Hildy's Happy Hour | Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

Summary

Podcast Summary: Hildy the Barback and the Lake of Fire - Episode: Hildy's Happy Hour | Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

Release Date: February 14, 2025
Hosts: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy, and Steve Mallory
Guests: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

---

Introduction

In this episode of Hildy's Happy Hour, hosts Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy, and Steve Mallory welcome special guests, Emmy-winning talents Nat Faxon and Jim Rash. The conversation dives deep into their shared history at the Groundlings improvisational theater in Los Angeles, exploring their journey in comedy, collaborative writing processes, memorable performances, and insightful advice for aspiring comedians.

---

Groundlings Beginnings

[02:02] Ben Falcone opens the discussion by highlighting the longstanding friendship among the hosts and introducing the guests, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, both acclaimed for their performances and writing.

Jim Rash remarks on how he and Nat have collaborated for over two decades, fostering a dynamic creative partnership that has significantly influenced their careers.

Nat Faxon adds, “We met in the Sunday Company after months of honing our craft individually. It was a natural click that led to countless sketches and projects together.”

---

The Art of Writing Comedy

The hosts delve into the intricacies of writing comedic sketches, emphasizing the balance between structure and character-driven humor.

[14:28] Ben Falcone shares a theory about their different writing styles:

“I think there are certain writers that are a little more structurally based. I would count myself and maybe Rash in that group. And there are certain writers that are a little more character-based. I would count Nat and McCarthy in that group.”

Jim Rash concurs, noting the synergy that arises when structurally focused writers collaborate with character-driven storytellers.

---

Memorable Sketches and Flops

The conversation shifts to anecdotes about both successful and failed sketches, providing a behind-the-scenes look at their creative processes.

"Sirloin a Lot"

[15:26] Jim Rash reminisces about the "Sirloin a Lot" sketch:

“It was a guy trying to impress a woman at a Sirloin restaurant, dressed like an Elizabethan character. The idea was brilliant in our heads, but execution fell flat.”

Melissa McCarthy laughs, recalling how the sketch was frequently revisited without much success.

"Big Big Office"

[34:32] Reshma Sajani recounts her experience with the "Big Big Office" sketch:

“It was me, a lawyer, and two people on stage. I had to move furniture on stage multiple times, but the audience didn’t laugh initially. It was a tough start, but we learned from it.”

Jim Rash adds:

“The feedback was harsh, but it taught us resilience. Sometimes the audience needs time to warm up to unconventional humor.”

"Glamour Shots"

[38:24] Melissa McCarthy describes the "Glamour Shots" sketch:

“We were supposed to pose for glamour shots with matching outfits and wigs. It ended up being seven minutes of awkward silence and the audience’s silent frustration.”

Jim Rash reflects on the sketch's failure:

“There were no funny lines, just us posing and the audience not getting it. It was a learning moment about the importance of engaging content.”

---

Lessons from Failure

The guests emphasize the value of embracing failures as stepping stones to success.

[41:09] Melissa McCarthy shares:

“Every sketch that bombed taught us something. It wasn’t just about the laughs, but about understanding what works and refining our approach.”

Jim Rash adds:

“Persistence is key. Not every idea will land, but each attempt hones your craft.”

---

Groundlings Memories

[32:25] Ben Falcone asks for favorite memories from the Groundlings, leading to a nostalgic exchange about backstage antics and camaraderie.

Reshma Sajani recalls:

“Playing Trivial Pursuit with teams and the constant laughter in the green room. It was a place where creativity thrived despite the pressures of performing.”

Jim Rash shares a humorous anecdote:

“Writing a hockey sketch and bringing my hockey bag on stage, only to dive into gear mid-performance. It was chaotic but unforgettable.”

---

Advice for Aspiring Comedians

Towards the end of the episode, the guests offer heartfelt advice to those pursuing a career in comedy.

Jim Rash advises:

“Stay true to your path. The auditions and initial rejections are part of the journey. Keep refining your unique voice.”

Reshma Sajani adds:

“Don’t let setbacks deter you. Push through the noise and continue being proactive in your creative endeavors.”

Melissa McCarthy echoes this sentiment:

“Keep evolving. Comedy is ever-changing, and so should you be. Embrace your originality and persist.”

---

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with heartfelt thanks from the hosts to Nat Faxon and Jim Rash for sharing their experiences and wisdom. The camaraderie and mutual respect among the group highlight the importance of collaboration and resilience in the world of comedy.

---

Notable Quotes

• Jim Rash [14:28]: “We were just fascinated with this guy named Adam who had a real strong backbone or something in the office.”
• Reshma Sajani [34:32]: “Every sketch that bombed stayed with you, but the joy it brings to reflect on them later is invaluable.”
• Melissa McCarthy [38:24]: “The audience was not just silent. It was silent anger. They hated it.”

---

Key Takeaways

• Collaborative Creativity: Successful comedy often emerges from blending different writing styles and creative visions.
• Embracing Failure: Each unsuccessful sketch provides valuable lessons that contribute to future successes.
• Persistence: The journey in comedy is filled with ups and downs, but perseverance is essential.
• Authenticity: Staying true to one’s unique voice and perspective is crucial in standing out in the comedy landscape.

---

For more insights and entertaining conversations with comedians and creators, tune into “Hildy’s Happy Hour” wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

[Reshma Sajani]

Hi, I'm Reshma Sajani, founder of Girls who Code. Look, I'd consider myself a pretty successful adult woman. I've written books, founded two successful nonprofits, and I'm raising two incredible kids. But here's the thing. I still wake up wondering, is this it? And if the best years are yet to come, when's that going to start? Join me on my so Called Midlife, my new podcast with Lemonada Media, where we're building a playbook for navigating midlife one episode at a time. Each week, I'll chat with extraordinary guests who've transformed their midlife crisis into opportunities for growth and newfound purpose. At some point, we all ask ourselves, is there more to life? I'm here to discover how to thrive in my second act right alongside you. My so Called Midlife is out now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, Choice Words listeners. Sam Bee here. Guess what? We are back with a brand new season of Choice Words from Lemonada Media. Each week, I'll chat with amazing guests like Kerry Washington, Laura Dern, and Nick Offerman to dive into the biggest choices they've ever made. We are talking career shaping, history, changing life defining decisions. As someone who has made my own.

[Ben Falcone]

Fair share of questionable choices.

[Reshma Sajani]

Hello, Bangs. I am pumped to share these funny, poignant, all too relatable stories with you. Season 2 of Choice Words is out now. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You won't want to miss it. Lemonada.

[Ben Falcone]

Welcome back to Hildy's Happy Hour. I am Ben Falcone, one of the hosts, along with Melissa McClatchkin and Steve Mallory.

[Reshma Sajani]

Steve Mallory.

[Ben Falcone]

There's Steve Mallory. He's barely on a mic. Melissa and Steve are sharing a mic because we are big budget, big budget budget. We are so blessed this week. We're so blessed to have two of the most beautiful ducklings in all of the pond. Our friends, Oscar winners.

[Reshma Sajani]

Wow.

[Ben Falcone]

Jim Rash and Nat Faxon. Welcome.

[Jim Rash]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[Reshma Sajani]

Let me just make my way to my seat in the crowd. And now I am sitting.

[Jim Rash]

Jim, I'm going to take my questions from the crowd.

[Reshma Sajani]

Okay, great, great. I assume there'll be none.

[Ben Falcone]

Okay, we're gonna get right into these. These are gonna be hard hitting questions. These are gonna be questions that make you uncomfortable.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Somebody's gonna cry.

[Reshma Sajani]

I'm gonna get real.

[Ben Falcone]

We should say a disclaimer. We've probably known, the three of us, our triumvirate of hosts have probably known you both for at least 20 years.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, I mean, I think not even before me, but I was soon after. Yeah, right.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Shunka might be more than 20.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, we just, we were not sure about you for a while and then.

[Ben Falcone]

No.

[Reshma Sajani]

I've always wanted friends to test me. If I make a friend easily, I'm wary of it. So I love if it's like a physical challenge or even a payment to me. That's friend for life.

[Ben Falcone]

That's a friend for life.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You gotta earn it.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

To learn it.

[Ben Falcone]

You gotta earn it to learn it.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's it.

[Ben Falcone]

That's it now. So when did you. Because you're both very funny people. We all met at the Groundlings. I should let our loyal listeners know.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Groundlings Theater, Los Angeles, California.

