Fly on the Wall with Jenna Fischer

I used to have this idea of what home security was.

I thought it was like an alarm that goes off after someone tries to break in and that scares off the intruder.

Maybe it gets your neighbor's attention.

But what I learned is that's really a reactive approach.

By the time the intruder's in your home, it's too late.

And you know, that's one of the things I really love about Simply Safe because their system is designed to be proactive, not reactive.

And here are ways that they are proactive.

They use smart, AI-powered cameras to identify threats lurking outside your home and immediately alert SimplySafe's professional monitoring agents.

You also might be wondering, how do I design my home security system?

And I can tell you from personal experience, their website is so easy to use.

They literally have a toggle that says build my system and you click on it and you go through all the different features that they offer and there are so many.

I've found that really helpful.

Some of the cameras they offer are like the outdoor cameras, the video doorbell pro,

which that one I really like because you can see who's coming right up to your front door.

Visit simplysafe.com slash office ladies to claim 50% off a new system.

That's simplysafe.com slash office ladies.

There's no safe like simply safe.

Having people in your corner to help you makes all the difference.

And with State Farm, you can feel good knowing that whether you need coverage for your car, your home, or even boats, motorcycles, and RVs, you can choose the right amount of coverage for you.

With State Farm, an agent can help you along the way.

And if things get complicated and you have questions, you've got options too.

Go online at statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents.

You know, this is going to age me a little bit here, but when I got my first car, My dad got me State Farm car insurance and there was no online and there was no award-winning app.

And I have to think my dad would be so happy that that was more streamlined now because it really is so helpful, especially the app.

It's right on your phone.

Talk to your agent to help you choose the coverage you need.

Have coverage options to help protect the things you value most?

File a claim right on the State Farm mobile app.

Reach a real person when you need to talk to someone.

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on the office together and we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Lovers podcast just for you.

Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of VFF stories.

We're the Office Lady 6.0.

Hello, everybody.

Hey there.

Okay, so by the time you are listening to this, I will be in Chicago.

Chicago!

I will be in rehearsals for my play, Ashland Avenue.

Woo!

Now, something we want you all to know is that we really did our best to record a bunch of Office Lady 6.0 episodes and second drinks ahead of time.

So there wouldn't be any kind of like big break in our schedule while I went to do this play.

We truly did, you guys.

We worked our butts off to make as many new episodes as we could.

And here's the thing, Jenna, I feel like you need to explain your rehearsal schedule for this play because it's so intense.

And you were explaining it to me.

And my first thought was, there's no way that you can be recording a podcast while you're in these rehearsals.

Where are you going to do it?

From the bathroom?

Yeah, I mean, okay, so we rehearse six days a week.

It's Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Are you loopy by the end?

You are.

Yes, you are.

You only get one day off, which is Mondays.

And that's true when you're in performances as well.

You do eight shows a week.

Mondays are off.

And of course, you know, when we're not in the room rehearsing together, you're expected to be like memorizing your lines, going over your work from that day, coming up with new questions for the next day.

There's also like press obligations to get the word out about the play.

And of course, being a mom, all those things.

And, you know, at first I thought, well, I'll just, I can do it all.

I'll just do it all.

Because that's what we do.

We all are like that, y'all.

We're all like, we got this.

Yeah.

But when I physically was handed my schedule and I read it, I was like, oh, shit.

Basically, not to mince words.

Well, you know, I remember what it was like when I was doing my Hallmark Christmas movie.

It was all consuming.

I mean, I had an hour drive.

I got up real early, had an hour drive, got to the set.

I was in every single scene.

That's how you are in this play.

You're in the whole thing.

And then by the time I would get home, I would literally just roll right into bed.

Yeah, I mean, the etiquette of doing a play is like, if you aren't actively rehearsing, if you're not up there blocking, you sit and watch your other actors because you're all living and breathing the story of the play.

So yeah, I think there's like one scene that I'm not in.

I have to sit there.

You have to learn the whole world.

That's part of the process.

So yes, lady, when I showed you my schedule, you were wonderful.

You were like, lady.

This is what we do for each other.

We have to have a talk.

You guys move things around so I could go off to Vancouver and do that movie.

This is what we do.

And just another reason why I'm so thankful for this podcast and this office ladies family we've built.

Well, you said, and I'm so grateful to you.

You said, lady,

you need to take this space.

You need to press pause on some things and take this space.

And I want to say a big thank you to you and to you, Cassie, for working so hard.

to plan ahead.

And Sam, thank you for all of our double recording weeks.

Cassie and Sam, you've been doing all this extra editing.

Oh, my goodness.

Okay, here's the thing.

And I'm going to just get a little emotional, but you guys know that getting back on stage has been a bucket list item for me.

And I kind of figured I would just wait until my kids were up and out of high school before I took that next big acting project, you know?

But after everything I went through, you just kind of realize that life is short and that things can change at any moment.

Yeah.

And while I am not worried about kicking the bucket, I saw the bucket.

And it really put my life in focus.

And when this opportunity came along, I thought, I want to do it now.

So I'm very grateful to you guys, to our Office Ladies community for helping me take the space to do this thing that I really needed to do for my soul.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Of course.

I mean, I think there's going to be moments in our lives, especially in our work life together, where there are going to be those moments.

Yeah.

I know what this means to you.

I know what it means to you.

It gave me nothing but joy to make this space for you.

I gave it so wholeheartedly.

You did that for me.

Look, Hallmark Christmas movie.

I know some people will be like, oh, oh, it's a Hallmark movie.

But I never got to be number one on a call sheet.

I never got to have that.

I don't know, sense of worth in that way to a huge project.

Yeah.

And you saw that I needed that and you made that space for me.

But I would happily do it again.

I would happily do it for Sam, for Cassie.

Cassie, when you make the WNBA, I will come to all your games.

I will be the mascot.

And Sam,

Sam, I was just talking to Josh about you and he was saying how much he enjoys whenever you pop on the podcast and what a great voice you have, what a great presence you have.

When Jen and I went and did the Sherm conference,

we mentioned you.

The audience applauded at the mention of your name.

Oh, thanks.

And anyway, we're a team effort here.

Yeah.

And I'm thankful for it.

And we're so happy we could do this for you.

Well, the reason that I just shared all of that today is that in order to help with this goal of giving me the space, today we are going to run an interview that I did with David Spade and Dana Carvey for their podcast, Fly on the Wall.

And lady, I love these guys.

I love them too.

I follow their podcast, Instagram.

I love it.

I love their podcast.

And I was so giddy that I got to do this interview.

Angela, you were supposed to do it with me, but you booked the AT ⁇ T commercial.

I know.

And I was so bummed.

They asked me my availability.

And I only had one day where I said I had a conflict.

And that was the day we filmed.

I know.

And so I missed Fly on the Wall, but I'm so excited for people to hear it.

This is such a great interview.

And it just sounded like you had such a great time.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, I've known David Spade casually for years.

There was even this rumor for a little while that we had dated.

But in fact, we had never met.

Yeah.

We finally did meet.

And I was like, oh, hey, how are you, my boyfriend?

And we laughed about this.

And it was very, very funny.

I was so wanting to ask him.

There's a lore in my neighborhood and I don't know if it's true.

Okay.

That David Spade once purchased my house that I live in for, yes, for his mother.

And I don't know if it's true or not.

That's not who I bought my house from.

But one of my neighbors told me, oh, yeah, you know, David Spade bought your house one time years ago.

For his mom.

I was so excited to ask him that, but, you know, now next time.

But you got to go on.

They're great.

And, you know, I had never met Dana Carvey, but I just know how much Steve Carell loved him

because Steve worked on the Dana Carvey show.

And Steve would tell us stories about how amazing Dana was.

