Behind the Show | Al Madrigal on What Makes a Great Field Piece
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Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or DSW.com. You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey, everybody. This is Mark Payone, longtime editor at The Daily Show. Once again, back with a former...

Daily Show correspondent. I was, I should say... One of your favorites. One of my favorites. And senior Latino correspondent. That's right. Comedian, actor, entrepreneur. Yes. Renaissance man. Yes. Al Madrigal. How are you? When you say long time, exactly how long have you been here? Because I know you keep track. I started season two. That's insane. And this is season... 7-7-97 was my first day. Holy crap.

Because for a while, I think you would call, as a joke, all jokes, we called John the new guy. And he had been here like 16 years. And we became, I mean, as you do in the field department, which is where I did a lot of work when I was here, because I was here from the years of 2011 through

I believe I started full-time at the beginning of 2012, shared an office with Jessica Williams, who is just crushing it. I'm so happy for her. It's kind of cool to see everybody go on and do things, but I was here from 2012 to end of 2013 full-time, and then another half-year, probably.

Or half... Like, on and off, part-time, until John left. And then I dribbled into... Dribbled a little bit into Trevor's. Into Trevor. Yeah. Just dribbling. Yeah, yeah. So...

How did you get the gig? I don't remember. I got the gig because, and this is a be nice to everyone you meet thing. I got the gig because a guy hit me up to do a guest set on a show in Miami at the Coconut Grove Improv, which was an insane comedy club. Go around the country from 2005, 2004, 2000, till now.

2010, that's how I made a living primarily. I was acting in some TV shows, but I would do stand-up on the road. And people hit you up for guest sets. The guy that hit me up was Adam Lowett, a comedian from Florida who was going to be there at the time, who was also a producer at The Daily Show. He went on to be an executive producer. He's done many incredible things. He's in L.A. now? In L.A. with two wonderful children and his wife.

and we're still close and stay in touch. But he hit me up for a guest set. Then he hit me up for when I was in New York for another guest set. Then he hit me up for another guest set. So this is like guest sets over years. Right. And then finally when we were at Caroline's in New York, he said, you know, I think it was my act was sort of skewing this way. And he goes, you'd make a great Latino correspondent. He goes, I know just how to pitch it.

So we waited for a dark week, which the show has weeks on and weeks off. It's very difficult to do a daily show like they do. It's amazing that John did it as long as he did. And we're going to do it the Thursday of a dark week when he's in. A working dark week, yeah. A working dark week. So we have Hallie Haglund.

who was a newish writer at the time. She's gone on to be EP of things and rose to the ranks here and is very, very funny. So Hallie Lowett and I, we write this piece on Debbie Riddle, who's a congresswoman from Texas, who wanted, and it's amazing how this is in 2011 and nothing has changed. She wanted to establish a group of people

non-US citizens, like a second class of citizen that could work as home care workers. So nannies, gardeners, chefs, and anyone else that you'd want, some sort of Latino taking care of your things so that they could work without employment laws. Right. So you wouldn't have to pay them minimum wages or anything like that. And then this was in Texas, so we did that piece.

That got changed, so we rewrote it, and I auditioned, and it went well. John took me over here where I was sort of waiting in one of these little side guest rooms and said, congratulations, and get ready for a lifestyle of women and drugs. I'll never forget that. No.

John Oliver, he always used to give you a great impression of people at Daily Show conventions. Mr. Oliver, the piece that you did on Australian gun reform. There's no women, no drugs. And so I came in full time. I had a nine year old and six year old, I think, when I got the gig.

It's crazy. And you were... And they're in Los Angeles. And they're in Los Angeles. And we're not moving them. I flew back and forth. My nine-year-old or whatever he is at the time said...

I said, we got a great job and I got a great job and it's going to be a good money for the family, a good opportunity. I said opportunity and he didn't get it. And then I said, good money. It can lead to other things. It's a great job. And I said, we might need to move to New York. And he just got into a new school and made friends. And he was at that age where friendships really started to form. And he really did look at me and he goes, what if you went and we stayed here forever?

