-Welcome to "The Tonight Show." Thank you for coming on.
-Thank you for having me. -It's great to see you.
As a former senator, I was wondering what are
your takeaways from the State of the Union last night?
-Well, I thought Biden was especially good on Ukraine.
-Yeah.
-He's put together this amazing coalition of nations
to stand up to Putin.
And he actually brought together
Republicans and Democrats last night.
They were standing, you know.
It was really heartening to see Republicans standing
when he called Putin a menacing dictator,
especially when a few days earlier,
Trump had called Putin a genius.
And so, you know, obviously the situation there is really dire,
and you just have to give credit to the people of Ukraine.
Our hearts are with them. -Absolutely. Yeah.
-And the unbelievable leadership from their president,
from Zelenskyy, who is incredibly brave.
You know, he was a comedian.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And as you know, comedians are the bravest people in the world.
[ Laughter ]
Especially Jewish comedians who went into politics.
[ Laughter ] -Wow, yeah.
-That's me and Zelenskyy. But anyway.
-But anyways, back to me.
[ Laughter ]
-It was really palpable last night in the chamber, I thought,
the emotion about Ukraine.
-You've been to a number of State of the Union addresses.
What is it like to be in the chamber?
I mean, is it kind of -- -Well, it's amazing.
I first one I did -- went to was Barack Obama.
And it's just so moving.
To be part of this democratic -- the democracy,
it's just unbelievably moving.
-It makes you proud, yeah, to be an American.
And what was it like when Trump was president?
[ Laughter ] -Um...
-Take your time.
[ Laughter ]
-Not so moving.
[ Laughter ] -Okay, alright.
-You know, the first time he spoke to the joint session,
we have a -- we had a caucus lunch.
I mean, the Democratic senators meet for lunch.
And a couple of my colleagues were saying like,
"Do we really have to stand up and applaud
when he says something like, you know, hackneyed like,
'Under Donald Trump,
America will be the strongest nation in the world.'
Do we have to stand up?"
And Chuck Schumer goes, "Yes, we've got to be --
we've got to be polite."
[ Laughter ]
And we didn't like it.
And I said, "Well, you know, we could stand up and applaud,
but we could do the slow sarcastic clap."
And you know that as a comedian.
But none of my other colleagues are comedians, you see.
And so I had to show them what it was.
And it's basically, you know, this.
Trump says, "Under Trump, every American will be able to
put food on the table, roof over their kids' heads
and send them to college."
And then it's just like --
[ Laughter ]
And so a number of my colleagues wanted to do it.
But Chuck said, "No, we can't. We've got to be polite."
-You got to be polite.
But before you got elected senator,
you had an amazing comedy career.
You become a senator.
Do you feel any pressure not to be funny?
-Yeah.
You know, I won by 312 votes in my first election
and I got there late.
And my team said to me, "Don't be funny.
Do not be funny.
Don't be funny on the floor, on a floor speech.
Don't be funny in hearings.
Don't be funny to the press."
I said, "I got it. Don't be funny."
They said, "Don't be funny."
But I really didn't internalize it.
[ Laughter ]
So, the first day I'm there, I get sworn in.
I go right to my new office. I hadn't been there.
I get this slip of paper on my desk, and I learned that
one of my duties is to write
congratulatory notes to my constituents.
And the first one is Ruth Anderson of Marshall, Minnesota,
who's turning 110.
-Wow.
-So, I get my official stationery.
I write down, "Dear Ruth, you have a bright future."
[ Laughter ]
-That's very funny.
-I thought so.
And so, my new assistant picks it up
and takes it to my new chief of staff.
And he's in like in two seconds, "What is this?!"
-Yeah. -I said, "It's a joke."
And he goes, "Uh-huh.
You think Ruth Anderson will find it funny?"
And I said, "Well, I don't know, she's 110."
He said, "Well, you think her family will find it funny?"
And I went, "Oh, yeah,"
and I started thinking about her 90-year-old son.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, he might be bummed out, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-"You've got a bright future"? Well, that's kind of mean.
[ Laughter ] But it's funny.
-And you've done stand-up.
You've done tours I know with Tom Davis.
Is this your first solo comedy --
-It's my first time doing it solo.
I started -- I love stand-up.
You know. You're a great stand-up.
-I love stand-up. -And how much fun it is.
So I worked up a -- I have a -- I'm great.
It's really hilarious. [ Laughter ]
I did 15 cities in the fall, and I was booked for 16 more.
I'm going to Portland, Maine, this Sunday.
-It's a beautiful place.
And also, are you enjoying the podcast?
-I love doing the podcast.
The podcast is really public policy,
politics but also comedy.
So, we've had guests like Steven Schmidt, Anthony Fauci,
Sarah Silverman, Conan O'Brien.
Michelle Obama. -Wow.
-Well, not Michelle Obama but guests like her.
[ Laughter ]
-Can you say that in your promo?
Guests like Michelle -- -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Yeah, of course.
-Just like. -It's very good.
It's informative. But I got to say, it's funny.
You're so funny. -Thank you.
-You can't not be funny.
I'm so happy that you're here on the show,
and good luck with the rest of the tour.
-Thanks for having me. [ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you, everybody.
-That's Al Franken, everybody.
Go see Al on tour.
Go to alfranken.com for tickets.