-Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
Big fan.
Congratulations...
on yet another successful project.
Does it ever get tiring?
-(laughs) -Just, like, winning.
-Does it ever get tiring? -(laughter)
I don't know. Uh, I'm tired a lot.
-'Cause I work too hard. -You're doing extremely well.
I mean, like, you've always been a talented individual,
but it feels like now that hard work and talent is paying off
in everything that you're doing.
I mean, Hamilton's such a huge success
that people are still... people are still trying to get tickets
all the time for the show, and-and now you're in a world
where you-you're branching into acting,
we're seeing you in movies,
we're seeing you creating a new show here,
His Dark Materials.
I love the books.
-Yeah. -I love the books. Love the books.
And I've always been waiting for somebody to just, like,
go in and tell the story.
-Were you a fan of the books as well? -Huge fan of the books.
Um, just so surreal and so rich and-and gorgeous,
and never in a million years thought
-that I'd get to live in that. -Right.
You know, to dive into your favorite book and play a part
is, like, a very surreal experience.
How do you prepare to act, like,
alongside, like, a giant polar bear?
-(laughter) -No, 'cause, like, actors will always be like,
"You know, for this role what I did was I...
-I went to, and I went to..." -"I went to the Arctic."
Like, did you do any, like, like, did you go to the zoo?
-Did you... did you do anything? -(laughter)
-Not really. -No?
Uh, no. I worked on the accent a little bit.
I have a lot of family in Texas, actually.
My-my... I have a lot of Mexican family on my mom's side,
so I was just sort of channeling San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
-Right, right, right. -And then trying not to go
full Yosemite Sam.
-(laughter) -And-and... and then, you know,
really, the fun was, they had these amazing puppeteers
to sort of play the daemons, so we were not acting
-with, like, tennis balls. -Oh, nice. Okay.
-We had, like... -So you actually had, like...
I had, like, a rabbit. Yeah.
-Oh, nice. -I'll-I'll tell you tr...
There was, like, a puppet of a rabbit,
and I talked to her and she was great
and she was my buddy and...
What's fun about the world is, like,
every two-person scene's a four-person scene.
So, like, you and I would be talking,
-Yes. -and I've got, like, let's say mine is, like, a little rat.
-Yes. -And he's, like, checking out your daemon...
-What, like, what is my daemon? -I don't know.
-You read the books. -Yeah, but how do you...
Who would embody your demon?
What does your soul look like in animal form?
What would my soul look like in animal form?
I would go with a panda bear.
-(laughter, aw'ing) -Yeah. Yeah, it's...
Can you imagine just watching The Daily Show,
and then there's just a little panda bear that also just...
-I think that would be pretty dope. -sits here?
Yeah, I like the panda, 'cause it's half black, half white.
I think that's the vibe. That's, like, the vibe...
(cheering, applause)
-You know? -Great.
-Yes. -It's great.
And it doesn't like to have sex if people are watching.
I mean, that's pretty much what I love about panda bears.
Yeah, and who sometimes falls out of trees.
-Well, it happened. -I do fall out of trees.
-Yeah. -Um, but-but this project
has been really cool, and while this is happening,
you've got another show that you've launched on Broadway.
Yeah, yeah, I'm, uh...
we're doing a Broadway run of Freestyle Love Supreme,
which is a hip-hop improv group that I've been in for, like,
15 years, and that's been the opposing muscle group
-on all the other projects. -Right.
'Cause it's a completely improvised show.
I perform in it, like, twice a week, um...
That's the cool thing about the show, though.
A lot of people don't realize this, is Lin-Manuel
performs in the show-- it's freestyle hip-hop,
everything is happening, it's improvised on the night
for the audience, it's getting rave reviews, but what's great
is you pop in and no one knows when you're gonna pop in, so
I heard, like, yesterday, for instance, I was talking to
someone who was at the show, and they were like,
"Oh, I was having a great time," and then
it was, like, near the end of the show,
and they're like, "Lin didn't come, but I was like,
what a great show," and then you came out.
And then the person says they, like,
peed themselves a little bit.
'Cause they weren't expecting it now.
Yeah, and that was a really funny one.
Because the person was, like, a huge Hamilton fan.
And she was freaking out 'cause
Chris Jackson was there. He was already on stage.
-Right, yes, exactly! -And she was like,
"Chris Jackson's here, George Washington's here."
And then they were like-- And we do this thing
where we, we interview someone, we do their whole day,
and they we do, like, a hip-hop musical version of their day.
And Shockwave, our beatboxer plays their body
and I play their mind, and I came out
and played her mind, and I think I saw her pee.
I think I saw the moment...
It was sort of like, the-the-the,
the good congressman's fart.
it was sort of like a pause...
-And then a release! -Yes.
And that's live theater, baby.
-(audience laughs, cheers) -Let me, let me ask you this.
Um, you-you-you're so good at crafting material
You're so good at writing stories
and acting in something that's prepared.
Improv comes with a completely different muscle.
You know, you're freestyling and you're hip-hopping,
you know, throughout the show.
What do you think you enjoy more, just like on, like,
a raw level of, like, oh,
this is, like, completely just easy fun?
I think of it as-as, I literally think of it
as, like, opposing muscle groups, like...
it took me a year to write "My Shot" in Hamilton,
-Got it, got it, got it. -but I went and did...
You know, Freestyle Love Supreme is you're getting our best
-first draft in real time. -Right, right.
And you're bringing the ingredients.
We're like a bunch a chefs on stage,
and you give us the words, and we cook up whatever we can
in that moment and sort of throw it back to you.
So, it-it strengthens the other thing.
Because it also forces you not to be precious
about your writing, 'cause you're like, "I can't--"
You know, I just did a 90-minute show last night.
That makes a lot of sense. Do-do you ever, like,
get bored of people asking you to freestyle
in real life, 'cause let's be honest, you have become
-the hip-hop guy. -Yeah.
And now you have the freestyle show, and it's like,
so it's freestyle and it's hip-hop, so like,
I feel like everywhere you go, people are just like,
"Oh, my God, Lin, how are you?"
-You know what... -♪ It's a coffee mug. ♪
-(laughs) Yeah! -(Noah beatboxing)
But what's tough is...
♪ I love coffee and I want to say ♪
♪ You drink it every day. ♪ Come on, Lin!
-Yeah. -How--? Be honest with me.
How many people do that to you?
Well, only reporters.
(audience clapping)
(laughing): And, and...
what, my new thing that I've done--
and you could probably do an amazing super cut on this,
because you guys are wizards at that--
is like, my new thing is I say I will freestyle if you beatbox.
-So you could do a super cut -We're gonna find that.
of, like, reporters beatboxing
-just to get me to freestyle. -We're gonna find this.
And it's a lot of, like, like,
little white ladies being like,
(mimicking bad beatboxing)
It's pretty funny.
You know what, you've just sent me on my next mission.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
Thank you so much! Come see the show.
I'm gonna find every single one of those clips.
His Dark Materials airs Monday at 9:00 p.m. on HBO.
The one and only, Lin-Manuel Miranda, everybody!