Stephen Merchant

Where everybody knows your name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills.

Try it at progressive.com, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.

Price and coverage match limited by state law.

Not available in all states.

It's very, very hard to do anything well, and to do something well where you also need to have laughs every 10 seconds, that's really tough.

Really hard.

Welcome back to Everybody Knows Your Name with me, Ted Danson, and Woody Harrelson Sometimes.

Today I'm with a multi-talented comedian, actor, writer, director.

His name is Stephen Merchant, and you know him from his work on The Office, Extras, Hello Ladies, and he's done dramatic work, stage work.

Last night I devoured what was new to me was Outlaws.

And it's just delightful.

It's funny and scary and just very engaging.

So can't wait for you to check that out.

He is a super smart, delightful human being.

Here's Stephen Murchison.

I had the best time with you on The Good Place.

So much fun.

So much fun.

How did they get you?

Did you know about the show?

I knew about the show and also

you're just an admirer of Mike Scher as well from his work on The Office.

Of course, you knew each other then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm sorry.

I think there was probably a begging email from Mike.

Yeah, for sure.

I can't remember, but I was, but I was, no, I was, I love the show and it was a pleasure to be asked and to work with you as well.

It was definitely

one of the impulses.

That's why I asked the question.

Okay, I can relax now.

Well, we can talk.

I mean, we can talk at length, if you want, about what an impact cheers had on the office in terms of the conception, the writing, you know, but we don't have to.

Cheer English.

The English version.

And in a sense, the DNA of the English version was in the American one.

And

they definitely, I remember when I was working with Ricky on the British version, it became a conversation because,

and I, people often say to me, like, what's the difference between American comedy and British comedy?

And

in British comedy, traditionally, there's often been a sort of built-in bleakness that we're kind of willing as a British audience to accept and to sort of indulge.

Whereas American comedy traditionally, American sitcom, was seen as being brighter and kind of a bit more optimistic.

And yet, if you pull back, you know, a couple of the layers of the characters in cheers.

They are sad people, right?

You know, Norm with that kind of sort of hates his job and

has this kind of this loveless marriage, it seems.

And, you know, and your characters are obviously a recovering alcoholic and they're all

never be with a woman and be happy.

And so, and you can do that with all, you know, Carla, all of them have that.

There's a sadness to it.

And if you took it all, if you took the audience laughter and the jokes out it would be a sort of bleak existential play about you know kind of sad lives yeah and so norm for instance was a big influence on the character of tim played by martin freeman in the british version of jim jonkrasinski in the american one that idea of a guy sort of found himself in a job that wasn't his dream right and is kind of doing things to get through the day.

You know what I mean?

Rather than sort of change anything in his life.

And the idea of the sort of sardonic put-downs as a way of sort of dealing with, you know, what feels really like a kind of bleak existential existence of like, what is my purpose in life?

And so I know that sounds very heavy, but it's sort of, I suppose, what we, you know, we took some of those elements and because we didn't have an audience laugh track and we sort of let the awkward silences sit.

A lot of that pathos and sort of sadness that was inherent in a show like Cheers came to the fore, at least in in the British version of the of the show, you know?

Right.

And also, I guess, that idea of the sort of surrogate family, right?

The idea of people in an environment who have become almost like a family, in your case, because of the bar, in our case, because of an office, but they don't, they have nothing else in common, right?

Except their proximity to each other in that space.

How long did America get to see your version before

the American version of The Office came out?

I would imagine there were like 14 people that saw it.

Oh, well,

you'd seen it?

I was one of them.

And I think probably within a couple of years of our version, it was on American screens.

Yeah.

I know you were executive producing.

Did you guys write the pilot or not?

No, they based the first season of the American version loosely on

our seasons.

And we did write an episode later.

But no, they were pretty much...

you know, the American team was sort of off to the races.

Actual storylines.

Kind of loosely, but I think the more, in a way, the more they got away from our version from season two onwards, I think the more it found its own groove and the more its appeal went.

Partly because I think they did they dialed back some of that bleakness.

I remember seeing the pilot of the American version, Steve Carell, and he was

not Ricky

acerbic, but close, adjacent.

Yeah.

And then I don't know if it was when they came back or there was a break as happens sometimes after a pilot, but it was a

different version

of his character.

I mean, he was definitely the wonderful, pompous idiot.

But they'd soften the edges of it, hadn't they?

Yeah, he did.

Yeah.

Not many people can do Ricky Gervais and survive.

That's right.

Yeah.

Well, I think that's the thing about Steve is I think Corell has such an innate warmth that the more they leaned into that, that warmth that he naturally has yeah um the more they he can kind of be the outrageous buffoon yeah and steve's sort of dna will will keep you on side yeah you know um again to go back to cheers like i think you know you talk about the acerbic lines but again i think if you didn't have the audience laughing along there were some very cutting lines that the characters in that bar would share you know again if you didn't have the audience to kind of say hey it's okay some of carla's put-downs and you know

there was a spikiness to it that felt very real.

Cliff Clavin, the mailman, was the recipient of that.

It took so much of a beat.

Again, another great example of lives with his mother.

It's just, again, you could imagine he would have been like a shooter in another version of

that show.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Have you done...

I'm trying to think of what comedies you've done that did have a laugh track, that either laugh track or an audience.

Well, I've I've done some guest spots.

I did a guest spot on the Big Bang Theory, chiefly for that reason.

Sorry, I meant

gone.

Sorry, finish.

Well, certainly in the UK, no, we haven't, not in terms of stuff I've myself written.

We've never done stuff with a live audience.

Is that common or uncommon to have a live audience?

I think it used to be.

It used to be just like it used to be here.

I think it's sort of fading away now.

But I did a guest spot on the Big Bang Theory chiefly because I wanted to experience that.

Yeah.

That

doing a sitcom with a live audience and sort of feeling the way it impacts the performance and

the way the writers are throwing in new ideas or adapting based on the crack, which is a completely different thing for me.

The audience, I think, just takes you someplace that you have not gone during the week.

And it can be very funny during rehearsals.

And sometimes we would have to shoot.

We'd let the audience go after shooting it and then stick cameras someplace or something really didn't work and they tinker with it and the audience wasn't there.

They almost never used that reshoot because the energy

level and the excitement and not just from their laughter, but the energy is just so vibrant when the...

But it's interesting you say that because

for me,

the temptation is to really lean into the crowd and to kind of amplify your performance.

And the thing I was always struck by, particularly in your performance, is that you there was a sort of relaxed kind of effortlessness to it.

It never felt like you were playing up to the crowd.

Is that something that you just know lack of talent?

I just couldn't.

I try.

But my job was different.

My job was to behold all of the wonderful buffoons and

far-out characters and be the audience's way into loving them.

Yeah, but I think you're doing, yeah, but you're doing, you're being modest there.

It's false humility, by the way.

No, because I'm interested because it's

one of the things that struck me is the sort of, there's a kind of ease to your performance

that's so relaxed.

And is that from stage experience?

Is that no?

You know, I don't know.

Were you stoned the whole time?

Afterwards, after the show.

