"Jenny Slate"
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Hey guys, just kind of like a massive major workout. My thighs are pumped, my thighs are pumped, my everything's pumped up so big I can't even like I don't I pass a mirror and I'm like, wait a minute, where did Sean go? And it's he's right here. So

But who am I kidding? I didn't work out. I never work out. Welcome to Smartless. Smart. Less. Smart. Less. Smart. Less.

I woke up this morning about the NASA thing. Did you read this thing today? No. What happened? That the Voyager, you know, it's like 15 billion miles away. Yeah. And they don't quite know what's, there's something going on with it where they're not receiving correct information, but they're still receiving information.

And I'm interested in that shit. Did I just lose everybody? No. Yeah, you don't want to try to stay away from just half stories. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I was going to say, like, I'd be interested if you gave me actually anything interesting to think about. Okay. Well, I can tell you what happened with my, I got my MRI back from my neck. This I want to know about. Okay. Okay. And what'd they say? No, I got a better story. It's a pain in the? Ah, ba-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-

Okay, so listen. So this is a true story. As you can notice, I got my hair cut yesterday, right? It's really, really short. And I got a little color in there, too. So, scavo, blah, blah, blah. Joke, joke, joke. Scavo, Greek, fantastic. Oh, hang on. Is that what we do now to fucking...

What the fuck is going on? What are we at, a kid's birthday party? So I'm sitting there. Wait, wait, wait. You just glossed over the rinse. You put a rinse in there, huh? What was the name of the color on that rinse? It's usually something like chestnut forever or something like that. No. That's my handle on my profile. On your weight. No. It's two words. Chestnuts. No, it's nut on chest. Right? Please nut on chest.

Dot com. We really got to get a snare drum in here. Oh, I got that. I got that whistle. Oh, boy. Here it comes. Here comes Shecky. Go, Sheck. There it is.

So listen, so wait, so I'm sitting there and you know Chris McMillan who does your hair, Jason. Sure. So he's sitting on the other side in his station across and I go, Chris, get me something like a piece of candy or something. I want some sugar or something sweet. And he goes back in the mix, like, I don't have anything. Want me to make you a peanut butter sandwich? I was like, no, I don't want that. So I'm sitting there and Scoville's cut my hair and like 10 minutes later, he hands me a bag of,

of chocolates he sent somebody out to get me chocolate it's full service over there isn't that the nicest thing in the world chris did or eskevo did chris did that's pretty nice the guy who owns the salon that's pretty nice i know i know chris i know for tracy i can't believe you're asking them for snacks in there why don't you just go in there and also there wasn't a please in there you were like hey skiva give me some candy you said hey chris give me some candy

I know. What is going on? You're a tyrant. He was so sweet. I can't believe that, that he actually sent somebody out to get me chocolates. Also, who eats peanut butter in a hair salon? The hair's going to get stuck in it. Gross. That sounds disgusting to me. Well, anyway. Listen, I don't want to keep our guest waiting. I do. Okay, listen. Yeah, so with all this momentum, this hilarious momentum, let's go ahead and intro the guest.

I'm super excited about our... Don't make me do it again. I'm super excited about our... It's just at arm's length is what's so weird. It's a little slide whistle. I'd have to drive 10 miles to buy one of those, and yours is just arm's length. I don't even know what the search terms are for it. I'm super excited.

about our sweet, kind, funny, cutest pie guest today. I had the pleasure of standing next to her as we both voiced characters in that animated show I did last year, Q-Force, and she made me laugh really hard. She's the epitome of a workaholic. She doesn't stop working. And I'm not sure why she's on SmartList because she graduated valedictorian of her class from Milton Academy before attending Columbia as a lit major.

She starred in films like Obvious Child and Gifted. She's guest starred on Parks and Recs and Girls and Everything Funny You Can Think Of. Earlier this year, she starred with our friend Charlie Day in the Amazon original rom-com I Want You Back. And she is, of course, the star of my favorite animated character of all time, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. It's the wonderfully talented and hysterical Jenny Slate. Jenny Slate. Who's really great. Jenny. Hi.

Hi, Jenny. Thanks for being here. This is so cool. Oh, my gosh. It's so... I don't know if your guests say this a lot, but, like, the energy mounting, waiting to be revealed, and then all... Like, it depends on what your personality is, but if you're like, oh, my gosh, what if I'm, like, a bad surprise and no one cares? And then you guys are so funny, and I was laughing, and I didn't trust the mute.

I was like, maybe I'll laugh so hard I'll bust through the mute. As the youngest of five children, I'm a bad surprise. Oh, there it is. Sean, don't you hear me? Oh, that's nice. You know what, Jenny? I'm so sorry. First of all, hi. Nice to meet you. Hi. You've never met. You did the Lego Batman movie together. Oh, wait. We've met briefly. Yeah, but we didn't record.

