- Yo, it's ya boy Desus Nice.
- And I'm the Kid Mero.
And you're in studio with Hollywood Reporter.
- Ah, ah, ah.
(upbeat music)
- Guys, welcome to L.A.!
- Thanks for having us - Yeah!
- That was so much fun. I went to your show last night.
- Yeah. - Had a ball?
- Yes, I had a ball. - It felt strong,
felt like a good show. - It was fun.
There were a couple of things that I had to like,
Google the next day, like the AKAs.
- Right. - Yep.
- And I found this amazing Reddit thread
where people break down all of your AKAs.
- And what they mean, and everything?
- Yes.
- Yeah shouts to the Bodega Hive, they're fanatic.
- Yeah your fans are really,
really heavily involved, it's like,
they're like X-Files fans.
They're breaking everything down.
- They're breaking down like conspiracy theories.
- What do you think they meant in episode 34, they said this
and then in 138 they said that it makes,
it all makes sense now.
- Yes, referencing episodes, it's great.
I mean, how does that feel?
- It's amazing, man.
- It's one thing to have the podcast, have the show,
but then you have like this whole third level, like
breaks the wall like this fan base does rabid
and anything we put out, any kind of content they watch it,
any shirts, any like, they just.
The saying we have is "Die for the Hive",
'cause the name of the fan base is the Bodega Hive,
and sometimes it feels like if we asked them
to kill themselves they would.
But they are fanatic.
- [Marya] So they're bordering on cult base.
- We made a joke like, we had a show
and I was mid joke like,
"If you'll die for the Hive, jump off the balcony!"
To the people on the balcony and then one dude actually
stuck his leg and I was like,
"No no no no! Don't do that I was just joking it was a joke,
"it was a joke it's a comedy show!"
(laughing)
"Please! I don't know if we're insured."
- One of the things that I noticed in the show
is that you're talking a lot about L.A.,
you knew a lot about L.A.
Are you, do you get familiar with the local area
when you're doing like a stand up show,
or are do you actually love L.A.?
- It depends because sometimes, sadly, when we do tours,
we don't get to see outside
of a two block radius of the hotel.
We'll be in Boston like,
"Hey, you guys have a Olive Garden?"
- Yeah!
- "Is that the important restaurant in Boston?"
But we've been to L.A. so many times,
and we've stayed in so many different places in L.A.,
and we have friends and family in L.A.
Like we actually know L.A., we go to restaurants,
we were walking around like, you know.
- And you bump into people you know and stuff.
Well not walking, because nobody walks in L.A.
- But you go to restaurants and you see famous people,
and I ask him, I go, "Who is that?"
- I'm like, "That's Diego Luna."
- "Who?"
- Yeah. - "From Dora the Explorer?"
- "No, he's the, guy in the movie, he won an award."
- "Who knows?"
And then I just walk up to some Emmy winner
and I'm like, "Hey!"
- "Hey, how are you?" - "Hey, what do you do?"
"I hope that the film thing works out for you."
- "Thanks, thanks, appreciate it.
"Hi I'm Steven Spielberg by the way.
"I directed a bunch of movies."
- I'm like, "Mero, you know this Judi Dench?
"You know her?"
- "Oh, yes she's actually very famous."
- "Should she be on the show or something, I don't know."
- "I don't know let's call the booker, let's find out."
- Do you know Judi Dench is cool
'cause she does swear like a sailor.
- Nice. - Nice.
- You should have her on.
- That's the only reason we have the show is
to make famous people swear.
We just wanna get like,
the most clean cut people on TV,
and just get 'em on our show, and just ruin them.
- We made Anderson Cooper drop a F-bomb I was like, "Yes."
- I was gonna say, Anderson Cooper,
he really opened up on your show.
- Yeah. - He loved it.
- How did you get him to do that?
- You know we're good friends with Andy,
we've gone to dinner with Andy,
and like Andy was like these guys, like
Andy loves us, shout to the homie,
and he told Anderson.
- He filled him in.
- "You gotta come hang with these guys."
And the thing is like,
people love hangin' with us, and they just get so relaxed.
So sometimes we have to tell people like,
"Yo, don't ruin your career.
"You're having a lot of fun on the show but,
"don't go off the deep end there are cameras."
