(audience cheering)
- Hi! - Wow, hi!
Nice to see you, that was really rocking,
that was awesome. - Oh, thank you.
You know what?
I didn't realize it was the faster version
of the song until I had to sing it.
And then I was like, "I've never been on speed.
But I feel like that's what it feels like."
I should never do it.
- It was great.
- I hear that you recently went to Korea, is that true?
- [Awkwafina] Yeah.
- Yeah, and you hadn't been in a very long time, right?
- Yeah, I went for the first time in 30 years
when my mom passed, she was Korean.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So it was really cool,
but really deeply emotional trip.
But it was like fun too, 'cause Korea's super cool.
- Yeah.
I love traveling, I think it's such a blessing
and a luxury to be able to travel like we do, especially
for like a living for our jobs.
But yeah, I thought that was super cool.
Did you learn Korean on the plane?
- I did (chuckles), I did my-
- I heard that you did.
And I was like, "You're very good,"
Duolingo is so disappointed in me.
- Right, right, no, no, totally, yeah.
My best friend, Dumbfoundead, shout out Dumbfoundead, came
with me and he was like teaching me Korean on the plane.
But then, I would use the Korean in Korea and it was...
He didn't teach it to me right.
So everyone was like... (audience chuckling)
Because we were at the restaurant,
I was like, "May I have some rice,"
would be like, "Rice, now," like that kind of thing.
(audience laughing)
- Oh, no! - And I was like,
"You didn't even teach me good Korean.
Now I'm out here and people are like 'What are you doing?'"
- Like super agro, like you're really, yeah.
- Yeah, super agro, you don't know, yeah, yeah.
Blind leading the blind.
- You're a native New Yorker.
- I am, yeah.
- I moved here, I love it so much.
It's such a fun city.
Did you throw the first pitch at the Mets game?
- I did throw out the first pitch at the Mets game.
- [Kelly] Were you nervous? (audience applauding)
- Thank you. (audience applauding)
- [Kelly] I can throw a ball.
I can throw a ball, but were you nervous to do it?
- I was really nervous but the ultimate Mets fan.
It was a huge honor 'cause I grew up
by Shea Stadium you know, in Queens
and my dad is a huge Mets fan,
and it was over the pandemic, the first time I did it.
So I couldn't throw it to a player
so they were like, "What about your dad?"
And my dad was like so freaking out,
like freaking out, he showed up
to the game wearing dress shoes.
(audience laughing)
I was like, "Dad, you know what your," and sunglasses, okay?
Like dark sunglasses, and I was like, "What are you doing?"
And then he would turn the opposite way,
I'd be like, "Dad, I'm over here," you know?
So it was like, he looked like-
- Did he catch it?
- No.
- [Kelly] Oh!
(audience laughing)
- But I also didn't throw it well-
- It's the worst.
- I know, I felt bad, but he was happy.
- Yeah.
- The tip is to go high.
- Okay, if they ever ask, I'm gonna do that, okay.
Don't ask, that makes me nervous.
Well, we saw this photo
that you actually posted of your dad.
And I didn't realize, was he a musician?
- I mean, yes, I guess so, yeah.
(audience laughing)
I don't know if he was a recording artist, necessarily.
- Well, then you don't have to be that.
He loves to be a musician, obviously, right?
Loves to play?
- Yes, he does the guitar noodling thing where he's like...
You're talking to him and he's not listening.
Yeah, he's always done that.
And he just like blasts his electric guitar.
I'm like, "Dad, you know, chill
with the mid-life crisis," you know?
But- - Oh, I think it's cool,
lean in, learn something new, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, I know, but, yeah.
- He's feeling very confident
about his abilities right now.
(everyone laughing)
- I am so sorry, Dad.
You know, I've really thrown you under the bus.
- This is something else
that your family and I have in common,
I am obsessed with flowers like botanical gardens everywhere
and I heard that the Botanical Garden here
in New York was very special for your mom, right?
- Yeah. - You even had
a birthday party there?
- I did have a birthday party when I was,
yeah, one of my last birthdays I had
with my mom was at the Botanical Gardens and-
- [Kelly] Oh, so it's even more special now.
- Yeah, it was like really, really special.
But then also, you know, I think all my friends
were like, "Why are we learning about seeds?
You know? - Yeah, I am your mom.
- Oh, yeah, I know. - Yeah, my daughter's
like, "Mom, all of us don't wanna do this," yeah.