I think we briefly in passing, but this is our first conversation. We've never had an actual dialogue, so yeah. Double snub. What about no chatting at the craft service table? Did you guys not? They didn't have one. Sean, tell Tracy what a craft service table is. Craft service is where they feed the cast off the side, like with a line of just food on tables.

It's a snack table. It's a snack table for everybody. More easily said. Yeah. Wait, I read somewhere, Jenny, that you are like, because I'm looking at where you are right now. I'm not in my home. That's what I was going to say. Okay, so that's what I was going to say. Listener, it looks like she's in a supply closet. Do you run a travel agency? I know. What's going on? I'm in a supply closet. Okay, look, I'm in a supply closet that...

Looks like you got last night's dress hanging on a hook behind you, too. There's a toilet underneath me. There's a toilet. I hope so. That's where you want it to be. Are you on a boat? Are you in the head on a boat?

Or are you just suffering from colitis right now and you just want to stay ready? You know, I don't feel safe. I don't feel like myself unless there's a toilet truly screwed in with full-on plumbing into just whatever space I'm in and I need that. Directly under you. Yes.

So I live for most of the year in a small town in Massachusetts by the ocean. And I live on a little peninsula and we have wifi that is like internet that my mother-in-law put in there in like, you know, the late nineties, I want to say, and no one has ever decided to improve upon it. And so when it's raining, literally it's like raining today. It's not, there's not even really a breath of wind, but the internet becomes very bad. And so,

My husband owns the general store, so I came up here with my computer and my power cord trailing like a little tail. - This sounds so good though. - And was like, "Can I use the office?" - Jenny, this is crazy. I know there's not a breath of wind. What's the five day outlook?

I'm going to tell you what, Bill. We're going to get into the high 70s is what I heard. Now, Jenny, this sounds like an ideal life you live. Tell us slow about this peninsula and what did you say most of the year? The general store that your husband owns. Does he wear an apron? Here's the thing. In ideal life,

I still have the same personality that I had in L.A., so I'm waiting for the adjustment to kick in, for that chillness, that chillness to rise. Maybe you need to move to Chillmark. Come on! Hang on a second. Sean?

So whereabouts, keeping your safety in mind so you don't need to get too specific, whereabouts are you in Massachusetts? Sure. I can see Martha's Vineyard from where I live. Are you in Woods Hole? I'm not in Woods Hole. I'm in what they call South Coast, Massachusetts. South Coast, huh?

And I'm from Massachusetts, and I did not know that this area existed. And my husband and I were kind of— Oh, yeah. Where are you from? Where are you from, Jenny? I'm from Milton, Mass. No shit, huh? Matter of fact, I used to know a kid— No, he's from fucking—he's from Bill Ricka, but I knew this other kid from Milton. Fucking good kid. You should see this dude. What's his name? His name's Sully, obviously. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, everyone is. But he's, yeah. But he lives, he's from Belreca, but he lives in Milton and he works in Peabody.

That's where my cousins live. Are you shitting me in fucking Peabody? I'm not kidding. Do they work for the Edison? What's that? Like the Edison, like the con Edison? Yeah, the fucking power company. Yeah. There it is. There you know. Like con Edison? Jenny Slate, how did you, so did you just stumble into this general store one day and you say, hey, handsome fella in an apron? No, ding, ding, ding, and the bells went when she opened the door? Yeah.

I don't see a ring on that finger. What about we get a malt? Yeah, yeah. Is that how it all went? Listen, it's not how it went. I wish that that would be really nice. That's so romantic. But in fact, I met my husband in... Online? Well, in the Arctic. Okay.

In the Arctic. Oh, really? In the Arctic. What do you mean? I met him in Arctic Norway. It's coming. What? I know. It's like it all just sounds like, you know, those people who try to have stuff to make them more interesting, but they're actually like basic, so they say stuff like this. This is a great pitch. This is a great pitch. Keep going. So you guys meet in the Arctic. Uh-huh. What happens? So she's in the Arctic. Yeah, she's in the Arctic.

She's an artist. She's in the Arctic. She's there for art, but what she does find is love. By the end, you realize that love is art, and art is love, and she's standing on the end of a peninsula with a toilet underneath her. Can I just say that we love this, and this is exactly the kind of thing we're looking for. We'd like to take this off the table now. Truly, first time I've ever sold anything in the room. Wait, wait, so you met in the, how did you meet in the Arctic? What were you doing in Arctic Norway?

