"John Oliver"

24:57Right. Were you ever worried that, like, interviewing Eric Snowden, that you're subjecting yourself to potential hacking and destruction of your life? It was terrifying. That was legitimately terrifying. We were being followed the entire time by the Russian Secret Service. They were angry that we were there. We knew that the American government were going to be angry that we'd gone. We hadn't told HBO that we were going. It felt like, but I will say, it's the same kind of feeling as when you're bombing or drawn to a tense situation. I was so happy, so giggly. Just think, oh, everyone seems really mad at us.

25:32Yeah, giggling. Everyone is the Russian government, the US government, and my employer. By the way, it's all fun and games, and you're just getting a good bit and a good comedy bit until you're in fucking Moscow and you get a case of window cancer. I will say, it's funny you say that, because it's a completely false sense of security that you get there. thinking, oh, we're doing bits. It's fine. No one minds the jester. And they're following us the whole time. There's a guy drilling in my room, the ceiling, 2 a.m. Yeah, I'd hear this like 2 in the morning. I'm talking to the ceiling saying, I'm sure you're trying to intimidate me.

26:10It's job well done. Let's both get some sleep. I'm leaving here tomorrow. Your wife, I'm sure, can provide some security for you and some proper guidance. She's a war veteran, yes? Yes, she is, yeah. That's a pretty interesting combination there. Yeah, she can provide perspective. That's not what it was. A hard perspective. Oh, it was so dangerous over there. Was it? Was it dangerous? Wait, wait, wait. When you say she was a war veteran, what did you mean? She was a combat medic in Iraq. She was? Right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. She was a... Wow, fucking awesome. I'd love to hear those stories. She nearby?

26:49In the U.S. Army? Yeah. In the U.S. Army, that's right. Yeah, she wasn't. Yeah, yeah. So at any point, was she like, hey, dummy, let's just do your little stand-up sets down at the comedy cellar, whatever it's called, and stop messing around, leave that stuff to the adults like me? Yeah, I think a little bit. I think she sees a different side of me come out because I'm probably a natural coward, and then I'll become utterly fearless whenever it's inside a comedy bit. Because you know you've got the U.S. Army behind you if things get hot. Yeah, yeah, exactly. it's kind of like it's kind of like it's kind of like in hockey like a like a skills guy who feels tough because he's got an enforcer on his line right you know what I mean that's exactly it talk a big game but that's only because Vladimir behind me is going to take over as soon as your gloves come off yeah but is there like a thirst there's obviously a thirst for this danger side of the correspondence and not just Russia or the Dalai Lama or whatever where does that come from where does the you know what I like to live just on the edge I want to almost get in trouble but I get I get out of it I don't know I live an unexamined life Sean I don't know where that comes from I'm sure I've never looked in what's the most honest thing anybody's ever said on this show by the way unexamined life can I guess you're a you're a smart person that is able to see all the inequities and injustices around the world and you you have a platform and you are able to say something about it but you can you can skin it in a way that is also kind of entertaining or you saw that we're idiots and you want to come get some of that sweet American cash.

28:22It's got to be one of the two. Two things can be true at the same time. A little column A, a little column B. A couple of my, two of my favorite battles that my Wikipedia page has told me about that you've had. Will you explain to the audience, let's start with the Russell Crowe back and forth. How did that, what is that, how did it come about, and how did it end? So that was just a stupid bit that we were doing. The true joy is where bits get out of hand and they get added to once they've left our building. So with that example, he was staging a divorce auction. So he was selling... A divorce auction.

28:58Yeah, he was selling up all the memorabilia and stuff. Exactly. Wait, wait, he was divorcing somebody and selling all of her stuff? No, that would be less charming. He was selling lots of his memorabilia. He was selling T-shirts from like... Like the Gladiator boots. 30-odd foot of concert T-shirts and stuff. Got it. Yes, exactly. And so we bought his jockstrap from the movie Cinderella Man. Sure. And we sent it to the last remaining blockbuster in Alaska as a kind of way to try and keep it open. He found out about it. And I wasn't sure. It didn't feel to me at the time that Russell Crowe was well known for his enjoyment in Bon Ami.