And so

one of the coolest things was after this interview,

Dana stayed on the Zoom with me for like 30 minutes.

Get out.

And we chatted.

And I did not want it to end.

It's like a highlight of my life that I got to have this conversation.

With him.

Yes.

I mean, I'm a big Saturday Night Live nerd.

I love all those guys.

Me too.

But listen, I really hope you enjoy the interview.

We talk about all kinds of stuff.

We talk about the office and Saturday Night Live.

And thank you all again.

But wait, you have to tell everyone how to get tickets to your show.

Oh, yes.

Okay.

You can go to goodmantheater.org and the play is called Ashland Avenue and previews start September 6th.

I'm going.

You sure are.

Yay.

Thank you.

All right.

Here is Jenna on Fly on the Wall.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

You know, sometimes we turn to some funny places for support.

Maybe a hairdresser, a barista, maybe a random stranger in the bathroom for life advice, but not everyone is a therapist.

You can find your right match with BetterHelp.

BetterHelp therapists are clinically trained and credentialed.

They work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S.

And BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you.

So you can focus on your therapy goals.

You'll get a short questionnaire that helps identify your needs and preferences.

And then they will match you with a licensed therapist.

As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.

Find the one with BetterHelp.

Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com slash office ladies.

That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p.com slash office ladies.

Hey y'all, I'm Maddie and I'm Poodle and together we host the podcast Reality Gaze.

We are two ridiculous homosexuals who love nothing more than talking about reality television and tearing at a new one.

So, whether it's 90 Day Fiancé, Love is Blind, Love After Lockup, or any other trash TV show about lonely hearts looking for love, your gay bestie's got you covered, y'all.

New shows every week.

Follow and listen to Reality Gaze wherever you get your podcast.

There is nothing worse than not having the tools to make impactful work.

For me, that is usually due to my lack of technical know-how.

I don't know how to

do all the snazzy stuff, but Canva can make that a lot easier.

You can put all your workflow in one place, starting with the presentation, then you could like add in a whiteboard, you could drop in a video.

You don't have to jump between programs and tabs.

You can also invite your team to collaborate on any design.

So rather than like having to chase people down with multiple email threads, you can have real-time collaboration.

You can share ideas and visualize projects.

You can get their input right away.

So whether you work in a team of two, like me and Angela, or a team of 2,000, Canva lets you bring your big ideas to life as fast as you can think of them.

Put imagination to work at canva.com.

David, Jenna Fisher.

Jenna Fisher, the lovely Jenna Fisher, who is pretty universally liked out there.

I mean, very sweet, very talented, very fun and charming.

Famous for the office.

She's done a lot of movies and a lot of other things, but she was Pam

on the Office, the SMASH.

for all 98 seasons.

Yeah.

That show just kept grinding it out.

And

there's a spin-off now we talk about.

We don't only talk about the office, of course.

She does plays.

She's doing a new one we're talking about.

She talks about, I asked her about Nick Schwartz and about Will Farrell.

She loves SNL.

And I hit her up after the interview.

And, you know, I think she had what we had.

She's always like, she's like exactly what we say.

Did we ask the right questions?

Was I interesting?

Was I fun?

And we always finish and going, I think we did that wrong, whatever.

but she's very sweet about it she wanted to do a good job she listens to the show she has her own show um the office ladies

um and she uh she tells some really funny stories interesting stories about her struggles before she got on the office and there's a whole arc of story involving Molly Shannon and that's a very interesting

story yeah and sometimes when that we finish the podcast we keep our laptop open so I ended up talking with her for a half hour afterwards.

She's very easy to

talk to.

So anyway, I hope you enjoy this one.

Jana Fisher.

I was just asked by our producer, and it's a profound question: when you're driving around,

a long drive, two-hour drive, whatever,

what's your entertainment?

XM news, music, podcasting,

or

just rap, phone calls to pay back.

You have 10 seconds.

It's not music.

I do not listen to music.

My first car did not have a working radio, and I just got used to driving in silence, and it's my preference.

But now I would say news, podcasts, or phone calls.

So I love the idea that you literally could go like just the silence, two hours, three hours, just

silence.

Jesus, it's chasing

healthy, by the way.

I don't know.

I drove from St.

Louis, Missouri, all the way to California with no radio.

Just open windows, also no air conditioning.

My first car was really just, it just moved you from one place to another.

There was no luxury in hand.

What year of car?

I don't remember.

I think it was like an 86.

I mean, it had originally when it was built had these features.

They just didn't work anymore.

So you do the office all those years and then you buy a used Buick from 1988?

I mean, I'll talk to Corell if I have to.

No, call Grant Families.

Okay, go ahead.

No, no, no.

So I had a Mazda 323 hatchback.

Sweet.

And that was the car I drove across the country.

Okay.

and then I upgraded to a Volkswagen Jetta, which was my favorite car maybe I've ever had.

It was awesome.

But then, when I got my big office paycheck,

I got a stupid car.

Okay, yeah, Rolls Race.

It was, I walked into a Mercedes dealership and they had a little sedan.

They only made like seven of these, and it had like the engine of a race car, but in like the body of like a C-class mercedes so it was like cute and compact but it i was

a hundred percent an asshole driver like because i could cut around anyone i could it was oh it was great did you keep it

i leased it and i gave it up after the lease lease

and i went more practical we all have that story you want me to go first david Because it's similar to yours.

Okay, got a little money, some movie, whatever, got extra money, went to a Mercedes dealership, bought a

convertible little Mercedes coupe.

Like, oh, wow, this is awesome.

Drove it for three or four days and realized when I had the canopy up, I was looking through a plastic windshield in the back.

So took it back, traded in for a SLE or a big, a 420 SLE.

And then I started getting people paying attention to me.

I lived in the valley when I would go to like 7-Eleven or a gas station.

So then I went to Honda.

I just wanted a lo-fi car.

That's my story.

Well, the problem with LA

is that you get this awesome car and then you can only go like 32 miles an hour in it because you're always stuck in traffic.

So it's kind of like after a few years, I was like, oh, the best I can do is like whip down the on-ramp.

Yeah, 300 horsepower.

And then that's exactly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I moved out, I got something when I first paid check and I went

and I had no car.

So I got a car.

Dana knows the story.

$6,000 Honda.

I didn't go flashy.

I only had six.

And then I drove it to the Improv and then I brought it out.

I brought my buddy out to show him and it was stolen.

What?

How long?

You had it for like a night?

One day.

You went one place.

And Kevin Neal

drove a car eerily similar to that.

I'm not saying he had anything to do with the robbery, but it was kind of weird.

but my first car was a volkswagen bug are you going to go to first car or first car when you got an extra paycheck

me no you are we know your story we know my story yeah david you got oh i i had my fair share because i do like cars but i

i my neck gives me trouble so every time i get a car i love it just starts it's just too painful and like jenna said when you're starting and stopping all day it's not like you live in the midwest and you can floor it and there's big parking lots like when you go to windy's in arizona there's like 300 parking spots.

And when you go here, there's one at Kmart.

And you go, Are we all sharing this?

You can't believe when you get to LA how little there's some businesses, have absolutely no parking.

So I don't know what we're supposed to do.

So that kind of threw me.

And I realized I didn't need big fancy cars.

I could just tell people I had them.

I didn't really need them.

My first car was also a manual transmission.

Oh, boy.

And my left foot would like truly ache at the end of like driving all day in LA because there was, you were constantly just going like in and out of third and fourth gear.

There was like, you never made it to fifth gear in this car.

God, no one has a stick anymore.

No, it's, it's a, you know, this was the cheapest car.

Like the manual transmission was the cheapest car.

My dad's very practical.

He was like, you'll get this car

how to drive it.

