Lisa Kudrow
Appearances
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I know, but let me ask you something. Of all the stand-ups you know, who is more serious than a stand-up?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
It was nuts. Well, I couldn't take Groundling classes because they wouldn't let me because I hadn't had enough experience with anything. So they sent me to Cynthia Seghetti, an improv teacher at the Coronet, which is now, God damn it. Largo. Thank you. And I went to the first class and thought, oh, no, these are not my people and I can't do this. I commit. I don't know what that means.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And they're all embarrassing me. With their, like, you know, space ball. Like, with an emotional adjustment. Like, grrr. And I went, I can't do it. You're right. I think I'm out. It's too serious. Of acting forever. Yes. And then the next week, I said, all right, just go. You committed to this. Just go. And I was a little late. And everyone was up there. It's like, no, no, I don't want to.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Break the flow, I'll just sit here and watch and die. And they were lifting a disc or something.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Right, space work, mime, actually. And so one of them was doing it And it was Conan, this tall, really tall redhead guy, is lifting the disc. And when he's angry, he's just kind of angry. And he's just really lifting a disc or throwing the space ball without too much. And the teacher, Cynthia, was saying, good commitment. I went, oh, that's commitment. It's not embarrassing.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And I thought, okay, that guy. Yeah. I made sure I made a beeline to him, said, hi, I'm Lisa. That was really good. And he said, I'm Conan. And we became best friends.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Kind of. I mean, because he was asked to produce that show. Lorne Michaels asked Conan to be the producer. So they were looking for someone to be the host. And Conan would say, I want someone smart but funny, but who can have a conversation with writers, you know, authors and politicians. And I said, well, that's you. So you should do it because nobody replaces David Letterman. You're nobody.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, while you're at the Groundlings, you can teach. And I taught Cheryl Hines was in my class. Some other people, too, and I don't remember. I voted Will Ferrell into the Groundlings.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, but it's not just the monologues because then you have to interview people, which you three know how to do.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, not next after I did other guest star. Apparently I was on coach like three times.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
That's right. Wow. Recently I worked with Linda Lavin and she said, you were on a pilot that I did. The casting director reminded me.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
It's like the Uber Eats commercials where you purge stuff so that you have room for other things.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No. David Crane's boyfriend, partner, is Jeffrey Cleric. And Jeffrey was a writer for Mad About You at the time. So when they were casting friends, Jeffrey said, what about Lisa, who's playing Ursula? That might be a good Phoebe.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, he was familiar enough that, you know, I got fired from the last thing. Yeah. By the way, do you know when we shot the reunion for Friends or was it there or something else like a Jim Burroughs celebration?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Where I learned I was the only cast member for Friends that had to audition for Jimmy Burroughs.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, he's not like that. You know what? He's smarter than that. No, but when I had my audition, I did it.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
When I auditioned, it's just this small room. He's sitting at a desk. I'm in a chair. And the audition was like a little monologue thing.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And I thought, all right. But that's a good... I don't know what that means.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No. It wasn't like that. It was mad about you that changed a lot for me because I had been fired from Frasier and then... I did a guest star on Mad About You. They had me back. I'd already done a guest star the first season. So now I'm there for a different character. And my agents had said, you're not doing this. They called like in the morning. Can she just come in an hour?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
The character is called Waitress. There's no name. And my agents at the time were saying, no, no, you can't. It doesn't even have a name. Don't do this. I said, I'm not in a position to say no. And it's to me the best show and I'm doing it. And by the end of the week, Danny Jacobson said, you're so funny. Would you be okay doing five more episodes? Just went, yes.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
But during the run-throughs, because Jimmy was saying like, this isn't working, so just don't even... Right. They have to fix it.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Right. Because I was trying to, like, what's not working? What can I do? But I think they did make... a casting mistake with me because I went to the network with Perry Gilpin. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I mean, I know for me, there's that moment of, wow, maybe this just isn't supposed to work out, this career choice.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. I mean, but that's what's important to me, like for younger artists who definitely have talent. And yes, you can be discouraged, but then you've got to pull yourself back up. Like, you know, that can't be your mindset for too long. Otherwise it won't work out. It's just not going to work.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, isn't that different in a... I think it's different in a good way, though. Do you? Because what I had always said was... Say yes to everything except porn. That was always my advice.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Keep going. But it worked out anyway for you. And that's a joke, everybody listening. No, still say no to porn, I think. I mean, I guess it depends on your level of comfort. Yeah, and what you think porn is. Everything's okay now. That's another issue. But that was it. It was just say yes to everything. You have no idea who's going to see it.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