And that's what happened for two and a half years is I flew back and forth and back and forth. And then I'd go do field pieces in 2012. I think I tied a record for John Oliver field pieces and mine was in a non, like, I guess I, I,

Because that was a convention year. But I tied a record for field pieces. I was out on the road constantly. So when I wasn't flying home, I was flying for the show. And I mean... A lot of miles. John Hodgman and Loewen and I would go out and do stand-up. I've got to text John Hodgman. He's one of my favorite people. So I would go on the road with Hodgman and just had the best time. But I was missing my family terribly. And I was missing so many...

Yeah.

The worst. The absolute worst. You'd never want to take a red eye ever. If you can avoid it at all costs. It sets me back for like two days after that. So I felt like during my time here, I was never really operating at 100%. And I was, you know, it's like one of those regrets thing. I probably should have just moved everybody out. I also did something really stupid and I moved to Dumbo in Brooklyn.

I could have just walked to the show. That would have been the smartest thing. I had my buddy who I grew up with who had a place, and that seemed to make sense to me. But I never should have committed to anything. I should have lived a block away. I should have been here for every single morning meeting. Like the dad in me talking to my son who's now 22 living in San Francisco. It's like first guy there, last guy to leave.

Like I didn't know any of that. And here I am, a 40 year old man. And I know my work ethic is amazing and I do a lot of things, but I should have been here very first thing. And I also was given bad advice from the existing correspondents because like Monvi rolled in at 1 p.m. every day. Jones and like I was we were getting advice from people that had just been here.

who barely were in the building. And I should have just been at that morning meet. I had nothing else going on. I didn't have a kid I was trying to get ready for school or anything like that. There was no excuse for me not to be here showered with a pen in my hand, ready to go. And that's what I would have done over again. It would be a different situation. But again, I just love, love, loved my time here even considering. But at some point,

It came to an end because a lot of celebrities and famous people come to this show. And I remember Rory, who was the EP and John's right-hand person at the time, and Albanese, he pawned on Jason Kadams and Kathy Kadams on me. And Jason Kadams from Friday Night Lights...

And we were maybe with you editing a piece. The correspondent goes and sits in the edit. And I was showing them how we did a piece. I believe it was the Bridge to Nowhere, the Canadian Bridge thing that I did with Berger. I was going to bring that piece up. The Ambassador Bridge. Great, great piece. Great piece. And it really was fun. Yeah, that was really fun to cut too. Yeah. So we are doing that.

And he comes in, I meet Jason Kadams. He has a TV show called About a Boy and cast me in it. I'm pretty confident that NBC, like he just insisted that I was in it. He was, I auditioned four times. Like, are you sure? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy just gave me this great gig. So then I got to, I went to John. I'm like, who had kids, I think has kids exactly my children's age.

And I went to him. His kids are like 22, 19, something like that. 22 and 19. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I went to John. I go, I miss my children terribly and I need to go. And I really wasn't here for very, very long. You know, I was always telling other correspondents. They would use you sporadically. After that. But I was always telling new correspondents when they came in because I had a little bit of crossover with Roy and with Ronnie and Desi and definitely Klepper and Hassan.

I would always tell them, like, stay on the show for 100-plus episodes. That's where you start to really get recognized, and I just couldn't. I couldn't. I was desperate to hang out with my wife and kids. I'm not good on the road. I love stand-up. That's why I got in this. I just don't love...

Flights with connections. Right. I don't love hotel soaps. That's what I bonded with Jon Stewart over. Yeah. I think... Jon had that in his background. I think... Let's think about it. Am I the only... I know there's been other stand-up comics, but Wyatt was more alternative. Jon Oliver was a little bit more skewed, more alternative. I'm like the only club comic other than Jon Stewart. Um... Ronnie doesn't count. Roy...

Roy Wood Jr. Wait, why doesn't Ronnie count? He's Australian. Who knows what's going on over there? What are they doing? Roy, yeah, Roy. Roy definitely has been on the road. Oh, my gosh, Roy. Roy, he's one of the best people. Yeah. Yeah, Roy. Ronnie's actually a major comic with three Netflix specials. I'm just talking about in terms of American clubs coming up,

I think it's just me, Roy, and John. Yeah, and a lot of the others came from improv. Sketch, improv, acting. I still have Rob Riggle gave me his Colbert notes to come in. Right, the famous Colbert notes. Well, I would pass those on then to every single person. I think I was just texting with Costa and Ronnie. Was it 14? 14?