And my mind has,

I won't tell you the whole story because I've told it before, but it's like Woody and I, after the show, really stoned.

We hadn't been drinking, but it's really stoned, driving home on Sunset Boulevard, and car phones had just come in, you know, and we were talking and just had the most amazing philosophical stoned conversation.

And

two cops pulled both of our cars over simultaneously.

And I could hear on the guy's radio, oh, wait till you see who I got.

And he said, wait till you see who I got.

We got pulled over for going 12 miles an hour on sunset.

Just so,

so ripped.

Wow.

And having the most delicious

casual drive.

Anyway,

I always, I don't know where I got this, whether it could have been Jimmy Burroughs.

who directed all of them and was really my show business daddy.

He was my, you know, this is how you do it

Teacher.

I always look at jokes as kind of how close, how homeopathic can it be?

How close to not

touching the actual joke and still have it be funny.

That's a great summary of the way you do it because that's what's, I mean, I still watch it now whenever it comes on.

And that's exactly what it is.

It never feels like you're selling the joke.

You're never leaning into it.

You just,

it's, it's, it's a really, it's a kind of, of, you make it look way easier than it is as someone who's,

that's really kind because I admire you so much.

The other thing I think that you do,

and I know I'm sure you do this too, is when you have a joke, you don't know if it's going to fly in front of the audience or not or to what degree another.

So always have a back door.

Always be doing something more interesting, physically doing something more interesting than the joke.

So you you can continue cutting that lemon as if it was, I knew it wasn't funny.

I don't give a shit.

Is that why you're often topping up your coffee?

Yes.

Yeah.

Hey, I am jumping around, but you made it really hard to do research on you because I would go, oh, here's a clip.

And then I'd get sucked into the clip.

Mary and I sat there and watched

four episodes of not the, but Outlaws.

Oh, yeah, right.

Thank you.

oh stephen it's it's brilliant thank you thank you it really is it's my favorite kind of comedy there are funny things in it obviously the characters are so well drawn out and acted you know and you care about and they're believably

not not scummy but you know believable believably damaged you know low rent yeah you know criminals they have broke indeed broken the law And you grow to love them.

And the villain is scarier than shit.

You know, and we just left when we thought her parents were going to

that moment.

I won't go into it for those, but it's really, really

worth watching.

It is so good for those people who haven't seen it.

It is, it's just brilliant.

Oh, that's very kind of you stated.

Thank you.

So lovely.

Thank you.

Well, that was a show that originated because

for those that haven't seen it, it's about people doing, as we call it in the UK, community service or community payback.

Like you say, you get the small crime, the DUI or whatever, and you,

instead of sending you to prison, they make you pick up trash or whatever.

And that came about because my mother used to, was involved in that world.

She was not a criminal.

She supervised criminals.

And through much of my kind of late teens and early 20s, that was what she did.

And so

in the UK, yeah, Bristol.

And so she would come back and she would tell stories of the sort of people that she would be supervising.

And of course, it was a real mixed bag because you'd have the kind of the people on the sort of criminal fraternity, but you'd have the businessman who, you know, the white collar criminal, you know, or whatever it is, or the D1.

It's a particularly dumb one.

I love that story you tell of.

Well,

there was a kid

that I went to school with who would constantly come through her.

doors and because he was Bristol's most useless criminal.

And I've always, it's always annoyed me that if you're going to go into crime, at least be good at it.

You know know what I mean?

You're not, you don't have to study.

You know what I mean?

You're just thieving and you can't even do that well.

And like one time he got, he ended up, and she said, why are you here?

He said, well, I got caught stealing someone's TV and the homeowners came back and they went, Mark, what are you doing?

And I said, I'm not Mark.

And they went, yes, you are.

You live next door.

And he was stealing from his own neighbors.

Like, at least go two streets over.

And anyway, I just thought it was him.

And there was other people that she talked about.

And I just thought, what an interesting way,

as we were talking about with the office or with cheers, how do you find groups of people that wouldn't interact in otherwise and throw them together and watch those sparks fly?

And the community service world was perfect for that because these people would never have met otherwise.

And it felt like an excuse to sort of explore people from very different backgrounds and then make them rub up against each other and see.

And we'll leave cheers alone, but it's that when you

have a set, a location that allows people from everywhere to come in yeah you can write stories forever that's right you know and you you did that did tell me about the cast thing because everybody is so so good in it well I mean the obviously the the kind of headline cast member was Christopher Walken

who

yeah you heard me Christopher Walken who

I we wanted the idea of this kind of older American kind of con man thief who had sort of come to England probably in the early 70s to avoid the draft or the Vietnam War and had sort of hooked up with some local girl and had never really left and was sort of bumming around.

And, you know, he was just sort of such a perfect fit for that.

That way that he can do kind of charm, but also be sort of sinister, but be funny.

You know, he's just and

the most unique, extraordinary performance ever.

A phenomenal man,

eccentric performer, but just perfect and and to take him to my hometown of bristol where we shot the show and for him to be there was so extraordinary but also unfortunately um it was during covid we ended up shooting during covid so i couldn't even

yeah yeah so we couldn't even uh i couldn't even show him around the city he sort of had to go from set to the to the hotel and back again and it was a sad time because social is yeah

actors you get to play.

Well, that's so much of when you, you know, the actors, particularly when it's sort of again, the idea of the surrogate family, people getting to know each other.

The fact you can't really do that offset because you couldn't hang out and stuff, it was, it was tough.

But anyway, oh, I would never have ever, ever thought that.

Oh, well, that's great.

That's great.

And I read that you went to Stonehenge.

At one point, Christopher Walker and I went to Stonehenge.

And, you know,

he's a sort of enigmatic man, Chris, and he doesn't, he's not, he's sort of a man of few words.

And we were kind of wandering around Stonehenge, and there was a tour guide showing us around.

And he hadn't really spoken.

He was just taking it in, taking in the vibe.

It was kind of sunset.

It was a, you know, it's a very kind of spiritual place for many people.

And at one point, he just, the only thing he said was he said,

apparently the blue stones have healing properties.

I was like, wow, Chris really knows what he's talking about.

And he said to the British tour guide, can I touch it?

And she went, no, such a British thing.

Can you, no?

Like, this is Christopher Walken.

He's come to Stonehenge for the first time in his life.

Can he touch this?

No.

We don't let anyone touch them.

Like, what?

What?

You take them in at night?

I mean, people are going to touch the stones.

But

yeah, there's those things where as someone who was a fan of film and TV and comedy and movies and all that growing up, the idea that one day I would be at Stonehenge with Chris Walker just seems so, so wild to me.

Yeah.

Even now.

That kind of person, his talent and who he is, and how much I admire him, but also his demeanor.

Yeah.

Because I'm the guy who vomits my life out on anybody and everybody, you know, and I'm, hey,

kind of guy.

And I, I, I'm sure that would be met with silence, and I'd be totally dumbfounded at what to do next.

Yeah.

And that's the thing.

It'll just vary.

Occasionally he'll he'll offer something up and you'll be like, wow, that, you know, just a fascinating little tidbit.

And other times, he'll just be quiet.

But he's a real, what I was excited by was he was still passionate about acting.