[Ben Falcone]

Yep. And so here's a question, and Steve Mallory wrote this question. It's for each of you.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Great question.

[Ben Falcone]

And so it's a great question. What was your first clue that you were funny?

[Reshma Sajani]

Uh, oh, that was my first. What a weird thing to go. Oh, my God. I remember when I got a five minute laugh. I was in elementary school and I just kelled with this lunchbox thing.

[Jim Rash]

I don't know.

[Reshma Sajani]

You know, I remember. I don't know if this is right, but I remember the church youth group. Yeah, I'm gonna go back to church. For me, religion has always.

[Jim Rash]

This was last year.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. Oh, so burn. You know, you're finding your comedy today. I know. You know, you know where comedy is always born is church youth group. So, no, I remember you when you. This is not the appropriate time that I thought I was funny, but I was going to say it because now we can't cut it. But it was church youth group. And you remember back then, you. One Sunday, the youth group would do the whole service. Like three kids would break up the sermon and blah, blah. And all I had to do was something where it was like, I don't know what it's called. Declaration of something. It's in the program, printed like a prayer. And you go up there and you just start reading. Everyone joins in the congregation, but you're supposed to say, please stand. And no one stood. And so it was just me reading aloud. And so I stop and I go, I'm just going to start, so feel free to jump in when you all are ready. And then the church got a little chuckle and they all stood up. And I realized that I had not told them, like lemmings to stand up.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, how old were you?

[Reshma Sajani]

Probably preteen.

[Jim Rash]

And then you did like a 45 minute set.

[Reshma Sajani]

45 minute set about what's up with Jesus hey, cup and a wine.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I don't know why she have to be a virgin. That's not how it works. Which I believe is a question I asked in Catholic school and was sent to the principal. But I just meant it as a real question. I didn't understand how something happened, but I was like, doesn't something have to happen? I also thought that both parents had to do middle splits to have sex.

[Reshma Sajani]

I'm not gonna do that. Oh, no.

[Ben Falcone]

Somebody said something.

[Melissa McCarthy]

It was like a grade school slumber party. And I remember them, I don't know. And it was like way too early and I didn't know anything about it. And somebody alluded to like, well, everybody's parents have done it. And I said, I know for a fact that my parents have never ever had sex because neither one of my parents can do middle splits. And literally it was crickets. Cause I just didn't know how things worked.

[Reshma Sajani]

But I.

[Jim Rash]

You got it cleared up. You got it figured out now though, right?

[Melissa McCarthy]

Ben and I are very limber.

[Ben Falcone]

It takes a lot. The love making process. Takes a lot of time.

[Reshma Sajani]

Takes a lot of time. When did you know you were funny?

[Ben Falcone]

When did you know you were funny?

[Jim Rash]

Ever? I mean, first, from as long as I can remember.

[Reshma Sajani]

Out of the womb. Yeah, after the splits.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, after my parents split.

[Reshma Sajani]

Splits.

[Jim Rash]

No, I. I think it was around. Yeah, probably similar age. Dinner table in the summers was like usually a.

[Reshma Sajani]

Like a real test your material.

[Jim Rash]

Alcoholics treat.

[Ben Falcone]

You making all your east coast alcoholic relatives last.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's right. You were doing shots too.

[Jim Rash]

It was like. It was, you know, friends would want to come over. Like they would be like, we're going out. And I'd be like, we're just having cocktails starting now. But I think maybe in like four hours when dinner's over, I can come. And then it would be, you know, curfew for everybody else. But so our dinners were very long and I think I made fun of my family at the dinner table. And they would always egg me on to do more. So I would do. My dad would laugh without sound and just rubbing his eyes as if he was crying. So it was just a little. And it was just rubbing eyes and like breathing heavy was him laughing. That always got a laugh. And then my mother reading at night was just sort of just picking her face a little.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh my God.

[Jim Rash]

Just reading and picking her face. And she would love that.

[Ben Falcone]

Did she find comfort or did she know she was doing it? Or did she find comfort in picking your face? What did she think of Said I.

[Reshma Sajani]

Just like, did she find cum? And I didn't hear the first chilling Blue Bella. I know, but I thought, that's classic Ben, to go completely in an appropriate place.

[Ben Falcone]

Somehow Rash is trying to turn this on me because I said comfort.

[Reshma Sajani]

Well, we started with splits, and I thought, oh, it's possible.

[Ben Falcone]

All right, so. Well, you're both very funny humans now. So you figured out you're funny. We're gonna fast forward a lot of stuff. You. You. Some. At some point, you met at the Groundlings, the two of you.

[Jim Rash]

Yes, we did.

[Ben Falcone]

What was there a. And I remember you guys always would write together. Wrote very well together, and I was there for many of those. Was there a certain. I don't think I was there for this, though, because you were both a little bit ahead of me in the program. I took a little longer to get through than everyone else. It's not a big deal, and I'm not worried about it. It's not something that kind of keeps me up at night sometimes. But was there a sketch that you were like, oh. Or was there a writing session where you're like, oh, magic. When did you decide you worked well together? Was there one?

[Reshma Sajani]

Well, we had one thing called the Fascination with Adam and I.

[Jim Rash]

Huge hit.

[Reshma Sajani]

Huge hit. But, you know, you do when you get. We met in this Sunday Company. I think I had been in for six months by the time you got in. And yes, as you said with the Groundlings, you write by yourself. You write with everybody, but inevitably you find more than one. Usually people that you just click with. And I remember we wrote this. It's classic, two peas in a pod character. Neither of us were doing distinct character. We were just the same person, and we were just fascinated by. I think. I don't remember who that was in Mike Lapree. No, that was.

[Jim Rash]

That was the second one.

[Reshma Sajani]

You also bring back bits in the main company when you dust them off. Just recast Jordan Black. Maybe it might have been Jordan Black. I don't remember. But we were just fascinated with this guy named Adam who had a real strong backbone or something in the office.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, we were working in the office. I mean, now that we really explain it, it sounds so pathetic.

[Reshma Sajani]

As I said.

[Ben Falcone]

No, I'm laughing hard on the inside. There's a bunch inside cascading.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I'm starting to get the subtext in.

[Reshma Sajani]

My life as I started to describe the log line, if you will. Sorry to drop these Hollywood terms, but I thought maybe I should just give up writing. That's where my br was going. So we're these guys.

[Jim Rash]

We literally would just repeat what they were doing but make it sound, like, interesting.

[Reshma Sajani]

We were like.

[Melissa McCarthy]

He just put a.

[Reshma Sajani]

Head on a table. He's amazing.

[Jim Rash]

That was literally.

[Reshma Sajani]

That was it. And so I'm sure who, if you're driving while listening to this or at your home, I'm sure you just fell off your chair and laughed over. And you thought the first thing that came out of their mouths was what subtle characters and what.

[Melissa McCarthy]

How different and crafted.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, just crafted. And we both had tight perms. But I should say Nat has one wig and to this day only has one wig.

[Ben Falcone]

He stole that wig from me.

[Reshma Sajani]

Well, that's the wig he brought.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You are the root of that wig.

[Jim Rash]

No. Brian Towsey.

[Ben Falcone]

Brian Towsey, yes. Because you borrowed it from my old roommate before I was even in the Sunday company.

[Reshma Sajani]

Still has it.

[Jim Rash]

The only person that's ever helped me with my wigs was Melissa.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, that's right. I have. You brushed it out.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Because if you don't brush out a wig or if it's 100 years old and you've never cared for it like that, then you start to see the like lattice work of like, like elastic underneath it. And there were times where I would look up and Nat was going to go out on stage and you just could see right through it. It was like you could see right through it and patches. So I would be like Nat and I would like brush it out for him and like back combination.

[Ben Falcone]

No wig cap. No wig cap. As I recall, you just throw that ratty old wig of your hair.

[Reshma Sajani]

Want more from your favorite Lemonada media podcasts? While supporting the shows that help make life suck less? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium today. As a subscriber, you'll unlock exclusive bonus content like never before heard interviews, behind the scenes moments, bonus episodes, and so much more. It's easy to sign up no matter what podcast app you use on Apple. You can just click the Lemonada logo in the Apple podcast app and hit subscribe. For all other podcast apps, head to Lemonada SupportingCast FM to subscribe. That's Lemonada SupportingCast FM.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Hi, I'm Emily Deschanel.

