TCB Infomercial: Hannah Pilkes

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Well, in a recent cosmopolitan article, 20-something women have confirmed that being a nun actually is freaking awesome.

One nun said she was attracted to the nunnery because she was fed up with flatmates.

Another said she sees her life as balanced for the first time, saying she regularly gets to read, play guitar, and sleep.

That sounds incredible.

Literally, who needs sex?

Panelists, being a nun could be the answer to all of our problems.

So tell me what other inconveniences you could solve by becoming a nun

listen i became a nun because all i want to do is talk to god and kiss a bunch of girls

hannah i became a nun because as a white woman the only way that i should be using the term sister is if i'm a nun

on this episode of the commercial break

As a kid, I had the, first of all, very supportive parents that were like, you can do whatever you want, which I don't think is always the case with artists.

But I also think knowing that it was, it had happened for people and they were right in front of me was encouraging and perhaps led to a lifetime of delusion.

But I do think

you have to be so delusional to stick around doing this.

I mean, what?

Eating, you know, making a can of garbanzo beans stretch when you don't have rent and you're 24.

But your nourishment is improv.

The next episode of the Commercial Break starts now.

Oh, yeah, cats and kittens.

Welcome back to the Commercial Break.

I'm Brian Grane.

This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show, Chris and Joy Holy.

Best to you, Chris and Best and Brian.

And best to you out there in the podcast universe.

And thanks for joining us on the TCB Infomercial Tuesday as we interview Hannah Bilkis.

Hannah is on one of the hot

trends on sitcom right now.

There you go.

Leanna available on Netflix, all 16 episodes currently today.

And we'll also talk to her about her upcoming variety show at the Elysian in LA.

Hannah has been a notable content creator since long ago,

since eons ago when Vine was a thing.

Who did buy Vine?

Yeah.

Was it Facebook?

I think I thought that it was.

Or was it Instagram and then Instagram got bought by Facebook?

I can't remember.

Somebody squashed it.

Yeah, somebody squashed it.

Yeah.

Somebody killed it.

It was around for a couple of months after they got bought.

But can you imagine being the creators of Vaughan?

Vine, you get like a $300 million payday and then they just kill it.

It's just done.

It's gone.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know.

Would Vine.

Twitter.

Twitter bought Vine.

There you go.

So Twitter bought Vine.

She is a creator from the days of Vine.

And we've had on quite a few people

who started on Vine.

Noel Miller, Morgan.

Who's that?

The guy, the guy who does the music.

Morgan, I can't remember his name.

Anyway, he was, anyway,

Chelsea Lynn.

Chelsea Lynn was on fine.

A lot of creators.

So we'll have an opportunity to talk to her about that.

She has spent a lifetime in comedy and movies.

And I'm excited to talk to her.

Yeah, sure.

This is one

transparent as I can be.

This is one where, you know, I don't know her as well as

I know other comedians who have been on the show, and actresses and actors.

So I'm super excited just to have a friendly

chitter-chatter about what is going on.

Maybe we'll ask her whether or not she's vaccinated, and then we'll go from there.

That is a good way to weed people out.

What is it?

Yeah, are you vaccinated?

Even via the teleportation known as telepodcasting, we must know whether or not you're vaccinated.

As we are recording this, we are watching some of the playback of RFK in front of Congress.

And it's just in, I mean, like we've, I don't know, what else can I say?

There's not too many more words you can use except for insane.

That's the only way to put it.

But hopefully, so I mean, this is one place where I just hope that there's like cooler heads prevail and we get back to science.

I really do.

But anyway, that has nothing to do with Hannah.

Hannah is here.

And I'm going to put all of her links in the show notes.

You said you watched some of Leonardo.

I did watch some of it.

It's really good.

It's, you know, and it was nice and familiar kind of to see the sitcom format again.

So I think I'm four in so far with Leanne and it's light.

It's funny.

And

yeah, it's a great show.

I recommend it.

Yeah.

So Leanne Morgan is who is the writer of this show, the person that is named Leanne.

If I'm not mistaken, if I'm not mistaken, Leanne may be coming on the show.

I believe she may be coming on the show.

But she probably isn't now that I said it out loud.

It's probably wrong.

And now that she has a hit show, she has a hit.

Yeah, now that she has a hit show, unlikely she's going to come on.

I've said you're on your way up or you're on your way down.

We'll see which one it is.

But I believe there was some conversation about having Leanne on the show.

I don't know if that's been booked yet or not, but I'm very excited because Leanne's been around for a very long time.

And all of the sudden, she's like on fucking fire.

Everywhere I turn on social media, there's another real post video about Leanne.

And so, you know, Hannah is really really kind of struck gold because the producer the executive producer showrunner of this is Chuck Laurie who of course did two and a half men anger management let the list go on and fucking on and fucking on the guy's like a multi-billionaire at this point did he do

Did he do

I want to make sure I get this right.

I don't want

Chris is like Brian

don't even say it Don't even say it because then it's going to be wrong and we're going to get a bunch of people.

He did and I was going to say it and I would have been right.

Big Bang Theory.

He did.

Big Bang Theory.

Huge.

Young Sheldon,

Dharma and Greg, the Kaminsky method, Bookie, which I think was also on Netflix.

No, I think Bookie's on HBO.

Oh, is it on HBO?

Oh, yep, you're right.

It's on HBO.

Did you watch it?

I did watch it.

Did you like it?

That's good.

That's got Sebastian Manascalco in it, doesn't it?

Okay.

Who also, I think, was supposed to come on the show at one point, but we now know that'll never happen as the most important touring comic out there today, maybe with the...

yeah, maybe with the well, anyway, whatever.