You know, even in his later years, he just still cared and he was and he was invested and he was considered and thoughtful.

And he had takes on things.

It was just, I just, that was so exciting to me that someone of his status still gave a shit.

I've just heard about a serious but rare heart condition called ATTR cardiac amyloidosis, or ATTR-CM.

If you have ATTR-CM, you may experience symptoms related to heart failure, like breathlessness and swelling of the legs, but also have issues that seem unrelated, like carpal tunnel.

There's a treatment option that may help called Atrubi or Acharamatis.

Atruby is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with ATTR-CM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues.

In a study, people taking Atruby saw an impact on their health-related quality of life and 50% fewer hospitalizations due to heart issues than people who didn't take Atruby, giving you more chances to do what you love with who you love.

Tell your doctor if you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding, and about the medications you take.

The most common side effects were mild and included diarrhea and abdominal pain.

If you have ATTR-CM, talk to your cardiologist about Atruby or visit Atruby.com.

That's ATT-R-U-B-Y.com to learn more.

Skip expensive takeout and unhealthy options.

HomeChef delivers fresh ingredients and delicious meals directly to you.

I've been on the road, so basically I've been eating in restaurants for the last month.

So I'm going to throw this to my producer, Nick Liao.

Nick.

Well, Ted, I can cook a meal for you because I've been enjoying Home Chef.

Nice.

I'm looking forward to trying the Smoky Barbecue Chicken Thighs, which is a good summer meal.

Smoky chicken thighs.

Smoky barbecue chicken thighs.

How does it sound?

You got me coming over to your place.

Yeah, please.

Anytime.

For a limited time, Home Chef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box, plus free dessert for life.

Go to homechef.com slash Ted and Woody.

That's homechef.com Ted and Woody for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life.

Homeshef.com/slash TED and Woody.

Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.

Cooler temps are rolling in, and as always, Quince is where you should be turning for fall staples that actually last.

This I can vouch for.

I have that Mongolian cashmere sweater, zip-up gray.

I love it.

I use it all the time, especially in the cool weather.

I have a black cap that I'm just starting to wear.

I have linen black pants that I wore all summer.

So this is a really genuinely good product.

And it does blow your mind how inexpensive it is compared to what you think it will be.

Anyway, my closet is starting to build up with Quince.

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

Go to quince.com slash Ted and woody for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns that's q u i n c e dot com slash ted and woody free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash ted and woody

tell me about directing

while being in it do you have somebody watch through the camera or watch the scene for you and go,

maybe you could try such and such?

I was directing, so I always directed all of the British version of The Office alongside Ricky.

And then when we started doing stuff where I was also a performer, we carried on directing.

And so I got used to that idea of sort of being in both.

both in front of and behind the camera.

What I found tough with the Outlaws was firstly, I was trying to make it a little bit more cinematic.

It was a bit more ambitious.

But also being one of an ensemble, there's seven or eight main characters.

When you're as tall as I am, six foot seven, you inevitably have to put yourself at the back of the group,

kind of block other smaller actors.

Yeah.

So I could never see what anyone was doing in the group scenes because they were up front talking and I'd be at the back.

And I just never had time to go and check the take.

And so it just, there was a great deal of faith you put in the actors to just deliver the goods.

I know some sound people, you know, who go, and I can tell if it's good just by listening through my headphones in my little dark closet.

I bet you there's some of that too.

I think there's that and I think also particularly if you're in a scene with someone you just it just feels right if it's working.

You know what I mean?

You know it yourself as a performer.

You can just sense when the scene is firing and also when something's not working and trying to find ways to remedy it.

But ultimately, it just, I ended up letting other directors do stuff because it was just too ambitious to try and do everything because it was a big show and there was a lot of

we can't literally can't wait we're going to start watching again tonight oh great thank you so much really lovely is it new to the united states or has it been here for a while it's all it's all there's three seasons and they're all on amazon so you can watch one on amazon yeah yeah wow well thank you are people watching it yeah yeah fantastic okay so i'm just late to the party it's not a news flash um can we back up

um so i don't know six seven year old you what were you doing were you you aiming towards this kind of creative career or what were you doing I don't know if I at six or seven knew about this but certainly by my early teens I was very single-minded about being in comedy and in film and TV.

I was a fan just as a viewer.

My dad and I would watch a lot of particularly older American movies, Bob Hope and the Marx Brothers.

And then I sort of discovered Woody Allen and then great American sitcoms, MASH, and other shows that were very important to me.

And alongside that, John Cleese from Monty Python had

grew up in the West Country of England, as did I.

And he was very tall, like I am.

And I think a part of me at a young age was like, well, if you need tall, funny guys from the West Country, sure.

I'll throw my hat in the ring.

Like I just was, if that's what you need.

And so there was a part of me that was just like at 12 or 13 13 going, I guess I'll be John Cleese.

Yeah.

And sort of people would look at me like, no, that's not an ambition.

You need to, do you want to work in a bank or something?

Like, you can't be John Cleese.

That's not what people do.

But for some reason, and I don't know where this came from, I was not from a performing family.

I just had this single-mindedness, like, eh, no, I'll do it.

I'll give it a go.

And I'm not to compare myself with John Cleese, but in terms of getting into the profession and becoming a writer and a performer, that worked out.

And so even now, when I look back now, I just, where did that arrogance come from?

How dare you think that you could do this for a living?

And I don't know where that comes from because I'm not a man who's sort of arrogant, I don't think, or crazy confident in all aspects of my life.

But for some reason, I just was very single-minded about that and sort of manifested it as a living.

You do exude a lot of self-confidence.

That doesn't mean arrogant.

Right.

I think maybe that's it.

I always worry that

they can blur into each other.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But some of them.

You wasn't your dad.

Was that the same?

My dad's a very funny man,

but was not in the profession, but was always very funny and shared my love of comedy and stuff.

And I think my mother was a lot more kind of, oh, you're going to go into comedy.

Well, you know,

you have something to fall back on, get an education, you know, all those sensible things, which I did.

But I, luckily with the British version of the office, it happened when I was still quite young in my early 20s.

And so I was sort of off to the races.

And so that confidence or that self-belief was sort of borne out quite quickly.

I was like,

okay.

But then what was weird was I remember going to the BBC to pitch the British version of the office.

And I said,

being known by nobody.

Nobody knew who we were.

We were complete strangers.

And we went, this guy, Ricky, is going to be in it.

We're going to write it.

We're going to direct it.

And they said to me, why would we let you do all those things?

And I remember saying, we might be the next Orson Welles.

but I didn't mean it arrogantly.

I meant it in that way that nobody knew that he was going to be Orson Welles, right?

He just was.

And I, but in my mind, it was like, take a chance.

We don't know.

But it sounds like the most arrogant thing in the world.

And Ricky was in the same position.

So he was a little more, he had, I think, he was in his 30s.

So I just think he was he performing?

No.

No, this is what I mean.

He had none of us had any literature.

We just were people off the street.

I mean, it was mad.

Yeah.

And

the show, so they just left us alone because it was super low budget.

It was just in one room, essentially.

No star actors.

No one came to visit.