29:36He seems like a rough-edged soul. Then we get the message that he is using the money that we've spent on his leather Cinderella Man jockstrap to start a koala chlamydia ward in my name at the Sydney Zoo. And I can't tell you how much joy that put in my soul. Of course. It's such a good joke. Well, first of all, is chlamydia a thing with koala bears? Huge. It's a huge thing. But truly. Yes, it is a massive problem. Come on. Did you not know that? It's the perfect joke. They all have chlamydia. I didn't know that either. How? What are you talking about? Are they ill? Do you really not know that?

30:14Because they're fucking each other nonstop. They do? Yeah. They're like bunnies? They're diseased tiny bears. So then the bears have this STD. Yes. Yeah. And Russell Crowe sets up a specific ward at the animal hospital and puts your name on it. Yes. God bless. It's a perfect joke. I've got all the time in the world for shit like that, for him doing that. Yes. It's a perfect, perfect. He elevated our joke. He handled it perfectly. He also managed to highlight a very real, albeit very funny, issue among the koala community. I was staggered by how good that joke was. And was that the end of it? Or did you go down there?

30:53No, the beauty was, this is how good he was. Go host to benefit. That's the only way. We shut down the show the next week. We're kind of, you can't, this show's finished. Nothing better than this can ever happen. Wow. Then we were going to start the next show with a bit that he'd done. I kind of wrote to him, hey, here's the idea. He said, yeah, I'll do it. I'll be honest. I don't think, I'm not sure you're elevating the joke anymore. And the brutal thing was he was completely right. What? Russell Crowe, the comedy doctor. You're right. Yeah, fuck, you're right. Eventually, at the end of the year, he came back and he did something for us like a big movie parody, and we returned it to him.

31:28But at that moment, it was a really solid comedic note from Russell Crowe. God bless him, man. That's fucking funny. What a funny dude. All right, now take us to the Connecticut sewer plant. Again, another perfect example, right? We're trying to do a story about, I think it was jury selection. Yes. And very dry, very dry story. And so one of our writers, Owen, wrote a drive-by joke just shitting on Danbury, Connecticut. Literally put no thought into it whatsoever. Just bang, Danbury, Connecticut's getting it. Because they were tilting the jury selection away from perhaps a diverse community they weren't paying any attention to.

32:08Yeah, that was the large story. Just a sideways joke, throwing an elbow on Danbury, they didn't deserve it. The town of Danbury does not respond to this well at all. They're up in arms, and the mayor then goes on camera and says, as our response, we have a brand new sewer plant here, and we are going to call it the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant. Amazing. And again, the fact it's the memorial sewer plant. Yeah. Add memorial there. John Oliver Sewer Plant, that's already, You're shit-talking me with a shit-processing plant. To call it memorial, they're like, you've done it, you've done it. But by the way, they didn't do it on purpose.

32:45That's the worst part. They don't understand. I don't think they get the memorial part. I don't. I really don't. Really? I really don't. I think that they didn't get it until after, and you go, what a brilliant joke, and they go, yeah, thanks, yeah. We'll be right back.

33:08and back to the show. Okay, so you start of your own church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. Yeah, is this true? That's true as well. That was in our first season. That's genius. We were doing something about televangelists, and we got one televangelist on it, so we were writing back and forth to him for seven months, I think, kind of sending him money. He would send us more things back, saying, please put your hand on this piece of paper and pray and send me another$3. Okay,$3, what are you going to send us now? Please put this little bit of plastic in your hand and it'll curl up and that'll tell you which direction you should pray.

33:45It went on and on and on until we eventually called him and said, hey, we've been talking to you for some months. We're going to do a show about it. You got any comments? And he, I'd forgotten this. He said, no, no comments, that sounds fine. And then left our researcher like at 2.30am, left her a voicemail that was very much a comment. Very much a hard comment about what hell was and when we were going there. So then to show how tax-exempt churches are, we then started a church and got people to send us money and offerings. And unfortunately, they did both of those things. And keep going. So what happened?