I just texted it to these guys. I'll read them to you right now. So I was on a TV show with Rob Riggle called Gary Unmarried. He played Jay Moore's brother. I've been on so many sitcoms. You have no idea. Let's see. Ronnie and Costa. Okay. This is the list.

So this is from Rob Riggle. This is an email that I just read. This is the original Colbert notes. The original Colbert notes that he passed on. He gave to Riggle. I asked Riggle for. He gave them to me, and then I've since passed them to Ronnie, Roy, Klepper, and then they've gone and passed them on. I know Desi has them. Amazing. Yeah. And they still hold up. Hey, Al. So I found Colbert's notes for me on things to think about when doing a field piece. Number one.

Do we want to be saying this? Burn tape. Tape is cheap. Keep talking and keep them talking. Two, break up questions. Don't let them see where you're going. Three, play the silence. Four, match energy with subject. Five, discover things in the moment. Be aware of when those discoveries happen. Six, always be asking yourself, what's my point of view on this subject? Seven, you have to think it's funny. Find a way to make that happen. Eight, get creative.

Clear on three to five things you want your subject to say and don't let them leave until you get them. That's very important. Nine, understand the real point. What's behind all of this? What are you saying? And that was like when I was here on the show, I think there was a shift. It's like we didn't want to just be making fun of things. It's easy just to shoot down. You want to also post solutions. Yeah. Yeah.

And then 10 characters key. Understand your point of view on the issue, and you will be able to react spontaneously in the moment. That's it, bro. These were the tips. And the most important one that Colbert told people was leave your soul at home. Oh, yeah. That's right.

Gave me when I started, and they helped. Hope they help you. All the best, Riggle. Yep, so that's it. And then I learned a couple other ones. I remember Riggle told me, whatever you do, don't let Stu Miller drive. Yeah.

And then these guys don't have cars. We go out there and they've got a rental car and they're in Manhattan. I'm like, what are you doing? This is like an eight point turn. Just get out of the car. That's hilarious. None of them know how to drive. And then if they're in Manhattan without a vehicle, it's crazy. So it's just like, give me the keys. I'll drive. Yeah. I'm not going to do this. Yeah. And then what was the other one that was just hilarious? It was Check Your Soul at the Door.

Oh, John Oliver grabbed me. This is day one. He goes, I'm going to tell you the only thing you really need to know. He goes, always live in the edit. Yeah. So you could be sitting there. If you think of something witty that was from 15 minutes ago. Just do it. Just do it and we can put it in. Right. So, you know, good field pieces are made when I say something, they say something, and then I say something back.

That's funny. And so there has to be this exchange and back and forth. So you're always searching to cobble together as many of those moments as you possibly can. That's what I'm for. That's what I do. You're the cobbler. Yeah. I mean, I've always said that to correspondents. It's like, just remember...

You can start over. You can do any, you know, it's all just think about that it's not happening live. It's not happening live, you know. But you feel like it's happening live, but remember that, you know. Because I can, you know, we don't, we never misrepresent people. But we will take, you know, I'll take like a stronger yes from,

you know, to a question you ask, I might tell. You know what I mean? Like that sort of thing. But it really isn't a gotcha thing. You're not asking people to say anything that they haven't said. Yes, they've already said it. Yeah, they've already said it and then we're not misrepresenting them at all. But I like to create what seems like a seamless conversation in a piece, even though...

The sentences might be coming like 10 minutes apart. I always remember sitting down with everybody I sat down with. I always was a nice guy. I know some correspondents had different strategies when approaching a subject. Like, Jones would barely talk to them. Yeah. He would not engage until the cameras were rolling. I'd go, hey, how are you? I'm Al. This is going to be a piece of cake. Now, I'm funny. You're not funny. Right.

