give us a small background into your childhood - was it good, bad, happy or sad?
My childhood was ideal in a lot of ways, but kind of not in a lot of other ways that existed solely inside myself. Nobody was really shitty to me except my own brain. I had just this crippling anxiety and I grew up at a time where people just didn’t talk about mental health. I was constantly coming up with a million reasons why something terrible was going to happen. But, I guess that was the thing that made me do well in my career because my anxiety usually manifests in like, just this annoying ass overcompensation and filling every silence and now I get paid to be annoying and to not let there be silence so that’s rad. I was always this way. I always thought everyone and everything was hilarious and I always did impressions. My first was Bart Simpson but then my voice dropped.
what song reminds you most of your teenage years? why?
I don’t know, dude. Probably like — Probably the music that they’d play to torture someone into confessing to crimes. I was insufferable.
what’s something in your life that you’ve had to unlearn?
Oh, yeah. Here’s the good shit. The real one. Sit down, kids. You’re getting real Dadvice now. I think the biggest one — and one I still struggle with — is that, like, if someone isn’t saying much it isn’t always about you? they’re not necessarily mad at you. Other people get in their own heads like the rest of us. Sometimes it doesn’t mean that they dislike you, it just means they can’t keep up at the moment or at all for that matter. I used to always think that meant something bad but I’m working on it. Especially because if I’m going to believe that, then people must think I’m mad at them almost constantly.
who gave you the best - or worst - advice that you’ve ever received, and what was it?
Who was the jackass that told me it was cool to caffeine load before every SNL? Yeah. I want a refund on that one.
what drew you to your current career path, or where you’re living in the world? are you happy with where you are in your life now?
So, this one is complex and long and probably too much information. I will make it as short as I can. Basically, comedy was always a part of my life. I was always a fan of comedy and always had people telling me I’m funny, or that they liked my voices. Even as a kid. But that was a distant relative of what I wanted to do, I had my heart set on filmmaking. I never really wanted to be in front of the camera when I was younger. I tried college, VERY BRIEFLY, and then left and went to LA to work on getting a foot in the door in the filmmaking world and I did the worst shit you can imagine but also some of the best. I was PAing for a lot of movies and things other people were doing and always working on stuff on my own time, but the PA positions made me learn pretty fast that there are a lot of assholes in LA and also that there are some down to earth people too. Maybe it was inevitable because I was always still myself — talkative, making jokes, etc that I wound up in front of cameras instead of behind them. But I made a lot of friends and contacts working in that field and so someone saw me and saw what I was doing and liked that and said I should audition for SNL. Then, that got me to where I am now which is closer to where I envisioned myself, because working on Barry, I’m both behind and in front of the cameras. AND it has its comedic moments, but it also gets taken seriously as a show. So I’m very happy with how that all turned out. That is some real full circle shit.
if you could turn back in time, what one thing would you choose to change and why, either in your personal life or the world in general, or both?
Nothing. The butterfly effect is some scary shit.