I was making a movie there, and my friend wrote the movie, and her now husband is best friends with my now husband. Okay, right. And so they—and I was there, and they invited him to come there and, like, hang out with us. To Norway. Was it a setup or just a visit? Well, they—

It was just a visit. I guess there wasn't a lot of pressure put on it. So you didn't know it was a possible setup. Did he know it was a possible setup? He must have to like pack your bags and fly all the way. For what? There's this great girl here. He must have had some sort of carrot there, right? Did he know? Well,

He lived in Amsterdam, so we didn't go that far. You know, it's not like he came from Massachusetts. That would be like totally... Is he from Amsterdam? No, he's from Massachusetts, but he was living in Amsterdam. No, he's originally from Mass, too. What town is he from, too? Oh, let's revisit this joke. We live in his childhood home. Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot. No, no, it's Will's fault. It's Will's fault. No, I should let it run its course. Do the funny voice again, Will. Yeah. No.

You know what? You know what, Bateman? Fuck you. Shut the fuck up, Bateman. Oh, my God. Jenny, the reason why I asked about where you're sitting right now, because it does look like a utility closet. I am. I'm in the closet. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Pause. Anybody? Yeah.

Hang on. Oh, let me just do an in advance. Does anyone ground ball guys? Just to bank it. I came out of there years ago. Okay, there you go. Have you ever seen Vaudeville? Because Sean would love to walk you through some of the... Every time on the set of Will and Grace, they all did that to each other. I read somewhere once that you were like a massive...

OCD clean freak, because I am a little bit of that, too. I am. Yeah. Yeah, I've got a problem. Yeah. I'm not. You do? What's it like for... What's happening for you? Like, did you have a messy childhood, Jenny, or something? Sorry, Jay. Yeah, I did. I did have a messy childhood. Wait, Jenny, don't drop your voice and get real real with us, okay? I did. Oh, boy. Yeah, I did. I did have a messy... Goddamn right, I did. I think that was more like me adjusting in my jeans. I did... I...

- I did have a messy childhood. - What? - I did. I did, I had a messy childhood, but very clean grandmothers, like tidy houses, and there was just like a big obvious like, oh, I'm way less stressed out at both of my nana's houses than in our house where it's like crazy. It's like crazy in here. - Yeah, I'm the same way. I grew up like in a mess. - So then your OCD comes from trying to create order and cleanliness as opposed to trying to avoid germs.

Yeah, I don't think I have. I mean, obviously, I'm kind of like at the COVID level of afraid of germs that maybe most people are. But for me, a tidiness means like an untidiness means like an unsettled mind. And it like makes me feel crazy. And there are like little things that.

Like, I don't understand why you would ever leave anything open. Like, why you would leave a cabinet open, a dishwasher, a jar. That's crazy to me. What about a toothpaste tube? What is wrong with people? For me, it's more I'm with you on the people who can leave a cupboard that much open. I'm like, just close it. I was just, my friend Eli. Because what else are you leaving open, right? What? Because if you leave those things open, what else are you leaving open? Holy shit. Holy shit. Right.

It just got really nice. Hey, wait, Sean, you're not a... First of all, Jason, the term OCD is way overused. It's not OCD. Yeah, I don't have OCD. Just to be clear, it's not OCD. So nice try. It's the same way that everybody says that...

I don't know. We just use a lot of these terms that are just, you know, a little overhead. Sorry, man. I'll work on it. Yeah, okay. Thanks. I'm a little intense today, Jenny, because my workout... We interrupted him right in the middle of it. What were you blasting bys and what was today? No, just doing a little boxing, bro. Just doing a little boxing. Oh, right on. Right on. Were you winning or...? I hope so, because I was up against a bag.

All right, so Eli... But Eli would go... When we were in Atlanta, I'd come to the kitchen in the morning and there'd be...

four glasses, some cups and whatever stacked next to the sink. And I'd go and stuff open. I'd go, at least forget, I get you're not going to put it in the dishwasher. Can you not put it at least in the sink? It is how much, it's easier. Gravity would take your hand down even further into the sink. And run some water in it. And run some water in it. Yeah. And he literally at one point just kind of looks at me and goes, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, yeah.

Because you got a deal on this roommate, huh? Yeah. Yeah, Scotty can't handle when there's actual like pieces of food in the sink too. Like if I just put a plate down. He has to rinse it out. Yeah. I always clean the food, make sure there's no food in the sink, but I don't really put the dishes in the dishwasher. He likes to do that. He likes to do that. Oh, that's nice. And now a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show.

Jenny, I don't know if you're like this. I like things to be orderly and stuff. And at the same time, I'm not like a, I'm not a germaphobe. But I just like things as certain to be kind of clean and sorted. Yeah, I like that too. I like to like display my kitchenware like it is sort of a useful art installation. When people like move the bowls around, I'm like...

