-Now that I have everyone's attention,
I would like to introduce the 2022 mayor's
youth leadership program participants.
And in the interest of inclusion, partici-skirts.
Ines Herrera was a finalist in the intel space competition.
She speaks Spanish and Mandarin.
Oh, gosh, it doesn't say English here.
So wel-come, In-es.
-Welcome back to "Late Night." We're here with Tina Fey.
That was a clip from "Mr. Mayor."
-Yes. -Dream cast.
Ted Danson. -Yes.
-Holly Hunter. And then our friend Bobby Moynihan.
-Bobby Moynihan. -Yeah.
-Vella Lovell and Mike Cabellon.
And they are so, so funny.
Yeah, it's so fun to get to work with Bobby again
'cause we didn't overlap all that much, me and Bobby.
-Yeah. -Or maybe at all.
I don't remember. -He might have been there right,
like, probably that 2008 year
when you were coming back for Sarah Palin.
-So much of my late time when I was there was such a blur,
that I, like -- Sometimes I'm like,
"Mulaney's not Jost, right?"
[ Laughter ]
-A lot of people have that problem. Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-But, yeah, and Ted Danson and Holly Hunter.
And, like, sometimes Ted Danson will call me, and I still, like,
my phone will say, like, it'll say "Ted Danson."
And I'm like -- [ Laughs ]
"That's crazy." [ Laughter ]
"That's crazy." -Yeah.
I mean, I would say both Ted and Holly are the kind of people
that if you came up with any sort of respect or curiosity
about comedy, they're just two people that you're just thr--
you can't believe you get to talk to them.
-Yes. You can't believe you get to talk to them,
and you spend a lot of energy, like, making sure
you don't say like, "I want a toddler, hi."
Like, you can't -- you have to, like, not do their catch phrases
to them or things you love about them.
That show, we monitored, because of the endless pandemic,
they would be filming in California, and I would monitor
the set from home, so it would be, like, later.
It'd be like, 7:00 at night or I'd be cleaning up dinner,
and I'd have a little computer with a Zoom open.
I could see the set on my TV, and then the Zoom was
if the actors wanted to talk to me.
So sometimes, Holly Hunter would just be like,
"You got anything for me?" And I'm like, "Oh, God!
Uh, yes. I think -- I think the one where you're really --"
And I'd just be, like, making --
And she knew I was making stuff up.
-You also have "Girls5eva." -Yes.
-This is about to come out again,
season two on Peacock. -Yeah, season 2 of "Girls5eva"
comes out -- you can remember it very easily --
It's May 5th. It's "Girls5eva" on 5/5.
-Oh, perfect. Oh, look at that.
-Classy. -Very nicely done.
-Yes, on Peacock.
My friend, Andrea Martin -- you guys know --
-Yeah, of course. -She wanted to watch
"Girls5eva," and so I went to her house
and for like two hours, I got Peacock on her TV.
And I'm willing to do that for anybody that needs it.
[ Laughter ]
And then she loved it. Anyway.
So, yeah, that comes out, starring Paula Pell,
Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Renee Elise Goldsberry,
guest stars Andrew Rannells, guest star Amber Ruffin.
-Amber Ruffin, who was just right here next to me.
-Mm-hmm. -John Lutz, of both of this show
and "30 Rock" and "SNL" fame.
-Yes, John Lutz and Paula Pell are reunited,
if you guys were fans of "The Mapleworth Murders."
-Yeah. -And you should be.
-Speaking of murders,
you got to be in "Only Murders in the Building."
-Yes. -By the way,
"speaking of murders" was a terrible segue.
-"Speaking of murders, I'm going to kill you."
-Speaking ever murders, I think you have something to tell
everybody about the Bayside Strangler.
-Crickets.
[ Laughter ]
-So, you got to work -- Now, obviously, over the years,
you've gotten to hang out,
work with Steve Martin and Martin Short.
But being with them at the same time just must be --
-Honestly, it's, like, one of the greatest joys of my life
that I've gotten to meet those guys and to have a small part on
"Only Murders in the Building," a show that my whole family
enjoys and is very invested in.
And it's just -- It is the most joyful set
because those guys love each other.
-They really do. -They love each other so much.
It's the happiest set.
Also, it's fun to do a murder mystery thing because you just
kind of get your pages, and sometimes you don't know
what's happening, and you don't have any context
for why your character is doing that.
And for me, that doesn't change my acting at all.
-Right. -So that's like, "Sure!"
-You've never cared about the backstory of your character.
-No, no.
-You know, it's funny, because we've obviously done
charity events, the same kind of events that those guys do.
And the amazing thing about Marty and Steve is
how seriously they take being silly.
-Yes. -And, like, when you see them
backstage before they go on, they're writing jokes.
They're constantly tightening the screws.
And how much they care about the minutia of comedy, I think,
speaks to the longevity of what they've been doing.
-For sure. They love, probably, rehearsing
as much as they love doing stuff.
-And the process of it, which is really cool.
So, I think we had dinner the Tuesday
before the final Christmas "SNL."
-Yes, we went out to dinner. -Yes.
-Which, by the end of the week, that seemed insane,
because it was right when omicron hit.
-Yep. And it was like, "Ha ha, we're so crazy
for being out to dinner." -Yeah.
-And then, like, by Wednesday it was like,
"I can't [bleep] believe we went out to dinner.
Are we crazy?" -"We have families!"
