Stephen Presents: Robert Smigel (Extended)

Summary

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The Late Show Pod Show with Stephen Colbert

Episode: Stephen Presents: Robert Smigel (Extended)
Date: March 27, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features an extended interview with legendary comedy writer and performer Robert Smigel, creator of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Stephen Colbert and Smigel dive into their long history together, reminisce about classic writers' rooms, share behind-the-scenes stories (including SNL, TV Funhouse, and the cult classic Dana Carvey Show), and discuss the unique dynamics of writing comedy. Smigel also discusses his new podcast “Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends” and the annual "Night of Too Many Stars" benefit show.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Writer's Room: "Human" vs. "Inhuman" Comedy

Timestamps: 01:07–11:50

• Thursday Night Energy: The hosts discuss why Thursday night audiences are the best—full of weekend vibes but not yet "hammered" like Friday crowds (01:18).
• Being “Human”: Colbert explains a recurring joke in the writers' room about being "not human"—referring to writers who have done the job so long, they sometimes lose touch with a regular audience's perspective (03:08–10:00).
  • Colbert: “After you do this for a long time ... you learn the joy of simply doing it in a way that is not necessarily meaningful to an audience. It is meaningful to you.” (06:34)
  • Becoming “inhuman” means playing an inside game—finding the biggest laughs among writers, but sometimes losing sight of a common audience reaction.
  • Colbert: “That works in the writer’s room, because nobody in there is a human being anymore ... It never touches the ground where everybody lives.” (10:00)
• Community and Humanity in Comedy: Colbert applauds Alison Silverman for "maintaining her humanity," though she jokes it's an insult after so many years in comedy (11:16).

2. Legendary Writers’ Rooms and First Jobs

Timestamps: 12:02–13:19

• Colbert and Smigel reminisce about the iconic Dana Carvey Show writers’ room, listing a murderer’s row of talent including Bob Odenkirk, Louis C.K., Charlie Kaufman, and Robert Carlock.
  • Colbert: “It was all his. Bob Odenkirk and Dino Stamatopoulos and Mike Stoyanov and myself and Robert and Louis C.K. and Dana Carvey … I just couldn’t believe I was lucky enough to be in that room.” (12:20)

3. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog – Live Phone Appearance

Timestamps: 13:29–17:46

• Smigel briefly “calls in” as Triumph, roasting Colbert for everything from his show’s future to his love of Lord of the Rings.
  • Triumph: “The T is silent. Just like the audience when you talk about Lord of the Rings.” (15:15)
  • Triumph: “You’re the James Dean of Late Night—no one born after 1995 has ever heard of you.” (17:13)
• Colbert and Smigel banter about the joys and dangers of letting Triumph talk unsupervised.

4. Early TV Disasters: TV Funhouse and Clown Characters

Timestamps: 18:01–22:58

• Smigel tells the story of giving Colbert another writing job after the Dana Carvey Show ended—on a failed TV Funhouse pilot for Fox.
  • Their work included obscure characters like Grimey the Outhouse (voiced and operated by Colbert) and “Furball the Cat,” with slapstick stories of getting glued into costumes and desperate bathroom breaks (19:00–21:30).
  • Colbert: “I had to push the letters through and I had to go—and he would vomit up the letters. … Both of my hands were glued into the cat, and I couldn’t take them out. And I desperately had to go to the bathroom.” (21:13)
• They recall the tough logistics, unpredictable live animals, and the time a live duck “shat” on a puppeteer. (22:04)
  • Smigel: “He was under there with a chicken puppet, and a live duck shat in his mouth.” (22:32)

5. Humor Me with Robert Smigel – New Podcast

Timestamps: 23:02–24:41

• Smigel describes the concept—replicating the magic of a writers’ room for “regular people,” helping them punch up wedding speeches, job interviews, even acapella banter.
  • Smigel: “I bring on people like Jim Gaffigan, Dave Attell, really funny people and really funny writers … And we punch up. We give them ideas, we interview them, and then we revisit it to see how it works.” (24:13)
• His wife Michelle helped develop the idea and supports the project while doing important work for autism awareness.