Firm, this is all you need.

You don't need any frills.

Yeah,

so do you've been to St.

Louis, I bet?

I'm going to St.

Louis to do a show.

Have you

got pizza in St.

Louis?

Emo's pizza in St.

Louis?

No, but

I like it as a town.

I like walking around.

I like that stadiums are really close in.

Jenna, do you know what Chesterfield is?

Chesterfield is where I grew up.

Oh, is it really?

Chesterfield is where my family lives now.

Uh-oh.

Yeah.

I actually grew up in like Manchester slash Chesterfield in an unincorporated area.

But yeah, Chesterfield, for sure.

Why?

Because that's where I'm going for my tour.

And they said, I was with Nikki

Glazer this weekend, and she's from St.

Louis.

And she goes, why don't they put on your tour St.

Louis?

No one's Chesterfield.

And I go, oh, I don't know.

I don't even know where.

I mean, if you're from St.

Louis, you know what what Chesterfield is.

You'll know.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's not like, yeah, it's not downtown.

I mean, St.

Louis is downtown.

You're going to be in the burbs.

You're in the suburbs.

That's fine with me.

And I think it's a great place.

I've been there before.

I think it's new.

Anyway, we'll set up comps for everyone you know from high school.

Other than that.

Great.

Great.

You know, you say that.

You know what you say?

My high school ladies are going to come out for your show.

It's super fun.

Dane and I had a question.

First of all, I'll tell Dana a little pre-question that you don't know.

All right.

Let's just

keep our guests off balance, like with questions she's not asked all the time.

Oh, yeah.

We're here to

surprise you.

She's going to come out here digital.

I love it.

Great.

Everyone loves that.

I thought of doing this with Dana and then I called Jenna, right, Jenna?

Do you remember this?

Yes, of course.

Yes.

And you were very sweet.

You took the call and you kind of walked me through how it works and what you did.

And it really gave me a little boost to say this might be fun.

And if it has to be a Dana, it has to be.

That's fine, whatever.

And so, and then Dana had a question of,

do you really need a part?

Has it ever gone through your mind?

I could have done this by myself.

And then the money doubles.

Has that ever gone through your mind?

Or, you know, maybe Angela.

But

Dana and I think about that all day, every day.

People always ask us forever, why?

You know, why us?

Why now?

Are you really friends?

Do you get that?

I mean, you guys are famously really close friends.

But with Spade and I is like, what?

The Tommy Boy guy and the Waynesworld guy?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, also because Angela and I were frenemies on the office, our characters were not friends.

And people are always very surprised to learn that we are best friends in real life.

I could not have done the podcast without her.

I am all like structure and order and spreadsheets.

My version of Office Ladies podcast would be very informative, but also way less entertaining.

So Angela brings all of the like

funny and all of the quirky and all of like the weird observations.

So we're actually, we're a pretty good pair.

Yeah, I think that's smart that you did that because there is kind of safety in numbers.

Dana is way better at this.

And I don't think I could do it myself.

I think Dana really, really drives it and makes it easier to do it for me.

But jokingly, it's fun to joke around with him too because he's a funny guy, obviously.

And we have a good time with that.

And I think you guys have a real friendship.

So

people like to hear that you're friends, even though it doesn't seem like it on the show.

You guys, I love your podcast.

Like, you have no idea how excited I am to be on your podcast right now.

I listen to you guys.

I think you are so good together.

Dana, I can't believe you're talking to me right now.

That's kind of blowing my mind.

I'm a huge Saturday Night Live nerd.

The greatest part about being on the office and being on NBC was that I got to breathe the same air as Saturday Night Live people.

This is like

that we would have to be at the same corporate parties together.

And I was a total groupie.

That is who I gravitated toward.

It was just the coolest.

And but that's going way back.

I actually have a crazy story from my very early days in LA.

Let's hear it.

And Saturday Night Live.

Okay, so I made my living when I landed in LA as a typist and a transcriber.

And you know how you'd have to go to those events?

They're called like the Television Critics Association.

And you would sit on a panel as a cast and you would introduce new cast members.

This would be for any show.

Well, my job was to go and sit in that room and take notes and then go back to a hotel room, a hot hotel room filled with like 12 people and 12 computers and then listen to audio and transcribe these

like press events.

Wow.

These conversations.

Yeah.

Yes.

And if we got our work done on time, by that evening, we were allowed to go to the quote quote-unquote parties, which as you know, are really just cast members of TV shows mingling with reporters who are trying to get sound bites.

But we would get to go.

We'd get to eat the food, drink the drinks, and just watch all the famous people.

Well, all I wanted more than anything was to go to the Saturday Night Live party.

I wanted it more than my little new heart in LA could stand it.

And so

I knew what night it was coming up and I started planting the seed the day before.

I started pretending like I didn't feel good

because I was going to make an excuse that I was sick so that I could get off work on time and then sneak into this party.

But

I needed the hours, you know, so I planted that seed.

The next day I was like, man, I'm still not feeling good.

At three o'clock, I'm like, I'm so sorry.

I got to go.

I got to go home.

The guy was like, fine.

I had planted a change of clothes in my car.

I went, I changed into a cocktail dress.

I sneak into the party and I can't even tell you, it was amazing.

Norm McDonald, I'm looking at him in the flesh.

I can't, my mind is blown.

Then I see Molly Shannon and I think, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to go say hi to Molly Shannon.

And I walk up to her.

She's giving sound bites to the press.

And I say, Molly Shannon, I am a new actress in LA and I just admire you so much.

And I just wanted to tell you

just what you mean to me you know the stuff you say yeah sure

she looked at me

took me by the shoulders looked me deep in the eyes and said don't give up whatever you do don't give up it took me 10 years to get on Saturday Night Live and my best advice to you is just know it'll happen eventually if you just stick with it okay

you guys sounds sounds like the Molly we know yeah I was about to say right

amazing

and I went and i like i had this encounter with her and then i turn around

and my boss from the transcription room is standing there along with everybody else who got off work on time and they came to this party

and i was like

am i fired and he goes you are fired

He fired me, but it was fine, guys, because I met Molly Shannon and she gave me that advice.

And I went home and I told my mom.

And every time I had a hard day for the next 10 years, my mom would say to me, Jenna, don't you forget what Molly Shannon told you.

She said, don't give up.

She said it took you, it took her 10 years.

You guys wait for it.

10 years later, I'm at the premiere of Walk Hard, the movie Walk Hard that I did with John C.

Reilly.

Yeah, right.

I shit you not.

Guess who's at that party?

Molly Shannon.

Molly Shannon.

Your boss.

And I got to go up to her her and I got to say, Molly Shannon,

here's this story.

You told me 10 years.

And she was like, and look, it's 10 years later.

And here you are.

And I got a picture with her.

I made the photographer come over and like take a picture of us.

Is that the greatest thing ever?

Does Molly know

as she heard this story?

Or did you just.

Yes, I told her that night at the Walkhard premiere.

Wow.

Unbelievable.

But now you're going to be able to do that.

Yes, and I wrote about it.

I wrote a book and I wrote that story in the book and I have a picture in the book, too.

Well, when I met David, he was 19, I said, you hang with this, and in six months, don't give up because in six months, no, David was out of the blocks fast.

If it was a sprinter, he was like, boom.

Dana said, you're going to move to L.A.

and in six months, you'll get crabs.

And I go, okay.

Police Academy.

Hello.

He got a movie.

Well, he's had a movie early on.

That's the police guy movie that I

made.

I had $6,000 to buy the car that got stolen.

So I was back to zero.

Wow.

Yeah, great story.

You still type 85 words per minute.

That's nothing to sneeze at.

I do.

I do.

90% accuracy.