[Reshma Sajani]

And I'm Carla Gallo. And we're excited to tell you about Boneheads, our new Bones rewatch podcast.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I played Dr. Temperance Brennan.

[Reshma Sajani]

And I played Daisy Wick. And we are gonna watch from beginning.

[Melissa McCarthy]

We're gonna watch the episodes, we're gonna reminisce, we're gonna laugh, we're gonna cry, we're gonna tell behind the scenes stories. We're gonna go on tangents, a lot of tangents.

[Reshma Sajani]

So whether you're a seasoned Bones fanatic or a newcomer looking to dip your toes in to the wild world of forensic anthropology, this show is for you.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Boneheads from Lemonada Media is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ben Falcone]

So Fascination with Adam.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

Was the first sketch, and I think so. And that was. And at the time, did. Or it was just one of those things that you were like, I'm gonna. Let's write another one. Because that seemed like it went fine.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

I think it was. Even in failure and success, you just had an easier time with certain people. And it was fun. And it was like, I'll just, like, it was developed more into a friendship of, like, let's just hang out, and maybe we can come up with something stupid. And so it became, you know, it was. The sketches were almost secondary just to, like, hanging out.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah. Can I tell you a boring theory that we'll probably edit out? Sure.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, I love this.

[Ben Falcone]

You're gonna love this. I have this weird theory. I don't think it's 100% true, but I think there are certain writers that are a little more structurally based. I would count myself and maybe Rash in that group. And there are certain writers that are a little more character based. I would account Nat and McCarthy in that group. And Steve's kind of both. Steve's kind of both. Steve's, like, just a weirdo. He. He writes all kinds of weird stuff about anything. He's just whatever. He's just a guy living on the edge.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

I'm a little bit of both, but neither also.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, there you go. Because I will say this. Rash and I tried to write sketches many times.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

And I had a great time every time. And we never got one on the show.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Not one.

[Reshma Sajani]

That happens a lot. I think when you. You. You, like. You have a good time, and, like, to your point, it's like you have somebody who's maybe getting that structure. So the other person just sort of like, throws in all the good.

[Ben Falcone]

Yep. Throws in all the funny parts.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Nat, do you want to describe what Sirloin A Lot was about? And maybe a little bit of that.

[Ben Falcone]

Song that never got in, did it?

[Jim Rash]

Sirloin. Sirloin.

[Reshma Sajani]

What up?

[Jim Rash]

What up, Sirloin?

[Ben Falcone]

This was a guy, right. He was gonna go out on a date. He was trying to impress a woman. A girl?

[Jim Rash]

I think so. I can barely remember.

[Melissa McCarthy]

But you weren't the mascot of sir in my memory, which this could have nothing to do with it. You were the mascot for Sirloin a lot, which is a restaurant. And that was the thing. And I thought you were dressed as, like, a Elizabethan. Like.

[Ben Falcone]

No, I think that's way better than what. Also, in your defense, Nat brought that sketch back at least four or five times. You would try it so many times.

[Jim Rash]

I wanted that to work so bad.

[Ben Falcone]

You would just be dancing around the stage.

[Jim Rash]

I used to do that a lot where I just get stuck on one little bit that. And there was nothing else to it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Used to.

[Jim Rash]

Well.

[Reshma Sajani]

But they. So what was he doing? Was he totally wrong to Sirloin a lot?

[Jim Rash]

I think it was like my. It was like trying to be cool. Like, that was. My rapper name was Sir Loyne.

[Reshma Sajani]

And it was your rapper name.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, it was my rapper name. And I think I was, like, trying to show somebody how cool I was because I had a rap. And then I think I did the song about beef, but it was just Sirloin. Sirloin.

[Reshma Sajani]

What up?

[Jim Rash]

What up, Sirloin? I think that was the entire rap.

[Melissa McCarthy]

How did I turn it into. Like, you were a minstrel, right?

[Jim Rash]

An Elizabethan outfit.

[Reshma Sajani]

I was like, you wanted it to be so much better than a better idea. And it never made into the show.

[Jim Rash]

No, I'm. Lord, no. But I think your theory is maybe. I think you're onto something with your.

[Ben Falcone]

Theory because it's like, Rash is so funny. And we would meet, and I would want it to be. To work out.

[Reshma Sajani]

I know.

[Jim Rash]

I don't think. Melissa. I don't think you and I ever got anything in for that same. Maybe for the same reason, because we were both just, like, wanting to do fun characters. But no, there was no point.

[Melissa McCarthy]

It was just too much. It was like soup on a plate.

[Reshma Sajani]

But then there were people that was like soup Plantation. And you just stayed in one section of that place, just chilling.

[Melissa McCarthy]

She never got out of the Corn Nibbler.

[Reshma Sajani]

I never got out of it. I never got out of that brand.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Did we never have. We didn't have anything in it. That seems impossible.

[Jim Rash]

I know it does.

[Ben Falcone]

I don't think you did, but I.

[Jim Rash]

Don'T know that we did for the same kind of.

[Ben Falcone]

There were people that could, like, straddle both worlds. So, like, Emily Spivey is, like, a tremendous writer. She's so fancy in the world, but then she also would do. So she could write a sketch with me or write a sketch with you. Your dumb sketch. I remember that was just. Were you expecting parents? And you just kept drinking margaritas or Bloody Mary.

[Jim Rash]

We were like on a cruise or something, and we were sort of drunk with, like, Big Gulp, cups of cocktails. And there was another couple that had, like, a little baby. And we were just like, I gotta get a hold to that baby.

[Reshma Sajani]

Let me please get a hold to baby.

[Jim Rash]

And we just wanted to hold the baby.

[Ben Falcone]

Hard teas.

[Jim Rash]

Hard tea.

[Ben Falcone]

Hold that baby.

[Jim Rash]

We were drunk and we just wanted to hold that baby.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, my God.

[Ben Falcone]

So both of you, lots of successes at the Groundlings. Of course. You've done so well. And I will say that my assistant Katie, recently watched the movie Tammy. That's our Melissa. And my first movie, for those of you who don't know, please watch it. And she said. I said, well, what'd you think? And she took a long time. And she goes, it was. It was good.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was good.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I liked it.

[Ben Falcone]

It was good. And then I said, that seems like kind of a weird answer. She's like, ah, no, it was good. It was. I'm not trying to be weird. It was totally good. And then I told her that you two were coming in, and she goes, oh, my God, they did the Way Way Back. That is the best movie I have ever seen. It is so good. And it made me so angry.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, No, I think when I got here, I could feel that anger.

[Ben Falcone]

Right.

[Reshma Sajani]

And now it has context.

[Ben Falcone]

Now it has context.

[Jim Rash]

Y. She was packing up her stuff.

[Reshma Sajani]

What happens?

[Melissa McCarthy]

Katie still is still a fully employed here. No hard feelings.

[Ben Falcone]

There's no hard feelings. Except I have a few.

[Reshma Sajani]

She's got a strike. Got one strike.

[Ben Falcone]

One strike. And she gets.

[Reshma Sajani]

And you only get 24.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, 24 strikes. So you two have directed how many movies together?

[Reshma Sajani]

Two. Two.

[Ben Falcone]

And then two feature films. Two feature films.

[Reshma Sajani]

Two featured. You guys couldn't see the way his lips move, but it's.

[Melissa McCarthy]

He did a lot of articulating of his lips that I didn't need.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was like, imagine someone eating the mic. That's what it looked like. Yeah, we did that. And then maybe. And then one. A pilot. A pilot and a couple episodes of Community.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

Together.

[Ben Falcone]

Oh, you directed a couple of episodes of Community together?

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, I don't think I knew that.

[Ben Falcone]

I didn't see. I'm learning.

[Reshma Sajani]

We did. We did in Communities, fourth season, where. No, fifth season. Yeah. Dan had come back and he'd even asked us if we wanted to rotate every other week. And it was like a daunting. We probably should have, in hindsight, not rotate us. Rotate with somebody.

[Ben Falcone]

Like, oh, you two would take it.

[Reshma Sajani]

We had a Lot of fun. And I think he liked that I obviously knew the show well. And Nat always watches everything I'm in. So he had already seen every episode of me, I'm sure. Big fan. Such a big fan. No, but. So that stuff. That's the. Our resume.

[Ben Falcone]

Well, but I'm. I'm also going to plug some things you're doing to all bazillion people that were in the world listening in the world. You're acting in the new season of Loot with all of our friend Maya Rudolph.