6. Night of Too Many Stars and Comedy Collaborators

Timestamps: 25:05–26:35

• Smigel plugs the annual “Night of Too Many Stars” autism benefit at the Hollywood Bowl, hosted by Jon Stewart, with Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, and others.
• Colbert jokes about being invited but being unable to attend.

7. Working with Al Pacino and The Dunkacino Story

Timestamps: 25:50–28:25

• Smigel shares a story about working with Al Pacino on Adam Sandler’s “Jack and Jill” movie.
  • Pacino enthusiastically played himself in the infamous “Dunkacino” ad, improvising in the role:
    • Smigel (on Pacino): “[He] treats every movie with absolute [dedication]. He had us improvise scenes ... He had Adam [Sandler] read the script with him and then they would go off … discovering our characters.”
  • Smigel expresses awe at Pacino’s commitment—even to a bonkers comedy like "Jack and Jill."
  • They play the Dunkacino rap scene, and laugh about its viral legacy.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Colbert: “Some of my best friends are humans. And I aspire to be a human being...” (05:50)
• Colbert: “After you do this for a long time ... you learn the joy of simply doing it in a way that is not necessarily meaningful to an audience.” (06:34)
• Colbert: “That works in the writer’s room, because nobody in there is a human being anymore ... It never touches the ground where everybody lives.” (10:00)
• Triumph (Smigel): “The T is silent. Just like the audience when you talk about Lord of the Rings.” (15:15)
• Triumph: “You’re the James Dean of Late Night—in that no one born after 1995 has ever heard of you.” (17:13)
• Colbert (about Furball the Cat): “Both of my hands were glued into the cat and I couldn’t take them out. And I desperately had to go to the bathroom.” (21:13)
• Smigel (about his podcast): “I didn’t want to do the podcast that everybody does, which is old white person complimenting old white person ... I just wanted to create the magic of the writers room...” (23:26–23:34)
• Smigel (on Al Pacino): “You can't believe how excited he was to do Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler. He treats every movie with absolute [dedication].” (26:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:07–11:50 – Human vs. Inhuman Writers’ Room Banter
• 12:02–13:19 – Dana Carvey Show Memories
• 13:29–17:46 – Triumph the Insult Comic Dog Appearance
• 18:01–22:58 – TV Funhouse, Weird Clown Characters, Puppeteer Stories
• 23:02–24:41 – “Humor Me” Podcast Concept
• 25:05–26:35 – Night of Too Many Stars Benefit
• 25:50–28:25 – The Dunkacino Story with Al Pacino

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Episode Tone and Style

True to the Late Show’s spirit, the conversation is fast, self-deprecating, candid, and packed with clever asides. Colbert and Smigel move rapidly between loving mockery, foundational comedy lessons, and absurd war stories, all with a reverent sense of comedy craft and camaraderie.

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Summary by your Podcast Summarizer.

Transcript

[A]

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Required intro rate, first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail]. Becca, it's Stephen Colbert.

[B]

Hi, Stephen. What's going on? What's in your mind right now?

[A]

I'm curious what day we're on right now.

[B]

We're on Thursday. Okay, Thursday night. Listen, Friday morning, unless you're a late night guy. But yeah, we got.

[A]

I think Thursday night's a great night to go out.

[B]

It is. Thursday's the new Friday. Yeah, it is. It is. Because everybody's like working from home these days on Fridays. Thursday in New York isn't good luck. Good luck getting to see you at the bar.

[A]

Really.

[B]

On a Thursday night these days.