- It's called a Vanda Awkwafina
and it's from Singapore.
- [Kelly] Yeah, they named a flower, yeah.
- [Awkwafina] Yeah, yeah, so that, when it happened-
- [Kelly] Look how beautiful.
- Yeah, it was a total coincidence.
But the significance of it was so powerful, yeah.
- [Kelly] Yeah!
- [Awkwafina] Yeah, it's pretty too.
- Even the language of an orchid,
yeah, purity, refinement, loyalty,
it's a beautiful message, just saying.
- Thank you.
- I want a flower, that's so cool.
We need to just, throwing it out there,
don't wanna throw a pitch at a game
but I want a flower.
That was a look at her latest movie "Kung Fu Panda 4"
it's in theaters now.
So were you a lover of it?
'Cause this is your first time being a part
of the Kung Fu franchise,
but there's been three previous ones,
were you a fan of them?
- Yes, I definitely was. - Me too.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I watch them even when my kids leave the room.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
- You keep it on?
- 'Cause it's just on
and I'm like, "Oh my God, they're so cute,"
and I love the little life lessons.
Yeah, I love it.
- The life lessons, and I think there's just
like a really unique comedic language in it, you know?
- That parents and kids can enjoy.
- Yes, yeah, definitely. - Yes, yes.
- I loved it.
- Do you love being in the studio,
like doing the animated stuff?
I do.
- Yeah.
- [Kelly] 'Cause you can wear like whatever.
- You can be naked.
You could be naked. - Yes, you could, yeah.
- You can just show up with like one, two, yeah.
- Someone might be offended, but who cares?
- Yeah, who cares?
'Cause I was like, "It's just my voice."
- Yeah, what is this one about?
Who's your character?
- So, I play Zhen, a fox
that is also a thief and Po, there's a lot
of different changes going on in Po's life
and stuff, and I think
you know, just Jack Black kinda coming
and stepping back into that role, was amazing.
- [Kelly] He's so great.
- Yes, he's like the most amazing human, you want to?
But, yeah, he's like...
(everyone laughing)
- Oh my God!
We could both be.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - We can all three, be.
No, he has a lot of energy as well.
Like when he was on the show,
I was like, "I think I found my counterpart."
- Oh, he was like kicking a lot?
- Yeah, that's right, we both have a lot of energy, yeah.
- Yeah, yeah, he's so fun to work with and, yeah.
- You actually got to be...
Now this is rare, I heard that you were actually in,
or I think I saw a photo of you both
in the studio together doing it,
which you usually don't get.
- No, you don't get it. - Usually, you do it alone
and that's like harder to me.
- [Awkwafina] Yeah, it's harder, it was one day.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- Oh yeah, it was one day.
And actually, that day it was,
I understand why it is isolated, because he's so funny.
And he goes, so like...
He gives it all, dude.
- He was bleeding into your mic or something?
- No, I think I was laughing.
I was laughing
and it was like, "I'm ruining the take, probably."
But yeah, I don't think it's good to do animation
with one mic and like the whole cast
doing it like the Bee Gees or something, you know?
- Yeah (chuckles), everybody bleeds
on top of each other.
It is kind of cool though,
'cause at least you play off the energy.
That seems like it might be cool.
- Yeah, definitely.
- Yeah, this is, I'm just gonna point it out,
your third time to play a pickpocket.
- Yes, third bird, a third pickpocket.
- Just third bird.
I'm just saying, you're getting typecast
at this point with animation.
- Yeah, I don't know, I'm giving like klepto.
I don't know what's up with that.
- People like, "Who looks like a klepto,
who would do this?"
- I know, they're like, yeah,
and the casting, they're like, yeah,
which is crazy
'cause I would never even think to pickpocket somebody.
- Yeah, you don't have to tell us that.
- I'm sorry, yeah. (everyone laughing)
I just wanna quote that. - You don't have
to defend that, yes.
I just think it's interesting,
it's a very specific thing.
- I know, what's up with that?
- I don't know.
- I don't know what's up with that.
- Yeah, if someone calls you for another pickpocket
or bird, you should just be like, "Why, call me?
I'm just curious, why?"
- And they were like,
"That, because of that, that voice."
No, I never get called to play the detective
that's like solving the pickpocket cases,
you know what I mean?
I'm just like the one that's-
- I can see you as a detective, yeah.
- Yeah, I could see myself as a detective, yeah.
- Yeah, I wanna see that.
- Yeah.
- I love your voice so much by the way,
that's why I think people love you.
