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Sean Hayes
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Sean Hayes
This episode of Smartless is brought to you in part by Skinny Pop Popcorn. You know when you want a snack that tastes great, but you don't want it to spiral into like a full life decision type thing? There is always that crossroads. You want salty. You want satisfying. You also want to avoid the feeling of of needing to explain yourself afterward. That is where Skinnypop quietly wins. Start with original Skinnypop. It's made with just three simple ingredients, which feels refreshing in a world where labels require a translator. Sweet and Salty Kettle gives you that perfect balance when you cannot commit to just one direction. And butter is built for movie nights, game nights, or nights when productivity is officially canceled. No matter which bag you open, Skinny Pop is light, airy, and endlessly delicious. It feels uncomplicated. It tastes indulgent. That is the balance. So I've talked a lot about grabbing Skinny Pop for movie night. You know what I do? Sometimes I replace potato chips with Skinny Pop popcorn. I'll make myself a peanut butter sandwich or whatever, a tuna fish sandwich. And I'll put a side of Skinny Pop right on there. Deliciously popped, perfectly salted Skinny Pop. Popular for a reason.
Jason Bateman
Good day.
Will Arnett
Good day. Guess my age.
Jason Bateman
59. 59?
Sean Hayes
62.
Will Arnett
What the hell? No, but, but be real.
Jason Bateman
No, really. I, I, I, I actually. What are you? I'm 57, I think.
Will Arnett
You're 50?
Jason Bateman
You've always been a year younger, right? Are you still? Or did you pass me?
Will Arnett
No, no, no.
Jason Bateman
It looks like you. I think you passed me. Yeah.
Will Arnett
Oh, God, this backfired so much. Welcome to Smart. Lettuce Smart. Lettuce.
Sean Hayes
Hi, guys.
Jason Bateman
Hi.
Will Arnett
Oh, hi.
Jason Bateman
Where you going? I'm just finishing up a text here and sending. Okay, wonderful.
Will Arnett
Oh, good, good, good, good.
Jason Bateman
Now I'm back with you.
Sean Hayes
So glad you could come today.
Will Arnett
And jb, we're having a little bit of an earlier start today, so I'm imagining your morning because I know you bake in two hours, baseball season is on, so you're active on the trade front. You'. Your various leagues.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, well, I've, I've. I've fast forwarded through the final six innings of last night's game.
Will Arnett
Right, right, sorry.
Sean Hayes
You tape the games every night?
Jason Bateman
Every one of them. I watch every.
Will Arnett
And he watches them at, like, 5am
Sean Hayes
why don't you watch them live?
Jason Bateman
Well, I, I, I, I, I don't. I just don't get them done before I go to sleep. And so I finish them up the next morning as it helps me get out of bed. I've got the rest of the game to watch. That's a reason to wake up in the morning.
Sean Hayes
Okay, so let me ask you a question. Do you fast forward in between each play?
Jason Bateman
Yeah, I wait until at least one runner's on base, preferably. I like to get somebody to get to second base before I go to.
Sean Hayes
I watch Wheel of Fortune the same way. Not even kidding. I'll fast forward through the picking of the letters until they get the puzzle
Jason Bateman
kind of halfway done until it's something that you can figure out.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, exactly, Sean.
Will Arnett
And does anybody ever get, like, get one guess one so early that you just. It surprises you so much that, that you, like, you have a mistake with the, with the canned cheese. Like, does it go all over your hand at that point?
Jason Bateman
Like, oh, do, like, point it to your temple, like, as if you're trying to kill yourself, you know, and you just squeeze it all over the side
Sean Hayes
of your face like, like, what is it called?
Nick Kroll
Cheese Whiz.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, that's it.
Will Arnett
Cheese Whiz. So. So, jb. So, So I know JB does a bacon. So he bakes in the time. So bacon is Dodger game. Speed through. Right.
Jason Bateman
And then as soon as it's over and not before, I then go to my scores. My, my points. How many points I've accrued on my fantasy baseball.
Will Arnett
Coffee. Coffee is accompanying all of this.
Jason Bateman
Coffee's very first.
Will Arnett
Very first.
Jason Bateman
I need to light the fuse.
Will Arnett
Sure.
Jason Bateman
And it's a long fuse, so it needs time to burn down into the bomb.
Sean Hayes
For the bomb, you need to light the fuse with coffee. I know that's why I don't drink coffee is because I don't want to be dependent on it.
Jason Bateman
Well, it's not that bad to depend on, you know, like you got a half hour tick tock until the dynamite gets hit and then off you go, you know, because if you don't have a fuse mechanism, you could find yourself leaving for your day and then you're out in the middle of the community and. Yeah, community.
Will Arnett
And you know what the community.
Jason Bateman
You smell something burning and you, you know, you got to get to a bunker.
Will Arnett
For sure. I understand. So, so.
Jason Bateman
And that's unfortunate. All right, so we're back to baseball. I. I check my scores.
Will Arnett
Check your scores.
Jason Bateman
And then, and then I start doing my loop around the Internet and it's pretty, it's a pretty highbrow loop, you know, Will, I'm not around with. So it's news, gossip sites. Yeah, yeah, I'm seeing what's going on. And, and
Will Arnett
actually it's funny you say that. So this morning I had that same thing where I woke up and I did, I did my little, my games with my little crew. Coffee obviously accompanying it and then.
Jason Bateman
Oh, right. So, yeah, yeah. So your, your, your baby's still in that old. Yeah. So he's still doing a little quirtle and octortal.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Uh huh. So that takes you. And the gum is as good as it sounds. Sorry, just checking real quick.
Will Arnett
So you're what,
Jason Bateman
how long does it take you usually to do those three things? 20 minutes?
Will Arnett
It depends because the way we play it is the winner from the day before picks the starter word that you have to use for all three boards the next day.
Jason Bateman
Mixed it up. So wait, what happens? Yesterday's winner picks the starter word.
Will Arnett
The starter word that you have to use on all three boards the next day. Oh really? What was the. So today's word was. Sadly.
Sean Hayes
Yeah. They always get you with an ly and like.
Will Arnett
And you know, certain people, like, will pick dicky words to fuck you over and it fucks themselves over too.
Nick Kroll
Sure.
Jason Bateman
And a dicky word would be something that doesn't really provide a lot of vowels or a lot of consonants.
Will Arnett
On Easter, our pal put in bunny.
Jason Bateman
Sure.
Will Arnett
Okay. From the night before. And it was like festive. It's festive. But B, U, N, Y is a desert when it comes to. So it really messed us up. So today. So I do that. Get that wrapped up and then.
Jason Bateman
How'd you do today? You feel good about your sport?
Will Arnett
No, I did. I made a really.
Jason Bateman
Here we go. Sean, this Is why here was interesting.
Will Arnett
The word from yesterday was sadly. And this morning it was a word on our turtle. So we all had a one.
Nick Kroll
Oh, really?
Will Arnett
Which is rare. Yeah. And so. And then I was like, oh, I'm killing it. And I made one error on the third. Are you doing a thing?
Jason Bateman
Good. Sean, get him.
Will Arnett
What was your.
Jason Bateman
What was your error, you fucking moron?
Will Arnett
I don't even want to go into it. I actually. This is. What a loser I'm. I audibly went, no, because the letter was already not supposed to be there. And I did it. I had like a brain credible fucking. Anyway, but what I was gonna get to is then I turned on the news, I looked at some of the news online, did a little search around, same sort of thing. And it was such a bummer. And I thought to myself, and it's not the first time I thought, why am I starting myself out in a rut now? I gotta rally to die at this point, I'm so low because the news is, as we know, so much of it is so depressing. And so. And I thought by the time I stopped looking at New York Times, Bloomberg, Washington Post, all these, I thought, what's the point?
Jason Bateman
Right? So then what's the alternative? Is maybe tweaking your algorithm such.
Will Arnett
Or just not. Or not looking like.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, but what if you go to Instagram and it's. And you've managed to get the algorithm pointed towards, you know, unicorns and rainbows and stuff, and you get uplifting messages and all that stuff.