I go, so I just need to keep it straight. So if you're going to make a joke, I'm just going to have to stop and have to redo it because I'm not going to use it. So I just would love you to speak in nice, concise chunks. Right. And just say what you're going to say. Straight answers. If I tell you to tighten something up, I'll need you to tighten it up. So you'll see me do things three or four times. I'm going to have you do things three or four times. Right.

Then the other thing is if I ask you a question, you need to respond with the question in the answer. So I've asked you what my favorite color is. You say my favorite color is blue. Okay, so you have to use it later. Yeah, in case I have to use it later without me in it. And yeah, then I would go on and there was a couple more. And then at the end of a piece, we'd always go, okay, just a couple of wild lines. Can you say these for me? Right. Maybe. Right. I just, yeah.

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So let's talk about your field work. Oh, shit. Yeah. What was your favorite piece of all that you did? I think just because of how it magically came together. When you do a field piece, you go and you have a joke session. You try to anticipate what people are going to do. I did a lot of fun. I mean, top five, definitely. Latinos in Austin, Texas. All these, by the way, still hold up.

Where my second one was Tucson Michael Hicks, who passed away that... Tucson was the book band? That was Chicano Studies Band. Yeah, yeah. That was a great one. That got national news, and that was my second piece.

Across the country, public education is failing. But in Arizona, lawmakers have found the solution to the biggest problem facing their schools. Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, just approved a bill banning ethnic studies classes in public schools. And using this new law, the Tucson School Board banned the K-12 Mexican American Studies Program. School board member Michael Hicks.

My concern was a lot of the radical ideas that they were teaching in these classes, telling these kids that this is their land, the whites took it over, and the only way to get out from beneath the gringo, which is the white man, is by bloodshed. When you sat in on these classes, what types of... I chose not to go to any of their classes.

Why even go? Why even go? I base my thoughts on hearsay from others, so I based it off of those. So the school board in Tucson banned Mexican- American- Chicano studies. Right. And you spoke to a councilman there. I spoke to the school board member named Michael Hicks, and he said-

What was it he-- Well the best part about it was you asked him, "What about African Americans?" Yeah, yeah. And he said, "Yeah, that's fine." And you said, "Well I'm a black kid, teach me about African--" Yeah, teach me about slavery without being like-- And he just started digging this-- Yeah, he just dug himself in such a major hole. He was a perfect person because-- And I remember you asking him, "Am I 3/5 of a person?" He goes, "I think you're more a quarter of a person." Yeah.

I'm a black kid. Try to teach me about slavery without me feeling resentment towards white people. How am I going to teach you about slavery? Slavery was... How did I end up here? Slavery was a... Okay, now I've got to figure out how. Okay, the white man did bring over the Africans. And what kind of jobs did we do? The jobs that you guys did was basically slavery jobs.

So after we were freed, we got to vote? Yes. You got, well, you didn't get to vote until later. And we were equal? Almost equal. What, we were like sort of a half or three-fifths? My personal perception of it, I would say you're probably a quarter.

It was insane. And that got a lot of attention. He got in trouble for it, if I remember. He got in deep shit. Do you remember chicken boxing? Chicken boxing was ridiculous. In 2008, Louisiana came to its senses and outlawed the barbaric sport of cockfighting. And the chickens of that state finally had some peace. State Senator Elbert Guillory.

We've outlawed cockfighting. Those blood sports are no longer attractive in Louisiana. I'm not a fan of cockfighting, but I'd love to go and watch some chicken boxing. I'm going to stop you right there. You just said...

Chicken boxing? Yes. Chicken boxing in Louisiana is still not legal, but we're fighting to make it legal. You meant to say chicken boxing. I meant to say chicken boxing. Human beings put gloves on and box. Chickens can put gloves on and box. Chicken boxing was in Appaloosa with Burger and...

They were trying to ban... No, they did ban. They did ban cockfighting. And now guys were trying to introduce chicken boxing and they made little gloves. And I went out to the park here. Yeah, and they had an arena. The guy took you... I took you to an arena and I go to this guy. We were deep. Like a really nice little mini Madison Square Garden. It was amazing, that arena. That was crazy. And I was out with these guys on... Clearly, they were training roosters due to cockfighting.