Hannah is on a show with a bunch of stars, and I am sure that this is very exciting news for her, and it's very exciting news for her.

What a fun ride for her, yeah.

I can only imagine to be on a hitch show, what would that be like?

We don't know.

I don't know, we'll ever know.

I don't think so, I don't think that's happening to us.

I just saw that somebody put out the list of the hundred most important and uh

podcasts of all time.

Guess who was 101?

Yeah, we were 101.

Yeah, we were 1010101.

That's what we were.

No mention of the commercial break anyway, but

you know,

not like I was expecting anybody to pay attention to this dumb show, but all right, so let's do this.

Hannah Pilkis coming at you after the break.

Chrissy, let's take a moment.

Let's listen to our sponsors.

And then when we get back through the magic of telepodcasting right here on this TV with us, Hannah, what do you think?

Magic.

Magic.

I think we should do it.

We'll be back.

Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB.

And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue.

Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail.

Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to tcvpodcast.com and visiting the contact us page.

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Just send a text.

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now i'm gonna go check the mailbox for payment while you check out our sponsors and then we'll return to this episode of the commercial break

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And Hannah is with us now.

Hannah, where in the world does this podcast find you?

Pasadena.

Pasadena, California.

How's the weather out there?

Pasadena is beautiful, huh?

It is.

It's beautiful.

It is a soup.

out here.

It is really a bisque.

I am hot.

And I have AC, but I have windows, so it's not powerful enough right now.

It's pretty miserable in Swamp.

Wait,

you said you have an ocean view?

No, this is AC.

Oh, AC.

I thought you said I see, and I'm like, and I face the beautiful.

I'm always facing the PCH as I write my novel, but

oh, it's just, it's so hot that it's permeating through the walls.

And it's weird.

It's the west coast, so it should be a desert.

But, you know, humidity's creeping up over here.

It's, it's bad.

Yeah, but you need it.

So don't worry.

Do you, are you one of those people who

I think there's two kinds of people in the world, and especially in California?

The kind of people who go to Burning Man and the kind of people who are excited that the kind of people who go to Burning Man are at Burning Man for a week.

Okay.

I think I'm the third category who aspires to be someone that could go to Burning Man, but is so asthmatic and could never.

You can't do that, though.

That does.

Forget it.

Yeah.

oh my god

we've been talking about it all week and i've been like it just seems like such a fucking struggle to go to this place i'm like they need a new location i get the concept just move the location go somewhere else well and what would your currency be like i i've really chewed on that you know i'm like what what would be the thing i'm exchanging other than you know affirmations and yeah just why not

candies yeah handies

it's not there anymore so what are you gonna do dang it no No orgy tent?

No orgy tent.

The orgy 10 blew away.

Maybe that's a sign from somebody at the orgy 10.

Well, you know, Gen Z is pretty asexual.

So it's a very simple thing.

It's a true story.

It's a true story.

Every time I read a story about this, it really

baffles me.

You know, sex is fun and sex is a rite of passage.

And sex is something you should be getting into at some point in your life.

You know, I understand that for whatever reasons you may not, you know, maybe you wait till marriage or whatever, but you should be fooling around.

There should be some dry humping going on on the couch at least.

And these facts.

You're a big dry humping fan.

I'm a big dry humping fan.

Yes.

I've heard that.

I've heard that's that's real in all the circles.

I've heard that you're just exclusively clothes on

everyone's talking.

Dry humping and grinding.

Yeah, grinding like in a middle school dance.

Jean-to-jean friction.

That's my thing.

J to J.

J to JF.

Dry humping.

J to JF.

Yeah, I think Burning Man feels like such a struggle to me that I just don't, it doesn't interest me.

And I've been to not drop, not Burning Man, but Burning Man, you know, other parties that are very similar.

And I always feel leaving a little more bankrupt than I, but not financially, like morally,

spiritually, yeah.

When I get there, you, um, you have a little bit of a hit on your hands with Lee Ann.

Oh, so good.

I love her to death.

And it's, you know, her whole story is so extraordinary.

And as someone that was grinding it out in comedy for what felt like a really long time, she's such a prime example of someone who has been brilliant forever, but is just getting not only her flowers, just bouquet on bouquet.

It's so cool to see her everywhere.

Yeah, she's a star.

Yeah.

Yeah, she's doing well.

How did you get, how did you get

involved in the project?

I, I, it was a Zoom audition and with Ken Miller, who I love.

And then it's a pretty unorthodox way they cast it.

The next week, we just kind of hung out and talked in Chuck's office, probably to get clearance that I wasn't crazy.

Yeah, exactly.

Some way.

Yeah.

You're not Charlie Sheen.2.

And well, and then, and they found out I was, but uh, but nevertheless, we continued.

And then, and then we did,

yeah, exactly.

Text her.

But then we did a chemistry read and it all pretty, it moved very, very fast.

I will say, she looks more like my mother than my own mother for starters.

She, we, her, her pictures when she's my age, it's like pretty uncanny and i'm 5'10 and a half and this is a tall cast you have kristen who's six feet lean's 5'11.

it was the only role where my height really was of service advantage yeah because usually i'm like you know leaning for all these short boy actors yeah so i'm five six i could be five six yeah

and chuck lorry is like he's

a pretty i mean he's chuckling like he's put together some of the, he's been the showrunner, producer, and of some of the, and writer of some of the most storied television program sitcoms in history.

So to be on one of his shows, you must, when you get cast, you must feel like, oh, this, I know I at least got one season at it, if not more.

Yeah.

I mean, look, fingers, I hope we know soon.

And I hope that Netflix does the right thing.