I know it's not okay to be unchill about that, but then when people are gone, I'll put it back. But mostly I'm just like,

Yeah, I like to, I think it's about respect. I really do. And I like how it feels to close the circle. Like when I make dinner every night and like while the thing is, I was just saying this to a friend, like I guess this is a big thing. I love a clean station. And when whatever's on the stove getting, you know, having its final...

you know, moments on the stove, I do all the dishes I can. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I love it. - I get that. - It feels so good to me. - I get that. You know what? I'm gonna share with you guys a story that I haven't really told you before. - Tuck in, Jesse. - Well... - Which was, I think I was kind of messy when I was younger. - What? - I went to all boys boarding school. - Okay. - And when I was there, I was in seventh grade. I was 12.

And hang on, it gets mildly, mildly interesting. We're going to start at 12? Okay. And one day, and the guy who ran the house kept telling me, you got to clean your room, you got to clean your room. Finally, one day I came back and my shit was everywhere. And I came back and all my shit was gone from my room. And I go, where's my stuff? And he goes, come with me. And he'd taken all my stuff and put it in garbage bags and put it in the back of his car. And he drove me six miles away.

And I had four garbage bags full of stuff. And I was a little 12. And these big bags of stuff. And he was like, put them down. And he said, hopefully now you'll learn to clean your room. And he drove away.

And so I had these four huge bags and six miles. And I thought, how am I going to do it? So I started doing like two bags, 50 yards, go back at the other two bags. They were too big. Are you kidding me? No, I swear to God. And at a certain point, I thought like, I'm going to fucking break. Like, what's going to happen here? And I was like, you know what I got to do? And I just opened. I started putting everything on.

and jackets and whatever. And I managed to get most stuff on and then just had a small bag left of stuff. Oh my God. I walked like a Michelin... True story. And I walked back. And I came, I remember crossing the first soccer field towards my house and him seeing me

way sooner than he thought he was going to see me. And I was carrying the shit, but I was wearing everything, and I felt like a fucking king. And I was like, fuck you. I figured it out, you dummy. And then did you just throw it all over your room again? But you know what? Last lap on me. From then on, I was much better. I was much better about cleaning my stuff. This was a boarding school? Yeah. This was 1982. Wow. Yeah.

I remember when my dad got blasted drunk one night, which was very, very often, he came home and the dishes weren't done. So he's really furious about that. Did he take an Uber, do you think? He took all the dirty dishes and we had linoleum tile on the floor, on the kitchen floor. And he put a dirty dish on every single tile so you couldn't walk on the kitchen floor. Oh, so he was a psycho too. He was a little bit of a psycho, yeah. Wow.

God darn it. We've really got to find him for a very special Christmas episode of Smart List. He's going to be my mystery guest for you. This is a recurring theme, Jenny, just so you know. By the way, and also, sorry, Jenny, we'll get back to you in just two seconds. Oh, no. Jenny, you should take that. Is that my dad? Jenny, could you bring the fucking bounty up to the front? We need more fucking bounty. There's a phone. Get the phone, Jenny. God damn it. Jenny, get the phone.

Should I answer it? We're the fucking trash bags. Answer it. Let's see what it is. If it's an order for some milk or something. Somebody answered it. The machine got it. Somebody answered it. I guess I... What if you answered the phone and the person said, you get off this fucking podcast right now. You shut your goddamn computer and you get off the fucking podcast with your Hollywood friends. Yeah.

So wait, Jenny, I want to ask you, you've done a million voiceovers, like, and you're regular on Big Mouth and Bob's Burgers, right? Yeah. And The Great North. It's on Fox. And The Great North on Fox. I mean, it's so, why voices? Like, when did you learn, like, you could do all of these different things with your voice?

I honestly feel like I didn't know that, I didn't know this could be like an actual job that you can do a lot. And I don't know if you guys feel this way, but like, I think it is the most fun. It's so, it's like, it's challenging creatively, but it's really also really easy. Not that I'm showing up in my PJs, but like, do you hear these, do you hear these ladies behind the door? It's good, it's good, it's good atmo. We haven't asked, are you in the supply, are you in the supply room of the general store? Yeah.

Yeah, between the groceries and the books. Are you really in this? Is that true? Yeah. Oh, wow. And right now, so it's 1.31 there, so you've got the lunch rush. So is Ben slapping together a bunch of pastrami sandwiches? And, you know, who's number 35? Yeah. So he owns the store, but he doesn't, like, work here every day. He just—he and his brother—so—

His great grandmother used to come to this store. His family has lived in this town for a really long time. And during the pandemic, he and his brother bought the store and did a little work on it. And they put a bar in here and a bookstore. So he's kind of like, he's like the store owner. And then he comes here every day to do little things for the store. But there's a lovely woman named Marianne who is the manager.

And she is letting me be in her office. Can you still do all your voiceover work given the Wi-Fi limitations out there? I can, but sometimes it's really bad. Like, I do it in the linen closet between my bedroom and my daughter's bedroom. And I have a little baby. Yeah, she's 17 months old. Oh, congrats. Oh.

