“Late Night” host and “Saturday Night Live” alum Seth Meyers is returning to his home state of New Hampshire Saturday, November 4. He’s performing live at the SNHU Arena to benefit CASA of New Hampshire and the Granite State Children’s Alliance.
NHPR’s Morning Edition host Rick Ganley spoke with Meyers about the show and his roots here in New Hampshire.
Below is a transcript of their conversation.
Transcript
We don't have a lot of celebrities out of New Hampshire, but we have some heavy hitters. I mean, there's Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, yourself. Is there something funny about Granite Staters?
I think there's something genuinely funny about New Englanders, of which, of course, Granite Staters are a part. And I think that the average funny person in New England is two times funnier than a person anywhere else in America.
Just two times. Why is that?
I don't know, I think that it's just a very literate part of the country. I've always said New England has the most well-educated dumb people. Or maybe I should say, New England has the smartest, uneducated people. You know what I mean? When you're at a Red Sox game, sometimes a dude will string a line of Shakespeare in between a string of curse words.
Having now spent two decades in New York – and one might even consider oneself a New Yorker if they hadn't come from New England and are trying to reject that thesis with every bone of their body – I do think there's a slightly sharper edge to the New England sarcasm than there is to the New York. I think the New York sarcasm has a very affable ball busting. Whereas I think the New England version leaves you a little bit more bruised.
Yeah, I think four or five hours at Fenway will definitely prove that theory. You went to high school in Manchester, right?
Manchester West, Blue Knight.
What's it like returning to where you grew up and went to school for this show?
It's a thrill to come back. Obviously Manchester, Bedford, where I grew up, has gone through massive changes since I was a kid. But I do still feel like the fabric of the place is the same. And a lot of the people I went to high school with went away and came back. They like the idea of raising their kids where they grew up. You know, my parents are better friends with a lot of my high school friends than I am now. And it's very ironic, because my parents would often say those people were a terrible influence on me, and now I feel the same. I don't like that they're hanging out with Greg Henrichon.
You see them when you come back? I mean, do you make time to get together?
Yeah, I mean this sincerely. My parents are in touch with my friends. I'm in touch with my friends. I remained really close with them. And a lot of that is because when I was in high school, they were really supportive of me, and they were really behind the idea that comedy was probably in my future. It was also due to the fact that I was constantly showing them that none of the other things I was learning had any professional path forward.
But my parents will make sure everybody knows to come to the show, and afterwards we'll all get together and go out for drinks. That's always what I've done. When I do shows in Manchester, Concord or anywhere in New Hampshire, we always get together after the fact.
Can you tell me a little bit about these charities: CASA of New Hampshire and the Granite State Children's Alliance specifically? Why those charities?
Well, I mean, it really is just a credit to my parents. They have stayed really connected to the New Hampshire community. They've lived there at this point longer than anywhere else they've lived. My dad insists I say he's a pillar of the community. He wrote that down, he wanted me to say it specifically like that.
But these are organizations that I will admit I was not hip to before my parents brought it to my attention. But when you realize how important it is for children who don't have guardians who would actually stand up for them in court, how important it is and how incredibly wonderful it is that there are people in our state who volunteer to do that. And they're doing the hard part, right? They're giving their time to help the children in need. And so I feel like the least I could do is one of my favorite things, which is stand-up and having all the money go to help fund them.
And you've obviously been doing stand-up for many years. I'm wondering about the difference about doing standup in front of a live audience on a stage like you do, as opposed to sitting behind the desk and having a smaller audience in a TV studio. What are the differences?
Even though it's my home town, it feels like an away game in a really thrilling way. I've done over 1,400 shows now of "Late Night." And don't get me wrong, I'm never fully comfortable. But I don't have the butterflies that I used to have before an "SNL" [show] or even before doing a stand-up show. It's a whole 'nother thing, and it does feel like there's no net. And obviously it goes without saying no one's going to edit out the jokes that don't work.
But that thrill of getting it to work on stage in front of an audience is like nothing else. So even though I'm at a point in my career where I could certainly stop doing standup, I have no interest in that. The idea of writing a joke and just going on a giant stage – the same kind of stage where you would see a rock band or maybe even watch a hockey game, and you just are up there, one person with a microphone and the jokes you wrote – and if you can make that an evening worth enjoying, it feels like a real accomplishment.
I've interviewed so many comics over my career and every comedian says the same thing – there is nothing that replaces being in front of that live audience.
When you really feel like the audience is in the palm of your hand, you can understand why people might want to be cult leaders. I don't approve of it, but I get it.
You and your brother. You've got a podcast now, "Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers." What's that motivation? What made you want to be a podcaster?
It was a writers’ strike, and so I had this massive amount of downtime and a ton of energy. I'd long wanted to do something with my brother outside of trying to work on scripts together, being bicoastal, which had been really hard. We love each other, and we don't see each other as much as we like. So the idea of doing a podcast was that we would be able to spend time together interviewing other people, as well. It's been wonderful.