- "Please, don't drink half a bottle of rum on stage."
- I'd say you guys share,
you definitely shsome qualities with Andy Cohen.
- Oh yeah.
- So has anybody been pissed off
once they've been on your show?
- No. - No.
- [Marya] No, that's good.
- We're really nice guys, like,
we're pretty affable guys. - [Marya] So you're not
like Andy Cohen. - We're not like Andy Cohen,
and we've actually been on Andy Cohen's show,
like he'll ask questions and I was like,
"I told you that in confidence!"
No I mean, that's Andy's brand and that's what you kind of
expect from him and with us it's like
we don't really do gotcha questions stuff.
- It's like gossip.
Andy's show's a little more like,
gossipy. - Gossipy, a little messy.
- Our thing is more like
just our reactions to pop culture, sports, politics,
whatever's going on in the world.
- And generally when we're sitting there,
we're asking these people questions, their answers are like,
we're legit asking these questions
we have no idea about the answers.
So like, we're not there to do a got, we're like,
"Yo, what was the first big purchase you ever made?"
"Like we want to know, 'cause we want to make
"the same purchase."
- There's no manipulations there.
- Not yet, season three though.
- It's a long con.
- Do you feel that the more episodes you get behind you,
the more you kind of build up a new skill set
with the interviews?
'Cause that's something that you.
- You know we've always. - Didn't do ads much before.
- People always saying that we do strong interviews
because like, I think it's just that
we actually, we're interested in people,
and we want to know and we ask questions I think
regular people on the street want to know.
We don't do the weird promos,
"This is your third movie.
"What do you think the box office gross is gonna be?"
- "So what was the process like when you were
"sitting in your trailer, waiting to go on,
"like, what do you think about?"
- So we don't do that.
And then also we have the two different types
of interviews on the Showtime show.
We have the ones outside the studio at Milk Studios,
which are more intimate, depending on who's there
like those who can really get into the soul of people,
people open up, people talk about like, really deep stuff.
But then you have the in studio ones
which is more ruckus, you're feeding off the audience.
- [Marya] In front of a crowd.
- Those are like funny, hilarious.
So you know which guest you interview at which location.
And like, Andy and Anderson that's definitely in front
of the live audience. - They were made
for the live audience.
- But if someone who's like a little more low-key,
like Common, you would interview them at Milk Studios,
and you get a better interview
because they're not afraid of the audience,
or the audience is going to dictate what they tell you.
So the more interviews we're doing,
we're hitting our stride, we're learning how to, you know,
ask better questions, you know, not just,
"So what do you do?"
- "How do you spell your name?"
- "You got money?"
- "Your name is Don Cheadle is that one N or two?"
- "How much money you got, gimme some money."
- "Can I borrow like, five dollars?"
- "Give me two hundred dollars, Mero got four kids."
- "Can you buy me lunch?"
- But you know it's just fun, you know what I mean.
It's like working out like we're getting more reps,
and the more reps we get like the better
and the smoother everything goes.
- And from the beginning, like he said,
we've just been interested in being like,
"Who are you?"
Like, "Who are you as a person?"
You know what I mean, like forget your achievements
and all that stuff, like that's cool, hooray,
you've answered all those questions
in the previous 10 interviews on your press run.
Now tell us what your favorite drink is.
You know what I mean like, do you fart in bed?
You know, things like that?
- It reminds me of when we had.
- Did you ask that of AOC?
- She was like, "No, I do not."
- Well we had Anna Kendrick on our show.
We were filming in the Bronx,
and before we started filming she went into a bodega,
like she had to go in there and get something.
And this girl was just like, "Yo!"
"It's the cups girl."
That's all she knew of her.
And I feel like that's what every interview,
we're those people from the Bronx
that don't know anything about, like,
we might know one thing you've done,
and we're just like,
"Yo, fill us in on the rest of your career."
- "Put us on."
- It might be a little annoying if you're accomplished.
But listen, we're endearing and we want to know.
"So, done any new movies since '93?"
"Really?" - "Oh wow!"
- "Oh wow, I gotta check that out."
- "Wow, okay." - "Oh, a whole Emmy?
"Wow, good for you!" - "Since when?
"When was that, 2013?"
- "Oh wow."
- "Shoot, I ain't even know."