[A]

I've always liked Thursdays. I've always liked to go out on Thursday. I've always felt that Thursday audiences, because we used to have Friday shows. Also when I worked in live theater and like cabaret, like Second City to me, Thursday audience was always the best audience. Cause the Thursday audience is like, they've got a weekend vibe, but they're not hammered.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Whereas the Friday people, the people who saved all that energy up for Friday got drunk fast. And they're energy, but they're a little unruly. It's hard to stay on that horse.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And the Saturday people are a little hungover from Friday.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

So. But I've always thought Thursday audiences always struck me as the best.

[B]

Because Thursday, it's like, oh, let's get a little dinner and I'll have like a big old beer, you know, start to wind down, but I'm not gonna go crazy.

[A]

Exactly. Yeah. They're relaxed and happy.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Thursday's great. We love Thursday here. And I got a great podcast for you.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

This is. This is your friend Robert Smigel, who just did a wonderful speech for you at the wgas.

[A]

Smigel.

[B]

Smigel. Smigel. And we'll get back to Smigel, but I want to do a continuation of last night's theme of Lecho vocab.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

This is one that you mentioned, and I want to bring it back up. The human. You're not a human. This is not for a human. This. I kind of want to explain this one, because this is something that comes up a lot in the writer's room with me, specifically because I'm sort of a writer's assistant. You know, I'm not a comedy writer.

[A]

Tom will sometimes say, becca, you're still a human.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Would you enjoy that?

[B]

Yeah. And the biggest compliment you have ever given me is Tom recently did that. And then you turn around and you said, becca's not human. Becca's been here a long time. And I'm like, yeah, I agree.

[A]

Yeah, she's not human anymore.

[B]

Okay, so what does it mean to be a human or to not be a human?

[A]

It's kind of related to this. Okay. So there was a. There's a book called Something Wonderful right away about the early days of the Second City and the Compass. The Compass Players is what Second City was before it was Second City. And all kinds of great people there. You know, Nichols and May were there. And there's a chapter called if youf Were Alive would. You'd laugh at this.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

And.

[A]

And it's. I think it's him having a conversation with Spolin's kid Viol. Spolin, who wrote Improvisation for the Theater, is like sort of the godmother of all modern performance, improvisation and Chicago. And her son Paul was a director at Second City.

[C]

And.

[A]

