-You look gorgeous. -So do you.
Oh, my God. -Come on.
I'm so happy when you're here.
I want to talk to you about "Saturday Night Live."
-Oh, my God. -You're hosting.
This is the second time. I'm looking forward to this.
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is the episode I'm looking forward to.
It's going to be my favorite of the whole season.
-Oh, my gosh, that's so sweet. You know what's so funny?
I mean, honestly, I forget how hard it is.
And I mean, you know, you do your show every night,
but because I haven't done variety in a long time,
I forget how fast-paced.
And so I'm definitely very nervous.
[ Laughter ]
-But you could crush. I've seen you do every --
Do you remember all the sketches?
-You want to know the truth is?
I seriously have a fear.
Like, I can perform for strangers better
than if people I know come.
I have a fear of disappointing loved ones.
-I think I have that too. -You do?
-Yeah. -That's so interesting.
-I don't like to know if anyone's in the audience.
-That's so funny.
-If my parents would come visit,
I go, "No, don't tell me till after the show."
-That's exactly how I am.
-So are people coming to the show?
-Yes. Yes.
And I'm like, oh! Every time I hear more and more,
I'm like, "I'm so scared."
But my husband and kids are coming, too.
So I'm so excited about that. -Fritz!
-Yes, Fritz and Stella, Nolan. -How old are the kids now?
-My kids are -- Nolan just turned 18 and Stella is 19!
-Buddy, I can't even believe. I have a picture of them here.
-Yeah. Aww! -What a great, beautiful family.
Here you are here. -Oh, that's so sweet.
[ Audience awws ] -Yeah.
-Thank you. -There's Fritz there too.
Have you done the host dinner yet?
-Yes, we did the host dinner.
Well, the host dinner is where Lorne Michaels
takes the host of the show out for dinner
with a lot of the cast Tuesday night.
It's like a fancy restaurant. And this is so funny.
But I have a friend who, when I was on the show,
my friend Carrie Aizley used to always
ask me, like, about the host and what they would eat.
Like for example, one week
it was Neve Campbell and she was like,
"What did she eat? What did she eat at dinner, Molly?"
And I would give a full report.
I was like, "Well,
Neve Campbell ate a tomato basil pasta,"
and she's like, "Did she have any wine?"
I was like, "Yeah, she had a glass of sauvi B."
And then, you know, "What else? Did she eat bread?"
So I do the whole thing. -You would give the whole scoop.
-So I have to give her the rundown.
Like, Chloe Fineman does eat gluten.
-Whoa! -She ordered a Coca-Cola at dinner.
So, like, my friend likes to know.
She likes to know. She'd be like,
"What did Jimmy Fallon eat?"
-I don't remember my host dinners so much.
-You don't? -I remember -- No.
Sometimes I wasn't invited to them.
-Oh, right. [ Laughter ]
Well, do you want to know what I had for my host dinner?
-Yes. -Fried calamari.
-Oh! -A margarita.
-Wow! -And creamy pasta with garlic.
Good night. -Wow!
That's what I'm talking about!
-Doesn't that sound good?
Isn't that good to know?
-That's good to know. -I like to know what people eat.
-I was thinking about all the characters
and all the fun stuff we used to do on "Saturday Night Live."
And you used to make me laugh more than anyone.
But do you remember a character named Jeannie Darcy?
-Yes. -She was a stand-up comedian.
-Yes. She's a bad stand-up comedian.
-She was a bad stand-up comedian,
but one of my favorites.
She would go and it's very hard to write this and perform this.
And can I tell you why?
Because you're writing bad comedy.
You're writing someone struggling to do comedy.
And it's only funny if it doesn't get laughs and stuff.
-Yes. And I actually did it toward the end of my "SNL" run
because I was like, "Oh, it's so hard to be thinking
about making stuff funny all the time" that I thought,
"I want to do something that's really dull,
that gets no laughs at all. Just a dull, bad comedian
who really should not be trying to pursue comedy.
But she has such big dreams."
