-Our next guest is an Emmy- nominated comedian and actress
you know from her Netflix comedy specials
and shows like "Big Mouth," "Tuca & Bertie,"
"and Human Resources."
She stars in "Beef," which premieres on Netflix April 6th.
Let's take a look.
-Come on. Talk to me.
-Okay, well, um, you know, after the meeting,
I was sitting in the parking lot thinking about how many meetings
and calls I've had to do for the last two years.
Still, somehow there's no offer coming.
And it just really got to me, you know?
So then I started driving, and then there was this guy --
-Hey, hey. Before you spiral...
I'm gonna have you stop right there.
Take a deep breath.
[ Inhales deeply ] Pause.
You got to start focusing on the positive. Okay?
You know, maybe we should start doing
the gratitude journals again.
-Please welcome back to the show Ali Wong,
everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome back, Ali. -Thanks for having me.
-I'm so thrilled to have you. I know you were --
Early days, you were in New York working on standup.
-I was -- I would do -- When I lived here, my God --
and hustling, I would do up to sometimes 13 sets a night.
-That is insane to me.
Bouncing all around the city?
-Bouncing all around the city. Sometimes to Brooklyn,
back to, like, the Upper East Side,
to, like, Bed-Stuy, to the Lower East Side.
And it was all for no money. Sometimes three-minute sets.
-And, now, when you were doing the same --
I'm assuming you're doing the same three minutes
13 different times, 13 different audiences.
-Yeah. -Would they just be
wildly different as far as what worked where?
-Yeah, but I wasn't really paying attention to that.
Like, I never paid attention much to the audiences
because they were so crappy.
And a lot of the times it was like,
you know, like, random crazy people
jerking off into their eggs. -Yeah.
-So it was like -- Who did not know
there was a comedy show going on.
Oh, am I -- am I allowed to say that about the eggs?
Oh, well. It's too late now.
-Well, you know what?
We are gonna get you to ADR later --
"Putting salt on their..."
Real quick. So I want to ask, though.
But you're getting no money, and it doesn't seem like
you're getting helpful feedback.
So what were you getting out of it?
-Well, it's more like I have to pay attention
when I say it out loud to the energy.
And, like, if I -- if I have confidence,
even if I bomb, like, it's still funny.
That's really valuable information.
You know, like if I still feel like, okay,
even though this didn't get much laughs,
like if I still feel attached to it,
that tells me something, you know?
-That -- I should also note you make it look very easy,
your specials, and I think it's a very nice thing for you
to admit how hard you have to work to make it look so easy.
-Yeah, it was like it was -- And I still eat it a lot.
Like, when I go up at places,
people are always so excited to see me,
and then I sort of talk in this very, like, hushed --
Like, I don't put a lot of performance into it.
And I talk in a sort of monotone voice,
and then I can see people's, like, face --
They're really excited, and then it starts to fall,
and they're like, "Oh, my God. She's lost it."
And then -- But, again, it's really about the writing.
After a while, it would get to the point
where no matter where I went,
those three minutes would always still get laughs.
-That's such a fascinating process.
-Yeah. -I'm so happy
you put yourself through it.
So then, though, I didn't realize you moved back to L.A.
You're doing all this work on a comedy career,
and then you go to L.A. -Well, I went to L.A.
actually to play Christian Slater's assistant
in this sitcom, and then I moved back
to New York for like a year to be on this medical drama.
-Oh. So that was in New York. -That was in New York.
I played an agoraphobic radiologist
who had a love arc with a plumber.
-Oh, my God. -Yeah.
-You would be perfect for that.
-And then, like, that was the first dramatic role
I ever had to do, kind of,
because I had -- It wasn't very funny,
but I was always trying to be funny,
and the director was like, "Stop trying to make
'occipital lobe' funny!
Just say what's going on in the brain!"
And then I -- The show also had Vanessa Redgrave.
Sure. A legend. -A legend.
And then I remember overhearing one of the directors talk about
directing Vanessa Redgrave,
and he was like, "Oh, when she's on camera,
it's like directing a Rolls-Royce."
And then I just walked away
because I knew if someone asked him,
"What is it like to direct Ali?" he would have said,
"It's like directing a Toyota Yaris."
So I just left because I was like,
"I don't want my feelings hurt.' -I'm gonna use
the mention of cars to segue very smoothly
to this wonderful new show, "Beef."
This is about two people who have a road-rage incident
and then become obsessed with each other.
Excuse me. Your costar, Steven Yeun.
He's wonderful. -He's amazing.
-And this is a -- I mean, there's very funny parts of it.
It's also very dramatic at times.
-Yeah. -And it's also very different.
We were talking backstage. It seems very unique to me.
Did you enjoy it from the first time you laid eyes on it?
-So when, like, the creator,
Lee Sung Jin, came to me with Steven,
I just really wanted to work with those guys.
That was, like, the biggest priority. That was the biggest.
Like, it was like, "You had me at hello."
Because I always wanted to work with them.
And then after they told me about the concept,
I was so excited, and then when I read the pilot,
I just read it on my toilet in one sitting,
and I had -- and my kids kept on knocking on the door,
and I was like, "Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on!"
And I kept on, like, scrolling through the iPad.
And then I had that, like, signature ring
around my butt afterwards,
and I was like, "Oh, this is a good project. Yeah."
-You called your agent and you're like, "I got the ring."
-Yeah, yeah. "I got the ring."
-And you -- Did you first meet Steven
when he came to see you do stand-up?
-Yeah. He was so sweet.
So, when my first stand-up special, "Baby Cobra,"
came out... -Fantastic.
-Oh, thanks. [ Cheers and applause ]
He sent a message to me on Twitter about how great it was,
and he encouraged all of his followers to watch it.
And then he came, and I think he even paid money to --
for him and a bunch of his friends
to come see me at the Ace in downtown L.A.
-Did you know he was coming? -I think I knew he was coming.
And then he came backstage afterwards.
And then one of his friends kept on taking pictures of me,
and I was like, "Hey, man, what are you doing?!"
And Steven was like, "This is my friend.
He's a portrait artist."
And that guy we ended up casting as the husband that you see
in the clip. -That was in the clip.
-Yeah. -So there you go.
-He plays an artist in the show, and then he's --
he's a real-life, incredible, incredible painter, yeah.
-Well, that's fantastic. It's really a great show.
And it's so lovely to have you here.
Thanks for being back with us. -Thanks so much for having me.
-Ali Wong, everybody. "Beef" premieres on Netflix April 6th.
We'll be right back with music from The Hold Steady.