But I will say, sitting across from him in his office, you're just so aware of, like, it's like we all, you know, not bashing us, we've got successful careers.

And then there's like a Maven who is like created a whole empire, and it's hard, like the air in the room is gone.

You're just like, hey, I'm just happy to be here.

You know, it's so powerful.

But, um, but yeah, I remember when I got the job and I'm outside of his enormous office.

You know, there's like a whole building of Chuck stuff.

And I was sobbing.

And all these, you know, there's like golf carts go by with tours.

And they're, oh, are you okay?

I'm like, no, it's

happy too.

It's happy.

But yeah, just the sheer overwhelm of being attached to something with not only Leanne, but yeah, with Chuck's name on it was surreal for sure.

With Chuck then getting mostly positive reviews, you know, I actually learned about this show because I read an interesting story.

I think it was AV Club or something, Vox, or one of those.

And they said the streamers are finally getting multi-camera sitcoms right, right?

And it named the Leanne show as one of those where they're like hitting their stride.

First of all, Chuck's behind it, so he knows, right?

But then also

it just said, now we're getting shows that look and feel like what a sitcom should look like.

And Leanne was named as one of those

in a positive light.

And so, you know,

in a lot of ways, you're bringing this format, this well-known, familiar, comfortable format to a streamer, which traditionally has not had a ton of success with these type of shows.

Or not just, I don't know, it didn't get the format right, didn't get, it wasn't comfortable, didn't feel right to the viewers, but then it's getting positive reviews.

So I think you would

probably get a second season, but who knows how Netflix does what they do.

But let's all be, let's be, but let's, you know, I'm, I'm at the point where I'm lighting an abundance candle, guys.

I am,

I am, I'm chasing house flies around the house and I'm lighting candles.

I am, I am lost.

I've lost it until we hear.

But no, I think just

nostalgia, but nostalgia with a kick.

Like what I think is so brilliant about, and Kristen too, and Ryan Styles and Celia Weston and Blake Clark.

It's like there's, there's an ode to what was, but it still feels like it's from now.

Yeah.

And I think the dichotomy of those two things is, and it just, I've been really, you know, I knew that my friends' moms would be all about it because I was getting blown up on Facebook Messenger.

I was getting, hi, it's Mrs.

So-and-so from 11th grade.

I am just that's really advanced.

advanced.

So, but when the show came out, that was my anticipation was, okay, great.

Well, I will be a hit with the moms.

But it's all ages.

I think it's super evergreen.

And, and that's, you know, she was on Amy Poehler's podcast.

And I'm like, lovable is lovable.

It's, it's just an ageless thing.

So that was really cool to see that the response was quite diverse

age-wise.

Yeah.

And the format works because it works.

It's been around for a long time.

It's not that it's dated.

It's been around for a long time.

It works because it works.

And, you know, if you can find the right material, obviously then you have to find the right people to put in there.

Magic happens, magic happens.

Yeah.

And it becomes a hit.

But, you know, everyone,

some of our audience may be being introduced to you for the first time, but overnight success stories are never overnight.

You've been doing this for a long time.

I mean, you know, we always seem to, there's, we always say this.

There's two reasons you come on the commercial break.

You're on your way up or you're on your way down.

So I'm assuming you're on your way up.

And

a feeling you're not you're not on i have a feeling that you're ascending but it's too early to tell i don't know only time will tell but don't worry i have a really public breakdown that's coming at the 20th minute so yes when does your charlie sheen moment happen when will chuck realize

i'm getting the hands ready yeah

even chuck and charlie went on to work together again yeah listen yeah it works it works when you're talented you're talented right even with crack you're talented so

so how did you get started?

How did you get started in comedy?

Tell the audience a little bit about your journey.

Well, when I was a kid, my very first audition, let's start.

When I was born, I was eight pounds, three other people.

Yes, I do think.

I have an interesting question for you that I sometimes like to ask.

What is the first thing you remember being funny?

Television show, joke, movie.

Oh my gosh.

Anything

Molly Shin and anything Molly Shin and Tim Biddos did on SNL.

I mean, that was my

and I lived on 68th and Central Park West.

So my sister, who is like, you know, we're just, we both gush over this stuff, we would stand outside of 30 Rock.

Or if we saw cast members walking around New York, we'd play in a script.

Like we saw Adam Sandler once, and I'm like seven, and I stroll up, I'm like, hey, big fan of your work.

And he's like, aren't you a little young?

And then my sister did.

He goes, that's where I come in.

Hi, I'm Lucy.

Oh my God, I love it.

That's awesome.

But, you know, we are that like cliche

concrete jungle kids that just, you know, we were going to see like Blue Man Group and Moom and Chance and SNL, like all this.

So my exposure to comedy was honestly just like, New York City's funny.

People are funny.

There's so many characters.

And then proximity to SNL and just that feeling like, I don't, you know, not necessarily being like, I want to be on it, but being like, these superheroes live 15 blocks away.

Like, how crazy is this?

You know,

yeah, I guess that's attainable.

Yeah, that's attainable.

And I guess that's a really interesting perspective that I hadn't thought about before is that as a New Yorker, living close to kind of ground zero for comedy in some, in a lot of people's minds, I mean, Saturday Night Live has done so much for comedy over the 50 years that it's been on.

It's your backyard.

And so you feel like it's part of me.

I am part of it.

It is part of me.

It's like people love the Cubs, right?

Wrigley Field is part of me.

I am part of it.

I am part of the Cubs.

I am the Cubs.

So when you live

so close to this, and you see those people walking down the street.

Yeah, they're actual praise.

They're actually on the screen.