But basically when I first did it at the at the table,
it did -- it was like -- it went so-so.
But you and Will were laughing so hard.
So then I would really just perform to make you
and Will Ferrell laugh.
It was just for you two. Do you remember that?
Yeah, because the audience didn't get it at first.
They were like, "What is this?"
They were like, "This isn't funny."
And then you would come out
and it was just for Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell.
-I'm crying thinking about how funny it was.
It was the best thing. -Oh, that's so sweet.
-You used to make me laugh so hard.
-That's so sweet.
-And you've done -- I mean, obviously
Mary Katherine Gallagher.
[ Cheers and applause ]
"I'm 50!" -Yes.
-I mean, "I'm 50." I mean, stop it.
I mean, everyone's -- Sally O'Malley.
[ Cheers and applause ]
It's just so many things.
And I was thinking, like, impressions that you've done.
I remember you doing, like, Courtney Love.
-Oh, yeah, Courtney Love. I did Courtney Love.
And people would always ask like,
"Oh, if you do an impression of somebody, do they get mad?"
And I was like, "Yes, sometimes."
Like, I did an impression of Courtney Love on the show,
and then the real Courtney Love showed up live and she was mad.
She was like, "Where's Molly?"
She was going around the studio, hunting me down.
-No! -Ready to maybe punch me or something.
And I was like, "I'm scared." -Oh, stop it.
-No, maybe not.
But she was definitely looking. No, maybe not punching.
-Whoa! -But definitely looking for me.
-She's like, "Where's Molly Shannon?"
-Yeah, yeah. And then I saw her and I'm dressed as her
and I was like, "Hi."
And, you know, and she smelled like witchy oils
and she was tall.
She was, like, tough with a -- And I was like,
"Give me a cigarette." And she gave me a cigarette.
And then we smoked together and I told her
why it was such a compliment that it's, you know,
when somebody does an impression of you,
that's like cool, you know? And she was like, "Yeah, yeah.
Okay, whatever." [ Laughter ]
-And so you guys bonded?
-She was really nice. We bonded.
I mean, I'm a big fan of hers.
I used to go see her perform at the Palace.
Like, she's Courtney Love. -She's a rock legend.
Come on. Yeah. -Yeah, I loved her.
And also, she was fun to play because she's --
I think she's the total opposite of me in real life.
I think she doesn't care about breaking the rules
and being a bad girl, and I'm more like a good girl.
So she was fun to play.
-Yeah, exactly. -I'm a good girl.
-Yeah, of course you are. -Not really.
-Can you tell the story about you and Will Ferrell?
Because when you did "Night at the Roxbury,"
you had to do media training.
-Yes, well, media training is such a funny thing.
So when you first get into show biz,
you have to do all these interviews
to sell the movie for the studio
to really get people to go see it.
So they thought that Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan
and I didn't know anything about that.
So they wanted to put us through training
and they take us in a hotel room for 12 hours.
And this woman with like a scarf was like,
"Okay, I'm going to videotape you
and I'm going to ask you why, you know --
Let's start with Will." So she's videotaping.
She was like, "Why should I -- We'll start."
It was like a practice question.
"Why should I go see 'A Night at the Roxbury'?"
And Will was like, "I don't know,
maybe because you'll win a million dollars."
And she was like, "Stop the camera." She was like,
"That's not funny. I don't think that's funny.
Do you think that's funny?" We were like, "Yeah.
It's kind of funny." [ Laughter ]
-She kept yelling at you guys?
-Yeah, no, yeah, freezing the camera.
We were in hysterics. -I think I met with her.
-You did? -Yes, because everyone
through "SNL" had to meet this media trainer
to teach you how to do press and do interviews.
-Yes. Did you learn anything?
-No! At all. No. [ Laughter ]
She was mean. -Exactly.
-It ruined my confidence.
-That's so funny. Yeah.
-I love -- By the way, "Hello, Molly!"
is now in paperback, buddy.
That is a massive deal. [ Cheers and applause ]
-"New York Times" best seller!
-Come on.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. -Amazing. Can you believe it?