Oh, my God. That's so amazing. First of all, I thought of the name for your autobiography if you ever want one. Here we go. Here we go. Sure, let's go. Closets. Because you have a lot of closets in your life. You've got to get the slide flute out, Sean. Or just my life in closets, you know? That's really clever. Yeah, thank you. So who was the tougher transition for you from living single and having all your stuff in an orderly way? Was it harder for you to get used to living with Ben or the 17-month-old?

What's been the bigger transition? Great question. Thanks, man. That's a really good question. Take your time. It does come down to the neat freak thing. I think it was harder with the baby because also like Ben, you know, understands what I say. And so when I'm like, I don't like when that's like that, he doesn't just like be like,

You know, like he... He can understand a threat when he hears one. Right, that's right. Yeah, whereas the baby just doesn't understand my threats yet. Isn't that amazing how you cannot negotiate with something that doesn't speak your language? Like, that was a big, big lesson for me. Like, I can't just say, well, you're not having, you know, dessert tonight or whatever. Like, they don't care. For the first...

couple of years, you got to just deal with it. Yeah. So Jason, what was the age that your kids finally were able to understand, I'm going golfing today. Like what was the, because for a while they just, you know what I mean? Yeah, that was, they were 12. But wait, so Jenny, so you have a 17 month old daughter. Yeah. Yeah.

And you guys, and now you're firmly living back in Massachusetts and Ben and his brother have opened the general store and you're there and you've kind of, you're, you're, you're, are you done with the West coast? Are you done with LA? Are you done with New York? Are you just like, I'm going to, this is where for now in your mind, are you like, this is my life now living here? Yeah.

I like it here more, but we still have my house in L.A. on the east side. She must be nice, huh? On the east side. Zoe said? Here's the thing. On the east side. On the east side in Silver Lake. By the way, that's a Massachusetts thing to say, by the way, which is like, oh, must be nice.

It must be nice. Yeah, it must be nice. What does Ben think about Los Angeles? He likes it a lot. I mean, we had two years there before the baby was born, and he was like, whoa, I can't believe you're just picking an orange off the tree, and you go for hikes, and it's very chill. I mean, we don't have like a...

I don't know, like a super flashy lifestyle. So I think he was like, this is vacation-y. Like this is pretty vacation-y, or which it is. And my best friends live all around us and everything. But I will say about our house in LA, like it's a beautiful, small, old house that,

I bought it when I was single and I was like a heavy stoner and like the refrigerator is not even in the kitchen. It's in like a tiny room off the kitchen. And at the time I was like, I was single and I was like, it's like under the Tuscan sun. Like I'm just going to buy an old house and just live in here and have all my shirts and like this will be very romantic for me. And then he came. Oh my God.

You know what I mean? Like, just like, oh, my blouses. Like, it's just me and my blouses, and I just don't give a hoot anymore about anything. I'm just living in my old home. And then Ben came to live with me, and I was like, oh, my God, it's so messy in here, all, like, with two people even. It's crazy. And Ben's like, where are all these shirts from? He's like...

What? You never told me that you had so many blouses. We need to open a general store. Yeah. Right. Totally. Just drove him to that. So anyway, so I was like, oh, I love this house. Then he came and I was like, oh, there's kind of a lot of stuff in here now with two people. But I felt like it was fine. And then now with the baby and also we got a dog during the pandemic, like a beautiful large border collie mix. That house is like...

It's just really hard. It's way too small. And the stairs are really loud. You okay, Will? Yeah, I'm fine. Take a minute, man. Sorry. I just threw up in your mouth. Clean the microphone a little bit, I guess. I'm sorry.

I was like, my favorite, favorite, truly will never have a better joke than burping. Sorry about that. Sorry about that, you guys. Welcome to Barstool Sports. So, but you guys have decided we're going to, what is your child's name? Her name

My name is Ida. I-D-A. So you guys said, we're going to raise Ida in Massachusetts, not out here in L.A. Yeah. Good choice. I think so. Tell me what's happened. They were like, where do you want to live? And she said, I don't know. Or Idaho. Oh, you got it.

Thanks. What happened to your weed addiction? Did you crack that while you were pregnant? Addiction. You got rid of all that? Or are we back into— No, no, no. No, she doubled down when she was pregnant. What the fuck do you think? Yeah, I went straight to meth. Yeah, I'd like to go wide with that. I'd like to go wide with that on a podcast about how I doubled down. Nine months till the baby's here. I got to just do all the drugs. No, I—

Is it legal in Massachusetts like it is out here in California? I think it is. I think it is now. I think it is. I actually, I had like a bad moment of like, I don't know if it's possible, but I kind of think I overdosed myself on weed. I've done that. It was not with a joint or anything. Like I used to smoke a lot of weed and I could smoke as much as possible, I guess it seemed like. But I took a...