It's all in the accuracy.

Anyone can type garbage.

You're 90%, right?

Yeah.

I mean, right?

You want to type words.

Anyone can just type

in high school

teaching,

a typing teacher, my father, for decades.

Can you type?

Can you guys type with all your fingers, or are you like two-finger typers?

I can't do anything.

If you see a non-taught young person, like in their 20s,

they're really fast.

And I don't know if it's technically using all their fingers.

We picked it up later.

But I'm fast.

But I don't.

Jenna, I have a good question that ties into Sidney Live.

When you did Blades of Glory, you wound up getting to have sex with Will Farrell, right?

Yes, that's right.

I had a sex scene with Will.

That's one of the best all-time goats of SNL.

Yeah.

That was nuts.

But also, by the way, Amy Pohler was in that movie.

Oh, that's right.

So just playing my sister.

Wowie.

And Will Arnett was in that movie.

Yeah, I mean,

that was,

that was terrifying.

That was terrifying.

And Will was so polite when we shot that scene because he had to like grab my boobs like several times.

But what was crazy about it was I probably had on more clothes in that scene where I look like I'm just in like a 90 than I normally wear.

Like they, because they put you in like spanks and then a corset and then a thing and they painted my body with makeup.

I mean, I felt like so covered.

It was crazy.

He has a go and grab your boobs, through your stuff, but it's like that kind of thing.

You can't even feel it because you've got 18 layers of.

Yeah, it's like I was wearing body armor.

So I was kind of like, maybe like wink when you grab them because I can feel nothing.

Just judge me.

Pre-dates intimacy coordinators.

There was no one there.

There was no.

There was just, okay.

It was just like

a director going, let's do this.

Yes, exactly.

Was Swartzen in that?

Do you know Nick Schwartz, that little fool?

Yes.

Yes, he was.

Oh, my God.

We are friends with Nick, and, you know, it's a real roller coaster, Jenna.

I'll tell you that.

It is.

I found him lovely on the film, but what do I know?

No, he's great.

He's so funny.

Hall pass.

We haven't even gotten to the goddang office.

Look at the question

about the

office.

What is it?

The question is, is for you and your partner uh re-watching all these episodes and talking about them yeah what how is your perception if it at all changed about the show or what did you learn about the show or in or if anything because it is now officially a phenomenon in the way it travels around and then explodes again it's evergreen and it's a it's a unique show and um

Yesterday I was watching

the office with Ricky Gervais.

Very different.

I mean, you know, you say it came from that office, but

it has its own complete original thing.

Greg Daniels, one of the great writers.

So what did you guys, what do you feel about that thing after doing hundreds of podcasts?

Did you go through every episode at some point?

Yeah, every single episode, all 201 episodes.

And then a lot of interviews with cast and crew.

Writers.

Writers, exactly.

My biggest takeaway from having re-watched it was that it's really good the whole time

because I think there was this lore, especially among the cast and the creatives, that maybe we like hit our peak in season three or season four.

And also this belief that like the two seasons after Steve left, we were just treading water and maybe they weren't as good.

But when I watched everything, like some of my favorite episodes were in seasons eight and nine after Steve had left.

Like there were still these amazing storylines.

And also, I have to say now, when I look back, my, some of my favorite episodes were also in seasons four through six.

Like Dinner Party was season four.

Michael Scott Paper Company, that whole arc was in season five.

And that, like, just great TV.

And, um,

but yeah, I think, you know, some of the award nominations stopped after season three.

So I think maybe we got in our heads and thought, oh, I guess we're not creating as great.

I think that just happens no matter what.

Yeah, you're not the new shiny object anymore.

Exactly.

And that's kind of slow down.

I mean, when you're watching yourself and you're watching a thing and then you come on and stuff and it's something you did years ago, do you ever sometimes, because you sound like you're a normal actor comedian that's sort of like a little self-critical.

How was I?

Do you ever kind of look at yourself in a scene and go, damn, I nailed that?

Why did I feel insecure?

Or what's that like?

I mean, I have both reactions.

Sometimes I watch it and I'm like, I'll never do work that good again.

Shit, that was great.

But then there's other scenes where I just cringe, where I'm like, oh, God,

I remember how I struggled with that and I couldn't do it.

And now here it is for everyone to see.

And I guess I just have to move on.

So I've had both reactions.

And I don't know the complete specifics of this, but you, it, first of all, it was always an ensemble.

How great Corel is in that part is, is, you know, everybody knows that, but it always was an ensemble, and so many people came out of it and now have these long careers.

But

it's,

um, I forgot my train of thought.

Sorry.

I was

just Corel in my head.

Jenna, when you can watch it and say, I was in the pocket because sometimes you watch it and you go, you're just in, in the pocket of going, this is a great scene this whole idea of this episode is working and when they whip the camera back get a great look whip back to you perfect timing get a great look and when you see it you go because you know you can only feel the camera when you're shooting and you don't really know and then you go god they nailed that boom boom edited well everything about this is just that's why people really get

uh enchanted by i mean and also just your face is so part of the office and it's so cute and they always cut to you and you all and you have these little storylines it's It's really, I see why people get hooked on it.

No matter when you turn it on, you can just grab any episode.

I remember what I forgot, which is, was how much, if any, improvisation was there?

Because it comes off very improvisational in totem.

But I know there wasn't completely improvised.

I know, that's a pretty cool word, right?

So, were you allowed to kind of go, you guys, could I try this?

You know, do you mind if I do, you know, that kind of stuff?

Yeah, it was really collaborative.

And,

you know, so many of the writers were also actors on the show.

So they were with us and they would be sometimes pitching alternate jokes right there on the set.

That was kind of fun.

So that was neat.

And we did a lot of improvising, but I don't know how much of it actually made the cut.

We got to play and have fun, but I would say like 90% of what you see on the screen was written on the page down to like

they would write in ellipses for our speech, like so you knew to kind of pause

because they knew they were gonna whip the camera during that pause and so they could get back to you.

So there was a very elaborate choreography of whipping the camera a little too late so that it seemed you'd have to get handles.

Yeah, so it seemed like they didn't quite do it right.

Yeah.

Yes, exactly.

And so a lot of times when we would do a rehearsal, they would say, Jenna, will you give a handle before your next line to so we have have time for that camera whip?

So that would be, we would add things like, um,

well, they'd find you so that they could find you

like in the right timing.

But um, so great.

It also seems very real.

A lot of the nonverbal acting and those cutaways to a character that isn't saying a line, but just sort of nonverbally doing some kind of attitude and stuff.

It.

It was immediately just felt so new.

I'm not going to say fresh.

David would use that word a lot, but immediately, I think for comedians as well, watching it going, this looks cool.

This looks fun.

This looks different and really funny.

It doesn't push at all.

You know, it's the end.

We had two camera operators with cameras on their shoulders, and both of these guys were from Survivor.

So these guys had like walked through

the

whatever, the wilderness with the survivor people capturing survivor.

So this is where they came from in the documentary world.

And camera A, Randall Einhorn, who was also our cinematographer, who went on to be a director and is now, you know, the executive producer of Abbott Elementary and all those things.

Randall was our A camera and his job was to get all of the dialogue.

And then Matt Sohn,

he was our B camera.

And then his job was to get all of those things you're talking about, Dana, all of the acting that was happening in the background.

So whenever a scene was happening, we were all in the background of each other's scenes all day long on set, the full 12 hours, Steve Carell included.

I can't tell you how many times Steve Carell had to sit in Michael Scott's office just to be in the background of Jim and Pam looking at each other.

A piece of them.

Yeah, because

we're going to see a piece of you is like something we can

put on a mug.

That'd be actually be a great cast gift.

Yeah.