I think when something's tangible in that way, it doesn't, as a kid, I had the, first of all, very supportive parents that were like, you can do whatever you want.

which I don't think is always the case with artists.

But I also think knowing that it was, it had happened for people and they were right in front of me was encouraging and perhaps led to a lifetime of delusion.

But I do think

you have to be so delusional to stick around doing this.

I mean,

eating, you know, making a can of garbanzo bean stretch when you don't have rent and you're 24, but your your nourishment is improv.

Oh, that's funny.

Did you do improv?

Is that where, is that how, is that your kind of comedy path was improv?

So I referenced the movie because I was a child actor and that was a heavy drama with Kevin Bacon.

And that was my like introduction to acting.

And it, it was great.

But I think what I realized was drama is hard to live in all the time.

And all of my muses and inspirations were comedic.

So I moved out here at like 19 and started doing Second City and UCLA Extension for writing and kind of made my way through all the schools from really young.

Yeah,

I was like the youngest improviser in my class, which didn't doesn't mean much now, but back then it was like the coolest thing ever.

And actually, I just had a memory that the first like boyfriend I had was some guy from Second City, and he broke up with me because he met someone at Burning Man.

To bring it all back around,

I knew it, I knew they're all shitheads.

I said it.

Oh, that's what I'm saying.

You don't need to go to burn.

None of us need to go to no one needs to go to Burning Man anymore.

It's Jump the Shark.

It's officially Jump the Shark.

So you're at Second City.

You're at UCLA taking writing courses, you said?

Yes, yeah.

I mean,

I didn't get a degree because I was so afraid of debt, and I just like I didn't know if it was balance a checkbook or bounce a checkbook.

I, if you don't know the difference, you know,

so I, I, yeah, and will we ever, and I'm like, when will checks just be gone?

Yeah, but I do think my, I, I was sort of like, okay, I'm gonna, because I'd been introduced to acting young, it was sort of, I'm gonna try and skip a step and move out here, which inevitably, you, you know, you have the cliche, you're in LA, you try to get an agent.

But, um, but I will say, at the same time as Second City, Vine came out, that app.

Oh, yeah.

And so that was my livelihood through a lot of my early 20s, which was such a gift.

And I'll never forget doing six-second ads for TikTok.

Can you imagine?

6.7 seconds.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It seems easy, but yeah.

No.

I read commercials

the time.

And mine always go long because saying,

giving a sponsorship or a personal endorsement or whatever it is in 30 seconds is impossible.

It's impossible.

It's to fit into 30.

And I talk fast and I still can't.

Right.

6.7 seconds.

I can't even imagine.

What did you say?

Wild.

Well, in hindsight, I'm like, surely it wasn't medication because I wasn't going to be like side effects included, you know, the possibility of steroid amnesia.

But it was, you know, you're like more neutral, your bubble yums, your Nordstroms, you're, but you know, I really don't know what I said.

It's, it's wild to look back on that time because, first of all, it was almost like the original camcorder where you couldn't edit.

So you would just press and then you'd go to the grove and you do the second half.

And then sometimes your finger would slip and you delete the whole thing.

I mean, it was the preciousness of filming the vibe.

Again, it sounds so trivial and silly, but the stakes felt enormous because it became a job for so many of us in a time when you're on your way up trying to make comedy.

It's, it's,

if you don't have to do a day job, if that can be your day job, it's it's a gift.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

We have talked to so many people who are still here today, and Vine was the place, right?

Vine is where it kind of all started.

Do you still have access?

This is just like a Minutia question.

Do you still have access to those vines?

I'm just laughing because you said still here today.

I'm like, they all passed.

Yeah.

It wasn't that long ago.

It's crazy.

There are so many viners still living.

I mean, you're getting old, right?

If you, if you started on vine, you're over the hill.

You're just, you're washed up.

It's no,

it's insane.

It's a lifetime ago.

It's a truly.

I mean, especially when you think about, when I think about the lifetimes I've led living in LA and that that was a particularly chaotic time in my life, as it should be, I was like 23, but you see it.

I'm like, I wasn't washing my face.

I was out till four.

I'm like, that is, I have vocal fry, you know, but I, the only way you can access them now is a YouTube compilation and like 10 years of vines is 20 minutes total

you're not going through it's just not worth that much no

no no but i wish i had you know i wish i haven't checked but i don't i don't imagine it's in the app store but yeah no i don't think it is but i'm not

just shut that shit down didn't he buy it uh and yet yeah ebombs world still kicking ebombs world still out there one of the the the og ebom's World still out there.

Still kicking.

And you know, it sounds funny that we say, like, oh, they're still around.

And what I mean to say is they have made really good careers being content creators and actors.

Yeah.

It's still relevant.

It's still relevant.

That was a leader system, a farm system for great content creators.

And the good

have really made it work.

We just talked to Noel Miller, who started on.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And he has, I mean, he's like a whole enterprise.

He's like, has all, you know, different content creators and podcasts and podcast networks.

And so it was early proving ground for this kind of model that now we are all involved in, which is create content, distribute it directly to the people who want to hear it, find your own audience, figure it out on your own.

And

I guess a prelude to the streamers, too.

What's interesting to me about this is that you think about Vine, like, you know, six, seven, six, second, seven-second videos.

Now some of the most sought-after content where these streamers are now paying attention attention are in these one-minute mellow dramas.

Do you know what you

understand this?

These soap operas that happen in one-minute chunks, and then there's 127 of them.

And then they get released at a certain time and they go out.

And there aren't like Netflix is paying hundreds of millions of dollars to get these showrunners who are just content creators to make these one-minute

soap operas, essentially, which is crazy.

So we're back to

It was long, you know, short format, long format.