34:26Well, they sent tens of thousands of dollars. Tens of thousands, yeah. and then various offerings and we're pretty sure two cups of semen and that's when we shut the church down. It's the second cup of semen. But that's amazing to me that you can just do that and it be legit. By the way, I knew I could see Sean's face and I could see the fucking wheels turning in there. I saw both hamsters get on the wheel and he was like, wait if i do it can i be tax exempt and then i can buy my own no no plane and i can buy a mansion and it's all the did you not a little bit no no the reason because i'm fascinated by religion and and i'm fascinated by and you hate money no i am and just like without naming other religion i mean there's thousands of religions in the world all religion every single thing in the world is invented right even religion is invented how dare you just what's that how dare you and even even you just so with that little stunt or whatever it's just proved that you can i'm just that's fascinating to me that you did that and it worked yeah with with some stories it's it feels like it helps sometimes to show if a problem is that there is a very low bar of entry for something yeah it sometimes it feels the best way to prove that is to clear that bar so that's why we have sometimes done things in practice as well as telling people what's possible in theory oh right right right and that's where things can get a little legally dicey and very very fun yeah yeah now the so the you will oftentimes cover multiple issues in the 30 minutes uh and sometimes you will dedicate the whole 30 minutes to one how do you well first of all how did you come up what what was the genesis of the of the format for for the show yeah that changed a lot actually uh because we didn't have an idea of what really we were going to do other than there were a couple of stories that we'd done that some of the jobs away that it felt like The Daily Show wouldn't normally have done.

36:32One was about aluminum pricing and one was about the city of Detroit, I think. And it felt like, oh, we could do more things like that. So we did two test shows, but we had a guest area built in because I thought that you just had to have guests on late night shows. So one note that HBO had had for us was you don't need to have guests if you don't want them. you can just add to the time of the story. That's great. And, yeah, we couldn't have bit their hand off fast enough. I didn't have to get up and say, this person is here now. Yeah, but I mean, a huge credit to you and your staff. You don't need anything else other than the results of your research, the shaping of that opinion, and your delivery of it.

37:14It feels like it's better to live or die that way. And I think we're very, very lucky because we don't have to take ad breaks. And I do think what we need is a trapped audience because it's not like you can hold people's attention, say, okay, we're going to let Twix tell you how delicious it is for three and a half minutes. Then you need to remember we're coming back into this story about facial recognition technology exactly where we left off. Also, the fact that there is no ad support on HBO, you don't need to worry about offending any brands. So it's free reign. That's a huge deal. That's a massive, massive deal.

37:44You get to build your own momentum. One of the things I like, when you get on a subject, you get to drive the momentum and you don't have to take those breaks where you, like as you said, where you lose it. You can keep doubling down and compounding the energy and the focus and as you get sharper and sharper by the end of the thing and you actually get more animated and more into it. And that's part of the allure of what you're doing is that, you know, making that point of shedding all the shit and getting to it. If you were to have ad breaks, it would take away that energy. Yeah, it'd be tough.

38:18I think that's one of the reasons I talk so fast. It isn't just that we're racing the clock. Sometimes it is that energy of, you don't leave, don't leave, don't leave. I know this sounds bad. We're talking about the lethal injections, but please don't leave until you just go, go, go, go, go. And we've been lucky that HBO sometimes gives us more time. If we realize this can't fit into the show anymore, we're not actually a 30-minute show anymore. We're a 35-minute show. And sometimes we're 40 or 45 minutes. If we say to them, can we please have 10 more minutes because there's stuff I can't cut out of this.

38:45Yeah, that's nice. Because you'll time your monologue, right? You'll read it. Got it. Yeah. Well, I remember they did the same thing. Sometimes in Entourage, they hadn't finished telling the story that they needed to tell, and they would go over. You know, they'd have something really important. They were going to go for lunch on Fairfax, and they didn't have time to get to that. I'm so glad you brought that up. We are standing on the shoulders of Dark Ellen and Entourage. We couldn't have done what we'd done unless they... Sure. Thank you for giving the comments. We're all standing on those shoulders, believe me.

39:16Now, what is your process of finding these stories? Does it take many shapes and sizes, as little as you just finding something interesting in a magazine all the way up to including what? And not just me. It's just the whole staff can pitch stories. And then if something is interesting, we'll give it to a researcher. They'll take it away for a week to work out if the story stands up, if it's been reported accurately, if things are changing that might mean that now is not the right time to talk about it. If it gets through that first stress test, We'll give it to a footage producer as well to see if there's any footage through which we can tell the story.

39:52Only at that point would we add writers to have them just write an outline of a story without any jokes. Literally just how would you tell this story? Then we combine those outlines and only then do they start drafting. And that's about a six-week process. Wow. For each story. So we're doing six stories at once constantly. Oh, that's amazing. And then it's always susceptible to total derailment based on the topical stories of the day. Yeah, we try to contain that at the top of the show most of the time. It rarely will be that actually we have to hit pause on everything and just crash a show in a week.