No one came to check on us.

It went out.

No one watched it.

They did a test audience screening and it got the lowest test audience score except for women's lawn bowls, which is like...

where they sort of roll little balls along a lawn.

Didn't even know that was on TV.

But women's.

specifically, women's lawn balls, men's lawn bowls is crazy popular, but apparently, women's lawn bowls, very low scoring.

Office was second, and it no one watched it.

And we're like, oh, well, we tried.

And then it just started to pick up some steam, you know, and it started to win some awards.

And then it got rerun, and people started to watch it.

Did press love you?

The press were on.

The press were on top of it, and they loved it.

And then it just started to gather.

Very similar to cheers.

Was it right?

Oh, we were dead last one

week that first year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, 70.

Jimmy likes to say we were 75th out of 70 shows.

It was just dead last.

But isn't it interesting how many shows have that reputation and people stuck with them and they became phenomenons, Seinfeld, obviously being another example.

And I just don't know nowadays whether things get that breathing space, right?

Or that runway, you know.

But yeah, it's interesting.

I think, like you said, with Cheers, it just, the audience starts to engage with it.

They start,

once they tune in to the world and they start to find the characters

affection for them even the the you know the uh mean characters they then they're in and once you get them in they're in and it's like they just it's like a soap opera they just want to spend time in that universe and it's kind of unique to sitcom i think um you know uh you watch things like the sopranos and that and yes you're intrigued but there's a there's an edginess to the viewing

whereas with comedy there's a sort of there's just a there's something

i don't know enveloping warm inviting about being in and you're going to feel better on the other end and you can go to bed feeling a little better about life absolutely did you ever get to meet john clees i've never met him no i've never met him um

but my shame on him

shame

well so my parents were on a cruise once and they found out that cleese was on the same cruise he was going to give a talk and sign copies of a book that he'd written free cruise john a free cruise for John.

And my parents were like, this is so exciting.

We're going to get a book signed for Stephen.

But being my parents, they got the wrong day and they showed up and the talk had already happened.

They'd missed it.

And so through the kind of, you know, through the ship's people, they said, could we try and get this book signed?

Anyway, I came back to visit them one time and they were showing me this kind of shaky.

camcorder footage of them in their in their room on the ship and you can see my mother going i don't know how it works ron it's a camera running and they press play on the kind of um the answering machine in the cabin.

And it's John Cleese and he's saying, Hey, someone asked me to sign this book for you.

Of course, I'm happy to do it.

Can I just ask, is it the same Stephen Merchant who did The Office?

Oh, no.

Because I'm a big fan of the show and I want to send my regards.

And it's like, I'm done.

I don't need to meet him.

You know,

we came full circle.

He was on cheers and it was like, yeah, of course he was.

Of course, we all grew up with Monty Python.

It was over by the time you came along.

But for us, it was like

the holy grail.

It literally was of comedy.

It was

shrinking.

That's

one of the great episodes, I think.

And he was so smart in giving, too, because there was this, and the writers, everybody were, he's, you know, visiting royalty.

We all felt the same.

And I think the writers were trying to make sure he had something wonderful.

And it was the last scene.

And it just, the scene wasn't working.

And John finally said, I think you need to stop worrying about me.

I'm very happy and just write what the scene needs.

And it just,

that's great.

They ended up writing this terrific scene.

But he was

so generous.

And so

I had a root canal or something like the weekend after we shot.

And he came to visit me at the house unsolicited just to see how you were feeling.

So anyway.

Oh, that's lovely.

That's nice.

We have a good hero in common.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Who were your other kind of comedy heroes when you Dick Van Dyke?

Dick Van Dyke, yeah.

Hands down.

Yeah.

Because again, he has that very relaxed, almost effortless style.

Yeah.

And physical comedy.

Yeah.

Both John Cleese and Dick Van Dyke are just incredible with their practice.

Well, that's something I've tried to incorporate where I can.

No, you're magnificent.

Physical stuff.

Seriously, I love watching you act.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think it's also when you're very tall, like I am.

Someone said to me once in an interview,

do you think you went into comedy to control when people laugh at you?

And I thought,

that's a hell of an opening question.

Fuck you first.

Exactly.

But it has stuck with me because I think there's probably some truth to that.

When you're six foot seven, people naturally look at you anyway.

And

so there's something about, if you're going to stare at me, let it be on my terms.

I agree.

I didn't have that, but I was

at age 13, six foot and 120 pounds.

I was scary.

Scary.

And I went to a prep school and they had their share of bullies, but the bullies did not know what to do with me.

It was like if I hit him, he could shatter and I'd spend the rest of my life in jail.

So they just would leave me alone.

And then I also figured early on, I don't know,

I'm not like saying this is the way to go in life.

I think being confrontive is a good thing sometimes.

But I would find the biggest bully on the playground and make him him laugh.

Yeah, right.

And then he was mine.

He became human to me.

Yeah.

And I was the kid who made him laugh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think I never remember being bullied, but I think I got in there preemptively by trying to be funny.

Yeah.

And so therefore, I, like you say, I was kind of insulated from the bullying.

But at the same time, I think I used humor at school as a bit of a barrier.

And therefore, I think I don't, I never felt like I was part of any gang, really.

You know, I was always slightly on the periphery, kind of observing and, you know, got on fun and was not, and it was not a, you know, it was not an unpleasant experience, school, but just never quite, you know, because I was using humor to just keep people at arm's length for fear of that bullying attack.

I wasn't ever really quite part of any, of any circle.

What was, do you remember when it went from one person

once a week, oh, I saw you and such and such, to when it became a torrent of people recognizing you.

How was fame, how's fame sit on you?

Well, I think it was a slow burn.

You know, the old analogy of the frog in the pan of water, and you slowly turn up the heat and it doesn't realize it's being boiled alive.

And I think because I started as a writer and then I would start popping up here and there on talk shows or

and then started to perform and was on screen.

And it just, so it was a much more slow burn experience for me.

And

I think there was probably an occasion where

I remember like, you know, there'd be like a kind of gossip column and they'd, they'd, they'd have seen me, you know, like, I remember they said they'd seen me in a blockbuster video arguing with my girlfriend, presumably squabbling over what movie we were gonna, although I don't remember ever arguing in the blockbuster anyway.

But I remember then you get slightly

kind of complacent.

Like, I don't know if I've you might have heard me tell this story before, but

much like like in Times Square at New Year, in sort of central London, in Trafalgar Square at New Year, there's a big congregation of people for the big countdown and the whole thing.

And I was there,

and, you know, and I'm six foot seven, so I'm taller than most of the people in the crowd.

So I'm like checking out the scene.

And I was young and I was single and I'm like looking for, you know, so maybe a New Year paramour.

And this girl comes up through the crowd and she walks up to me and she says,

hey, are you going to be here for a while?

And I thought, here we go.

She's probably seen me on TV.

Yeah, wants a little piece of Steve, of course.

And she went, she said, I said, yeah, I'm going to be here for a while.

She said, great, because my friends and I have arranged to meet back at you.

I went, so she said, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We just, we need like a meeting point.

We're all going to get, we're going off to a party.