And he and Nichols were sitting in the audience watching something that they'd seen rehearsed 50 times. I don't know. They were. And. And Nicholas just turned to him and said, if you were alive, would you laugh at this? And so it's important that we do the humor. We do our jokes, humor, as a humorist, our japes. It's important that. How I want to. Really. I don't have hostile relationship with my audience. Some people do, and I can respect that. But I want a good relationship with the audience. I'm also reminded of from Seymour, an introduction by Salinger. He talks about his brother Seymour, Buddy Glass, who writes all the stories for Salinger, the character of Body Glass. He talks about his brother Seymour, who's no longer with us and who was a poet. And he loved his librarian. And his librarian would, like, show him, like, open up a little book and, like, with bright eyes say, oh, read this poem. Read this poem, Whatever. When they were little kids and this brother wrote beautiful poetry, but he couldn't help but feel it was a little dishonest. He goes, what do you mean? He goes, well, I just can't picture Ms. Harper turning and snatching that book off the shelf and eagerly setting it in front of a student and pointing to one of my poems and saying, read this, read this. And the brother says, buddy goes, I gave him my opinion of his opinion that we should be catering to Ms. Harper. And he said, nope, there's something dishonest about it, that I don't write for her because she is the one who led me on this path originally. So that's only to say again, I love humans. Some of my best friends are humans. And I aspire. I aspire to be a human being or to. You know, there is a great poem by Robert Hayden, and the poem goes. And I'm going to probably butcher a little bit, but it goes. This section of it goes, we must not accept evil as our deliverance from evil. We must continue to struggle to maintain our humanity, Though monsters of abstraction police and threaten us. Okay, so now, what's that have to do with telling jokes?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And what's have to do with your question? Well, the question is, is that after you do this for a long time, you learn the joy of simply doing it in a way that is not necessarily meaningful to an audience. It is meaningful to you. And obviously, you got to be honest to yourself, because, you know, the show's not a confession or comedy's not necessarily a confession or therapeutic. But if you got your emotional skegs really in the water, the audience can feel that even if it's just 10% of the skeg, it makes a big difference in terms of the connection with the audience. But after you do this for a long time, especially like in a writer's room, you can top each other in the direction of the joke's game. Like, if it's like a harsh punchline, somebody in the room might come up with a harsher punchline, and then Sapphire's come up with a harsher punchline, and then you make a joke on the idea of harshness in your punchline, and then the fourth or the fifth one isn't Even the punchline, it's just harshness. And now you're onto a new game which is merely harshness.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do you know what I mean?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that is an inhuman way of talking, but it's a very human way of playing because now we're just playing a game. And the meaning that we initially meant is completely divorced from the thing that you were doing. Yeah, that's one way where you become inhuman. Another way you become inhuman is that you are no longer. You're totally inured to other emotions associated with the story you're telling other than the laugh, and so you forget that aspect of it. Another way is nothing matters but the laugh. So, you know, you can do a joke that's so harsh and it's a good joke, it's an honest joke, and you can even mean it, but. But not every audience can receive it. And so you've kind of distanced yourself from a common human reaction. There's a character in the man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt called the Common Man. And Bolt in his intro, which is just as good as a play. It's fantastic. In the intro to it, he says, by the way, the common man, people interpret that as the mythical man on the street. And he goes, no, I mean that which is common to all people, that there. There are desires and avoidances and fears and anxieties and greed and lust and everything. This character has self centeredness that is common to all of us. And so when I say that doesn't play to a human being, I think that the person I have in my mind as my audience, and I don't really write to this person, but I do hear this person laugh. And sometimes you can go so far afield from what a common reaction would be that with one joke you can hurt the next three or four jokes to come. Because, yeah, you made this big choice on this one joke, but without any indication or any concern about will they even hear the next three. Because you challenge them so hard with this one.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

And I don't mean challenge them in terms of like intellect or morals, but like you just really went out on a limb in terms of the inhumanity of how far jokes can go. That works in the writers room because nobody in there is a human being anymore.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Cause they're there often and it's a danger of the writers room, which I think we police pretty well here, which is it ends to become a wheel within a wheel way in the middle of the air and it never touches the ground where Everybody lives. So that's what I mean. So there are three different ways in which. So when I say, I'm sorry, that won't play to human beings, or you're a human, meaning you haven't done this long enough that you just enjoy the game of it. You have forgotten the audience.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would liken it to being at the funniest table at the cafeteria. And everyone's riffing, everyone's trying to make each other laugh, make each other laugh really hard. You're with the best class clowns there are. But then if a kid from three tables down came over and heard what you guys were joking about, without all the inside, you would seem like a monster. Yeah.

[A]

Cause they also missed the entire chain of events and jokes that got you to that last one.

[B]

And it doesn't mean that anyone is even or evilly minded. It's just you're trying to make the next funniest person laugh as hard as they can.

[A]

No, it's a beautiful monstrosity.

[B]

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Yeah. So I'm happy to be in that. I'm happy to be in that club. But that is the humanity that we speak of at the Late Show.

[A]

And I know some people who maintain their humanity through all the work. She took it kind of as an insult because she understood what, like, the need to be able to be that monstrous person.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But my dear old friend and just such a brilliant comedy writer and comedian, actually, she was a performer, Alison Silverman. I used to say, you've done this amazing thing. You've maintained your humanity. And she's like, hey, I'm having a bad enough day. Why do you have to call me a human at the same time? Like, I know it's just a rarity. Like, it doesn't take any way. Take away any of her, you know, shamanistic deformity that comes from doing this for too long.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Well, okay, so this is Robert Smigel, who just gave you a beautiful introduction

[A]

of the WGA Awards, and the guy who. The first guy in whose professional writers room I saw all this happening.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Cool. At Dina Carvey show. Was that the first. Yeah, Cool, cool, cool, cool.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, I'd worked before that in comedy for years, but had never been in a room like that.

