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Craig Ferguson
This is an iHeart podcast.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and safeway. Now through June 24th. Score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags on items like Kraft Mac and Cheese, Celsius energy drinks, Quaker Chewy Bars and Sparkling ice flavored water. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit out robertsons or safeway.com for more details.
Craig Ferguson
We're leaving today and entering a world of Cinderella, Castle sightseeing, Tron Light cycling, Jungle cruise, punning Pirate, swashbuckling Everest climbing, Dapper Denning, Danning, Dunning, soaring, soaring fireworks, show of I'm not crying, you're crying.
Jordan Klepper
World of Favorites for whatever you love.
Craig Ferguson
Infinite worlds await at the most magical place on earth.
Jordan Klepper
Walt Disney World Res Resort this is.
Jenny Garth
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Craig Ferguson
This is me, Craig Ferguson. I'm inviting you to come and see my brand new comedy hour. Well it's actually, it's about an hour and a half and I don't have an opener because these guys cost money. But what I'm saying is I'll be on stage for a while anyway, come and see me live on the Pants on Fire tour in your region. Tickets are on sale now and we'll be adding more as the Tour continues throughout 2025 and beyond. For a full list of dates, go to thecraigfergusonshow.com See you on the road, my dears. My name is Craig Ferguson. The name of this podcast is Joy. I talk to interesting people about what brings them happiness. Live from Brooklyn, New York City, this is the Joy Podcast coming to you from the kidsuper Studio, the tent within the Kids. It's a long story. Anyway, we're here and my guest today is someone that I'm very excited about talking to because he does political stuff and I don't. But he's very good at it, and that's probably why he does it. And I don't. Look, he's very good. He's got a new special out called Jordan Fingers the Pulse Maga the Next Generation. He talks to the young magas. The name of it, Jordan Fingers the Pulse gives you a clue as to who. Who is my guest today? It's Jordan Klepper. Enjoy. You're six foot four.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah. Very tall. Six foot four.
Craig Ferguson
How does, how can you be a tall six foot four?
Jordan Klepper
Well, I think. I say, I. I say that you've.
Craig Ferguson
Got high hair that bad? Does that add another.
Jordan Klepper
Yes. You know, the swoop.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
You know, like, I'm sure you've experimented the buzz, the shorten, the.
Craig Ferguson
I have, yeah. Yeah. I've done it all, but now I just go for a lot of product.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Just.
Jordan Klepper
I feel like we're working with the same stuff here. We have. We have long faces.
Craig Ferguson
Long faces.
Jordan Klepper
We are lucky enough to keep the hair long enough.
Craig Ferguson
You ever go to a bar and anyone say to you, hey, why the long face?
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I've. I've had that too.
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
Do you have. Are you a compulsive drinker? I look at you and I don't see that. That's.
Jordan Klepper
I wouldn't say compulsive. I. I drink, Yeah. I drink more than I'd like to drink. I read all those articles that come out warning. I mean, every article comes out, tells you drinking is not good.
Craig Ferguson
Except in France. They always have these things come out in France where they say a glass of wine a day will make you feel fabulous.
Jordan Klepper
That red wine a day cures heart disease, apparently.
Craig Ferguson
That's right. Stops heart disease. And a cigarette will cure Covid. Did you hear that?
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Nicotine for Covid. And arthritis. I think that's.
Jordan Klepper
That's so French. The ivermectin of France is a cigarette.
Craig Ferguson
Ivermectin was the horse tranquilizer. No, it's not a tranquilizer. It's a horse.
Jordan Klepper
The horse. Was it a dewormer?
Craig Ferguson
I don't know.
Jordan Klepper
It was it was. Ivermectin was primarily used on horses.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
To. To help a horse.
Craig Ferguson
Do you have horses?
Jordan Klepper
Do I have horses personally?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Zero horses don't. Is that going to be a problem with this podcast?
Craig Ferguson
Maybe a little bit. This is a horse based thing. In the 10. I know, mostly what we talk about is horses. I in my life had three horses. Well, two and a half.
Jordan Klepper
You still have the horses?
Craig Ferguson
Well, I don't have them. I'm married to a woman and she likes horses and she has two proper horses and a kind of a backup horse.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, in case a Shetland pony. Oh, so it's no good for anything.
Jordan Klepper
Well, what is the overall purpose? Is it riding? Is it dressage?
Craig Ferguson
Dressage is. I like dressage. Do you know who does dressage? That's the kind of fancy one.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
William Shatner. No, one of the best at it. One of the best. He's the Captain Kirk of dressage.
Jordan Klepper
That guy's been to space.
Craig Ferguson
He's been to space and he does quarter horses, which is a whole horse, but they call them quarter horses because there's small. You have four of them. You get four of them. Two in your feet and two in your hand. No, I think that he said he started because. Have you ever met William Shatner?
Jordan Klepper
No.
Craig Ferguson
It's a treat in store.
Jordan Klepper
I believe it.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, man.
Jordan Klepper
I was actually watching a William Shatner video recently of him coming back from space that is haunting in the clarity that he had in space. And I think the feeling he felt was grief and despair for humanity and what have you. And he was sharing that at the same time. Jeff Bezos was celebrating with his girlfriend.
Craig Ferguson
Yes.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah. You could see the disconnect between somebody having an actual experience and somebody else trying to sell it.
Craig Ferguson
I wonder why Jeff Bezos didn't go to space. Has he gone to space? I'd like to see him go to the Titanic.
Jordan Klepper
One of those little submarines.
Craig Ferguson
Hey, check it out, Jeff. It'll be fine. It's kind of like an Uber, but underwater. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
You're quite the explorer, Jeff.
Craig Ferguson
I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of Jeff Bezos.
Jordan Klepper
Do you not like the product?
Craig Ferguson
I love his product. I love the Amazons.
Jordan Klepper
But the workout regime, are you a fan of that?
Craig Ferguson
I don't know the workout regime.
Jordan Klepper
Well, he just looks quite.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, yeah. He's jacked, isn't he?
Jordan Klepper
He's jacked.
Craig Ferguson
Is he very small?
Jordan Klepper
He feels very small.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Feels hairless and small, but suddenly bulging in ways that he. That wasn't inconceivable years ago.
Craig Ferguson
Do you think he got them delivered overnight?
Jordan Klepper
Oh, yeah. Well, if he pays for the prime, it's almost, it's almost a crime not to get the prime.
Craig Ferguson
It's a crime not to pay for the prime. There you are. I'll take my million dollars. I don't know. Do you use it? Yes and yes.
Jordan Klepper
So do I. I mean, I, I.
Craig Ferguson
All the time.
Jordan Klepper
I know.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Constantly. I feel like it's, it's. There was a Covid. I feel like created you. You could make an argument as to why you're using it so often. And now it's left us in a place where I also have a child who constantly wants things and a wife who constantly wants to be like, how.
Craig Ferguson
Old is your kid? How age is your kid? How old is she? My age. How age is your kid?
Jordan Klepper
I have a, I have a, I have a four and a half year old. He's, he's aged in that direction.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, they're. That's, that's a good place to be between about 3 and 13. They're awesome.
Jordan Klepper
It's a great place. But they constantly want. And they also constantly know that there is a device that exists in our house that we are sometimes looking on that can get them anything they want.
Craig Ferguson
When do, when are you going to give them a phone?
Jordan Klepper
Oh my God. I mean, I think teenage years, I read, you know, there's a good luck. What? There's like a Jonathan Haidt book, the Anxious Generation. Yeah, that's all about like I think social media when you're 16, I think phone when you're 14. I've heard there's like a hack with giving them a smart watch. They can just call home maybe early on. My sister's doing something like that.
Craig Ferguson
How is it going for her? Is it successful? Just started because I have a 14 year old is my youngest and he's had a phone since he was about 11.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right?
Craig Ferguson
Not on social media.
Jordan Klepper
Internet access on that phone.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. A little bit limited. I mean you can kind of. And I always say to, you know, no porn. So I'm sure he's like, yeah, okay, great. Dad said no.
