trips.
Josh
They know Speilde Jaris, a previous winner of Svel Diars. Great game. And then we played Monikers, which is sort of someone's taken a game that I've played at parties in the past and put it in a box.
Seth Meyers
So it was like celebrities. Kind of like celebrities. Yeah.
Josh
It could be phrases and things, but also just a fun party game that you take it out of the box. And I. It always. With every game, people are always like, wait, I don't understand the rules. And it's like, no one understands until you play once.
Seth Meyers
Just give it a beat. Just give it a beat. You don't have to yell out, hey, you know, we were. I went over. I want to ask you this question because. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna work backwards, but I was on the Graham Norton show for the first time in life.
Josh
Oh, yeah.
Seth Meyers
Which is really exciting. One of the guests had just won the British version of the show Traders. Have you ever watched the reality show Traders here in the States, hosted by Alan Cummings?
Josh
I've watched an episode or two on a plane.
Seth Meyers
The Game Mafia. It's sort of based on the Game Mafia. Yeah. Do you like the Game Mafia.
Josh
I do. But it also. You need the right group of people.
Seth Meyers
I will leave a party if it's time to play Mafia. Yeah. I hate mafia so much. Yeah. I hate that. It's basically just people. Friends of yours accusing you or just saying it's. I know it's. Or people saying it's not me. Dude, you know me, right?
Josh
Yeah, I know you. That. I mean, that stuff's ridiculous.
Seth Meyers
Yeah. Anyway, don't care for Mafia, but Alan Carr, who won British Traders, what a. What a delight he was. Yeah. So right after we wrapped up Thanksgiving, I went to London for the first time in over a decade. Man, oh, man, I can't say enough about London. If you're talking about a family trip, probably a little late to. For this year. But a Christmas trip to London is like nothing else.
Josh
I mean, that's where it feels like a lot of classic Christmas stuff would go on.
Paul Feig
A lot of.
Seth Meyers
Look, if you're looking for a stuffed Paddington, if you're looking for a Peppa Pig in a Santa's hat, you don't got to look very far. You gave me. You made me the biggest nerd in all of London.
Josh
Oh, so glad.
Seth Meyers
Yeah. You got me a book. John Lar's basically Map of London.
Josh
Yeah. It's not like book is the wrong thing. It's like a. It's a fold out, like pamphlet map showing you all the, like, where George Smiley would have gone. And for those who don't know, the John Le Carre books.
Seth Meyers
But yeah, a lot of smiles. Smiley's books are my favorite. Literally my favorite books in the world and total comfort reading at this point in my life. But it was funny because, like, I was with other people and we were in Chelsea late at night about getting taxi and go home. Like, ooh, if we just swing over here, we can see George Smiley's house. And they're like, what? I'm like, all right, nevermind, I'll do it later. But I sent you a picture of me with my big old fold out map. Yeah, Yeah. I feel you look less like a tourist if it's a literary map.
Josh
Oh, I agree with that for sure. So you went off to Martha's Vineyard with mom and dad for Thanksgiving and I drove up to MacKenzie's hometown for.
Seth Meyers
Like three days, which was great.
Josh
Although I was sort of taken ill, so I spent a lot of that time sleeping. And Mackenzie was very good to just be like, just rest and I would just sort of sack out in this room. But before we left, we was it like A flu?
Seth Meyers
Were you taken ill with a flu?
Josh
Sinusitis, as it turns out.
Seth Meyers
Oh, that's pretty cool.
Josh
Yeah, super cool.
Seth Meyers
And.
Josh
But before we left New York, we went and had a three hour brunch at a restaurant in New York from 11 to 2 with our friends the Moscoses. And it was just kind of an epic thing where I feel like at the end, I mean, the restaurant did give us a bottle of Prosecco late in the game. Part of me was like, they want us out of here. Because there were a lot of people that were waiting to sit down and we were a table of eight and had been there since opening and. But they were, you know, they gave us a.
Seth Meyers
Did they give you a, like a bottle, please leave bottle?
Josh
No, no, they popped it open.
Seth Meyers
They popped it. Oh, I see. Well, then they came in, they put a Prosecco on a little string, and they dragged it slowly across the floor out the front door. Oh, there goes your.
Josh
There goes your Prosecco. We, we had so guest star, this gal zb.
Seth Meyers
Oh, yeah, Zeyneb was a, A big part of our weekend.
Josh
Yeah, she's this, this Turkish, Turkish actress who was in their version of Survivor twice.
Seth Meyers
Oh, I didn't realize that part.
Josh
And there were two. There were three people that worked at the restaurant who were Turkish who came over and they all just like started chatting and then someone else recognized her from the show and I feel like they maybe sent the bottle of Prosecco over. So, yeah, it was, I feel like it was nice for her to get her props.
Seth Meyers
And Zeyneb was there because dad brought her, wouldn't tell us how he met her.
Paul Feig
No.
Seth Meyers
Zeyneb was friends with our friend Finn Moscos, who is one of the child of the Boom Chicago family, part of the Boom Chicago empire. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, terrific, terrific weekend. Great trip. And also, I mean, you know, I know people don't listen to this podcast to hear how I'm doing with the Steelers season, but I was flying to London and I'm like, you know what? I'm not even going to pay attention to the Steelers Bills game because what's going to put me in a bad mood? And I'm just going to land and look at my phone. And then I landed and looked at my phone and I was in the worst mood. So that didn't work. And I was like, you know what? I'm done. I'm done with the Steelers. I don't need this. And I did not watch a snap of the game on Sunday. And then I, I looked at my phone and then did a dance in a strip mall parking lot while my family was in a sushi restaurant. And I'm back. Pashi. I'm back in.
Josh
Welcome back, Sufi.
Seth Meyers
It's good to be back.
Josh
We have Paul Feig on the show this week.
Seth Meyers
Paul Feig is. Yeah. Lovely guy to talk to. Lovely guy to lay eyes on. Yeah. Famously wears his suit everywhere he goes.
Josh
So, yeah, a dapper, dapper gentleman. And, yeah, he's new film, the Housemaid. It's coming to theaters December 19th with. Yeah, it's gonna be a good one. I. I'm a big fan of these books.
Seth Meyers
Are you really?
Josh
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
Oh, I didn't know that. That's exciting. Yeah.
Josh
I mean, I mentioned it in the interview. I guess you weren't paying attention.
Seth Meyers
I kind of listen to the guest. I'm not really listening to you. I'm like, zeroed in on them when you're also. When you're talking, I'm moving my lips to. Yeah, Yeah.
Josh
I can't really hear, but yeah, Paul Feig. I mean, freaks and geeks. Bridesmaids, bridesmaids. Lots of know what he's doing.
Seth Meyers
Knows what he's doing behind the camera.
Josh
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
Yeah. Enjoy, everybody.
Narrator
Family trips with the M brothers.
Paul Feig
Family chips with the M. Oh, hey. Oh, my God, Seth, it's been so long. Hey, Josh.
Seth Meyers
I know.
Josh
Hello. How are you?
Paul Feig
I'm fantastic. I'm fantastic. Thanks for having me on.
Josh
Probably our most dapper guest I've ever had.
Seth Meyers
And I mean, again, he's always dapper, but I was concerned. I was like, does he not dress up for podcasts?
Paul Feig
Nobody wants to see that.
Seth Meyers
I'm thrilled.
Paul Feig
You've had a very uneventful week, Seth.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, it's nice. It's nice and low key and I like. That's how I like it.
Paul Feig
Good God, what world are we living in?
Seth Meyers
Anyway? Hey, can I tell you, I had a very exciting Paul Feig moment that had never happened for me before.
Paul Feig
Really?
Seth Meyers
I'd never seen heavyweights.
Paul Feig
No. Oh, my God. Well, there you go.
Seth Meyers
It was very exciting because obviously I know you as a director and a writer. I was aware that you were an actor, but I feel like I had sort of missed your acting. Heavyweights came out after I was too late for me, but now I have kids, and there you go. It was a delight.