Will Arnett
Sure, I think that that's positive for sure. But I think that actually what I. What I came to today was I talked to Shawnee earlier after I got off the thing, and I talked to him, we talked about stuff and it kind of. That was good as a palate cleanser. And then I was like, you know what? I think from now on I should play my game. Put my. My three games. Put the phone down and do go outside. Like two days ago, because I was still at jet lag. I started my little walk that you've done with me before. I started at 6:15.
Jason Bateman
This is with the ankle weights, wrist weights, leg warmers and the weighted vest. Weighted vest at my elbows right as you're going.
Will Arnett
Weighted vest, fuck. Weighted vest with a visor and spiky hair.
Jason Bateman
And you do one of the sort of a face shield, one of those droopy masks to keep the sun off your skin.
Will Arnett
No, I've got pharmacy like Florida sunglasses you can put over your glasses. Fool around. Okay. I got walkman headphones.
Jason Bateman
Any sort of reflective material on your back so you don't get run over?
Will Arnett
No. Full sleeves. Full sleeves.
Jason Bateman
You know, lots of waves.
Will Arnett
Wait a minute.
Sean Hayes
Speaking of walking last.
Will Arnett
Yeah. But to wrap it up, I think that that's the way because I feel like I was starting.
Jason Bateman
Would you try meditation? Have you ever tried meditation?
Will Arnett
I have. I'd like to do shutting the up.
Sean Hayes
Do you ever try that?
Jason Bateman
How about that, huh? Let's get to the guest. Thank you. Sean, what do you got for us today?
Sean Hayes
Wait, really quick.
Nick Kroll
I'm gonna.
Will Arnett
I ran. Speaking. Did I go on too much?
Sean Hayes
No, you didn't. Last night I was walking and I ran into. You know what a bollard is? One of those cement stoppers at the end of a street or a sidewalk?
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Sean Hayes
And it was like, oh, God, I ran into it.
Will Arnett
You walked into it?
Sean Hayes
Yes.
Jason Bateman
Oh, you're talking about something that's about nard height, right?
Sean Hayes
Yes, exactly. It's just a little higher than a fire hydrant. And it was painted black.
Jason Bateman
Okay.
Sean Hayes
Why do they have him on the corner of a sidewalk?
Will Arnett
So that people will drive up.
Jason Bateman
Sounds like your Upper east side. It sounds. I know those. Black.
Sean Hayes
After I ate at the Waverly Inn restaurant.
Jason Bateman
Oh, down south there. So did you catch it right in the nards?
Sean Hayes
No. Right above the knee and I couldn't.
Will Arnett
Oh, man, that kind of hurt. Did you call Graydon Carter for a reservation?
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Will Arnett
You did?
Sean Hayes
Yeah. No, no, no, no.
Will Arnett
Oh, you did it.
Sean Hayes
No, no.
Jason Bateman
Did Scotty throw you over his shoulder and walk you home?
Sean Hayes
Basically, it was right in front of a taxi and we were saying goodbye and I was like. I ran right into the thing with my full body and I was just
Will Arnett
like, did we run?
Sean Hayes
Great time. No, I just walked right into it.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Sean Hayes
No. All right, let's get to it. Ready?
Will Arnett
What's your step count a day? I'm guessing 400. Sorry.
Sean Hayes
My guest today accidentally taught his two year old son to say, I'm a coward, which made me laugh when I read that he went to Georgetown and majored in history. His father's job included tracking the hidden fortunes of dictators. After bombing at his first college comedy competition, the guy that won invited him to audition for a sketch show. And that changed the course of his life. He's voiced about 80 animated characters for real. And the kid he met on the first day of first grade became his best friend and creative partner, helping turn their own humiliating stories about puberty into one of Netflix's longest running scripted originals. It's the insanely Funny and super talented. Nick Kroll.
Jason Bateman
Oh, Nick.
Will Arnett
Nicholas Crow.
Jason Bateman
Get out here.
Nick Kroll
Hey, boys.
Will Arnett
Oh, he's.
Nick Kroll
He's going to take it down. I have not spoken yet today and I'm listening to my voice and I. That was like the first thing I've said all day.
Jason Bateman
Wouldn't it, wouldn't it be amazing if we all. Wouldn't it be amazing if we all had a word limit each day? Like if every person.
Will Arnett
Yeah, for you it would be. Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Hey, but could you imagine if you had to budget out your words for the day? That would be pretty interesting.
Will Arnett
That would be cool, huh? Welcome Nick. Boy, you come up with some fun ideas.
Jason Bateman
Nick, you are east coast. Cause you've already got a smart looking jacket on.
Nick Kroll
I'm on the west coast. I was debating on taking the jacket off before, but I'm dealing with what you guys are seeing is this center stage video where I'm gonna be constantly moving. The camera's gonna be at.
Will Arnett
You can turn, you can turn it off if you want.
Nick Kroll
I, I know I can. I can't figure out how.
Jason Bateman
Why do you look. You look so damn good already this week.
Will Arnett
Jacket on.
Jason Bateman
That's call back earlier I got.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, it's a Lipton cup of soup. It's a. The 3pm slump.
Jason Bateman
And did you crush it?
Nick Kroll
I felt good. I, I felt really good in the room.
Jason Bateman
Any feedback yet?
Nick Kroll
Yeah, supposedly they wanted better looking and older though.
Jason Bateman
Oh, you are in the running in case I can't find it.
Nick Kroll
Yeah. So you guys are. Honestly.
Will Arnett
We're the demo.
Nick Kroll
We're that Kelsey's calling. Guys.
Will Arnett
Nick Kroll. What's up man? It's been a long time. How are you?
Nick Kroll
I'm great. It's really good to see you guys.
Jason Bateman
To see you, Nick.
Sean Hayes
The first time I met you was, I think was at Ted Sarando's a couple years ago at the Grammy dinner thing.
Nick Kroll
Yes.
Jason Bateman
Right. What were you two doing at a Grammy?
Will Arnett
At the Grammy?
Nick Kroll
Yeah, it was like, it was like
Sean Hayes
for the, for the comedy category and
Nick Kroll
we were doing a duet. It was a Bette Midler and Barry Manilow thing and they had us play for a few.
Jason Bateman
Played Bet.
Will Arnett
Right, right.
Sean Hayes
No, but I, I, you were so kind and I felt, I immediately felt this like rhythm with you and I was like, I would love to get to know you more.
Will Arnett
Yeah, here we go. This is unbelievable. Every time I felt a connection with you. Let me get. Put your number in the chat. Fucking. Are you joking?
Nick Kroll
I'm on the pod.
Will Arnett
Pod.
Nick Kroll
You should come on sometime.
Will Arnett
Let's Go for lunch and wrap up how we think we did. I'm close by.
Nick Kroll
What's your story later? Because you should come on the pod. The boys let me make the choices on this all the time.
Will Arnett
You're so smart and funny and handsome and.
Nick Kroll
Let's go on a run. You want to go for a run?
Will Arnett
Wait. Let's go on a run. Wait, wait, wait. So that was the first time that you guys had met?
Nick Kroll
I actually met you many, many, many years earlier. There was a guy used to do, like, treasure hunts around la.
Sean Hayes
Like, we have to do that. JP Manu.
Nick Kroll
Yes.
Jason Bateman
Are you talking about the larf?
Nick Kroll
I don't know if that's what it was.
Sean Hayes
No, it was before Amazing Race.
Will Arnett
I remember that.
Sean Hayes
And it was. It was just like the Amazing Race. And this guy organized. Just a bunch of people to go do this around Los Angeles. It was really fun.
Nick Kroll
Yes. So I. You were there and you. Like, I was just sort of starting, and you were one of the most famous people in the world in that group of five. So I saw you and I said, one day they're gonna make podcasts, and I'm gonna hit on him at Ted Sarandos party.
Will Arnett
Wait a second. You're skipping over that? You predicted podcasts?
Sean Hayes
Why?
Will Arnett
That's just.
Nick Kroll
No, but we had to get to Madame Tussauds to find.