Jordan Klepper
Well, yeah. It sounds like you've really set up the boundaries very clearly.
Craig Ferguson
I'm a fairy. What they call a helicopter parent.
Jordan Klepper
I was going to say you really put in the work. It sounds like.
Craig Ferguson
Well, you know, my wife's very good at it.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
She's very kind of on top of it. I resist. I have this, I wonder if you do this. I've Talked to a lot of performers and people who are in show business who do this. And I have, I have a social media accounts, but I go on, I dump and then I delete the app and then I go on, get the app, sign in, putting it, and then delete the app before it gets me.
Jordan Klepper
Every time.
Craig Ferguson
Every time.
Jordan Klepper
How often then do you redownload?
Craig Ferguson
Probably a couple of times a week.
Jordan Klepper
Okay.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. And that's about it. But it doesn't take that long.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, yeah. I've added the, I've added the time restraints onto my phone. So I have like 20 minutes and my phone like shuts off. But then I can add a code and I enter a code and then I can get it back. And so I've achieved that. So there's. I think it's important to put the speed bumps, but I'm still driving through them.
Craig Ferguson
I think it's. Well, I mean, at least you question yourself a little bit if you're going through it. I started doing a thing like about a week ago. I thought what it's like to just pick up a book and read again at night and before you go to sleep. I've been sleeping great. Like, great. Like I, I'm a 63 year old man. I should be getting up three or four times for a pee. Not even then.
Jordan Klepper
Are you urinating on the bus?
Craig Ferguson
I'm not, I'm peeing in the bed.
Jordan Klepper
Okay.
Craig Ferguson
But I'm sleeping the whole night. But they, I. It's kind of weird. Yeah, I really love it. So what I was saying is back to analog for me, I think.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, I'm a secret Luddite or perhaps a hopeful Luddite. I love that. Last night, last night I did the book before bed situation. Right.
Craig Ferguson
What are you reading?
Jordan Klepper
Well, I got a couple things going on right now. I got a couple coffee table books. Sometimes I'm like, let me just look at some art before bed.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I like it.
Jordan Klepper
I got some Bob Dylan books I'm working through. I'm interviewing Bill Clinton on the program in a week.
Craig Ferguson
So I'm working through his book.
Jordan Klepper
Got a book with James Patterson that's a thriller. Is it really? It is, yeah. He wrote it.
Craig Ferguson
Did either one of them show up for this book? I feel like James Patterson and Bill Clinton kind of have a. It's like, what was his name? Lichtenstein? Who would come in and go, yeah, this is, this is great. Keep going. And then walk up.
Jordan Klepper
I think Patterson has a team. This is what I've heard that I think some of these big time authors have a crew that assemble literature.
Craig Ferguson
Is that really writing then?
Jordan Klepper
I don't, you know, you're curating. I think it's like first step AI in some ways.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
It's like that's the thing.
Craig Ferguson
I'm sure I could write you a partisan novel now.
Jordan Klepper
Sure.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, I think like they probably feed it into AI Understand the. I mean, it's a novel that clearly to its credit, it is a page turner. It has the language of the White House, which I'm sure Bill Clinton weighs in on. But yeah, it's a genre that he's in some ways perfected that I'm sure AI gets a look at that. It's like, yeah, I could pull one of these off.
Craig Ferguson
Do you use AI in your 20 minute food journeys?
Jordan Klepper
I don't, I don't. I mean, I've started a little bit on things like restaurants or like weird like New York questions.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
I go to, to that for the first time. But I'm. I mean it makes me feel old. I don't quite know an access point for a lot of this AI. I'll talk to friends to be like, who are using it for, for work or for reading emails and stuff like that. I, I frankly don't understand.
Craig Ferguson
Did you hear about Claude 4?
Jordan Klepper
No.
Craig Ferguson
Claude 4 is an AI program. Right. They were doing an experiment with it and they told it that we were going to shut it down. Right. Some guy said, I'm going to shut down Claude 4 and Claude for constructed blackmail letters. Letters from the guy who started it, who was going to shut him down to his fictional mistress and said, if you, if you shut me down, I'm going to release these to them. Which it didn't really think it through because if you're shut down, it's very hard to release anything. Do you know what I mean?
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
But the idea that it would try and leverage something to stay alive.
Jordan Klepper
There's cruelty in AI already.
Craig Ferguson
You know, self preservation. I get it. Humanity, business, AI. You know what I mean? It's like you got to do what you got to do. You got to do what you got to do.
Jordan Klepper
Kill or be killed, right?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. It's kind of a thing. You're. Now you're. I was googling. You did it today.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah. Congratulations.
Craig Ferguson
I was actually. What was interested is in the name Klepper. I've never heard it before.
Jordan Klepper
Really? Dutch. Dutch name, yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Have you been to Holland?
Jordan Klepper
No.
Craig Ferguson
You should go.
Jordan Klepper
I know nothing of it. I know there's a kayak stick your.
Craig Ferguson
Finger in a dike and save the country.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right?
Craig Ferguson
That's how you save the country.
Jordan Klepper
Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna quote you on that.
Craig Ferguson
Well, you're the one that does all the fingering, Jo. Stick your finger in the dike and you can save Holland.
Jordan Klepper
Get me to Holland. Let me save a country. No, no.
Craig Ferguson
It might be, you know, a different. The translation might be different, but that's what you do. That's what the little boy did.
Jordan Klepper
Is that based on an actual story? Is it a fairy tale of some sort?
Craig Ferguson
I feel like it's nonsense.
Jordan Klepper
There's, like. There's a Paul Bun. There's. Probably. To me, I imagine that as like a Davy Crockett situation.
Craig Ferguson
Right. Or the Paul Bunyan said the kid had a really big finger. It's like, she's the giant.
Jordan Klepper
Do you know that?
Craig Ferguson
Do you know the Christmas Holland thing?
Jordan Klepper
No.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, it's really bad. It's really bad. They have to get rid of it.
Jordan Klepper
It's like a blackface tradition.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, it's very bad.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
It's Santa, and he has, I think, nine black helpers or something. It's.
Jordan Klepper
You realize there are some countries that are a good 70 years behind culturally dealing with these things.
Craig Ferguson
Listen, I. When I grew up in Brenton in the 1970s, they had a TV show called the Black and White Minstrel Show. I'm not kidding you.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Right? And it was white guys blacked up, singing barbershod songs on TV on primetime. I'm not kidding. And I was like, whoa. And we used to watch it. Yeah, well, my parents used to watch it. I'm like, I don't watch the Black and White Menstrual Show. But it was a real thing. And it was on in Britain in the. I think it was. It made it even into the 80s. I don't know. Do we have Google anywhere? Look up the Black and White Minstrel Show.
Jordan Klepper
Who's the audience for that?
Craig Ferguson
I think old racist British people. But I don't even know if they were. I don't even know if they would. Yeah, I'm not gonna stick up for them old racist British people. I think 58 to 78. 78.
Jordan Klepper
78.
Craig Ferguson
They made it to 78.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. I think what happened is the Sex Pistols came out in 1976, and we're like, you know, maybe we should probably get rid of the Black Paper Show. But it was a real thing.
Jordan Klepper
That's wild.
Craig Ferguson
I know, right? It's crazy. It's crazy. You should go over There. Have you been to Britain?
Jordan Klepper
Oh, I have.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, you went to London, didn't you?
Jordan Klepper
I did, I did. I did foreign study at Goldsmiths in outside London in New Cross. All right. So I was there for like six months.
Craig Ferguson
You like it?
Jordan Klepper
I loved it. I mean, I think, like Python, Partridge, all that stuff became like. Like awakened everything in my head.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, really? The Alan Partridge stuff?
Jordan Klepper
Oh, yeah. I mean, that's still Coogan I've known for years. Oh, yeah.
Craig Ferguson
I mean, I came up with the same.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, yeah.
Jordan Klepper
That character to me is.
