Obsessed: The Podcast

As the youngest writer ever hired at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Simon Rich achieved his biggest dreams ridiculously early in life. Everything that’s followed, including a stint at Pixar writing ‘Inside Out,’ running his own shows—‘Man Seeking Woman’ and ‘Miracle Workers’—and turning his multi-part ‘New Yorker’ story ‘Sell Out’ into the movie ‘An American Pickle’ starring two Seth Rogens, has been beyo...

Before Nicole Byer became the Emmy-nominated face of Netflix’s family-friendly baking competition show ‘Nailed It!’ she was best known as one of the raunchiest comedians on the stand-up scene. It’s the type of juxtaposition that has drawn parallels to Bob Saget, another filthy comic who found fame on the super-saccharine sitcom ‘Full House.’ On this episode, Byer breaks down how she balances these...

Comedian Kathy Griffin opens up about the infamous photoshoot that changed her life and sounds off on President Trump, Donald Trump Jr., TMZ’s Harvey Levin, CNN’s Jeff Zucker, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen, Alec Baldwin, Lorne Michaels, Jerry Seinfeld and a hell of a lot more.    This episode was originally published on July 2nd, 2019. Follow Kathy Griffin on Twitter @kathygriffin and Instagram @kat...

Jake Johnson has run from dinosaurs with Chris Pratt, fought off mummies with Tom Cruise and embodied an alternate universe Spiderman. But for his latest project ‘Ride the Eagle,’ the actor has scaled things way back, teaming up with ‘New Girl’ director Trent O’Donnell to see if they could create a movie that is both safe to shoot during the pandemic and satisfying from a storytelling perspective....

From her breakthrough performance as Mel the stalker on ‘Flight of the Conchords,’ to her long-running gig as the voice of fourth-grader Louise Belcher on ‘Bob’s Burgers’ to her latest role as Number Two on the Disney+ adaptation of ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society,’ Kristen Schaal never fails to bring a unique energy to the screen. And it all begins with her unmistakable voice. On this episode, S...

Nikki Glaser is a world-class stand-up comedian, a ruthless celebrity roaster and an endlessly engaging daily podcaster. Now, she’s also a reality TV star thanks to her new gig hosting the deliberately absurd dating show ‘FBoy Island’ on HBO Max. On this episode, Glaser talks about how she landed her dream job after “embarrassing” herself on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ shares her unvarnished opinion...

Director David Wain thought his career was over when ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ bombed at the box office in July of 2001. 20 years later, the film has become a full-blown comedy classic thanks to the exploding celebrity of previously unknown cast members like Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler and the fierce dedication of fans who made sure it would live on forever. On this...

Comedian Rory Scovel never knows exactly what he’s going to say when he steps on stage. But in his latest stand-up special ‘Live Without Fear,’ he threw out the script altogether and performed six consecutive nights of fully improvised material. On the other end of the creative spectrum, Scovel recently took on a major role opposite Rose Byrne in the Apple TV+ series ‘Physical.’ He joins the podca...

Mindy Kaling broke through as a writer and star of ‘The Office’ and then ‘The Mindy Project’ before taking those roles to new heights in her latest film ‘Late Night’ opposite Emma Thompson. In this episode, we talk about the complicated politics of that movie and what it’s actually like to be the only minority woman in an all-male writers room. Plus, Kaling speaks out for the first time about her...

10 years before he created the hilarious, Stephen Colbert-produced ‘Tooning Out the News,’ R.J. Fried spent time in the trenches of actual cable news, working for MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. That experience, along with his years as a writer for ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ and Robert Smigel’s Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, helped prepare him to run what has somehow become the most consisten...

With a best-selling memoir, beloved podcast and insanely popular Instagram account, Busy Philipps was ready to quit acting for good when Tina Fey came along and offered her one of the four lead roles in this summer’s breakout comedy hit ‘Girls5eva.’ On this episode, Busy opens up about two decades in the entertainment industry that haven’t always been easy, from the intense pressure that came with...

One of the most successful stand-up comedians of all time, Jim Gaffigan became the first comic to premiere a special with Amazon Prime Video in 2019. Quality Time, Gaffigan’s seventh hour-long special, finds the comedian getting back to basics like his weight and an inordinate number of horse jokes after dealing with his wife and writing partner Jeannie’s harrowing medical scare. In the episode, J...