And it's horrible. They put razor blades on their claws and they're vicious. They're like training pit bulls or anything like that. And I go, hey, man, to the side. I go, if this was real, which one of these bristers would win? And he goes, if it was real. Like, it is real. I'm like an idiot. And then me and Berger were in traffic on our way to the cockfighting ring.

And this dude looks at me and I'm a Latino in a suit in a rental car and looks at me, looks at me in the eyes and starts running at the car. And I go, burger, burger, go, go, go like that. There's been a couple of moments where I've been like,

We're going to die right now. Yeah, I was going to ask you about that in times you felt the danger. Virginia at Barack Obama announcing he was going to run again, I think, on Cinco de Mayo. You mean for the second time? Yeah, for the second time. Oh, the Cinco de Mayo piece. I remember that one. I almost got beat up because everyone was drunk. Yeah.

Do you think you can keep this enthusiasm up until November? I think I can, 'cause I'll drink Corona like it's water, drink Bud Light like it's water, drink vodka like it's water, tequila like it's water. Can you keep it up until November? Absolutely. Are you kidding me? I come here all the time. I'm fired up. Are you pumped up because you think Barack Obama will finally be able to not worry about this combative Congress and he can actually be progressive in his theoretical second term? I smell weed.

Those misdirects. Yeah, the misdirects. When you go in, you set it up. You think it's, you've set it up to our audience as like, I'm going to this young people's Obama rally that you think it is. And it's a Cinco de Mayo party. And it turns out these Obama supporters love Latinos. Yeah, and you're like, and just as much as they love drinking. Like that.

Yeah, we used to do that with the St. Patrick's Day Parade. On a yearly basis, we'd figure out... Or when the Giants won the Super Bowl, we'd go down there and think... We'd act like it was for something else and talk to the people. There was a time that I went out with Stu Miller to Phoenix, and the guy we lined up wouldn't speak to us. Oh, he bailed at the last minute? Bailed at the very last second. Yeah, that's happened a few times. And we were like, he's not coming. And then we just had to improvise, and we joined a rally. And I remember riffing a...

John, my Spanish is a little rusty, but what I think he said was, you know, it's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I cut that one. I cut that one. I remember that. The guy. The guy says. And then you just. Guy speaks. He says heartfelt in Spanish to the camera.

It's a political rally. Yeah, we're hardworking people. And this is SB 1070, right? Right. It was like, yeah. And he said, we're hardworking people. We really don't deserve to be villainized. And we don't have the subtitles. So if you don't speak Spanish, you don't know what he's saying. Yeah. And then I go, John, my Spanish is a little rusty. But I think what he just said was-

It's about his girlfriend. Yeah, that he cheated on his girlfriend. He was like, he's sorry, baby. And the guy's just looking at you. It was so good.

Well, that's another little side note for the listeners. You don't speak Spanish. Spanish is no bueno. I remember early on when you were at the show, at some point we were like, oh, we can do this piece and we can do it in Spanish. Because over the years we've done a couple of pieces where it was entirely in Spanish. I went to Mexico City. And we did one way back when with Mo Rocca where they did the entire...

The entire piece was in Spanish 'cause they went somewhere where everybody spoke Spanish. Oh yeah, I've been places where everyone spoke Spanish. And there was a point with you, I remember at some point when they were like, "Oh yeah, this'll be great. "We could do the piece in Spanish." And then you're like, "I don't speak Spanish." And they're like, "Wait, what?" Second generation half Mexican from San Francisco.

And I think, you know, when you look back at all the pieces, which was a lot, a lot of them unfortunately still hold up. I think I did a good job of representing the fact that no one can represent all Latinos because I've said that multiple times. So going on and saying there is no one repping all Latinos. There's that person doesn't exist because we can't agree on anything. And that is very true to this day.

So, you know, they make funny if you don't speak Spanish, but then when you don't do speak Spanish and you don't pronounce things properly, then you're really fucked. Like, there's no winning. So I think I was very clear about that from day one. But I remember doing a press for the movie Night School with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Addish. And it was me, Fat Joe, and Kevin Hart doing Miami press. And...

