-Welcome, Mo! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. Thank you.
-Welcome back. -Wow.
I am just so excited.
-It is great to have you in person.
-To be in this time slot! -Yes!
-It's just so great for my demographic.
It really is. -It really -- Your demographic.
-It's perfect. -It's perfect to be -- Yeah.
After midnight, yeah.
-No, because this is when they want a glass of water.
-Oh, right at this moment, right now.
They're ready, they're ready.
As you know, I'm a giant fan of your work.
Everything -- "Pigeon Drive the Bus,"
Elephant and Piggie are my jam.
-Oh, that's sweet, thank you.
-"City Dog, Country Frog." -Yeah.
-That's my jam too.
I have your work on my socks. -Oh!
[ Cheers and applause ]
I love it, very nice.
I just gotta tell you a quick story
because I'm a fan of yours,
and I was so excited when I did the show the first time.
-Thank you. -The next day I'm walking
my dog, and Peg and Fred are on their porch and they say,
"Hey, Mo! You were great on 'Fallon' last night."
I said, "Great, that's really nice.
Jimmy is a good guy."
And he goes, "he's a great man!"
[ Laughter ]
-What? Wow, he corrected you.
-Very angry fan. -Peg and Fred?
-Peg and Fred. They love you. -Peg and Fred, I love you.
Thank you for correcting him, yeah.
I'm not a good guy. -You're a great man!
-I'm a great man! [ Cheers and applause ]
I love Peg and Fred. Thanks, guys.
You know, I heard that you started your own comic strip
when you were seven years old?
-[ Laughs ] Yeah, I guess.
You know, when I was five, I wrote Charles Schulz a letter,
and I said, "Dear Mr. Schulz,
can I have your job when you're dead?"
[ Laughter ] -So sweet of you, so sweet.
He must've loved that, yeah.
-Well, he not died for a long time.
[ Laughter ]
And I was a little -- -"He not died."
-I was a little frustrated. But then in second grade,
I was like, "Well, I gotta do something about it."
-Yeah. -And the second grade bully --
-You were gonna kill Charles Schulz.
-Yeah, no. [ Laughter ]
I was a little too small. -Yeah, yeah, no.
He's a legend, yeah. -Yeah.
No, but second grade bully said, you know, "I want a gag a day."
And so I wrote a comic strip for for this guy.
And if he liked it, then he'd kinda let me off the hook.
And if he didn't...
It's like working in television, Jimmy, is what it was like.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
But you started just making these strips, and you go,
"Oh, this is something."
-You know, I've always wanted to draw and be funny.
I mean, that, for me, seemed like the most magical thing,
and "Peanuts" was great for me because, you know, Charlie Brown
had it worse than I did, so... -Yeah, he did.
-Yeah. -This special now,
people get to see this -- "Naked Mole Rat."
-Yes. -Basically the idea of this is
be true to yourself no matter what.
-Yeah, so "The Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed,"
it originally was a book. -Yeah.
-And that was about 15 years ago, and what happened actually
is Charles Schulz did pass, and I became friends with his widow.
And she gave me one of his nibs, which was the little piece
of metal you put in the pen that you dip in the ink and you draw.
So this is the little piece of metal
that he did "Peanuts" with. -No.
[ Audience ohs ] -Obviously, yes, right, amazing.
And so I had this nib, and I was like,
"I have to do something special with this.
I really have to dig deep and ask myself some questions."
And out of it came this book "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed."
-Yeah. -So 15 years ago -- And then we
made it a theater rock opera, and now we've made it
an animated rock opera special.
-Yeah, and isn't fantastic, though? I love that.
So it's a naked mole rat, and he just -- Everyone's naked.
-Everyone is 100% naked 500% of the time.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
That's what mole rats do, yeah. -And Wilbur decides to do
something radical and try on clothes,
and the culture goes nuts!
and so this is, for me, it's -- it's not so much even
a coming-out story, it's an accepting-in story.
-Yeah. -I think it's really the job of
the us's to ask to the them's like, "Why not?
How special, how magic that you
are different in these incredible ways?
And I want to learn from that and be part of that."
So it's all about this naked culture trying to figure out
what to do with clothes.
-You know, I don't want to make your head big or anything,
but a lot of people are comparing you to Mr. Rogers.
Have you heard that at all?
-No, that's very flattering. -Yeah.
-They are wrong. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah. -So you just tell them,
if you run across them, just say no.
-No, he's not. -But --
[ Laughter ]
What I love about Fred Rogers and what I aspire to do
is to always have curiosity and to remember the idea
that growing up and discovering new stuff
and becoming more you and becoming a better friend
is not a childhood activity.
We are so lucky.
It is a lifelong activity.
We get to grow and learn
and be more true to ourselves every day.
-Yeah, that is true.
-It's a miracle. -Yeah, that's amazing.
That is correct. [ Cheers and applause ]
This is on HBO Max. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's a peek at Mo Willems' "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed:
The Underground Rock Experience."
Take a look.
♪♪
-♪ What is that? ♪
♪ Is that a hat? ♪
♪ Would it be wrong to try it on?
Oh, wow!
♪ It feels good, like a brand-new friend ♪
♪ If I had a friend that was a cotton-poly blend ♪
Ohh!
♪ I feel more like myself with something on ♪
♪ But what if's something that's frowned upon? ♪
Eep!
-I can't wait. Mo Willems, everybody.
Mo Willems' "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed:
The Underground Rock Experience"
premieres on HBO Max June 30th.