Craig Ferguson
It's a great, incredible. It's a great guy.
Jordan Klepper
Age into it. I think he's done such a good job of using, like, formats, like adapting to formats. The podcasting. Mid Morning Matters has such great, like, short attention span video stuff. The fact that they played with sitcom. I just. I think there's so much about that character.
Craig Ferguson
Did you do any character stuff?
Jordan Klepper
Barely. I mean, I came up in the improv sketch world.
Craig Ferguson
Well, that's what I was going to say. Because you were in the Upright Citizens Brigade, right?
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, so I was. I. I performed there in Second City and Improv Olympic in Chicago. So, like. Yeah, there's always characters, I think, like, as I've gotten older, though, I realized, like, my acting range is slight.
Craig Ferguson
Does it need to be much?
Jordan Klepper
Not much. It's status. What I can do is. I can do status. I can do high status. I can do pretty high status.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
And did I say high status and high status?
Craig Ferguson
High status, yes. Well, what about. I mean, I think you could do. Let's try racist Dutch Santa with a giant finger. With a giant finger.
Jordan Klepper
Okay.
Craig Ferguson
I will save the country. I don't know if that's a Dutch accent. Yeah, that one.
Jordan Klepper
That's a fun accent, though, right? Dutch.
Craig Ferguson
I think it's one of the ones you can do like German. You can do.
Jordan Klepper
You can do German because they've still, you know, World War II.
Craig Ferguson
You can still point to that. Still talking about it.
Jordan Klepper
You could do German. Dutch, I think you could probably pull off because not enough people understand what you're doing.
Craig Ferguson
Right. Know that. I could do Dutch and Ger. I. I couldn't tell the difference even with a Dutch or German person. I don't think it's like. It's like Canada and other parts of Canada.
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
You know, Canada.
Jordan Klepper
I'm Midwest too. So Canada gets into Northern Michigan as well. So it's just like. That just sounds like a level of like, niceness or like. Or. Yeah, it's. It's like a kindness.
Craig Ferguson
Passive aggression too. A lot of passive aggression.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, there's something behind it, but it's a performative nature of like, things are okay.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and safeway. Now through June 24th. Score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags on items like Dove ice cream bars, Chips Ahoy Cookies, Arrowhead bottled water and Charmin bath Tissue. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event long savings. Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more detail.
Dr. Patrick McGrath
Details what if I told you that right now millions of people are living with a debilitating condition that's so misunderstood many of them don't even know that they have it? That condition is Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD. I'm Dr. Patrick McGrath, the chief clinical officer of NOCD, and in the 25 years I've been treating OCD, I've met so many people who are suffering from the condition in silence, unaware of just what it was. OCD can create overwhelming anxiety and fear around what you value most, make you question your identity, beliefs and morals, and drive you to perform mentally and physically draining compulsions or rituals. Over my career, I've seen just how devastating OCD can be when it's left untreated. But help is available. That's where NOCD comes in. NOCD is the world's largest virtual therapy provider for Obsessive Compulsive disorder. Our licensed therapists are trained in exposure and response prevention therapy, a specialized treatment proven to be incredibly effective for OCD. So visit nocd.com to schedule a free 15 minute call with our team. That's nocd.com this is Jenny Garth from.
Jenny Garth
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Jordan Klepper
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment.
Craig Ferguson
Of $45 for three month plan equivalent.
Jordan Klepper
To 15 per month.
Craig Ferguson
Required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com hello, this is Craig Ferguson and I want to let you know I have a brand new stand up comedy special out now on YouTube. It's called I'm so happy and I would be so happy if you checked it out. To watch the special, just go to my YouTube channel, he Craig Ferguson show and it's just right there. Just click it and play it and it's free. I can't. Look, I'm not gonna come around your house and show you how to do it. If you can't do it, then you can't have it. But if you can figure it out, it's yours. What about standup? Has that ever intrigued you as a.
Jordan Klepper
Yes, I do a bit of it now. I basically when I got the Daily show, all the standups on the Daily show were like, you should do stand up, right?
Craig Ferguson
Every standup thinks you should do stand.
Jordan Klepper
Go do stand up. And so I was like, I'll try the standup thing. And so I've been doing it for the last few years. I'm going on a bit of a tour now. I did stand up. I like standup. Honestly, as an improv guy, you're taught to dislike stand up. It's such different worlds. At least coming up.
Craig Ferguson
Why would you be taught that?
Jordan Klepper
I mean, I think like in the world of Chicago coming up, you're either an improv or you are a standup guy, right?
Craig Ferguson
So you pick a side.
Jordan Klepper
You like solo stuff or you like working as a team with a bunch of the theater kids, Right? I think though I grew out of improv, by the time I got Daily Show, I was pretty tired of it. And I kind of fell in love with the craft of stand up. But also in doing that, became very aware of like how much work it took to get where I wanted to be with it. Like my first few shows, I was able to by that point, at 35, having done comedy for 15 years, I could put up a show, people would watch it, I could be all right. And it was really frustrating to be like, shoot, I'm all right. I'd really like to be good, but I'm all right to be good. I need these kinds of reps.
Craig Ferguson
I also think though, that there's different types of standup. I feel like, you know, not just like the individuals, but there's actually different. Like, I went down to the. Have you been down to the Comedy Cellar and that Village Underground, which I thought was a fantastic place. I love it down there. And I went for the first time last weekend and I got up and did, you know, they call it a drop in, I guess, but I did a set, a little short set. I did it twice over the period of the evening. And, you know, because the roll shows through and you do 15 minutes and I don't do 15 minutes. I do, you know, about 90 to 100 minutes. So in the first set, I was like, oh, I better kind of pick this up a little bit. And the second set, I got it. But it's a different. Feels like a different instrument. It's like a. A guitar or a banjo. Do you know what I mean? I don't know which one is which, but the. Or a guitar and, you know, glockenspiel or something. But they're. They're. It's a different thing because you have to joke, joke, joke.
Jordan Klepper
The rhythm, the rhythms to stand up were so different than the rhythms of improv, I think, also, like an audience. I was. My first reaction was like, as an improviser, an audience is rooting for you and is cheering along the process. And so they're. There's like a rapt attention that holds.
Craig Ferguson
The spaces very nice, very eaterable.
Jordan Klepper
And then you come stand up. And I feel like the audience is like. Sets the clock. And it's like, go, am I laughing every 25 seconds? How's this working? I got used to that a bit.
Craig Ferguson
That's club stand up, I think, but stand up. You know, when I'm doing a theater, you know, you tell stories and you kind of meander and you've got that thing. You got that kind of grace to talk and do stuff.
Jordan Klepper
That's what I kind of shifted over to that. In the last year and a half, that's been so much nicer because I feel like the club world. I would get. Half the audience wanted me to just to talk about politics stuff because they knew Daily show stuff.
Craig Ferguson
I did.
Jordan Klepper
And the other half was pissed. I was talking about politics.
Craig Ferguson
So I felt like politics for you, though.
Jordan Klepper
I mean.
Craig Ferguson
I mean, I made a decision, like 2016, actually, that I would remove it from everything I do.
Jordan Klepper
Everything.
Craig Ferguson
Everything I do.
Jordan Klepper
How is that out on the road now? Do people still want it or they feel like.
Craig Ferguson
Well, first, everybody assumes that you're on the other side.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
So everybody, like, everybody on the left assumes you're on the right. Everybody on the right assumes you're on the left. And, and at first it's kind of like it doesn't go away. But when you keep talking about it and saying, look, I'm not doing it, in every interview I gave, I'm like, I'm not doing it. And when you do the local radio things with Zippy Bingo and the Wheeze to promote that show, then I say, look, it's not about politics. And I keep doing it. I keep doing it, and now they get it. And I think it's kind of, for me, it's a relief. I just don't want to. And I'm kind of, I admire. Because I remember talking to Stephen Colbert about this. It's like, you know, he ran right at it. Like, if I was going doing Late night right now, I'd be like, yeah, forget it. And then everyone would hate you for it. Yeah. They'd be like, ah, why? That's exactly what they would say. You would say, you're a coward.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
And I'm like, why? I just don't want to, I don't want to get into it. I'm sick of listening to people I agree with. You know, I'm like, fuck, please. But I guess when you have that volume of stuff to fill policies is great, because every day there's a new show, especially now there's a new show every day. We're going to invade Canada. Look out, Greenland, they're breaking up.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, how much Trump do you think you'd be talking about right now if you were doing a monologue tonight?