They're all expecting you to speak Spanish. Kevin Hart looks at me and he goes, wait a second, you don't speak Spanish? He goes, it's the only reason you're here. It's the only reason. He started cracking up. He thought it was the funniest thing. He's like, I speak more Spanish than you do. I'm like, well, that's good. You think I'm going to turn down a free trip to Miami to hang out with Fat Joe and Kevin Hart? No, I'll be here. Another piece that was a really, really fun piece and really like...

like a feel-good piece in a lot of ways. They let me do some very silly, weird shit. But this was actually a real, it was a really solid piece. Last Gay Standing, it was called. Alabama and Mississippi. So who's it gonna be? Cletus or Betus? It was time to see which one of these backwoods, inbred, homophobic states will swim the longest against the tide of history.

First, let's meet some locals to see whose state has the intolerance edge. In this corner, from the state that still has segregated sororities, Alabama lawyer Doug Jones. With regard to same-sex marriage, Alabama will be the last state to ratify, if we ever ratify. And in the other corner, from the state with a Confederate flag, inside their own state flag, Mississippi columnist Slim Smith.

Mississippi will be last and we'll get there kicking and screaming all the way. I wish it weren't true, but it is. So the whole premise of the piece is, you know, gay, all these states are legalizing gay marriage. Who will be the last? Who will be the last? What are the last five states? And he goes, well, I think it's going to be the deep state, the deep south and the deep state. I think it's going to be the deep. You'll cut that out. I think it's going to be the deep south.

So you go. And it was hilarious because you were like, because they both were defending their state to be the last one. I think it'll be because we've got a lot of time. The irony was really because they were both like, yeah, we'll be the last one. I mean, the newspaper guy is like, come on, we still have segregation laws on the books. And then you ask him about sodomy and he goes, well, it's a...

I think he said that Doug Jones says it's a misdemeanor and you cut to the other guy and goes, oh, sodomy is a felony. Yes. And they're all trying to outdo how shitty their state is. Hilarious. And then we were in Birmingham and we were in Jackson. And that was the thing is that had we been in this deep. So I've cut you off. But we were in those two cities and that affected the peace. And we had no idea. But keep going. Right. Because then you went out to Waffle House's.

All right, that's it. We'll settle this the old-fashioned way. In a Waffle House. Y'all, I want everybody to know we met two years ago at a Waffle House, and I just want to say, would you, Michael, would you marry me? This is our anniversary, and I just wanted to know. No, you're serious. No, you're not. If you would do this, because this is very special to me. Yes? Was that clapping? Okay, Mississippi, last chance to bring some authentic anti-gay redneck venom.

I want to say in front of everybody, I want to ask you, sincerely, would you marry me? Yes. Yes? Yes. Yeah. Seriously? These are the two gayest states in the union.

No, but the point of the whole thing was everywhere they went, nobody gave a shit. Everywhere they went, no one cared at all. And actually in... In the Waffle House, they applauded when he proposed. They applauded and a little boy said, you can't do that here, but not yet, but you can do it here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And he rattled off all the states where you could get legally married. Absolutely.

As a gay guy. Oh, I didn't know that. And then they would applaud. And then I had a very interesting conversation with a guy next to me who I was waiting in the Waffle House because I'm in this was when Obamacare was coming out. But he told me his wife was a waitress. He was waiting for her to get off her shift. And she made two dollars and sixty seven cents per hour. And then they let her keep her tips.

And then he was anti-Obamacare. But they didn't have health care at the Waffle House. And I'm like, but you see how this can help you. So I just remember that. And I remember... But the nice thing about the piece was it kind of... It shifted. It reminds you of like a lot of these issues, people don't care. It's all the people in power...

And in the government that make big issues out of these things, nobody gives a shit about it. And that's why I just really wish we could have some sort of...

secure nationwide voting on major issues like that. Yeah, referendums. Let's talk about guns. Like, all right, who wants, you know, rifles to exist for hunting? And then let's get rid of automatic weapons. Right, right. Do we need those? We don't. Yeah, even gun owners want to get rid of that stuff. It's like 80%. Yeah, it's nuts.