CBD gummy that my friend was like, oh, you need to activate it with a THC dropper. And she was like, but you... And it was like, because I had like a back issue. I don't think CBD is really real, but that might be controversial. Either way, she was like, if you want it to work, you have to use the... You have to kick it in. Yeah, the THC dropper. And she was like, but you smoke so much weed that...

You know, it says between one and three droppers. You should probably take three droppers. So I was like, cool, I'll take three droppers. And then... You had to call your mom. I took the three droppers. Yeah.

And I just, I mean, it was like, I think it was like the worst experience of my life, during which I tried to watch the movie Amelie and couldn't figure out what language it was in. And was just like, what is this? That movie's so good. Oh, man. Yeah, I'm trying to work it into stand-up now, but it's still like a little scary that this happened. You know, it's like, it's not exactly funny yet, because I actually think I did almost die. And I threw up like outside of my bathroom, because I like couldn't figure out how to get over the threshold. Like just crazy shit.

crazy shit. Went to bed with all my clothes on, my boots, like some like, like little zipper up booties, like got in the bed that way. Text, I'm like, I need to call for help, need to call for help. And then was like, it's too late, Jenny. It's too late. And then I looked, it was 6.45 PM and I was like, oh, um,

It was just, it was so bad. And it was truly like, oh my God, I really was like watching Amélie being like, when did this movie get so fucking scary? And what language is this? What is this? Like, I don't know. I used to love this. Her hairstyle was so great and everything just looked crazy. But anyway, so then the next day, my friend...

You know, it was Jane Levy. Do you know her? Yes, of course. You must know. Yeah. So she gave me the THC thing. Anyway, so she called me and she was like, I got all your texts about the patriarchy. Uh-oh. And I was like, uh-huh. And she was like, I, Jenny, I'm so sorry. It wasn't one, not one to three droppers. It was, I misspoke. It was one to three drops.

And so I took like 120 times the dose. Yeah, and I like ruined my mind. And then I was like, I guess I'm off weed. And like a couple of months later, I thought I'll just take a little hit and try and get back in. And it was like it went right back to where I had been. So I'm just done forever. Yeah, I'm not going to try it. Oh my God. So she saved you. She saved you. Yeah, in a way she saved me.

Wow, that's so crazy. And we will be right back. And now, back to the show.

Jenny, speaking of like getting freaked out and stuff, you know, your Netflix special called Stage Fright. Oh, yes. It's so fucking great. I loved it so much. I love the way it was shot, by the way. It's so cool. But anyway, you talk about like fear and how you hate it and you love it and it motivates you and how people say, just be yourself. And you were like, that's the worst advice because there's a million people in my head. How do you choose? So how do you talk about like the love and the hate of performing live? Like what freaks you out about it?

I like it so much, but it must be like what adrenaline junkies are like, I guess. I mean, I don't know. But not the guy that does the free solo. I actually think that. I sound like an old woman, but that really makes me angry that he does that. There's another one. There's another one that makes him look like... There's the one that he talks about the other guy. The alpinist. The Canadian kid. Wait, what? Yeah, isn't it called The Alpinist? Oh, yeah, and that one's really sad. The Alpinist. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A man, oh man, what a documentary. Yeah. Yeah.

Most of them don't end with, like, don't have amazing endings. You know what I mean? No. They're not, like, a lot of times back in the parking lot at the end. Oh, you mean the guy who climbs the ice waterfall at night by himself with no robes doesn't end well? Oh, the guy with the bears? The guy who did all those cute movies of the bears? Yeah.

That one I still need to see. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Also, I got busted on not seeing The Revenant the other night at dinner with my parents and my husband because I said that a Snuggie was like that guy in The Revenant who wears the bear suit. Leo DiCaprio. Yeah, like truly everything. Everyone is like,

What are you talking about? You're talking about Leonardo DiCaprio, like the Oscar winner, the actor, the guy. He's not the guy. He's Leonardo DiCaprio. And he doesn't wear a bear suit. Like, I guess he gets attacked. I didn't see it because I was too afraid. It's stunning. You should just see that one scene. Or just watch the YouTube special on how they shot that scene. Yeah. It's amazing. That seems like at a safe distance.

Oh my God. There's also a video, a YouTube video about the guys getting prepared to shoot the YouTube video for the, which is amazing. That seems like a safe next step, right? It's mainly just in the parking lot putting on Patagonias and shit, but it's good. No, I need to be pretty far afield, I think, of the central experience. I don't really want to. Wait, go back to the fear thing. Oh, yeah.