I've seen you in so many animated things
and I think they call you
because you have such a cool voice.
It's such a specific thing
that everybody knows right off the bat.
- Yeah, I guess, I guess so.
- Do you like your voice?
I don't leave voicemails, I hate my speaking voice.
- You don't leave voicemails?
- I don't leave any kind of, like voice memos,
yeah, welcome to the '90s, yeah, wait,
I don't mean voicemails, I'm old.
I meant like voice memos.
- Yeah, I hate listening back to your own voice memo.
It's like, "I can't believe I sent that."
- But yours is like sexy and like sultry and like raspy.
- Thank you so much for those words, I really appreciate it.
You know, it's like, (audience laughing)
your voice is something that you can't change, right?
So like when I was born, I feel like I definitely
as a young child was like, "Hey,"
like, I literally sounded like this
when I was really little.
And I was always kind of like insecure about it
because it was like really deep.
So like, now doing you know, animated movies
and stuff, it's helped me gain an appreciation
for it, I guess. - Yeah!
- [Awkwafina] Yeah.
- It's the reason why you're amazing at it, is
'cause it's such a specific voice that it's so cool.
- You have a great voice too.
- Yeah, oh, thank you, thank you.
(Awkwafina and audience laughing)
I don't like my speaking one. (audience applauding)
So you just got to be a Grand Marshal,
was it Chinese New Year, for Chinese New Year?
- Yes, yeah.
- [Kelly] Was it in San Francisco?
- San Francisco. - I love San Francisco.
- Yeah. - It's a great city.
- It's a great city.
It's like you leave your heart in San Francisco.
- [Kelly] Yeah, I left my heart there too
besides Tony Bennett.
So, no, but what made you wanna do that?
- I mean, it's one of the last
like nighttime parades, I think,
that's left in the country and it's huge,
and my family was freaking out.
They were like,
"Oh my, oh like, you're gonna be a Grand Marshal?"
And so it's just like a big,
it was a big honor, I guess.
- So cool.
- But yeah, parades though, are like...
It was like a lot of sensory stuff.
But it was cool though
'cause the whole city came out, it feels like,
and there was like such a vibe in San Francisco.
- Yeah, and it's always beautiful.
They always have all these beautiful dragons,
like things going on.
I love it.
My daughter got me into it
because her school in LA, they celebrated Chinese New Year
and I didn't know anything about it
and she came home wanting to celebrate it
and I was like, Google, Google, Google.
I didn't know anything about it.
But I think it's so cool,
like culturally speaking, we're such a melting pot here
with all these different cultures
and like to learn about that, even if it's not yours.
My daughter is obsessed
with Chinese New Year, so she would've thought
you were the coolest human ever doing that.
- [Awkwafina] Oh, that's cool.
- There's no segue here, really.
I just think this is awesome
that your cat can pee in a toilet.
So I wanna show this. (audience laughing)
There's no segue,
but can a dog do that?
'Cause I have dogs, but I'm so jealous.
Did you teach your cat how to do that?
- [Awkwafina] He taught himself how to do that, so-
- You have a prodigy?
- Yeah, so they discovered he was living
in another house at that time
and with like roommates
and then they saw paw prints on the toilet
and they were like...
Because they would find pee in the toilet
and they'd be like, "What pee is this?"
- And why aren't you flushing?
- And why is it not flushing?
And then they found little paw prints on it.
And then they caught him in the middle
of the night doing that.
(audience laughing)
'Cause I think he lived with another cat
that really gussied up the litter box in a really bad way.
So he just went to the toilet.
But he can't do number two.
- This is the greatest thing ever!
- Yeah, he can't go number two
'cause he loses balance and stuff.
(audience laughing) - Like falls in?
- You know, really, yeah, yeah, just number one.
- One of my manager, I'm outing her,
my manager was taking care
of my like, I think she was two, my daughter,
and she didn't really realize,
'cause she's not around kids much
that she had to hold her,
and so she fell in the toilet.
(audience laughing)
- Oh no! - Which is so awesome.
You're welcome, Tricia.
She was like, "I didn't know I was supposed
to hold her," I was like, "Oh my God," it's so crazy.
- She's like soaking wet? - Yeah.
She doesn't remember it,
builds character is what I say.
But, man, the cat nailed it, yeah.
We need to do another quick commercial break,
just solving world crises left and right on the show today.
"Kung Fu Panda 4" y'all is in theaters now, go see it.