Paul Feig
It's funny, it kind of weirdly holds up. I hadn't seen it forever. They just did the 30 year anniversary with the cast, and I stopped by that and yeah, it was fun. I mean, it was kind of ahead of its time, weirdly, because the humor was a little more kind of, you know, Ben Stillery, Judd Apatowi at the time, and it just bombed.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, it was like a very. It was like a forerunner. It was like somebody saw in Ben Stiller what the future was gonna be, and this was like a nice dry run in a kid friendly movie.
Paul Feig
Yeah, exactly. And it just bombed horribly. I mean, just tanked. At the end of the day, I.
Seth Meyers
Will say the nice thing about it holding up is it's not. I think you might rush to the opinion that the comedy is all at the expense of the kids at the camp. Yeah. You know, I mean, it's really not.
Paul Feig
No, I mean, that's the thing. It's like when we did Bridesmaids and people saw the trailer with Melissa doing the, you know, burping and saying, I don't know which end that came out of it. All this negative press came up before we came out saying, we're gonna be making fun of her. It's like, no, she's the coolest character in the movie.
Seth Meyers
But yeah, yeah, she'. She's the person you want to hang out with. Jumped in close. A real shame, looking back, it's a real shame when they review the trailers.
Paul Feig
You know, I don't know why that wouldn't work, but somehow, you know, as a movie maker, I tell you, we would love nothing more than to not put out trailers. Like, the greatest experience.
Josh
I have a friend who sort of taught me that, like, the first trailer that you see, maybe like nine months before a movie comes out or a year before, like, that one's fine to watch, but the closer it gets to opening day, you should look away because then they're just giving too much away and it's.
Paul Feig
Yeah, no, they panic. Like, we're not tracking until the end of the movie.
Seth Meyers
Yeah.
Paul Feig
Fortunately, my new movie, Lionsgate has been really good on hiding stuff, so.
Seth Meyers
Yeah.
Josh
Which I'm very excited for. I'm a big audiobook fan and particularly I drive to Mammoth Mountain from Los Angeles and I always look for a book that I can kind of do in about 10 hours, which gets me there and back. And the Housemaid is one of those books.
Paul Feig
Oh, good.
Josh
I love them as audiobooks and I'm so excited. I've listened to the follow up and I'm so excited that you've made this.
Paul Feig
Oh, well, thanks. I appreciate that. You know, the audiobook I'm really into right now is Barry Diller's book. If you have listened to that yet. That's quite fantastic. Quite a delight.
Seth Meyers
I know that he re recorded it. He wasn't happy with his first pass at his own book.
Paul Feig
I mean, it's funny. He, like. Because I did an audiobook for one of my. I wrote like, this kid's sci fi thing, and I did the audiobook, and all they kept saying is, like, slow down. Like, I was just ripping through it. And so I listened to him. He's like, really emotes and he's taking his time. I was like, wow, that's smart. That's cool. Yeah.
Seth Meyers
Yeah. I think he. Again, he obviously has an incredible ear and eye for when things are good or bad. And I think I like that he listened to his first pass because I'm assuming it's interminable to record the audio for a book. So to want to do it a second time means you really.
Paul Feig
It's kind of like torture because you don't realize what a bad reader you are until you are put in front of a microphone to do it, you know, And I can talk on camera, but for some reason, reading your own words, like every other sentence, I would trip up and have to stop again. And it was like torture for everybody involved. Yeah, yeah.
Seth Meyers
And were you ever like, this is. If the writing was better, I would totally.
Paul Feig
Who wrote this thing?
Seth Meyers
Also, Amanda Seyfried's in your movie. And I'm just gonna say one of, like, a sneaky, great talk show guest.
Paul Feig
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
Because she's. She's very. Her own thing.
Paul Feig
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
And I think people sometimes maybe make a mistake with Amanda of, like, observing her and thinking she's gonna be one thing. And she is. She's just such a delight.
Paul Feig
No, the minute that look, the dulcimer comes out and suddenly, you know, America falls head over heels in love. She's. I mean, she's really the best. I mean, and she was so much fun to work with. And she's just, you know, really a free spirit in all the great ways that.
Seth Meyers
So where is Mount Clemens? Michigan.
Paul Feig
High on top of a mountain? No, it's right. It's part of Clinton Township, which, when you follow the presidential campaigns, they always have to stop in Clinton Township because it's very autoworker and blue collar. That's where I grew up. But yeah, Mount Clemens is kind of right. If you're from Michigan, it's right about here.
Seth Meyers
Gotcha. Yep. Yep.
Paul Feig
Lake St. Clair. Ish. And yeah. Good old Midwestern stock. I love it.
Seth Meyers
Did you have a good Midwestern upbringing?
Paul Feig
Yeah, I really Did. I really did. I was there until 17, then I escaped to come to LA and be a tour guide at Universal Studios and then never left.
Seth Meyers
So no siblings, correct?
Paul Feig
No, just me. They said forget it. One and done, man.
Seth Meyers
Were you close with your parents?
Paul Feig
Yeah, I really was. I had great parents. They were really, really good. They kind of each gave me the other side of what I needed. My mom was really supportive and she really wanted me to be in showbiz even though we were in Michigan. So she didn't know what that meant. She just wanted me to be a performer or something. And she really liked goofy humor. And then my dad was really quite a wreck on tour. He could tell a joke like an old time comedian can really keep you enthralled, which I have no skill at doing whatsoever. But between the two of them, he was kind of the smart humor. My mom was goofy humor and together it produced this.
Seth Meyers
Were they aware that you were absorbing their two sides of humor for the purposes of a career?
Paul Feig
I don't know. Well, in kind of, because when I, I was a magician growing up because that's what you do when you want to perform and you buy an act, basically. So I was going to get, get getting ready for the, the talent show in ninth grade and did my act for my dad and he goes like, oh, you can't just do magic, you got to have jokes. And so he went into this file that he had because he used to go to the nightclubs and write down the MC's jokes, which I guess.
Seth Meyers
Oh my God.
Paul Feig
Yeah, so he had this whole giant file of these jokes. They were all fairly off color. Yeah. And he gave me. So I peppered them through my act and I ended up winning the talent show, but with jokes that were pretty. I mean, I mean I told the first one, which was kind of a really rude joke, but kind of top secretly rude. Like I got to the punchline and there was a big silence and then you hear all the teachers in the back of the auditorium just burst out laughing.
Seth Meyers
Do you remember it? Do you remember your first blue joke?
Paul Feig
Yeah, it was, it was. I don't, I can't tell it exactly. It was just basically the premise was an elephant escapes from the zoo. And one night it's up on top of a hill and it's eating cabbage with its trunk. It's pulling them out of the and eating it. And so this guy is walking, he sees it silhouetted against the moonlight. So he just sees a silhouette of this happening. So he goes to somebody's house and he goes, there's an elephant up there, so what's it doing? And said, well, it's pulling up cabbage with its tail. Said, well, what's it doing? Then he says, if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. It's a shoving cabbage up your ass, Jo. The talent show.
Josh
Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors.
Seth Meyers
Support comes from Olipop. You know what I like about the Olipop sodas, Posh? What's that Souf? Well, first of all, Crisp apple is a flavor. Big fan of that. Delicious but low in sugar.
Josh
You know what I am all about this particular time of year with these Olipops.
Seth Meyers
What's that?
Josh
These adorable yetis.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, there's yetis on the cans.
Josh
Look at this vintage cola. Yeah. I gotta say, when we were younger, we drank a fair amount of soda pop and it wasn't necessarily good for us.
Seth Meyers
It was not good for us.
Josh
But now there's so much to love with Olipop because it's good for your gut health.
Seth Meyers
I'm gonna go down to my list here, tell you some of the nostalgic flavors. Vintage cola, Classic Root beer, Orange squeeze, Classic Grape Strawberry, Vanilla cream soda, Cherry cola. They also have a Dr. Pepper dupe called Dr. Goodwin and a brand new Sprite Dupe Lemon lime flavor. It's delicious. As Pashi pointed out, take a look at this can because you ain't seen nothing. Yeti, right?