40:28That does happen, but we try not to have that happen too. Because you are live, yes? No. Or tape delay. You're on the same day. Yeah, tape delay, yeah. But will you, so when you're working on, you know, sort of six stories, six weeks in advance, so is it like Monday we're working on the thing, or is it all kind of combined? It is. So Monday is that thing, then Tuesday is that, and it's all like color-coded days? Yes, exactly. It's a complex web of things that we need to do to the point that, so just after we've taped the show, literally just after, we come back over the road from the studio and read the drafts that have just been logged for the next week's show.

41:09And then, yeah, the first day back we'll be going through the outlines that have come in. So we'll only then revisit the show that we're doing next week three days later. So it's a lot of plates to keep spinning, but it's the only way that we can do it. Wow. Now, in your hobnobbing around the political elite, as I'm sure you have an opportunity to at times, Have you gotten your pocket stuffed with a bunch of cards and numbers for deep sourcing if you need it? It's a serious question. I know. I just like your phrasing. Do you have, like, some deep throats out there, like, that are really highly connected that can give you, say, hey, listen, this is a real big issue, and we love the way you make a mess and go down easy.

41:50You might want to talk about this, and I'll give you some choice. No. I'm not a hobnobber, especially in the circles you're referring to. there so i don't have any i think we've annoyed enough people that we're generally not welcome for some reason everywhere god if i worked for the government you don't think that you're you don't think your knob is welcomed by some deep throats there's a clip i'm trying to figure out the excitement in the pause wait hold on oh i've got all the pieces for this sentence everybody I know, I know, I know. I love it. I believe it. And by the way, it was messy at best.

42:27It was just, it was an opportunity. I took the shot. You tee it up, he'll hit it. Yeah. I didn't have a great, I didn't have a great look at the net, but I had enough that I thought that, fuck, I might, it might go in. I'm in my spot. I'm turning around before it even hits the net. John, I know you've done a lot of acting too in your life. Do you miss that? Do you want to do more of that? Or you're like, no, I'm good? Sean has a script. Not really. I haven't done a lot of acting, and I think when I have done it, I'm not sure I would call it acting. Yeah. I remember I did this NBC sitcom community, and I remember Jonathan Banks, legitimate actor, he came up to me before a scene and said, I just wanted to talk about, you know, what our characters are doing before this.

43:11And I had to say, oh, Jonathan, I'm just going to say these words in the funniest possible way. These words here with the yellow marker over the top of them? It really was. You know, when actors, act opposite a tennis ball, I will be that ball for you. I've never, yeah, that's funny. In scripts, I've never highlighted lines because I just figured when it says my character and there's a line under it, that's when I talk. Right. Like, I don't need to highlight when I talk. It's a great point. I just look for my name. They do it for you. Yeah. Yeah. There's no reason to be confused as to what lines are yours.

43:44Right. Yeah, and you don't need to make a big deal. I mean, I used to do, I've done, you know, thousands of scenes with Jason, and at a certain point, they were like, Do you want Jason? I go, no, just tape his headshot to a C-stand, and I'd rather do it to that. You know what I mean? A lot of early days for me. We did this one piece with Warren G. Harding's wax statues, and we got Laura Linney, Jason, to act opposite that Warren G. Harding. And no offense, watching those takes, it realized, oh, she's been carrying actors for her entire career. She needs nothing, yeah. She doesn't need anything.

44:18Literally a wax statue wobbling in front of her and she's in tears. Oh, yeah, you're a one-man band. She is incredible. You are absolutely right. Now, how are you shutting off from all of your hard, hard work and intelligence? Do you do anything stupid, John? Not really. No, I've got kids, so I guess everything that kids do is fundamentally stupid, so I'm stooping to their level right now. Right, you're getting on your knees and making funny faces and making dumb noises. That's right. I'm pretending that I understand the rules of Pokemon and I'm also pretending that they understand them. Wait, how old are they, John?

44:5817 and 5. Wait, 3 and 5, did you say? 8 and 5. 8 and 5. So you're out of Paw Patrol. You're not into Mighty One. Yes, I'm out. Now, is a lot of your days spent, especially these days, wondering who's going to come back first, Tiago or Samikas? I mean, where are we at with that? Here we go. We're back on Liverpool. It feels like the guy is an absolute Rolls Royce of a footballer, but I'm just not sure his body can stand up to the Premier League. Rolls Royce of a footballer. He really is. I love it. Now, where does soccer come from? Is that true? That's a British term? Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. You can explain it, John.