Now we're back to short format.

It's just all over the place.

We can't figure out what we want.

Well, you have tight framing, limited sets, low budgets, probably the same five people in it.

You have underpaid writers.

I have many friends that have, that have applied for these jobs and the copy, I mean, you just, you churn it out over, you know.

But yeah, it is, it's so wild, you know, the difference between the two things.

It's like short form is wonderful, but if you're only doing short form as a performer, it's not a sustainable model and it doesn't help you with long form.

Like I remember doing groundlings the same time as Vine, and I would get scolded because all my characters were like eight seconds long.

Yeah.

They're like, all right, and stretch.

But stretch, yeah.

I, you know, people say everyone's attention spans are short now, but I beg to differ.

I still think that there's a huge market for both.

And also, some sometimes I want to consume something really quick and palatable.

And other times I want to, you know, binge hunting wives.

But I don't know.

I guess

I push against the notion that people don't want to listen to something or watch something longer, hence the podcast that's an hour or, you know, like the pit.

Yes.

Yeah.

This one's going to be 16.

I have all my meals ready to go.

But, um,

yeah.

But it is wild.

There's kind of something for everybody now.

I, you know, that's an interesting point that you make.

I, I am not,

like, I like Instagram videos and I like TikToks and I like shorts.

And it depends on the situation.

But I want to get into the pit.

I want six more episodes of the pit.

I want that shift to last six more hours.

Do you know what I'm saying?

Oh, my God.

Yeah, but if I'm waiting at the doctor,

then I want some short stuff.

That's right.

That's why I cleaned it up.

And

there was a guy and the doctor playing them all at highest volume in the office.

Two things.

Two faux pas, the loudest volume and someone at a cafe with their text.

tone on.

Oh my god, that drives me crazy.

And it was someone from, I'm not going to say a reality TV franchise.

And I thought, it's gone to your head a little bit because you are so unaware of the world around you.

You need to tell that real housewife of wherever that to shut the fuck up.

It was crazy.

I was like, I cannot focus.

I'm trying to write the first page of my screenplay over and over.

You were in the Groundlings and Second City?

So I never did the company.

I did Conservatory at Second City and we had like a run over there.

And then Groundlings after that.

I never, and then I kind of pivoted into more solo material and

got to like open for a lot of awesome comedians, got to tour with Paul of Tompkins.

Um, and that was great.

The nice thing about solo is that you can just kind of bring yourself anywhere.

Um, but the training from all those places and all those people that I met there are still my collaborators.

And I met my husband at Groundlings in the class.

Oh, you did?

Yeah.

How long have you been married?

We've been married three years, but we met at Groundlings seven years ago, which is wild.

You might go the distance.

I mean,

you might be don't jinx it.

You might be on your way up, and this might be your forever marriage.

Yes,

it's not a starter marriage.

You always say guests on your podcast either stay together forever or promptly break up after that.

Yeah, yeah, because they came on the podcast.

You were in love?

You're the ring of dating.

Seven days.

Did you ever try out for Saturday Night Live?

Yes, I did.

I got close-ish.

I had a virtual testing agreement during COVID, which was sad.

So never went to 30 Rock.

And, you know, when I got Lee in, it was sort of like for however long this goes, that is, and I hope forever, that's not something that you can go out for anymore.

So, but.

I have many a friend.

I just had a dear friend get on.

Chloe Feynman's one of my dearest friends who 10 years ago at Groundlings, I approached and was like, hey, you're kind of funny.

Would you want to be friends?

And then the rest is history.

So, you know, I have a,

we all feel connected to it in some way.

And we've all been close or sort of close.

Everyone in my orbit, you know, that I admire and respect.

So, but yeah,

it is, like I said, in a lot of ways, ground zero or at least a big part of the fabric of comedy and especially

comedic players who go out there and do television or movies.

It's just like there's so much connective tissue to Saturday Night Night Live over the last 50 years.

But can I ask you a question?

Because we were talking about this yesterday.

Sure.

You're here to answer my questions.

So then I'm going to ask you.

All right.

And I was unclear in the power dynamic, but now it's clear.

Do you think that...

Chrissy and I believe that there's been like a big deal, bigger deal made out of the fact that Lauren Michaels is turning some of these cast players this year than there has been in past years.

It feels to me like there's a big uproar online over or a lot of publicity around the fact that cast members are changing when that, in fact, is just what's always happened.

But it feels this year there's some outcry that I haven't read about in past years, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention in past years.

I think I'll say this in as neutral a response as possible.

I think a lot of it has to do with a swapping out and an erasure of diversity a little bit.

I feel like we are kind of experiencing a world.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm a little spooked at the state of the world.

I feel like

even in media.

Feel free to speak.

You're amongst friends.

You're amongst friends.

I just feel like there is kind of this resurgence of unapologetically

feeling like we don't need to

diversify.

And I wonder if that is it.

And listen, this isn't bashing anyone that got on.

That's not the fault of the people auditioning.

I just, for me, a show like SNL thrives when there's when there's different points of view and different perspectives and when there's too many overlapping ones you know it for me it's it you know you just you just

it's easy to check out so i think it's that maybe partially that's like

and and and cast members being taken off that maybe we felt like had some interesting opinions and things to say.

And I wonder if that ruffled any feathers.

Like, I really loved Emil.

I loved his updates.

And I was really excited about someone that really was speaking speaking their mind.

And I think you also read posts about writers and cast members that had mixed experiences.

I did read that.

You know, folks having a boycott when Chappelle is on.

And so, you know, I think it's a, I think it's, it is pop culture boiled down.

It's beautiful and problematic and it's everything in between, right?