Craig Ferguson
I don't think I would be doing any of it.
Jordan Klepper
None of it.
Craig Ferguson
I don't think so, because I kind of feel like I came up during punk rock, right? And particularly British or really English punk rock, and particularly the Pistols and the vibe of that and the kind of, the instigator of that was Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren and Vivian and Malcolm were great. The whole thing was selling the swindle. Like, it's a swindle. It's a, A fucking, It's a game. It's a. And so the, the kind of, the, what you kind of gets in your bones is like, I, I, I don't want to be hoodwinked by this fucking. The great rock and roll swindle.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
And I feel like politics right now, particularly media coverage, is like, you fucking suckers, they're giving you a new piece of misdirect. Every day, every look at all this is going on. That's not the thing. The thing that you're not looking at is the thing.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
And then, of course, if you go that way, then conspiracy theories, and I've got a lot of them.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You flat earther. Where are you at with the earth?
Craig Ferguson
Flat earther. Contrails.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Contrails and flat. Have you ever flown a plane?
Jordan Klepper
No, actually.
Craig Ferguson
You should do it.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, you'd like it. My guess is you're a control freak. Yeah, there's part of it. Yeah. For sure. It'll appeal to you.
Jordan Klepper
I feel like I just watched the rehearsal of the Nathan Fielder show, which I. I loved. Can't say enough good things about it, but, boy, places you in the. I think it really set me into how stressful that job is. It's easy. I walk on a plane now. I'm like, I bet you push a couple buttons, you get on up there and you're like, oh, no. I think, like, the pressure of that. I've never jumped out of a plane.
Craig Ferguson
No, I wouldn't do that.
Jordan Klepper
You wouldn't do that. You should be prepared to jump out of a plane if you're flying. Right.
Craig Ferguson
Well, I'd rather land the plane. I like the idea of landing the plane. I wouldn't jump out of a perfectly good airplane to start going, whee. That doesn't appeal to me at all.
Jordan Klepper
So you have like a. You have a pilot's license?
Craig Ferguson
I do, yeah. I only did it because I. I was frightened to fly.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Which I, you know, I thought. And then I was talking about this on late night, actually, to Kurt Russell, who is like a big timey aviator. I mean, he's. That's really what he does. He acts for money to pay for gas. Yeah. And. And he said, yeah, you're not a. You're. You're not frightened of flying. You're just a control freak. I'm like, I don't think that's true. And then he said, this is what really got me, because vanity wins every time. He said, I just read your book. You're a control freak. And I went, kurt Russell read my book. I was like, oh, tell me more about myself. Yeah, enough about you. More about me. And he kind of got me hooked up with a flying instructor and I got in at flying. Wow. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
And did that do? It was suddenly like, oh, riding in a plane is no big deal anymore.
Craig Ferguson
It changed it.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Now I'm frightened flying, but I'm Frightened of the correct things.
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
As opposed to.
Jordan Klepper
Feels like that hurdle, though, it allows you to control something when you're flying, but it perhaps gives you more respect for the people who are in charge there. And therefore you release. You relinquish some of that control.
Craig Ferguson
Is that where I think you have to relinquish control? I mean, I think that you have to be a bit more. See that my life has been stand up. And you are a team player and you're learning to, I mean, you're now.
Jordan Klepper
Learning to be selfish.
Craig Ferguson
Slowly experimenting. I've been pathologically selfish since I was. I didn't really drank myself to death. I'm so selfish, it's crazy. I had to really work on it. But kids will do that for you as well, actually.
Jordan Klepper
I mean. Yes. Well, I do think that was a giant wake up for me of like, oh, I realize where I am selfish and how I am selfish in all those ways.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Then a kid is there. You're like, oh, I thought I'm doing this for that reason or this for that reason. But really most of these things doing for. Is for me. And then a kid comes along, it's like, oh, yeah, the whole name of the game is like, just protect that thing. Feed that thing. Be nice to that thing. Make money for that thing. Live for that thing.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
That was another big thing where I'm.
Craig Ferguson
Like, oh, gotta stay alive.
Jordan Klepper
I have to stay alive.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I was like, I wasn't thinking about staying alive. I gotta stay alive.
Craig Ferguson
I know. And it's, it's kind of a bummer sometimes. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
You're like, I, I, I, I need to, I need to grapple with that, that like now my new job is to like, like, withhold pain from this child's life.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
To be able to create space and security for this, this child for as long as humanly possible.
Craig Ferguson
And how's it going?
Jordan Klepper
It's okay.
Craig Ferguson
Did it kick in first day for you? Did like when the baby was born, was it like a, like a. Whoa. This is all. Because I'll just be honest with you. It took me about six months once.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Because at first when it's the baby, I'm like, babies, geez, what a pain in the ass babies are. They're just, but when they start, you know, interacting with you, it's fine. But when it's just that screaming slug in the middle of the night. Yeah, Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, that first, that first wave is all of like, I just, I have to, I have to learn a new skill to Keep this cellular. Cellular thing alive for a while. This egg that I brought home, Just what do I need to do for it?
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
And then.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
When it becomes a human that you interact with.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
Then I think I could project into the future that human. Like, going on a date for the first time or being heartbroken.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, human.
Jordan Klepper
Like. Like, that stuff scared the shit out of me. And I also, for the first time in my life, also, like, saw the moment where my son would no longer call me and tell me how he's doing every few days or what have you.
Craig Ferguson
I saw in the future living that. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Like, oh, I. That will be a pain that I will feel. And I. And I. I haven't been thinking about how my parents are feeling that soon.
Craig Ferguson
You'd be surprised how. Okay. That. Is that all right? Like, yeah, whatever.
Jordan Klepper
All right.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, hi, son. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
All right. Yeah. Okay, you're fine. Good. You're alive.
Craig Ferguson
Good, good, good. Yeah, yeah. Brushing your teeth. Good.
Jordan Klepper
Laugh. Food.
Craig Ferguson
Food.
Jordan Klepper
Spf. Great. We'll talk in four days.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, it's funny. I'll get the news for your mom. My dad used to say that to me. I'll get all the news from your mother. And he would just hand the phone when I was calling Scotland.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, yeah. Now, here's the thing. My wife has a theory that all standups, and I extrapolate that to performers, actually all have very similar mothers.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, tell me more.
Craig Ferguson
She says, cold with bad boundaries.
Jordan Klepper
Cold with bad boundaries. Yeah, I'm going to say no for me.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I'm going to say, I mean, yeah, I, I, I.
Craig Ferguson
That's why you didn't go into stand up.
Jordan Klepper
That's why maybe I didn't go into stand up. I think my brain. I had very supportive parents, like working class parents in Michigan who were just excited that I was doing stuff I liked. But I was like, without it being put on from a parental pressure, I think they were too worried about putting food on the table, doing all that. That I was like, I need to do these things to succeed in life, to get a college scholarship, to go to college, to get a job. I was a nerd. I got a math scholarship going into college.
Craig Ferguson
Experience. Great.
Jordan Klepper
I was, Yeah. I was all about, like, what are the things I need to do to succeed in life? So therefore, I will not let my parents down and I will be okay. And then in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the only thing you were told you could be is, like, if you're smart, you could be, like, a doctor or lawyer.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
That's it, you know, so it was like, all right, I'll probably be one of those things. I can be a smart kid and I get a scholarship to be a smart kid. And then like the improv thing, the bug hits me. They send me to England and I get a little bit of this stuff, and suddenly my brain is like, like, oh, I. I like this. I'm asked to think about stuff in different ways, feel in different ways, express in different ways. There's not like a path for that.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
And so then it was like, well, fuck it. I wanna. I wanna explore this. And I do get. I give my parents credit. Like, they didn't come at a. From a place of like, stay on the path, do that thing. They were, I think, tickled by the fact that I was exploring in this way.
