-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-winning writer as well as
an Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actor
you know from shows like "Mr. Show" and "Breaking Bad,"
as well as the film "Nobody."
His memoir, "Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama" is out now,
and he stars in the sixth and final season of
"Better Call Saul," which airs Mondays on AMC and AMC+.
Let's take a look.
-Here at Saul Goodman and Associates,
we welcome all ages, all creeds, all stripes.
-And who is this Saul Goodman?
You? -You got it.
What Colonel Sanders is to chicken,
Saul Goodman is to the law.
-Please welcome back to the show Bob Odenkirk, everybody!
♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back, Bob!
We've got a lot to talk about.
[ Cheers and applause continue ] -Are you kidding me?
What's going on? What is going on?
Alright. -This is --
-But wait, wait. If you're watching this show,
are you watching "Better Call Saul," too?
-Oh, 'cause -- Well, no, this is on after.
-Oh, okay. -Yeah.
So you're safe. Don't worry. -We're all safe.
-There's no -- There's no show of "Saul's" quality
that would ever air this late at night.
[ Laughter ] Congratulations, by the way.
-Thank you. -You got a star.
-I got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
[ Cheers and applause ] Look at this.
All these -- All these people have killed each other
or might kill each other on television.
-It's a real reminder that TV is not real.
-It was so much fun, and we're such good friends.
-There's your beautiful wife.
And I'm assuming that's your dog as well.
-My wife, Naomi.
And that's Winnie, our dog, who we adopted during COVID.
-Oh, wow. -And now lives next door,
so she comes over all the time. -That's great.
-We're her grandparents. -Was this the first time
this adopted dog realized what a star you were?
Is that why you brought it?
-No, I lectured her every day from the time we got her.
-Yeah. -That was really fun,
and Hollywood never feels like a small town so much as those
Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremonies.
It is darling. -It's true.
I don't think people quite --
I mean, it's not like some massive si--
-Well, you have people from the Chamber of Commerce,
and they're really proud, and there's a feeling of
like, "And we have someone here who made -- He's in TV."
[ Laughter ] "Yeah, I know!
We're in Hollywood." What?
They're so happy and proud for you, and it's amazing.
-That's really great. -You'd be very happy.
-I obviously, like a lot of people,
knew you first as a comedian.
Now, it should be noted, I also knew you as somebody
who approached comedy with the same rigor and took it
as seriously as anybody who does dramatic acting.
-Yes. -But drama did occur to you
in your early days of comedy that you might do it.
-Yeah. I mean, it was kind of a brain-fart moment.
I was on stage with Chris Farley and Jill Talley at Second City,
and we were improvising a scene, and Chris was always so funny.
And I'm in the middle of this scene, but you know
what it's like when you do the Second City show
and you do seven shows a week
and you can think about, like, groceries.
[ Sighs ] "I got to get eggs later,"
and then you're your character and then you're like,
"Ah, I've also got to get, you know, some new socks tomorrow."
Anyway, Chris -- You can think about a million things,
and Chris and I are acting and I think, "I should be in a drama."
[ Laughter ]
"That's what I should do."
And I really had that crazy thought.
I was just -- I think I was just loving his presence so much
and he was so wonderful, and I thought,
"I can't compete with that." -Yes.
-But put me in a drama, and I'll be so funny.
-I worked with a lot of people where I thought that as well.
-Well, there's a lot of people who are so undeniable, you know,
that we all know, you know -- Jack Black, Chris Farley,
people I've worked with.
I think David Cross is always funny.
And so, you know, I had that thought, but I never pursued it
because I already started my life as a comedy writer
and I wasn't going to go back in time and take some,
what, acting classes. [ Laughter ]
Who needs that? [ Laughter ]
-But this was the situation with "Saul."
You know, they called up, right?
Vince knew your work as a comedian.
-Yeah, it's so weird because I was writing
and I got a phone call during "Breaking Bad."
They asked me, "If you want to play this sleazy lawyer,"
and I said, "Well, I can do that."
But I'd never seen "Breaking Bad"
and I didn't watch "Breaking Bad."
I went and flew to Albuquerque to be on it.
I watched like 10 minutes of it.
"It's a drama. Okay, cool." [ Laughter ]
And all I'd seen are the billboards.
All I knew was guy in the desert in underwear.
[ Laughter ]
So I get there and -- And I have to dial it in like that.
But I have me and Cranston.
I'm working with Cranston, and so I immediately just honed in
on his -- He was gravity, you know?
He was powerful in that role and every role he does,
and he just brought me into the orbit of that show.
And from that point on, I -- it was great fun.
And then "Saul" was a whole nother level.
-Did you pretend that you had seen the show?
-I pretended that I was talented and I pretended that
I belonged there and I am continuing to pretend that.
And they gave me a star because of it.
-Yeah. I mean, it must have been --
I mean, we talked about it because, you know,
I had reached out to you during "Better Call Saul" -- I'm sorry,
excuse me -- during "Breaking Bad" about how great you were.
-You have been so kind.
Let's hear it for this guy.
-Oh, no. He's the best. [ Cheers and applause ]
-He -- Listen.
He has been so nice to me and so appreciative of our show.
And you, of course, you know, 350 people make that show.
And they devote themselves to it.
And so thank you on behalf of all of us.
-Well, let me just say, like, there's never -- there are very
few shows where I feel like you see the work of 350 people.
And this is a perfectly constructed show.
It is so well-written, it is so well-acted,
and it looks really beautiful.
Yet with that said, you must have had hesitation or thought,
"Is this --?" Because "Breaking Bad" had this wonderful ending.
It seemed like it was completely, the loop was closed.
And they were like, "We're going to spin off."
-I should have had hesitation. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-But I got something wrong with me.
-Yeah.
-I'm missing a part of my brain, the part that says,
"Hold up, slow down."
[ Laughter ] "Wait a second.
What are we going to do?" -Well, we're all the better
that you lack that part of your brain.
I have a few more questions about where that lack of --
that part of your brain lacking has come in handy.
We'll be right back with more from Bob Odenkirk, everybody.