Kate McKinnon

29:42Kate McKinnon:I could feel that, that you liked to know your lines, which some people don't really try to do because people don't know, but it changes a lot at SNL. So sometimes you're a little screwed if you know your lines too well. Right, right. So if it was like not changing that much, it was like a more acting scene, I would sort of like to run through it a few times. But otherwise, I liked to wing it. That's what I mean is you have, you had a very groovy flow in a lot of the stuff that you did. And so who knew, babe, that inside was, you know, a bunch of mice carrying ladders and stuff like, like who knew?

30:28And so when we talked about you, like hitting the road and getting homesteading,

30:34Kate McKinnon:basically what i feel like was underneath that was like here's the new next chapter of chapter of the version of my life like you know if my life is a book i'm interested in what the next chapter is yes what is the what would you like what would you title this chapter of your life post snl growing growing your own food prepping for the apocalypse my goodness um what would it what would you say, what era are you in? Getting real. Getting real. Or, um, 41. Or, um, getting, getting with an apostrophe, getting real. Um, well, let's be honest. I feel like I had one dream. One dream. It was SNL. Did it.

31:27Done. Loved it. Awesome. Not quite sure. Not quite sure what to really be like single minded about. I love filming movies and the small amount of episodic television. What do you love about making movies? I love being able to, I love going somewhere for a month or two and walking around. Yeah. And falling in love with 80 new people and the circus, the camp of it.

32:13Kate McKinnon:Yeah. The summer camp. You went to camp? I never did. Oh my God. I know. I went to a day camp, but I never went away. I would have loved to have gone away from home. But yeah, just this idea that you had this stolen time almost in another place. You can be anything. And I love that. And I also love, I just love movies. I think they're wonderful as a medium. And I love doing a scene as scripted and then trying it 80 different ways. and they pick the best one. And as opposed to like, you've got one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted. Are you, will you capture it or will you let it slip?

32:59Do not miss your chance. Cause opportunity comes once in a lifetime.

33:08Kate McKinnon:But that was what SNL was. Yes. So you did it so well. So you feel like you, yeah, I hear what you're saying. It's like, okay, I did that. I did that to the best of my ability. Now I want to, you know, practice my backhand, basically. Or not even my backhand, just try a new shot. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Like, I loved doing pre-taped pieces for that very reason. And I have loved, truly loved every experience I've had working on a film. So I'd love to do more of that. And I, but I, but there's only so many hours in a year that, you know, SNL took up so much of all of our lives. And when it's over, it just leaves a time hole.

34:04And so I had to fill my time hole. That's the name of your workshop. Fill your time home with Kate McKinnon. And so I've done that. I've tried to be useful in growing food, and I've also taken up carpentry as well.

34:22Kate McKinnon:Okay, I've heard about this. Can you talk to me about the materials you're using? Because I know a little bit about woodworking from Nick Offerman. Right, from Nick Offerman. Have you spoken to Nick? I've never. No, like I mean, I've meant to. He has an amazing workshop, and he's such a good teacher and share of knowledge. And tell me what you like about woodworking and carpentry. What's your favorite part? It is, well, I think it's in my genes because my grandfather was a woodworker. My father was an architect. And I just, I love the practicality of you can, you know, manipulate this material and then you can spend time in it.

35:13Kate McKinnon:Yeah. How crazy is that? You can sit on it. I love to sit on things I do. It's just so much, it's, you know, a sketch, a book, a something. It's so ephemeral. Ephemerable? And to say, I will sleep on what I did today. Yes. Is like, that's like life. That's cool. So satisfying. What materials do you like to work with? What kind of wood? I've been doing mostly trim carpentry, which is moldings and paneling. And I've been using reclaimed hemlock for that mostly. You've been making your own moldings? Yes. And I thought I was the only one. Then I'm backstage at that SNL 50 concert. I'm talking to Brandi Carlile.