-Yeah. But then -- And then the crazy thing was you --
So, Paul Rudd hosted the Christmas episode of "SNL."
And you showed up, and that was crazy.
-It was crazy. That whole week was crazy.
I think that week, Thursday night, I went to do --
I was a guest at the show "Freestyle Love Supreme"
on Broadway. Did anyone get to see that?
[ Cheers ] It was very cool.
So it was a fully improvised rap.
It's Lin-Manuel Miranda's show,
and it's a fully improvised rap musical.
And they were like, "Will you come and be a special guest?"
And I used to be a professional improviser.
-Famously. -I was in a union for it.
-Right.
-And I was like, "I would love to."
As it got closer, I started to panic more and more.
I was like, "They know that I don't -- I don't improvise,
like, raps at all, right?"
I kept checking, e-mailing people like,
"But not music, just like a story?"
And they were like, "You're going to have a great time."
And I just -- As it got closer, I got more and more nervous.
The day of, I e-mailed with the stage manager.
I was like, "But not -- They know I can't do music, right?"
They were like, "Sure, for sure."
I got there, and then also, like,
everyone in the city had COVID.
I was like, "Why am I in a theater? This is nuts."
Lin-Manuel Miranda was in the show that night,
I think because everyone else had COVID.
I'm not sure. [ Laughter ]
So I go with them, and they're rehearsing me,
and they were like, "Do you want to play this game and this game?
You would just have to, like, sing the hook."
And I was like, "I do not --" Also I had looked up --
I was like, "Who are the other people who have been guests?"
I looked it up, and it was like, oh, Wayne Brady.
That's not good. That's not good.
It was like, Jimmy [bleep]!
Jimmy did this?
So I was like, "Nope, I can't sing the hook.
I'll tell a story." And they were really nice about it.
And then seemed fine.
Then we go to warm up before the show.
And they said, "We're gonna do, like, an improv warm-up,
if you want to come down." So I go the basement.
We're doing, like, regular improv warm-ups.
I'm like, "Okay, we're in a circle."
And then they start doing their rap warm-up,
which is they take words out of a bucket
and they freestyle rap, and it's amazing.
And they pass it to each other,
and every single person is amazing.
And I'm in this circle.
And I'm sweating from, like, my spine out.
And then they get to the person next to me,
and then I just, like, lean back.
And then that person just gives it back to Lin-Manuel
who, you know, does another one,
and then, like, tries to throw it to me.
And I looked at Lin-Manuel Miranda,
and I went, "No, I don't do that!"
And then I threw myself on the ground.
[ Laughter ]
And I was like, "If anyone has taken improv,
the only thing you're not supposed to do is yell 'no.'"
[ Laughter ]
And I told Amy that story. She was like,
"Why didn't you just go like, joop-de-beep-de-beep?"
I was like, "I -- I panicked!" [ Laughter ]
But I just told a story, and it was fine.
-Alright, good. -That's part one of the weekend.
-Yeah. -So then that's Thursday.
I wake up Friday convinced I have COVID. Right?
I was with a full theater of people.
I'm supposed to shoot at "Only Murders,"
but they test you all the time.
I'm like, "Okay, my test is good."
I go to "Only Murders in the Building."
I'm supposed to shoot with Marty and Steve and then Selena Gomez.
So I'm rehearsing with Marty. You have your masks on.
And they go -- And I'm like, "Okay." [ Clears throat ]
And then they go to put the microphone on you,
and then you're going to take your mask off
and they're gonna shoot, and I was like,
"Oh, my thr--
My throat hurts a little bit."
And I thought, you know, I don't want to...
-Yeah.
-I'm not taking Marty and Steve and Selena down, no way.
So I pulled someone aside like, "Can I have another rapid test?"
And they're like, "You know, we're just gonna, um,
see what Disney says."
And apparently what Disney says was, "Get out of here."
[ Laughter ] So they sent me home.
I should also -- Shoot, I messed up the beginning of the story,
is that I already knew on Tuesday that I was supposed to
go to "SNL" on Saturday. -Yeah.
-Because they needed someone to do "Update" because...
-Oh, right. -...Jost was out.
-Jost had COVID. -Right.
We can say that now, I guess. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-And so I was like, "Okay."
So then they kick me out of "Only Murders."
I go home and I'm like -- [ Clears throat ]
They give me another test. Still good.
I'm like, "Alright. I'm going to do 'Update.'"
I go to "SNL." It's a ghost town.
[ Laughter ]
Everyone's there. Rudd is there.
People are dropping like flies, getting pulled, going home.
And then somehow, that weird show, it was just, like,
me and Rudd and Kenan and Che and Tom Hanks.
Like, somehow, me and Tom Hanks are the expendables.
[ Laughter ]
It was like, "No one cares if these two die."
And Tom Hanks is like, "I had it. I had it first."
-He had it first, yeah. -Yeah.
"I'm good." -That was the thing.
If you were willing to get it first, you'd be immune forever.
-That's not, no, that's not -- -That's the deal.
That's the deal he made, yeah. -Okay.
And then it was fine and I never got COVID.
So probably tonight.
[ Laughter ]
-Hey, thank you so much for being here.
It's always a pleasure. -That was so long.
[ Laughter ]
-Tina Fey, everybody.
"Mr. Mayor," Tuesday nights at 8:30 here on NBC.
And the second season of "Girls5eva" premieres May 5th,
5/5 on Peacock.