[Jim Rash]

Yes.

[Ben Falcone]

Which is very exciting. You're great on the show. Thank you.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Great on the show. I love that show.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

And you, Mr. Rash? I'm pointing as if somebody on the radio one day.

[Reshma Sajani]

I wasn't sure if I was on Loot or you were. So I was happy that you pointed because I was like, am I?

[Ben Falcone]

But Rash, you just directed a movie that. But. And this was a new arrangement for you two where you directed the movie, wrote the movie, and then Nat produced the movie, meaning he went there and kind of bothered you for why you should.

[Reshma Sajani]

The Coen brothers thing on this one. Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

And that. And that is with Alison Janney and Andrew Rannels. And somehow you still haven't let me see it.

[Reshma Sajani]

I know, I know.

[Ben Falcone]

I actually said I was going to go to that screening and then I couldn't make it.

[Reshma Sajani]

And now that was a little while ago when we were doing that process. But, yes, at some point, I hope to do a friends and family screening, but we're just like, submitting to festivals at this point.

[Ben Falcone]

What is this film called?

[Reshma Sajani]

It's called miss you, love you.

[Ben Falcone]

Oh, sounds really lovely.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Now, what's the name of the film?

[Jim Rash]

Slits.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. Did you.

[Jim Rash]

That's my.

[Reshma Sajani]

So, Wade, he just said.

[Ben Falcone]

Wait a minute.

[Reshma Sajani]

He just said.

[Jim Rash]

You didn't hear the pee. You did not hear the p. This didn't.

[Reshma Sajani]

Just. What did you hear? I'm sure come and slit.

[Ben Falcone]

That's what I heard. I heard come and slit.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I certainly did hear that.

[Reshma Sajani]

Now what? Now, in his defense. In his defense, it is Miss you, love you in parentheses. Common slits. But I. That was a working title. That was just so that the paparazzi didn't know we were. And so I thought Common Slits is a great way for people not to want to come and see it.

[Ben Falcone]

Hey, we've got Oscar winner Alice and Janion. Come and sleep.

[Reshma Sajani]

Now, for those of you who are driving or at home and you just fell off your chair, I apologize. Not become from laughter. From just offensive.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Just thinking this Is low brow.

[Reshma Sajani]

This is lowbrow.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You're thinking that it's.

[Reshma Sajani]

This is lowbrow.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Which is true.

[Reshma Sajani]

Which is true. Because if you. The one thing Nat will always pitch, no matter what sketch you are writing, Ben, you know this as coming in as the structure. Nat will say, I want to say that I have Sand Dollar nipples at some point.

[Jim Rash]

It's funny every time. It's funny every time.

[Reshma Sajani]

It is funny every time. I am not being facetious when I say that. Every single time. He goes, and I have sand dollar nipples. Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

But to be fair, like, we will go pitch something to say our agents and our agents, Jim will do the pitch and they'll be like, okay. And then I'll say, sand Dollar nipples. And they're like, great idea, Baxon.

[Reshma Sajani]

Sadly, that's a very true thing.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Have you. Wait, have you gotten it into anything?

[Reshma Sajani]

Yes, he did sketches of the ground.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Anything, anything.

[Reshma Sajani]

And he made them so he takes his shirt off.

[Jim Rash]

You made a sand dollar size nipple?

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

How big is a sand dollar? I mean, now that we're in. Now that we're here.

[Jim Rash]

Sizable.

[Melissa McCarthy]

A donut.

[Ben Falcone]

Is it the size of a donut?

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

So you made a donut sized nipple that you put. How did you make it?

[Jim Rash]

I don't know if I made it or I just colored it.

[Reshma Sajani]

I think you did makeup and made it.

[Jim Rash]

I think I just made it. I think I colored it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Now, if you're the existing nipple, don't Google until you get home. Sand Dollar nipple.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Sand Dollar nibble. Sand dollar nibble nipple.

[Reshma Sajani]

God, I love a good beer. And I reach for sand$nibble when I've.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Had at the office.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, you better believe I suck on that sand dollar nipple.

[Jim Rash]

That would be a brilliant marketing campaign. Actually, now that we're thinking about it.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, I'm not mad.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Guys work slow. We may want to, like, kind of brainstorm. It comes in like a teat bag and it's a sand dollar nipple. And afterwards you can put it on a shelf.

[Reshma Sajani]

God.

[Melissa McCarthy]

With your other beach treasures.

[Reshma Sajani]

And your beach treasures.

[Ben Falcone]

And your song was Sand Dollar Nipples and Dollar Nipples. Will you do a little mouth horn for me?

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, that's great.

[Melissa McCarthy]

My children hate it, and I really am like, it's my only musical talent.

[Jim Rash]

That sounds like your Boston accent, Jim.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, yeah. Ah, it's wicked. Eh?

[Ben Falcone]

That might be more sweet.

[Jim Rash]

It's really right on, ah, the floor.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's wicked how. Oh, shit. I was trying to remember it. The red sucks.

[Ben Falcone]

Look.

[Reshma Sajani]

Wicked this. Ah, it's so wicked.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, that's All I got nailing it.

[Ben Falcone]

That's nailed. That's nailed. Now where are your Oscars right now? Because I was there the night you won. Melissa was.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was a crazy night of a lot of people from the ground lanes in the same room. That was the weirdest connections to.

[Jim Rash]

We should say it's for the movie.

[Reshma Sajani]

The Descendant that came out in 2012. 11.

[Jim Rash]

2011.

[Reshma Sajani]

2012.

[Ben Falcone]

The movie the Descendants. They co wrote the movie the Descendants. Yes. That was the same year as our friend Octavia Spencer won the Oscar for the Help, beating the lovely Melissa McCarthy who was nominated for Bridesmaids. Kristen.

[Reshma Sajani]

And Whitney McLennan was.

[Ben Falcone]

Oh, yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

And then obviously Tate was up close there for the help. And so Octavia and Tate came. Was Tate in advanced with you all?

[Ben Falcone]

Lab. We were in lab with Tate.

[Melissa McCarthy]

So for everyone who doesn't know, Groundlings is this improv theater where we all met and but it is a tiny little. I mean it's amazing amount of wonderful talented people that come out of it, but it is a tiny 99 seat theater in Los Angeles. And so to be suddenly be doing free shows at the Groundlings for years and all just trying to get a job and then we were all bizarrely at the Oscars together. It was really surreal. And we just, I remember like kind of catching everyone's eye being like, what's going on? Yeah, like at some point someone's gonna find out and be like, okay, you're gonna have to. We're gonna escort you out.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, yeah. We can see each other from our seats.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

Very interesting.

[Ben Falcone]

And then you two won and you did your Angelina Jolie leg bit. Very funny.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Strong bit.

[Ben Falcone]

Strong bit.

[Jim Rash]

Great bit.

[Ben Falcone]

Now where are. So where are the actual. Did you didn't bring them, did you? You don't care. You don't leave them in the car.

[Reshma Sajani]

You mean this? I. No, mine's just. It's like. It's like on a bookshelf. It's not very interesting, but it's there.

[Jim Rash]

You know, I blew mine up. So it's bigger size.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, I thought you mean you like blew it up. Oh, no, no, no.

[Jim Rash]

I mean I'm like a honey. I shrunk the kids. But I like.

[Reshma Sajani]

I blew it up.

[Ben Falcone]

Oh.

[Jim Rash]

I lasered it it into a bigger size.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, laser.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's nice.

[Jim Rash]

Carved a little entrance so that when you walk into my property, you walk through it into my front. So it's my front door.

[Ben Falcone]

That's. Yeah, that's a nice way to treat it.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, nice.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, it's so funny. No one's been talking about how we can blow things up like that. And you have this amazing machine that blows things up, a laser blower.

[Jim Rash]

It doesn't destroy it, it just makes it bigger.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, no, folks. Again, if you're driving your car, you fall out of the seat. Don't Google this. He means not explode. He means. He means laser bigger.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Blowed up.

[Jim Rash]

Blow tip.

[Ben Falcone]

And that guy who she was brushing the hair of was up there winning his Oscar. Well deserved. It's a great movie.

[Melissa McCarthy]

If you would have just wore that wig that night.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh my gosh, that would have been heaven. That would have.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You still have that wig?

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yes, he does.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

We may need a picture of it just for. I may need to frame that and have it made into an oil painting.

