The Drawing Room with Mo Welch
Brett Goldstein on Acting, Writing, and Comedy
Episode 1 | 10m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
Old friends Brett Goldstein and Mo Welch pick up brushes and refuse to stay on topic.
When your guest is also your friend, the rules change. Brett Goldstein and Mo Welch sketch each other while swapping stories about the before times, Mamma Mia tryouts, and why great comedy always hurts a little.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
The Drawing Room with Mo Welch
Brett Goldstein on Acting, Writing, and Comedy
Episode 1 | 10m 2sVideo has Closed Captions
When your guest is also your friend, the rules change. Brett Goldstein and Mo Welch sketch each other while swapping stories about the before times, Mamma Mia tryouts, and why great comedy always hurts a little.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Where to Watch The Drawing Room with Mo Welch
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- Oh, that's hilarious.
Oh, hey, I'm Mo Welch.
I'm a comedian and a cartoonist, and this is "The Drawing Room."
This is a show where I interview my guest while I draw them, and they're gonna draw me.
And you know what?
You'll get it.
Just watch it.
My guest today is a hilarious standup comedian, writer, and performer.
He co-created the show "Shrinking."
He's in "Ted Lasso," and he's got a new movie called "Office Romance."
Oh, hey, Brett Goldstein.
- Oh, hey, Mo.
How's it going?
♪ La, la, la, la, la ♪ - I don't think this is remotely representative of your face.
- Whatever you draw today, I'm gonna take to a plastic surgeon and say, "Make me look like this."
- Okay.
I didn't realize I was gonna take this so seriously, Mo.
- I love the story of when you auditioned for "Mama Mia!"
- I turned up at the audition in jeans, and when I got there, there were loads of people in leotards, and the person at the desk said, "How is your movement?"
And I said, "Well, I made it here."
And it turned out it was a dance audition.
'cause I was auditioning to be one of the choruses dancers in "Mama Mia!"
And before I could leave, it sort of started, and it was like a group of 100 people.
And I was at the very back being taught a dance, and then the choreographer, she was gonna walk amongst us, this choreographer, and we had to dance impress her.
- Is that a technical term?
- Yeah, it was like pretend you're, like, in a bar, and you're trying to impress this woman as she walks past you.
Well, I've gotta be funny.
That's all I got in me.
And she got near me, and I jumped over my own leg, and she just looked at me like I was the worst thing that had ever happened.
But to this day, I remember the dance move to "Mama Mia!"
which is ♪ Body ripple ♪ - I used to say my childhood was like a white trash "Mama Mia!"
because my dad's ex-wife got pregnant, and they didn't know who the dad was.
And it was either my dad, my dad's best friend, Wendell, or my dad's dad, my grandpa.
- What?
- Yeah, and I was like- - Are you serious?
- Yeah.
I was like, "This is white trash 'Mama Mia!'"
- I've actually got your eyes pretty good.
- One of my favorite jokes of yours from the last special was when you were talking about all of the things that you've done a wide audience did not see it.
- Yes.
- And "Ted Lasso" was the first thing where people were like, "Oh, I've seen this."
- Yes.
- Do you ever miss the before times?
- I do miss the before times, but I also appreciate the now times.
What about you?
- There are times, like, when I miss open mics and going on a show with 30 strangers.
- You can still have that.
That's the thing about standup.
I do miss, there was a gig in London called The Lion's Den.
It was like dreadful, and you'd get like eight people in the audience.
And I liked sitting at the back of that gig with Lou Sanders and, like, Luke McQueen and just writing jokes.
- If you had to choose between one of the things that you do, would it be stand up, please?
- It would actually.
It's the one that makes me feel less like a mad person.
What about you?
- That's pretty much all I do, so.
You have an idea on the way to a show, and you get to- - Yeah.
- Tell that to an audience.
- You and me, we've traveled.
We've had all kinds of adventures.
I'm very grateful to have met you.
- Ah.
- And I'm happy to draw your eyes right now.
But the rest of you I'm not good at.
But I think I've absolutely smashed your eyes.
