-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy-winning actress,
producer, and director.
Her new series, "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,"
is available to stream on Peacock,
and she's kicking off her Restless Leg Tour
alongside Tina Fey this weekend in Washington, D.C.
Please welcome back to the show the one, the only,
the best in the biz, our good friend Amy Poehler, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back. -Hey, Seth!
What a crowd! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Look at this. Look at the love.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
Thank you very much.
-Now, I do not see you barely enough anymore.
-I know. -But this has been a hot week
because this is the second time I've seen you this week.
-Yeah. -'Cause you are prepping
for the Restless Leg Tour. -Right.
So we're getting ready for our show.
So you very kindly allowed me
to come and practice some stand-up here.
-Yes. So we finished taping on Tuesday,
and then I got to tell the audience,
"Amy Poehler is gonna come out and try stand-up jokes.
-Yeah. And it was a hot crowd, and I'm very nervous.
I think it gave me the confidence I didn't need.
[ Laughter ]
But, yeah, we're getting ready to go out,
and it was really fun to practice it.
And, you know, I don't want to blow my stand-up on this show.
-Yeah, of course. -I want to get paid for it.
-You have always said your art is to get paid for.
-I'm always like, "My C material
is what I'm going to bring to this desk."
-Gotcha. So if you're watching this,
if people at home are watching this
and they don't like the jokes,
just know this is not your best stuff.
-I didn't even work on it. [ Laughter ]
Literally. I think before, it was like,
"What do you and Seth want to talk about?"
I was like, "Whatever." [ Laughter ]
But -- no, but I did talk about a couple of things,
and one of the things is that --
how much I don't like being pranked.
-You have never let --
And I believe that people might think,
"Oh, Amy's so fun. She's an improviser.
She loves being on her -- on her toes."
You hate a prank. You always have.
-To me, if you throw me a surprise party.
You're not my friend. Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
And I would just turn around and walk out,
and I'd say, "Lose my number."
I'd scream, "Lose my number!" to all my friends.
And, you know, I think sometimes people are like,
"I don't like pranks," but they love pranks.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, the way you said it, really made...
-"I don't like -- I don't -- Don't prank me, don't prank me!"
I really, really don't like pranks.
-Yeah, you remember -- It wasn't a prank, but we --
When our dear friend, producer of the show,
Mike Shoemaker, when he left "SNL,"
we did a surprise party for him.
And you and I were working together.
And this is how bad you are at pranks, as well.
-Yeah. -You tried to text me,
"Do you think Shoemaker knows
we're throwing a surprise party?"
And who did you text instead?
-Shoemaker. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
So I think you internally don't like pranks so much
that you want to, like, ruin them for other people.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-I always knew that Shoemaker would want to know
that there was a surprise party being thrown, you know?
And he's always very nicely lied and said,
"I don't even know what that meant."
And I was like, "It meant we were having a surprise party,
and I blew it." [ Laughter ]
Ugh! That was a terrible moment.
-Now, do you -- do you consider magic in the same --
-Yeah, I don't like magicians.
I don't like magic. I don't like anyone...
I don't -- I don't --
I don't [bleep] with magic.
[ Laughter ]
But I don't like, "Pick a card." You know, "Pick a card."
"No, pick someone else." [ Laughter ]
"Where did the card go?"
I went into my car, and I left
because I hate -- I hate -- I don't like magicians.
But I do think that I was hypnotized
without my consent by a mentalist.
-Really? -Yeah.
I've never told this story. -Okay.
-Because currently there's a lawsuit pending.
I'm just kidding. But I was --
[ Laughter ] I was in London.
Yes, I go to London and travel.
You're not the only one. And I was in --
-That's so weird, though, 'cause the other day,
you were like, "I don't like going to London."
[ Laughter ]
-So I was in the U.K.,
and I was at a fancy dinner many years ago.
Tons of fancy people there, expensive dinner, you know.
-Oh, so at a proper restaurant.
That's what they say over there, "proper."
-Oh, they do? [ Laughter ]
That's -- That's quite funny, Seth.
[ Laughter ]
And -- But, uh...
I sit next to someone
who is considered, like, a mentalist.
-Okay. -Like, uh, you know,
one of those weirdo freaks. -Yeah, yeah.