36:07She's doing trim carpet. I'm like, Bran, of course you are. She's like, Jon Stewart's doing his trim. I'm like, turned out it's trite what I'm doing. Everyone's doing trim carpet.

36:22Kate McKinnon:You're doing trim carpet, I know. I mean, people think I'm doing trim carpentry, but I'm not. So when you're making stuff like something like when you're working with wood, what happens when you make a mistake? I feel because I'm asking, I'm very intimidated by working with wood. I feel like if you measure wrong, you're fucked like you can't. What do you just kind of? I put it up inside the home anyway. And I have absolutely decreased the property value of the house with my shoddy work. Yes, I know that I have. It is not Brandy Carlile level. No, nothing is. That's true. That's true. What do you want to make?

37:08Kate McKinnon:What's the dream thing you want to eventually make? Do you want to move on from molding and moldings and do you want to make furniture? Do you make furniture? I made a table. Dang. That was cool. but honestly I would like to move into plumbing and electrical I would like to be have all the skills of a general contractor I love that I love that I don't know well because the end is near well someone's got to wire the shelter yeah exactly if we're going to get one more day in that shelter we're going to need to fix the toilet yeah I so We'll relate, though, Kate. I mean, I have no doubt you will.

37:54Kate McKinnon:I have no doubt you'll learn about plumbing. I mean, that's a ways away. You think so? Well, it's someone's job for a reason. Yeah, that's a ways away. That's a two-year certificate at minimum. Yeah. But, yes, I would like to acquire all of those, the skills that can make a home function for four days.

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40:46Kate McKinnon:What I like about this conversation is that I feel like we're going out in the woods and then we're coming back into the city. Yeah. Back and forth. So coming back into the city, if I can. Yes. Can you speak about the last show of yours at SNL? because I remember that feeling very powerful and very moving. And I think we spoke about it and it was for you. It was a very beautiful send off where you walk up into the stairs as Ms. Rafferty meeting the aliens. Finally, maybe. We don't know. Finally meeting, you know, or them taking you away. Are you willingly going? We don't know. Yeah. What do you think happens to her and to you?

41:31Kate McKinnon:But that walk up the stairs and like the wave goodbye was really beautiful and really cool. What was the last, what was your last show like? I thought it was really beautiful, too. It was not my pitch. That was Streeter, Seidel, and Mikey Day came up with that. My pitch was that I did this character, Sheila Sauvage, the bar fly. And my pitch was that I would tongue every single person in the cast. in a line. And, you know, I thought ultimately that the alien thing was a little more meaningful and had a better tone. So we went with that. So everyone narrowly missed sucking my face. A good vice, a good vice, a good bye tonguing.

42:22But that was very emotional because it was everything. You did over 200 shows or something. That place was everything to me. And those people are everything to me. Jenna. Yeah. You know, Chris, Kelly, everybody. And Lorne, who has been, you know, a surrogate father to me. And I could cry now thinking about what he has been to me in my life, as I'm sure we all could.

42:56Kate McKinnon:Can you speak a little bit more? What has he done to, like, what was your relationship with him like? My, well, very, my father passed when I was 18. I loved my father beyond. And he, Lorne, just was nothing but paternal. And when you have somehow, by the grace of whatever, earned the esteem of a man like that, A man who's that, like, larger than life. It just, it means everything. And so I was, like, just sad to go. I had to. I had reached a point where I was, like, yawning during the show. And that just did not, that was not working for me physically anymore. Yeah. And there you have it. but it didn't mean I wanted to get away from those folks you love those folks and boy Kate they love you you know who loves you so much and there's a million people who do Seth Meyers he loves you he just is like and again praise coming in prepare but you were just such a natural captain when you were in there on that show You just, you led that show through a lot of years and you were in a lot of sketches and you were doing a lot.

