-So "Wine Country." I'm so excited.
I'm going to go to the premiere.
All you guys are in town on Wednesday.
-Yes. -These are --
These are our dream team friends.
-Yes.
-It's you, Poehler, Dratch, Maya Rudolph.
Tina's in the film. -Emily Spivey and --
-Emily Spivey and Liz Cackowski wrote it.
-And Paula Pell... -And Paula Pell.
-...who's going to be, at 56,
the greatest discovery ever to come to film.
-A comedy gold mine. -It's a powerhouse. Yes.
-And this is actually -- this film is based
on an actual birthday weekend... -Yes.
-...you guys all took for Rachel Dratch.
-That's right.
We celebrate marquee birthdays together.
-Yep. -And we did go to Sonoma
to celebrate Dratch's birthday.
And a lot of the sort of tentpoles of the movie
are based on real moments that we spent for Dratch's --
and we also did it for my birthday.
Two years ago, we went to Palm Springs.
-And what do you guys --
what does this group of women that everyone knows so well --
what do you do on a birthday weekend?
-We pick a theme. -Uh-huh.
-I mean, again, you would think
that that would mean like greasers or something.
[ Light laughter ] No, for mine,
I really wanted to wear muumuus the whole time.
-Uh-huh. [ Laughter ]
And -- And I bought everybody vintage bathing caps.
[ Laughter ] And then...
And we were in a phase
where we were really enjoying bitching about things.
-Okay. -And so Spivey named it
the "Muumuu Nitpick." [ Laughter ]
And then, we just, like, floated around in a pool
and complained about stuff you can't say a lot.
Like the parts you didn't like in "Hamilton" --
like, stuff like that. [ Laughter ]
-Right. -You know --
like, things you can't say in front of a lot of other people.
-Yeah, of course, right. -So we just --
-No, it's very -- you want to be, like,
safely in the center of a pool. -You just want to --
I mean you want to let it fly, you know?
-Yeah. -With some of the things
that aren't so fashionable to say.
-And this is a photo of some of you guys hanging out.
-Yeah, that's a good time picture.
-That's a good time. [ Laughter ]
-That's my favorite picture of all time, actually,
because that's a bunch of idiots who just had rosé at lunch
is what that is. [ Laughter ]
-This is a cake that was made for you.
-Oh, yeah, okay, so, let me explain.
-Okay, yeah, yeah. Here. -Let me explain. Let me explain.
Reveal. We got to -- I'm sorry -- I didn't mean to --
-No, no, please, please.
-I didn't mean to -- to harsh your -- your reveal.
[ Light laughter ] So, for our cakes, what we do,
which makes us laugh is,
we celebrate a character that maybe wasn't as beloved.
-Sure. -Because you know,
as people on the show, your favorite moments
are either funny things that happened in the writer's room...
-Yes. -...or in rehearsal.
They're generally not the things that everybody else enjoys.
-Right. -So I -- I had
this character Deandra Wells, who was moderately popular.
For -- For Dratch's birthday, we did Abe Scheinwald.
-Yep. -The accountant --
I mean the -- -Yep, double D's, double D's.
-Movie producer -- double D's, double D's.
-Yep. -And we featured a cake
with flowers and a lot of $20 and $50 dollar bills
coming out of it. [ Light laughter ]
You can look at the -- look at the recognition
for Abe Scheinwald. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -It was extraordinary.
You can Google it, so... -You can Google it.
It's worth a Google.
-It's worth a real satisfying Google.
-Yeah. -And yours truly wrote it.
-And don't worry you're gonna, like,
lose hours and hours watching them -- there's only like two.
[ Laughter ]
-No, this was true also of my sketch.
-Yeah. Yeah. -Deandra Wells,
who was a real -- a real [bleep]
Am I allowed to say that? -Yeah, yeah.
-She -- She was a singer, very --
talked about love all the time, but very abusive to her band.
So, hello, band. Nice to see you guys.
[ Laughter ]
So we -- she -- she had -- she --
We had one with Conan O'Brien,
where she was real abusive to him
while he was coming out of rehab.
He was her son. And it was set --
And for some reason, it was her "Live in Santa Barbara" concert.
And for some reason, when he finally explodes at her,
she turns to everybody -- the character -- and says,
"Not here, not in Santa Barbara!"
as though it mattered.
