-Our first guest tonight
is an Emmy-nominated writer and comedian
you know best from his work on "Saturday Night Live."
The second season of his show, "That Damn Michael Che,"
is out now on HBO Max.
Let's take a look.
-Kim, why don't you tell me
why you think our relationship didn't work out?
-'Cause you had a girlfriend.
-But what could I have done differently?
-You could have told me you had a girlfriend.
-That's right. -Alright, alright.
Now, what do you think you could have done differently?
-[Bleep] What you just say to me?
-Be honest.
-You know, when we broke up, he tried to date my sister.
-Wow. -Well, I didn't know.
-Yes, you did. Don't lie. -You didn't let me finish.
I didn't know that that mattered.
-Huh. -You're disgusting.
-He dumped me on Juneteenth. -Really?
-I didn't even know that was a [bleep] holiday until last year.
-Shame on you.
-Please welcome back to the show, Michael Che, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome back. -Oh, man, this is awesome.
Hi, Fred.
-Hi.
[ Laughter ]
-It is -- It is very kind of you to come back into the building,
post-the "SNL" season,
because obviously you spend a lot of intense months here,
and now you're on summer break.
-Yeah, I did not want to do this.
[ Laughter ]
It's weird. Like, I love -- I love coming to the show.
It was always weird coming back into the building,
though, not... -Yeah.
-Like, I almost immediately pressed the 17th floor
and all that. -It is a trip that you --
Yeah, I mean, 'cause, you know,
we don't have a summer off here on this show,
but you can totally shut your mind off from "SNL."
-Yeah, it's hard to do, but I encourage it.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
Although it is very strange
that you chose to use your downtime from "SNL"
to do a second sketch show. [ Laughs ]
We've talked about this before.
I'm so impressed because I felt like I was just, like --
there was nothing left of me after "SNL,"
and yet you have found time to do two shows at once.
-Yeah, it's dumb. -Yeah.
-I think, like... [ Laughter ]
I guess it was sold to me kind of like,
"Okay, what if you could do a sketch show
where you can use the n-word a lot?"
And I was like, "That's different enough.
I could do that, yeah." [ Laughter ]
-Now, just to make it clear -- in that clip we showed,
that's you basically having a conference
with former girlfriends... -Yeah.
-...getting notes on what could make you a better boyfriend.
-Yeah, my ex-girlfriends all sit me down
to give me an intervention,
but they don't know that they're my ex-girlfriends.
[ Laughter ]
-Now, that's never -- obviously,
this is not something in real life
that you would ever want to have happen.
-Nah, it's a fantasy, though. [ Laughter ]
Wouldn't that be cool to just, like --
just, like, get everybody together
and have them kind of all agree as to why you're horrible?
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
I would like it on a --
On a person-by-person level, I would like it.
I think I would hate them collectively.
Like, reaching a consensus about me, I think,
would be just devastating.
-But it would be so fulfilling. -Yeah.
-Because now you don't have to guess anymore.
[ Laughter ]
Like, you know exactly what's wrong.
-What percentage of the things that you're guessing
is wrong about you do you think you're right about?
-Well, that's interesting,
'cause I do think that, you know, like,
there are probably a lot of things that's wrong, like,
that they would think is right that's actually not true.
It's just me being, I don't know, coy and elusive.
[ Laughter ]
But, no, yeah, I would probably --
I would probably say like 75%. -Do you think that --
I wonder if, like, the criticisms of girlfriends
that had you at, like, different parts of your life
are like massively different
just based on where your head was at.
Or do you think it's been consistent?
-I bet it's been consistent. [ Laughter ]
I could hear -- like, you know, sometimes --
You ever, like --
You ever, like, get -- go through a breakup
and you almost hear exactly what someone else broke up with you?
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
Like, you -- almost verbatim,
somebody broke up with you for that same exact reason.
And you're like, "Oh, no, she wasn't lying.
I guess I..." [ Laughter ]
"I think I owe somebody an apology."
[ Laughter ]
-Have you -- I've done this.
I'm -- I don't need to tell everybody here.
I'll be driving with my wife and my three kids in the car,
and I'll think of, like, an argument I had with an ex
where I know I was wrong, and I'll just go, "Ugh!"
[ Laughter ]
And my wife will be like, "What?"
And I'll be like, "Eh, nothing." [ Laughter ]
-Oh, that's good. That's...
