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Will Ferrell on SmartLess

43:09 recording · EN · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Will Ferrell tells SmartLess how his father's precarious music career pushed him away from, then into, comedy.

  1. Journalism lost because he would not leapForty classmates wanted the John Robinson interview and he did not, and he read that reluctance as his answer.
  2. His father's firings pushed him toward a briefcaseWatching a working musician lose jobs at the drop of a hat made entertainment the last thing he wanted.
  3. Harry Caray worked on people who never heard himThe baseball-strike play-reading sketch killed with an audience that had no idea Caray was a real announcer.
Executive Summary AI
  • Sean Hayes introduces the surprise guest as a man from Irvine, California whose mother was a teacher and whose father played sax and keyboard for the Righteous Brothers, and who studied sports journalism at USC before joining the Groundlings: Will Ferrell.3:45
  • Ferrell says he enjoyed being funny as a child but was diametrically opposed to entertainment because he watched his father, a musician, go from job to job and be fired at the drop of a hat, deciding instead he would have a job where he carried a briefcase to work.7:23
  • After graduating USC with a sports journalism degree he worked at an Orange County cable access news station, and when the editor offered a legitimate interview with Rams head coach John Robinson at Anaheim Stadium, 40 hands shot up and his did not, which is when he signed up for his first Groundlings class.11:43
  • The Harry Caray character came a couple of years later during the baseball strike, while he was appraisal coordinator at the auction house where his then friend, now wife Vivica worked and he drove home at lunch to watch Cubs games; his sketch put Caray in a melodramatic play reading and the Southern California audience doubled over without knowing Caray was real.15:18
  • Asked about his non-comedy jobs, he recalls a regular bank customer who stopped a transaction, called the manager over and told her in front of him that he was her worst teller, and Ferrell admits he could not really argue with the man.23:41
Key Quote
“Guys, our guest today is from Irvine, California.”
— Sean Hayes3:45
Key Quote
“And I thought, that's not, who would want to do that?”
— Will Ferrell7:31
Key Quote
“I'm going to have a job where I carry a briefcase to work.”
— Will Ferrell7:35