Craig Ferguson
And also that it sounds like you were happy.
Jordan Klepper
I was happy. I was doing an interesting thing, that they were like, we'll come visit you in London. We'll go to Chicago and see your dumb little shows in the middle of the night because you love pretending and doing all of this. I think in some ways, at least for the improviser mindset, it's such a luxury that my job for seven years, not even job. My job was a substitute teacher for seven years, but what I was doing is pretending on stage.
Craig Ferguson
Substitute teaching. What? Math?
Jordan Klepper
Everything in Chicago public schools.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, man.
Jordan Klepper
I do that for the days job.
Craig Ferguson
You don't need to do stand up. You've been in front of tough.
Jordan Klepper
They're judging me constantly.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, my God, that is. That's hard.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, it's constantly crowd work with a bunch of. A bunch of kids who don't want to listen to things you're saying.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I. I don't know if I could handle them. My mother was a teacher.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Like, oh, geez. No, there's a lot of people in my family are teachers when I think about it. Uncles and aunts and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
You don't see a connection to that, though, with stand up that you.
Craig Ferguson
I feel like you think about it. Yeah. The. The kind of. Of the standing in front of groups of hostile Scottish people. Yeah, I see it now. Yeah, I think that's. Yeah, I never thought about it. Yeah, maybe. Although I don't consider myself in any way in a teaching position with these people. Mostly it's about survival for me, I think.
Jordan Klepper
But I feel like one of your. I mean, one of your superpowers, though, is putting people at ease.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
Would that be fair to say? I feel like you famously like your Ability to interview and get to the quick with people.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
And put them.
Craig Ferguson
I feel like I'm non threatening. I'm non threatening.
Jordan Klepper
Sure, of course.
Craig Ferguson
And then maybe, you know what it is, is like, I really don't want to damage you in any way. I'm not interested in scoring a point against you or. I don't care about that.
Jordan Klepper
You gotta try to get a point in here or there. You wanna win. I mean, who's winning now?
Craig Ferguson
Who's. You're winning and I want you to win.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, boy. You're winning and it's no fun. If you just give it up.
Craig Ferguson
You're winning it like life. You're tall.
Jordan Klepper
I am tall.
Craig Ferguson
You're tall too, Craig. Come on. You're winning. You're past the tall post first. You're the checkered flag of the tall race. And you're in.
Jordan Klepper
I'm in.
Craig Ferguson
You're in. And you, you did a little extra with the high hair.
Jordan Klepper
You got to, you know, I don't shimmy when you're in the end zone. I.
Craig Ferguson
You know what? I. I don't know if I, you know, if I have the testosterone anymore to get my hair to go high. I think it'll just.
Jordan Klepper
You know what the secret is? The secret is less product.
Craig Ferguson
Shut up.
Jordan Klepper
You think it's more product? No, the secret is less product. The product weighs it down and you need enough to keep it in some sort of shape. But when you want height, if you're going for height.
Craig Ferguson
I don't know if I am, though.
Jordan Klepper
It looks good.
Craig Ferguson
I feel like if I go for height, you know, at this point in my life, it's like I'm the oldest guy in the club. Do you know what I'm saying? It's like, I think I should just. You get to a certain point, and I think it's around about 60, where you just. You try and not embarrass people by being in the room with them. This is like, oh, I hope he does. Last night I was doing a podcast and I was sitting talking to these people for about an hour and a half or something. It was one of those long ones where you hold the microphone.
Jordan Klepper
That shows your age. Right there. Yeah, it's one of these long ones. One of these exhausted podcasts where they make you hold the microphone.
Craig Ferguson
You gotta hold the microphone. I'm like, oh, no, don't we have one of these. I had to hold the microphone, and when I stood up, my leg was kind of seized up, up, and I was like, oh, my God, this is Awful. And I was limping, and I thought this a. This is. You know, it's a. It's a little kind of trailer of what's coming.
Jordan Klepper
I'm literally limping now because I broke up. I fractured a bone in my foot.
Craig Ferguson
Really?
Jordan Klepper
From standing on it too long. What? From standing on it too long.
Craig Ferguson
Really?
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
That. That. Can that happen?
Jordan Klepper
It can happen.
Craig Ferguson
Can you. You should maybe see a doctor. That sounds like brittle leg syndrome.
Jordan Klepper
I have. I. I have the. I have the foot bone density of, like, an ailing sparrow.
Craig Ferguson
Wow.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah. And it's. I feel like I'm feeling very old this year. I've got a lot of, like. Like, ailments have suddenly hit. I'm 46 and so, like, foot cracked.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Gout.
Craig Ferguson
You have gout?
Jordan Klepper
Gout.
Craig Ferguson
What are you, King Henry viii? How the hell did you get gout?
Jordan Klepper
I sup at the table of kings.
Craig Ferguson
How did you get gout? Because gout's like a buildup of a mineral of some kind. It is.
Jordan Klepper
You get it because you're eating. I mean, I joke that it is like, I. I have privilege, essentially, because you are. You're. You're drinking yeasty IPAs and you're eating red meat. But a big part of it is, too. It's a. It's a genetic thing that, like, basically, if you get a certain level of, like, you get uric acid buildup and. And diet is part of it, but mostly it's a genetic thing.
Craig Ferguson
Do you have to go vegan?
Jordan Klepper
Then I should go, no booze and no red meat. And I go, no red meat.
Craig Ferguson
That's me. That's me. Yeah, But I live my life like that. Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
And do you like it?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, it's fine. But the no booze thing is essential. Yes, essential.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, that I get.
Craig Ferguson
You know, I'm like. I've. I got sober when I was 29.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
But I was.
Jordan Klepper
You live that life.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. No, I was. No, no. For. Well, as it turns out, it wasn't for me, but it was for me at the time.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
No booze and no drugs and no red meat because, you know.
Jordan Klepper
And you've just now gotten into reading.
Craig Ferguson
No, I've been reading for you.
Jordan Klepper
I was going to say I feel like night. I feel like nighttime reading is. To me, like, when I'm at my best and I'm drinking, I'm taking a break and I'm eating. Good. To me, one of the biggest elements of social drinking, or even just solo at home is like, marking the end of the day and So I have such a hard time transitioning into something that feels it's a good use of time at night. And to me, books does that sometimes.
Craig Ferguson
Let me talk to you. Let's wind it back a little to solo drinking at the end of the day.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, Craig, come on. I was winning. I was winning this conversation.
Craig Ferguson
Let's just take a little drinking stop here at this.
Jordan Klepper
I knew this was happening.
Craig Ferguson
Rest stop on this little freeway and go solo drinking at the end of the day?
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
A little glass of beer or wine or something.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, I'll go a little bourbon at the end of the night.
Craig Ferguson
Okay. A little hard alcohol. A little hard alcohol.
Jordan Klepper
It's better for the feet.
Craig Ferguson
The gout, you know, Your fucking gout is well deserved.
Jordan Klepper
I didn't. I didn't cut this, so cheese and.
Craig Ferguson
Bourbon at the end of the day with a burger.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, this is. All right.
Craig Ferguson
You know what? Now I'm winning.
Jordan Klepper
Sit on your high horse or your quarter horse and look down on me.
Craig Ferguson
Sit on one of your.
Jordan Klepper
One of your. One of your four horses. I love it. You come in here bragging about your four horses.
Craig Ferguson
I don't have four horses. I don't have any horses.
Jordan Klepper
Your wife has three horses. She has a reserve horse.
Craig Ferguson
She has a backup horse. It's not really a horse. It's a Shetland pony.
Jordan Klepper
You're still on a high Shetland pony with this perspective.