[B]

Cool. Yeah.

[A]

Because it was all his. It was like Bob Odenkirk and Dino Stamatopoulos and Mike Stoyanov and myself and Robert and Louis C.K. and Dana Carvey and Charlie Kaufman and Robert Carlock. And then for a while, Steve o' Donnell was in there and Spike Farriston, and this was super, super heavy hitters, Heather Morgan. And I just couldn't believe I was lucky enough to be in that room.

[B]

Yeah. Really cool. Well, I. I really highly encourage everybody to check out in the WGA East YouTube page. You can watch Smigel's speech and Steven's speech at the recent awards where you talk about some jokes that were jokes

[A]

that I would not tell because I did not think that human beings would appreciate them.

[B]

Yeah. If you're interested in.

[A]

I tell five or six of them. And I think no one enjoyed it more than our writers.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. We were all in the back clapping and hooting along. It was awesome.

[A]

That was fun.

[B]

It was a great night. Yeah. All right. Well, this is Robert Smigel on the Late Show Pod Show. Thanks so much for tuning in.

[A]

My next guest is a dear man who hired me when no one else would and made me a better comedy writer. He's the creator of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, and now hosts a podcast called she Humor Me with Robert Smigel and friends. Please welcome back to the late show, Robert Smigel. Good to see you.

[C]

It's great to see you.

[A]

Always nice to talk to you. Don't get to talk to you as much as we used to.

[C]

No.

[A]

And as happy as I am that you're here, obviously.

[C]

I know.

[A]

I was just really hoping that, you know, instead of you, it would be Triumph.

[C]

He's not here.

[A]

Aw, well, that's too bad.

[C]

But he has agreed to call you. What place? A phone call to you?

[A]

Is that why this is. Hold on. Is that why this is.

[C]

That is a real phone.

[A]

That's a real phone. That's a real phone.

[C]

Yes, that's a real phone.

[A]

Do I just. I see the line flashing. Do I just.

[C]

Yeah, there's an imaginary line flashing.

[A]

Yvonne, see if we can patch this through.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

There we go. There we go. Triumph, are you there? Hello?

[C]

Are you there? Stephen?

[A]

Yes, Triumph. Yes, Triumph, we can hear you.

[C]

Yes, good. Are you talking to the hand on my ass, or are you still trying to set up that meanwhile bid?

[A]

Little bit of both.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

Listen, I wish you could have been here.

[C]

Oh, I'm so sorry I couldn't make it, Steven. I really am. You know, but I'm stuck at home. I can't stop licking myself ever since Kristi Noem got fired. Just. I'm too excited.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Excited.

[A]

Wow. He's so excited.

[C]

Go figure.

[A]

He's excited.

[C]

I wonder what else He's.

[A]

It's a triumph. What else. What's going on? How are you? What's going on?

[C]

So honored to be on this, Stephen. It's Colbert, right?

[A]

Yeah, it's Colbert.

[C]

Not Colbert.

[A]

No.

[C]

The T is silent. Just like the audience. When you talk about Lord of the Rings, that's silent. Okay.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

I'm so sorry.

[A]

Okay. What?

[C]

I'm so sorry.

[A]

He knows it's important to me, right?

[C]

Yes. But apparently he's incredibly rude.

[A]

Triumph.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes. Can you hear me?

[C]

Triumph. Yes. I can't hear. Are they laughing or are they just chanting? Stephen, for the 26th time. Believable.

[A]

Little bit again. A little bit above. A little bit above.

[C]

Okay. Now, you know I'm going to miss your show in June.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Just like I miss it every night. Fatum, give me a rim shot. Thank you. That's a remote. Remote control rip shot.

[A]

Hey, hey. That's not nice.