So we just thought we'd use you if that's all right, because we can see you wherever you go.

I was like, huh?

She said, yeah, move around.

Don't worry.

We can see you.

I was like, okay.

So I would move around.

And then finally, I just started fighting people, like, just started gathering and I would move and they would move with me.

I'm like, oh, and then eventually she showed up.

She's like, thanks so much.

And I'm thinking, well, she'll invite me to the party.

They went off to the party.

I didn't get invited.

I went home alone.

I'm like, yeah, I was getting a little too big for my boots there on the old celebrity front.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's a strange experience, you know, very celebrity.

Again, though, I think because I was tall, people always looked at me.

I was about to say, it was hard to tell the difference.

I always got stared at.

And even now, if people don't know who I am, I'll still get people's comment,

you know, because I think people think being very tall is like an accomplishment, it's not an insult.

You know, so I get a lot of do you play basketball?

And

I'll order a drink in a bar, and someone will be like, That's a tall order, and everyone will laugh and high five.

And I'm like, Is that allowed?

Can you just,

but yeah, so I think that I've always, yeah, I've always had people gawping.

Yeah,

every place I go, if there's an ocean, I love to jump into it.

So I'm very excited to talk to you about St.

Pete Clearwater on Florida Gulf Coast near Tampa.

It has 35 miles of beautiful white sand beaches and crystal clear turquoise water.

The sand is as soft as powder, and the gulf waters are warm and calm, perfect for wading, swimming, and floating without a care.

There are plenty of creature comforts there like stylish resorts and top restaurants, but this is a place that values Mother Nature too.

You might spot wild dolphins or manatees any time of year at the beach or in quiet bay waters.

You can even kayak inside mysterious mangrove tunnels and see herons, crabs, and fish.

If you're dreaming of an amazing beach getaway, St.

Pete Clearwater, Florida is the place.

Head to visit spc.com to start planning your trip today.

Skip expensive takeout and unhealthy options.

Home Chef delivers fresh ingredients and delicious meals directly to you.

I've been on the road, so basically I've been eating in restaurants for the last month.

So I'm going to throw this to my producer, Nick Liao.

Nick.

Well, Ted, I can cook a meal for you because I've been enjoying Home Chef.

Nice.

I'm looking forward to trying the Smoky Barbecue Chicken Thighs, which is a good summer meal.

Smoky chicken thighs.

Smoky barbecue chicken thighs.

How does it sound?

I'm you got me coming over to your place.

Yeah, please.

Anytime.

For a limited time, Home Chef is offering our listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box plus free dessert for life.

Go to homechef.com/slash Ted and Woody.

That's homechef.com/slash Ted and Woody for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life.

Homeshop.com slash Tedden Woody.

Must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert.

Your parents, how are they with your fame?

Do you have siblings?

I have one sister, Alex, who's involved sort of behind the scenes in TV and film.

So she's worked on a number of the projects, including the Atlas.

But my dad, I think, is quite enamored of my celebrity, partly because we put him in the the British version of the office.

So, very occasionally, he'll get recognized, which is a huge thrill for him.

He didn't have any speaking lines, but he was a sort of janitor who will occasionally appear, like holding some toilet rolls, and just stare at the camera, transfixed.

And occasionally, people will recognize him.

But if I'm walking with him, like I'll go for a little walk with him when I go visit, and we'll like walk past his local butcher shop.

And he'll just suddenly grab me and throw me in the door.

He's like, Look who it is!

And they'll be like, Hey!

And I'm sort of like a piece of meat, like a prized cow to be admired by the butcher.

But, um,

but no, he's, yeah, but it's, uh, I think there's a couple, there's like a big picture of me on the wall when you walk into the family.

That's great.

My, I grew up without a TV, and my parents didn't want television.

And, and then cheers came along, and they, they were, well, well, we guess we have to buy a TV.

They put a kind of a religious tapestry over the front of it.

So,

you know, it was only when they took the, you know, opened up the devil and turned it on.

And they would just watch cheers and then throw it out.

Yeah.

And I mean, now they grew into news and other things like that.

But

that's

what they loved about it is people reached out to them who they hadn't friends, who they hadn't spoken to or had lost track.

So it was a, you, it was like a, a good thing to them because they got to hang around and meet other their friends that they hadn't seen.

Yeah.

Do you remember though?

It's interesting you said that about you, because I remember when I was growing up, with certain households there was almost like a shame about having a tv like i remember i don't know if you had this in the us but they would have they would have like video cassette cases for the vcr but they the cases would look like books yes and you would put the vcr and the vcr tape in the and then he would put them on the shelf so they looked like books no that's like you know what i mean like the idea that people come around and go hey can i borrow that book no no no you can't read that book no that's a family that's a family book you can't keep just the idea of like hiding your videotapes No, that's Warren Peace.

That's the book.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But

were they religious?

Is that why?

No, I think it was a combination of things.

We lived out in the country, and so in Arizona, so it was early.

This is in the 50s.

So

satellite is not in

play.

So they had to lay a cable.

to your house in essence.

And that was very expensive.

If you lived out in the country, you would have to foot that bill.

So it became out of of the question.

And then they just loved to read.

They were readers.

My father was a museum director, archaeologist, anthropologist.

And my mother was,

I like to say she became spiritual, but she was very religious.

But not

like anti-entertainment.

But just I'd rather you read or you go play.

Yeah.

And of course, now I'm the guy who will turn on a cooking show and watch it for 12 hours straight.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, I think that my dad, my dad was like a plumber and a builder.

And I think he would come home and be exhausted.

And so TV was just a great kind of sal for him.

And so we would watch it together.

And like I say, we'd watch a lot of old black and white movies and things.

And so it was always a kind of bonding thing.

And particularly comedy, watching comedy was a big bonding thing for he and I.

So there was never any,

in fact, I remember once we, I said, dad, maybe I should go and like play some sport or something.

And he's like, oh, okay.

So he took me around to the park with a cricket bat and a ball.

And I had the cricket bat and he had the ball and he bowled me the ball and I thwacked it.

And he said, well, I'm not going to go and run for that.

So we went home, watched TV.

It was the last time I played sport with my father.

He was having none of it.

And so I was never encouraged to go out and play.

I was always encouraged to sit in and watch movies and TV.

Are you non-stop work mode, basically?

I mean, you love what you do.

Yeah.

But do you, what do you do when you don't do this?

Or do you not have those?

No, I don't do a lot of non-this because it was a hobby before it was a

profession.

My hobby is acting.

I love it.

I love going to a studio.

I love this.

The whole process of it,

I used to draw comic strips and I used to write little sketches and things.

I just, it was fun to me.

It was creatively stimulating.

It was nutritious.

And so, and people would often say, oh, you're a workaholic.

And it's like, well, that sounds very pejorative.

And it's like, but what am I supposed to do?

Like, go and play golf, even though I don't play golf.

Like, I, I, you know, I mean, so aside from playing a bit of online chess, I don't do a lot.

Yeah.

Are you good?

No, no, but I'm enthusiastic.

Um, but what I like about online chess is uh, you can play anonymously and you have like a little avatar image that you can choose.

