Seth Meyers might seem like an unlikely guest at New York Comic Con, but if you know his work, the comedian certainly fits here. He’s the co-creator of the hilarious Hulu animated series The Awesomes, so he knows a few things about comic books and working in a team. Meyers did an hour-long Q&A session with Vulture.com’s Jesse David Fox today that was informative and hilarious, especially if you love hearing about the behind-the-scenes world of late night television.
The conversation started off with the biggest change Meyers has brought to Late Night: the sitting monologue. Meyers said that once people learned that he does in fact have legs, he decided to go back to what he’s most comfortable with – sitting behind a desk to make people laugh.
Meyers got the Late Night job just a few months after leaving Saturday Night Live, so that experience was still fresh and he was more than willing to talk about it. Of course he was though, since he still works with so many members of the SNL crew on Awesomes and the new IFC series Documentary Now. He sounded particularly fond of Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, who both starred in the Documentary Now clip the audience saw.
Meyers also explained how getting ready for each episode of Late Night is a full day operation. He doesn’t just show up 15 minutes before each taping at 6:30 p.m. Instead, he arrives at the office at 9 a.m. and by 5 p.m., they can do a quick run through. It was also fascinating to hear how he runs through his monologues. They actually find tourists at 30 Rock and perform in front of them. Jimmy Fallon did this too. If the jokes work, they might make it to air.
Late Night is also a show that not only looks fun to make, but is fun to make. Meyers “wouldn’t have it any other way” in that sense. Especially since the audience watches the show at 12:35 a.m., you want to keep those at home laughing and comfortable.
Would Meyers ever go back to SNL to host? Nope. He would be a “terrible host” and Lorne Michaels knows that, he said.
Other interesting notes from the session:
• Meyers misses writing for Will Forte.
• There were only a few awful guests during Meyers’ tenure at SNL, but he did say some guests were surprisingly easy to work with, including Jon Hamm. The one guest that left him star-struck was Robert De Niro.
• Meyers has never been challenged to a duel.
• He’d love to have Vladimir Putin on Late Night.
• Donald Trump isn’t a challenging target. He’s funny, which does make him easy to write jokes about.
• He would rather have Batman as a guest than Superman.