[C]

That's nice. Thank you. Please thank your band leader, Steven Urkel, for me. Hey, I kid. I kid. I kid. He's Steven's son. Yes. Okay. Well, we are.

[A]

I'm gonna. We're leaving in June.

[C]

Oh, my God. Cbs, they have to keep you. Steven, listen.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Seriously, they need you. Sounds like he. Do they?

[A]

Do they?

[C]

Yeah. Sounds like he's pimping the audience.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Here. Might be.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yes. Stephen. No. Don't you understand? They need you to promote their crap. Who else is gonna put that. Elsbeth on their show? You think Kimmel's gonna have Elsbeth on?

[A]

Elsbeth is a quality show.

[C]

You have to say that for six more weeks. No, you're terrific. Elspeth's terrific. CBS is terrific. You know, I'm on Hollywood Squares, by the way.

[A]

Are you really?

[C]

Yeah. I know that. I don't know when it's on, but I'm on it. Listen, you are terrific.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

I don't know why they're getting rid of you. You're just the rebel. You're the James Dean of Late Night. And I say that because

[A]

I'm the James Dean of Late Night.

[C]

Of Late Night. In that no one born after 1995 has ever heard of you.

[A]

We're gonna say goodbye now.

[C]

Are you sure? I've got more.

[A]

All right. Bye. Bye.

[C]

Well, wait. Okay. As long as it was purely a.

[A]

He is. You should. You better watch when you. I'm glad you didn't bring him.

[C]

I'm so glad I didn't bring him.

[A]

Now that I see what he was going to say.

[C]

I'm so glad What a relief that I bring. Yeah. No, he's the insult comic dog, apparently.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah, I should have.

[A]

I forget that part. I think. Just comic dog. Yeah, that I forget. It's all insults.

[C]

Exactly. Exactly. What are you going to do?

[A]

Well, anyway, with you guys, he lives

[C]

in a Duane Reade bag that I placed right next to our bed last

[A]

time we were here together.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

And keep in mind, we're totally out of time. Last time we talked about how you gave me my big grip break at Carvey, but you also helped hire me at another show right after that, a show that did not.

[C]

That's right.

[A]

Did not go in its form.

[C]

Yes, I gave Stephen his first big gig, but then after that, failed inevitably,

[A]

and I was unemployed with child.

[C]

You were down and out and I gave you a shot. I was doing Saturday Night Live. Ambiguously gay duo. I was helping you write with me. You were riding them with me. You were playing Ace.

[A]

That was where the big money was.

[C]

Yeah, but then he was still, you know, I mean, he had a kid. So I got the opportunity to do a TV funhouse pilot for Fox.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And in between the cartoons, it was a clown show. I played Prozo the clown. And Prozo had various, you know, characters on the show.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And there was a character called Grimey the Outhouse, a singing outhouse. And I thought, stephen, this is a chance to help Stephen. Right. I think we have a clip.

[A]

We have a clip. And I just want to point out that the outhouse you see, which talks through a little cutout moon on the door. I'm in there with you operating the moon and voicing the outhouse at the same time. And I don't really know that I am an outhouse, really. I know I'm an outhouse, but I'm not really aware of, like, what people do in outhouses. Evidently, it was a little complex character.

[C]

I think it's self evident, Yvonne.

[A]

Okay, back to business.

[C]

Oh, great.

[A]

Okay, kids, where were we now? William McKinley was brutally killed. Theodore Roosevelt was especially skilled. Frozo.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Are you okay in me? Yeah.

[C]

The jets just fumbled on the one yard line.

[A]

Did not.

[C]

Now we can bring that back now.

[A]

Amazingly, did not. Did not get picked up from pilot.

[C]

It did not get picked up from pilot.