- You co-created "Shrinking."
- [Brett] Yes.
- And I'm in season three as Coach Bohan, but I famously don't go to therapy anymore because I'm busy, so.
- Well, you completed it, didn't you?
- I completed it.
They gave me my certificate, and they're like, "You know what?
You've been here for five months.
We feel like this has been okay."
- We've heard the story about your dad and the other dad and the other dad.
- If you could diagnose me, what do you think is wrong with me?
- Well, I'd love to say there's nothing wrong with you, which is mostly true.
I'd say you're one of the most mentally healthy people I know, which doesn't say a lot for the people I know, but your only issue is you love to too hard.
- Love too hard, yes, everyone says this.
- Ah, I don't think I can do noses.
- Oh, it is time for a quick draw, though.
From memory, you have to draw Cookie Monster, and you only have one minute.
- With this?
Okay.
I saw him very recently.
- So you should be able to.
I mean, this should be no problem for you.
So you have 20 seconds left.
A minute.
- Okay.
Okay.
- Oh my god, that's adorable.
You would know.
I'm impressed.
I have a lot of inside information about your new film that you co-wrote and starred in called "Office Romance."
I played Debbie, who is a Christian who is looking to get some action.
- Mm-hmm.
- You co-wrote it with Joe Kelly- - Yes, Joe Kelly.
- Who you've written a lot with.
How do you know you're gonna be good at writing with somebody?
- I think in every writing partnership, it's different who does the most amount of writing.
Like when I wrote with Catherine Tate, I was at the laptop.
She would pace around saying funny stuff.
You can't both be at the laptop.
You've written with someone.
- I've written with plenty of people over the years.
- [Brett] Yeah.
- Never talked to any of them again.
I don't know why.
"Office Romance" is a rom-com, but it also has really hard comedy.
But I think it balances that heart and comedy so well.
How do you do that?
- Sometimes you can go too far either way, and you can change it in the edit and everything.
And the example of this, in the film, "Austin Powers 3," "Goldmember," there's a deleted scene in it that you can see online where the entire cast sings.
"What's it all about, Austin?"
And they cut it from the film because it was so beautiful that after that scene, no one laughed again.
'cause they were so, so moved.
So they had to remove it.
So that can happen .
Sometimes you have to be careful not to be too broad or too sad that they never recover.
- I mean, you learn that in standup comedy over and over again when you try to hit 'em with, like, something emotional at the beginning and you're like, "Whoops."
And they're like, "That's sad."
- Yeah, and you go, "No, no, I'm fine now.
That's why I'm talking about it," and they don't believe you.
- Yeah.
- I think I've painted you like you were sort of like a school mom.
- Well, I kind of am a school mom now.
- What's your favorite part about being married?
- My wife and I do bits all the time.
Like say she's waiting for coffee, and I'm in the car.
- Yeah.
- And I'll send her a text prompt and I'm like, "Pretend you just found out that you're pregnant."
- That's great.
- And so she has to pretend to get a call and find out that she's pregnant, and she has to react in line.
- That's great.
- And the other people don't really know what she's doing, but it's hilarious.
- She's one of the funniest people you could marry.
- Like her mom was asking her, "What do you want in a partner?"
And Sam said, "I wanna be able to harmonize with them."
- Yeah.
- And her mom was like, "Are we sure that that's important for a life partner?"
♪ Of course ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ - Are you ready, Brett?
- Yeah, I'm ready.
I'm happy with this.
- Okay.
I'm gonna have you first come over to mine.
- Okay.
- Here's how I see you.
- Oh, wow.
"Why just impress you when I could?"
No, that's great.
There's Cookie Monster exactly as I drew him.
- [Mo] Yes.
- Wow.
You're really good at this.
Come and look.
I think it's you as a school mom.
- Wait, wait.
I love this.
I can see how this is me.
- [Brett] Yeah, right?
- [Mo] It looks just like me.
Okay, you have to sign that.
- At the bottom, right?
- Yes.
♪ La, la, la, la, la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la ♪
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