And so he would grab and push in on all of the, you know, anyone who was in the background of a scene and get their reactions in real time.

It was such a cool way to work.

Yeah.

And you have to stay alive, though.

You do.

Every scene.

But it keeps your energy up.

Yeah.

You know, because that's the hardest thing for me about acting in movies is like the long amounts of downtime between when you're actually acting.

It's just like, oh, God, I got to ramp up again.

Yeah.

And it's just, you know, I don't know if this is the correct way to say it, but if you feel like if you're discovering something new in the moment, it's really nice.

It does keep your brain alive.

And in traditional movies, what I was doing, you know, you do the three masters at 7 or 8 a.m.

or whatever.

And then by five or six o'clock, you start and, oh, don't you, in the master eight hours ago, your left elbow was up and you opened the car door at this point.

It's the antithesis of what you guys had, at least the way it felt.

It popped.

It felt real.

For sure.

And we did not have marks, you know, those

for people out there, like you put tape on the ground and then you have to stand on it because that's how you're going to be in focus.

But we had no marks.

And if the boom dipped in shot, we just kept it in because, you know, it worked in the world.

And

when I finished, when I, you know, going back to Blades of Glory, Blades of Glory was the first big movie I did after being cast on the office.

And I repeatedly kept

looking down the barrel of the camera.

Like I would do a scene with Will and Amy, and then I would like give a look to camera.

I'd be like, I can't do that.

And also, I suddenly had to hit a mark and I was, I was so stiff, it was really stressful because I'd been in this other world.

You can watch when people on movies, sometimes if you ever watch someone looks down and they walk in, look for their mark, and then they look up.

I love it.

So horrifying.

I want to say also,

I was going to say the show is fresh, but it's funny that the term fresh is stale.

But also,

I'm going to bring it back.

This was fresh and the new one called The Paper

on Peacock.

Have you seen that?

Do you know much about it?

Okay, I haven't seen it, but I got to go to the set.

Angela and I got special access to the set and got to talk to all the actors.

We got to see it.

It's really cool, but we're not allowed to say anything.

Oh, yeah, I think it's in the can.

Like they finished it.

It comes out in September.

Oh, interesting.

So September on where?

Peacock.

I don't know.

Peacock, right?

Peacock.

Fall is in full swing.

I am in Chicago, and I just had a costume fitting for my play, Ashland Avenue.

The costume designer gave me a pair of the most amazing corduroy pants.

I'm going to wear them in the play.

Guess where they are from?

Quince.

I couldn't believe it.

I told her, I love Quince.

She said, I love Quince.

And right now, Quince has all of the elevated essentials for fall.

You have to check out these corduroy pants.

They also have 100% Mongolian cashmere.

Starting at 50 bucks, you can give your wardrobe an upgrade that feels smart, stylish, and effortless.

Keep it classy and cozy this fall with long-lasting staples from Quince.

Go to quince.com/slash office ladies for free shipping on your order order and 365 day returns.

That's q-u-in-ce.com slash office ladies to get free shipping and 365-day returns.

Quince.com slash office ladies.

So one of the hardest parts about business-to-business marketing is reaching the right audience.

And when you want to reach the right professionals, you need to use LinkedIn ads.

LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals, and that's where it stands apart from other ad buys.

You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company, role, seniority, skills, company revenue, all in one place to reach the professionals you want to reach.

So you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads.

You know how sometimes you get an ad and you're like, was this for me?

Who is sending this to me?

Well, with LinkedIn ads, that's never going to happen linkedin will even give you an extra 250 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself just go to linkedin.com slash office that's linkedin.com slash office terms and conditions apply only on linkedin ads we want to talk to you guys a little bit about new ego protein waffles it's really good tastes great Plus, it's going to give you 20% of your daily protein.

Yes, Ego Protein Plus waffles provide the same great great taste of Ego that you know and love, plus 10 grams of protein per serving.

I made the new Eggo protein waffles for my kids the other day.

They didn't even know that they were protein waffles.

They're just the eggo waffles that you know and love.

I know they have protein.

They're just yummy waffles.

Yes.

I mean, listen, I know we're talking about breakfast, but I have shared this before.

I like them as an afternoon treat.

And when your teenagers come home hungry, guess what's real easy to give them?

A little protein waffle.

They say you can fuel your morning, but you can also fuel your afternoon.

Sure can.

Head to your local grocery store to fuel your morning with Ego protein waffles and pancakes available at retailers nationwide.

So with John Krasinski, like the Jim and Pam narrative became such a big thing.

I talked to some

people in their early 20s today, told them I was going to interview you and on the office.

They go, I go, she was Pam.

Oh, Pam, you know, this is like a famous character and Jim and Pam.

I'm just kind of curious because John Krasinski,

I find it really, really interesting how he came up with that horror film, the quiet, what was it?

The quiet

quiet place.

And it's interesting when actors just all of a sudden you see them and like, wow, this guy can really direct.

And did you see any seeds of that in him intellectually or just the way he was around?

Was that a surprise to you when he came out directing?

It was a surprise to none of us.

I didn't think so.

John, I would always say to John, I think you're going to be like our Tom Hanks.

Like, remember how Tom Hanks did Bosom Buddies and he was like.

a very famous, successful TV show.

But like when you think of Tom Hanks, you don't think of bosom buddies.

You think of everything else Tom Hanks has done.

And I was like, I think the office is going to be your bosom buddies, like your going places.

It's very clear.

And did he look down at his ground and go, oh, shucks, Gina?

Or how did he?

He did.

He did.

He's very, yes, he's very humble in that way.

You know, like, that would be, if I say that to him, that's very embarrassing to him.

You know, like, he doesn't want to be like fussed over like that.

But I was like, no, it's true, mister.

Well, it's a Herculean task to direct a movie.

I mean, just physically and mentally.

But Dana fusses over me all the time.

Fusses?

Yeah.

You fuss over me.

I want to hear more about you being a telephone psychic when you got.

Yeah.

She worked as a car wash.

I did work at a car for three summers, and that was my best

job.

I worked at Long John Silver's.

That was my first job.

I worked at an ice creamery serving ice cream.

And then I got the job at the car wash.

All of those were on this road called Manchester Road on

St.

Louis, out in the suburbs.

And I got fired from Long John Silver's.

I got fired from the ice creamery.

And my dad would say, oh, you're just looking to get fired from every business on Manchester Road, I guess.

But the car wash stuck.

And that was great.

There was great money.

I was outside just drying off the cars.

You know, how big are simple in that world?

Because I try to tip well, but okay, this is

like back then.

Well, and by the way, they would always make me give the gentlemen back their cars.

Oh, you have to like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to stand at the car and wave, yeah, oh, yeah, you know, in your little shorts and your little cutoff shirt, and like your car's ready.

Um,

and I would,

I would, I'm not, you know, not to brag, but I would get a five sometimes.

I get five plus

fiver,

but then you had to put it in like the great bucket.

Oh, no,

Cooling tips.

Cooling tips.

Yeah.

You're in your.

I mean, a few of them made it into my pocket.

I'm not going to lie.

Now,

what percentage of you is really a psychic?

Do you think some of you?

I would say zero percent.

But do you believe in

the potentiality of psychics at all?

Or do you think it's all just?

They creep me out.

Like, I don't want a psychic to tell me what's going to happen to me.

I like to believe I have free will.

You know, I don't want to have

that.

that that just will give me nightmares

i saw one psychic one time and it still haunts me yeah it will change what you'll do the second they tell you something you'll make a different decision that's what i feel like yeah you will do this and this they go okay they'll say oh random example you'll get married within the next 10 years so you meet someone and maybe you give them a different chance than you would before you're like i think this is the guy i'm going to marry you know that's exactly right it's weird you change every little thing changed a little bit so you can't really get the same outcome, it feels.