[Ben Falcone]

Where's the wig? Where do you keep the wig? Is it just in some ratty ass drawer?

[Reshma Sajani]

It's put into a bag. Just shoved into it like you normally would treat it.

[Jim Rash]

Yes, you should laser it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Laser machine.

[Jim Rash]

It's shoved into a bag in a crate full of all my old costumes from the Groundlings that I couldn't totally part with because they had too many memories attached. And I sometimes break them out just for my own joy.

[Reshma Sajani]

You do?

[Ben Falcone]

When do you do that? Talk to me about this?

[Jim Rash]

No, I mean, I will go in there if there's, you know, some sort of party like we were at the other night. I had to find something to wear.

[Ben Falcone]

We were at a yacht rock party. Matt looked amazing. He had a very. It was. I don't know how I'd describe your shirt. I think mesh adjacent.

[Jim Rash]

You might have. I feel like Melissa had something to.

[Ben Falcone]

Do with this probably.

[Jim Rash]

I don't.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, did you get out of old.

[Jim Rash]

I got it out of that Groundlings box and it was a mesh. A mesh shirt. But it's like a. I don't know. You would. It's. It's not like the holes in the mesh aren't huge. They're like small.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Just breathable.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, it's breathable. Even smart mesh.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, even a smaller than sand dollar nipple is not going to get out of nowhere.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, not at all.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, but that, yeah, that, that. That comes in handy, that box for things like that.

[Ben Falcone]

Now tell me what, What? Give me a favorite memory of the Groundlings Because I'm trying to think of when just hearing this, these stories of like, you know, you're. You always had a shitty duffel bag. You had everything in it. I felt like it doubled as your.

[Jim Rash]

Hockey bag or Something that was one of my. One of my favorite memories was when I wrote a hockey sketch and I brought my hockey bag into, into the back area, opened it and then like had to put on the gear and wanted to murder me.

[Ben Falcone]

Because you did not smell great. It was not washed.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, nothing was washed.

[Jim Rash]

Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt that.

[Ben Falcone]

No. Well, that's a great memory though. That's what we want. What's. What's a great memory you have? I have so many. Mine would be the Pixies shows after which is what we do is. I mean, what would you call it? Like a fake.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. Fake awards. The end of each cycle of the Sunday Company.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

Somebody would superlative awards.

[Reshma Sajani]

Best something. Yes.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Those were really fun and like very fun. We're such a bunch of idiots that like we would. People would dress up in new character weird things to go to the Pixies. You wouldn't even go as one of the characters you did. People had new costumes for the Pixies or then other people would try to squeeze into other people's costumes or like the, the costume award.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

And you. Nat was always, always the costume. You were always showing off the costumes. The different.

[Jim Rash]

Yes.

[Reshma Sajani]

Right.

[Jim Rash]

Yes. Yes. Or at least my year when we host it, like we're like the more.

[Reshma Sajani]

Senior the year before and then pass that torch.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Rash is doing a lot of eyebrow work.

[Reshma Sajani]

I just remember I. You know when, you know those moments in your life when you come out on stage and it's like everyone just jumps to their feet. And to me, you know, you usually have five awards for the five costumes that were best for that six month period. And I remember just, just, just, just applause that I was like, we have to like get back to the awards.

[Ben Falcone]

And like, it's just. I remember just like a lot of unitars.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, it was a lot of unitards.

[Melissa McCarthy]

A lot of unitars.

[Reshma Sajani]

And also. Yeah, if we were on tv, they'd be like, oh my God, we're so much airtime. But that's how long those applause for my interest entrances were.

[Ben Falcone]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Jim Rash]

Now if you're on the freeway or.

[Reshma Sajani]

On the highway again, don't Google that for you can find that video of me getting standing ovations.

[Ben Falcone]

Series of standing ovations.

[Reshma Sajani]

I mean, to me the. My favorite memory is just a collection of any sketch that bombed. Like because you can tell me fascination. Adam. You know, we can list some things that we're like, yeah, that was a good sketch, but the bombs stay with you. And they. And I Think my favorite part is that we. In the moment. Yeah, it's. That's pretty shitty. But the joy that it brings you to sit back after the show and talk about that is probably more laughter than. So, let's do this. Let's explore.

[Ben Falcone]

What's your biggest tank that comes right to your memory right now? What's one that you.

[Jim Rash]

I wrote a sketch with Chris Schiavo called, like, the Long and Winding Road after, like, the Beatles song.

[Ben Falcone]

Okay, so you're going.

[Jim Rash]

Which was already foreboding copyright infringement. And it was, I don't know, maybe a seven to eight page endeavor. And you know that first joke that repeats eight times, you know, right on that first page, and you're like, here it comes. And just dead silence.

[Melissa McCarthy]

What was the take supposed to be?

[Jim Rash]

Honestly, don't really even remember. I just remember it ending with the us playing that song and, like, slow dancing as it, like, browned out. And I just. I just remember being like, holy shit, we've said the bit that was supposed to be the huge laugh. And we have eight more pages of the same bit. The same bit, and just us talking about it, and then we're gonna dance.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's when you knew you were in trouble. If the hook. As we say, sorry, Hollywood term, if the hook didn't work, you knew you were in trouble.

[Ben Falcone]

Now, what's your biggest.

[Reshma Sajani]

Well, mine, I think I've told this story, and you guys might remember, but big, big office. Do you remember? Big, big office.

[Jim Rash]

Yes.

[Reshma Sajani]

Big, big office was. Was like, I put it up in. So we meet on Tuesdays for those listening, and we would put up sort of cold reads of our stuff. And our director at this time was Deanna Oliver. And I put up this thing called big, big office, which you then put up many times. Because I was convinced in my mind something's wrong. Because that night with us with the group that watched it, and Deanna, I was like, that's great. Opening the show. I literally opened the show and tanked the show from the beginning. But it. Basically, it was me, a lawyer, and I had two people on stage and were like, you know, I'm gonna take your case. And they're like, great. We'd really love to see your. Basically see your office, see your team. I go, absolutely. You want to see who's in your corner? Let's do it. And the bit was I walked him off stage, and then I say, hold on one second. Let me grab my papers. And then I close the door, and then I rearrange the furniture on stage. And then bring them back to the same door and say, here's our rec room. Oh, did we go? Yeah, we just took a little left. Anyway, hold on. Let's go. And so it's. It's now, here's. The audience did not laugh at that first change.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, that's so sweet.

[Reshma Sajani]

And there were four more to go. And I was sweating and moving furniture to silence. At one point, a woman audibly from the audience goes, what is going on?

[Ben Falcone]

Seeing what they all were thinking.

[Reshma Sajani]

And every time I ran off stage, my cast were looking at me with those eyes where they're, like, both laughing, but also feeling. Felt so sorry because I was sweating and moving furniture. And I had so many more ways to go. As if the sketch will ever get any good. You just wish you had a button that said bail and black abort. That's what Emily Spivey used to do. She would. She would go abort in the middle.

[Jim Rash]

In the middle of the sketch while putting it up. Like, tonight, she would like you to be like, page two. And she'd be like, abort, abort. Walk off stage.

[Reshma Sajani]

And she would. Just. As she walked down the steps, she'd be, y'all, that's not funny. Y'all, I don't want to do this. Yeah, it's not funny.

[Jim Rash]

But didn't you have another sketch where it was a similar premise, but you left and then came out with a different wig and another bomb?

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jim Rash]

I'm a different character.

[Reshma Sajani]

I don't know what this was called. My friends, I apologize. If you're in your car in your chair, pull over. So I don't remember what it was called, but I walk into, and Mikey Day was at the counter.

[Ben Falcone]

SNL's Mikey Day.

[Reshma Sajani]

SNL. Mikey Day. Name dropped. And I came in, and I order some ice cream, like, two scoops. And I leave, and it's very normal. And then I come back two seconds later, but in a wig. That's so a wig. And he goes, oh, hello. Knowing full well it's the same person. And I say, you know what I think I will do?

[Melissa McCarthy]

Did you change your voice?

[Reshma Sajani]

No, I think I will do two scoops. You know what I'll do chocolate again. And he goes, again. And then you have to see me. I freeze. I go. And then I slowly back out, frozen with my mouth agape. And he's like, sir, mouth agape, sir. And I go all the way out. And then I come back, and now I have a construction hat on top of a different wig.

[Ben Falcone]

I love this sketch, how did it not work? Come on.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I think this could be a feature.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's anyway you can imagine.