Will Arnett
That's right. That's true. That's true.
Jason Bateman
Why have those gone? Oh, wait.
Will Arnett
So, JB, do you remember in the 90s, they. These guys had a game going.
Jason Bateman
Yeah. It was called larf, and they were both out of Stanford.
Will Arnett
There was one. No, there was another one where we went around and everybody had a. You had a squirt gun. And it was like a game of tag around la. I did that as a kid.
Sean Hayes
I did that as a kid.
Jason Bateman
My daughter does that as senior, seniors.
Will Arnett
All these actors, when we were in our 20s, in the 90s in LA, I remember being out here for pilot season, mid-90s, and somebody's saying, do you want to get in this thing? And people would be like, at an audition at Warner Brothers, and some dude would come out of nowhere and spray him in. Like, yuck, you're in. And I was like, can you imagine walking onto a lot now with a water gun?
Jason Bateman
So at Franny's school. So it's Senior Assassin. If you get hit with a water gun, you're out. And the only way that you can sort of protect yourself, inoculate yourself from getting some sort of a surprise hit is wearing swim goggles out in Public all day, every day. Or swim floaties. So you see, like these students are all around town, you know, like markets and shopping centers and it's really funny. It's pretty. It's pretty cool. But the scavenger hunts things, these high end scavenger hunts, I'm pissed that they've gone away. We should resurrect that.
Will Arnett
Let's do it.
Nick Kroll
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Celebrity scavenger hunt.
Nick Kroll
Let's do it, guys. You guys have a lot of free time. Do you want to start getting into.
Will Arnett
Let's do.
Nick Kroll
Organizing local city scavenger hunts.
Jason Bateman
I'm going to organize Nick Kroll.
Sean Hayes
All right, let's get into it. You. You. First of all, thanks for being here. And I did. I did mean that. It just felt like a comedy connection with you. You were very funny right off the bat and I felt like I've known you.
Jason Bateman
But anyway, he's a nice guy and
Sean Hayes
he's a very nice guy.
Jason Bateman
What's not to get a rhythm with?
Sean Hayes
So wait, is that true? 80 voices? 88.
Nick Kroll
0, I think that's what I think.
Sean Hayes
So and is it like if I threw out names, could you. You don't want to do that.
Nick Kroll
I probably could. I mean, I'm a monkey. I'll give you what you need. Let's.
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah.
Nick Kroll
Wait, those numbers.
Sean Hayes
Okay, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm go to do a. A fat. Look, I read Gunter from Sing and Sing too.
Nick Kroll
Oh, yeah, this is Gunter from Sing.
Will Arnett
Okay, what about.
Jason Bateman
Nothing makes me laugh quicker than a German accent.
Nick Kroll
It's.
Sean Hayes
What about Douche from Sausage Party?
Nick Kroll
Douche was. Oh, come at me, bro. It was that sort of. That guy.
Will Arnett
No, but wait. No, but wait. Do Douche from Sausage Parties.
Nick Kroll
Okay, so wait, so Douche from Sausage Party, we did. That's the Rogan movie. And I did the whole thing as like a sort of a British villain. Like a, you know, the classic Disney British, like Jafar kind of voice and then. Or like Scar from Lion King. And it just wasn't working. And we did one last record where they rewrote it as. That character was kind of a. This character did Bobby Bottle Service, who was kind of.
Will Arnett
Yeah, I remember Bobby Bottle Service. Wait, Nick, you did your. You did. Nick, you. Your series on Netflix.
Jason Bateman
Big mouth.
Will Arnett
Big Mouth.
Nick Kroll
Yeah.
Will Arnett
And so we gotta clear the air on this. Do you know what I'm getting? You know what I'm getting at?
Nick Kroll
Of course.
Will Arnett
So we've never talked about it. So for years people have commented me, hit me in the thing. Talked to me in real life. I've been in line at the store. Do you do the voice of. There's a character on your show that people thought was me. His name is Mori.
Nick Kroll
The hormone monster.
Will Arnett
Is that what it is?
Nick Kroll
And everybody thinks it's Arnett. It's crazy.
Will Arnett
I can't tell you how many people have.
Jason Bateman
And that's you, Nick.
Nick Kroll
It's me, Nick, doing our net. No, it's. I mean, this is. Okay, so here's the backstory here. Let's clear the air on this.
Will Arnett
Let's clear it. Finally.
Nick Kroll
Finally. So we did the show Big Mouth. It's about kids going through puberty and my friend Andrew Goldberg, who Sean mentioned I met in first grade, we created the show together. He had been at Family Guys for years. We'd been friends forever. And he and Mark and Jen, our other partners, came to me with an idea about an animated show about kids, about me and Andrew at 13 going through puberty. And immediately it was like, great. This makes this. I really see this show. So we started working on it, and Andrew started talking, but he's like, you know, and. And, like, I think my guy, who. He was a really early. Early developer, you know, he just hit puberty at, like, 5 and had a full beard by 8, you know, and he was. And he was sort of like. I think my character was like, with something. Encourages him to jerk off. Like, he's got, like, a hormone monster. And I immediately was. Literally immediately was like, touch yourself, Andrew. And it was like, that was the voice. Because I had been doing this guy. I'd been doing this guy Nash Ricky. I had a sketch show called Crow show, and Nash Ricky was sort of like a hair metal guy who was also, like, had ocd and.
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, there was Pete. Was Pete Giles part of that?
Nick Kroll
Yes, Pete Giles was part of that.
Will Arnett
Yeah, yeah.
Nick Kroll
We had a. We had a song called La Deli, and it was just about all the delis in la, like, Like California Girls. Because all those guys, like, hung out at, you know, cantors and all.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
Anyway, so I did this voice.
Will Arnett
Nash Ricky.
Nick Kroll
So I. Then we go to do Big Mouth, we develop it, we make comes out. I've known Will forever. Will is on the air with BoJack at this, like, so same time. Yeah, the same time. BoJack is like the premier fucking animated show. It never crossed my mind that anyone would be like, is that Arnett? And then we start the show, and it works, and everybody's like, can't believe you got Arnett. You sound like Arnett.
Will Arnett
That's funny, Nick. I honestly, I can't tell you how many people over the years, I'm like, no, it's not. I think it's. I didn't know if it was you, but I was like, so funny. I think it's Kroll that. It's just.
Jason Bateman
Is that show still going?
Nick Kroll
No, we did eight. We did eight seasons.
Will Arnett
Wow, that's remarkable.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, we'll have done. We did more of those than basically any other scripted Netflix show, I think, besides Ozark. How many of you guys done now? 140.
Jason Bateman
It felt like 140. No, it was four and a half maybe seasons.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, it's. Anyway, so we did it, and we're about to put out a new show called Mating Season. It's the same team.
Sean Hayes
That looks so great.
Jason Bateman
What's. What's a premiere on that, Sean? What's a premiere date?
Sean Hayes
Oh, God, you wait.
Jason Bateman
I have to look it up.
Nick Kroll
I jumped it. I jumped it.
Jason Bateman
I got it on the bottom later. Scrolling, scrolling.
Nick Kroll
Guys, I'm so sorry.
Jason Bateman
Check the chat. Maybe Michael sent it to you.
Will Arnett
Oh, my God.
Nick Kroll
I can tell you it's.
Jason Bateman
I don't even double back at the end, Sean.
Nick Kroll
Okay, we'll be right back.
Jason Bateman
Oh, boy. You know, we talk about closets a lot on this show.
Sean Hayes
We sure do.
Jason Bateman
Kicking the door down, coming on out, Basically talking about that closets are for clothes. Oh, and I've taken that too much to heart because my closet is stuffed. I've been meaning to go through my closet ranch. I should sell it. I mean, listen, you know, what feels familiar in my closet may be exactly what someone else is searching for. Buy, sell and discover affordable secondhand fashion you'll love. With the resale marketplace, Depop reselling can
Sean Hayes
feel overwhelming, but on Depop, getting started is easy.
Jason Bateman
Just snap a pick of your item and Depop can take care of the rest, including suggesting a price to help
Sean Hayes
sell one of the best parts. There are no seller fees, which means you keep more of your money.
