Tonight's guest on The Daily Show is Judd Apatow and the panelists on The Nightly Show Natasha Leggero, Killer Mike, and Robin Thede will be discussing Rachel Dolezal.
Judd Apatow is a producer, director, comedian, actor, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work in comedy films, and is the founder of Apatow Productions and also developed the cult television series Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared and Girls. He is on tonight to promote his latest book
Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy
From the writer and director of Knocked Up and the producer of Freaks and Geeks comes a collection of intimate, hilarious conversations with the biggest names in comedy from the past thirty years—including Mel Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Roseanne Barr, Harold Ramis, Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Lena Dunham.
Before becoming one of the most successful filmmakers in Hollywood, Judd Apatow was the original comedy nerd. At fifteen, he took a job washing dishes in a local comedy club—just so he could watch endless stand-up for free. At sixteen, he was hosting a show for his local high school radio station in Syosset, Long Island—a show that consisted of Q&As with his comedy heroes, from Garry Shandling to Jerry Seinfeld. They talked about their careers, the science of a good joke, and their dreams of future glory (turns out, Shandling was interested in having his own TV show one day and Steve Allen had already invented everything).
Thirty years later, Apatow is still that same comedy nerd—and he’s still interviewing funny people about why they do what they do.
Sick in the Head gathers Apatow’s most memorable and revealing conversations into one hilarious, wide-ranging, and incredibly candid collection that spans not only his career but his entire adult life. Here are the comedy legends who inspired and shaped him, from Mel Brooks to Steve Martin. Here are the contemporaries he grew up with in Hollywood, from Spike Jonze to Sarah Silverman. And here, finally, are the brightest stars in comedy today, many of whom Apatow has been fortunate to work with, from Seth Rogen to Amy Schumer. And along the way, something kind of magical happens: What started as a lifetime’s worth of conversations about comedy becomes something else entirely. It becomes an exploration of creativity, ambition, neediness, generosity, spirituality, and the joy that comes from making people laugh.
Loaded with the kind of back-of-the-club stories that comics tell one another when no one else is watching, this fascinating, personal (and borderline-obsessive) book is Judd Apatow’s gift to comedy nerds everywhere.
In a way, Mr. Apatow has been working on this book since he was a teenager. Seven of the interviews were done for his high school radio station in Long Island in the 1980s. Once he decided to put them in a book, he figured he would add new interviews, including ones with several of the people — like Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling — he talked to as a young man.
The early interviews read like the education of a young comic, with Mr. Apatow asking technical questions and trying to prove his bona fides to the comedians he idolized. When Mr. Shandling apologizes for not being funnier in the interview, Mr. Apatow assures him: “This show is pretty serious.”
The purpose of those early interviews, Mr. Apatow said recently, was to learn about the business: “This was my comedy school.” (He did eventually attend and drop out of the University of Southern California film school.) “The first interview in the book is talking to Jerry Seinfeld in 1984 and I was asking him: ‘How do you write a joke? How do you get spots?’ He really lays it out.”
The new interviews, conducted over the last few years, have a different dynamic. Mr. Apatow is now an equal — he talks more so we learn more about him, and the exchanges feel more like a chummy conversation. The topics range further afield, from comedy to family or religion. Mr. Apatow also throws in some noncomedians, like Miranda July and Eddie Vedder, just because he is a fan.
Mr. Apatow said one of his favorite interviews was with Jon Stewart, who had yet to announce that he was leaving “The Daily Show.” “When it was over, I thought he wasn’t going to do the show much longer,” Mr. Apatow said. “I thought he was really summing it all up. He may have known then.”
Judd Apatow’s New Book Is a Love Letter to Stand-Up Comedy
This sounds like a funny book, I probably won't read it but it sounds like a good read anyway.
Natasha Leggero
is an American actress, comedian and former frequent roundtable panelist on friend Chelsea Handler's late-night talk show Chelsea Lately.
Her stand-up television appearances include performances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Last Call with Carson Daly, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and she has appeared on multiple Comedy Central stand-up programs as well as their animated show Ugly Americans, wherein she voiced Callie Maggotbone. Her latest appearance was on The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber.
Killer Mike
is an American hip hop recording artist, activist, and occasional actor from Atlanta, Georgia. He is the founder of Grind Time Official Records, which he launched through the SMC and Fontana Distribution. Mike made his debut on "Snappin' and Trappin'", from OutKast's 2000 LP Stankonia, and later appeared on the Grammy-winning song "The Whole World", a single from OutKast's greatest hits album Big Boi and Dre Present...OutKast.
Robin Thede
is an American comedic actress, writer, sketch and improvisational comedian. She has also worked as an entertainment correspondent, host, and radio personality.
Robin is currently the head writer for The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. Prior, she was head writer on The Queen Latifah Show. She was a staff writer on the first two seasons of "Real Husbands of Hollywood" on BET. In January 2013, she appeared in the Marlon Wayans' comedy "A Haunted House" opposite comedian JB Smoove. She also recurred as "Gail" on "Second Generation Wayans" on BET in March 2013. Robin often works on TV shows as both a writer and actress, including on the short-lived FOX series In The Flow With Affion Crockett, the Mike Epps sketch comedy series Funny Bidness, on the comedy series Clunkers (starring Carl Payne, David Faustino and Sherman Hemsley).
This Week's Guests
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
Tu 6/16: Aziz Ansari
We 6/17: Bill Clinton
Th 6/18: TBA