-I'm so happy to be here. I haven't been here in so long.
-I know. -I'm thrilled to be here.
-Good, good. I'm happy you're -- I love you.
[ Cheers and applause ]
I have so many things to talk to you about.
-Okay.
-I know it's been -- it's been a crazy couple years for you.
-Yes. -Yeah, to say the least.
-Yeah.
-But the -- but since I've seen you,
congrats on your 11th Emmy Award?
-Yeah. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Can you imagine?
Oh, my God. -I know.
-Well deserved. Well done. -Thank you.
-And the Mark Twain Prize?
-Yeah, that was pretty cool.
-Dude, the Mark Twain -- I mean, that's ultimate.
-That was nuts.
-Do you get nervous for those -- for that?
-Can I tell you something? I was terrified.
-Yeah. -And I'll tell you why.
Because they give you this prize for humor.
-Yeah.
-Which is outstanding and incredibly exciting.
And then they say, "And you need to make a speech
for 10 to 15 minutes after we give it to you."
So it's kind of like you got to prove yourself.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, it's like, "Hey, how funny are you?"
Yeah, exactly. -"Prove it."
And it really did sort of feel --
I felt a lot of pressure.
-Yeah, I mean, you're not stand-up.
I mean, yeah. -No, I'm not a stand-up.
And so, anyway.
-But you were great. I watched the speech.
It was heartfelt. And it was hilarious.
-Okay, but I'm going to tell you something.
So I -- I got there.
And I said, "You know, I really want to rehearse this.
I really need to."
And here's a note for all of you fellow actors out there.
I thought, "Okay, I'm gonna rehearse it.
And I'm going to wear my shoes
just to see how they feel on stage.
La-la-la."
They were very high-heeled.
Okay, and so within the speech,
I did this whole thing where I did a Shakespeare monologue.
But I did the Elaine dance in the middle of it.
And it was incredibly goofy. [ Laughter ]
You can Google it. [ Cheers and applause ]
But in rehearsal, I had really high-heeled shoes on.
-Yeah.
-And every time I tried to do it, I fell over.
[ Laughter ]
Because the shoes were so high. -Yeah.
-And I couldn't do that sort of kick thing.
And so, anyway, like, an hour and a half before
we were supposed to get there,
we're, like, at Nordstrom's trying to find --
-The right shoe for the Elaine dance?
-Yeah, anything. Nine West, whatever it takes.
Just get me a pair of shoes
that's sort of a heel but not quite.
Anyway, we did, so it all worked out good.
-And you pulled it off. -Pulled it off.
-It was fantastic, pal.
-Thank you. Thank you.
-I follow you on Instagram. -Okay.
-And you posted this photo.
This says, "Just rehearsed the first scene
of our final day on 'Veep,' HBO."
And look at just how --
-Yeah. -Sad you were.
[ Audience aws ] -Yeah.
-That was just rehearsal?
-That was just rehearsal.
I'm going to tell you something. We were all a wreck.
You know, we've been doing this show now for many, many years.
And we're a very close-knit group of people.
I'll tell you, when I came to the table read
for the final episode of the show,
and I walk in, and I see Tim Simons sitting at the table.
Tim plays Jonah Ryan on "Veep."
And he's bawling.
And we haven't even started to read the script yet.
And this man -- this grown man is hysterical at the table.
And I -- that was it. I was done.
-You're like, "It's gonna be a long --"
-Yeah. -Really?
-Yeah, it was intense. But it was wonderful.
It was a real celebration, too. I'm excited.
-Every time it was someone's last scene or last line,
everyone gathered -- -Oh, totally.
-They call it Video Village, right?
-At Video Village, everyone came
for everybody's last moment on the show.
-So Video Village is, like, the monitors that the director
usually looks at and watches after the scene
with the writers and producers.
And so it's usually five or six people.
Maybe 10 people for every scene.
This is -- Dave Mandel posted this.
For every last person, last scene -- look at this.
-Yeah. [ Audience aws ]
-It's like 100 people.
-Yeah. [ Applause ]
-Isn't that cool?
-Yeah. More like 150 people. It was crazy.
-That's right?
-Yeah. Yeah.
-I love you in "Veep."
I got to say, the chemistry you and Tony Hale,
it's the funniest thing I've ever seen.
They're some of the best scenes. -Thank you.
-Gosh, I love Tony Hale.
-Thank you. Isn't he a dream?
-He is the funniest -- -He is so much fun to work with.
I mean, he's impossible to work with because he's so funny.
And the two of us, you know,
we've known each other now a really long time.
So we are constantly losing our [bleep] on the show
and laughing.
And I mean, I think we enjoy the material more than the audience.
I think we just -- -No, not --
-No, no, no. I'm telling you.
We really are -- are digging our show.
And so -- And we had one scene in particular,
this was actually from last season, you know?
And we were shooting a scene in which -- the backstory is,
very quickly, that Tony's character, Gary,
has had a heart attack.
And so I said he can convalesce in my house in the basement
in this tiny little room in a tiny little single bed.
And I bring to him a little meal that I've cooked for him.
-Oh, yeah.
-And it's unheard of for Selina Meyer
to ever cook or do anything like that.
And we could not get through it because I was so close to him.
And the food was rancid that I gave him.
[ Laughter ]
-Literally rancid.
And so I think we have --
-But this is really cool
because we never really get to see bloopers from --
-Right. Ever. -Ever.
-And we've never posted any bloopers ever of "Veep."
-So this is -- but this -- you brought this just for us.
-Yes, I brought it as a gift.
-Thank you so much. -Merry Christmas.
-Thank you very much. [ Cheers and applause ]
Here are some outtakes from that scene in "Veep."
Take a look at this.
-Look at that. I'm gonna pull it on over.
-Smells kind of funky, does it to you?
[ Laughter ]
-That's the blue cheese.
-No, there isn't any blue cheese in there.
[ Laughter ]
Oh, yeah.
-Um, explain to me something. Where -- what is it
they're making here in this, do you think?
[ Laughter ]
Come on. How am I supposed to endure this [bleep]?
[ Laughter ]
-Ugh. Lord.
-I'm sitting next to a circus act.
[ Applause ]
-You can hear him breathing. -I know.
-His moaning makes me laugh. -It was so much fun.