- Now if you've never been to the Bronx,
can people still enjoy your show?
- Oh yeah, absolutely. - Absolutely.
I always say like,
there's, if you peel back the layer of like, "New York!
"We're from the Bronx!"
Whatever, there's always like relatability there.
When you're talking about, like, getting,
being annoyed at work, or like, you know, a commute
or like, you know, I complain about
my kids doing messed up things,
and like there's always a human side to everybody.
So no matter where you're from,
you can find something to relate to in the show.
- And even if you've never been to the Bronx,
if you listen to the podcast and now you go to the Bronx,
like, it's like when you go on vacation
and you've actually researched where you're going,
you have an itinerary, like, people always DMing us like,
"Yo, I'm in front of Yankee Stadium!
"Yo, I just had a chopped cheese!
"Yo, I'm on East Tremont!"
So, you kind of learn,
like you don't have to have ever been to the Bronx,
but if you listen to our podcast enough,
you'll start to know what the phrases mean.
You're like, "Oh Bay Plaza."
That's like a mall in the Bronx.
You might never go there but you know the reference,
and you can kind of just picture it
and then you're just like,
"Yo, this is our Bay Plaza, here."
And, it's just like, you realize the Bronx is just,
it's kind of like Sesame Street.
It's just a location, but everyone has their own Bronx.
No matter where they live.
So it's just about matching the places that we talk about
to the places where you live.
- Yeah, there's something about the podcasting format too
that makes people like, it's so repetitive,
you're listening to it while you go to work,
so Bay Plaza starts to get in your head.
- It's like osmosis. - "What's my Bay Plaza?"
- Yeah, you guys remind me so much of when I used
to live in New York and I miss it like,
I still think about like the weird characters,
like the guy on the FDR drive who had like,
- The sign - The signs out.
And his little lawn chair, his little art exhibits.
- He's still out there.
- What? He's still there?
- He's still out there.
- I haven't been back to New York in 10 years.
- He doesn't take money or anything.
He's still out there and he's like,
artsy and political, but not really.
- [Marya] Yeah, artsy, political, and weird.
- But you know, it's one of those things
that you're on FDR like, "I hate New York."
And you'll see it and you're like,
"Whimsical, all right back to it."
- Now, you know,
a lot of politicians really like going on your show,
so are there anybody who we should be expecting?
Is there, does anyone have a standing invitation
to come on the show?
- As the Democratic primary continues and like,
people are floating to the top,
we'll probably get some of the bigger ones.
The problem is right now there's so many people,
and it's just like making that decision,
and it's just like do you really want to like
give camera time to someone who's like
polling at 1%?
Like it might be a great interview,
but you can do more that.
And then also it's just like,
you don't want the election campaign to be like,
a reality show.
Like if these people are actually running for office,
Actually people who have a chance of winning
should get time on the show.
So we're just still trying to figure it out,
but listen, if you've got a big name
you can come on the show.
- That's right.
- We're gonna wrestle Joe Biden.
- I love that.
I would vote Joe Biden would be
one of those people who would be invited to your show.
- Oh definitely, definitely. - Yeah, come through, Joe!
We could arm wrestle.
- Joe, Kamala, Elizabeth Warren.
- What if Michelle Obama said yes to your show,
what would you do with her?
- Oh man, whatever she wants.
- Whatever she wants it'd be a special five hour episode.
We would do everything like,
I'd be doing her hair, we'd be baking pies,
do a hand game, playing double dutch.
"Girl, whatchu talking 'bout?
"Michelle?
"Just drinking Chardonnay."
She's like, "Barry be stressin' me."
I'm like, "Girl, tell me about it.
- "Tell me about it, girl." - "Tell me about it,
"oh my God.
"What time the kids wake you up this morning?"
- "Don't worry about it, your hair looks beautiful."
- "Thank you."
- "I gotta take this call, it's Oprah."
- Now you have writers working with you on your show.
Have they ever pitched anything to you where you're like,
"Absolutely not, I don't want to do it."
- It's never, it's never absolutely not.
It's just kind of like, this isn't really in our voice.
And it's usually, it's not a matter of like,
"Dude this is terrible.
"Change this, change this, change this."
It's usually just like, a quick shift like that
'cause all the writers we work with
are our friends in real life.