I went to a psychic in college, and my big question for her was, am I going to marry this guy I have a crush on?

I was obsessed with him.

Am I going to marry him?

I can marry him.

She said, no, you're not.

You're not going to marry him.

She said, but you're going to be famous one day.

I said, I am.

I want to be an actress.

I'm going to be famous.

She said, you're not going to be famous for acting.

You're going to be famous in the world of religion.

Yeah.

She said, I was going to be a famous religious leader.

Well, she had it with acting.

She says, Here's a review.

Here's a review that I brought.

Office Ladies is a religious experience.

This was from the St.

Louis Dispatcher.

No, I've made that.

Dispatch.

Dispatcher.

If you want to have fun.

You have a play, by the way.

You've done plays.

It looks like from your prep here, you've done plays, but you have another one coming up Ashland Avenue?

Ashland Avenue, World Premiere at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.

Yeah, I'm heading out there in August for rehearsals, and then the play opens in September.

Tickets go on sale in June on 27th.

Now, doing a play, Dane and I were just talking about this before you came on.

Doing a play,

is it more exciting or is it just something?

I couldn't even imagine getting you wrapping my head around the full script that you have to memorize.

Does that take days, weeks, or are you good at that?

It takes weeks.

I think I'm okay at it.

Plays are my favorite thing.

I was a theater major.

There's no money in doing theater,

but it's where my heart is.

And what I love is that you get to tell the whole story and go on the character's complete journey every night.

You don't have to prepare it and then you shoot it out of order.

And I also just love that it like it lives and breathes with the audience.

And each play can only be seen one time.

Like each performance is slightly different

and yeah and you have it it and then just like only the people who were there got to see it it just is like really magical to me and i love it it's all i want to do moving forward i want to just be a theater actor it's interesting um i've gotten more into plays the last 10 years just in London.

I'm not an intellectual in New York and stuff.

And it's interesting the curtain call.

And then they stand and there's a standing ovation.

And then you can tell by their body language how they felt, especially when they're walking off.

Like sometimes they're slumping, and sometimes you see someone literally twirl around almost like we or high-five females.

You know that you saw one that had that chemistry.

Like you said, they're not always at that level.

That's why you have-right.

They're like fingerprints.

Dana, I think you'll agree.

Stand-up is,

you know, I go on the road going mostly to places Jenna lived.

But when I go on the road,

you do a show and everyone goes, oh, I saw your show, I saw your show.

But you remember that that city and you go, oh, that one went pretty well.

Even though it's just microscopically different.

Yeah.

But you know, sometimes you get off and you go, I could not get it going perfectly.

And some nights you're like, from the second I went out, it was perfect.

I said everything right.

I had the right attitude.

And so plays are like that, where whoever comes is going to see that night's experience and it will be a hairdresser.

The audience is the partner in many ways.

Is it comedy?

A drama

or is it a pure drama?

It is a comedy, but it will also break your heart into a million pieces.

So, what it's about is

it's about a guy who owns an old like TV shop in Chicago on Ashland Avenue.

And he's a guy who used to have a dozen TV shops in Chicago, but you know, mom and pop shops have gone away for the big box, you know, places.

And so,

and so he's being honored by the city of Chicago for being a small business owner.

I play his daughter.

And basically, it's a play about this man dealing with being in his 70s.

And basically, life is kind of telling him,

we don't really need what you have to offer anymore.

He's like dealing with his own relevancy.

Like the thing that he's good at is owning this TV shop and selling people TVs.

But it's like, man.

you know what?

We don't need that anymore.

And so what do you do with that when the world is kind of of done with your skill and uh so it's kind of heartbreaking but it it's also a comedy and then as his daughter who has grown up just being in this tv shop as well and it looks like it's going away like i have to decide well i'm kind of getting a chance here to do something else with my life and strike out on my own and what does that mean to me Do you, do you feel like they, uh, the audience is, obviously they're familiar who you are from the office And then they want to come see you.

And so how different is this character compared to Pam?

This character is, is different from Pam for sure.

And that's something like, you know,

that's my whole career since Pam is that most people just want to see more Pam.

It doesn't totally bother me.

But

I think I'm going to be, I think, I think you'll be able to go on this journey even, you know, I think it'll be okay.

I would say, you know, because I, I, an audience, I'm doing stand-up, they, they do want to see characters that I did on SNL.

And I just totally,

of course, I'll do them.

They're my hits.

The only thing worse than not, than having hits or a hit show is not having a hit show.

So

there it is.

That's right.

Yeah.

So it's a good problem to have.

And I think that from reading your prep, guest prep, you know, you've just done a lot of stuff since the office.

So it certainly was a starting point for you.

Do you still just love it?

Do you just love performing like you used to?

I do.

I do.

I do.

You know, I think I'm a mom now.

I have two kids.

And one of the things that was really hard, though, was

just the amount of focus and frankly, like self-involvement that is necessary to be an actor or a performance artist.

Shut up,

you know, but it's true.

true like like you you you don't want to go all the way into narcissism because that's a real bummer but there is a there is a type of selfishness and self-involvement that is necessary for being an artist because that's how you create that's how you get in the space to create and um but that is that lane is not compatible with the kind of parent I want to be um I want to be a you know, a kid-focused, kid-centered type of parent.

And so I have changed the things I've said yes to or the things I do acting-wise since I had kids, mostly so that they were, that they were kind of like more softballs, you know, like things I could do without getting too dark or self-involved or selfish.

Things that I could completely leave at work.

I wasn't bringing anything home with me that was going to like bleed into their lives.

Oldest time, old as show business, all those kind of conflicts.

And one thing that occurred to me recently, why it's sort of emotional or personal, like I have a lot of good friends who may be real estate agents or different type of jobs, but we are our product, our physicality, our voice, who we are.

And so it's a personal thing.

You're out there doing the play.

And if you're, if it's not going well, you didn't feel you had enough time to prep, it's just personal.

So I think it is really common and difficult to balance the emotion with the family versus just how personal it is as a performer and artist.

It's like.

And when kids come along you're just now suddenly it's their world and you're

you can't even help it it just goes away you're like now i'm lasered on this and i can't be like i was you know

that's exactly right it that's like in part of your life where it changes there are some people in showbiz i think beyonce has her daughter touring with her who's like 12.

there are some people who just take do that kind of lifestyle, but who's richer than me.

That's different than giving

your kids kind of a stable, old-fashioned lifestyle.

Well, I remember I talked to a family therapist like early on because I like therapy.

And I was talking about wanting to have kids and trying to figure out how am I going to balance that with, you know, being an actor.

And she said something that really stuck with me.

She said, well, there's kind of two types of families.

You can have parent-centered homes or child-centered homes.

And she's like, and there's no,

there's no judgment which one you want to pick.

But in a parent-centered home, if you have a career, your children will orbit around you and your career.

And if you go to a movie, you bring them with you and you have tutors and they sort of like just go into your life.

She's like, but in a child-centered home, you know.

you center it around the children.

And if you need to go do a project, she was like, imagine like your family is flowing like a river.

And rather than diverting the whole river to the movie, you just, you take a little stream by yourself, you do the movie, and then you rejoin the river later.

But the goal is to keep the river doing its thing.

And I really liked that.

And I thought, yeah, I want to do that one.

Could you, I don't know if you want to do it publicly, but could I get the number of that therapist?

Or

sure, she's great.

She's solid bullet points.

That was a pretty good little help.

What do you call that?

An analogy, a metaphor?

I know.

It's one of those things.

It was great.

It was great.