Paul Feig
Posh?
Seth Meyers
Is that what you always say?
Josh
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Seth Meyers
Buy any two cans of Olipop in store and we'll pay back for one. Works on any flavor, any retailer, including the Yeti. Limited edition cans, go to drinkollipop.com trips.
Josh
Olipop is sold online at drinkollipop.com and Amazon and they're also available in almost 50,000 retailers nationwide, including Costco, Walmart, Target, Publix, Whole Foods, Kroger and Heb.
Seth Meyers
Support comes from Shipt. Hey, Buchi.
Josh
Hey Sufi.
Seth Meyers
Tell us about Shipt.
Josh
Oh well, Shipt makes the holiday season more joyful by helping you save time with same day delivery on everything you need. Groceries, decor gifts and so much more from your favorite local and national stores like Albertsons, Michaels, Target and Petsmart.
Seth Meyers
I love Shipt when I'm trying to get my fresh groceries and then once I got those decor gifts, everything else for hosting and this is the time of the season when hosting is happening.
Josh
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Seth Meyers
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Josh
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Paul Feig
Here we go.
Josh
Would your father sort of break out these written jokes at dinners and things? Would he sort of sort of stop things and be like, I got a good one and yeah, well he, I.
Paul Feig
Mean he had them all memorized. It was amazing. Like he could do like if you asked me to tell a joke, they all go out of my head. But he would just, but he'd work it in really. Like, you know, there was a fellow who wants, you know, he starts with like a fellow or something.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, a friend of a friend.
Paul Feig
Yeah, exactly. That's right. And he would just like, it'd be like a five minute joke, but it wasn't like a shaggy dog joke. It was like a really, like every moment was getting laughs and then he hit the punchline and people went crazy.
Josh
Oh, that's Great.
Paul Feig
Yeah, it was pretty fun to watch that.
Seth Meyers
What did your parents do when you were growing up?
Paul Feig
My dad owned an army surplus store, sporting goods, but mostly army surplus, in Detroit. And my mom kind of worked for my dad in the back office.
Seth Meyers
I used to go to army surplus stores. How do you start having an army surplus store? Like, what? You know what I mean?
Paul Feig
Yeah. Well, he started with a pawn shop in, like, downtown Detroit. Like, the worst part of downtown Detroit at the time. And I think it just. You start getting surplus because it's cheap goods that you can get. And so that just started coming in. And then. Yeah, he just. He eventually moved into this old. He had one store out by Lake St. Clair that was pretty big. And then he ended moving into an old A and P, which is a giant supermarket, and took it over. And it was mostly surplus, but a lot of sporting goods, too, so.
Seth Meyers
Got it. Did you ever work at that place?
Paul Feig
Oh, I was forced to work in that store, Seth. I had a whole, whole career before I was 17 years old, which is one of the reasons I moved away. Like, starting at 5. My dad just made me work in the store. It's like, oh, it'll give you character and it'll keep you humble and all this stuff. And I was cleaning bathrooms from the day I started there until the day I left at 17.
Seth Meyers
Oh, that. I mean, so it's even worse than we could have imagined.
Josh
Yeah, we were all stopped idly or.
Seth Meyers
Like, idly spending time at the front counter. No.
Paul Feig
Oh, God, no. No. They made me do all these tests because my dad just told everybody, keep them humble. Keep them like. So everybody dumped all their worst jobs onto me. And finally I just said, okay, I'm moving to California.
Seth Meyers
I would be on if I. At what point when you were working at that store did you think you should make a sign to put outside that said, bathrooms not for customers. At some point, I'm like, it's a store. Like, how much? Who was destroying the bathroom?
Paul Feig
Yeah, exactly. They destroy everything you do, though. It was always like, you know. Cause he sold lots of jeans and stuff that everything had to be folded, you know, so these shelves and shelves of folded stuff. And you would just, you know, spend your whole day folding stuff, and one person would come through and just tear everything apart. So to this day, like, all I do is refold stuff when I'm in other people's stores. I know the pain of, like, I just spent an hour folding all that stuff up. But also, you know, you get quite an interesting crowd when you have an army surplus store, let's just say.
Seth Meyers
I like that you. I think a youth being surrounded by olive crowds convince you to wear a suit every day.
Paul Feig
Exactly. Well, my dad always wore a suit and tie at work, you know.
Seth Meyers
Did he? So this you inherited from him?
Paul Feig
Yeah, it was like, if you're an adult, you do it. And, like, he'd be in the back of the stock room pulling boxes down and going through the garbage and stuff. And just mostly, like, a sports jacket, slacks, and a tie. But it was always just drummed in my head, when you work, you wear a tie.
Seth Meyers
And so when did you. Cause again, this is sort of the iconic Paul Feig look. When did LA know that Paul was the guy who wore a suit? Was it when you started directing, or was it even before then?
Paul Feig
No, it was basically after I did Freaks and Geeks. Because I said, well, I started, actually, when I first moved out here in 81, I started doing standup. And I was really into these things called Williwear suits, which were in the early 80s. And they were the kind of the baggy suit where you'd roll up the sleeves, of course, because we always rolled up our sleeves. And I would wear. When I stand, I would wear, like, a polo shirt with a bolo tie, and I had a flat top. So it was quite a severe look. But then as I was doing more standup, it was kind of. Everybody was so kind of more in the George Carlin mode, and so I was like, maybe I should. So I kind of went to vintage bowling shirts and Converse sneakers, and I kind of did that. And then once I did, like, Freaks and Geeks, I was trying to reconnect with some mythical high school version of myself because I was dressed up in school. But I started wearing jeans and, you know, and, like, you know, just overshirts, like, oxford shirts over a T shirt and grew my hair long and stuff and did that. But once Freaks and Gigs was over and I was out pitching new shows, like, I'd be in these meetings with all the suits, you know, and they would actually, back then, they were in suits, and I'm there in T shirts and jeans. And they put you on the low couch and you're kind of. Your knees are in your face, and they're all, you know, dictating stuff to you. And I was like, I don't like this power structure. I'm gonna go back to suits. And so I did. And then the minute I did, the industry decided suits weren't gonna wear suits anymore. They're gonna Wear jeans and T shirts. So suddenly I was in rooms in. In a suit and tie, and they were wearing jeans and T shirt. And thought, oh, this poor rube. He wore his church clothes to this meeting. But I like the power dynamics. So I was like, I'm just gonna stick with it.
Seth Meyers
I really like that there was a chance that this is the way you've always dressed. And what you just explained to us is this is your hundredth look. You finally settled on your 100th look.
Paul Feig
Well, David Carlson, I was directing Arrested Development, said he goes, do you just wake up every morning and there's a big wheel of eras? And you spin it and say, okay, Today I'm the 1920s. I have a lot of different styles I play with.
Seth Meyers
Were you. Did you. Family vacations when you're growing up? Was it the lake culture of Michigan?
Paul Feig
No. Since my dad had the sporting goods store and he sold a lot of hunting equipment and stuff like that, he wanted nothing to do with it. He hated that world so much. So it was always either Florida to visit my grandmother or the Caribbean. Because we'd have like one week, one week a year in, like, February, he could go away when the holidays were over. And so, yeah, we would go on these kind of tropical vacations or drive down to Florida.
Seth Meyers
Florida. So, all right, let's start with the tropical vacations. Was that. Was that rare amongst your peer group that you were going to the Caribbean back then?
Paul Feig
Yeah, yeah. It was looked at as being very woo. You know, because my dad owned a store, so he was, you know, looked at as being, well, to do, even though it was an army surplus store. And he would not let my mother ever have a Cadillac. She always wanted a Cadillac. And he said, if you have a nice car, they're gonna think I'm charging too much.
Josh
What did he drive?
Paul Feig
A station wagon.
Seth Meyers
Okay, gotcha.
Paul Feig
Oh, yeah. Nothing but station walls.
Josh
He wasn't in a Cadillac.
Seth Meyers
That's so. I mean, by the way, that talks about how good he was at business, that he realized your mom's car would hurt his bottom line.