We also wanted to figure out a podcast format that was different than all the wonderful podcasts that already exist. So just getting to drill down, talking to celebrities about the trips they took when they were kids has been a delight because it turns out most celebrities took vacations when they were kids, just like the rest of us, because they were not yet celebrities.
You've got kids now. What are the trips that you want your kids to remember when they're adults and doing their own podcasts?
Exactly. Well thank you, I do think it is incumbent upon them to live up to their dad's standard of being a podcaster.
You have to have a podcast now. I think it's legislated.
I think when you fly, you need either a driver's license, a passport or proof of a podcast. I think on domestic flights that's enough.
We are – and this is all due to my wife – incredibly adventurous. I think the best trip we've taken, and we took it before our daughter was born so we might have to take it again, we went to Uruguay. Everything about the trip was a disaster, and yet Uruguay was such a beautiful place and it was worth it.
And this is kind of the core idea behind the podcast I'm doing with my brother – the trips that are disasters are the ones you never stop talking about. If everything goes smoothly, you know, you just move on. But you end up with a 12 hour flight delay, staying at a Radisson in Miami by the airport and they don't have cribs. And your kids are melting down, and it's March and the only thing they want to listen to before they go to bed is the Chipmunks' Christmas album. That's when you realize, “Oh, I'm never going to forget this one.”
Yeah, that's true. For better or worse.
I think memories are always for better.
So can you give us a sneak peak of what people can expect from the performance on Saturday?
It's impossible. It's a very good question that I've never been able to answer. So let me do my very best. I'm going to tell jokes for somewhere between an hour and an hour and 20 minutes. It will be for a good cause, but the comedy will not be about a good cause. The comedy will just be comedy for comedy's sake. We're going to have a lot of fun. I'm going to talk a lot about my family. I'm going to talk a lot about growing up in New Hampshire, the greatest state in the nation. And unlike politicians who say that very insincerely every four years, I believe it. And I come back even on non-election cycle years.
I was going to say, are you filing for your candidacy now? Are you making an announcement?
I think they might automatically file you now based on some of those names.
How do you find time to write stand-up while you're doing a TV show? You're back in production after the strike. That's an awful lot of work to come up with an hour and 20 minutes of material.
My stand-up special "Lobby Baby" I think came out in the end of 2019. So this has been an hour that I started writing during the pandemic. It's probably almost entirely turned over since the first time I did the show, but it's sort of a rolling hour that you're constantly building on. And when things happen that are funny based on being a husband or based on being a dad, or even based on being a son, those don't really fit in the body of "Late Night." And so stand-up has been a wonderful place to sort of hold that as well. And it's good to have a bunch of different avenues when you're a comedian because then you never come up with material where they don't have a place for.
How is making a comedy show right now when the news is so heavy?
It is cathartic. That's the short answer. And we want our show to be cathartic for the people who watch it because it's certainly cathartic for us to do it. The news happens whether you do a comedy show or not, and getting to sit in a room full of people that you love and that make you laugh is the best way to get through it. And if I didn't have a show, I would just be muttering about these things to myself on the street. So it's a better outcome.
And, look, we make jokes about things that are serious every day, and we try to never make jokes about things that are tragic. Obviously we're living through a time right now where both are in great supply, and we use our best instincts as far as what are the things that we could actually find something to smile about, and what are the things that are beyond that.
You really do have to have those moments where you pause a little bit and you laugh and you smile. You need those cathartic moments.
Yeah, we have a special show. I think for a lot of our audience we're sort of just part of their day, and we're the last part of their day. And so you want to take it seriously that you are going to make it have some value, but also remember that the reason people are coming is to be happier when it's over than be worse off.
Last question for you. You said New Hampshire is the best state. Why is it the best state?
I mean, you said it – Sandler. Silverman. Meyers. Has there ever been a greater three "SNL" [cast] from a tiny state? It's a Cinderella story. Everybody says "Rudy" is an incredible Cinderella story. That's one dude, we had three in a decade.
They're going to carve your profiles into Mount Washington. You'll be the Mount Rushmore of New Hampshire comedy on Mount Washington.
They're actually going to do a new three-sided Old Man of the Mountain. It's going to be all three of our faces.
I'll be at the ribbon cutting for that.
Don't cut the ribbon. They say the ribbon's what's keeping it on. So don't – whatever you do. And I even said, “Don't make it a ribbon.” Trust me. It's been a thing.
Seth Meyers, thank you so much for the time. This is great to talk to you.
Delight talking to you as well.
Thanks again. That was wonderful. Really appreciate the time.
So fun. Nothing is more fun – and I'm saying this with all sincerity – than doing an NPR interview.
What makes an NPR interview different than other interviews? Is it the measured tone?
Yes, it's just a measured tone. I know I'm not smarter, but I feel a little smarter. And I don't feel desperate and sweaty. It's a whole different vibe when you're, I don't know, talking to Kelly Ripa. Who I love, but you get it.