She also said, like, you know, something that's hard, though, is she said, when you she said when you pick the person you want to have kids with she's like you're gonna want a person who agrees with you um because there's nothing worse than one parent who wants a parent-centered home and another parent who wants a child parents you know a child-centered home and then she also said um people who have grown up in parent-centered homes have a very hard time

creating kid-centered homes because they're like, hey, wait a second.

I'm the adult now.

It's my turn.

Yeah.

So it's

right.

Like you grew up like revolving around your parent.

You, and then if you revolve around your kid, you're like, when was my shot?

Yeah.

I thought that was, it was just so much to chew on, right?

Yeah.

Well, the 60s was so different, you know.

I guess it was a parent-centric, it was, you just were so much more independent.

Like I was walking to school at age five, you know, and there were no helmets, you know, for sure.

And so it's become very child-centric, you know.

It used to be children should be seen but not heard.

And now it's adults should keep their mouths shut when we're watching.

And Dana, you wear a helmet now, though, when you go to the mailbox.

But that's his own choice.

That's my own choice.

It's a fashion choice.

Jenna,

two more things before we let you go.

One, I thought when you do a play, I think of this when I i do stand up on the road when you do a play i think what would scare me is you have to feel good every day like you have to go there and prep yourself it sounds stupid but to stand to sit to go through to be fully alert for those two hours whatever that's kind of a hard thing does it ever even cross your mind or you're always just kind of popped to it

No, I mean, I have a bunch of like rituals and superstitions that I do.

Oh, yeah, you do.

Yeah, do you guys?

I have like, I have like a vocal warm-up.

I have like a body warm-up.

I have a meal that I like to eat because I know that it's not going to make me feel too full or too hungry.

Or sick or anything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Stomachache.

No, I'm definitely not experimenting with any kind of new food.

Yep.

Yep.

Do you have that?

Yeah.

I mean, Dana and I were just talking last week, like before we went on stage.

I get an eyelash in my eye once in a while.

It happened last week again, Dana.

And anything can happen right before you walk out and you're like, I can't pee, I can't eat.

I can't do anything.

I have to feel good for the next hour straight.

There can be no distractions.

And it's very weird because your life, you can always poke at your phone.

You can look at this.

You can go restroom and you go this and it plays even longer.

And just to feel like you got a grumbly stomach or your back hurts or something, you're like, oh shit, can I do this?

Do I call in somebody?

You know, so weird.

I had a shooting pain in my left

leg, kind of inside my left leg.

Like, and so all of a sudden my left leg was inoperable.

I was playing in front of 2 000 people and i was in a and i'm like okay can't gotta go with this you know incorporated into the act you know and then it worked itself out what i was interested in also besides we all do that i think it's great you have the certain show day prep but the gentleman who is playing your father what is his name fran guinan so larry david was just talking about when he does uh usually whatever he's doing i don't know if he does stand-up or whatever it's just the fatigue goes away once you there's the audience you know?

And then I think in a play, you're holding on to him, he's holding on to you.

And that connection can hopefully make the part of your brain going, how am I doing?

How's it going?

All that go away at times, right?

That's the electricity of it.

If you get so involved in the scene with your partner that it feels exhilarating, right?

When you know you're connecting and the audience is with you.

That's what you live for, right?

Yeah, I mean, that's the dope of

the whole thing of live performance.

I mean, that's the thing we're chasing.

That's the high you're chasing it, right?

Every time.

And even if your prep doesn't go as well as you want or you ate too much, you still always have that possibility of that happening.

Yes.

Yes.

And also, if they get something wrong, the audience doesn't know this.

They could miss a line.

You cover form.

There's little things that are like teamwork things that are fun to do that you get to the end and someone's like, hey, you saved me.

I spaced out.

And the audience doesn't doesn't really know what's going on, but you guys, you forgot a prop.

There's little things that keep it alive, but that's kind of the fun teamwork of it all, like in a show also.

That happened to me during a show.

I did a show off Broadway and me and this other actress were on stage and we're only on stage for like four lines because we don't like each other.

And we're waiting for the same guy.

We like the same guy and we're waiting for him to walk in and break the tension.

And he didn't come on stage.

He didn't come.

He just missed his entrance.

And we're, and so I started improvising, which then the playwright was like, oh my God, I can't believe people thought I wrote those lines.

That was just like terrible.

Improvisation.

I'm like, what were we supposed to do?

We're just sitting there.

No one was coming on.

It's an art piece if you sit in silence for 12 minutes waiting while they find the guy at the deli next to them.

I like it when someone has to silence their phone or is talking to the phone.

And then the actor on the Broadway show breaks character.

He's in some kind of clown suit or dressed as a bear.

I will kill you, motherfucker.

You know, I don't, you know, just that clown suit.

It's live.

Yeah.

Now, Jana,

my last thing for you is I like that when you auditioned for

the office,

Allison Jones, who's a casting director, we probably all three have run into along the way.

The best.

Said, dare to bore me.

I think that's interesting.

I read that.

I like that because

most people are trying to give you the biggest pizzazz of a lifetime in an audition.

Well, I had been auditioning for Allison for about five years before the office.

I got my first speaking role on a television show.

It was Spin City,

The Charlie Sheen years.

And I had three lines as a waitress.

And then I would, she would bring me in for other little things.

And finally, when it was time for her to cast the office, I had a good enough relationship with her that I could say, hey, Allison, do you have any advice?

I really want this one.

And she said, yeah, my advice is don't come in looking hot.

Like, don't come in all done up.

And by the way, usually the note was, okay, you're playing a pediatric nurse, but like hot.

Or like you're playing a school teacher, but like really hot.

So like usually the note was look look hot.

Mortician, but hot.

But super hot.

Like she's really, really hot.

And I'm like, okay.

So she was like, don't come in like looking hot.

Don't come in with a bunch of makeup.

Overdone, yeah.

We want real people.

And then she said, we're going to have you improvise during the audition.

And my advice is dare to bore me.

And I was like, okay, great.

So I went in and I read the scene.

And then Greg Daniels said, okay, we're going to improvise.

I'm going to just ask you some questions as if I'm a documentary filmmaker.

And I had that note in my head.

And he said,

do you like being a receptionist here?

And I just paused and I said nothing.

And then I said,

no.

And that's all I said.

That's funny.

Because I thought it would be funnier to watch me think of all the things I wasn't going to say than to say any of them.

And then also, though, she's like a deeply honest person.

So she can't lie and say she does like it, but she's also not going to say any more.

Wow.

And I think that's what got me the job.

Greg told me that's what got me the job.

That is so cool.

Dare to bore me.

That was dare to bore me.

It was so scary.

It's so scary.

Because you want to just go for the fence.

I know.

It is so hard to just have restraint.

That's like for me, the hardest thing about acting is just holding the officials.

You really are working with people that are all doing it, and it's so fucking funny.

It's amazing.

It's just an amazing, amazing thing to have been a part of.

It just, I still can't believe it.

And just what it means to people too.

Like, that's so cool.

I know that the office has gotten people through hard times in their lives.

And,

you know, once in

long ago,

I fell down a set of stairs in New York at Boudicon.

It was during like an NBC event.

I was there with Fred Armison, actually.

And

I fell down this set of stairs and I broke my back in four places.

Oh, geez.

And

while I was recovering, I

watched the Larry Sanders show.

And it was like.

better than any pain medicine.

So like the fact that I can, like, I can be part of something that is that for other people.

Like, I know what it means to have a thing that like gets you through something.

It's really cool.

Wow, that's full circle because I believe that Ricky Gervais felt like he was influenced by the Larry Sanders show.

And then he does the British office, and then you go to the American office, and then you break your back, and then you're watching Larry Sanders.

I don't know where this keeps going, but there's something kind of cool about that.

That was a show.

We were both on it.

Were you on it, David?