And they get that, we hang out in the office,
they get our slang, they get our mentality,
they know what we would say.
So they bring stuff and it's like, maybe one thing is off,
but everything else is perfect.
So, there's never that disconnect where it's just like,
"Yo, what the hell are you writing?"
Like the writers, they write stuff
and you can see it right away.
It's like this is a perfect fit for us.
- Yeah, it was like a serious arduous process
to pick the writers room.
'Cause we didn't want like a 30-person writing room,
we wanted like a small, diverse one.
And we literally went through like
300 some odd packets
of like people being like,
"Hey, I want to be on the show!"
And you could tell immediately, in an interview,
you actually listen to us, you know of us, you're a fan
versus like, I'm just trying to get a gig.
And we hired people that are like,
we know you're voice, we're fans,
we've been listening since X, Y, Z.
And those are the people that are on the team now.
- Have you ever pitched anything to the writers,
or to the producers where they're like,
"I don't know if we can do that."
- Writers fight club.
And they didn't want to do that.
- They were actually down,
it's funny because they were actually down to do that.
Like they have literally not said no to anything.
They were like, "Yeah we'll do it!"
- Just a nervous chuckle in the room like,
"I mean, let's workshop it."
- Are we actually going to hit each other, for real?
- I'm like, "Live ammunition.
"Right, you guys are running on a beach,
"you've got a 30 second head start.'
- You got 30 seconds,
doing ""Saving Private Ryan"" all over again.
- Now what is the most deep cut Bronx reference you've made?
- Most deep cut Bronx reference.
- Do you have some deep cuts, that you can think of?
- Home Boy 2000.
That was a jewelry store on the bottom of Fordham Road
that was open in 2000.
If you were dating in the Bronx you would like,
whoever you were dating,
if you were dating a girl you'd get her,
they had like, the initial chains so like,
you know if her name was Michelle it'd be like an M,
and Minnie Mouse was like standing next to her
like kinda sexy.
And you'd have to put it on layaway
and put a little money on it each week.
And then come through and give it to them.
You could go there and get your fronts, your gold fronts.
So, rest in peace, Home Boy 2000.
- We miss you, Home Boy 2000.
- A simpler New York.
- So you guys have become guinea pigs on your show,
you are trying out weird things.
The last thing I saw you guys try out was
non-alcoholic hard liquor.
- It was not hard, it was hard to drink.
- Yeah, it was pretty bad.
- It was bad, it was like.
- We have some mustard flavored ice cream here, if you.
- I saw that on Twitter and I was like, "Oh boy here we go."
- In my head I was like, "Oh we're gonna do that this week."
But then I was like, "Oh we're on hiatus."
And then, I was just like,
"It doesn't sound that bad."
That definitely sounds like a dessert they give you
in first class, you're just like,
"You guys eat this?" - "What?"
- You just see some guy in front of you like, "I love it!"
"I've been eating mustard ice cream for 30 years."
- "Yeah, with cranberry sauce. It's amazing."
Like, what?
- Just put sardines on top of it.
- Just stick a hot dog in it, like, as a garnish.
- Alright, I want just one open invitation from you guys.
Who is welcome to come on, at any time, onto your show?
- Oprah.
- Absolutely.
- Oprah come through, bring that,
Oprah, we seen the garden we know you be growin'.
- Oprah, listen, you've seen Andy and Andy,
Oprah and Gayle, and ya boys.
- Yeah, I know Stedman,
I was talking up with him in Vegas, come on Oprah.
We're not going to disrespect, won't call you Auntie,
like, it's gonna be great.
- It's gonna be lit we got a bridge chair for Stedman,
yo come through.
- We make collard greens, whatever you want.
- Know what I'm sayin'?
- We could watch The Color Purple,
and be like, "You were so good in it."
- Yo you killed it, you crushed it.
I cried, I really did cry.
- I believe it.
All right guys,
Desus and Mero, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you, so much fun. - Thanks for having us.
- Desus and Mero on Showtime.
- Showtime!
- You're on hiatus, but you'll be back in September.
- Back in September with fresh, new L.A. jokes.
- Mondays and Thursdays.
- That's right. - 11 o' clock.
Unless we get arrested leaving L.A.,
which is, might happen.
- Might happen, but it won't.
(whooshing)