Paul Feig
Yeah, he was smart and, you know, so my mom actually had a Pacer. We had a Pacer. The. The.
Seth Meyers
All right.
Paul Feig
The car of jokes. Of many jokes.
Seth Meyers
I was gonna say there had to be something between Pacer and Cadillac.
Paul Feig
Dodge Coronet, Plymouth Fury.
Josh
I had a Plymouth Fury. I had a Plymouth Grand Fury in college. It was great.
Paul Feig
They're gigantic. They're the biggest.
Josh
Gigantic. It's like a couch in the front and a couch in the back.
Paul Feig
Yeah. And I had to learn, like driver's training and just that thing trundling down, you know, these two, you know, everything was just, you know, one way each way. And so you're, you know, all I could see is every time with that giant car, I was just going to somehow clip the car coming towards me and die. But I didn't. I made it.
Josh
Yeah. It was a friend in college. It was a friend's grandmother's car that I bought for like $300. And it would just turn off in the middle of an intersection and then the power steering would go. And I would just have to muscle it through the rest of the turn and then pull over and start it up again.
Paul Feig
Exactly. That was the thing. And it would always like the carburetor would always stall you. Yeah, I like cars. Yeah, it was a great car. I like cars better now because they don't have all that stuff that stalls. Yeah.
Seth Meyers
What, what was your, what was your Caribbean vacation like when you guys got down there?
Paul Feig
It was fun. We'd always go to either like the Bahamas or Jamaica. We went to Haiti once.
Seth Meyers
Wow.
Paul Feig
It was on a cruise, though. It was like a little mini cruise. And I remember stopping in Haiti and we got driven around before all the, you know, all the Haiti went down way back when. Yeah. And it was, it was wild. I mean, it's weird to go somewhere that is beautiful and nice and then it becomes troubled later and you're like, we were there. That's weird.
Josh
Yeah. And were you beach people when you got there? Would you sort of like, were you staying at resorts or hotels on the water?
Paul Feig
Yeah, I was on the water. I would always. Before apparently sunblock existed, I would be out on the beach all day and get such horrendous burns that I couldn't put on a dress shirt at night. I remember just screaming in pain, like in bed and just, you know, blisters on your. Because you're just, you know, body surfing all day or whatever you're doing in the. Yeah, so. Yeah. Yeah. Being from the Midwest in winter and you go away and there's sun and surf, then you're just.
Seth Meyers
That's all the figs, I take it the figs are a fair skinned person, people.
Paul Feig
Yeah, very fair skinned. We're white and then we're red, then we're pink and then we're white.
Josh
And would you, would you sort of go off on your own when you were down there? Would you hang out as a, as a unit?
Paul Feig
Well, as I got older, we always Took my cousin Philip because I was an only child. And so that was always the thing of, like, bring Paul. Bring Philip along so he can take care of, you know, be friends with Paul. He was a couple years older than me. And so we eventually we would kind of go off on our own, but not really, but kind of to different parts of the resort and try to find people that we liked and go to whatever nightclub would let you in. But, you know, like those resorts, you know, you can go into the casino, you can go into the nightclub, and they don't generally stop you.
Josh
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
What side of the family was Philip? Was it your mom's side or your dad's side?
Paul Feig
My dad's side, yeah.
Seth Meyers
And was there a lot of family from your dad's side in town and around?
Paul Feig
No, not really. We only saw they. They're all Michigan, but they lived in Grossil, which was like, away from us, so. And I. He had like, two older sisters, and then him. And that was kind of it. That's the extent of family that I. We were really in touch with.
Seth Meyers
Gotcha.
Paul Feig
But he was, you know, we would kind of be. He and I were best friends, so it was really fun.
Seth Meyers
How often did you see him during the year when you weren't on vacation?
Paul Feig
Only at holidays. Really got to see them on holiday. And then I would talk to him on the phone and we would, like, for some reason, talk for like three hours on the phone every day. And just.
Seth Meyers
What was the age gap?
Paul Feig
Two years. Two years.
Seth Meyers
It's really funny to think about, like, three hours. Three hours with a cousin you don't go to school with. Like, what would you talk about?
Paul Feig
I don't know what we talked about. It's weird. Like, I just remember being on the phone for hours and like, my dad. Get off the phone. You know, all that kind of stuff because you're on the one, you know, then somebody picks up the party line, get off. You know. But then I was. But I had, like, my other best friend was my next door neighbor, who was two or three years. Actually three years older than me, who was my babysitter. And then we became best friends, and we're still really close friends.
Josh
Oh, that's great.
Paul Feig
Yeah. It's kind of weird.
Seth Meyers
These are. It is like, almost. Most of these stories are like, this is a guy who wears a suit when he's older. All my friends are older. They were like authority figures. Right.
Paul Feig
There's no rebellion going on whatsoever with those.
Josh
With the holidays. Would you guys host or would you go to the Cousin's house an hour.
Paul Feig
Trade it. It traded. Yeah. And my mother was very high strung, and so she would just dread when she had to do it. But then my dad would kind of take over and he would cook the tur. And then. But there was such a. It was such regimentation in our family of what got cooked and where you ate and what you did, you know, like, my. Who was. My aunt was always famous for bringing green stuff, it was called. And it was just like, you know, green Jell O with some bunch of stuff in it, but it had some kind of cream in it. But that always showed up. My dad was famous for making. He had to make this big ball of cheese and then roll it in crushed nuts and put it out. And then there was also the. The chopped liver ball, which I always had to get the grinder and do and just couldn't even smell it. But.
Seth Meyers
And then when the party was over, would you take the full untouched ball and save it for next year?
Paul Feig
Exactly. No, the figs would tear through that ball.
Seth Meyers
Oh, really? So the chopped liver ball did very well.
Paul Feig
The chopped liver ball was not chopped liver. All right. Some sort of a joke. You know what I'm going for. Yeah, no, they. They loved it. No, everything got consumed. Our house.
Seth Meyers
That's great. Do you. Is that a holiday you still look forward to as we're. As we're coming up on. On Thanksgiving?
Paul Feig
Yeah, you know, I do. I'm. I guess I'm my mother's son because, like, we got invited somewhere, so, like, oh, good, we got to go somewhere. If we're ever having to host it, which we used to have to do when my wife's parents were alive. It was always like, oh, no, they're coming out here from Chicago and we have to cook this meal. And I would find shortcuts around it. I found out once that the Four Seasons in Pasadena, you could buy a full meal from them. So I would just go and pick it up, you know, and pass it off as my own, which was always great.
Josh
Yeah. Yeah, I do. I do a similar thing when my parents come out here for Christmas. I live right by a grocery store that sort of does a full thing, and it's like, man, there you go.
Paul Feig
Hello, Boston Markets. Exactly.
Josh
I cook some things, but, yeah, it's a good option.
Seth Meyers
Did you. Would you fly to Florida? You wouldn't drive, right? You never.
Paul Feig
No, we. Oh, no, we drove. That was my favorite thing.
Seth Meyers
Oh, wow.
Paul Feig
Yeah, we would get. Go pick up my cousin and get in my dad's station Wagon and open to the back thing. So you could sit facing back and torture drivers who were facing you. But the greatest thing was we would drive and the first stop was always Lexington, Kentucky. And in Lexington, Kentucky, in the middle of the winter, there was this. I don't know if it was a Holiday Inn or what, but it had an indoor like, terrarium that was a pool. So it was like a tropical pool. And we just thought that was the greatest thing ever. And so that was my favorite part. Once we had to leave there, then it was like another day or I forget if it was a day or two days to get down to Florida, but it was all about Stuckey's. I don't know if you guys remember Stuckey's. It was a. I used to have like a rest. Yeah, totally. And I think they're kind of still around maybe. But that was like. There would be these billboards that say like 200 miles to Stuckey's. Be like, oh my God. So. And they count down, you know, another, you know, 30 miles and you'd get there and it would be all candy and stuff. But also they had magic tricks, but little tops, magic tricks. And that was my favorite thing. So you go and buy magic tricks and stuff. So that. So we actually. I had real fond memories of those trips until we got there and had to spend time with my grandmother, which was not fun. So there you go.