Well, yeah, I think the fear is that people don't like me. Patagonia. That they won't like me and that they won't think of, like, yeah, that I'll be wearing a Patagonia jacket and I'll be like. They're great jackets. They're great jackets. They're expensive. Well, they're expensive, but if you're a size large, they're great. They're great. Sorry, I just had to put that out.

They're telling just what you need to tell. Yeah. So that fear of when you're up there on stage and they're not going to like you, if you play that out in your head, is it like that, oh, my God, I have no place to go? I can't hide? Right, because you still do it. Yeah, I mean, it feels like a social thing. I like it that I'm going to have to be up here and they're all going to see me like...

Right. Just like choking and floundering and being out of control and all the things that if I succeed at, they'll see me as a master of like, you know, the moment and like chaos and power or whatever. Not that I see it that, but I think that would be the other side of it. Not that I think I'm like the master of chaos and power.

I would imagine that you'd have to find a place of like the perfect combination between sort of an adversarial relationship with the audience, right? So that you feel sort of puffed up and strong, like a worthy adversary and you can defend yourself, but then also kind of be a teammate with the audience too. You want to try to find that connection with them.

I bet that's a really, that's a real challenging place for standups. I don't think I'd ever have the spine to do it. But it's like a date. Terrifying. I think of it like a date. Like you're like, the person could sing. I actually think you don't have the balls to do it.

Or the spine. No skeletal structure whatsoever. Or sack. I don't think you have the sack. I don't think you have any of the undercarriage to do it. Sorry, Jen. Look, I don't have that undercarriage either, and it's okay. No, you do. How often are you still getting up there and doing stand-up?

Well, in L.A., I was going, so I usually go up at Largo and I was trying to go like twice a week while I was there because I want to make a new special. And that's harder, obviously, like when I want to put the baby to bed and, you know, and I like it when Ben sees my sets because...

Especially after having the baby, it's like, oh, I guess I'm just this person who like complains about like almost everything all the time. I really want him to see me as someone who other people think is like literally in the cheapest way, like popular. Like I would like him to, you know, like everything's fine. But I'm just like, that's such a good friend. I think it's such a good look.

You know, up there on stage, if they're liking you, it's like, oh, right, I forgot that there's this powerful person and it is nice. But it's also really scary. But I have to do it. Do you make him the butt of any jokes? No.

either intentionally or unintentionally. Like when you're sharing your stuff about, about home and the kid and, and, and adjusting to that, that new life in your house. Like, did you, do you back into sort of throwing him under the bus at all? I used to do that on talk shows with my wife and then she, she straightened me out. Did you ask permission or would you just like, I didn't. And then I got my snout smacked, uh,

And then I started asking for permission and then she started saying no. And then I started looking for different material. Sure, sure, sure. Jenny, I want to talk about, I want to leave you with Marcel the Shell because it's so good. I watched the movie last night. It's so good. Here's what I need to say. I've been a fan of Marcel the Shell. She's on forever. I know it's been like over 10 years or something like that, right? Yeah, yeah.

I used to watch his videos all the time. And what I love about it is if you haven't seen it, all you need to know about it is in the title. It's literally Marcel, a shell, and he has shoes on. And you literally play a shell named Marcel. And he... How the voice...

Like, how the voice? Why the voice? Are you sick of the voice? Tell us all things about Marcel because how did you think of him? And are you kind of, like, done? Or more, more, more? Because I can't get enough of him. Oh, thanks. Thanks for saying that. Like, wait. Sidebar really quick. I loved when Marcel played taps from his horn, which was a piece of hollow spiral macaroni. And he sleeps in his bread room, which is a bedroom made out of bread, which is fantastic. Oh, bless him. And when he plays taps, he plays taps. That is, um...

That's like my favorite part of the... That like sort of... It's a sad part. Yeah. It's sort of like a eulogy part and it's so funny and it's also so terribly sad. But it's a spiral piece of macaroni and it's... Yeah, it's like a shofar. In my culture, we call that a shofar. Yeah, for sure. It's a very... A lot of secret Judaism put in there. I'm not sick of The Voice. I love doing it. It's like...

It feels like a, you know, like, I don't know, like a soothing thing. I do it by myself a lot. I like it. It came up one weekend when I was like in a hotel room, sharing hotel room with like five friends and everyone was like broke and we were all sharing a hotel room and like,

like everything you could sleep on was being used, like the cot and the two beds and like someone on the floor or whatever. And they were just like all men. And I felt like tiny and that it was like so messy and cramped in there. And I started to talk to like sort of rib people in that voice.

And then my partner at the time had, like, promised that he was going to make a video for a little show in Williamsburg, and he hadn't done anything yet. And he was like, could I interview that voice? And, like, maybe there will be a character, and I'll, you know, make something with it. So he interviewed me in that voice, and then he made Marcel's body. Wow. And then we just, like, made that video. It's so cool. So is he still a part of all the stuff going forward?