You have no idea what it's going to lead to, what you're going to learn from doing it. And now everyone has a camera and can post it on something.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Right. That's hard to do, period. I mean, that's sort of like the whole lifelong commitment.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, I mean, it's a composite of people, honestly. I'm not trying to, you know, be coy. But it just was a composite of... Of a lot of different people that, you know, you'd see on talk shows. I had a character at the Groundlings called, you know, your favorite actress on a talk show. That's funny.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
She says everything like it's a sitcom. Right. Yeah. Like a tag. Everything she says is a tag or a button. Wait, what?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, yeah, we'll see. Michael Patrick King is busy with And Just Like That.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
That's such a good question. I mean, I've spent the last few years being really interested in not producing and just acting and being cast. Yeah. And so I've done that. It's just none of it has come out yet. Okay. But it will all this year.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, it's not that it's boring. I mean, for me, it just felt, yeah, it's a lot of work.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Right. So there's that. But then also it just felt so fraught, you know, also just with like HR issues and things like that. So I just wanted, okay, I'm not producing.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah. No, that's exactly right. I mean, I loved, I produced a show, Who Do You Think You Are? Oh, yeah. Which is not scripted. I was on it. Yes. Oh, my God. So good. That was such a good episode.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah. And I loved doing that. I mean, I loved the research stage, you know. Wow. Yeah. and like how you're going to lay out the story for the person to discover and where the documents are found and, you know, that stuff. I loved doing that show, producing that. That's great. And that's it. But, I mean, everything else is like, wow. And that's it. I don't know. But the comeback, yes.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And Ian Morris, yes, fantastic. But when I first learned about it, it was just Tyke and Jermaine wrote the pilot. Such a good idea. And I went, well, I don't care, yes. Do I need to read it?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I know. I'm trying right now with this system to watch. You know this Pix thing and they send you and you can try to watch things on it? It's really hard.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
It's the stuff that happened backstage that was bad. That's what I'm saying. That's the best part. Oh, yeah. No, I have a lot of those. Because I am always working on my filter.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
with people because I, to me, facts don't hurt, you know? So, you know, like letting someone know like, oh, I don't know about that sketch. It's more of like a ditty than a sketch. I mean, you just sort of, like, it feels like it belongs on a cruise ship.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, no, but here- Well, but I know I do that. So sometimes that's my joke too. Do you know what I mean? Then I'm being the person with no filter.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
But that, I guess, was rough. And I didn't think it was rough to say. To me, it's just a song. And we were all being asked, what do you think of this piece?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, he just, he speaks so fast. I couldn't. And I did take it in high school. I took four years.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yes. I thought this was it. I thought this was an audition, and so... Because you know we're not, like, filming this.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah, it is. I'm actually trying to unblur it so you can see. Oh, there it is.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah. Really? And then they're disappointed they didn't go to Yale. Yeah, it's really beautiful.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I was a biology major, so there was no choice but to be academic because that's a big commitment.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah, I thought I'll be pre-med. My dad's a doctor. My brother is starting medical school. And I thought, yeah, yeah, I'll be a doctor too.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, biology was really interesting to me. I loved it. Biology, I mean, it's such a huge... But what kind of doctor do you think you would have been? I don't know. I wasn't set on that. But halfway through, I went, oh, no, there's no way I'm going to be a practicing physician. There's no way.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Because I realized I wasn't as interested in that as I was in, I liked evolutionary biology. So I was just going to continue and do it.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Well, he got a lot of headaches and he was, you know, like a family practice or internist and then decided he would switch to just treating, researching headache.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And at the time, there's nine different headache types at that time. Let's have them. So I don't know.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I mean, a little, but, you know, there's a lot of new medications. My brother's a headache specialist. He's a neurologist who took over when my dad retired.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
I kind of knew a lot about cluster headache. That was this subset of headaches. It's not a migraine. What?
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Oh, well, I just, I'm the youngest in the family. So that's always like the least competent person in the house.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
And they're older and really funny. And my dad is really funny and he's 91 and he still is. Yeah. And so, yeah, I just would repeat what they said, bring it back to school and sometimes get in trouble because it's like six and eight years older than what was appropriate for kindergarten or first grade. Right. Junior high, I did play production where we wrote sketches and performed them.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
No, Groundlings, that was after college. And that really wasn't about, I wasn't, my goal was not Saturday Night Live, but my goal was to avoid a dramatic acting class at all costs.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
because from what I understood, they seemed like cults and it was just people taking everything way too seriously.
SmartLess
"Lisa Kudrow"
Yeah. Well, that was the huge revelation was, ooh, the comedy folk are way off. Like there's something really wrong.