-Getting a standing -- -That's not normal?
-That's not normal. No, that's not normal.
-Oh! [ Cheers and applause ]
That's for you.
Come on. -I thought you...
I thought you might have, like, goosed the seats or something.
-No, I didn't goose the seats. No.
They love you, bud. -Oh, that's very sweet.
-That's got to feel good coming from a comedian
who used to work in the theater and work in front of a crowd.
-Yeah, and then to actually see an actual crowd again, yeah.
-Don't you miss that? -I do, I do, yeah.
-Was your first taste of an audience
when you did ComedySportz?
-Yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah, ComedySportz.
With a "Z."
With a "Z," 'cause it's a comedy show, yeah.
-Of course. I have a photo here.
That's why -- I wanted to show you.
This is you... -Yeah, that's me there.
-...at ComedySportz. -Yeah, that's me right there.
-Now --
-That's my buddy Billy right there, yeah.
-Yeah, and the sign is a little crooked.
-Yeah. -Is that comedy or no?
-I mean, come on. You tell me. -Yeah, alright. I think it is.
And what was ComedySportz?
-ComedySportz -- it's this -- I mean, they're still around.
It's a comedy franchise. -Oh, really?
-Yeah. Where they do, like, short-form improv,
like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
-Oh, yeah.
-And, so, it was in Kansas City.
And, yeah, I saw it in high school.
It was a place you'd go to after homecoming,
Because it was a family show, you weren't allowed to swear.
So when I eventually got to work on it --
Yeah, if you swore during a show,
they would put a brown paper bag over your head.
They called it "the brown-bag foul."
So, you know, they had like -- There was a referee.
You were two teams that are were, like, red and blue.
Yeah, it was great.
And you'd "compete" against each other.
I mean, you know, fake competing.
It's kind of like wrestling, you know, pro wrestling.
You know -- Not to -- Sorry. Spoilers. Sorry.
I know there's wrestling fanatics out there
that are like, "No, it's real!"
It's like, "Alright." But -- Yeah.
-But that was your first --
-That was the first foray, yeah, into, like, doing, like --
doing improv.
And, yeah, it was -- I mean, it shaped my life, you know?
And it allowed me to -- You know,
I then went to this high school called Shawnee Mission West
and I had this great teacher named Sally Shipley,
who, a few years before me -- many years before me,
though you can't tell by looking at him, Paul Rudd went there.
And I go to hand in homework late one day
for this radio-and-TV class,
and they're playing these improv games in the class.
I was like, "How the hell do I take this class?
You're playing, like, improv games during school
and you can get a grade on this?"
I was like, "Yeah."
-In Kansas City. -In Kansas City.
In Overland Park, Kansas, yeah.
And, so, I eventually did that for, you know,
yeah, like three, four years before moving to Chicago.
But that was the first,
you know, go at doing it and failing at it and all of it.
-Did you do Second City or no? -Yeah, Second City.
-You did Second City.
-Yeah, Second City, yeah, moved me up to Chicago
and then did Second City in Chicago
and then did a thing called Boom Chicago in Amsterdam,
then Second City in Las Vegas,
and then eventually auditioned for "SNL."
-I met you first on "SNL" as a writer.
-My first year, your last year. -Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah. -That's right.
Yeah, you kind of pushed me out.
-Yeah, yeah. -I remember that.
"That's enough." -And what happened to you since?
-"Jimmy, we've had enough."
So, dude, can you tell everyone what --
'Cause this is a story I've never heard before
of your audition for "Saturday Night Live"
at the Comic Strip.
-Yeah, yeah. No. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it was at Stand Up NY. -Oh, Stand Up NY.
-Yeah, yeah. That's all right. It's my life.
I'm the one that should know.
You got a lot going on. -Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah.
But it's nerve-racking as it is. -Oh, it's nerve-racking.
There were 12 dudes. It was all guys.
Because -- Yeah, Dean Edwards had just left.
You know, Tracy had just left. -Okay.
-And so they were looking for guys.
And, so, it was me and 12 other fellas.
I was like fifth or seventh. I can't quite remember.
And I'm nervous, as one should be, or excited.
-Do you do stand-up? -No.
-No. -No, I did sketch and improv.
Like, you know -- So, it was going up there by yourself.
And I'm standing there on the sides
and I drank -- I remember I was drinking, like,
a Diet Coke and rum, you know, just to steady my nerves.
I don't -- You know -- -Yeah.
-I was like, "What would Jimmy Buffett do," right?
-As one does, as one should say -- always.
-And they're not going to make you a margarita
at a comedy club.
No, the machine's too loud. So, they do that.
And then, all of a sudden, Jeff Ross comes walking in.
I'm in the lobby, and Jeff Ross, the roast master general --
-Comedian, yeah. -Right.
And I was like, "Oh, wow. That's Jeff Ross."
And then, behind him, in comes walking Chris Rock,
one of the -- Yeah.
So, I'm like, "Oh, okay, they're probably coming to see
the new talent, the new breed, what have you.
-Chris was on "Saturday Night Live."
-Exactly. Yeah, Chris was there.
You know, so -- And when you're doing this audition
in this club, you have the whole --
Lorne's there and Tina Fey.
