LAUREN FRAYER, HOST:
Seth Meyers has a new HBO stand-up special called "Dad Man Walking." As host of "Late Night" on NBC, Meyers usually talks about news and current events. But in this stand-up, he focuses instead on his family and his personal life. He told my colleague Rachel Martin that given the sensitive subject matter, he'll sometimes vet his jokes with his wife ahead of time.
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SETH MEYERS: There's a great responsibility to the freedom she gives me to go out on stage and talk about it. And I think if anybody watches the special and you said to them - now, based on what you've heard, who's the dumbest person in the family? - everybody would say me.
FRAYER: Seth Meyers looked back on his youth and his time at "Saturday Night Live" on NPR's Wild Card podcast, the show where famous guests answer big questions about their life drawn from a deck of cards. Here's Rachel.
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RACHEL MARTIN: One, two, three.
MEYERS: One.
MARTIN: One.
MEYERS: Yeah.
MARTIN: When have you felt most homesick?
MEYERS: When have I felt most homesick? I've never felt that homesick.
MARTIN: OK, interesting.
MEYERS: Yeah.
MARTIN: You are close with your parents, though.
MEYERS: I'm close with my parents. And I think one of the reasons I've never felt homesick is because my parents still live in the house I grew up in.
MARTIN: Wow.
MEYERS: One of the reasons I don't feel particularly homesick for that is I - 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.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
MEYERS: And when - 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 dog.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
MEYERS: We even went - I was telling the story recently. I - my - you know, 'cause my dad is one of those people who will not accept - he was very frustrated with how sick I got. And he was - 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.
MARTIN: Oh, my God, I had that done on my back.
MEYERS: Yeah.
MARTIN: Yeah. It's hard.
MEYERS: And so, you know, your whole arm - and, you know, 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. He's like, we're not getting rid of the dog. And so yeah, I'm not home - and again, I, you know...
MARTIN: (Laughter) Take a couple of Benadryl, you'll be fine.
MEYERS: Exactly.
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MARTIN: One, two, three.
MEYERS: Three.
MARTIN: Three - has ambition ever led you astray?
MEYERS: Has ambition ever led me astray? I - 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. And I was like, oh, I want to be in movies, too. And very, you know, 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 I - when I look back, I'm like, oh, I wasted a lot of time and put myself through a ringer 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: Did you - but you came to that realization on your own. It didn't take someone telling you that part's not going to work out.
MEYERS: Look, I mean, I should say, like, I kept not getting cast. So it wasn't like anybody ever took me aside. You know, and some - you know, it's not like your agents are like, stop. They're still, like...
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah.
MEYERS: But I did, at some point say, I don't want to go on auditions anymore. And I think I'm just going to - and at the time, you know, some other things happened that - being promoted to head writer at "SNL"...
MARTIN: Yeah.
MEYERS: ...Was a - 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 - I would imagine head writer at "SNL" - like, what's that career - like, you, it worked out for you.
MEYERS: Sure.
MARTIN: But when you're an actor, you're just like, I'm an actor, and then, you know (ph), acting chops.
MEYERS: Yeah. But weirdly, 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, you know, had this weird path that led me to "SNL." And then you make this mistake of you walk down the 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?
MARTIN: Yeah.
MEYERS: But it's a mistake to say just 'cause 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.
MARTIN: Yeah.
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MARTIN: One, two, three.
MEYERS: Three.
MARTIN: Are you good at knowing when something should end?
MEYERS: Yes.
MARTIN: Relationships?
MEYERS: Uh-huh.
MARTIN: Conversations?
MEYERS: Conversations, definitely.
MARTIN: You're good at conversations?
MEYERS: Yeah, I don't...
MARTIN: Like, ending them?
MEYERS: Yes.
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. And I walked out. It was, like, during a very fraught Christmas vacation. It was like, we were all - too many people were in my in-laws' house, you know?
MARTIN: This is just a classic recipe for...
MEYERS: Yeah, just too many.
MARTIN: Yes.
MEYERS: I'm chilling.
MARTIN: For holidays.
MEYERS: Everybody - and they were fighting in the hallway. And I came out, and I screamed, you know, some people de-escalate.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
MEYERS: And I - they were both very taken aback. But I disagree (ph).
MARTIN: It's easier to end someone else's debate (ph) or fight.
MEYERS: I'm very - I know when to walk away from an argument. I think I'm really good at that way. I think I'm - 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, you know, another thing - I feel like I was - and I think this is true of a lot of people. 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, you know, 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 my producer and dear friend Mike Shoemaker, who works with me now and worked with me at "SNL." I remember once saying what - you know, 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 then 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 of the future, there's no reason to burn it down in the present.
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MARTIN: The new special is called "Dad Man Walking." You can see it on HBO Max. It's very funny. It's worth your time. Thank you for doing this.
MEYERS: Thank you. Thank you.
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FRAYER: You can hear the rest of that conversation with Seth Meyers by following the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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