So it feels like this concentrate of what we experience daily, paired with the fact that I think the industry is at a deeply

volatile period, right?

There's so much less work.

There's nothing shooting in LA.

So I do think that there's just less to fixate on right now.

I think it's maybe a hybrid of both of those things, you know?

And I say that just as

a performer that's even experienced a change in like the way things are being written and cast right now that just feel

a little like we're back in the times, kind of a little bit.

Yeah.

I was of the opinion that it could be a combination of three things.

One,

there's a lot of PR being churned up because maybe there's some

external, internal pressure that Lauren needs to figure out what happens next with him

in the show.

But number two, I said, I think what you're trying to say, which is the political pressure to

not act out and the punishment that could come from that made

the choices more clear when they may not have been in the past because NBC, the company, NBC Universal who owns SNL,

maybe not implicitly,

but maybe, maybe not explicitly, but implicitly said, get rid of troublemakers or tone it down.

We don't want more fines and more focus and all this other stuff.

And that's just, that's crazy, but it is part and parcel of the world that we live in today.

I mean, what's happening?

Totally.

I think that we're seeing it because I'm not an institution and I famously, I'm always sympathizing with CEOs.

And you can put me on record saying that.

No, you do, you do, you know, I think about the Kennedy Center.

I think about colleges getting defunding.

And I, and it's so scary because you know.

The rebuttal is a beautiful thing, but it's also, is it potentially at the expense of the thing combusting completely because its funding's cut off?

What is the right course of action as you're seeing

any form of free speech being eradicated, it's a really unprecedented and spooky time.

Yeah, I agree with you.

And we wouldn't have to go down the whole road, but at the end of the day, it's the thing that some people

in a certain ideology were bashing against, the wokeism, the cancel culture,

the silencing of voices.

But only when it's happening

to them, right?

And then it's just very, it's all very interesting and hypocritical.

But I guess at the end of the day, human beings are hypocritical in general.

It's just the the way that we're built.

And so we say one thing, we do another.

It's just the way that we are.

At least it's the way I know, I can recognize that

in

myself.

So, okay.

So now you have Leanne.

And so now we'll take the pressure off the political conversation.

So now you have Leanne

so that we don't get, you know, so that no one finds us.

No, right.

What are some of the shows?

I'm curious, what are some of the other shows that you're watching or like guilty pleasures or comfort when things get scary and crazy in the world.

Well, ironically, and this makes sense.

And now I'm piecing it all together.

30 Rocks, always my comfort food.

I mean, just a laugh a minute.

I just watch it all the time.

And Jane Krakowski doing O'Mary now.

I'm so excited.

Just, I mean, everyone, Jinx Monsoon,

Betty Gilkin.

I was true.

Gilpin, Betty Gilpin.

I am, I'm watching Hunting Wives, of course,

and having an absolute ball.

I I watched that limited series, Dying for Sex, and I loved it so much.

I'm just such a Jenny Slate fan.

It's heartbreaking.

And I will watch, I love watching Love is Blind in Germany or Japan or Brazil.

Yeah, we're doing

it the most bad and couples therapy, I think, is one of the most

honest.

I know it's saying honest portrayal and love is blind, but I do think if you've had a couple drinks and you're, you start having the like Munchausen of, of like being in these, this enclosed space, you do forget there's a camera there.

And I think then it's just stream of consciousness.

And I find it the etiquette, what manners look like, how they dress and just the differentiation between cultures is so fascinating to me.

Very.

Yeah.

Totally couldn't agree with you more.

I love watching.

shows from Europe or even Japan or shows that are familiar formats, but they're taken somewhere else.

And you see the differences in comedy and what's funny and what's interesting, the psychology and the mannerisms.

And it's just, it's all fascinating to me.

I'm with you on that.

That is comfortable.

I,

because you're now a Netflix superstar and probably,

you know, in some way embedded in the company, but did you watch

Unknown Caller?

No.

Documentary, Unknown Caller.

I haven't seen that either.

Okay,

go watch it.

I'm not going to say anything about it.

Go watch it.

About the two high school kids that started getting tech, they were a couple and they were like 13 years old, and they started getting text messages from an unknown caller

saying some of the most incredibly hurtful, damaging, crazy things to them to try and get them to break up.

And then it's a true story, obviously, to doc.

Watch it.

Watch it.

That's all I'll say.

I'm not going to ruin them.

And then, if you need a palate cleanser after that, you can watch Train Wreck Poop Cruise.

Oh, it's awesome.

I watched that.

Oh, my God.

I watched that.

What I love the most is people crying in the end.

And you're like, we don't need to make this a murder, dog.

It sucks that there was feces around, but you're okay.

Yeah, you're fine.

Everything's okay.

And there's these girls and they're like, yeah, they're like, we couldn't take shots.

We couldn't do limbo.

It was so hot in there.

It's like you were on a cruise.

You know, you were, everything was fine.

No one's going to, no one was going to lie.

Yeah, they opened up the bar.

Oh, my God.

Worst idea of all time.

One other comfort thing I will shout out is my father loves Korean soaps.

Loves them.

And I said, well, which, I said, which ones have you seen?

And he said, all of them.

Really?

So he has gone through all the catalog of Korean soaps on Netflix and he's ready for more.

Yeah.

He says they're just so comfortable.

And I watch Squid Game and he's like,

I don't need a Squid Game in my life right now.

I need an optimistic love story.

And he loves a Korean soap.

Yeah.

Wait, he's reading it with the subtitles,

reading it with the subtitles or the dub.

Yeah, well, now he's fluent in Korean.

No, maybe eventually.

No dubbing.

He knows Korean.