44:26Kate McKinnon:You were, you were carrying a lot on your shoulders in that show, whether or not you felt it or not. And you were, you were being asked to do really big playing, like really, for quote unquote, like important people at important times, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani or like, Like you were playing all the, it was, the world, you, the world is nuts. And it's weird. And I know from experience, because we both played political figures, to play people in real time that are also existing in real time in the world. And there's real world consequences. And it's very strange. Yes. Yes, it is.

45:07Kate McKinnon:Yeah. It certainly did. What was it? What would, how did it feel? Did you feel any responsibility when you were playing anybody? or did you have to kind of let that go and not worry about it? No, Mama. I felt a lot. I felt a lot. Yeah. I'm sorry. Just to talk about Seth for one second. Yes, let's go back to Seth. When Seth left, it was in February. That was another that I felt like I only overlapped with him for two or three years or so. So but he and he is not very much older than me, but I felt like he was like had a paternal, you know, thing. And like when he left, oh, my God, I was so crushed.

45:54And I forget that life goes on and you like you form, you know, other connections and stuff. But that was like, oh, I love that guy. Yeah. Yikes. Any horse. what were we saying about politics who cares you know what politics well it's a double edged sword I felt and let me know how this lands for you yeah but I felt it was a double edged sword in that I felt like I was really doing something with my life something meaningful being engaged in the most peripheral possible way in in culture in in history yeah in the like yeah just on the sidelines putting on a wig right you know doing little songs about whatever was actually going on but like um being in the smallest way a part of that felt like I was doing something meaningful and with that came you know like i remember there was one article that was like will she hurt hillary clinton oh god and i was like y 'all y 'all shouldn't read should not have read right should never have looked but that like that notion uh just broke my brain and like i obviously no one i think doing a satire has the power to actually influence, but I did not want to hurt anybody, even people I vehemently disagreed with politically.

47:43Like, I still didn't want to ever hurt anyone's feelings. And so, yeah, there was some balancing to do there.

47:52Kate McKinnon:Did you ever meet anybody while you were dressed as them? Yes, I met Secretary Clinton, Senator Warren. That was so awesome.

48:11Oh my gosh.

48:13Kate McKinnon:Oh, you guys did a really fun, you guys did like a switch, a TikTok switcheroo. Yeah. Yeah. She was like, after there was some vote on the floor of Congress, I believe it was on January 6th, about, I forget what it was, and all the Democrats were saying no, and all the Republicans were saying yes, I forget what about. But they were going down the list, calling the names of all the Democratic senators, and everyone was saying no, no, no. And then it got to her and she was like, no!

48:48Kate McKinnon:And then I know it's the question you get asked all the time, but I do love this question, which is, well, two. Did you watch, did you ever go on the server and watch sketches that bombed? We used to watch our sketch. Do you like, do you kind of like it when sketches bomb a little bit? Like, did you ever enjoy that? And did you ever rewatch a sketch that, like, didn't make it? We used to go and watch our sketches from Dress that bombed and just, like, and just watch it together. Like, you know, kind of, like, process it together. and it was just like such a nice feeling basically just a reminder that everybody bombs basically yeah um did you ever do that um yes there were a few a few hits that we would watch over and over again um there was one there was one rehearsal where a person i won't say who simply stopped doing the sketch and sat down on the stage sure um that was a fun watch and yeah just stuff like that we had a we had a host again i won't say who who like halfway through just um kind of fell asleep a little bit yeah and it was like this was during dress i was like okay well i guess we're i guess this character's asleep now don't blame them agree it's time to sit down And it's a tough gig.

50:12Did you find that hosting was so much harder than you could have ever imagined?

50:18Kate McKinnon:Yeah, I wanted to be back with the, like, I didn't want to be. I didn't want to. Yeah, I know. I wanted to be like, I kept being like, what are you guys doing over there? Like, I kept wanting to be over there. Yeah. Yeah. And who did you love? What host did you love? that you just think about. You're just like, oh my God. I remember really loving Amy Adams. Yes. Emily Blunt. Yes. Those are the two that pop into my mind. But just, I loved actresses who were wonderful comedic actresses and also actresses. Oh, that's so interesting. What type was your favorite? I enjoyed weirdly often athletes because they wanted to be coached.