Steve Higgins was there and Mike Shoemaker.
So you have this tribunal that are in the back,
and I figured Chris was just going to join them.
Then the person ends, and Chris is standing right next to me.
-You're about to go up. -About to go up.
I'd just -- you know...
You know, suck down my rum and Diet Coke.
And Chris looks up at me and he goes, "Oh, hey, man."
I go, "Hey."
He goes, "Was this your big shot?"
I go, "Uh, kinda."
He goes, "Sorry."
"Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Rock."
The guy says that. The place goes bonkers.
Like, legit bonkers.
I mean -- No, and I was just --
And even Lorne was like, "Ah, it's Chris Rock!"
-No, he did not. -No, he did not. He did not.
He did not do that.
-You -- -Yeah. So, he went up.
Luckily, he only did like 15 minutes.
They were preparing jokes for the MTV Video Music Awards.
-You can't follow Chris Rock.
-"Oh, but you had to, Jason."
No. I know -- you can't.
And, so, he comes down,
and then he walks by me and he goes, "Hey, man.
Good luck."
I go, "Thank you. I appreciate it."
And he goes, "They love original thought."
That was his one little sentence of advice --
"They love original thought."
-Chris said that to you after he just destroyed --
-After he just destroyed for 20 minutes.
-Yeah, he's like -- Yeah. The microphone's melted.
-Exactly. Too hot, too hot.
-They love original -- Yeah.
-Yeah, they love original thought.
I was like, "I have none. I have no thoughts right now."
And, so, then the guy is like,
"Ladies and gentlemen, Jason Suda-kiss."
And, you know, said my name wrong.
-Perfect. -But you know what it felt like?
It was kind of like a flag on the play.
It was like, "Okay, if I bomb, if I fail right now,
I'll always be able to sit at the end of the bar
in Overland Park, Kansas, going,
"I had to follow Chris freaking Rock."
You know, like... -Exactly.
-Yeah. And, luckily, it worked out.
I mean, I got hired as a writer, you know, for a couple years.
And -- -You worked your way up.
-Yeah, so it was -- It turned out all right.
But, yeah, that was the audition.
-I can't even tell you -- I heard from so many friends.
They said, "Have you seen Jason Sudeikis' show,
'Ted Lasso'?"
And I go, "I have not seen this yet."
They go, "You're going to freak out.
You're going to cry. You're going to cry."
I go -- 'Cause they go, "Yeah, from comedy, but also emotion.
It's just going to move you. This one's going to rock you."
I go, "Let's go. I know Jason."
I don't know if you -- You've never made me cry before.
-Nope, never have -- on purpose.
-Yeah, you made me cry.
-No. -I love "Ted Lasso."
-Come on. -Everyone loves "Ted Lasso."
In fact, we're such giant "Ted Lasso" fans,
Questlove already watched Season 2
last night or something.
-Yeah. I did, yeah. -Yeah.
-He has access to everything.
-Backstage, Quest was trying to get codes from Jason
to see the rest of the episodes.
-Yeah. He goes, "Come on, man." Asking for codes.
Like it's codes. -I love that.
-"Give me the golden ticket, Wonka.
Come on. Cough it up, buddy."
-But congrats on this -- 20 Emmy nominations.
You made television history, buddy.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah. Thank you.
-You made TV history. -Yeah.
-You knocked it out of the park.
-Yeah. No, I kicked it off the pitch,
whatever metaphor works.
-Yeah. -No, I mean, that's lovely.
Luckily, there -- It's an ensemble show,
and so the 20 nominations go to everybody
that works on the show in different capacities.
It's a good feeling. -Well, you worked hard, buddy.
And is there any way to set up what's going to happen
in the season or in the last --
-Well, I would say, yeah, this second season --
This is "Empire Strikes Back."
You know, this -- This starts in the cold
and it ends in maybe a little chillier place
than what we started.
-Yeah, okay. -Yeah, yeah.
Everybody's got to go in their cave
and meet a little green man and figure it out.
Spoilers, if you haven't seen "Empire Strikes Back," but...
-Yeah. So you're saying Baby Yoda
might be in "Ted Lasso" Season 2.
-I mean, you know, me and Baby Yoda have a history.
-Okay, alright, yeah.
It's so funny, and you'll just love it.
And I want to show everyone a clip.
Here's Jason Sudeikis in Season 2 of "Ted Lasso."
Take a look.
-When Michelle and I did couples therapy,
it was with this therapist she had been going to for a while,
and, um...
I just kind of felt like I was being set up, you know?
Like I was going in there not to be listened to,
but rather just to hear about all the things
I've been doing wrong.
-And that's the only time you've ever seen a therapist?
-Oh, yeah. [ Chuckles ]
-Do you remember what you said when I got dumped by
that cruise-ship dancer and swore I would never
date another dancer again?
-"Can I have your tap shoes"?
-"All people are different people."
-Mm-hmm. I said that?
-Mm-hmm.
-Yeah. That's pretty good.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yeah! It is pretty good.
Jason Sudeikis, Season 2 of "Ted Lasso"
is available starting today on Apple TV+.
Congrats on everything, buddy. -Thank you.