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after mile. So outlast every adventure and outlive the moment. Buy a Tundra or Tacoma today. Visit buyatoyota.com, Toyota's official website for deals, or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more. Toyota, let's go places. I guess we can talk a little bit more about the bridge piece. That's right. People of Michigan are going to have to pay for the entire... Wait, what did he just say? Michigan will pay nothing for this bridge. Define nothing.

Zero. Zero dollars. Zero outlays. Zero risk. Zero liability. Define zero. No cost to Michigan at all. Absolutely nothing. Define nothing again. But nothing probably means something, especially when you consider how many times America has been burned by slick-talking Canadians. Look, when politicians tell you

that this ain't gonna cost you nothing, grab your wallet, grab your money, and run. Break wide, dude. The Canadians are saying they're gonna pay for this bridge, but I don't trust them. And they say a lot of things, sometimes in French. And they buy our milk at Sam's because Canadian milk is very expensive. True story. What does that have to do with this? Nothing. Canada is offering a Trojan horse. Oh, . You think they're gonna hide a bunch of Canadians in there and they're just gonna jump out and attack us once the bridge is complete?

No, it's not going to be Canadians. It's going to be Chinamen. Yeah. I just want Americans on that bridge. I don't want a Trojan horse delivering China steel and Chinamen. Just FYI, I don't think anybody's using Chinamen anymore. That was one of the best. That was a great piece. And the people that you talked to were so funny. I had a guy say... I just remember that... The Tea Party guy? No, the ex-Black Panther guy. Oh, I'm a fan. Who pulled out...

who was like in my town I run this town and he goes I run that town and then you when you tell him who that when you go back to all of them to tell them that the bridge is owned I don't want to tell you how to run your business but the bridge is owned by an individual like a family that

like owns the bridge and this is why Matty Maroon and he goes yeah I know that and he pulls out and he goes it's all about these politicians and I just I'll never forget this image he pulls out this ginormous and I just go like this what?

This ginormous wad that's like, it must be four inches thick of cash. And you waste it around going, it's all about the cash. That guy's got like thousands of dollars in cash. He was so big. He was a giant. And I go. And he's like, I run this town. Yeah, I know that guy owns the bridge. So what? I don't want to. They had paid them.

Yeah, of course. We were in a... And the woman, do you remember the housewife? Yeah. She's like... And the milk prices. And they come over here, you know. You know they come over here to buy their milk. You know that, right? Canadians. I go, what does that have to do with any of this? I don't know, but... And then there's a guy... And then the Chinese... The guy, the tea party guy who goes, he's a Chinaman. Yeah.

And I go, hey, just FYI, I don't think they're calling up China anymore. And I go, and they prefer, I think this got cut out. I go, they prefer oriental. Yes, that did get cut out. Because I remember that was a joke that we all wanted to keep. Yeah. But they cut it out as we went along. They were like, yeah, that's a little too much. Yeah, anyway. That was funny. And then we got to do that stylized Clint Eastwood Chrysler 300 piece with the steam. I drove around in GoPros. Yeah.

with the pros attached to the car. We did the bridge section. It's like the Eminem thing. If I remember, you found a toll booth. We couldn't shoot. But you faked it.

Oh my gosh. The toll booth, remember? Yeah. Because we have you driving. You can't shoot on any, because of Homeland Security, you can't shoot on any bridge. But in the piece, you keep driving on the bridge and trying to talk to the toll booth collector. I'm here to talk to Matty Maroon, the guy who owns the bridge. 475, sir. Thank you. So, yeah, the guy who owns the bridge is named Matty Maroon. He's sort of this monopoly. I'll be back.

Hi, it's me again. As I was saying, I want to talk to Maddie. Oh, fine. Denise, don't you think it's a little odd that one man owns a bridge? You need to stop around.

Go and watch this piece again. We founded New Jersey Six Flags and made their ticket booth look like a toll booth. It was great. You even had cars going by in the background. It was such a brilliant production. And then I remember John coming in, the edit bay, and he goes, how did you do this? This is amazing. And we looked at each other and we're like, movie magic. Do you really want to know? He goes, yes, tell me. And then Woody goes, no.