[A]

What I remember about that. Yeah. Keep in mind none of this is going to make it into the show. What I remember about that is that you sent me a list of like 100 different possible names for your clown character. This is what it's like to be friends with Robert Smigel. You'll just get an email that says, could you just. Which one of these would you pick? And it was all O's. It was like Bozo. Like Bozo, Prozo, Lozo, Flozo, whatever. And my favorite. Do you remember what my pick was? No, like, you didn't pick it. Although.

[C]

Oh, Although the Clown. Yes.

[A]

It sounded like the weakest possible clown.

[C]

The worst parody name ever.

[A]

Although.

[C]

Although the Clown.

[A]

Although the Clown. There was another. I got this here. I asked them for this picture. This was. I also played this character right there.

[C]

Yes, Furball.

[A]

That was Furball the clown.

[C]

Furball the cat.

[A]

Furrball the. Furball the cat. And the reason why Furball was there was that it was for the mailbag.

[C]

Yes, the cat.

[A]

The premise was the cat had eaten all the letters and it hot.

[C]

We're gonna read letters from our kids.

[A]

Exactly. And then I had two. For some reason, I had two because I had to do the. I had to push the letters through and I had to go. And he would vomit up the letters. And then Prozo, which were covered, like with KY or something.

[C]

With goo. Yeah, with goo. And then Prozo would read.

[A]

What I remember is that the cat was in terrible shape and it had to be like hot glued, like, onto my hand. And so both of my hands were glued into the cat and I couldn't take them out. And I desperately had to go to the bathroom.

[C]

That kind of collateral damage was very common for us puppeteers.

[A]

Ben.

[C]

We did a show after that failure. I went and moved on to my next failure, which was a TV funhouse show for Comedy Central.

[A]

I wish that ran for a bit.

[C]

Eight episodes. It was as successful as the Dana Carvey Show.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And there were live animals interacting with puppet cats and dogs. And the puppeteers were under a three foot stage and they were just confined under there. They had little holes where they could stick their puppet arms out. And I guess the low point was when Dino Stamatopoulos. Right. Who wrote the show with me, he was under there with a chicken puppet and a live duck. Shat in his mouth. You can say shat on. Can you say shat on?

[A]

You can definitely say shat.

[C]

Shat. Past tense.

[A]

I guarantee you no one is blurring or bleeping me right now when I say shat. Shat. Shat, Shat, shat.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

Not happening.

[C]

Not happening. If I had known that, I would have said chat a half hour ago. Yeah, so that was. Yeah, that was okay.

[A]

And hold on. Ready? So you've got a new podcast.

[C]

I do. I Have a new podcast.

[A]

Got a new podcast. It's called Humor Me with Robert Smigel and Friends. I love this premise. Tell the people what it's about.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, I didn't want to. It was time for me to. I'm past my peak. So it was time for me to do a podcast. That's how it works.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

But I didn't want to do the podcast that everybody does, which is old white person complimenting old white person.

[A]

Right.

[C]

I didn't want to do that. So I came up with this. I just wanted to create the magic of the writers room, which is a

[A]

great feeling, if you've ever been in a writer's room. That feeling of like, that sound of

[C]

the writers room collaborating and giggling like children together. And I didn't have a great idea, but then finally, my wife suggested that we help regular people. By regular, I mean anybody but us normal people who have situations that they need punching up for, like if somebody has a wedding speech or if somebody's got a job interview. We like. I bring on people like Jim Gaffigan, Dave Attell, really funny people and really funny writers that I want to spotlight.

[A]

And you punch up their speeches.

[C]

And we punch up. We give them ideas, we interview them.

[A]

That's fantastic.

[C]

And then we revisit it to see how it works. Yes. And we have the weirdest people. We have one woman who wanted to break up with her mom group in a sort of diplomatic, funny way.

[A]

Oh, yes. As you would.

[C]

Yeah. And we had, like, an acapella band that wanted banter in between songs.

[A]

That kind of thing you wrote for an acapella group.

[C]

It's great. We came up with a beautiful story.

[A]

Well, I love it. I love the idea. Everyone should listen to it.

