Hello.
Hi Seth.
It's so lovely to see you Ellen.
It's lovely to see you as well.
I only wish that it was in person
but I see that you're coming to us from your studio.
Will you be shooting any minute now?
We actually already wrapped up our show
taking advantage of our East Coast time slot over here
in New York City.
And so this is a wonderful way for me to end my day.
Yes, I see.
That's true, you're three hours ahead I forget.
I thought it was all about us here on the West Coast
that we just live in our time zone.
Last time you were on my show you had another son.
I saw this picture of both of them playing the piano.
I'm hoping they know how to play piano because if not
that's really just noise.
Oh it was nothing but white hot noise,
that was just a miserable day saved by one cute photo.
I see.
And then you went and got him off the bench?
Yeah, it was one of those things where somebody said get them
away from that and then someone else yelled well,
you might as well get the one picture.
And then we pulled them away.
Who plays piano there that you have a piano in your house?
That, well that was my in-laws house and neither of them.
They're, the word for it is phoneys.
I like their piano phoneys.
I see.
It this looks fancy.
You know the kind of people that want
you to feel bad about yourself when you come over
because they have a piano?
And then you say which one of you plays
and then they just change the subject?
Right, yeah.
No, it does look fancy to have a piano in your house
but that's--
they're phoneys.
So your first son was almost born in an Uber.
Your second son was actually born in the lobby
of your apartment building.
Are you going to have a third and where
will that one be born?
Well, I think if we had a third the issue would
be how do you top it, right?
I mean, it's every comedian's biggest fear
is that you've already had your best bit
and you have to come up with a better one.
Yes.
So maybe while skydiving, how's that?
OK, all right.
Hopefully you have another little tiny chute
that you can put on there.
Well, that's the thing, how do you get the chute in--
Yeah, yeah.
--so that it can release?
Right.
You've already thought this through,
let's talk-- let's offline this.
All right, yeah.
Yeah, I guess-- well no.
I have ideas but I'm not going to say them.
I just learned today that you were starting out in comedy
and lived in Amsterdam, you did improv.
I love-- I went to Amsterdam for the very first time recently.
I love-- how was that to live there?
I mean, one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
An incredible place to live.
I was there right out of college.
Not a bad place to do comedy because they all speak English
very well but weirdly you'd rather
performed for a Dutch audience than a stoned American audience
that's what I learned in my years there.
Did-- wasn't the highness of their state
of mind helpful in comedy?
I don't think it is.
I think if you're there in the moment
as a performer it's very frustrating
because if an audience is too stoned
they'll just laugh at the hat you're wearing when you walk
out on stage and that takes away from you know,
all the intellectual things you want to say to them.
They've already they've already lost it on the hat.
I see.
Well, that's on you for wearing a silly hat.
Yeah, that's very fair.
That's very fair.
Yeah.
Let's talk about Late Night.
You celebrated seven years hosting this February.
Can you even conceive of seven years hosting
a television show Ellen?
Can you even imagine?
I cannot imagine what that's like, seven years.
Yeah.
You have signed on 'till 2025, that's amazing.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much, that's very kind of you to say.
So it seems that you're enjoying it then?
I am enjoying it.
You know, the trip is I started working in this building when
we first met in 2001.
I think that was the year-- my first year was when you hosted
SNL-- and I've been using the same ID for almost
20 years come this summer.
So it's a trip to think it'll maybe hit 25.
Wow, but that's really cool because you're
right down the-- you're on the same floor as SNL
so you're with your pals all the time
and that's a fun place to be.
They don't want to see me anymore.
This is very interesting because I
thought they would miss me desperately and want
me to stop by all the time but you
know how it's a little sad when the guy who went to high school
keeps coming by years after he graduated?
That's sort of how they treat me.
And I'm sure you're joking that's extremely sad if not.
So you've been doing, like I am, these Zoom interviews
and you had an interesting moment last week.
I think was it last week?
It was last week.
Yeah, tell everybody what happened.
So we were interviewing the Secretary of the Interior, Deb
Haaland, who is a fascinating woman,
and it was a thing that was impossible to ignore which
is her photographer Tammy did not realize
that she would be on camera while she tried to crawl behind
her.
And the best thing was that she thinks you can't see her.
And you do not have to be eagle eyed
to see this person right there.
But for me, again and as it would be for you as well,
nothing's better than when something goes wrong like that,
a victimless error.
Yeah, that actually is what you're
hoping for because otherwise it's just an interview just
like any other.
All right, hey Seth we're going to take a break
and I think we're going to play a game after this.
We'll be back.