Santa Barbara had nothing to do with it.
-Right. -So on my cake,
they did a giant blowup of Deandra Wells.
And she did have icing that said,
"Not here, not in Santa Barbara!"
and with exploding candles, so...
[ Cheers and Applause ] -But now, this is --
-So much detail.
Again, I would say... -But not in --
-...I would say Google it.
I'm sure it's not on the Internet,
'cause NBC doesn't want to pay for the music rights.
-Yes. -So...
An, once again, band, can I get a, "What what?"
-I was -- this was very familiar to me,
because when I started on the show...
-Yes. -...in your office...
-Yes.
-...you had a giant oil painting of Deandra.
-Yeah, it was huge. It's absolutely huge.
[ Laughter ] -I mean, I'm not kidding.
I think it's 4 by 11 feet. It's massive.
Because it was a sketch that we took to dress and was cut.
It was -- It was cut because it bombed.
-Yeah. -Pretty badly.
It was a -- It was a short -- a play --
- Yeah. -A one-act play.
-And was it one of those sketches
where you -- very early on, you knew,
"Oh, this is bombing, and we're not gonna get it back?"
-No, it was a -- it was a Christmas special.
And we got real lost in the details.
Paula and I wrote it together. -Yeah.
-And we got real excited
about this giant self-portrait, for example,
that she would have in her home.
She had -- It was a Christmas --
like a Christmas variety special.
And she had -- And Val Kilmer was playing Kris Kristofferson.
[ Laughter ]
And we had individual jewel cases of CD covers
all over her Christmas --
We really -- We really brought it in on the details.
But we forgot to write comedy... -Right.
-...is the problem. [ Laughter ]
And so, it was a play about a woman
who had a Christmas special that was bad.
I mean, I remember... -Yeah.
-...it was, literally, Big Bird came --
and it was -- and -- and small children.
It wasn't funny. -And --
-But, anyway, so... [ Laughter ]
...this portrait -- the --
Joe DeTullio... -Yeah.
-...said to me, "Hey, we got this giant portrait.
You want it in your office?" Of course I said yes.
Because my office was... -Yeah.
-...you know, about -- I don't know -- 10 square feet.
And so it took up a lot of real estate.
-It took up all the space.
-It took up a lot of real estate.
And then, when I left the show,
I guess it hung around the writers' room for a while?
-It was there a long time. [ Laughter ]
-It was -- It was my way of saying,
"I'm still here, friends." -[ Laughing ] Yeah.
The eyes followed you when you walk across the room.
-Yeah, ex-- [ Laughter ]
So I ran into Andrew Steele --
I don't know -- a few years later.
It's like I can see that portrait every day.
You might -- You might think about getting that at home.
And weirdly, I don't have any pictures
from "Saturday Night Live" in my house.
But, strangely, my husband really wanted this.
And so it hangs in my front hall to this day.
And it's fantastic,
'cause there are people who come into my home
who think we had this commissioned.
[ Laughter ] You know what I mean?
-Yeah.
'Cause it's not a famous character.
-No. -So they walk in,
and they're like, "What -- So, did Charlie --
Was it your 40th or...?"
You know, they think --
You know, it's like a Mar-a-Lago painting.
-It is. -You know?
[ Laughter and applause ] It's full Mar-a-Lago.
-Yeah. I've got some Mar-a-Lago vibes.
-This is a nice -- this is a true story, though,
because you do have more in common with Deandra
than you're letting on.
You actually do have a Christmas album coming out this year...
-I do. -...you yourself.
-Yes, "Sugar and Booze," October 25th.
[ Laughter ] -That's very exciting.
-It's -- Well, it's -- it's better --
it's the best part of the holidays, obviously.
-Yeah, "Sugar and Booze."
-Yeah, it's -- it's deeply religious...
[ Laughter ]
...and celebrates the spirit of the holidays.
I look forward to being back here.
Maybe I'll get to -- get to pitch it very overtly.
-Oh, wow, we would love to have you come back...
-Yeah, I'm inviting myself right now.
-...and sing a track off "Sugar and Booze."
-I don't mean to put you on the spot, but, yeah, why not?
-No, not on the spot at all. You'll be on the spot --
center stage! -Boom!
-Thanks for being here. -Thank you for having me.
-It's always so great to see you.
Everybody, that's Ana Gasteyer. -Yay!