For some reason, mine is Prince on roller skates.

But anyway, um, you'll often, you'll also get people will can write to you when you're playing a game and they don't know who you are and they'll just insult you, you know, be like, you suck, you know, whatever.

And it's it's quite a few occasions now where they've had a little avatar of like dwight shroot from the office or one of the shows i've done yeah they don't know it's me so they're like insulting me yeah but they're also a fan at the same time which i i find quite delicious thank you

thank you again nice one kaching

have you written a book forgive my ignorance i have not written a book besides publishing some scripts of shows we've done but no i've not i'd quite like to write a book you would i would yeah i would have you like an autobiography no

no no no there are too many people still alive who go you put why did you put that you know

no

i quite i think i'd quite like to do that at some point but i've i've just started rebuilding i started doing a stand-up act i haven't done it for about 12 or 13 years that's ballsy yeah and i stand-up is a whole different deal well that was one of the things that when i started i started doing stand-up and then i got sidetracked with tv and kind of didn't go back to it for a long time and eventually did.

And then again, put it on hold because it's like you say,

it's ballsy.

It's also tiring.

It's hard.

You know, you have to go out of the house and try out the material in bars and clubs.

It's very antisocial.

But anyway, but I've been enjoying it and I've been touring or one of them.

At the moment, I'm just building an act very slowly and eventually I will tour it.

But I suppose it's a form of autobiography, right?

Because you're doing it.

Have you been doing it in LA?

Have you been doing it?

I've been mainly doing it in the UK, but I will, while I'm here, I'll do some, I'll try some little spots here and what is it like taking building an act in either LA

or

in England?

Yeah.

Does it translate?

Well, the problem is some of the reference points.

Right.

It's very hard when you're in a particular city or culture, you inevitably draw on those some of those reference points.

And so that's the thing which is harder to translate.

But I think that kind of hopefully the DNA of it

will still

translate across.

So I will, ultimately, I will try and make sure it can work on both sides of the Atlantic.

But

at the moment, it's just sort of, it's just, yeah, it's just throwing a lot of shit at the wall to see what sticks.

And do people know that you're doing that, by the way?

I always hear that people show up to the Laugh Factory or whatever here in LA to try out material.

That's what I try and do, yeah.

Just show hard.

Is that kind of an unspoken thing with your audience?

Or know that this is you trying out stuff?

I think you declare, look, I'm trying this stuff out.

It's new and you'll have maybe a notebook.

But I think what's exciting is not being announced so that there are people in the audience who don't know who you are.

So they have no,

they have no sort of built-in affection for it.

He's funny, so I will laugh because he's known to be funny.

Exactly.

So therefore, it's sort of like a stronger test of the material in some way because they're not your audience.

And they're just judging you on if you're funny or not.

So I find that quite effective, but it's also very, it's a slow process.

Do you have a for if it bombs, if a joke bombs?

I always love that cheers all week, some joke was just killing us.

We thought it was hysterical.

The writers thought it was hysterical.

We couldn't wait to perform it.

And on show night, it would bomb crickets.

And you could not help, but we would all burst into hysterics because it was so physically funny to your body.

Yeah, right, right.

You just, you know, thought there was a step there and you just fell two stories.

I think the difference with stand-up is there's no one to share the

pain, you know?

So it's just you on the stage and there's, you've left this gap for a laugh and it didn't come and there's sort of no hiding place.

And that's, I remember when I first started out before I was known at all, I...

I sort of, my early act was a bit postmodern and it was the idea was me, I was sort of playing a character of this arrogant stand-up that no one had ever heard of that thought he deserved more credit and applause than he was getting.

And that was sort of, so I would come out and I would be like annoyed that they weren't giving me enough applause.

And I would like, I would read reviews, my reviews, but I'd written them in such a way that they were clearly negative, but they could be interpreted as positive.

You know what I mean?

And

if the audience got the joke, they went for it.

They loved it because

they could laugh along at my arrogance, my fake arrogance.

But if they didn't get it and they just thought I was an arrogant comedian, I was done for.

I went, I had, because I had no act because the whole act was like pretending there was going to be an act if you started showing me some respect.

And one time I was performing it and it just nothing.

I mean, brutal.

And someone shouted, taxi for the comedian, you know, the sort of classic kind of slam.

And I had nowhere to go.

And I remember coming off and, and the only person who liked it was the waitress who had, who had done it, seen a lot of comedy and she could see what I was doing.

And, and I remember leaving and I called my agent.

I was like, you've got to get me out of all all future gigs.

I'm done.

This is, it's over.

This is before you were Steve.

Before I was known, yeah.

And, um,

and he said, Well, it can't, because you're contracted to go to this next gig, and I showed up at this next gig, and I'm like, this is, I'm, it's all over.

But they went for it, and I was back on the horse.

Yeah, but I remember at that moment thinking,

looking back on it, it's like, oh, I bombed so terribly, and I didn't die,

and I did get through it.

And they were, and I, and I sort of carried on.

And so, once you've experienced that sheer terror,

you're sort of slightly insulated.

You don't, you definitely don't invite it and you don't want it, but you're sort of prepared for the

physical experience of it.

Yeah, I cannot identify at all.

It's just too ballsy

for me.

And I've always loved the ensembleness of

acting, but that is just terrifying to me.

Yeah, it's a strange perversion.

Not everyone who does stand-up, when you put them into a scripted show,

is

generous.

It's like, I got the ball, let me run, get out of my way.

Because they're used to controlling the situation completely on their own.

Yes.

And it's a rare stand, not rare maybe anymore, but rare stand-up that passes the ball back and forth, you know, as it were, with the other actors.

And I always admire it when people do and can, and you certainly do.

Well, I appreciate that, but I think it's because I think in my DNA, I probably am a writer first and a performer second.

And as a writer, you're always looking at the bigger picture.

And as a director, you want the whole ensemble to gel, to work.

You understand that the sort of give and take, that sometimes the emphasis needs to be on other characters.

And so I think, and I think the more I've done it, the more I've become experienced as an actor, the more I've, it's both fed back into the writing.

It's also given me a lot of faith that actors will help me solve problems, script problems, if scenes not working.

And I always think the thing I've realized is that as an actor, I think you're seeing the script from the inside out somehow.

And

as a writer or director, you're on the outside looking in.

And I think sometimes if something's not right, I'm like, I can't figure out why as a writer, this is not working.

I'll ask the actor and they'll be able to

something that's not right for their character in that scene.

And so I So I do try to think of them as almost different disciplines.

You do the writing, then you move to the acting and thinking them as very separate things.

And as time's gone on, I've started to do some drama acting as well.

And that's become a whole other sort of skill set, you know, as you start to get into drama.

Jojo Rabbit, you were the one.

Absolutely brilliant.

Thank you for an amazing film.

Thank you.

That was a very good film.

Yeah.

But I did a thing in the

Four Lives where I played a real-life serial killer.

And that was fascinating because you don't know, how do you get into the mind of a serial killer?

And that became almost like a writer, a writerly exercise, like almost writing in your head, what are they thinking?

When they're in court, do they know they're lying?