Josh
Is that just like sitting around in a living room with your grandmother?
Paul Feig
Yeah, my grandma, God bless her, she was, you know, she was lovely, but she was also kind of overbearing. So it was she.
Seth Meyers
Do you think your grandmother was excited for your arrival?
Paul Feig
Oh, yeah. No, I was her favorite, which I have great guilt that I kind of didn't. But my grandmother didn't like my mother. And so, you know, he was her mother in law. And so she would kind of torture my mom. My mom wasn't used to being around people like that. Cause the figs are very kind of brash and the arting stalls. My mom's side are very quiet and you know, Canadian Y British. And then here comes my grandmother, who originally from St. Louis and just like on her and stuff. And she could never compute why it was all happening. And so I had to watch my mother weeping constantly. You know, to me it got that bad. Oh yeah. She's all your grandmother. You know, it's like. So I was traumatized by that. And then I'm brought to grandma who would Basic Instinct me because she would wear this house dress, like a house dress.
Seth Meyers
Oh, God, yes. That part of Basic Instinct. It's better when it's a grandmother. It's almost better to get ice picked.
Paul Feig
Than when I would have taken anything other than this. And I would get bright. This is back, you know, when we were just back at home in Michigan, when she was still living there. And I would be taken to my grandmother's house on a Saturday afternoon, and I had to spend, like three hours with her. You know, my dad would drop me off, I'd go there, she would fix me a ice cream. Sunda, as she would call it. A sunda. I don't know why my family pronounce it that way. And I would have to sit on this footstool and juice it in her chair in the sundress and tell me the same stories over and over again, but with legs akimbo. And you're just like. I mean, it's such an exercise in, like, keeping your eyes up because, you know, the. Whatever was going on down there, that was my. That was my Saturday for years and years and years.
Seth Meyers
Oh, my God. So when she moved to Florida, it must have been the best thing ever.
Paul Feig
It was the greatest then. But then they just stored it up, and I had spent days and days with her.
Seth Meyers
What.
Josh
What would. Would Philip do during this time if you were down in Florida?
Paul Feig
Oh, he was out sunbathing or something. He always found some way to get out of it. Yeah, well played.
Seth Meyers
Well played, sir. Those are terrarium swimming pools, which I also remember very fondly. And I think back then, like, they were like, constructed to trap the bacteria. Like, it.
Josh
The.
Seth Meyers
It almost felt like a dome to make. It was all like. Almost like a hazmat type area.
Paul Feig
Oh, very much so, yeah. Everything was grown there.
Seth Meyers
We. We need containment. If this gets out, like, it's going to infect the entire town. But those. It is. What a. What a fun thing for kids even today to be in a. Yeah.
Paul Feig
Oh, yeah. When you're from the Midwest and you're in stuck in cold weather, anything that's sunny and warm and swimmy is great.
Josh
Yeah.
Seth Meyers
It's also those. It's funny when before kids had phones, it was really enough to just see a different billboard saying you were close, closer.
Paul Feig
Oh, yeah. Oh, and playing auto bingo, too. You would get the auto bingo cards, you know, where it'd be like, you know, if you see a pine tree, you get this. And if you see a, you know, a car from. Or a truck, then you do. And that was hours of fun. No. I'm so glad we Didn't. You know, it sounds like an old man talking, but I'm so glad we didn't have phones and iPads and all that because we were so present, you know?
Seth Meyers
Yeah.
Josh
Were you listening to music in the car? In the ride?
Paul Feig
Well, kind of. My dad. All my dad liked is talk radio, you know, so. Okay, so it was a lot of that, and we didn't really have anything to play music on, so it was just singing songs in our heads, I guess.
Josh
Yeah. Where, where in Florida was your grandmother.
Paul Feig
She was Fort Lauderdale, I think.
Josh
Okay, so not near any of the parks or.
Paul Feig
No, no, you weren't. Nothing fun whatsoever, Jo.
Josh
Just checking.
Seth Meyers
Just checking. Was it a week, you. And it would be a full week with Grandma?
Paul Feig
Oh, yeah, Full week. Full week. Yeah. And, yeah, just, you know, and she would cook dinners and then her friends would come over. It was, it was all very, you know, I, I, I spent my whole childhood with adults. And because of that, though, I didn't, I didn't really like kids because I found kids to be kind of annoying. And so I just so wanted to be an adult. So I think that's part of all this. The way I dress and stuff, too. I just was so into being an adult or the idea of getting to be.
Seth Meyers
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Josh
Yeah, I mean, I, I've mentioned this before, but it's such a good gift that everyone sort of on my annual list already has one of these, which is kind of a burn because I can't give them to them again.
Seth Meyers
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Josh
Yeah. I mean, that might, Might just be because your conversation has waned.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, that's true. There's a lot of dead spots with me.
Josh
Maybe you're telling. You're telling a story you've told a bunch of times before.
Seth Meyers
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No bueno.
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Seth Meyers
Jason Disney asked me to do this podcast thing. I need some advice.
Josh
You've got to have banger guests. Walker and Leah, Daniel Deamer, Tim Simons, Adam Coveland.
Paul Feig
You're the one asking the questions.
Josh
How have they better answer?
Sponsor Voice
I don't know anything.
Paul Feig
Epic.
Sponsor Voice
This season is just makeup Quest.
Seth Meyers
I'm Ari and Samhadri.
Paul Feig
Welcome to the Percy Jackson and the.
Seth Meyers
Elite official podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Paul Feig
And watch season two of Percy Jackson streaming now on Disney plus and Hulu.
Seth Meyers
Learn more at disneyplus.com whatson Here we go.
Josh
You said your mother's side of the family was sort of via Canada. Did you ever go up there? Was. Was. Were those grandparents in the mix?
Paul Feig
Well, I had the one grandma there. Both my grandfathers died like before I was even born, so I never knew them. But I had a grandma who lived in Windsor, Ontario. But we would just kind of go visit her, say hi, and go to this one restaurant that she liked and then we'd go. We had a cottage on Lake Erie that we would go up to every week and that was really fun. I used to love that. But this was when Lake Erie had the mercury poisoning and so you weren't allowed to swim in it, but we still swam in it. So.
Seth Meyers
Right.
Paul Feig
So God only knows what's going on.
Seth Meyers
Inside me that was. And how far from your house was The Lake Erie cottage. Like what?
Paul Feig
You could walk there. It was called Seymour beach where we lived. And it was way out, kind of. You got to go into rural Canada outside of Windsor, and. Yeah, it was on this kind of dirt road that wound around and you could walk down this dirt road and there were other houses and then you get right to the beach. So it was like a 10 minute walk to the beach. So it was pretty magical, I gotta say.
Seth Meyers
And how long did it take to get from Michigan to Windsor when you would visit your grandmother? How long was that drive?
Paul Feig
About. Like an hour. All hour to get to the cottage? No, not bad at all. Like a half hour, I think, to get to Canada. And then you either. You either take the tunnel or. We always took the tunnel. Actually, we never took the Ambassador Bridge because it was too far out of our way.
Seth Meyers
Gotcha.
Josh
Gotcha. Would you. Were you friendly with the other families who own the other cottages around there?
Paul Feig
Weirdly, no.
Josh
Okay.
Paul Feig
Why? My family has never kind of. And my wife and I continue this tradition. We don't really get to know our neighbors unless they come over to us and then. Okay. Hi. And you know. Yeah, it's weird. I don't quite know why we had that family dynamic.
Seth Meyers
I don't think it's just. We're just glad. Glad you're making a breakthrough today.
Paul Feig
Thank you.
Seth Meyers
And realizing that it's true of you even now, I. Oh, it is.
Paul Feig
Oh. I mean, tell you, there's. Yeah. Unless somebody comes over with like a basket of, you know, baked goods and forces us to be their friends.
Seth Meyers
But then that's nice when the two of you met. Like, it must have been the amount of, I don't know, like things that had to align for two people who are so antisocial to meet.