45:33You know it, right? No, no. Go for it. Go for it. So, like, in the way that, like, a lot of people call rugby rugger, right? It was called rugby football, I think. Rugby football. Yeah. And the same thing, right? Soccer came from the association football. The association football, yeah. What we know as soccer was called association football to distinguish it from rugby. And so instead of, they shortened the association to soccer and they call it soccer. The English football. Oh, that would be genuinely how I relax is watching Liverpool. Yeah. How are they doing this year? They're doing really well.

46:10They're doing well. I mean, this is going to be a little delayed, but they had a nice draw yesterday. to put them in the final of the Carabao Cup against Chelsea, who fuck knows how they got there. But they're doing great, aren't they? Yeah, they're very good. Are you all sports, John? Or are you, like, just soccer? Just sorry. I like all sports. John, we're going to go together. We're going to go over there together, and we're going to go. Look at this. I showed the guys. The guys know this. Oh, yeah. That's me and Juergen. Oh, yeah. Juergen, you're going to get it from. That's pretty good, dude.

46:44You're going to get it. I got to be honest. Thanks. That's pretty good. High level. Yeah. I might make a donation to the Chlamydia Foundation and now in your name for that joke. Mr. Oliver, this has been fantastic. Yes. I mean. Such a pleasure. Thank you, guys. You're very, very nice to do this with us. I know you're busy. And you're much smarter than us. And you dumbed it down for us. And we appreciate that. Thank you. We love it. We love you, dude. Keep doing what you do. Honestly, it's funny and it's fun and it's important. I love it. It's all of those things. I watch it all the time. Yeah.

47:20Thank you. As you're talking, I'm going to put the paper back over. Yeah, yeah. Back into hell. So you can keep talking and I'm going to leave. I do not like compliments. Farewell. I know. Thank you, John. Thank you, the great John Oliver. We'll see you soon, I hope. Bye-bye. Go Reds.

47:40That's a great guest. Yeah. He's just a great guest. Really good. Had you known him, Jason? Really good. No, I've circled him a couple of times at things we've both been at, but never had the opportunity to touch him. You've just kind of roamed near him? Tighter and tighter circles each time I see him and never gotten close enough to put my hand out and say, Hi. Hi. I did a couple. I've done over the years, I've done a few VOs for some of his bits for his show. Oh, really? He's been kind enough to reach out, yeah, that were like sort of semi-serious things. And I've always been very kind of honored that he asked me.

48:24Honored with a U. I really do. Very nice. I do appreciate him or anyone else that is able to, whatever side of the political spectrum you sit, But I just, I like that people are able to get info to us, facts to us in a way that is not overly preachy or, I mean, it's just like. Well, it's through comedy, which always goes down. We need that because we don't know where all the honest stuff is nowadays because all the, you know. Honestly, it's as long as, you're right, Jay, no matter what side you're on, as long as you can, or where you fall, forget side, where you fall, as long as you don't take yourself too seriously at the end of the day, you can, then fucking great.

49:08Yeah. And it's the moment that you start, that your position is unassailable and that it's, and there's no way that you can, then you've lost me. That's, I don't remember. Except when you're talking about facts, you know, as long as everyone just agrees to what, what are provable facts, then you can have your own opinion and stuff. But anyway, he's another one that I feel maybe overstated, but he's doing a service, you know? But you know, you know what it is also, I think part of, I think that what's effective is because he is English and he's not from here. He can kind of... No, it's true. And he can come here and have like an outsider's perspective in that sense.

49:44Like somebody who's watched... It's the same thing with Canadians. We're like really... I always say that Canadians, we grew up, we're very similar culturally, et cetera, and geographically, of course. But it's almost like we grew up against the glass to make a hockey metaphor. We're right there. And we get to see it all. So you get to understand and see what works and what doesn't work and you can have a point of view that is informed but not necessarily have a dog in the fight personally. Yeah. And I guess it's just a byproduct of being so foreign. It's a byproduct. You can deliver some facts just by doing a drive-by.

50:29By double by. Sean, you got one? Sean, you got a little one? I'm a buyer. Smart. Less.

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