[Ben Falcone]

And, like, how fast was he eating it? Cause you just came right back on ice cream.

[Reshma Sajani]

I came right back wanting more ice cream, and I was just embarrassed that I had eaten more.

[Ben Falcone]

Was there anything, like, on your mouth or anything like you've been eating?

[Reshma Sajani]

That would be a better choice. What I did.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Brain freeze moment.

[Reshma Sajani]

All these are great punch ups. I had one idea that was funny, which is freezing and backing out slowly. That was another one where it was like, you know. And then, you know, you have a bomb at the end because there won't be any applause or there'll be like, a slow.

[Melissa McCarthy]

What is going on?

[Ben Falcone]

McCarthy, do you want to do the honors about our huge bomb that we have?

[Melissa McCarthy]

Yes, we did. I can't remember what the name was, but the gist of it, which is wildly unoriginal, but for some reason, I thought, once we're in matching outfits, this is gonna kill. And we were supposed to be getting glamour shots.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, it was called. I think it was called Glamour shots.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Even the title was pretty boring.

[Reshma Sajani]

Let the audience know what they're getting.

[Ben Falcone]

Poor Jim Cashman was the photographer.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And we came. We were both in the psych, waiting to go on. And we both had matching white jeans on and, like, a matching shirt and matching. Imagine curly short wigs.

[Ben Falcone]

I remember this look. I remember everything about it.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And one second before the lights came on, I went, oh, my God. There's nothing funny. There's nothing funny in this. And I knew I was, oh, shit. Oh, shit. And lights are on, and we're walking out, and I'm just like a deer in headlights. And all it was was Ben and I sitting and posing.

[Ben Falcone]

We didn't really even have funny lines.

[Melissa McCarthy]

There was no real funny lines. Poor Jim Gasparan, she had to sit there and take pictures. And we're posing and, like, hands on chin, chins on hands, making a heart, just. And the audience was not just silent. It was silent anger. They hated it. Not even like, I'm bored or I don't get it. They were like, we hate these people. And about halfway through, because it was so sweaty. And there was. So then we're trying to mug more, and it's getting worse.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And so at one point, we were on these, like, black boxes that we used for everything. There were me, I don't know, like two and a half feet high. And I just looked at Ben completely. And later he married me, which is shocking. I looked at Him. And I was just like, I'm out. And I flipped over backwards. Literally, like, did a blanket, like, flipped backwards, hid behind it. Jim and Ben out there. And then the director would signal to the lighting booth when the director wanted to. You'd do this sweeping, like, hand closed thing to say, like, lights out. And I just thrust my arm up and I just kept blacking it out with my hand.

[Ben Falcone]

She kept trying to black it out, and they wouldn't.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And I looked up in the booth, and both the guys were up there laughing hysterically and just shaking their head, saying, no way.

[Ben Falcone]

Aaron and Kent would not do it.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Aaron and Kent would not do it. And then I spoke. So I'm elongating.

[Ben Falcone]

So now I'm just sitting out there. Like, where the did she go? Is she gonna come back? I can see her trying to black it out. I can see Aaron and Kent laughing their asses off up in the booth because they know that they're not gonna do it. And then she finally came, and I'm like, whoops, I fell for, like, three more minutes.

[Reshma Sajani]

And I just was grasping my hand, couldn't get up.

[Melissa McCarthy]

So I was trying.

[Reshma Sajani]

I had that carpal tunnel, and I was trying to get my hand.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And we went right back to it, and it was just seven more beats of, like, now what if we went back to back. Now if we put our hands on each other's knees and people were like, fuck you.

[Jim Rash]

That's the worst.

[Ben Falcone]

It was so mad.

[Reshma Sajani]

I have to say real quick, because, you know, we don't have to have all these anecdotes, but only because this was me and Nat. We wrote with Mikey Day, and we were. And it was a good idea, and.

[Jim Rash]

We thought it was gonna kill.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was, you know, Marvel, I think, Fantastic Four.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, I think I know.

[Reshma Sajani]

And we did a thing where we. And SNL eventually would do a green screen type bit. Yeah. Not ours, a much better version. But Mikey Day and Nat and I wrote it. And it's one of those sketches where you wrote it in 30 minutes.

[Ben Falcone]

You're like, ooh, this is gonna be good.

[Reshma Sajani]

That easy.

[Jim Rash]

This is it.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was like, this is it. This is it. And we were three actors, and they were like, we. We've already shot the movie. We're just gonna do the big scene. So you get green screens. So we just need you to say the lines that are basically announcing your power. So everything you don't do. So it's like reacting to nothing. I think you had super strength, so you were lifting stuff, and so you Give it some effort. I'm gonna lift it and then just throw it. Yeah. And they go. And the director goes, we're not sure what we're going to put in your hands, so just give us a few options. So he was like, take this city on for size. Take this basket of muffin. Stupid sip audience, whatever. But we decided he already had a wetsuit. And I thought, oh, we should get wetsuits now. I put on a wetsuit exactly.

[Ben Falcone]

To be like a green screen outfit.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, like superheroes. Like, you're fantastic force. Like, tight. And so first of all, it's bombing. You're under these lights, you're sweating. You're sweating under so much under your suit. And then you have a fast change. I couldn't get out of the wetsuit because it stuck to your body. Oh, just because of all the suction cup. Anyway. And, oh, you know, your power was. He goes, fire from my face.

[Jim Rash]

I think that was Mikey. Mikey was like, fire from my face.

[Reshma Sajani]

And then he just stands there making a face. And again, the audience is not enjoying this because there's a lot to ask the audience to see. Like, we couldn't put a green. We should have put a green screen, like a piece of cloth or something behind us.

[Jim Rash]

I don't know.

[Reshma Sajani]

So they had.

[Jim Rash]

Anyway, that was always the thing, too, is that it was. Well, there wasn't a piece of cloth behind us, so it didn't work. Yeah, that's why that music cue was off. So that's why that's, you know, like the pleading with the director. And you're like, no, it's just a terrible idea.

[Reshma Sajani]

It was nothing we did. Every line was gold.

[Ben Falcone]

I might have had one that maybe not to do too many of these. We've already done a million. Who Cares? With Rachel Harris. And it was based on that, on the plot. I don't know why. And she's so funny. She's a funny, funny person. And we were gonna do a spoof of who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[Melissa McCarthy]

I remember this one.

[Ben Falcone]

And it was called Pop Goes the Easter.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yes, yes.

[Jim Rash]

And I do remember this, too.

[Ben Falcone]

I will never forget. It was like. It was kind of like a big show. Like, I think it was still in the Sunday Company and, like, there were a bunch of people there and it was kind of like, important like, that it go well. And Rachel and I were really, you know, because she was six months further than me. And Damon Jones and Maya Rudolph were the people that had to come and be in the scene. And I will never forget that the opening thing was. And we'd never done it. We just. We'd always described it like in the beginning. Rachel's gonna scream off stage. So it'll be this big scream. And you kind of can describe it. But then she does it. And the audience is like, oh, no. Cause she's a really good actor. And like everyone's like, oh, no. He's like beaten her or something.

[Reshma Sajani]

Classic sketch.

[Ben Falcone]

And so we walk out there and it was seven of the longest minutes.

[Reshma Sajani]

In my whole life.

[Ben Falcone]

I've never.

[Reshma Sajani]

And there wasn't like a little pop up.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah. And we had to say it along. And it was all so slow. That was even worse than ours. I think that was the one that really hit me.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I feel like when you guys came off stage from Pop Goes the Easel, you all looked visibly shaken.

[Ben Falcone]

Wait.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Steve has to tell his worst one. Everyone. It's a shame spiral.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, here we go. I'll make it quick.

[Jim Rash]

You're still here. I didn't know you were still here.

[Ben Falcone]

No, he's still. He's still here.

[Reshma Sajani]

Here he is. We tried to get him out, but we.

[Jim Rash]

I wrote a sketch with Guy Stevenson.

[Ben Falcone]

The wonderful Guy Stevenson. Very funny guy.

[Jim Rash]

The whole concept being. It's two scientists who've managed to shrink themselves. Finally.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh. After much experimentation.

[Jim Rash]

Not blowed up.

[Reshma Sajani]

Not blowed up.

[Jim Rash]

Shrunk down. We're now shrunk. Right.

[Reshma Sajani]

We're like, we did it. We did it.