Paul Feig
I mean. Exactly. Well, weirdly, we're like really social with like. Like people that we kind of consider to be fun. You know what I mean?
Seth Meyers
Right, right, right. Yeah.
Paul Feig
We're just always been weird about, I don't know, just any relationship, like, you have to do.
Seth Meyers
I think snobs is the word. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Feig
Yes. Seth, you nailed it. You nailed it. I think it's a technical term.
Josh
Well, a neighbor. There is something about a neighbor is like they're always gonna be there. So if they come over once and then they feel like they're. If you allow an open door policy to be assumed by one party, then. Then they might think there's an open door policy when there's not really one.
Paul Feig
Josh. That's a big part of it. It's like, if you don't put limits.
Seth Meyers
Yes.
Paul Feig
People will just.
Seth Meyers
I mean, a beloved member of our family, basically. But our parents, and that's the house.
Josh
We grew up in.
Seth Meyers
Our neighbor Franz literally kicks the door in of our house like it's a old Western saloon.
Paul Feig
Yeah.
Josh
He comes in, and he'll come in to any part of the house. He screams, where is everybody? Is anybody home?
Seth Meyers
Anybody home? That's the first thing you scream.
Paul Feig
Yeah. So he's right out of a sitcom. He.
Seth Meyers
He is a sitcom neighbor. It's very exciting to, like, late in life. I'm not late in life, but late in life, realize that you had a sitcom neighbor growing up.
Paul Feig
Yeah. He sounds like Bill Daly from the Bob Newhart Show. He's Howard.
Seth Meyers
Also, to have a Franz is very fun. Deep accent, thick accent. Yeah.
Paul Feig
Oh, actually, German Franz.
Josh
He's.
Seth Meyers
It's like Ukrainian, right? Isn't it?
Josh
Oh, it was. Yeah. He. He did some time, like, in a.
Seth Meyers
In a work camp.
Josh
In a work camp. Like, he was. He was off in Siberia.
Seth Meyers
But he deserved it, as we've always.
Paul Feig
There we go.
Seth Meyers
Yo.
Paul Feig
We had a. We had a German neighbor down the street who I think my father found out used to be one of the Hitler Youth.
Josh
Oh, great.
Paul Feig
So I know that was the rumor that floated around. I can't say if that's true.
Seth Meyers
But, you know, crazy kids, it's easy.
Josh
It's easy. To tag the German neighbor from down the street at a certain time in history is like, oh, yeah, yeah.
Paul Feig
They were.
Josh
They were.
Paul Feig
Why is he such a punching bag? Exactly.
Seth Meyers
Yeah.
Paul Feig
Yeah.
Josh
Did you.
Seth Meyers
When you're like, are you from Germany? And they're like, no, Argentina.
Paul Feig
And you're like, wait a minute.
Seth Meyers
All right.
Josh
How far was Mount Clemens from Detroit? That must have been pretty close, right?
Paul Feig
Yeah, like 20 minutes to get down there, you know, but back when I was growing up then, you know, sadly, you didn't go down to Detroit unless you were going to Greek Town. That was like, either you go to a Tigers game or go to Greek Town. Otherwise, you didn't go to downtown Detroit. And. And when I got older and we'd go on press tours for my movies and stuff, and we'd go to Detroit, it's like, all I'm gonna do is be in downtown Detroit. Cause I want to take advantage of the thing that we were all told to be afraid of. And it's great down there. It's really cool. There's all kinds of local restaurants and businesses.
Seth Meyers
Detroit's amazing. It's pretty great. I recently went and I think I was in Royal Oaks, Michigan.
Paul Feig
That's where I was born, by the way.
Seth Meyers
Oh, great. So I was doing standup and Royal Oak the same night. There were two downtown. There were like two huge comedy shows as well. The. I think you should leave there and there was another comedy and I was like this. That a city in one night could like support three stand up shows. I was like, this is a. And you just walk around and everybody's out. And that old art deco style. It's a really, really cool.
Paul Feig
I mean you could buy. They were selling those giant office buildings downtown for like a dollar or something. But they were. They're beautiful old buildings. And. Yeah, no, I, you know. But yeah, we're very starved for entertainment. We were in Detroit when I was growing up. So any comedians or anybody that would come. I remember seeing Dada, who used to be. Thank you. Thank you. That's from Seth. Remembering that because he was on Make Me Laugh, which that was. Honestly, I think that that show started the whole stand up comedy scene clubs. But I remember going to see Kippadatta like three nights in a row. My mom had to take me because I was like 14 or whatever. And then years later worked with Kippadatta. I opened for him once.
Josh
Wow.
Paul Feig
Which was really weird.
Seth Meyers
I think I 100% only know kippadata his name through our mutual friend Steve Higgins who just like make like like the amount. Our Steve Higgins, producer at snl. Announcer on Jimmy Fallon and his capacity to drop a name that no one else in the room knows.
Paul Feig
To us their vital new, fresh new Bruce Baby Babyman Bomb Gary Mule Deer. Oh, I could go through the whole list.
Seth Meyers
That's your Rosetta Stone.
Paul Feig
Is it really?
Seth Meyers
Yeah, very. Like, like, like didn't quite happen. Comedians.
Paul Feig
Yes, exactly. Well, you know, a great book is. And I don't know if it's even print, but if you can ever find it, it's called the Last Laugh and it's the story of all the comedians that we fell in love. I mean like it's got Rodney Dangerfield stories when he was Jack Roy. It's got.
Seth Meyers
Oh, wow.
Paul Feig
Everybody. But it's really the history of comedy. So anybody who likes comedy, try to find that book. It's out there somewhere. I guess.
Seth Meyers
I said this on our other. This is just a quick. I was saying this on my Lonely island podcast, but I saw Higgins. I went to the Amy Poehler show and then afterwards it was like the great flashback to just hanging out in Higgins office where I used to see you all the time, like. And you know, that's the place to be where basically everybody like sort of convenes to lament how things should have gone better.
Paul Feig
Right.
Seth Meyers
And Higgins was doing a really funny bit where he was talking about how when he was coming up, he used to write jokes for Fang, Phyllis Diller's husband. And he was like, yeah, Fang was trying to do a rebuttal act cuz he felt like he'd been treated very. And it was like, I'm like, who? And again, now I'm 51. The writers now are like 25 years younger than me. I'm like, higgins, who is this bit for? Like, he's just doing it with so much enthusiasm that it's crushing.
Paul Feig
It's the greatest. No, that, that is, that. I mean, you know, I. For years and years, I was always there. Seth, you remember me sitting in the front row being the only guy that didn't look at the cue cards, which are you once. You once complimented me on. But that was the place to be. Boy, in Higgins. And I mean, honestly, there are a few people funnier than Steve Higgins.
Seth Meyers
If, you know, you know. Yeah.
Paul Feig
Oh, and then when the. The Higgins guys get together, forget it. It's just. Don't try to compete. I always say.
Josh
That's true. When you would go to Tigers games, was that you and your dad? Was that you and the whole family or the whole family being the three of you?
Paul Feig
I got taken with the Cub Scouts several times. My mom took me a couple times. But this was the old Tiger Stadium, which was a pretty scary place. Like, it was not a fun place to go. It was fun to watch the game, but it was all just. It was all I beams and painted dark, you know, green. And it was so old, you know, now they have Comerica park, which is this big beautiful thing. But so it was kind of intimidating. And I remember once I got falsely accused of something. My friend and I were looking like, looking over this railing at the crowd that was sitting down below. And all of a sudden these two guys, young, like teen guys who were working as security guy. I don't know what they were. One guy came up and put me in a headlock from behind. I was like. And he goes, you're spitting on the crowd. You're spinning on the crowd. What? I got accused of spitting on the crowd, which I clearly did not do. And they would not believe me. And then my mother, when she came out and she kind of got them to let me alone, and then she didn't Believe me, either. And then she finally goes, like, well, maybe your mouth looked a little juicy. And I was like, how dare you? And so, to this day, I have the biggest fear of being falsely accused of something.