Craig Ferguson
The thing is, though, I'm frightened of the Shetland pony.
Jordan Klepper
It serves no purpose.
Craig Ferguson
Well, that. And it's a very angry thing.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, really? Because.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, yeah, it's a very angry thing. They're very cranky Shetland ponies. You mustn't have one, really. You live in New York City. I do. They'd be very inconvenient anyway.
Jordan Klepper
Although that makes you that guy in.
Craig Ferguson
I mean, the guy with the iguana at Starbucks.
Jordan Klepper
That guy. That guy.
Craig Ferguson
I don't want to be. No. You don't like that guy. It's not that I like him. I just don't want to be there.
Jordan Klepper
I don't want to be.
Craig Ferguson
No. Yeah. I don't want to be that because that guy's. People are going to talk to that guy. I don't want to talk to you.
Jordan Klepper
That's true.
Craig Ferguson
You know, I'll talk to you here in the tent, but Starbucks.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
I like to be ready. Do you know what I mean? Like, do you ever get, like, one. You get recognized because you get recognized and people recognize you at times where really you don't want to be recognized at that time for sure.
Jordan Klepper
A lot of times, I think kid usually blacks that out sometimes. New York. New York is a pretty cool place.
Craig Ferguson
New York. New York is actually the best city in the world for it. Because if people recognize you, they're like, oh, that's that guy.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, Yeah. I had the best one a few weeks ago. I was like, parking in Brooklyn on a Sunday, and I hop out and I'm about ready to pay my meter, and a guy walks by and he goes like, klepper, it's Sunday. You don't fucking pay. And he kept walking.
Craig Ferguson
That's great.
Jordan Klepper
Honestly, I was like, that is so New York.
Craig Ferguson
That is very New York. But here's the thing I have. Let's go back to paying for the meter. I never do.
Jordan Klepper
You don't never. You roll the dice.
Craig Ferguson
I roll the dice. Cause I figure and I get tickets, but I don't get them every time. And I feel like it works out kind of even.
Jordan Klepper
I will say I do that. I do street parking.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I got a car and I got no parking spot. And so, you know, the New York thing of like, get in your car and then wait for two hours as the cleaner comes around, so you don't get a ticket.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, I've given up on that as well, where I'm like, I'll roll the dice. I'll pay it. It's so much cheaper to get a couple tickets a month than it is to pay for parking in New York. Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
I mean, it's like if you go try and park in one of these structures, it's like, it's more expensive than getting tickets. It doesn't make any sense.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what do you double part you're driving in town?
Craig Ferguson
I don't have a car in town.
Jordan Klepper
You don't have one in town?
Craig Ferguson
But when I do, because I drive a Ram 1500 pickup truck.
Jordan Klepper
That's a fucking tank.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
You got tiny ponies and big trucks.
Craig Ferguson
I would never let a pony in my truck. That's from my wife's vehicle.
Jordan Klepper
How many ponies could you put in the back of that truck?
Craig Ferguson
A ram, Dodge Ram, 1500. I don't know. One Shetland pony. You couldn't get a huge.
Jordan Klepper
You couldn't.
Craig Ferguson
No, you're thinking of the 2500.
Jordan Klepper
What is it? What do you. You like the beefiness.
Craig Ferguson
You use it. I like the tribe, you know, because I'm an immigrant.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
And I feel like, you know, when you're an immigrant, it's kind of like, you know, people that convert to a religion are more Religious than the people who grew up in the religion. That's kind of like me with America. I'm more America than people who were American.
Jordan Klepper
Like, you have, like, a cowboy hat at home?
Craig Ferguson
Oh, more than one. That's three horses. Two and a half. I have a cowboy hat. I drink root beer over crushed ice. I yell at the tv. I watch nascar.
Jordan Klepper
You like nascar too?
Craig Ferguson
I watch nascar.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, you are in it.
Craig Ferguson
I. Sometimes I fall asleep in front of baseball games. I do the whole thing.
Jordan Klepper
I respect that.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. I threw myself wholeheartedly into a. I'm Homer seven.
Jordan Klepper
That's the best place to be, to be honest, to. To enjoy all of the. The indulgences of American culture. I feel like there's elements that I feel like I myself am always probably partially pushing against.
Craig Ferguson
Well, because I grew up in it. Yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting thing. What did you miss about it when you were in London, if anything?
Jordan Klepper
Well, I was such a sheltered child by the. When I left.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
So, like, I mean, I immediately sought out everything that felt American in London. But I've also, like, 19 at the time. 20 at the time. So, like, I'm eating at. I mean, I'm eating at the McDonald's in Trafalgar Square.
Craig Ferguson
Right.
Jordan Klepper
You know, I'm like. I'm just eating at chip shops. And so I'm. The culture was as close to, like, American fast food culture as I could Right. Find. But as I, like, settled in it, I mean, I. I loved. I think what I mostly loved about London at the time was that I love big cities. I didn't know it. Kalamazoo is a tiny one. And I'm like, these big cities have an energy.
Craig Ferguson
I love big cities. I love this city.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
I love. New York City is my favorite city. I think every other city is just kind of pretending to be New York.
Jordan Klepper
They all are, except for I went to Tokyo. Tokyo.
Craig Ferguson
Tokyo doesn't give a. Yeah. Oh, this is Tokyo's Tokyo.
Jordan Klepper
Tokyo's Tokyo.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I think you got some of the. Some of the European cities. I'm like, oh, yeah, But New York is New York. You're like, oh, Tokyo is three. New York.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. Tokyo is kind of crazy. Yeah, I love the.
Jordan Klepper
It. Oh, yeah, me too.
Craig Ferguson
I feel if I had gone to. To Japan when I was a young man, I would not have come back.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, that would have been your. That would have been your life. And.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I would have. Just because I really liked it. I really. I don't know why. I. I mean, just everything about it Just seemed great.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Why did you go? Were you, were you working?
Jordan Klepper
No, that was five, six years ago. My wife has always wanted to go. She loves Japanese culture. I was, I did as well, but it wasn't on my, my bucket list necessarily. And so we went. We spent like two weeks. We did like a week. Yes. Went to Kyoto and then went to the Noto Peninsula. Then we're like, we want to go to like a small fishing town and spend a couple days out there. And that was amazing. I feel like I felt a little bit this with Rome. What I loved about Rome is that there's like three centuries going on at the same time. Like now, the 1600s and like, Roman culture is like on the same block.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
And Japan felt elements of that of, like, Tokyo felt like a super city in its own future that I loved. Didn't give a shit about Westerners or what they had going on.
Ryan Seacrest
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Howie Mandel
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Jenny Garth
This is Jenny Garth from I Do Part Two. Can't afford Ozempic? Try WeGovy from Future Health, just $199 and FDA approved for weight loss. No insurance or tricky syringes needed, just results. Visit futurehealth.com that's future without the E and start losing weight this week. Future Health weight loss data based on independent studies sponsored by Future Health. Future Health is not a healthcare services provider. Meds are prescribed at providers discretion. Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores automate allowance, and keep an eye on what your kids are spending. With real time notifications, kids learn to earn, save and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Try Greenlight risk free today@greenlight.com iheart.
Craig Ferguson
Have you been in Russia?
Jordan Klepper
No.
Craig Ferguson
Russia's amazing.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I was, because I kind of came up during the Cold War, so, you know, I had been told a lot of stuff about Russia that's not true. And people are hearing a lot of stuff about Russia that's not true right now, you know, and like when I was in St. Petersburg, which is as beautiful a city as I've ever seen. I mean, it's like Paris, but clean. I mean, it's amazing. And Moscow is amazing. And the people are so gregarious. You know what they're like? They're like Irish people. Literate drunks. They're all drunk and they've all read everything.
Jordan Klepper
I mean, I feel like. Yeah, the literature, culture over there is incredible, right?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
When have you last been there?
Craig Ferguson
There? I'm not. I went there. I went there. I think it was about 2012 was the last time I was there. So I'm probably not going to go at the moment.