Jason Bateman
No printer required, and you can even choose a convenient drop off. No matter your style, Depop is where people with all kinds of tastes come to sell and shop.
Sean Hayes
It really is for everyone. Parents selling, kids wear, people shopping for the perfect outfit for a Friday night out. And anyone who wants to express themselves and play with trends on their own
Jason Bateman
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Sean Hayes
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Will Arnett
Carl. So I know you, so I feel like the first time I saw you was at UCB over 20 years ago. I think the first time we met you were maybe doing monologues at Ascat one night.
Nick Kroll
Yes, I think that would make sense.
Will Arnett
2000s and you were so funny. It was one of those, like the first time I saw you, I was like, oh, this dude is fucking hilarious.
Nick Kroll
Thank you.
Will Arnett
Like right out of the gate. And then you just went on to do. What I love is that you went on and you and Mulaney did so much cool stuff. You did a show on Broadway, you did sketches, you did sketch shows you've just done. What I love is how many different kinds of things you have done. You do stand up, you do all of it. And is there. Is there? Do you. Now, at this point, do you go like, oh, it feels too spread out. I want to concentrate on this because I know you just did a standup special.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, I just watched it. It's so good.
Will Arnett
Is that kind of where you want to go, or do you feel like you still want to just do millions of different things?
Nick Kroll
I mean, I like. What I'm shooting for is like a B minus across the board. You can shoot for a B minus. You can do so much.
Jason Bateman
You can never disappoint yourself.
Nick Kroll
You can really. You don't shoot too high. You stay general and broad, and then nobody can attack you for full committing to anything.
Will Arnett
That's a great call. Oh, I know that.
Nick Kroll
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Oh, yeah.
Jason Bateman
It's all about longevity.
Nick Kroll
It's all about just staying right in the middle for as long as possible. And then they can't. Don't get too tired.
Will Arnett
Wait, the three of us, jb, you, me, and Kroll did that animated show with Mitch Hurwitz. Sit down. Shut up.
Nick Kroll
Sit down, shut up, sit down, shut up. My. That was very. Yeah, that was. It was literally right after Arrested, and it was us and Forte.
Will Arnett
Forte. Damn.
Jason Bateman
I want to watch that again. I remember the animation being what a characteristic that had.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, I'm playing a character I would not currently play.
Will Arnett
Yeah, copy that. Copy that.
Jason Bateman
Oh, oh, let's explain.
Nick Kroll
His name was Andrew Legustambos, and it was a Legustambos he liked. He was a bisexual Latin teacher.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Do you think I love that you remember? No, but literally, if you started that today, do you think that today's culture would attack as much as it did, let's say, even six months to a year ago?
Nick Kroll
No, I think everything is. I feel like things are kind of settling. I mean, I don't think I would play that character right now, but I. But I. But I do think things are settling a bit. Like all of that stuff that. I think we're finding different levels now to it, you know?
Jason Bateman
Right, right.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, I think so, too.
Jason Bateman
And I wonder why. I mean, the issues haven't gone away, but maybe the tolerance and the exploration of finding humor in things that are more challenging is more around. I don't know.
Nick Kroll
I think there's a general. I mean, I think there's polarizing views of it, but I think there's a general attempt to be more thoughtful about what we're doing or how we're doing it. And if you're generally more thoughtful, then I think there's more. A little more room for different versions of people playing different versions of people. I think in that way, you know,
Will Arnett
I think also there's. There's a. We have to pay more attention to intent, you know, and if the intent is to injure or to sideline or to minimize, then there's no room for it.
Nick Kroll
Let's save that for our personal friendships.
Will Arnett
Right, of course. And family. And family. Exactly.
Nick Kroll
Let's leave family out of this.
Sean Hayes
Wait, so, Nick, when you first started out, I mentioned in the intro you. You. You bombed freshman year in comedy competition.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Sean Hayes
And the guy who won and then gave you the opportunity was Mike Birbiglia, right?
Nick Kroll
Yes.
Will Arnett
Oh, no way.
Sean Hayes
Yeah. That's crazy. I mean, that's crazy.
Nick Kroll
Where was it we did this. It was at Georgetown. We did this thing called the Funniest act on Campus. And I'd never done comedy before in any real capacity, and there were, you know, it's like, flyers. Up, up.
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
And I went and did it. I was really nervous about it, and I just. I showed up, and my whole bit was that I was gonna get on stage and go, you know, I thought I'd be so nervous, but I'm super relaxed. And then I was gonna piss my pants.
Will Arnett
But that's a great bit.
Nick Kroll
It's a good bit, right?
Will Arnett
It's a really good bet.
Nick Kroll
Except I did not prepare. I got. I was like, you know, I was a freshman.
Will Arnett
Drink enough water?
Nick Kroll
Yeah, I was like. Had drank and, like, you know, I was just, like, so nervous that I showed up and I had not. I had not. I was gonna bring, like, a water balloon and a pen and, like, pop the water. You know what I mean? I thought. I didn't, so. But I forgot all of it. So I grabbed, like, a sandwich bag in the trash and grabbed a pen and just got on stage and just, like, jammed over and over the pen into this, like, water bag in my pocket, so it just looked like I was jerking. Jerking off on stage, basically, which is what I've been ever since. But Mike. Mike won. Mike had, like, a solid five minutes as, like, a sophomore, and he won the competition and got to start hosting at the DC Improv. And then he was doing a sketch show later that year and invited me to audition. And I did that audition and then got cast. And we went to, like, a kid's apartment on campus and read all these sketches. And I, like, it was truly the one time in my life I walked out of that thing. I was like. Like, this is it. This is all I. This is it. This is what I Want to do.
Jason Bateman
Because what were you. What were you studying at Georgetown at the time?
Nick Kroll
I was studying history and minoring in art and Spanish. Just kind of like coasting. Coasting on privilege.
Sean Hayes
That was Jen Goose. Ya.
Jason Bateman
Waiting. Waiting for something to hit you to. To. To do, or were you going to make a career out of history?
Nick Kroll
I was gonna. I. I don't know. I think I was just. I truly was coasting. You know, I. I just was like. I liked history. Cause I think I like telling stories, but I think I was still scared to like write. So English wasn't. Didn't feel entirely safe. And then we started doing. And so we auditioned for that sketch show and we literally then went at the. We did our sketch. It was like. We rehearsed for three months to do One Night in Bulldog Alley on campus. And then. And the show was. I mean, we bombed. But I met all these guys who I continue to know and work with still, including Birbiglia. And then UCB was just about to come on the air and they came down to GW and did a show at gw. It was like a big improv festival. And it was the first time I saw those guys and my mind fully exploded.
Will Arnett
Did they do Bucket of Truth?
Nick Kroll
Were they doing that Bucket of Truth? And we. What's Bucket of Truth? It was Little Donnie. Remember little Donnie's. It was like Besser had to sketch this little kid with a huge guy. But I saw that and then moved to the city that day that summer or started going to the city. We did it at a workshop at ucb. And Will, you know, Owen Burke, you guys all know Owen. Owen was my brother's roommate in college. And Owen started. Had just started at ucb. So I started going to ucb, started going to ascat. As a fan, you know, I was like. And could not believe what I was seeing.
Will Arnett
I agree. I had the same. First of all, I had the same sensation. I saw them do Bucket of Truth in 1996. They just moved from Chicago.
Sean Hayes
Can you tell me what Pocket of Truth is?
Will Arnett
It was a sketch show that they did. And they did it downstairs at the West bank on 42nd street, the restaurant. They had a little space down there. And I was like, what? And it was Walsh and Amy and Besser and Ian Roberts. And I was like, what the fuck? Like, watching what these guys did. So I loved it. And then they started doing it. They started doing ASCAT at that other place, solo Arts on 17th street, before they moved into their theater. And I would go every Sunday and jb, you remember my old roommate Duff? I had lived with Duff and I had been roommates years. But, you know Duff, too, right?
Nick Kroll
I know Duff, Yeah, a little bit through Owen.