And if I had known that -- -That's a magician who's, like,
bad at shuffling, right? -Yeah. No card skills.
But if I had known he was like that,
I would have never sat next to him.
I would have got a taxi or a... -Black cab?
-Black cab. [ Laughter ]
But at the end of the dinner,
I stood up, and I was like, "Dinner's on me,"
and I remember everyone being like, "Really?
This is going to be like £50,000 or whatever,"
because they don't go by dollars there.
And, um... [ Laughter ]
I don't know if you know. And --
And I picked up the check, and I went home, and I thought,
"I think I was hypnotized." [ Laughter ]
I'm not kidding. Have I ever told you this story?
-No. -I think that he was saying,
like, "You should check on your food
and make sure it's picked up."
Like, I think he touched me in some weird way
and he made me pick up the check.
-You think he mentalized you? -Or...
[ Laughter ]
Or I was just trying to big-time it.
-Now, I will say I -- [ Laughter ]
Because I have known you to be a big-timer
at fancy dinners. -Yeah.
-And it's one of the great things about --
There's one downside to it.
It's great to be your friend because the amount of times
you will stand up and offer to pay for dinner is the best.
-Yeah. -The bad side is how often
you then realize you don't have your wallet.
-That's right. [ Laughter ]
That's right. At least -- At least 4 or 5 times.
I have made a big -- -Big show.
-A big show. -Like, you wanted to get up.
So you wanted to make sure the rest of the table
didn't hear it by word of mouth. You wanted everyone to hear.
-That's right. -"Poehler's got it."
-"I got it, guys," and people would be like,
"Come on, no way," and I'd be like,
"Ye-- Uh -- Let me take care of this."
-You're like, "You all work hard."
-Exactly. And then I'd say, "Oh, I don't have my wallet."
[ Laughter ]
And then everyone will go, "Okay.
I guess we'll pay for it then."
[ Laughter ]
-Yep. Hey, here's another.
So we presented at the Emmys this last year.
-Yeah. -And you have --
This is how little you like surprises or pranks.
-That's right. -You have a little trick.
A backstage trick. Because they give you
the envelope, and then -- -Yeah, I hope I don't
get in trouble for this because we've hosted many things.
But I like to look and see who won.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And by the way, I remember, at the time,
while you were like, "You're allowed to check,"
this was me. -Yeah, you did not like it.
And I was like, "Who cares? What are they gonna do?
Kick us out of here?" -Yeah, exactly.
-I was like -- And I was, like, checking.
And if you squeeze sometimes,
if you squeeze the envelope like this,
you can read the name, or you can hold it up to the light.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So I like to do that. And we gave it to
the well-deserving, amazing Sheryl Lee Ralph.
-Yeah, it was awesome. -She was amazing.
There she is. -That is so fun.
[ Cheers and applause ]
But what I have found is, when you know who's getting it,
it's very hard not to look at them.
-Right. [ Laughter ]
-So I was like...
[ Laughter ]
"When I found out it was Sheryl Lee Ralph,
I was just staring at Sheryl Lee Ralph like...
[ Laughter ]
"You got this. You're gonna win."
[ Laughter ] I was like --
I was like, "Get up!"
[ Laughter ] So I was like,
"Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is..."
[ Laughter ]
-Now every time you present in the future,
people are gonna know this, and they're gonna --
when you walk up, they're like, "She already knows."
-Yeah. Or -- -People are gonna be
in the audience trying to make eye contact with you.
-But I do like -- I do like knowing who's going to win.
And I just like knowing just one second before everyone else.
-Yeah. -You know what I mean?
-[ Laughing ] -Is that bad? Is that weird?
-No, I think it's good. -I mean, I like --
What made me happy about it was, when --
Even though you know there was one of six
and you know all their names, I'm so nervous
that you're gonna screw up the moment.
So I like just like having my lines a little bit earlier.
-Exactly right. Exactly right.
And, you know, you can change it.
If you don't like the winner, just change it.
-That's the other rule they don't know you can do.
[ Laughter ]
I remember. Remember, they gave us the envelope,
they go, "No peeking. And also, say whoever you want."
[ Laughter ]
I want to ask about your wonderful new show.
We'll be right back with more from Amy Poehler.