Jordan Klepper
Not a great time.
Craig Ferguson
Not a great cheap. Yeah, I don't know how you would get that. You'd have to fly in the Middle east and then fly up, I guess, huh?
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, I think so.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
I don't know. I mean, I just. I always liked it. And also I went to go and see Lennon was the first dead body I ever saw.
Jordan Klepper
Is that right? Yeah, you gotta pick one.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
He's in the. The mausoleum. I went in to see him.
Jordan Klepper
I've seen those pictures. It looks very spooky.
Craig Ferguson
It is very spooky. But also I kind of was like, is that really him?
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. I thought maybe it might be, you know, Feels like wax.
Jordan Klepper
It's at a distance it's dark.
Craig Ferguson
I thought it was Jimmy Hoffa.
Jordan Klepper
Is that. That's where he is.
Craig Ferguson
I think that might be. It may be Jimmy Hoffa. Yeah. Okay. They took Lennon out and Lennon is still alive on Ivermectin. Is he? Yeah. And it's. Jimmy Hoffa is in there.
Jordan Klepper
He's stealing from the horses. You got sick. Is there? But you still. But Lenin's still kicking it.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, I think Lenin's. I think Lenin. Putin Sounds kind of the same. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Well, not really, but.
Jordan Klepper
But there's. There's definitely certain letters that are the same.
Craig Ferguson
Do you know they have a lot of statues of Lenin? I don't know if they still have them, but they had a lot of statues of Lenin holding up a newspaper.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. I don't really know why he was doing that.
Jordan Klepper
I thought he was hailing a cab of some sort.
Craig Ferguson
It looks like that. He's always. His coat is flapping and he's always like that.
Jordan Klepper
Hey, they're striving.
Craig Ferguson
You can't get a cab in this entire Soviet system.
Jordan Klepper
That's why I went to Estonia and they had, like, one of those. They had a sculpture park of all of the decommissioned.
Craig Ferguson
They've got that in Moscow as well.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Park of totalitarian art.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, wow.
Craig Ferguson
It's amazing.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, my God. I mean, because. Yeah, the art, it's fascinating. So brutalist in nature. All of these figures are. They're all striding. They all striding, all moving in some kind of direction. Big heads.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. Giant heads.
Jordan Klepper
Great tailored suits.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. And also the one in Moscow, I don't know about an Estonian, but the one in Moscow, they're all kind of like, toppled over and, like, you know, so it's kind of weird. You know, the weird thing I found in Red Square? First time when you go into Red Square, everybody. You walk into Red Square and you start crying. Really? It's the weirdest thing. You're like, oh, my God.
Jordan Klepper
What? It.
Craig Ferguson
It's enormous. It's enormous. And then just the kind of weirdness of it all. Maybe it's my generation. Cause of the mystery of the Soviets and the terror. It was like going to, like, the devil's house or something. And then the graves on the. John Reed, the American Communist, is buried at the Kremlin wall.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. And Stalin is buried there. And Stalin's grave by far has all these people, like, leaving flowers and. Really, that's the one. Everybody goes to Stalin's grave.
Jordan Klepper
It's all right there in Red Square.
Craig Ferguson
It's there yeah, yeah. And there's a department store on the other side of it called Gum. You.
Jordan Klepper
Can you see it? Is it perfect?
Craig Ferguson
It's right there. It's right there. Yeah. It's an old building. I don't know if it was always called. It was always a department store. I think it might have been the tsar's wardrobe or something like that. I mean, it's insane. Oh, man, it's crazy.
Jordan Klepper
And Lennon's right there, like in the center.
Craig Ferguson
No, you go down the little steps and kind of dark, not unlike this. And then he's. It's like. It's like a Dracula or, you know, Sleeping Beauty, but done by the Cure or something like that.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, wow.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, yeah.
Jordan Klepper
Is there like a line? Is he still a draw?
Craig Ferguson
I don't. I mean, in 2012, yeah, people were still going, but I don't know if they're going now. Cause it's an Instagram moment now, isn't it? You would be going down there, like, here's me and Lennon. Here's me and Will I am. You know, I mean, whoever it is at the time. Yeah, Will I am is fine, by the way. He's not dead as of this recording. Will I am is fine.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah. Who knows? Fingers crossed. He was a hologram at one point, but I think he was still alive. That was mostly a.
Craig Ferguson
Have you seen abba or a hologram now?
Jordan Klepper
Are they.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah, ABBA have got a show going on in London that you can go to, and they're robo hologram machines and.
Jordan Klepper
That'S the whole show. I know that Tupac was a hologram.
Craig Ferguson
For a bit, right? Well, yeah, but for obvious reasons, they just didn't want to go, like, Tupac can't make it, to be fair.
Jordan Klepper
I can't do a six night a week run. That just doesn't make any sense.
Craig Ferguson
He's not available for that. But abba, they could still conceivably go and sing the songs, but they don't.
Jordan Klepper
That's power.
Craig Ferguson
But it's young abba.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, I mean, that's. You get to pick. You get to pick the.
Craig Ferguson
No, that's what you get. You get young abba. But it's like. Have you ever been to Graceland?
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
Right. Well, you know when they have Elvis's suits up there? Oh, yeah. It's not fat Elvis.
Jordan Klepper
It's not fat Elvis. But see, I love. I love old rock stars is what I want.
Craig Ferguson
All right.
Jordan Klepper
I love it. I love it. I'm a Dylan guy and I love old Dylan.
Craig Ferguson
Did you like that film?
Jordan Klepper
Yes.
Craig Ferguson
Oh, good, good, good.
Jordan Klepper
I think, like. Like, it's not the Dylan film I would necessarily make, but I think part of, like, part of what I love is all the lore around him and somebody just being like, all right, this is. This is the Dylan story.
Craig Ferguson
We're gonna tell this bit. It's an artist's life. There's too many different bits. But, yeah, I thought Edward Norton was great. I like Edward Norton.
Jordan Klepper
I think that's such a fun. Pete Seeger. I think he's always in the Dylan myth. Been such a kind of a nerve and a dweeb attached to Bob Dylan.
Craig Ferguson
I know next to nothing about Bob Dylan.
Jordan Klepper
Really.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. Just pass me by.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I found him late and just his talent, but beyond that, like, as a performer, his freedom to. He found his success as a performer at such an early age and then just dumped it and looked for something else. And I feel like so much of, like, being a performer and improviser is like, trying to find what's your thing so that you can sit in it and find a little success for a moment. And, like, Dylan figured it out and was like, fuck it, I'm gonna do another. And he figured that out and they're like, oh, fuck it. I'm doing another thing. His impermanence is so impressive to me.
Craig Ferguson
I think people who get very successful, very young also get injected with a confidence that sometimes is warranted. In the case of Dylan, definitely. And sometimes it's absolutely not. And then they get into this odd kind of sense of entitlement.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I think there's a world where you can then completely freeze and this is just who you are. You're confident, you're successful. This is the gravy train you will ride for life.
Craig Ferguson
I think it's an interesting. I worked for a while with Mick Jagger, and we were working on screenplay that we were writing for a movie that was never made. And I remember talking to him about. Because he was 18 when that. And he was like, well, I know what I am. But I was thinking, even as I was working with him, the myth of Mick Jagger is he went to the London School of Economics.
Jordan Klepper
Did he really? Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
He's a very clever, astute businessman. And he's made a couple of mistakes that no one really talks about, but I remember them because I look for the negative. But did you ever see the movie Ned Kelly? No. There's a mo. The Great. The. The Australian Robin Hood or Jesse James is Ned Kelly. And Mick Jagger did a movie in the 70s where he played Ned Kelly.
Jordan Klepper
Really?
Craig Ferguson
It's catastrophically bad. It is wonderful.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah.
Craig Ferguson
And Mick is terrible at it. And. And no, I've seen him perform up close a lot of times. One of the best performers. I mean, I mean, look, it's not news. Mick Jagger is an amazing performer, but as an actor, he's not that guy. Yeah, it's kind of interesting, but he had the confidence to go and, yeah, I'll do this film and it'll be awesome. Yeah, and it's not awesome, but it's awesome.