Will Arnett
And so I said to o. I said to Owen and Duff, I go, you guys gotta. I said, let's go to this thing and see these guys. And Owen came along to.
Nick Kroll
Oh, wow.
Will Arnett
I brought him to his first UCB show, and he ended up as artistic director of ucb. Isn't that wild?
Sean Hayes
Wild.
Nick Kroll
Owen Burke. Funny, good man. And. And that was sort of. So I started coming and we would go, and I was. You know, I went to Solo Arts once or twice and saw those shows, and then would go to the theater at 22nd street and, like, sit on the side, you know, wait, and sit on the side and look up. And it was like all these people, you know, who were, you know, who were just popping on Conan and.
Will Arnett
Oh, it was like Glazer And Tina and McKay would be there and all those guys.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, it just was like. And as soon as I literally, as soon as I saw the first. Did that sketch. Little sketch show, and then joined the improv group myself. Done, I'll do back to sort of what you're saying, I was like, I'll do anything. Get me close to this. I'll do anything.
Jason Bateman
But speak more about. Cause I'm always fascinated with people at that age where you need to. Or you think you need to commit to a career, and you have to really think about making rent and feeding yourself, and you're out from the nest at home. And so you're at this opportunity at an incredible university. You haven't really picked an occupation, an industry, a path. At what point did you feel like, oh, okay, there's enough momentum going in this lane where I need not continue to consider other means of support.
Nick Kroll
Well, for me, after Silver Spoon, I just wanted to have fun. You know what I mean?
Will Arnett
After the Spoon, singular.
Jason Bateman
This is why I'm so curious about it, because it was like I'd had this momentum since I was a little kid, but I still. At 18, I thought, well, is it going to last? Maybe I should study something else that's a little bit more reliable.
Nick Kroll
Well, so going back. So the other thing, my connection to Jason a bit, is that you're originally from Rye, right? Or your family. So I'm from Rye, New York.
Jason Bateman
Oh, no way.
Nick Kroll
Yeah. So, you know, I grew up with. With plenty of privilege. So I went to. I never had, like, the. The privilege was that I could sort of be like, what Do I want to do? And I went to college and I started and I, you know, school was never exactly my thing. I was fine at it. But as soon as I started doing improv and comedy and sketch, I was like, I'll do anything. Like, I'll print, you know, like, I'll go anywhere at any hour to get this done. And when I moved to New York, I had, I did have the, the real, the privilege of knowing that I could fall back. Like, if it didn't work, I could go get a job somewhere. Like, I was good. It was gonna be okay. Yeah, but it was the, the thing I feel so lucky about is that I had such a clear. I knew, I knew I wanted, I knew as soon as I started doing it, this is all I wanted to do. And any work. Now the question of whether I was gonna make it is the intangible. But I think the idea for me was like, well, I'm gonna regret the fuck out of this if I don't try.
Jason Bateman
You recognize that it was something that really fed your soul, that you were decent at it. You liked the Atta Boys, and it was sort of self perpetuated. Yeah.
Nick Kroll
And it's never waned, at least for me.
Will Arnett
Which is interesting because, jb, you do have that as well. At the same time. This was your thing since before you can remember doing anything else, really, since you were a little kid. There was never, hey, I'm going to try my hand at this. You were in it. You were always in it. Right? I mean, I don't want to say that you. Yeah, I'm talking to you. I'm not saying that you didn't have a choice, but that was your, in a lot of ways, it was your job. It became your passion.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, I, I, I, I, I had realized that I was halfway decent at something before I needed to have something that I was halfway decent at. And so that was, that was a. Yeah.
Will Arnett
And, and, and I think for you, so, so on that.
Nick Kroll
And you were cute as a button.
Jason Bateman
If I. Nick, stop it.
Will Arnett
God.
Jason Bateman
Let's get our rhythm going.
Will Arnett
Number in the chat. No. Oh, no, not another rhythm connection.
Jason Bateman
I run too.
Will Arnett
But jb, you had that, that second gear for you. The thing that you found was when directing and seeing you light up at this stage of your life, when you talk about directing is the same way. I think that I certainly did in Nick. The way you describe it, discovering this thing where you go, I love this. I got to do this. I'll right, print flyers. I'll do whatever it Takes you kind of have it for directing.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will Arnett
Right. Like 10, 12 years ago or 15 years ago.
Jason Bateman
Right. And if like anyone out there, you know, if, if you, if you were lucky enough to get paid a little bit to do something that you would pay somebody else to do.
Nick Kroll
Right.
Jason Bateman
Because you, it's you, you love it so much. That's the sort of fuel that can really travel you into success and longevity. And instead of just punching a clock, you know, if it's something that really is passionate.
Will Arnett
N just quickly did you do. Because you worked with a lot of great people. We mentioned Mitch Hurwitz and obviously Mulaney. You've had a lot of great partners and collaborators. Another funny dude that we know that we all connect with is John Levenstein who works of course, worked on the Crow show.
Nick Kroll
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Super, super funny.
Nick Kroll
One of the funniest, most bizarre men in the world.
Jason Bateman
Sweetest men too.
Sean Hayes
And honestly, I just have to say it since we just mentioned that the Kroll show is one of my favorite shows of all time.
Jason Bateman
Time.
Nick Kroll
Thank you, Sean.
Sean Hayes
Truly.
Will Arnett
I, I, I mean, so it's so funny. And Levenstein was a big part of that, right?
Nick Kroll
Yeah, he was the, I'm, he was the showrunner and he had come, we hired, I mean I met him doing this cartoon called Life and Times of Tim.
Will Arnett
Oh yeah.
Nick Kroll
Ended up on hbo. That was like. And Giles. That's how I met Giles.
Will Arnett
Also with Pete Giles.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, that's how I met Giles originally.
Will Arnett
Sweet Pete.
Nick Kroll
Yeah. And one of the great voices. Talk about our. You think we got some gravel. That motherfucker.
Will Arnett
You can catch him. You can hear him everywhere. Yeah. You know, it's the World Series on Fox. Yeah.
Nick Kroll
So it is. Yeah. I mean I, hey, by the way, Jason, I'm so sorry Zootopia didn't work out. But yeah, I'm on the VO stuff. They can't all be winners on the VO stuff.
Jason Bateman
So I do, I do envy what you guys guys can do with vo. I, I still feel like I'm just leaving voicemail messages. I, I have no idea what the I'm doing.
Will Arnett
Oh, Jason, I forgot to tell you. Last week I was, I was out east and I was with, out for dinner with my little guy Denny, who's 5, and there's this couple sitting next to us and they're talking about, and they've got like a 7 year old girl and they're talking about Zootopia. And, and my guy Denny goes, I saw Zootopia too. And they're like, we love Zootopia. 2. And he goes. And he comes up and he goes, dad, can I tell him? I go tell him. He goes. My dad's friend Jason is the voice of Nick. My son is 5. It was so sweet.
Jason Bateman
How about. I'm just excited that he knows my name.
Will Arnett
I know, I know.
Nick Kroll
Isn't it? I love that little girl.
Will Arnett
Isn't that sweet?
Sean Hayes
I love that. Nick, Can I ask about growing up? Because we touched on that a little bit and I think it's fascinating. And when I read this, I laughed out loud that you grew up in Rye, New York, and your parents sent a limo to pick you up from school.
Will Arnett
School. Is that.
Sean Hayes
Is that every day?
Nick Kroll
Yeah. No, no, no. Every once in a while when you're good. So it wasn't.
Sean Hayes
That made me laugh out loud when I read that. I'm like, is that true?
Will Arnett
Yeah, it was like different strokes, right? Like you just. Exactly.
Nick Kroll
It's true.
Jason Bateman
But what happened to all those limos? You remember we used to see stretch limos everywhere. Where did.
Will Arnett
I kind of thought about bringing it back this year when we went to the big award show the other. Oh, my God. I thought, wouldn't it be funny to pull up to like, the Academy Awards in a white stretch limo?
Jason Bateman
I want to know where they went. Literally. Like you, I guess. Scrap metal yards or do they play.