No, but he says if you, if you need comfort and to seek some solace somewhere away from this world, it's um, it's it's a good watch.

And I do mean all of them.

I mean, that's hundreds of hours of content that my dad is like.

That's incredible.

And like your dad already.

Yeah.

Oh, he's the best.

He's the worky kind of guy we need in our lives.

It's a guy who's in the kitchen.

We love him.

And he's your next guest.

That's my next guest.

He's on his way up.

Yeah.

Do you, does he live in New York?

He, so we grew up in New York.

My dad's Dutch, grew up in Holland.

And then we moved to New York.

And now my entire, it's a sitcom outside of a sitcom.

My mom, my dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, their dogs, my nephew live a mile from me in Pasadena.

Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah.

Because you live there, like they all decided to move?

Yes.

And I think we all lived all over the world.

My sister and her husband lived in Hong Kong because he's an imagineer for many years.

And when they had an imagineer?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So excited about this.

Yeah.

And he's your guest after my dad.

I'll take your dad and your brother-in-law.

Both of them.

Yes.

But I think when my sister had a baby, I think we all, and I think COVID was really illuminating of time and life is really precious.

And, you know, so now we, we, we just had my dad's birthday in my yard and we see each other, you know, once every couple weeks.

It's great.

Yeah.

That's that is incredible.

I like that.

It's cozy.

I love to hear.

My wife is Venezuelan.

Family is everything in that culture.

Sure.

Everybody is family, right?

The third cousin 50 times removed.

Yeah.

Doesn't stay in a hotel when he comes within 100 miles of Atlanta.

He stays in my house because that's

what it is.

So I'd love to hear when families, especially American families, where I think that things are much different here and we don't focus on the family and as much as we should.

And I'd love to hear when families are taking care of each other and that's awesome.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I also like think there's something really beautiful about how adults meet each other on new terms.

Like I think me being in my 30s living near my parents versus me at 18, you know, drinking a Coca-Cola in bed, sleeping till two, being like, get out of my room.

You know, it's been a really cool thing for us all to kind of get to know each other this way.

Yeah, it's a different dynamic for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's,

I love that.

I feel like that's something that happens is as you get older, you meet your parents as people and not as parents.

Yeah.

Totally.

Yeah.

The authority.

And you're like, wait, you had friends?

You know, it's like, it's really shameful.

This, like, you, you, you you project onto them that they have no history and their sole purpose and function is you

they should have been perfect when they exactly

yeah that's a thing i've been thinking about a lot yeah yeah because i'm perfect

yeah you seem perfect you have been the perfect guest

absolutely delightful one more question not about you about your brother about your brother-in-law he's an imagineer and so he worked to open hong kong disney when it opened is he

his company works with a bunch of different companies.

So yeah, he did a lot of the work at Disney in Abu Dhabi and in Hong Kong and had a lot to do with building the Star Wars ride for Disneyland.

A lot of what his company does is

like things to scale.

So if you look from far away and you think something's massive and you get up close and that's just forced perspective and also

building materials.

So rock that of course isn't real rock.

He's like the kind of guy where you come over and he's like whittling a walking stick for his son while making a souffle.

You're like,

some people are just wired different.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, I love it.

I can't wait to have him on.

Yeah,

yes, I know.

Yes.

We'll ask him all the questions.

My son is fascinated with all things Disney.

And we've been watching this behind the attraction where they talk about these on Disney Plus, where they spend an hour talking about one fame, you know, Space Mountain or whatever it is, and all the imagineers and all the people that did it and why they did it and the thoughts that went behind it and Waltz and all this other stuff.

And we've been watching it at night, and I am just as fascinated by this as he is.

I'm like, wow, you just don't think about it.

You go on a ride, you love Disney, it's a great place, but you don't think about the minutiae it took, all the powerful, creative, wonderful people who were behind making it come to life and the small decisions that they made.

And these are full-grown fucking adults making these decisions about, you know,

like which rock,

what the rock is going to look like from 100 yards away.

It's like, I think about that stuff as my adult life, but that's his job.

That's very cool.

And you're also like, you know, he must come up with the concepts like, oh, he's got a good imagination and he's an architect.

And you have to do physics and you have to do chemistry because there's the safety, the building, the aesthetic, the lighting.

I mean, it's, and of course, there's a bunch of people working together.

But when I went into his office, I expected it to be all these tchotchkes.

And it's just blueprints, many, many blueprints.

There's just so, like you were saying, there's so many technical aspects that we take for granted.

Like if it's a log flume ride, it can't sink.

So you have to figure out.

And they were doing a bunch of testing for a Pirates of the Caribbean ride and figuring out what is the capacity for people.

How do we make this beautiful, illustrious ship not sink?

And so I'm so fascinated by it too.

Yeah.

I love that.

Your family would be good dinner guests.

So next time I go to Pasadena, California, I'm going to invite myself to be able to come

dinner.

Yes, yes.

Join our sitcom outside of my sitcom.

I love that.

Hannah is

in the television show, Leanne, that's now on Netflix, all 16 episodes.

Am I right about that?

All 16 episodes available currently on Netflix.

She will also be at the Elysian the 27th in LA.

Tell us more about this.

Pray, tell us.

This is a

show I'm doing with Mackenzie Berman.

We're going to be trying out some new material to bring on tour eventually.

It's just going to be a super fun variety show.

We have a bunch of awesome special guests, some of your favorite comedians.

So, yeah, come on out, 7:30, Elysian.

Yeah.

Okay.

And so I'll put a link to get tickets.

I'll make a link to the Netflix and all your social media and all that stuff.

You have been an absolute delight.

Yes, thanks.