Have they convinced themselves they didn't commit these crimes?

And that itself becomes a really interesting thing.

I did play it a part early on, beautifully written.

It was about somebody who incested their child who they loved.

And I did a lot of research and talked to people who treated those kind of people.

And

you could understand,

you could sit there in your process, go, oh, I see, I see, until the act.

Yeah.

And then there's a line that that person crossed,

which is

unknowable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And taboos in society, this sounds like, and this is actor talk, so wow, I hope this comes across all right.

But taboos are set up in society because it's not unheard of.

Right.

Right.

What this crime or this thing, this act, it's not unheard of.

So you make it a taboo.

So anyway,

I don't know how you felt.

I mean, was the person was killing lots of people?

He killed at least four men that we're aware of.

Right.

Maybe more.

And

not in acts of passion, acts of

premeditative aspect to it.

So how did you, you know, you can get close to that, I would assume, as an actor, writer, preparing, thinking.

Right.

But then there's that line.

There's that line where it's baffling and you just

can't understand it.

And there's a little bit of footage of him being interviewed by the police.

It's quite a recent crime, so he's in prison now in the UK.

But

the little bit of footage I saw, there was something almost

childlike about him.

And that was something I used almost just as a way in of kind of like

imagining a child who sort of doesn't quite fully understand

their actions or the blurring between right and wrong.

You know, maybe that was just a way of trying to compute it.

You'll have to say a sociopath or a psychopath

that there is that lack of understanding, that lack.

If you don't have compassion or empathy and you can't teach it,

I mean, you could probably give it a, you you know, a good shot, but you can't teach it.

And so,

yeah.

So I'm always very admiring of actors

that really go into that territory.

Because again, it's not until I started to explore that as an actor that I started to really understand those that do it incredibly well, sort of how challenging it is.

You know, I'm not sure I'm that guy.

Or want to be.

I mean,

you never know whether you don't have the chops to do it or whether you just don't have the emotional desire to do it.

I remember when I was playing this thing, it was called Something About Amelia, playing that character.

I knew that my job was to be as truthful in every moment as possible so that people couldn't dismiss me.

Oh.

You know,

oh, well, that's not me.

You know, once you lose them and they start, they go, oh, well, you know, Stephen kind of blew that moment up or

Stephen lost me there.

Then you're doing a disservice to the piece because

really what you're trying to say is there, but for the grace of God, go I.

You know, you know, not that, oh, that's something

foreign and inhuman.

No, it is human.

Yeah.

It's horrible.

And that's what's all the more chilling.

Yeah, exactly.

But I think also it's that fear of, you know, because people know you for comedy, making sure you don't sort of unbalance the piece because it's inadvertently perceived as comic, even if you yourself are not trying to be comic.

And that was my fear, but from certainly the resports I got back, it wasn't seen that way.

But it's interesting because to me, comedy was always very instinctive and very easy.

And I sort of understood how to do it as a performer.

I understood timing.

It was never intimidating to me.

Whereas this was very different because it felt like this was new territory.

I didn't have any

kind of

guardrails to help me.

And that was both challenging but exciting.

I don't see it as a stretch for you.

I mean, I'm sure it was, but your comedy, I'll give you the compliment back.

Your comedy is believable.

You're taking people and maybe tilting

one little quarter inch past

what would be perhaps drama or sad and making it funny.

But you never lose people into, oh, well, this is so broad, you know, that it's it's not, you're not laughing at something that I would ever be.

You always make sure that you're human and relatable to and you can't be dismissed.

I hope so, because I think it goes back to what we said at the very beginning, which is that, you know, certainly the comedy I've always loved, both sides of the Atlantic,

there is sort of a,

not necessarily a tragedy, but there is a there is a realism, there's a sadness or a desperation or a or just a humanity at the core of it.

And yes, you're dialing things up for laughs, but what's relatable, what you're you're tuning into is something very human.

And so, you know, like even in someone like Outlaws, where I'll have a scene that's played for laughs and the next moment it'll be very dark or dramatic, because to me, that is what life is.

You know, it can shade between those two areas in an instant, right?

Something can be hysterical and then you get a phone call and it's the saddest thing you've ever heard.

So that is to me what life is.

And I always think

sometimes, you know, people will get criticizing because they'll be like, oh, well, you know, it's tonally all over the And it's like, well, kind of like life.

Because life is.

It's tonally very wild.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it can change on a dime.

Do you have sadness in you?

This, me being Barbara Walters.

But what do you, do you, I mean, you write, you have a familiarity within your work.

Yeah.

I don't, I, I often kind of flippantly say

that I kind of am annoyed I don't have more sadness just from a creative point of fuel, a creative fuel, you know, more

depression or darkness in my past or whatever.

I just, that, I, I just, but it's not really there.

And of course, ultimately, I'm thankful for that.

But, you know, I sort of read about these very tortured comedians or artists or writers who have just got so much pain to draw on.

And I'm like, I'd love a piece of that.

I'd love a bit of that, you know.

But what I, my dad wouldn't play cricket with me.

Like, that's not enough.

That's not enough fuel.

He's used it for like 30 years.

It's really must have been a big, big day for him.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But

I am just interested in people, I guess.

And

I think increasingly one of the things I love about like the podcast world is just

how you get to hear those long-form conversations with people

that really help you dial into what makes people tick.

That's literally why I want to do this.

Yeah.

It is a privilege to, and it's something that I'm not.

I do the self-deprecating who am I to way too much.

But

for whatever reason, I do it.

And it keeps me in a party or picking up the phone and going,

you're fascinating.

Can we just hang out for a minute or have a beer or talk?

I don't do it.

But now they're these guards, they're not guardrails, but this is what we're supposed to do.

We have a microphone in front of us and we get to spend an hour talking.

And I would never do this with you.

Right.

Yeah.

I would definitely never do this with you, Ted.

Hey, well, if you called me, I would never answer.

I'd be like, Jesus, it's this guy again.

But, you know, I'd love my relationships.

I never want to go have a, hang out and have a beer.

I'm not that guy.

I'm really not.

I want to go hang out with my wife.

Yeah.

But not go have a beer, even though I like you and it'd be nice and it'll be nice and relaxing because we're guys, ho, ho, ho.

Yeah.

But it's, I wouldn't do it.

But working, Yes.

Having a project together.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Is my favorite thing to do?

Yeah.

Well, I'm very good sort of in isolation.

Like I'm very quite happy on my own.

You know, I like, I like having, I see, I like having conversations.

I, I'm not completely loathing the idea of a beer with you or anyone else, but I could also spend two weeks, you know, at home.

never seeing anybody and I would and I would be quite fine.

And even if my partner Mersey was not around, like, you know, I love spending time with her, but I, again, I'm quite good sort of on my own.

Just is she good on her own?

Uh,

I think she would prefer that I was in the house and that we were hanging out, yeah, yeah.

Um,

and she's just, I think, naturally more adept at sort of social interaction.

I think I always have had to work at it slightly more and sort of try.

Yeah,

I um,

it took me a long time, I think, to, to think that it wasn't, it wasn't through, um,

it wasn't through sort of, this sounds like, uh, uh, like I'm being really kind of down on myself, but I just used to think, I don't know, people would be fine if I wasn't around.