51:13Kate McKinnon:And they would be like, how do you want me to say it? How do you want me to do it? And I'd be like, oh, thank God. This is exactly how I want you to do it. You know? And they felt really good about that. Like there was no, and they would, if they scored, they were like, yay. And if they didn't, they were like, this isn't my gig. Like they just, they didn't, they didn't feel, and it relaxed me. It relaxed me when athletes would host. or people like that. People who are just like, this is so weird that I'm here. Did Charles Barkley ever host when you were there? No, did you love him? Oh my God. You loved him?

51:44Now there's a funny athlete. Jesus Christ. He may be the funniest man alive. And I did do one of my bar fly sketches with him. So I have, his tongue has been in my mouth. And I, it was nice.

52:04Kate McKinnon:Okay, so we do this thing on the show where we talk to people before our interview. I don't know if you know this. We talk well behind their back. We talk to somebody who knows them, and they give me a question to ask them. So we talked to Aidy Bryant today, the great Aidy. Oh, here we go. Tears, waterworks. Aidy and you. Like, tell me a little bit about what it meant to have Adie there when you were there and, like, working with her. What was your relationship like? I mean, she taught me about, like, so much about comedy. But she also taught me about just, like, being a person. Comedy is, I mean, she's a genius, but, like, just one of the most solid people I've ever known.

52:49And I, she just, she like, when I moved into my apartment, she was like, invest in your base, which she was basically telling me to like get kind of okay furniture, which like I wasn't planning on doing. but she just she um i think in many ways she taught me how to live and how to be okay even in silence i was like okay this is my sister everyone here is my friend this is my sister

53:23Kate McKinnon:i uh we were re-watching the sketch today um of you and ad as the as uh i think it was henrietta and Nan, the PowerPoint ladies who couldn't get the PowerPoint to work. It was, I was reminded. Give me 15 more of those right now. I was reminded of that the other day. And I was asking the gal who wrote it, did you come up with the phrase digifiles? And she said, no, that was Adie. Digifiles. I like when Adie says, I don't think I can learn anything anymore. I don't think I can learn anything new anymore. Oh, my God. That, oh. And, okay, so Adie had a question for you, which is, she had two great questions for you.

54:16Kate McKinnon:One is, ask Kate what she used to carry her hair extensions around in.

54:25Do you remember? It was a tiny linen drawstring polka dot bag that I think she gave me. Okay. Great. It seemed like an item that Aidy would have because it was polka dotted and it was like sweet and drawstring.

54:41Kate McKinnon:Okay. So I'm going to take your word for it. Well, there's no way we can check. And then, but the second question was, what would be your ideal day? Because we were kind of talking about what we were talking about earlier, that there's this part of you that like loves that feeling of performing and being, you know, meeting 80 new people and being on the road and being part of the circus. And there's a part of you that wants to kind of be in the woods and in nature and be in kind of a peaceful version of your life. What is Kate McKinnon's perfect day? How would it go? I would wake with the sun.

55:20I would garden for a couple hours, do carpentry for a couple hours, and then gather my mother and sister, the loves of my life, or some other folks that I love, and make pasta together and eat it. Yum. From scratch. Damn. that was my 40th birthday party it was a pasta making party with my family and my best friend

55:56Kate McKinnon:and her family that sounds great my 40th yeah my 40th I was still filming parks and rec so it was like a bar somewhere what in the middle of filming my 50th I had a dance party and that was so fun because I love dancing and I prefer dancing over talking. Yes. Do you like to dance? I love to dance and I also prefer dancing. Like I will leave a party after 10 minutes if it's just talking because I can't. Aidy said the same thing that you two gave each other a lot of permission to leave parties, which is what friendship is all about.

