-Our first guest tonight is a talented actress.
You know her from her work on shows like
"Parks and Recreation" and "Legion"
and films like "Happiest Season."
Her children's book, "The Legend of the Christmas Witch"
is available today. Please welcome back to the show,
our very good friend Aubrey Plaza, everyone.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Aubrey. [ Cheers and applause ]
I feel like you did something different
to your look over the pandemic. -No.
This is how I always dress, Seth.
-Are you sure? It's not a haircut or something?
-No. [ Laughter ]
-This is very exciting. First of all,
it is great to see you. -You too, man.
-And -- And now you have this book, "The Christmas Witch."
-Yes. -Now, I have not --
I was not familiar with witches in the Christmastime.
What -- What gave you -- [ Laughter ]
What gave you this idea? It shouldn't be --
It's "The Legend of the Christmas Witch."
-This is "The Legend of the Christmas Witch."
[ Light laughter ]
She's always existed, Seth.
And just now, we finally get her story.
-Oh! -Yes.
-Have you always been drawn to Halloween as a holiday?
-Yes. Halloween has always been kind of my thing.
-Uh-huh. -And through the past
couple years, I've been doing this performance kind of art,
witchy thing on Halloween, where I scare all the kids
in the neighborhood. [ Laughter ]
I don't have children, so it's extra weird.
[ Laughter ] And I --
Yeah, I dress up like a witch, and I do this thing with them,
where I, like, throw candy at them, which they like,
but then I also try to scare them
and freak them out, which they don't like.
But it really gets them all riled up.
[ Laughter ] And they come back for more.
They can't get enough. And I -- I throw it
and scream like, "I don't want to be doing this!"
And they're like, "You don't have to!"
[ Laughter ] And I'm like, "Yes, I do!"
And it goes back and forth like that all night long.
And -- yeah. -Do you feel like you intimidate
the other neighbors, in that they feel like
they're not putting the same energy into the -- the spirit?
-I mean, Hank and Linda... [ Laughter ]
...you got to up your game.
-And you sort of do it from your front steps?
Is that where you -- -Yeah.
I create a whole kind of graveyard scene...
-Okay. -...in my front yard, with --
I hide behind the tombstones. [ Light laughter ]
I actually put the bowl of candy with a spotlight on it,
and I hide, and so then the kids walk up,
and they all know, "Okay. There's candy in there,"
and they all discuss, "All right, you go.
You -- You put your hand in there."
And they all are scared, and then one brave
little kid does it, and the minute he reaches in,
I -- I attack. [ Laughter ]
And they cry. A lot of them cry.
-Sure. -It's disturbing.
-That's great. -Yeah.
-And now you've made them a children's book.
-Yes. -This same person.
-[ Cackling ] Y-e-e-e-es! [ Laughter ]
-So, now, where did you get this idea of a Christmas Witch?
This is sort of -- Is it based on anything?
-First of all, I get sad after Halloween.
-Yeah. -And I -- I had to hang up
my witch hat and broom, and I -- and I always get sad.
So, a couple years ago, I said, "You know what?
I'm not gonna do that this year.
I'm gonna carry it through to Christmas."
-That's great. -And I'm gonna -- I'm gonna
dress up like a witch at Christmas.
And instead of throwing candy, I'm gonna throw presents
and see if I can get the same reaction.
[ Laughter ] And I did.
-Yeah, I would imagine. -So, I -- Yeah, I kind of
developed this Christmas Witch character
just out of boredom, really. [ Laughter ]
And I just -- I tried it out on my manager.
I put a sack of presents in -- in a bag or something --
I think in a garbage bag, maybe. [ Light laughter ]
And I put a witch costume on, but I gave it a Christmas flair.
I think I had some bells on my head or something.
And then, I told her, "I'm gonna come scare your son, Max.
So, tell him the -- tell him the Christmas Witch is coming.
See how he feels about it. Tell him he's gonna
get a present, but it's gonna be very scary."
[ Laughter ]
And Max was kind of my guinea pig.
And I -- And I basically just went there, hid in the bushes,
and I worked out my shtick. [ Laughter ]
-I want to point out, like, I think sometimes kids' books
are, you know, there are sort of a few words on each page,
it's a little simple. -Mm-hmm.