He walked out and he walked back in and goes, fine, just tell me what you did. He can't shoot on any bridge. So that's kind of a reenactment at a New Jersey Six Flags. And if you look closely, the same production van drives through three times, faking traffic. It's all sound effects for the horns. Yeah. Yeah, that was a fun piece. That was really fun. And she was a great actress, too. Yeah.

The last one on my list of my favorites is, of course, Tanks, Tanks, Tanks. Oh, I got to drive a tank. Tanks! Little tanks! Big tanks! Does your country need tanks? We got more tanks to do with than Big Al's Western Tank Emporium. And they're not just for attacking Africa. They can do it all. Juicing! Sprinting! Navigating traffic!

We will not be undersold because I'm now madrigal about tanks. We may invade you with a ground war and destroy the tanks we sold you in the first place. There's a place in Kasota, Minneapolis, where you can drive a tank. I've shot machine guns so much on this show. I shot a Tommy gun in there that didn't even make the piece. They're like, do you want to go shoot a Tommy gun? I'm like, yeah, sure, I'll go shoot a Tommy gun. And then I got to drive these tanks.

but the thing was such a weird place. So the piece for the listeners, the piece was they were, there's a... The United States government is still buying tanks. There's no way... Well, there's a factory. The story was there's a factory in Ohio, I think. Some of the details... That's manufacturing tanks. Manufacturing tanks. Talk about government ways. And it's all... It was all part of some pork from some Ohio...

Yes, that's coming back to me. Whoever it was. This was Miles Kahn. Yeah, Miles. And so this factory keeps, and you talk to a general, if you remember, a retired general. Retired general. We don't need any more tanks. We got plenty of tanks. That was up here. Yeah. And so they keep building, there's like, and the factory has like 80 employees. It wasn't like a ton of people.

but this guy makes a big stink about like we can't shut down the factory we can't lose these 80 jobs and so there's all these extra tanks and they just put them in this graveyard out in utah there's a tank graveyard yeah they all got all this great ridiculous amount of money so then we end the piece with you like a used well you like a used car salesman trying to sell tanks

Don't I get... And you get in a tank and you start crushing. You go like, you got to get a tank. It's like the best. And then you crush like toys and stuff. They had me crush two Saturns.

Oh wait, you crushed cars. That's right. I crushed cars driving a tank. That's right. This job was so amazing. They bought some beat up old used cars and you crushed them. But there was a lady. Tanks, tanks, tanks. This place has a woman, like they have these attractive women in a bikini that was like, is supposed to like rub your shoulders while you drive the tank. I don't know who wants this. I don't remember that. No, she didn't make the piece, but that's what this place was.

Yeah. It was like chicks in, you ever see in Vegas? Where was it? Like North Carolinas? Like a chick with an automatic rifle. It was in the Carolinas? Where was it? It was in Minneapolis. Oh. At like an hour and a half outside of Minneapolis. I think it was like Kasota, Minnesota or something like that. Yeah. All right. So I guess we're running out of time here, Al. Yeah, I got to go rehearse. Yeah. Great seeing you. And you are doing-

You're now on Lopez vs. Lopez. Yeah, I'm on George Lopez's sitcom, which is the best gig ever. I play his daughter, Mayan, and I play a stoner on a multicam, which is the best gig ever. And I also write, so I have a CBS overall deal, so I write TV shows and develop stuff for CBS.

And then I'm back out on the road doing stand-up. So please come out and see me do some stand-up comedy. I think I have a bunch of dates. Austin, Chicago, Chicago.

Milwaukee, Madison. I should put things on a website. You're going to be the only people who know, so please come out and see me do stand-up. It'll be fun. Glad to have you back in the building. Love being back in the building. Yeah. Need to come more often. Sure, anytime. If only Latinos were in the news.

Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount+. Paramount Podcasts.

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Hey everybody, it's your favorite plate cousin Junior from the Steve Harvey Morning Show. You know, the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma are designed to outlast and outlive, backed by Toyota's legendary reputation for reliability. So get in a Tundra with available i-Force Max Hybrid engine, delivering exceptional torque and towing capacity. Or check out a Tacoma,

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