Sean Hayes
They're all.
Jason Bateman
Send them to Eastern Europe.
Will Arnett
Wait, so Nick. I mean, you would.
Nick Kroll
They're all playing in Europe.
Will Arnett
You talk. You talk. They're all playing in Europe. That's a great joke. So you had to. There were occasions where you had to be driven to school. It just is what it is.
Nick Kroll
My dad. My dad. It's like the Internet. The Internet is real. Loves. Loves to speculate on. On my. My dad. His business. Fascinating business. Fascinating built. Incredible business, you guys.
Sean Hayes
Jay, do you know about his dad? No.
Jason Bateman
Please share.
Sean Hayes
I didn't either. And when I read about it, Nick, I understood 10% of it. So can you.
Jason Bateman
Arms dealer, drug dealer. What is it?
Nick Kroll
Consultants, Deals drugs. He dealt drugs to arms dealers.
Will Arnett
Got it.
Jason Bateman
Got it.
Nick Kroll
That's lucrative because it's two different. It's, you know, you got to find the guy who's going to come in between them. Was that what that Jonah Hill movie was about? Those guys, remember the movie?
Will Arnett
I like that movie with Nick. Cage War Dogs.
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
Yes. War Dogs was. There were.
Sean Hayes
That.
Nick Kroll
Is that they were doing.
Jason Bateman
I want to see that.
Nick Kroll
But so anyway, he built this. He sort of did. The larger umbrella would be like, risk mitigation. So, like, it started as, like, Corporate investigations, due diligence. And during the 80s, it was like Wall street takeover. Private. All those, like, hostile takeovers, like, doing of all, like, Ivan Boesky and all those kinds of characters. And then it was dictators like Saddam. Like the Kuwaiti government hired him to find Saddam Hussein's money.
Sean Hayes
Wow.
Nick Kroll
And Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti. And the Marcos.
Will Arnett
Hello, baby Dr. Duvalier. Now you're really going into it.
Nick Kroll
Me and Mulaney were trying to write a movie.
Jason Bateman
Baby Doc handles. Kimmel handles. Fallon handles. Right.
Will Arnett
James Dixon. Baby Doll. Baby Doll. That's Baby Doll. That's Baby Doll James. Wait a second. Nick didn't. Now that, I think, didn't. Did Duff write a book about your dad's company?
Nick Kroll
He may have, yes. He may have. At the point. Yes.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
And so he. And. And then he, you know, he's. He's gone on to. To continue to sort of work in various versions of that business. And he and my brother have a company called K2Now, which continues to do different versions of investigations and risk mitigation and security.
Will Arnett
And they make skis, too.
Nick Kroll
And they make great skis. I know everybody out there likes Salomon Slalom.
Will Arnett
Hey, but, Nick, you know, I do want to say. And I'm glad you talked about it, because you didn't decide what your dad did or how you were born, and your dad started a company, and he. He was successful at what he did. And so I like that you just. You talk about it openly, because what the fuck are you gonna do?
Jason Bateman
Yeah.
Will Arnett
Right. You don't need to apologize.
Nick Kroll
The Internet will find you.
Will Arnett
No, I know, but why. You don't need to apologize for where you came from. What are you supposed to do?
Jason Bateman
Right? Exactly.
Nick Kroll
Thank you.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
No, but it is. I just got. I mean, I feel like I got real lucky. I got dealt a real good hand.
Will Arnett
Of course you did. But you. And as I've said, I've known you 20, 25 years. You. You create a lot of stuff. You create a lot of stuff on your own. You didn't have family in show business, and you did it all through hard work and talent. So you know everybody.
Jason Bateman
But he sounds. That sounds really fascinating, like, get them to investigate Bateman.
Will Arnett
Please.
Jason Bateman
The kinds of. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Will Arnett
Just look into it. Just look into it. But, Jason, why do you keep going to Grand Cayman? Answer that.
Jason Bateman
Listen, these people are.
Nick Kroll
So you're doing the firm cosplay,
Jason Bateman
but. Yeah. The kind of connections and. And. And know how he's got to be Incredible. That's like up there with. I, I. If I. If I could pick a new career, if I could go back in time, if I was like 17 and I would like to get recruited by the CIA, I would love to.
Nick Kroll
Oh, yeah, you have. You have CIA vibes written all over your spot.
Jason Bateman
I would love to be somebody in my mid-50s. Like. Well, I'm in my late 50s now. That is still. Like, I would like to be able to hold that secret from. Because you're not supposed to be able
Nick Kroll
to tell from your family or your.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, right. I mean, if you're really good, you
Will Arnett
want to hold more secrets from your family.
Jason Bateman
I've got a little more room. I found a little more room on my drive.
Will Arnett
Wait, Jimmy. We just went through your morning routine. You think that you're CIA ready? Are you fucking kidding? No.
Nick Kroll
That's what you do in the CIA. You watch the end of a Dodger game.
Jason Bateman
Yeah. No way this guy's a spy. Look how dumb he is.
Will Arnett
They're like, how do we kill that Bateman agent? He's at the golf club.
Nick Kroll
We'll be right back.
Sean Hayes
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Jason Bateman
Really?
Sean Hayes
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Really?
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Jason Bateman
And now back to the show.
Sean Hayes
Were you gonna say, Nick, were you gonna say you and Melanie were working on a script about it or no? Was that what you were gonna say?
Nick Kroll
We were working on a script. It was the first. We sold a movie called Most Glorious Friend and it was, you know, those like, Nigerian email prince email scams.
Will Arnett
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
Well, we were.
Will Arnett
The premise, it was fucking scammed.
Sponsor/Advertisement Voice
Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Oh, Willy.
Nick Kroll
The premise of the movie was like this was the. This time it was real. And it was gonna be Tracy Morgan as the deposed dictator of a country called Lyrobia and his name is Lil Mo. And that was so like a bunch of couple college kids respond to the email and then like, Tracy Morgan shows up being like, where's my mom money? And we can have that. Tracy. It was genuinely very. I mean, I was probably structurally, I mean, we had no idea we were doing. We just sat there reading Save the Cat by the chapter and then trying to write off of that.
Sean Hayes
Save the Cat is a screenwriting book that's so fun.
Will Arnett
That's such a fun taking. Schur and I worked on this thing years ago. Mike Schur, we called the ambassador about. Basically, he's too dumb to kill. He's the son of a senator. They make him envoy to the EU to ruin all their trade deals. And then he's like getting chased. Like born. But he doesn't realize he's being like he's getting chased. He keeps going, go around.
Jason Bateman
You both.
Nick Kroll
All three of you guys could be spies. You guys should be like 50s, the worst spies. Post Cold War spies, right? Like spies like you.
Will Arnett
Spies like us.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, spies like us. But there's a. It's just. It's just how it's pronounced at the end.
Sean Hayes
Wait, so this. This made me laugh too, because big mouth. Big mouth is about, like you said, you and your friend. Puberty, 13 years old. But I read your sister Vanessa is now a professional puberty educator.
Nick Kroll
Yeah.
Sean Hayes
What does that even mean? What does that mean?
Nick Kroll
So, yeah, my sister Vanessa is a. Yeah, she became an expert in puberty. She started a thing called Dynamo Girl a number of years ago. And it's like after school program, sports for girls. And then as she was teaching these young girls, like they. As they got older and started going through puberty, she realized that there was just a ton of. There was just like a empty spot in that and sort of the education around that and like having parents and kids understand what's going on. So I mean, it's crazy synergy, but I think it just speaks to a little bit of, I guess our experience, you know, she's two years older than me. Of going through that period of life together. It was of interest. Like we had those books, like, what's Happening to Me? You know, those like Groovy 70s books with drawings of the body. And so we were.
Will Arnett
Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, like, all of that stuff, I think loomed large for us. And so it became an interest for both of us. And she's like. So she's kind of writing about parenting and that kind of stuff. She's got four kids.
Will Arnett
And then is she the one who's the one married to one of the men in blazers?