56:36Kate McKinnon:Okay, we're going to talk about your incredible book because, and I want to talk to you about books, but I want to just do a very quick rapid fire. okay number one gardening tip um or any gardening tip compost it's all about compost oh god it's no it's a pain in the ass yeah i gotta do it yeah okay it's terrible favorite ice cream flavor chocolate fudge brownie you said that really casually do you not like ice cream no i love it Okay. Favorite childhood movie? The Producers. We watch The Producers every week in our house. Favorite books growing up? Roald Dahl. And I loved a good atlas. I loved a book about geography.

57:28Are you good at geography? Cultures of the world. I do love geography.

57:33Kate McKinnon:Do you have a good geographical sense? I would say yes. When you know, like when you're standing somewhere, you want to know where north is and you talk that way like it's west of the highway. Yes. And you know where countries are. I do. That I do. That's great. I love the countries and I love to know their capitals and I love knowing countries and capitals. It's a hobby. I'm going to give you one. Argentina. Buenos Aires. Aires. Canada. Ottawa. China. Beijing. Costa Rica. Well, no. Is it San Juan? Close. No. It's San Jose. Is it? Yep. Please, God. Okay, thank you. Let's see. Ethiopia. Addis Ababa.

58:21Kate McKinnon:Dang. Hungary. Budapest. Iran. Tehran. Libya. Tripoli. And the last one is the capital of Senegal.

58:39is it no Accra is the capital of Ghana and the capital of Senegal is fuck me I knew this I really it's with an R yeah there's an R at the end it's Dakar yes fuck shit Kate that's impressive hobby in fact during a read-through at SNL when I wasn't in any sketches I just was practicing my capitals. For fun.

59:10Kate McKinnon:So let's talk about the Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science. Yes. Your second book. Incredible. Congratulations. Thank you. You have written—you have a series now, the Millicent Quibb series, and you have one and two. And two is out. Yes. And is a New York Times bestseller. Hi. Tell us about this book, why you wrote it, what's it about? Well, I started writing it 12 years ago before SNL. Amazing. And then I just kind of kept at it intermittently throughout that time. and I love middle grade literature because I think it has things in common with sketch comedy, i.e.

1:00:04funny hair and funny names and a sense of hope. Yeah. And questions of identity and questions of belonging. You know, a sketch is often about a fly in the ointment, an odd man out. I wanted to write about being a 12-year-old girl in a repressive turn-of-the-century town. I didn't grow up in a repressive turn-of-the-century town, but I grew up in a town with, you know, normal folks. And I felt like a freak. I think every 12-year-old feels like a freak. And I loved science and I loved bugs and I loved, like, icky stuff. And I was fortunate enough to have adults in my orbit who were funny and weird, my parents among them and a lot of my teachers.

1:01:03And I think having that kind of a mentor who celebrates what is unique about you instead of stepping on it is absolutely instrumental. And so I wanted to write about a mad scientist who's a pariah in this town who takes these little weirdos under her wing and teaches them mad science and they fight the bad guys and have adventures. And I wanted to write something that hopefully would inspire young people to go outside for the first time in days. And touch a bug. Touch grass, as they say. And I mean, the times of my childhood, which was before cell phones, which are just the best time. I mean, one day, me and Alexis North found like a fox skull in like someone's hedges.

1:01:58And like there was an earwig in it. And it was the great, talk about the best day of my life. Oh, my God. The earwigs and that fox skull. We were just like, the world is magic. It's made of magic. And I wish children had some more access to that kind of stuff. Yes, yes. And I wanted to inspire them to go outside and touch a bug.

1:02:25Kate McKinnon:Okay, well, I feel like, you know, this interview started with you worrying that you weren't going to be funny or something. Like, remember that? I feel I wasn't.

1:02:39I'd like to start again, please. You're not.