-This is -- You're -- You're world-building here.
-I am. -I just want to show that, like,
whenever you see a map on the first page of a book,
you know that you're -- you're getting
your bang for your buck in here. [ Light laughter ]
Yeah, that helped. That was very helpful.
-Oh, sorry. Um, yes.
So Julia Iredale is our illustrator.
She's a -- She's a -- an amazing illustrator from Vancouver.
And we -- we talked to her about having a map,
because, yes, we are world-building.
We're going to have an amusement-park world,
a little section of the amusement park,
the Christmas Witch amusement park,
and little kids are gonna grow up knowing,
"Oh, the Christmas Witch is coming.
And -- And we know where she came from, the Black Forest.
[ Laughter ] And then she got in the boat
with her peng-- She has penguins instead of reindeer."
-Great. -"She's on the South Pole
instead of the North Pole." You get the idea.
[ Laughter ] And, um --
-I mean, I get that there is an idea.
-Anyway, it's all in the book. -Yeah, right.
[ Laughter ]
Now, I want to finish by remarking
on some exciting personal news. -Okay.
-You were one of the people that I think --
I think it's really sweet -- during the pandemic,
during a very difficult time... -Yeah.
-...you got married. Congratulations.
-Thanks. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Imagine -- Imagine a smaller ceremony.
-Yes. It was just a joke that went too far.
[ Laughter ]
It was our -- It was our anniversary and --
Yes, we'd been in lockdown, as everyone was,
and the quarantine kind of -- and we were just like,
"You know, it's our anniversary. We should do something special."
And I was like, "Why don't we just get married?
How about that?" [ Laughter ]
And then, he was like, "Well, I don't think we can.
It's probably not possible to do it on a Sunday like this."
And I was like, "Well, I'm gonna google it."
[ Laughter ] And I did.
And I found a website called 1hourmarriage.com.
[ Light laughter ] And I called the number,
and I said, "Can you get us married in an hour,
like -- like you advertise?" And they said, "I don't know.
We're in Alhambra, so how about tomorrow?"
And I said, "No, I want the hour thing that you do."
And then, silence on the other end.
Then he said, "How about two hours,
and it's an extra hundred bucks or whatever."
And I said, "Sold." And then, a very nice man, yeah,
from Alhambra, came in a Hawaiian shirt with a briefcase.
I, uh -- I was, you know, saging.
-That's how you know it's legal, when the brief --
when there's a briefcase. -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
I created a love altar of our love objects.
[ Laughter ]
And I smoked it out, you know, in the yard.
-Yeah. -And then, there is a witch --
This is an entirely -- has nothing to do
with the Christmas -- -A separate witch.
-There's a separate witch thing, where there was a witch
that was living across the street during the quarantine.
Her name was Dandelion. We became friends.
-Now, did you -- Did she have to tell you
she was a witch, or did you know?
-Oh, she -- that's pretty much the first thing she says
when you meet her... -Yeah.
-...that she's a fourth-generation witch
from Tennessee. -Gotcha.
-I kind of became her apprentice.
But anyway, she -- We -- [ Laughter ]
You know, this was, like -- the wedding was like,
"Aah! We're doing it in an hour, two hours."
So, I just went over to her place, and I said,
"I think we're gonna get married in the yard.
If you could do a spell or tell me if this is, like,
a good idea, you know..." -Yeah.
-"...cosmically, astrologically, that would be great,
or whatever you want to do..." -I would imagine
when you're an across-the-street witch, that's your dream...
-Oh, yeah. -...that somebody comes to you
and asks for information like that on the fast.
-I mean, we were meant to be neighbors.
[ Laughter ] 100%.
-Had she signed off on everything?
-Oh, yeah. She went, "I have just the thing."
She went into her house, literally cackled.
[ Laughter ] I could hear her from outside.
And then brought me this rosemary crown
that I wore in my hair while I got married.
And, hopefully, it's not a curse.
-Well, so far, so good, right?
-So far, so good, right, honey? [ Cackling ]
-You guys, that's Aubrey Plaza! [ Cheers and applause ]
"The Legend of the Christmas Witch" is available today!