Nick Kroll
That's my sister. Vanessa's married to Roger Bennett from Men in Blaz.
Will Arnett
Yeah, I know those. I love those guys.
Sean Hayes
That's cool. And all your siblings, there's four of you. Are you all funny people? Like, are you all.
Nick Kroll
I think so. I don't know how it works in your family, but I think it's pretty rare that someone Comes out of a family that isn't. If they're funny, that isn't also funny.
Sean Hayes
Right, right.
Nick Kroll
My brother's really funny and my sister's. Well, yeah, I think it was in the family, there was a sense of humor.
Jason Bateman
Did you guys get it from mom or dad?
Nick Kroll
They're both pretty funny. My dad's funny and my mom's got a very good sense of humor. Especially having to deal with me tell jokes about moms. Like she, you know, she's like, people tell me, am I upset about the jokes about moms? And I'd say, I'm not. Okay.
Jason Bateman
They're both fair game, huh?
Nick Kroll
Yeah, but no, it's a funny family, I think, but. I think, but me kind of being like, no, I'm gonna go be a comedian. Everyone was like, huh, huh. There was definitely. It wasn't like, well, of course you're gonna, you know.
Will Arnett
Jim, you know Jimmy Vallely? Yes.
Nick Kroll
Jimmy Valle used to have another vet, Levinstein. Another rusted guy.
Will Arnett
Yeah, another rusted Jimmy the great Jimmy Valli, who's one of the all time. Yeah, one of the all time funniest and has jokes that nobody else can think of that are just so. God, I fucking love Jimmy Valli. Anyway, he used to always say, he'd say like, you know, if you come. He was, we were talking about something, he said, yeah, this guy sort of came from a good family. He goes, he had more to lose. And I go, what do you. He goes, well, in a way, he could have gone into. He could have been a lawyer. He could have. He went to a good school and stuff and he risked it all to do this. If you come from nothing, you got
Sean Hayes
nothing to lose, 100%.
Will Arnett
And I go. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I never, never looked at it that way.
Jason Bateman
Well, Nick, you're so multi talented and you've done so many different jobs in the structure of things. What. How do you decide what to do next? And like, what would the perfect next five years look like? I mean, I, I don't know how strategic you are, I imagine. And I don't mean that as a pejorative. You know, like, it takes a certain amount of planning to get things done in this business.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, I mean, you got. Look, he's got roommates out April 17. He's got mating season on May 22. With Sam Richardson and Jason and Vanessa and that's, that's another Netflix. I mean, you have tons of stuff coming out. It's so exciting.
Will Arnett
By the way, Nick, you need to Know that Scotty was just off camera going, I just. I just bumped this up in your email. Okay.
Jason Bateman
So just.
Sean Hayes
He just held out. He just held up.
Jason Bateman
Date Scott was like, do you want me to stop warming the cupcake and get you your dates?
Nick Kroll
Hotmail.com back mail. We actually met it on Hotmail. Anyway, so that's just a little joke. Just a small joke. It wasn't Sarando's party. It was on Hotmail.
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
And there just felt like a comedy connection there.
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
So I. My strategy is, is I keep. And I feel like, honestly, you guys all also do a lot and produce a lot. Like, I keep a number of balls in the air that are all at different stages of development. And so, you know, I'm. And so I think I like this show. Mating Season is the follow up to Big Mouth and it's about animals dating and fucking and falling in love in the woods. So it feels like a natural sort of progression of that. I've been working with my partners Mark and Andrew and Jen on that. It's me, Zach Woods, June Diane Rayfield and Sabrina Jaleese. It's like, you know, like a fun, fun hangout. Kind of in the vein of like an animated version of Friends or. I can't remember any of the other, any of those other NBC shows. Must see tv. But you know, that sort of. That genre. That's right.
Will Arnett
No, I mean Nonfeld.
Nick Kroll
There was Seinfeld.
Will Arnett
I feel Wings. Wings, you're thinking of Wings.
Nick Kroll
Wings was great. I love Wings. It's a big influence.
Will Arnett
And the single guy, you're thinking of. Single guy.
Nick Kroll
Single guy. Of course, the single guy.
Will Arnett
That's what you're thinking of. Yeah.
Sean Hayes
Caroline in the City, Carol.
Nick Kroll
But then there was that show with the gay guys. Two guys in a pizza place.
Sean Hayes
Two guys. Frasier Buddies.
Will Arnett
That was abc.
Nick Kroll
Frasier.
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, but. And that's about it, I guess that's that, that, that was that must see TV stuff.
Sean Hayes
Yeah.
Nick Kroll
But to wrap that up.
Jason Bateman
But you're like in this ideal position of really kind of being your own boss and self perpetuating and you've got this great sort of troop of collaborators and colleagues and. Right. Is it as ideal as it sounds?
Nick Kroll
Honestly, I really feel it right now. It really is. I feel incredibly. It's at a time when the business is tricky and things are going away and there's contraction and the fact that I'm currently getting to make a bunch of different things. It feels amazing. And I'm writing right now. We're writing 100% here in LA. And it's me, Mantzoukas, Jason Manczoukis, Sam Richardson, Vanessa Bayer. And it's in the world of kind of like self help help influencer gurus. So we're writing that, we're gonna shoot over the summer and that's. And, and then I'm producing some other stuff animated and live action. So it's great. What the, the strategy you were talking about, Jason. I have, I have two kids. I got a two. I have a five year old and a two and a half year old. So that's the stuff that starts to play into like how do we, how do I do this and how do I be also like home and around and involved. So that, so the opportunities, like it's like how can I set myself up as well as I can for opportunities that I get to some have some modicum of control over like where and
Jason Bateman
be in Los Angeles too.
Nick Kroll
Right? And that's what's you guys right now.
Jason Bateman
They can travel with you, but soon that 5 year old's gonna be stuck in school and you won't be able to pop around.
Nick Kroll
He doesn't want to be if it's any consol, doesn't want to be in school. So we might.
Jason Bateman
Does he want to be, does he want to be homeschooled or he's just like.
Nick Kroll
He wants kite surf. He just wants to do you know what I mean? He likes to free solo. He saw that free solo doc and he just wants to go climb.
Sean Hayes
That's hilarious.
Will Arnett
This is. That's very dangerous dick for a child.
Jason Bateman
I know we got to let him
Nick Kroll
but we got to let. It's lucrative. You can first you can get that you. Jason knows you got to get to work. Got to get these kids.
Sean Hayes
So Nick, so speaking about a kid, you grew up conservative Jewish in a conservative Jewish kosher household. So no dishes for separate dishes for meat and dairy stuff. But I read that you had one junk food day a year growing up when you eat.
Nick Kroll
Oh yeah.
Sean Hayes
And then what was the other thing I read about food that you did? Oh that you fall asleep listening to a hypnotherapy tape telling you not to eat snacks.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nick Kroll
I went to a hypnotherapist. Did it work to quit smoking? We all you guys all went to Carrie Gaynor at some point, right? Do you ever go to Cary Gaynor to quit smoking?
Will Arnett
Nobody can cure me.
Jason Bateman
I just, I.
Will Arnett
Nobody can cure me. She's my enemy. I'm unstoppable. There's nothing that will Come between me and my darts, I would love to see that Western.
Nick Kroll
A little spaghetti Western of you versus a cigarette in a standoff. Both of you.
Will Arnett
No, we're on the same team. We're not against each other.
Jason Bateman
So listen. Listening. Listening to those tapes at night was this. Back in the day when we were told that you could learn languages from just listening to the people speak to you?
Will Arnett
Yeah, it was.
Nick Kroll
This was. Well, I went to Carrie Gaynor and he was like, you know, he was. You go to his. Like, you'd go to his garage in Santa Monica, and there's like a sun faded picture of Katherine Heigl, and you're like, she was here at some point and we think, we hope. And so I used him to quit smoking. And then I got a. This woman from the Deepak Chopra Institute. And it was like, this woman, she called me and she. I talked to her about snacks. And then she like, my. Cause I just was, you know, like, it's got to go somewhere, right? It's got to go. Fucking go somewhere. So if you can't smoke cigarettes, like, give me some goddamn, like, you know, Sour Patch Kids. Give me some fucking chips.