Yeah, Dean Fleischerkamp. He's the director, and we co-wrote it together with our friend Nick Paley. And yeah, yeah, he did everything. I love when there's a million one-liners, but you know what Marcel uses for skis are men's toenails. Yeah, toenails from a man. Yeah.

Toenail clippings. Not the actual toenail. Full toenails. Not the full nail. Yeah, just the clippings. Did I see a trailer for it that's coming out? Yes. Yeah, it's coming out June 24th through 824. What? And you filmed it like over a year ago, right?

It took seven years to make. Wow. Yeah, we finished it, I want to say, in the winter. Why did it take seven years? Well, because it's stop motion and we weren't, you know, we were like fully funded by Cinerich. It's like, it's not a studio. It's like basically like getting arts grants, basically. And which also gave us total freedom.

Yeah, which is really great. And it took a long time. The film was improvised off of a long treatment. So we would like record, like improvise. And then Dean and Nick would go back and cull through all the audio and start to make a script off of that. And then like write things that we should say and go back into more improvising. And that that process itself took about a couple of years. And then you would do the stop motion.

Yeah, then I think the order was we locked the audio play, like everything that Marcel and his grandmother is the only other character besides Dean. Grandmother played by Isabella Rossellini, who is incredible. Nice. She's wow. She has a beautiful voice, yeah. And so we did, and she let us go to her farm to improvise. Where's the farm? It's in New York. Yeah. City? Yeah.

Yeah, it's in this city. It's so weird. It's on 56th Street. So odd. Yeah, so strange. It's just a farm? What are they, they just raise improvisers? That's amazing. Yeah, it's called Yes and Farm. Oh my God, that's amazing.

Yeah, I just love that. I love that about her. Anyway, yeah, so we recorded it all, and then they filmed the live action, because Marcel is in a physical house, and obviously Dean is the real person that you sometimes see, like his hand or him walking away. They filmed all the live action, the whole movie's worth, and then they filmed the stop-motion animation on live.

It's so good. I love it. I loved it so much. Please go see it if you haven't seen it. June 24th. June 24th. June 24th. It's my sister's birthday. Is that right? Happy birthday. Well, both of them because they're twins. Oh, happy birthday. Both of them. What are both their names? Well, quick. Tannis and Shanley. Good. And what about your brother? Chuck.

Wow. Wait, why do we test me on this all the time? Jenny, it's such a pleasure. Thank you for being here. I want everybody to go see the movie. Jenny! You're hilarious and a delight. You really are. Gentlemen, so are you. It was really, really fun. Next time you're out in Silver Lake, come by the Smartless Studios.

That'll be nice. They don't exist. Oh, they don't? You don't have to. We're building a whole compound out there to rival Isabella Rossellini's Yes and Ranch. Yep, Yes and Ranch, top of the rock. You can't miss it. Top of the rock. She's just up there hoeing. Anyway, honey, thank you. We love you. I'm so proud of you. And I'm excited for the movie. I hope it does really well. Thank you so much.

you so much thank you jenny please say hi to ben and ida tell her i miss her bye jenny bye okay i'll go i go now right yeah you go you go i go now goodbye thank you bye

That's Jenny Slate, y'all. Yeah, I love her. She is great. She's a killer. She's a real killer. I know. Everybody knows her voices, right? But they don't know that she probably does all of them because they're all so different. I did a small movie with her. She was on camera, not just the voice, the face, the whole acting, the whole thing. What was the movie? She's very, very good. I believe it's called The Longest Week.

It wasn't a large film, but she was in it, and she was great. I really had a good time with her. She's real fun. She's super fun. Cute, funny, just adorable, super talented. Oh, my God. Great energy, great vibe. She should teach improv and voiceover stuff because she's... I know. It was pretty good. Well, Will, so are you going to go back work out and finish that now? No, I was just finishing up, and...

I'm really rattled. Now I'm so hungry, obviously. Well, go get something to eat. And then I got to go meet Jason. We got a meeting. Yeah, we got a lunch meeting. Hey, so what are you going to eat prior to your 1 o'clock lunch? I am fucking... What's it going to be, though? Is it going to be a protein shake? Are you going to ruin all the work you've done this morning punching that dumb white bag?

There it is. My energy has really plummeted in the last ten minutes. It's sugar. Yeah, no, I noticed. All right, well, why don't we let you go? I think you're coming today. We're huge fans. Oh, wait, wait, wait. And do I just slam shut? Yeah, you just slam shut. And if you're feeling weak, just go grab something that looks like it's got a lot of carbohydrates in it and just take a big bite. Bite.

SmartLess. SmartLess. SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarv, and Bennett Barbico. SmartLess.

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