[Jim Rash]

The first thing we need to do is to fill out the Nobel Prize forms. But the pencil is so large.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, my goodness.

[Ben Falcone]

And we spent.

[Jim Rash]

I spent 14 hours making an enormous pencil.

[Reshma Sajani]

An enormous.

[Ben Falcone]

Which is known as the pencil of.

[Jim Rash]

Hubris because it did not work.

[Reshma Sajani]

Wow.

[Jim Rash]

And you have a pencil.

[Ben Falcone]

And it looked great.

[Jim Rash]

It was a great. The foam tip that I could take.

[Reshma Sajani]

Out because it was dull.

[Ben Falcone]

And then you put it into a pencil sharpener in the window.

[Reshma Sajani]

And they put a sharpener on it. Was I directing it this time?

[Jim Rash]

Possibly.

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, my God. Cuz I have a weird. Yeah. Because Melissa looked at me and she gave me a look that was like. You. You put this in the show. No, because remember Karen went off to shoot. Karen Mariama was directing you all and she got that show they were doing that. I forget the show. Oh. What it was called with Jack Pl. It was an improv show with. Anyway, she was gone, so I filled in. But I weirdly remember. I don't think. Think. I don't think that was me, but I do remember it.

[Jim Rash]

We were so sure. It's the it's the sureness that bothers you. Like, there was a point where I'm like, did they not hear me say giant pencil?

[Ben Falcone]

And so I turned it.

[Jim Rash]

I'm like, hey, why don't you grab this giant pencil?

[Ben Falcone]

Like, I just.

[Reshma Sajani]

Maybe they're not seeing it. Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

But no, no, they got it.

[Jim Rash]

They got it real quick and it.

[Ben Falcone]

Was all over before it started.

[Reshma Sajani]

Wow. We've all been there. Well, I hope it wasn't me. We'll just keep going for a second.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, that story's over now.

[Reshma Sajani]

Now.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, yeah. I had my alarm to just to shut that one down.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Oh, my God.

[Jim Rash]

I. Yeah.

[Ben Falcone]

So wait.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I have one question though. What was the first thing you wrote together that was. It wasn't like the Descendants was the first.

[Reshma Sajani]

No, we. The first thing we did was a.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Getting paid to write it.

[Reshma Sajani]

We wrote. Well, no, we wrote adopted on spec and we ended up. It was a half hour multicam and strangely enough, it got picked up and we shot a pilot, which was crazy to have be out of the gates like that. It did. The pilot obviously didn't go past pilot, but yeah, that was the first thing we wrote. Do you ever get hit with a cringy memory of your 13 year old.

[Jim Rash]

Self out of nowhere and suddenly you're panic sweating and laughing at the same time?

[Reshma Sajani]

Don't. Don't worry, don't worry.

[Ben Falcone]

We all get that.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's because being an adolescent is one of the most visceral, shared experiences we have as people. And we want to talk about it. Join me, Penn Badgley, and my two friends Nava and Sophie on podcrushed as we interview celebrity guests about the joys and horrors of being a teenager and how those moments made them who they are today. New episodes of Podcrust are out now. Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jim Rash]

Are you ready to dive into the ultimate pop culture showdown? Join me for Pop Culture Debate Club. I'm your host, Ronald Young Jun. Each week, our panel of trendsetters, critics and fan favorites clash over the latest in movies, music, TV and more. Who's right and who's just plain wrong? That's for me to decide. Check out Pop Culture Debate Club every Thursday, wherever you get your BBC podcasts, produced by Liminata and the BBC.

[Ben Falcone]

What advice do you have?

[Reshma Sajani]

Oh, gross. I hate this question.

[Ben Falcone]

For your younger selves or for young people? People coming in today because you gotta get better, Jim.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's gonna get better.

[Melissa McCarthy]

I was gonna say successful, but it's successfully old. Yes. What.

[Ben Falcone]

What would you say to A younger version of yourself, you know, right when you're getting. Because we all joined the Groundlings, that kind of became our grad school. I'd say more or less, we all met each other and met a bunch of other talented people. But is there. Is there something you do differently for our listeners who are interested in this field? I have no idea if we have anyone like that.

[Jim Rash]

I would say that the path you're on is the one that you're meant to be on. No, I was just thinking, because this came up the other day and somebody was saying, oh, I saw the SNL50 documentary kind of thing, the puff piece on how great it they all are. And I was like. They were talking about the other show, the auditions and stuff. And I was like, oh, yeah, I got to audition once. And in my whole childhood, you're like, this is what I want to do. Like these. Doing big characters. And like, that's my thing, you know, and it was always the goal. And then when we were in the Groundlings one year, Emily Spivey was writing on the show, and I think probably put it in a word. And so Jim and I got to audition. But it was the one year that they decided to do a different kind of audition. And instead of going and doing your characters and on the stage and, like, showcasing what you can do, they were like, we're going to get a bunch of people who have never met maybe 15 white guys, and do an improv show at the UCB Herald, and we'll do it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Everybody out there who knows a Herald is long form. Not something the Groundlings, certainly something that Groundlings can jump into, but not something we're trained on.

[Jim Rash]

And it was.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And that's not what SNL does, so I don't know.

[Jim Rash]

So they filled. It was a disaster theater with just people, like an audience.

[Reshma Sajani]

In New York.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, at the old UCB Theater. And I remember because I was shooting a commercial or something in New York, and I had to. And I got there really late, and it was like, go down to the basement and meet all these guys. And then you're gonna. You got about five minutes and you're going off. And I went down there, and they're like, so basically, Harold is like this. So you're gonna come in front of me. So if you want to wipe the scene, you know, if you're done with that scene now, if you play a character from a different thing, you can bring that back. All right, we gotta go, guys. Let's go. And we get out there and you Know, it was like, the antithesis of what improv should be, because it's just a bunch of dudes trying to, like, outshine each other. So it was all just like, here's my hilarious guy that I do. You know, and it was just one upping, and there was no flow, and I didn't even understand how to play the game. And it went over in, like, 20 minutes. It was over.

[Reshma Sajani]

They had a timer, which they do in the show. You know, it's 20 minute, and there's blackout wherever it is. Yeah. Was it.

[Jim Rash]

But it was that type of thing where you go out into the crowd after, you know, and I had a couple people there, and you can just tell, like, their face is like. You're like, oh, that wasn't my best. And they're just like, oh, no, you were. You were good. I think you had. You were pretty good, you know, and you're just like, oh, wow.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You can tell they've been crying.

[Reshma Sajani]

They couldn't even go like, no, you're just in your head. Like, Emily Spivey was there, and she. Same thing, Southern, and she's like, oh, y'all, It's. Oh, you know, and she had, like.

[Jim Rash]

Put her neck out there. You know, it was just so clear that it was the worst thing ever. So long story short, don't go do a herald. Don't do a herald. Don't do a herald for a Saturday live audition. But that was, like, my dream was to be on that show, and that was, like, the one chance I got to do it. And it was terrible, but it would. You know, had we gotten. It would have been incredible. But because we didn't, we ended up doing. A lot of. A lot of great opportunities came our way as a result of not being on that show, and I feel very grateful for that as well. So I would say, you know, stick things happen for a reason, and, you know, don't despair.

[Reshma Sajani]

Don't despair.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Yeah.

[Jim Rash]

You know.

[Ben Falcone]

Now, Rash, do you have.

[Jim Rash]

We don't have time, James. Okay, that was a great story.

[Reshma Sajani]

So I was just gonna say, eat more veggies. I was gonna say this, but this. It's cliche, but it's not in the sense that it keeps happening. But I think I. You. Sometimes you can buy into when people tell you the phrase, that's not how we do it, or it doesn't work that way, or you need to do it this way, and there's respect to be had by hearing the note and going, okay, but I don't necessarily think that needs to be the no that you think it is. And I think, you know, it's whether back in the day when you would make headshots, they go. They don't. Mailing headshots doesn't work. And then you go, okay. But then you mail and you get, like, one reaction. That's all I needed. So I think I learned pretty quickly. And we all are. And then to this day, you know, they're not looking for that type of show. They're not looking for that kind of show. They don't want that kind of person. Don't be that kind of thing. And I think push through the. The noise of that, because that doesn't. There's always a new way to do something, I think.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And I think what they're not looking for is constantly changing.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

And it's not somebody trying to bash you. It's just like, oh, we don't think we want this anymore. And it's like, you know, everything does exactly what they don't want. In a year and a half, they could want it. So just keep.