And I don't mean that, I wasn't, I don't mean that in a really bleak way.

I just feel like, you, you, I'm, yeah, I'm fine.

I'm all right, you know, if I'm at the party, yeah, but if I wasn't there, you're all going to be fine.

And as I got older, I'm like, oh, that's true of everybody.

Like, we can all cope without other people, you know.

Well, there'll be a substitute and there'll be someone else.

But so, but it sounds like I'm like, oh, this guy hates himself.

But it was just, no, I thought I was getting posted something sad, but shoot, shoot, I guess not.

Darn it.

I love going to like award shows and worried about and being self-conscious and worried what people might, or da-da-da-da-da-da.

And then realize there's this blinding flash of

no one is paying attention to anyone else in that room.

They're all going through this

self-doubt, same thing.

I lost,

I was nominated nine times before I won an Emmy.

And I've like, I think I've won two out of like 18 or 19 nominations.

But people

in those rooms will go, oh, well, you've won so many times.

Yes.

No one has any idea about, you know, you're just in your own little world of self-consciousness.

Did you, what did you you win for ultimately?

Thanks a lot.

Did you win for cheers?

Hold on, hold on.

Yes,

two cheers.

But I think

I think that comes down to the fact you made it look easy.

I think people, it's not showy.

It's not a showy performance.

And I think people underrate that.

Could be.

You know, I think often the people that win awards

are doing a lot of tricks.

And even when we as.

Let's go with that.

I like that.

Or maybe you were just terrible in those first eight seasons.

Or how come we don't have more Academy Award-winning either comedic performances or comedies?

Well, that is an interesting question because I do wonder.

To pull a comedy off as a filmmaker, as a writer, let alone as an actor,

is hard.

That's really hard.

It's very, very hard to do anything well.

And to do something well where you also need to have laughs every 10 seconds, that's really tough.

Really hard.

And I don't, like you say, I've never quite understood why it's not more valued.

Like you say, at this age.

As an actor, comedy is like an athletic sport.

You need to be in training.

You need to be in good shape.

You need to have all your brain cells firing.

Drama, you can show up divorced, depressed, and drunk.

And the camera goes, oh, wow.

There's so much in here.

Interesting.

Yeah, but I think it's that you were saying about the being at the award show.

I think one of the great reliefs as you get older is realizing no one has it figured out.

Everyone's guessing, everyone's insecure, everyone's, what did that guy think of me?

Did I say something dumb at the dinner party?

And that's the, it's, and when you realize that, a great weight is lifted.

Right.

I think when you're, certainly, when I was younger, I just was like, I just felt like other people had figured it out.

And what was I missing?

Yeah.

No, no one knows.

And even as you get older, you realize that, but you don't have anything figured out more.

You know, you still feel like that.

What the hell did I say that for?

You just don't care.

I have this prayer.

It's like when I go into a situation like that, I said, please, Ted, do not tilt too far forward.

Just

relax.

Let people come to you.

You don't have to, you know.

And the last thing, and it never works.

The last thing I went to was a Screen Actors Guild award.

And we were kind of late because we were late to the crowd.

So they were just starting as we walked through the

crowd to get to our table.

It was all round tables.

And this sweet lady was leading us and Mary was behind her and I was behind Mary.

And

I took my eyes off this little line of, you know, the sweet lady and Mary.

And they went left to get to our table.

And I went right thinking that it was this table I was approaching.

And man, I was glad-handing all these actors going, hey, how are you?

Good to see you again.

Last time, and I went around the table and somebody finally grabbed me gently by the shoulder.

Your table's over here.

You still dancing.

And everyone was looking at you like such a prat.

Yeah.

The saving grace is I find my stupidity

funny.

Right, right.

It kind of delights me.

Yes.

That I'm such an idiot.

Well, I think when, particularly when something happens, even in the moment that I'm humiliating myself, like the story with the Trafalgar Square at New Year.

Even at the moment it happened, I'm like, this is gold dust.

Like, I can't believe my luck because you're in a profession that allows you to turn that into something, whether it's stand-up or talk shiny or whatever.

And there's such a relief to that, being able to, and I think I'm all, the thing that I always judge people on is can they laugh at themselves?

When I meet people that can't, that are never the center of the joke, that never the butt of the joke.

That's sad.

That have to sort of win in every conversation, in every anecdote.

I know they're never going to be my people.

I just can't tune into that.

And they're exhausting to be around.

Yeah.

I like the people that are willing to share the time that they felt on their face.

I'm interested in alpha males, but ultimately they're boring.

Yes.

Yes.

You know?

Yeah.

They soak up too much oxygen.

They're just soaking up all the air in the room, aren't they?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And I find that, you know, sometimes you realize what someone's like and you're like, okay,

I'll just

let them talk and then go find someone else.

I'm not going to compete with this,

the one-upmanship thing.

I've never got into that.

It's just,

hey, let the work do the talking, yeah?

I'm so grateful you came in and talked with me.

I so admire your work as an actor.

I love watching you act, but I cannot wait to go home and see the rest of Outlaws.

That's

incredible.

I just love it.

Well, it's a huge thrill for you to have invited me.

I'm such a fan of you, as you know.

And so, yeah, I'm sending all that praise back at you.

And thank you so much for having me.

That was Stephen Merchant.

Really,

he's kind of John Cleese-like to me.

And check out.

Outlaws.

I think it's on Prime Video, and it's really brilliant.

That's it for our show this week.

Special thanks to our friends at Team Coco.

If you enjoyed this episode, please send it to someone you love.

Be sure and check us out on YouTube where you can watch full-length episodes.

As always, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and give us a great rating and review if you're in the mood on Apple Podcasts.

Thanks.

We'll have more for you next week, where everybody knows your name.

You've been listening to Where Everybody Knows Your Name with Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson sometimes.

The show is produced by me, Nick Liao.

Our executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself.

Sarah Federovich is our supervising producer.

Engineering and Mixing by Joanna Samuel with support from Eduardo Perez.

Research by Alyssa Grahl.

Talent Booking by Paula Davis and Gina Batista.

Our theme music is by Woody Harrelson, Anthony Gen, Mary Steenbergen, and John Osborne.

With Disney Plus and Hulu, there is so much amazing entertainment.

You'll discover something every day.

Whether you're looking to binge a hilarious classic hit like Modern Family, enjoy the biggest blockbusters like Marvel Studios Thunderbolts on Disney Plus, catch the latest news on what you need to know, or check out out new episodes of only murders in the building.

This is the one place that has it all.

Get all of this and so much more with Disney Plus and Hulu every day.

It doesn't get better than this.

18 Plus only.

Offer valid for eligible subscribers only.

Terms apply.

Your home should show off who you are, telling your story in every detail, meeting you where you are.

Ashley has styles that balance timeless appeal and modern trends to bring your personal look home, Pairing eye-catching design with features like stain-resistant performance fabric, Ashley offers well-crafted, affordable pieces built to stand up to real life.

Plus, they provide fast, reliable white glove delivery right to your door.

Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.