I've -- Yeah, that's -- I've definitely had that one.
-Yeah. You -- So, we talked before --
the first season of "That Damn Michael Che,"
you did at the same time you were doing a season of "SNL."
-Yeah.
-This year, was it a little easier
knowing what you were up against?
-Yeah, well, because the first season, like,
we didn't really know what the show was.
-Mm-hmm. -And I remember Tina told me
that, like, I -- I sent like, Tina some episodes, like,
"Hey, what did you think of the show?"
And she was like, "You don't know what the show is yet,
but that's okay." [ Light laughter ]
And I was infuriated, 'cause she was exactly right.
Like, after the second season, I was like,
"Oh, this is what she's talking about."
So, like, once you kind of know what to do with it,
then you know exactly how to write it,
and then you can kind of delegate easier,
and it's so much easier.
But it was like -- yeah,
the first season was way harder than this one.
-You have wonderful cameos.
Obviously, you have a lot of talented friends.
-Yeah. -I think that people think,
when you have talented friends,
it's easy to ask them to do your stuff.
But it's -- I find it --
I always feel like they're being asked a million things,
and i feel bad asking.
-Yeah, I hate asking people for stuff,
'cause especially if it's, like, my comedy.
'Cause I know they're gonna be like,
"Alright, am I gonna have to read about this tomorrow?"
[ Laughter ]
-You mean that you're gonna put them
in this sort of jackpot of getting in trouble?
-Yeah, like, oh, maybe I shouldn't say this,
but I had, like -- we went up to, like,
Whoopi Goldberg for something, and she was like, "Absolutely."
And I couldn't believe she was, like, willing to do it.
So I had to tell her,
"Also, in that episode, we have a Cosby impersonator."
And she was like, "No, I can't do it anymore."
[ Laughter ]
Like, yeah, I should've probably started with that one, yeah.
But, you know, there's, like, always times
where, like, people want to do it, but I'm also like,
"Man, you got to know what the whole joke is."
[ Laughter ] I can't --
-Yeah, never -- never let Michael Che
sell you on a close-up. -Yeah, yeah.
-Like, you definitely want the wide shot.
-Yeah, you got to -- you kind of got to know
what the punchline is.
It's definitely Bill Cosby trying to make me a drink.
[ Laughter ]
Watch the show -- it makes sense!
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. [ Laughter ]
No, I -- -In context, it --
-I think they get it.
Yeah. -See, a long time ago,
Bill Cosby would do this thing --
No, no. [ Laughter ]
-Now, do you take a break now? 'Cause, obviously,
you're doing a little bit of press for the show,
but it's done.
You got months off for "SNL."
Are you gonna take a break,
or are you one of those workaholics
who's gonna start doing stand-up again right away?
-I'm gonna do stand-up probably next week, so...
-Yeah. -Yeah, I just like -- It's --
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
I think everybody's happy to hear that.
-It's always crazy, because it's like --
like, my hobbies is my job. -Yeah.
-Like, so, like, any time I have free time,
I'm taking a break from stand-up, that's it,
and then I'll go somewhere, and I'm like,
"Oh, I wonder what a show would be like in here" --
you know what I mean?
And then I end up at a -- doing this bar show in London
or something or whatever.
But it's like usually trying to take a break,
the first thing I think to relax is doing stand-up, so it sucks.
-You seem -- But, like, that makes sense,
because you have a very relaxed persona onstage,
but do you get nervous when you go do stand-up?
Like, if you're in London, you're like,
"I'm gonna do a set at a bar," do you think to yourself --
as you're driving over, are you thinking like,
"Is this going to work here? Is this...?"
Or you're mostly just really excited?
-No, I don't get nervous,
because the worst-case scenario is people don't have fun.
-Yeah. Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-I mean, honestly, I hate to say this,
but it won't ruin my day. [ Laughter ]
You know what I mean? -Yeah, yeah.
-Like, hey, some shows are for you, some shows are for me.
[ Laughter ] -Well, on behalf of everyone,
I do want to stress how much we appreciate your honesty.
-Oh. [ Laughter ]
-Hey, congrats on a great second season
and thank you so much for being here, buddy.
-Yeah, thank you, Seth. -We really appreciate you
coming back in the building. -I appreciate it.
[ Cheers and applause ] Michael Che, everybody.
The second season of "That Damn Michael Che"
is available now on HBO Max.
We'll be right back with Kylie Minogue.