[Reshma Sajani]

Which is what I'm saying.

[Melissa McCarthy]

It's true to you. Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

It's different to then say, well, I'll write it. I'll put it on the shelf if that's a true fact. But I'm still gonna do it. So I think. I think just knowing that you're being proactive.

[Melissa McCarthy]

My girl say, skinny jeans will never come back. And I said, they're gonna come back.

[Reshma Sajani]

I have so many in my closet.

[Ben Falcone]

Rash has to go do a facial. So we are almost.

[Reshma Sajani]

If you're in your car and just swerved off the road because. Wait, Jim's going to a facial? Yes, yes.

[Ben Falcone]

He's getting.

[Reshma Sajani]

Because I have been told since the beginning, this is great advice for people who are like me, eye candy.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You are eye candy.

[Reshma Sajani]

You are eye candy. That's a whole nother story. TV ugly. There's so many stories where we were told that's not the case. Wait, you were talking about this. I'll tell this quick one. I'll tell this real quick. And then we gotta go. And then you guys can keep talking. But Nat and I, when this was adopted. So we were. We were adopted. Was the multi camera I mentioned earlier. And we were at a casting meeting at ABC. ABC. It was with 20th and ABC. And we were there to speak about the mother. There's two mother characters who, you know, cut to the ending. We had Christine Baranski and Bernadette Peters in this thing. I mean, we hit the gold mine. But then there are two characters that were written for Nat, and I literally wrote this pilot for me. I was playing Lloyd. You were playing, I think. What was his name? Wes, maybe.

[Jim Rash]

Yeah, maybe.

[Reshma Sajani]

Anyway, they said from very early on we would not be in it now. This is pre Seinfeld. This is pre. Like any kind of. Any other.

[Jim Rash]

Sure.

[Reshma Sajani]

People creating. So we had already sort of resigned ourselves to. It was a bummer, but whatever. But we're in this meeting and we're talking about the moms, and then we go. They go, let's take a beat and talk about Lloyd, which was supposed to be me. We're thinking, what do you think about Tom Kavanaugh?

[Jim Rash]

He was the guy from that show Ed.

[Ben Falcone]

Okay.

[Reshma Sajani]

Which ended. Right.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Right.

[Reshma Sajani]

And he was hot. And. And. And that was a name for them, of course. And so I go, ah. I go, maybe for, like, the brother, but, like, Lloyd is basically me. Like, he's. The whole thing is that the. Nat's character is like the miracle baby, and I was adopted and that's what the story is. And I go, I don't know about Tomkov. They go, no, no, no, Tom as TV ugly. And I go, what? They go, no, it's great looking, but, you know, on tv, you know. And then I say, sorry, Tom Cavanaugh, but because you're gorgeous and he's a great looking person. Great looking person. That's what I said. This is crazy. They're phrased for being like David Schwimmer. You know, he's like. You believe he's goofy. I mean, he's handsome, of course, but, you know. And I go, wow, if that's TV ugly, if that's the phrase, I'd love to see what. What list I'm on. Like, you know, tv, if we have to, you know. And they. And then for some reason, that joke did not land much, like a big, big office. And this guy leans forward and says, jim, Gene. Gene. He leans forward like he's Bad cop. And he goes, jim, you are not playing this part. We are not going. That nevish. And then if you've ever wanted to sit in a room where the air, like a bad sketch went out of the room, it was that while. And I was doing that nervous chuckle, I think, because I was like, it really. I don't think I really understood what was just said to me. And so afterwards, everyone's like, are you okay? Are you all right?

[Jim Rash]

It was like being verbally punched in the face. But it was also like we were living, you know, like in Venice Area. So it was like, I don't know, probably a 4:30pm Friday meeting. It was like an hour and a half in the car to get there and then sit down and just be like verbally abused and. And then. All right, back in the car.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, see you.

[Jim Rash]

Two hours home.

[Reshma Sajani]

And what's. So we. It's like. It was just like. We were like. I don't understand. I wasn't saying. Anyway, it didn't matter. So anyway.

[Ben Falcone]

Well, you're a gorgeous person.

[Reshma Sajani]

Thank you.

[Ben Falcone]

You are absolutely gorgeous.

[Jim Rash]

And that facial is going to do this facial.

[Reshma Sajani]

I am going to have facial, folks.

[Melissa McCarthy]

You have the Oscar.

[Ben Falcone]

And, you know, they. They.

[Reshma Sajani]

You guys win.

[Ben Falcone]

Yeah, you both win. Thank you so much for being here. The pleasure. We find you delicious and nutritious. One of my favorite memories, if we could go out with. One of my favorite memories from the Groundlings, is McCarthy. We would do shows, and I believe all four of us probably must have done at least three or four main company shows together. And do you remember that McCarthy, especially when we did a sketch called Mating for Life. She had this one wig. She looked very much like sort of like a real estate agent on acid. And. And she would come back and she.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Would say, I was to say Elizabeth Taylor.

[Ben Falcone]

She would pretend that she had gotten lost and she would ask for pizza. Can we try a little bit of that just for me right now? We'll put some music under this pizza.

[Reshma Sajani]

Always involved.

[Melissa McCarthy]

It was like I accidentally got backstage and I was like, oh, look at the gang. Oh, are you having Zara?

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. But just real quick, because then you should do the voice again. Imagine just one finger. Melissa's got one finger and she. She's flicking the cardboard top to the pizza box, but just keeps flicking. It's not getting very high, but she just keeps wanting to see what's in there. And that's what she's doing.

[Ben Falcone]

And Rash became our kind of bouncer, if you will. He would. Because Rash is the best at saying, ma'am, I was.

[Reshma Sajani]

Or ma'am. Or we would always just interview that person, you know, and someone would say, oh, I'm so and so's brother.

[Jim Rash]

You know, like that, to me, honestly, was the best part of the Groundings was the green room stuff. 100% like nothing on stage. Stage be. What was happening backstage?

[Reshma Sajani]

Screw you, audience.

[Ben Falcone]

We played. We played.

[Jim Rash]

We played games. Full on games.

[Ben Falcone]

And we had to finally stop because we were blowing the show.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Somebody came running back. I don't remember who it was, but they're. And we were all A bunch of us were playing. I know you and I were playing when we got in trouble and somebody came back and they're like, in a law and my scene. We just heard Yahtzee from the green.

[Reshma Sajani]

Room and we were all like, yeah.

[Melissa McCarthy]

It was like a bunch of raccoons.

[Reshma Sajani]

Skittle. Yeah. No, we were doing Trivial Pursuit at some point. We had teams. And you got one sketch to do your final answer. So what I'm gonna say to everyone for advice is always be professional.

[Ben Falcone]

Well, thank you both so much for coming. We love you.

[Reshma Sajani]

We appreciate you.

[Ben Falcone]

Delightful. Thank you so much.

[Jim Rash]

Talk for hours.

[Reshma Sajani]

Treasure, treasure, treasure.

[Ben Falcone]

What was your song again?

[Melissa McCarthy]

Sandile nipples. What is it?

[Reshma Sajani]

Sandalwood. Sand dollar nipples.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Sandile nipples. Sandile nipples.

[Ben Falcone]

Thank you. Bye, everybody.

[Reshma Sajani]

Are you in bed by 10? Can you feel your hormones raging? More than ever? Do you wake up every day wondering, is this. Guess what? You're not alone. Welcome to my so Called Midlife, a weekly podcast hosted by me, Reshma Sajani. On this show, we're going to expose the con we've been sold about middle age. Figure out what the fuck we want from our lives and how to get there. We'll have help from guests like Julia Louis Dreyfus, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Alana Klaser. You can listen to my so Called Midlife ad free on Amazon Music.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Why, hello there. This is your pal Sarah Silverman. You know, the standup comic that's not afraid of a diarrhea joke. Oh, my God. I'm so brave. I hope you're enjoying this podcast that you're listening to. I am just dropping in here to let you know about another podcast I think you'd like, and it's called the Sarah Silverman Podcast. Each week, listeners from all over the world call in and they ask me for advice or they talk about something.

[Reshma Sajani]

Going on in their life, anything, their.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Silliest, gross, deepest, darkest situations.

[Ben Falcone]

And then I respond, whether I'm qualified to or not.

[Melissa McCarthy]

Go ahead, search for the Sarah Silverman Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

[Reshma Sajani]

Bye.