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'Things ran hot at SNL': Seth Meyers gets real on Wild Card this week
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A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: Seth Meyers is a person who likes to get things right. That may be part of why he’s been so successful as a cast member and then head writer on Saturday Night Live, and, of course, in his current role as host of Late Night. But it was fascinating watching it in the context of this interview.
Obviously there are no right or wrong answers on Wild Card — they’re just supposed to be honest. But the moment that really made me see that get-things-right side of Meyers was when he called himself out for not being truthful pretty early on. Which then opened up a different kind of a conversation.
Seth Meyers' new HBO stand-up special is Dad Man Walking.
This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.
Question 1: When have you felt most homesick?
Seth Meyers: After college I had the most wonderful two years. I worked at an American comedy theater in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. And I loved every minute of it. But I'd never been overseas. I'd never been away from my family. And my family connects so much on stuff, like watching sports together. And the massive time difference — I felt very far away from my parents, mostly on, like, Sundays when I couldn't even check in with them during events of great value to us.
But in general I should say, I don't often feel homesick. I kind of gave you a phony answer, maybe. I've never felt that homesick.
Rachel Martin OK, interesting. You are close with your parents, though?
Meyers: I'm close with my parents. My parents still live in the house I grew up in, but one of the reasons I don’t feel particularly homesick for that is, my parents have an old English sheepdog and they have had different ones over the course of the entirety of my life, and I'm definitely allergic to them. And I thought I was chronically ill all through high school. And then I went to college and —
Martin: You’re like, “It's an autoimmune disease.”
Meyers: Yep. And then I went to college and I'm like, “No, it was the dogs.” My dad was very frustrated with how sick I got. And he thought there had to be a root cause. And so I remember we went to one of those allergy doctors where they do the prick test. And I remember just driving there and my dad being like, “We're going to figure this out. We're going to make you better. Nobody should be as sick as you.” And then they did the prick test and the biggest spot was dogs. And then we got in the car and he's like, “We're not getting rid of the dog.”
Martin: Take a couple Benadryl. You'll be fine.
Meyers: Exactly.
Question 2: Has ambition ever led you astray?
Meyers: Not astray. I think that sometimes ambition maybe led me away from my strengths. You know, being on SNL, obviously, there were a lot of people that I was colleagues with who both were on SNL and they were having robust acting careers outside of SNL. And I was covetous of that. And I mean, I guess it's ambition, I was like, “Oh, I want to be in movies, too.” And very slowly it dawned on me, and it probably should have dawned on me faster, “Oh, this isn't the thing I'm supposed to be doing. Like, I'm good at some other things, but being an actor isn't one of them.” And when I look back, I wasted a lot of time and put myself through a wringer that I could have avoided if I had just had the sense of like, “You know what, sometimes ambition for a thing is misplaced if you don't actually have the sort of underlying talent that you need to go along with it.”
Martin: But you came to that realization on your own, it didn't take someone telling you that part isn't going to work out?
Meyers: I mean, I should say, I kept not getting cast, so it wasn't like anybody ever took me aside, you know? It's not like your agents are like, “Stop.” But I did at some point say, “I don't want to go on auditions anymore.” And at the time, you know, some other things happened — being promoted to head writer at SNL — that I realized, “Oh, this is an accomplishment and it should be enough for me and I should maybe let go of that other chase.”
Martin: But that's a harder. Head writer at SNL, like, what's that career trajectory? It worked out for you, but when you're an actor, you're just like, “I'm an actor.” And then you have acting jobs.
Meyers: Yeah, but I guess one of the things was I wasn't as much of an actor as other people in the cast. I had been an improv comedian and then I had this weird path that led me to SNL. And then you make this mistake of, you walk down a hallway and you see pictures of former cast members and you think because you work at the same place they do, you're going to have the same career path, you know? But it's a mistake to say just because you got hired at the same place as Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, that doesn't mean you’re going to have their career. And a lot of different people with a lot of different skill sets come through SNL. And so, you know, I'm very grateful that there was a patience with my time there that allowed me to find my fit.
Question 3: Are you good at knowing when something should end?
Meyers: Yes.
Martin: Conversations?
Meyers: Conversations, definitely.
Martin: Disagreements?
Meyers: Yes, I'm very good. I once — I hope I don’t get in trouble for this — my wife and my sister-in-law were fighting once. It was during a very fraught Christmas vacation. Too many people were in my in-laws' house. And they were fighting in the hallway. And I came out and I screamed, “You know, some people de-escalate!” And they were both very taken aback. But I —
Martin: It’s easier to end someone else’s fight.
Meyers: I know when to walk away from an argument. I think part of it is I'm more often than not willing to take the L.
Martin: Yeah. That's interesting.
Meyers: Yeah. I think I'm happy to take the L in a disagreement for the purposes of moving on.
And another thing — I feel like I was far more temperamental when I was younger and things ran very hot at SNL. And there were definitely times where my instincts were to say something that would have been relationship-ending to people.
Martin: Oh, really?
Meyers: You know, just you're having an argument and, looking back, all shamefully petty, you know?
Martin: But you didn't say those things, or did you?
Meyers: No, and one of the reasons I didn't say them is because of my producer and dear friend, Mike Shoemaker, who works with me now and worked with me at SNL. I remember once saying, “I'm going to go tell so-and-so he's a you-know-what.” And he used to always say, “It's a long life. It's a long life. And the people you work with here, what you are going through with them is going to — even for the ones that aren't your favorite people — this is bonding. And you will need, for the rest of your life, you will need these relationships to remember what this time was like. And these people, more of them are going to be at your wedding than aren't.” And so I'm very happy I lived by the adage of, “It's a long life.” Because if it's somebody you think might be your friend in the future, there's no reason to burn it down in the present.
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