What a dream.

Thank you guys.

I would love if at the end of some, you go, so this has been a time.

We're here.

Oh,

trust me.

We've had them.

I can name them.

Or like this.

You will know them.

Yes.

These are five things.

Five worst guests.

We did that once.

We did that once.

We did that once.

We called it out like we saw.

We've been pretty honest with the audience, but we've done hundreds of guests at this point.

And

not all of them go well.

Not everybody's super nice.

Not everybody is as pleasant.

You don't know what you're going to get, right?

It's a mixed bag.

Most people are awesome.

They're wonderful.

Some people are, we have a lot of fun with, like you.

and then there have been a few where we have left the interview just wondering if we should even run it.

Yeah, like, oh gosh, time's up.

We gotta go.

It's like a speed dating where it's like, oh, we have 12 minutes to speed up date.

Okay, um, great

humid out, huh?

Yeah, um, no, I've loved getting to know you guys, and I've listened for a long time, so super fun to get to be here.

Yeah, thank you so much.

You are welcome back anytime.

We hope that you will come back.

And all of Hannah's information available in the show notes.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

By Hannah.

Bye.

Thank you guys.

Bye.

Let me do something Brian has never done.

Be brief.

Follow us on Instagram at theCommercial Break.

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So, keen-eared listeners will have heard that she mentioned a movie with Kevin Bacon when she was a kid.

I did not know this, but I went and I researched it during the break, and it's The Woodsman.

Yes.

And I've actually seen this film.

I watched it maybe sometime during the pandemic.

So it was maybe it's a couple of years ago, but it came on somewhere, Pluto or something like that.

And I watched it and I thought it was an okay movie.

I I actually liked it.

And now I know she was the character who like talked to him about bird watching or whatever.

Anyway, she's been doing this for a very long time.

She has.

A very long time.

Kevin Bacon, too.

Wow, to start off.

Seven degrees of bacon.

There you go.

Kevin's everywhere.

It can all be put together.

Hannah was absolutely wonderful.

Delightful.

Delightful.

Delilah.

She was delightful.

She didn't go to Burning Man, so we didn't have to skew her about that.

She's got the asthma and the vocal fry and all that.

she called out her own vocal but she said i have vocal fry but i have a feeling that has more to do with the asthma than anything else it's not because she's on some reality show i love

you

um so all of the information down below in the show notes check out leanne that's getting great reviews chrissy watched it she said she liked it i give it my blessing comfort food for the soul and leanne morgan who is now i quite frankly become legendary at this point you know there are people who you've been watching for a long time, but you don't really like, they don't come to top of mind, like Leanne.

And then all of the sudden, they are everywhere.

And you realize this is the moment when they are moving into legendary status because she has been doing this for so long and finally getting the recognition that she deserves.

And the television show that we all hope gets a second season.

Good for Netflix.

Yeah.

You know?

Good for Leanne.

And yeah, well, of course.

And good for Netflix.

They're figuring it out.

Pretty soon, we're all going to be watching TV exactly as we did before at 7.30 on Saturday night or whatever it is, you know, 8.30 on Thursday.

It's just weird.

It's weird.

But anyway, I'm not going to get into a whole rant about it.

Go check out her stuff.

And if you're in the LA area and on the 27th, you want to check out her variety show.

Tickets are available.

Links in the video.

I would totally go to that if we lived in L.A.

Totally.

She's naturally funny.

Like, you can just tell.

She's one of those people that you'd want to have it a dinner party because she'd spice it up a little bit and it would be fun.

Plus, her brother-in-law is an imagineer.

An imagineer.

I felt your

spidey senses.

You could feel me going.

Yes.

I've never met a real Imagineer.

I met a guy who I one time had dinner in Epcot with Astrid.

Okay.

When we were, I think when Astrid was pregnant with our first child, we went and we had dinner at the Hibachi place

in Japan in Epcot.

And then we met a kid who was from Japan.

He was a Japanese guy.

He worked there and he worked in Imagineering.

He was doing like an internship at Imagineering and he was working on future rides and ideas and concepts.

So we met someone who was in the building, but we've never really, I've never really met an Imagineer because they really are, quite frankly, like, you know, the cream of the crowd.

Yeah.

Those are the kids that,

those are the kids that make other kids happy.

Those are the people that do things that are magic, basically.

And if you've ever been on some of those rides, then you know.

Same with Universal.

What do they call the Universal ones?

Imagineers for Disney?

I don't know.

You're the Disney expert.

Universineers for Universal?

Not really sure.

Anyway, check out the show notes and check out all of Hannah's stuff.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate her being on.

212-433-3 TCB.

212-433-3822.

Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas?

Get involved in the conversation.

Text us.

We'd love to hear from you.

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Okay, Chrissy, I guess that's all I can do for today.

I think so.

I'll tell you that I love you.

And I love you.

Best to you.

Best to you.

Best to you out there in the podcast universe.

Until next time, Chrissy, and I will say, we do say, and we must say.

Goodbye.

I get ass.

You're a guy who just wants to look nice.

The kind of nice where you might get a nice compliment on the niceness of your nice new outfit.

Good thing Men's Warehouse has everything from polos to jeans and yes, suits, plus a team to help you find the perfect fit to make sure you look nice.

Nice.

Love the way you look.

Men's warehouse.

You want your master's degree.

You know you can earn it, but life gets busy.

The packed schedule, the late nights, and then there's the unexpected.

American Public University was built for all of it.

With monthly starts and no set login times, APU's 40-plus flexible online master's programs are designed to move at the speed of life.

Start your master's journey today at apu.apus.edu.

You want it?

Come get it at APU.