Sean Hayes
Give me something the same.
Will Arnett
She just. She's just recommending snacks. She would.
Nick Kroll
She would put. So she would make the snacks. She would be like. She would make the snacks. She's like, do. What do you find disgusting? And again, using the German, a different version. I can turn that up, like five different levels, and I got a couple different.
Jason Bateman
Make her more aggressive.
Nick Kroll
Put on it.
Will Arnett
Do you find. Do you find poop videos disgusting?
Jason Bateman
People ask the question.
Will Arnett
You're like, I think I got the wrong number.
Nick Kroll
So. But she would equate something like, maggots are disgusting. So imagine that you're basically. Imagine that your jelly bellies are maggots and they are going to. You know, it's in my standup. I do it. I can't remember any jokes anymore. But anyway, so I would listen to it when I'd go to bed. And it worked for a while, but now, God damn it, I want to eat chocolate pretzels all day long.
Will Arnett
Yeah, of course.
Jason Bateman
What if you just cut out the weed? You know, if you cut out the weed, then you're not good. Don't get snacky at night.
Nick Kroll
Ooh, we cut out the weed. We cut out the weed.
Jason Bateman
You know what I mean?
Nick Kroll
I gotta be able to relate, my friends.
Sean Hayes
Last thing that I think is really fascinating that I did not know is Harry Styles helped you plan your proposal to your wife, Lily.
Jason Bateman
No way. I'm a big Harry Styles fan.
Sean Hayes
How did that happen?
Nick Kroll
We were making that movie, Don't Worry, Darling, which I think is most famous for the movie. And it was the height of COVID
Jason Bateman
Tell you what, that'll live. You well knows how to direct a film.
Will Arnett
She sure does.
Jason Bateman
Amazing.
Nick Kroll
Truly. She directed. It was. I had a. And I played her husband in the movie. And so it's really fun to act with her. Like, I mean, you guys know, it's like when. Sometimes when you act with someone who's directing, you know, it's different levels. And she was great. I mean, she. Anyway, so we, so he. It was the height of COVID And I was proposing to my wife. We were. And Harry sort of like, we were planning it out. We were at the, we were doing the. We just done the table read and we were all hanging out and I was sort of figuring out. And we just. My wife and I just moved into our new house. And so I like, you know, I had a box and I was like, can you just move this last box? And she was like, give me a fucking brick, you know what I mean? Like, you make me move the fucking box, you know? And I was like, I don't know, Harry. So no, I opened. She opened. Open the box. There's a bunch of flowers in the ring. But Harry and, and then he checked in with me to be like, how to go. So I told him basically before I spoke to, like, we spoke to our families to let them know that we were married because he was. Had been checking in.
Sean Hayes
That's so cool. That's so cool. What a story. I mean, that's really, really cool.
Nick Kroll
Sweet, sweet boy.
Jason Bateman
Sweet boy.
Sean Hayes
Nick Crawl, it's. You are a pleasure.
Will Arnett
I can't believe how quickly this hour went. It's bananas. I know.
Sean Hayes
It's a real story.
Jason Bateman
Sprint.
Sean Hayes
I just want to say, I, I, I, I've loved so many things that you've done.
Nick Kroll
Top three.
Sean Hayes
No, no, the top. Well, I just watched numbers in the ch. Little. Big boy. I want little boy. So funny. And then.
Will Arnett
How far are you from Larmont? Is that where you live?
Sean Hayes
No. And then, of course. Oh, cavemen. I, I, I, of course.
Will Arnett
I thought that was one of the
Sean Hayes
funniest show shows I'd ever seen. And it went. It was like six episodes.
Will Arnett
I left with Will and Josh.
Nick Kroll
Yeah, Will and Josh. You guys had just done Blades of Glory. And then they. I was in four hours of prosthetics. That was my first job. I was in four hours of prosthetics every morning to be one of the cables.
Sean Hayes
It's so funny.
Nick Kroll
But I wasn't in the commercials and everyone hated the show. They loved the commercials, right? Everyone was like, I love the show. The critics hated the show. But what I always took solace in was that the public hated it as well. We got canceled. We shot 13. I was impressed. Four hours every morning. It was the wor. It was my first job and it was the worst job and perfect first. You know what I mean?
Will Arnett
Like, yeah, yeah.
Nick Kroll
Thank God. There's no way I could have done it later in my life.
Will Arnett
So it's so funny that you like that show.
Sean Hayes
I love that show. And then publicity, of course. Yeah, you as Liz. Hey, Jay. Have you ever seen him play Liz from publicity? I'm from the. From the crawl show. I'm gonna send you a of bunch. Bunch of clips.
Nick Kroll
It's crying last night. Every. Yeah, you.
Sean Hayes
It's.
Nick Kroll
You've dealt with. You've dealt.
Sean Hayes
I mean, it's like as a. As a gay guy, it's like I would kill the playlist. I mean, great.
Nick Kroll
Thank you. Thank you.
Jason Bateman
Well, we want more. Nick Crow.
Will Arnett
Yeah, no kidding.
Jason Bateman
Everything and anything.
Will Arnett
I'm stoked for your new. I'm stoked for your new show.
Sean Hayes
Say how much fun you had today as Liz.
Nick Kroll
Oh, my God, you guys. Being on this podcast with you, one of the most coveted slots that any publicist could secure. Pure aside, Spotify top 20, Apple top 20. The history, the camaraderie, the friendship, the absolute money grab that this podcast is for everybody involved.
Will Arnett
I love it.
Nick Kroll
Honor to behold and to be held by you guys. Thank you, guys.
Sean Hayes
Thank you, Nick. Love you to death.
Nick Kroll
Good to see you guys. Thanks for having you.
Jason Bateman
Thank you, buddy. Doing this.
Nick Kroll
You too. Thanks, guys.
Jason Bateman
Bye, buddy.
Nick Kroll
Bye.
Will Arnett
That's funny. Funny, funny. Nick Crow. Yeah.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, it's so funny. And I love that he showed up to play and he. I mean, he's so always.
Will Arnett
He's always ready to play.
Sean Hayes
Yeah, he's. And look, clearly he's got 80,000 things
Jason Bateman
going on, but how great are these. These interviews when they feel like five minutes and you never. You.
Nick Kroll
You can.
Jason Bateman
You never get to your questions, you know, just because of conversations. So good.
Will Arnett
That was so. That was so quick.
Jason Bateman
He's a good fella, that guy. I do, do. Send me some of that stuff.
Nick Kroll
I will.
Jason Bateman
And then I'll bet I'll go. I'll go down like a YouTube send.
Will Arnett
Do. Send me some of those.
Sean Hayes
Send those bits right after my toilet. Yeah, he's in full Drag as Liz. It's so funny. I mean, the. The balls the guy has just to do anything show.
Will Arnett
There was so many amazing sketches on that.
Sean Hayes
Amazing sketch. Sketches. Yeah.
Jason Bateman
Yeah, I should probably say.
Sean Hayes
But he did have. He said he did play that one character.
Will Arnett
Here it is. Yeah, yeah. The teacher from. Sit down, Shut up. Yeah. What was the thing you remember about that teacher? Fuck. Here we go. Are you ready?
Sean Hayes
Yeah. The character was bi, sexual,
Will Arnett
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In this lively episode of SmartLess, hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett welcome the endlessly creative Nick Kroll—comedian, writer, actor, and creator of Big Mouth and Kroll Show. Together, they delve into Nick’s eclectic career, his upbringing and family quirks, what drives his comedic ambitions, the blurred lines of voice acting, and what’s next in his ever-expanding universe. Unsurprisingly, the episode is rich in wit, masterful bits, industry banter, and honest reflection on privilege, comedy, and passion.
Timestamps: 02:18–11:34
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Fans and newcomers alike will find this episode a fast-paced, hilarious, and insightful window into Nick Kroll’s creative process, the realities of privilege, and the witty camaraderie at the heart of “SmartLess.”