1:02:44Kate McKinnon:you're so nuts but I want to finish the last thing which is I think people in comedy as we know they're all different kinds of people do people come up and expect you to be a certain way and are they surprised when you are quieter and more reserved or more introverted than they expect you to be I think they are and sometimes they're disappointed and vocal about that I've gotten a lot of wow you're not funny in real life or speak up what I've gotten I've gotten you're so serious for a comedian yeah you're being very serious you're being very serious well or aww that's not funny I've had that I'm like well I'm sorry it isn't it wasn't very funny anyway nice to meet you oh shit I got to ask you one question.

1:03:41Kate McKinnon:Oh, fuck. I forgot one question. Boot. And it's the best question and it's the best one to ask you. Go for it. What is making you laugh these days? What are you watching, reading, listening to, watching a video of when you need to lighten up? I'll tell you. Ooh. There's a man on YouTube. Can't wait. From Australia. He cleans drains. He clears hopelessly disgusting clogged restaurant drains filled with grease. I love unclogging videos. This man. This is the earth's thing in us. You never see his face. He is enthusiasm on two feet. He says, he'll say, oh, you guys, this is what dreams are made of.

1:04:28Can you believe we get to be here clearing this drain? this one's chock-a-block let's fire up the jet oh you little ripper come on you good thing like he has like free and and it's about and then he'll be like oh there's a cockroach oh there's some corn there toilet paper oh this is what dreams are made of you guys and i just i love enthusiasm and i would recommend it's called drain cleaning australia okay i'm just gonna watch one little

1:05:01Kate McKinnon:thing before he does. He sounds amazing. Drain cleaning Australia. Also, I love his commentary about what he finds. Yeah. Okay, standby. This one says sewage spraying into the sky. Is that good? Okay, here we go. We're back for another block dry, mate. And I'm just going to let the lovely customer know that we're here. G'day, mate. Bruce from Drain Cleaning Australia. You're home. So he goes to meet the people first. Let's see. Let's And he's... Sorry, we got a commercial. You pay for YouTube? You don't pay for YouTube? I don't pay for YouTube? Are you kidding me? The price? They want me to pay to cut out the commercials?

1:05:45Kate McKinnon:No. I'll wait until the skip button. Okay, here we go. You little ripper! Hey! And wow, you can see all the three roots still down there. So we punched a hole through the blockage. I get it. Tree roots are the least of his problems. Usually it's like a dachshund-sized piece of hair or grease or human shit. It is. And he's like, woohoo! Woohoo! You little ripper! Kate, thank you for being here. Thank you. I can't tell if your eyes are green or blue. I think they're both. and it doesn't matter. All that matters is today. All that matters is you and me. Thank you, Kate McKinnon. You are so interesting to talk to and I love being around you and your beautiful skin.

1:06:47Kate McKinnon:Check out Kate's book and, you know, in this polar plunge, I just wanted to talk about the books that I loved when I was in middle school. There were many, many series of books that I loved, but we talked a lot about homesteading today and growing your own vegetables and pulling potatoes out of the earth. And it made me think about Little House on the Prairie and Laura Ingalls Wilder. And God, I just, I loved those books. And here's a tip in my Polar Plunge. If you need to take a wonderful nap, put on an old episode of Little House on the Prairie and the sound of the clip clop of the horses and the music and then paw just coming in from the cold and somebody putting like a hot cake on the fire.

1:07:35Kate McKinnon:It's going to knock you out. You're going to go right to sleep. So read the books, incredible books from Laura Ingalls Wilder. Watch the TV show and try to stay up as long as you can while you do. Okay, thanks so much for listening. Thanks, Kate, for being here. I love talking to you and see you soon. Bye. you've been listening to good hang the executive producers for this show are bill simmons jenna weiss berman and me amy poehler the show is produced by the ringer and paper kite for the ringer production by jack wilson cat spillane kaya mcmullin and alaya zanaris for paper kite production by sam green joel lovell and jenna weiss berman original music by amy miles

1:08:19Good energy in. Ah, good energy out.

1:08:27Storm, zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and immunity support. Storm, energy for life.