Comedian Gina Yashere’s new memoir is titled ‘Cack-Handed,’ which, she explains, means “left-handed or awkward and clumsy, which I am all of these things.” She’s also the first Brit to perform on ‘Def Comedy Jam,’ a one-time Senior British Correspondent for ‘The Daily Show’ and the co-creator with Chuck Lorre of the CBS sitcom ‘Bob Hearts Abishola,’ which uses her Nigerian heritage as comedic insp...

Joel Kim Booster likes to play the “hot idiot” on stage. But as you will quickly learn during this episode, he is actually full the insights about the unique challenges he has faced on his path to becoming one of the funniest young comedians working today. To kick off Pride Month, the stand-up comic and co-host of the ‘Flameout’ podcast on Spotify opens up about growing up with his adoptive Evange...

In this episode, Tig Notaro opens up about moving on from ‘One Mississippi’ and Louis C.K., the fundamental silliness of her online talk show ‘Under a Rock’ and why decided to host her new advice podcast ‘Don’t Ask Tig.’ She also tells a hilarious story about the time she guest-starred on ‘The Office,’ shares an update on her forthcoming Netflix film in which she plays the first lady opposite Jenn...

Three decades after they appeared together on ‘In Living Color,’ David Alan Grier is now playing Jamie Foxx’s father on their new Netflix sitcom ‘Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!’—despite just an 11 year age difference between the two comedy legends. On this episode, Grier recalls his first impressions of Foxx when he joined that iconic sketch series in its third season and tells some outrageous stories...

After creating ‘Parks and Recreation,’ ‘Brooklyn 99’ and ‘The Good Place,’ Mike Schur has decided to dive head first into the culture wars with his ‘Rutherford Falls.’ The new show, now streaming on Peacock, stars ‘The Office’s’ Ed Helms as a well-intentioned but problematic descendant of colonizers who finds himself in a battle over historical statues and everything they represent with the nearby...

The stars of Netflix’s hit prank movie ‘Bad Trip’ join ‘The Last Laugh’ podcast this week! Wel hear from comedian—and Oscars savior—Lil Rel Howery about why he almost quit the film on day one and from writer, producer and star Eric Andre about his long history of outrageous comedy antics, the important advice he got from Sacha Baron Cohen, his wonderfully weird interview with Larry King and a lot...

Exactly a decade after ‘Bridesmaids’ hit theaters and smashed records, director Paul Feig joins the podcast to look back on how it all came together so perfectly. Feig goes deep on the whole process, from how he escaped “movie jail” to land the gig to discovering the power of Melissa McCarthy during the audition process and shares behind-the-scenes stories from the movie’s funniest sequences. He a...

‘Broad City’s’ Abbi Jacobson joins this very special 4/20 episode to look back on highlights from the game-changing comedy series she created and starred in with partner-in-crime Ilana Glazer and ahead to her new diverse adaptation of ‘A League of Their Own.’ Jacobson also talks about her latest gig voicing a college-bound teenager whose family finds itself combatting the robot apocalypse in Netfl...

Keith and Kenny Lucas spent 9 years developing, pitching and ultimately co-writing ‘Judas and the Black Messiah.’ It was all worth it when they landed a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for their work. On this episode, the identical twins talk about dropping out of two separate law schools to become a stand-up comedy team, why they have more or less disowned their 2017 Netflix special ‘On...

What’s the difference between challenging stereotypes and perpetuating those same stereotypes? That’s just one of the many questions international comedy superstar Jo Koy tries to get to the bottom of on this week’s episode. Koy talks about putting the jokes aside to deal with the harsh realities of his childhood as a half-Filipino, half-white kid in his new memoir ‘Mixed Plate’ and breaks down ho...

Two and half years after Lisa Lampanelli retired from insult comedy to become a life coach, the former “Queen of Mean” opens up about what made her decide to leave roasting behind and why she decided to make a rare appearance in the new FX documentary ‘Hysterical’ about the history of female comedians. Lisa tells wild stories about her early days roasting Chevy Chase and Pamela Anderson, the two s...

Comedian Roy Wood Jr. tells us what his year of ‘Daily Show’ correspondent appearances from home has been like and how the show has changed since Trump left office. He also talks about his new podcast ‘Roy’s Job Fair,’ previews his recently announced stand-up special set to premiere on Comedy Central later this year and shares hilarious stories about his late-night debut on ‘Letterman’ and why his...

Stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze returns to ‘The Last Laugh’ this week to talk about his latest special ‘The Greatest Average American,’ which premieres this Thursday, March 18th on Netflix. He breaks down how he managed to pull off his funniest hour yet during the pandemic, why he needed to try out his COVID jokes on Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Tonight Show,’ where he sees himself in the comedy pantheon and a...