We were on Larry.

Also, we all worked with Greg Daniels,

who is a shout out to him, who's a great writer.

That obviously SNL.

I remember when Greg Daniels and Conan O'Brien walked into the offices.

And SNL, fresh out of Harvard, looked like they were sophomores in high school, little haircuts, kind of nervous, looking around.

Yeah, great.

And they were roommates.

Yeah.

I know.

It's amazing, really.

And

those SNL years you liked, it's like we were propped up by guys like that and Bob Odenkirk and Smeigel and Downey and Frank.

Yeah, there's so many good writers there.

It's kind of nice when, and I'm sure you just do this, you're not trying to get kudos about it, but if someone says to you later, because not everyone is really friendly when you walk into an environment like that, and they'd say, Oh, you were so nice to us.

I go, Really?

I was.

I think I was just like, How are you guys doing?

or something.

But some people are like, More competition.

We don't need you.

You know, it's a little, it can be a little cold at SNL.

No one's really telling you where you should stand or what you should even do.

That's what we learned.

A lot of people are like, they didn't even know, no one told them anything, you know, about the show.

And they just had to figure it out for themselves.

But anyway, well, it's an interesting environment.

I got to

be on the show as part of Steve Currell's monologue once.

And

I was, I mean, again, like I told you, I'm a Saturday Night Live groupie nerd.

And so this was, I don't even remember what I had going on.

I got like 24 hours notice.

Do you want to come fly in?

And I was like, yes.

I came in on a red eye.

I was like, anything.

And to be in the bowels, to like get to be there for the rehearsal.

And then how like, oh my God, it really does change from the rehearsal.

That was nuts.

And just, it was so scary.

And my line changed.

And then the cue card changed.

And then, how we went, all went into Lauren's office, and you're like sitting on the floor, like waiting to hear what things made it and what didn't.

And I couldn't believe I was invited.

I was like, I'm just the, I just have like one sentence in the opening monologue, but I was like privy to all of the inner workings.

It was so awesome.

It is.

And then that night at the after party,

I

held Lauren Michael's focus for 30 solid minutes.

Whoa.

And I still to this day, it is one of my

best

small talk moments ever

because I'd met him many times.

I had come and I saw when Christina Applegate hosted and when John Hamm hosted, I came as our guest and I would sit and I would run into him and shake his hand and all this sort of stuff.

And

but for whatever reason, at this particular after-party, I

got in a whole chat with him about how I like to prep for the apocalypse.

And he was very interested in this topic.

And we spoke for like a solid 25 minutes.

And I wanted to keep talking to him.

I wanted to keep going, but I knew that I had to say goodbye.

And I did it.

I left at the right time.

And I'm so proud of myself.

That's it.

And now I never want to speak to him again.

I will never speak to him again.

I will not ruin it.

Six years there, I didn't get 30 total.

It was pretty.

I'm telling you, I'll never, I never, ever want to run into him again.

That was a good subject matter for him.

Something that he would be like, just doesn't talk about every day.

You first have to make sure that you procure a fair amount of gems in the event of an apocalypse.

I put Triskush.

I mean, did he respond at all?

I mean, you really talked about your preparation for the apocalypse for 30 minutes straight.

For a good amount of time.

But then we also talked about the movie The Edge, which is my favorite movie.

And, you know, it's a survivalist movie.

I love movies where people have to survive things.

I've seen it at least five times.

And that's a movie.

And we told Alec Baldwin that, that friends come over, relatives, oh, let's watch a movie.

And once in a while, I go, have you seen The Edge?

They go, no.

I go, it's just kind of a surefire, great.

entertaining film.

No one cannot lie.

Dano, what one man can do, another can do.

That's from the movie.

What one man can do, another can do.

I'm telling you, that's gotten me through like big life moments.

I love this movie.

And so we talked about the edge, which ended up leading into survivalist stuff,

into prepping.

And

he was really interested in my currency plans.

Like, what were my plans for currency during the apocalypse?

Did I have gold bars?

Like, and you know what?

To be honest, I hadn't thought of it.

I hadn't gotten as far as currency.

It's funny.

When I was there in the fall doing Biden, just behind his desks, desks, I saw this whole duffel bag.

You know, it's really big, you know.

And then when he lets go to the bathroom, it was just all the survival stuff in there.

He goes by and he pushes a wall and it spins around and disappears down the slot.

I want to be ready.

He was influenced by

my prep.

That Tony Hopkins had that line, right?

What one man can do, another man can do.

Is that Tony Hopkins?

Yes, correct.

And Al

Baldwin.

That was Al Baldwin.

Baldwin was great in that.

So was Tony.

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

People change names.

Jen Jen was great on our Jen Fisher.

Does anyone call you Jen?

No, no one's ever called me Jen.

Well, get ready for it because we have a lot of followers.

By the way, people may not know, but we're on the same network.

It's almost like television now.

So that's kind of cool.

We're this is jury duty for Jen.

And I just for people who are watching this or might want to see it.

So you are you in a studio somewhere?

Yeah, I'm at

your New York

studios.

Yeah, I'm here in New York this week.

And so I came into the New York studio.

And are you and Angela usually in different places when you do the podcast and sometimes together or always?

No, we're usually together.

Odyssey, our company that we both work for, has a studio in Hollywood and we usually record there in person together.

And you guys are all set up at home.

Like you guys have cool setups, but we sometimes go in person.

We've been going in personally.

I kind of feel like I like in person

or something.

It changes a lot.

When I was doing SNO, I was just in a hotel room doing it.

That's one of the advantages of this is that you can do it remotely.

But David has a little studio.

I just have this stupid mansion.

Yeah.

But Jenna, thank you for joining us.

Tell Angela hello, and we appreciate your time.

Oh, guys.

I don't want it to end.

I love you.

I love you both.

I love your podcast.

Thank you.

This is so cool.

This was a highlight for me.

Oh, well, everybody.

Well, that's really nice.

I just enjoyed talking to you.

I just find I'm always sweet and fun and just like you would think.

Podcasters, actresses, and all kinds of things you do.

But if you do this, well, I think you do get a little more

adept at doing it, you know.

conversing and letting it go where it needs to go and asking questions.

So usually we have a podcaster on, it's it's an easy show, you know.

Yeah, right.

Because you know what you're hoping to get when you're doing it yourself.

Yeah, and it doesn't have to be electric every moment.

You don't have to push it.

It just, it just is what it is, you know.

So, if we seem rusty, it's because we've only done 2,000 of these.

Okay.

Ashlyn Avenue.

Ashlyn Avenue is the play, and she's doing it in Chicago.

In Chicago.

Tickets on sale June 27th.

And it starts, what, in August, you said?

I think September 15th.

Okay.

Yeah.

September 15th.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Bye, sweetheart.

Very good.

Don't hang up.

This has been a presentation of Odyssey.

Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all the stuff.

Smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcast.

Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss-Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro.

The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubico.

Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis.

Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Schultz.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

As a young adult, finding the right path to your future can feel overwhelming.

It starts with Year Up United's tuition-free job training program Career Pathways.

If you're without a bachelor's degree but have a high school diploma or GED, you can get skills first training to succeed in the industries you're passionate about, all while earning a weekly educational stipend to offset basic expenses.

From there, you'll have access to internships and hands-on experiences with Fortune 500 companies.

And with Europe United's job placement services and personalized coaching and mentorship, you can put your knowledge, skills, and most importantly, confidence into practice.

Apply to Europe United today and take the first step toward achieving the career you want.

Visit Europe.org to learn more.

That's the sound of the fully electric Audi Q6 e-tron and the quiet confidence of ultra-smooth handling.

The elevated interior reminds you this is more than an EV.

This is electric performance redefined.