Jordan Klepper
But you enjoyed the performance of it because.
Craig Ferguson
I love it because the schadenfreude of it is just fucking delicious.
Jordan Klepper
The freedom of that is. I mean, I feel like Dylan has that in an acting standpoint too. Like, I feel like he had such an allure to be famous on. On screen as well. And, you know, he did Ronaldo and Clara. He did what, the Pat Garrett film in Billy the Kid.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
And he's so stiff and stilted, but the. The confidence to be that within. And he still pops up. He just. He literally. He popped up. You know, he did like a Pawn Stars episode years back that popped up. Like. He pops up in the weirdest stuff. That's crazy. Literally Yesterday, he's, what, 83? And he just popped up doing the voiceover for the trailer for the rapper Machine Gun Kelly's new album.
Craig Ferguson
Wow, I didn't see that coming.
Jordan Klepper
He makes the weirdest choice. I feel like when you have that level of fame, the Mick Jaggers, the Bob Dylan's, and you can do whatever the hell you want, the ability to just be like, well, I'm gonna fucking do some weird stuff right now.
Craig Ferguson
You know, Jagger said a thing to me that I still say to my. Whenever my kids have to do a presentation at school or anything like that, or whenever I sometimes of living in my head before a show. I remember the first time I saw Jagger was. It was the Bridges to Babylon tour and they were playing Istanbul and I just met Mick for lunch that day, and he said, come to the shop at night and you sit right down the front, you see owner.
Jordan Klepper
You were able to decipher that. Yeah, yeah.
Craig Ferguson
So I went to the show and they started. It was amazing. It was this big stadium in Istanbul and there was a. You know, you could see the Blue Mosque at the back and there was like a thunderstorm around and it was just unbelievable. They started with the, you know, the sympathy for the devil and stuff. And they started, and it was just amazing show. And Mick through. I've Never seen a performer like that. I've seen everybody. This guy was unbelievable. And we went for dinner after the show, and I was, like, effusive about his performance. I couldn't help it. I didn't want to be that guy. But. And. And he said. He said, well, I said, you just really threw down. And he was like, you know, the way I look at it, no one ever paid money to see someone who was shy. I thought, yeah, that's the truth.
Jordan Klepper
Yeah, 100%.
Craig Ferguson
It's like you put on a fucking show.
Jordan Klepper
My. My. One of my improv teachers early on used to say, like, that effort isn't sexy, and it's not that you don't want to put effort into these things, but, like, people aren't there to watch you struggle to figure something out. Right.
Craig Ferguson
They don't want to see you sweat.
Jordan Klepper
They're not exactly. It's like they want to be put at ease.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah.
Jordan Klepper
I want to see somebody who is great or unique or other than me.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. I don't want to be nervous.
Jordan Klepper
No, no, no. I want to. I want to be a little nervous. I want to be a little nervous so I fucking wake up and focus.
Craig Ferguson
Right? You want to be nervous to think, this guy is so fucking crazy, I don't know what's going to happen next. But not nervous as an. I hope he. I hope he's not sad.
Jordan Klepper
Oh, is he Okay?
Craig Ferguson
I can't even watch pretend. Like, if you see something in a movie or something where a standup is meant to be doing badly, I can't even watch it fictionally. I'm like, really? Can't fucking look. Can't fucking look. I also. I'm frightened.
Jordan Klepper
It's contagious watching somebody fail.
Craig Ferguson
Watching something like, oh, Jesus, I hate that. I just don't want to see it. Luckily, I'll never have to do it with you.
Jordan Klepper
You won't have to see it with me. I will only succeed. And also because I will live in the improv world, primarily.
Craig Ferguson
Yeah. All right, well, we're done.
Jordan Klepper
That's it?
Craig Ferguson
That's it.
Jordan Klepper
So who won?
Craig Ferguson
It was definitely you.
Jordan Klepper
Thank God.
Craig Ferguson
Definitely you. I thought you. Spectacular job. 10 out of 10, a star on your workbook, and, you know, take the rest of the day off.
Jordan Klepper
I'll go drinking by myself.
Craig Ferguson
No. If that's what you're really doing, give me a call later on. Fair enough. All right. Get out of here.
Ryan Seacrest
Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and safeway. Now through June 24th. Score hot summer savings and earn four times the points. Look for in store tags on items like Kraft Mac and Cheese, Celsius Energy Drinks, Quaker Chewy Bars and Sparkling Ice Flavored Water. Then clip the offer in the app for automatic event Long Savings Enjoy savings on top of savings when you shop in store or online for easy drive up and go pickup or delivery subject to availability restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details.
Unknown
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Jenny Garth
This is Jenny Garth from I do part two. Can't afford Ozempic? Try WeGovy from FutureHealth just $199 and FDA approved for weight loss. No insurance or tricky syringes needed, just results. Visit futurehealth.com that's future without the E and start losing weight this week. Future Health Weight Loss Data based on independent studies sponsored by Future Health Future Health is not a healthcare services provider. Meds are prescribed at providers discretion.
Jordan Klepper
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Craig Ferguson
This is an iHeart podcast.
Joy Podcast Episode Summary: Craig Ferguson Interviews Jordan Klepper
Podcast Information:
The episode begins with Craig Ferguson introducing Jordan Klepper, highlighting Klepper's expertise in political commentary and his recent special, Jordan Fingers the Pulse: MAGA the Next Generation. Ferguson shares a humorous exchange about their physical appearances, setting a relaxed and personable tone for the conversation.
Ferguson and Klepper discuss their relationship with social media, emphasizing the challenges of moderation and the pervasive nature of digital platforms in modern life.
They explore strategies to manage digital consumption, such as setting time limits and practicing digital detox, highlighting the importance of balancing online presence with personal well-being.
The conversation shifts to parenting, with Ferguson and Klepper sharing their experiences raising children amidst the omnipresence of technology.
They discuss the introduction of smartphones to teenagers, setting boundaries, and the challenges of managing digital access to ensure healthy development.
Ferguson and Klepper delve into the nuances of different comedic forms, contrasting improvisational theater with stand-up comedy.
They discuss the unique challenges and rewards of each style, with Ferguson sharing his recent experiences performing short sets at venues like the Comedy Cellar, and Klepper reflecting on his transition from improv to stand-up.
The dialogue shifts to personal health, with both hosts candidly discussing their own experiences with aging and related health issues.
They touch upon topics like gout, sleep quality, and the physical demands of performing, emphasizing the importance of self-care and adaptation as they navigate their later years.
Ferguson and Klepper engage in a reflective conversation about iconic figures in the entertainment industry, particularly focusing on Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger.
They analyze the impermanence and relentless evolution of these artists, discussing how their ability to reinvent themselves has contributed to their enduring legacies.
The hosts share their travel experiences, particularly focusing on their time in London and Russia, offering cultural insights and personal anecdotes.
They discuss the vibrancy and uniqueness of cities like Tokyo, London, and Moscow, reflecting on how these places influence their perspectives on life and joy.
A recurring theme in the conversation is the balance between maintaining control and learning to let go, whether it's in personal habits, parenting, or professional endeavors.
They explore how relinquishing control can lead to personal growth and better relationships, both professionally and personally.
As the episode wraps up, Ferguson and Klepper reflect on their mutual respect and the value of their candid exchange. They acknowledge each other's strengths and express appreciation for the insights shared.
Their friendly banter underscores the episode's theme of finding joy through meaningful conversations and shared experiences.
Notable Quotes:
This episode of Joy offers a heartfelt and humorous exploration of navigating modern life's complexities, emphasizing the importance of personal growth, meaningful relationships, and finding joy amidst challenges. Through their engaging dialogue, Ferguson and Klepper provide listeners with relatable insights and inspiring reflections on achieving happiness in a seemingly chaotic world.