I love the stories.
It's so, so funny hearing of your career.
There's some heartbreaking stories in here.
There's heartwarming stories.
You talk about your dad, Jim, who I love and I got to meet.
-My dad loved you, Jimmy. He loved you so much.
He was like, "That Jimmy Fallon. Oh!"
He was like -- You were always so nice to him.
Marci Klein's wedding, You're like,
"Oh, my God, Mr. Shannon. Mr. Shannon." He loved you.
Jimmy makes everyone feel so good.
You're so charming and wonderful.
And my dad adored you.
-But here's what I read in the book.
That he kind of trained you to act.
-Yes.
-He gave you, like, little fun games to play with your --
-Yeah, I call it the Jim Shannon School of Acting.
It was when I was growing up.
My real taste and how I learned how to act was from my father.
So we would play this game that he made up
where we would have to answer a fake telephone call
and be very real.
And so, for example, we used to say "Shannon's residence"
when we answer the phone. So I would just go,
"Hello, Shannon's residence. This is Molly.
Yeah." And if it wasn't real,
he would go "Stop!" you know, and make you start over again.
But we used to get so good -- we would get so good at it
that say you were my friend Jimmy over.
And we were playing. I could trick you.
We would -- My dad would call the house
to make it ring so that I could trick my friend
to thinking you really had a coffee.
So I'd be like, "Shannon's residence.
This is Molly. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Jimmy's right here.
Uh-huh.
Yeah." And then I would pull you in.
-I want to play too. -It's like that.
-Alright, let me -- Alright, hold on.
[ Laughter ]
Fallon residence. This is Jimmy.
Oh, yeah. Hold on. Just --
Molly is on the show, so I'm in the middle of this.
Lorne says hi.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah.
Ooh.
Oh, that sounds -- that sounds dangerous.
A Jet Ski?
-What? -Okay.
Alright. Sounds like fun.
Alright, I'll give you a ring later. Bye.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
-I bailed a little bit at the end.
I bailed a little bit at the end. Sorry, Jim.
-I like how you say "I'll give you a ring later."
-Yeah, I made that up. [ Laughter ]
I'll give you a ring later.
Let's talk about "The Other Two," by the way.
I saw the first episode of season three.
It's so funny.
It is so funny and ridiculous. Who are the writers?
-Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider.
They are so talented.
This season cuts three years ahead,
and it's really a season where we take the biggest swings ever.
It's going to be phenomenal.
-Yeah, you you play Pat.
You are the mom and you have a talk show
and things are going really well for you.
And you have three kids?
-Three kids. Yes.
And my son is becoming the next big pop superstar.
-So he becomes kind of like a Justin Bieber type of thing.
And the other two, which is what the show is about, are going,
"Hey, what about us?" -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-"We have lives, too. We're somebody too."
-Exactly. -And they are so funny.
-Yes. -It's brilliant.
-Thank you so much.
I feel so lucky to be to be on the show.
It's just -- I can't wait for everybody to see season three.
-They're going to see it here. I want to show a clip.
Here's Molly Shannon in "The Other Two."
Take a look at this.
-We have a full home theater?
-Oh, and are you guys going to want snacks for the premiere?
What do you kids like? -You know I need Reese's Pieces.
-Oh! Yes. Okay.
When it comes to snacks, there's nothing my family
and I love more than at Reese's Pieces.
In five, four...
[ Doorbell rings ]
Ahhh! -What is happening?
-Hi, Pat. Just dropping off some R.P. swag
since we heard you're a fan. -Thanks so much.
Isn't this fun?
Last week I tweeted the upstairs toilet won't flush.
-Why would you tweet that?
-Well, that one was supposed to be a text to Streeter,
but now I have a lifetime supply of Liquid-Plumr.
It really is so convenient to be powerful.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Molly Shannon, everybody!
"The Other Two" premieres May 4th on HBO Max.
Catch her hosting "Saturday Night Live"
this weekend with musical guest Jonas Brothers.
More "Tonight Show" after the break. Come on!