Josh
Yeah, you don't strike me as a spitter.
Seth Meyers
Honor.
Paul Feig
Thank you. I know I've been spat on, but I'm. I'm not the spitty.
Seth Meyers
Justifiably so. Well, I. I would never false. You. Accuse. Accuse you of spitting. But you. You've asked for.
Paul Feig
Oh, no, totally. As many of my fans on the.
Seth Meyers
Internet can tell you, I went to. I went. I made the point of driving to Tiger Stadium the last year before they tore it down. And to speak to, like, that. How dark and gothic it was. Like if. If at the end of the game, they had said, by the way, all those players died 100 years ago. Like, it. It really felt like a ghost story.
Paul Feig
Oh, totally. And they had. There's no parking. So it's all. You had to park in people's, like, front yards, and they would charge you a lot of money for it. It was really poorly planned.
Seth Meyers
A guy. I remember parking and a guy. Which I realized was. It was a full shakedown, where a guy said, hey, if you want to give me five bucks, I'll watch your car. And I was like, oh, oh, right. This isn't. You know, like, I. If you're like, no, I think I'm going to roll the dice. Like, that was fully the guy who was going to steal my car.
Paul Feig
Right, Exactly. I think it's only a $5 protection fee.
Seth Meyers
It wasn't a very nice car.
Paul Feig
It wasn't very. He grades on a curve.
Josh
So your. Your family's. Your wife's family's from Chicago?
Paul Feig
Yeah, Chicago. And. Yeah, from. From, like, Highland Park. So anyway, from Chicago goes. That's not Chicago. That's. That's the. What do they call it? The North End. Yeah. Yeah. So there you go. The North Shore. North. North Shore. That's it.
Josh
North Shore. Had you spent any time there prior to meeting her?
Paul Feig
Yeah, well, my. My dad, because of the army surplus store, twice a year, he had two buying trips. One was Chicago, and then one was in Las Vegas. He always. We would. We would drive to Chicago. So that was a big thing, and I loved it. I mean, I went crazy for it. And when I was a magician at Marshall Fields, the department store used to have a magic section, believe it or not. This counter that was run by this guy, this doughy guy, who was not a very good magician, but he would put on, like, A show every hour that, like, nobody would watch except me and my mom. And he was such a. He was such a. Like a passive aggressive performer because he was kind of this dour guy. But when he got up on stage, he would put on this like. Like joker smile and do these things. Things really fast and do these tricks. Like, he clearly didn't want to do it, but he had to pretend like he was having a good time. But I would just go.
Seth Meyers
We just got school photos where you could tell, like, our boys were told to show their teeth. So it's like the most unnatural smile. And I feel like. I feel like this guy got the same notes from a Marshall Fields manager. Being like you when you're doing magic. You got a smile more. Yeah.
Paul Feig
Oh, no. Yeah. Give the crowd what they want. No, there's. There's a picture of me that on the Internet. I've spent my entire career trying to purge off the Internet. And it gets used every time they do something about me. It's me with that dumb, you know, that like, smile that's completely insincere and it just keeps getting used. Even though my hair's not white in it. And now it is a lovely shade of white.
Seth Meyers
We. We're very excited for your film. Congratulations.
Paul Feig
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Seth Meyers
It'd be nice to have something coming out. Coming out the holiday season and on the big screen.
Paul Feig
Screen. Back on the big screen after three streamers.
Seth Meyers
I will tell you, in this day and age, Paul, when, you know, when you get, you know, Paul has a movie coming out, you know, on 12 19. Is that right?
Paul Feig
Yeah, you're correct.
Seth Meyers
And it's so. It's so delightful. It's so delightful when it doesn't immediately say on which streamer, you know, Exactly. I have a. I've been trying to make an effort to go to movie theaters more. And I'm remembering how much I love and how much the collective experience improves things. Well, you know, I mean.
Paul Feig
Cause I engineer all my movies for a theater full of people, even the streamers. Cause we test them in front of test audiences of, you know, 200, 300 people. And so it's all teed up for this big group experience. And, you know, and then you have the premiere, and it kills at the premiere. Everybody's going crazy. And then it's like. And it's out on tv. You can't even have that thing of, like, drop, you know. The great thing is when you have a movie coming out in theaters. Because all my movies up until the last Three were in theaters that night. You get in the car, and you drive around to different theaters and come into the back and watch people watch the movie and see how many people were there, and it's so much fun. You hear everybody laughing, and, you know, the movie works. And, you know, when it's on a streamer, like, what, do you drive around people's houses and peer through the window? Yeah, watch them. You know, watch them being on their phone while your movie's on and then going, I didn't understand this one part. It's like, yeah, guess what? Because you were. Weren't watching the movie.
Seth Meyers
Was there a. With Bridesmaids, was there a moment in the film of. You know, obviously a film with so many iconically funny moments that you most enjoyed watching with an audience full of people who were seeing it for the first time?
Paul Feig
Well, it was. It was opening night because we were really predicted to not do well. Our training was really bad and all that. And so I had Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcone over for dinner to kind of lick our wounds because we were told if we didn't make $20 million opening weekend, it would be a failure. So the numbers are coming in. Oh, it's gonna be 13 million. But then it started going up 15, 17, 19. And then it hit 20, and then it hit 22. And I said to them, let's get in the car. So we got in the car and drove down to the Arc Light in Hollywood and came in the back, and the place was packed and rocking. And that was probably my greatest experience of watching one of my movies.
Seth Meyers
It's so. I mean, that joy of obviously, like, you know, I've been on stage where, you know, there's moments where people are laughing. But to be behind the audience while a thing you made is on a screen, like, that must just feel like the great relief. Cause, like, the work is done. Like, you don't have to worry about, like, tripping over the next joke or anything. It's just like, oh, my God, once that takes off, it must just. You know, the rest of it's gonna soar too.
Paul Feig
It's magic. You know, there's a great scene in that one of the movies about Hitchcock. I forget which one. I think it was one with Anthony Hopkins where he's in the lobby watching through the door, watching the shower scene scene in Psycho. And it's going like. People are screaming. He's just, like, starts dancing around the. The lobby. And that's kind of how you feel. It's like, wow, like, we're really affecting people. And that's what I love about the Housemaid is it gets, it gets very crazy in a way that the audience just goes nuts for and they get very, very interactive with the movie, which is exciting.
Seth Meyers
I mean it's, it's the missing thing. Like people have been like, I, I mean a few people have been recently saying on social media, like sometimes you, when you watch a movie for the first time, it came out in the 90s and you, you miss something, you're like, oh, that seems like that person was overreacting or you know, that was a weird line read. And then people like, oh, I was in the theater that crushed cuz like collectively. When everybody knows it's a weird line read, it becomes the joy of experiencing it together. Whereas like it, it passes right by you when you're watching it on a streamer.
Paul Feig
And that, that's. I always, I've been on the soapbox about this a little bit because you know, my last two movies, let's say, you know, the third, I did School for Good and Evil, which is more of a fantasy, but then I did Jackpot, which is just an out and out comedy and then another simple favorite which was pretty funny and you know, it got kind of shitty reviews and all this and people had reacted how they did and you realize when the movies you love, especially the comedies you love when you watch them, you bring along that experience of the first time you saw it with an audience.
Seth Meyers
Yes.
Paul Feig
You know, so. And that's what makes you fall in love. You love the movie. The movie has to be good, obviously. But then every time you listen, you can be by yourself, you hear that audience. That was for me was Star Wars. Right. Because I saw Star wars opening weekend in Detroit. That movie is laugh a minute in a way that now Star wars becomes so serious and like I just love that first because I mean that movie just destroyed on a laugh level. It's kind of crazy.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, no, it's nice that it was the audacity of it. Plus it was also. They all felt, felt like human beings back then.
Paul Feig
Yeah. Because the stakes were high, but they were still light hearted. And you know, it was, it was a fun.
Seth Meyers
It's like they were the last characters in a Star wars movie who didn't know they were in a Star wars movie.
Paul Feig
That's exactly. Didn't know how important it.