[C]

Yeah. And I'm very proud. It's my. My wife came up with it, and my wife Michelle is sort of my drive by writer. She gives me ideas for stuff. She does important things. Sure. She works for an autism foundation. We have an autistic son, Daniel. Here's Daniel. We're doing Night of Too Many Stars.

[A]

Night of Too many stars. On May 7, you've got your annual Night of Too Many Stars at Hollywood Bowl.

[C]

Hollywood Bowl.

[A]

Check that out.

[C]

Sandler. Jon Stewart's hosting. Oh, my God. Nikki Glaser. Sarah Silverman.

[A]

Would you like me to be there?

[C]

Correct. I would. But you can't.

[A]

I can't do it.

[C]

You can't. You can't do it. I know you're here.

[A]

I just want to know if you Wanted me to be there.

[C]

You're here. You're going to be fucking this place up.

[A]

So I hear you've done everything you've worked with, everyone who's been your favorite star to work with.

[C]

Oh, my God. It's definitely Steven. Steven. I don't count people who weren't stars when I knew them who now dwarf me by comparison. I don't count those. I count people that were stars when I met them for the first time.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

So that would be Al Pacino. I did a movie.

[A]

Never met the man.

[C]

Have you guys? I did a movie. I helped Adam Sandler with a movie called Jack and Jill.

[A]

I remember it. Yeah.

[C]

Where Al Pacino falls in love with Adam Sandler as Adam Sandler's sister. And I was there to sort of write Al Pacino's parts. And at the very end of the movie, Al Pacino's an ad executive, and he gets Al Pacino to do a commercial for Dunkachino. And it's the most crudest and most embarrassing bit. It's filled with every catchphrase that Al Pacino. It's like a bad rap song anyway. It's like, it went viral on the Internet and people don't realize it's from a movie. They're like, how did Al Pacino lower himself to do this?

[A]

Well, let's make everyone wonder it again because we have it right now.

[C]

Oh, my God. I did not know that. Wow. Al Pacino. It's not Al anymore. It's Dunk.

[A]

Dunkacino. Don't mind if I do. What's my name?

[C]

Dunkachino. It's a whole new game. Dunkachino. You want creamy goodness? I'm your friend. Say hello to my chocolate blend. Attica. Ooh, a lotty light. This whole trial is out. They pull me back in with hazelnut.

[A]

Two caramel swirl.

[C]

I know it was you. I know it was you. I know it was you. Good to work with. He was good to work with. He was the most. You can't believe how excited he was to do Jack and Jill with Adam Sandler. He treats every movie with absolute. He had us improvise scenes. He's like Robert. He would call me at one in the morning and be like, robert, it's Al. I was thinking maybe, what if my guy. He's playing himself. What if my guy. What if his dream was to play Don Quixote? Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow. And we would. And we actually put it in the movie. He had us. He had Adam. Like, we're gonna rehearse every scene and then we're gonna improvise. And he would make Adam read the script with him and then they would go off and we're finding stuff in the character. So Adam also directing sort of within the thing. We're discovering our characters and Adam's like, yeah, but yeah, who? It was magic, the two of them together.

[A]

Anyway, Robert, it's so lovely to see you.

[C]

It is always lovely to see you. And God bless you.

[A]

God bless you, too. Robert Smigel, Long may you wave. Long may you Night of Too Many Stars is live at the Hollywood bowl on May 7 as part of the Netflix is a Joke Fest. Robert Smigel, thank you for listening to the Late Show POD show with Stephen Colbert. Just one more thing. If you want to see more of me, come to The Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and exclusives.

[B]

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[A]

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[A]

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[B]

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[A]

Spring just slid into your DMs. Grab that boho.

[B]

Look for that rooftop dinner, those sandals that can keep up with you.

[A]

And hang some string lights to give your patio a glow up.

[B]

Spring's calling, Ross.

[A]

Work your magic.