Seth Meyers
All this really matters.
Paul Feig
I know.
Seth Meyers
You think, you think Luke wasn't worried about tracking.
Paul Feig
I know Han Solo wasn't. He was just cool.
Seth Meyers
No, no, he Wasn't never.
Josh
I just. I just found myself in New York. I was seeing, like, a matt. A play, and I was seeing an evening play. And I had a gap of time in the middle where I was in Times Square, and I was tired, and I was like, I'm just gonna go to a movie theater and I'll just take a nap. And There was the 40th anniversary screening of Back to the Future, and I could not sleep at all. I was so riveted just being in a theater. And my whole plan was, I'm gonna go to this theater and I'm gonna sleep for a couple hours. Cause I need it. But it just turned me up because I missed that movie. And human energy around you, and, you.
Paul Feig
Know, it's just like. It just. There's nothing like it.
Seth Meyers
And just.
Paul Feig
There is something about a movie being really big in front of you. It just makes it kind of epic, you know, somehow watching movie on tv. Now, people obviously have giant screens in their houses, but it's still. It's almost like you own the people in the movie when you're watching on that. And when you're in a big theater, they own you. Like, you are just fully in their, you know, command. And the other great thing now, when we put together a streaming movie, you have to be aware of we could lose people in 30 seconds. All they have to do when I'm bored, a movie. At least if you're the most discerning, impatient moviegoer ever, you're still gonna get a movie 10 minutes before you walk out. So go. Okay, we got 10 minutes to grab you. We'll take that over 30 seconds.
Seth Meyers
Yeah, that's true. All right, before you go, Paul, Josh is going to hit you with our speed round.
Paul Feig
Oh, bring it on. I love it.
Josh
Here we go. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation. Relaxing, adventurous, or educational?
Paul Feig
Relaxing.
Josh
What is your favorite means of transportation?
Paul Feig
Airplane.
Josh
If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to take a vacation with?
Paul Feig
Man, the Manson family? No. What A family. Oh, gosh, this is a tough one. Do I have a pass option or I have to.
Josh
No, we can come back to it.
Paul Feig
Okay. Thank you.
Seth Meyers
Yeah.
Josh
Work in the back in the background on this. If I had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be?
Paul Feig
My cousin Philip.
Josh
And you are from Mount Clemens, Michigan. If you had to pitch Mount Clemens, Michigan, to try to get more families to come visit, how Would you pitch it?
Paul Feig
Come for the. Come for the. The. The pizza that you can get in. In every, like, drug. Not drugstore, but like, it's not a Bottega, but I guess it's a Michigan Bottega. They. We have a lot of Italian delis.
Seth Meyers
Okay, got you.
Paul Feig
Come for those, but then stay for the Greek coffee shops.
Seth Meyers
Okay, great. Very good answer.
Josh
Seth has our final questions.
Seth Meyers
Paul, have you been to the Grand Canyon?
Paul Feig
No, I have not. I've flown over it.
Seth Meyers
Do you want to go?
Paul Feig
Yes, but in a very comfortable way.
Seth Meyers
Yeah. Yeah. So not really glamping?
Paul Feig
Yes, exactly. Not really.
Seth Meyers
It's a deeply uncomfortable place and I'm just going to tell you, go somewhere else.
Paul Feig
Okay, good. Excellent. It was nice to fly over it. I was really impressed by that.
Seth Meyers
Thank you so much. I can't wait for the movie. It is always a delight to see you, Paul. Everybody. Check out the house. House made on December 19th in theaters.
Paul Feig
Yes, thank you, Seth. Thank you, Josh. Always great to see you. Thanks, pal.
Josh
Thanks so much.
Paul Feig
Thanks, guys.
Narrator
It was the Midwest, specifically Mont Clement's. Paul Feig was in the army surplus store scrubbing toilets, Learning to be humble and at 17 moved to LA because he knew he wanted more. But as a boy, Paul was doing magic. His daddy gave him some jokes Peppered those throughout his performance. It was a hit with the folks. Matter of fact, he won a competition first place, he was the boy who won the prize. Now he's a man who works just like his father because when he works he wears a suit, tie. Wore Willys Wear suits Had those sleeves rolled up Mixing up his style every time that he showed up Bowling shirts, his fashion set after freaks and gigs the manner so bespoken is of which I bespeak Back when Paul and his family driving down to Florida Auto bingo always brought him smiles Watching for signs that stirred anticipation. 300 miles, 100 miles, 30 miles to Stuckey. The first stop down was in Lexington, Kentucky. Paul thought that the hotel was so cool. Looked like it had a terrarium from space there. Terrarium was the pool. Oh, yeah, Going to Grandma's. It had its complications on Saturdays, an unwelcome surprise. Cause in her house dress she'd offer him a Sunda and don't look, Paul, you must avert your eyes.
Date: December 16, 2025
Hosts: Seth Meyers & Josh Meyers
Guest: Paul Feig
This lively episode features celebrated director, writer, and actor Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, Bridesmaids) as he recounts family vacations, upbringing in Michigan, and unforgettable stories from childhood—including legendary Florida trips, quirky family traditions, and brushes with showbiz from a young age. The Meyers brothers and Feig share jokes, memories, and reflections on Midwestern family culture, nostalgia for 20th-century vacations, and the magic of seeing films with an audience.
[00:00–05:37]
“I will leave a party if it's time to play Mafia. I hate mafia so much.”
—Seth Meyers [04:51]
[10:55]
“Probably our most dapper guest I've ever had.”
—Josh [11:17]
[16:26–18:59]
“They were all fairly off color... I peppered them through my act and ended up winning the talent show, but with jokes that were pretty—secretly rude.”
—Paul Feig [17:52]
[24:00–25:21]
“My dad just made me work in the store. Everybody dumped all their worst jobs onto me.”
—Paul Feig [24:40]
[28:39–32:01]
“That was my favorite part... All candy and stuff. But also, they had magic tricks.”
—Paul Feig [36:01]
[37:15–41:33]
“She would fix me an ice cream Sunda, as she would call it... and I would have to sit on this footstool... her in the sundress... with legs akimbo.”
—Paul Feig [38:24]
[33:13–34:56]
[46:43–48:36]
[48:08–50:06]
“Seth, you nailed it. I think it’s a technical term.”
—Paul Feig [49:17]
[51:17–54:58]
[59:01–65:50]
“Cause I engineer all my movies for a theater full of people... It’s all teed up for this big group experience.”
—Paul Feig [60:04]
“That was probably my greatest experience of watching one of my movies.”
—Paul Feig [61:43]
[65:50–67:35]
On awkward family talent show jokes:
“There was a big silence and then you hear all the teachers in the back just burst out laughing.”
—Paul Feig [18:18]
On his grandmother’s house dresses:
“She would fix me a sundah... tell me the same stories over and over again, but with legs akimbo... an exercise in keeping your eyes up.”
—Paul Feig [38:24]
On neighborly boundaries:
“Unless somebody comes over with like a basket of baked goods and forces us to be their friends...”
—Paul Feig [48:39]
On coming home from vacations:
“I had real fond memories of those trips until we got there and had to spend time with my grandmother.”
—Paul Feig [36:07]
On movie theaters vs streaming:
“When you’re in a big theater, they own you. You are just fully in their command.”
—Paul Feig [65:08]
The conversation is warm, nostalgic, and self-deprecating, filled with classic Meyers banter and Feig’s dry wit. The Meyers brothers create a playful, familial atmosphere, prompting Feig’s storytelling prowess. Listeners come away with a vivid sense of Midwestern family dynamics, the formative (and comic) pain of childhood rituals, the meaning of show business resilience, and the communal magic of the movies.
A must-listen for fans of comedy, anyone who grew up in the Midwest, or who finds joy in rich family stories (awkward grandmas, cross-country road trips, and all). Essential for those who love Paul Feig’s work and want an authentic, humorous window into his upbringing and ethos.
Paul Feig’s new film The Housemaid is in theaters December 19th.
(...and yes, he’ll be wearing a suit to the premiere.)