Subscribe to Lemonada Premium for Bonus Content

At the beginning of the pandemic, when wildfire ash was falling on actor Busy Philipps’ face, she and her family made the unlikely decision to move to New York City. The choice paid off in the form of a phone call from Tina Fey asking her to audition for a new TV show, Girls5eva. Now in its third season, Sam asks Busy about the choices she’s made since then, including a divorce sale, a large donation to support abortion access, and a new late night talk show.

Follow Busy Philipps @busyphilipps on Instagram.

Keep up with Samantha Bee @realsambee on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). And stay up to date with us @LemonadaMedia on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.

Transcript

SPEAKERS

Busy Philipps, Samantha Bee

Samantha Bee  00:00

Time is, as they say, fleeting, which means we’re almost through Women’s History Month, don’t worry, fellas, your time is coming. One day you will be honored as well. But while we’re still here, I have to have to give a very special Women’s History Month shout out to a guy, kind of at least the Biden administration, because this month, the President signed an executive order expanding research on women’s health. As we all know that women’s bodies and health have been under studied for millennia, or forever, all through recorded history. And not all our pain can be cured with half a Tylenol and a hot water bottle. I mean, most can be but not all. But here’s the thing, I have some real choice words for the jolts who have stood in the way of equality and necessitated that this needed to be an executive action within our people. This should be studied as such, because the truth is, our bodies are all different. Pain and disease manifests in different ways in my body than in my husband’s body. But just because it might look different doesn’t mean it’s not real. And too many women have gone untreated while their pain has been dismissed, whether in childbirth, menopause, or just in the every day in a mystery ways. This executive order is not going to solve everything, but it will get the ball rolling on research that might solve it all in the future. Plus, there’s a very good chance that it was the first presidential executive order that included the word menopause. And this peri menopausal check thinks that’s pretty cool.

 

Samantha Bee  02:02

This is Choice WordsI’m Samantha Bee. My guest today is my pal busy Phillips you know and love Busy from Freaks and Geeks, Cougar Town and Girls5Eva, which is now back with a new season. And her new Late Night Show, Busy this week premieres in May. Busy is the perfect person to wrap up Women’s History Month with she is independent. She is funny and she makes big, bold decisions. So take a listen and make good choices.

 

Busy Philipps  02:44

Hey.

 

Samantha Bee  02:45

How are you?

 

Busy Philipps  02:47

I’m okay, I’m in LA and I’m your hotel.

 

Samantha Bee  02:51

Oh, hotel life is deluxe.

 

Busy Philipps  02:55

Weird, weird.

 

Samantha Bee  02:57

It’s weird, do you have rituals that you do in hotels where you’re like, I have the same thing for breakfast every day? Or is it just like just throwing she had at the wall?

 

Busy Philipps  03:06

Well, kind of that but also I have the affliction that I’ve never stayed in the same room, ever. The first room that I’ve that I’m given I have to I like it’s not like I really every time I have, I’m like this times gonna be different. Every time and every time I get to the room that they give me and I’m like, no, this isn’t it, I can’t stay here. I’m so sorry. I’m gonna need to see another.

 

Samantha Bee  03:36

This was my practice. This is my practice room.

 

Busy Philipps  03:39

I sweated like is at this point, it feels pathological like, I feel like I gotta do something about it but also, I don’t know. I mean, I can’t be miserable, it’s okay.

 

Samantha Bee  03:52

It’s totally okay, and I like never because I grew up staying it, okay, first of all, the hotel chain that we stayed at when I was growing up was called the Vagabond […]. And they were like, all over.

 

Busy Philipps  04:03

Yeah.

 

Samantha Bee  04:04

Right.

 

Busy Philipps  04:05

Okay, I’ve seen them before, yes.

 

Samantha Bee  04:07

With like a man in like an it’s just like an old like an old timey cartoon, with a Ben doll. And he has like a red nose, and he’s laying and he’s laying in the streets. And that’s his motel, that’s where he stays so we stayed there. So I my pathology is that I’m like, I respect this hotel room and I’ll stay in it. No matter goddamn want and also clean it. But you know what? Okay, this is actually it’s so funny to open our conversation with us because it is like because the whole podcast is about choices that we make. And we’ve opened with a hard choice and a decisive decision.

 

Busy Philipps  04:50

Yes.

 

Samantha Bee  04:50

I’ve heard you say how much you like to make decisions.

 

Busy Philipps  04:54

Oh, I love making decisions, yeah.

 

Samantha Bee  04:55

You will love it.

 

Busy Philipps  04:56

Yeah.

 

Samantha Bee  04:57

What is your process? How do you make them, or you just like, are you like, I feel like you are authoritative. You step into the light.

 

Busy Philipps  05:07

It’s interesting, I talk about this in therapy a lot, because I think there are certain buckets of life that I am so decisive and friend, yes, and I can, I can access my immediate, like knowing is clear, you know. And then there are certain other areas in my life and most of it is like, relational with people, where I really can question myself and my decisions and I like have a tendency to not be able to know as definitively or, and it didn’t bugs me, because I know that I have this ability and all my other in so many other ways. So I’m like, why do I? Why do I continue a relationship with this person when they have shown that they’re not? Great for me or nice to me? What is that? When I you know, I don’t know. I feel like this should be the decision in this in this interaction with a even like business, in business with people that I work with sometimes where I’m like, I feel like this should be the decision. But what if I’m wrong? Maybe I should give them another chance.

 

Samantha Bee  06:25

Right, that’s so interesting, well, who do you know? Like, do you have people who you turn to when you’re, when you’re like, do you sometimes know that you’re making the rock that you’re like, oh, this is not good, and everything in my body is telling me that this is not good. But I refuse to listen to it. And it’s just going to extend this process. But we do know where it’s going.

 

Busy Philipps  06:50

Yeah, normally, it’s after the fact, right? like, so I was to kind of see, you know, speaking of like, relationships, I was kind of seeing this guy who lives in LA and, but he was just not, he wasn’t great, and it’s not it’s not right. And it’s not the right fit, and I’m not, and I’m not a person who’s like, I wish I could be seen. I wish I could be like, casual. I’m just here, I can just see you right now and then not ever see you and it doesn’t matter.

 

Samantha Bee  07:22

That’s where I’m not even into it that much.

 

Busy Philipps  07:25

Yeah, I’m just not that girl. I’m real, I’ve never been that person I’m just not. I get super invested in people and, and continue relationships, like sometimes, like I said, like, long after they’ve ran their course or whatever. But yeah, but I had this. I like that guy was in my dream last night and so then I was like, maybe that means I should just like, check it while I’m here, and I ran it by my friend and they were like, no, absolutely not. No, you’re not doing that, I’m sorry, and I was like, oh, okay.

 

Samantha Bee  07:58

You can never tell them that they were in your dream too, because they will interpret it’s like, to me like having someone to your dream can be like when you get the tarot card and the tarot card is like murder. And you’re like, wow. Oh, no, it doesn’t just means like a new chapter, right?

 

Busy Philipps  08:15

No, and sometimes it just means death, let it die.

 

Samantha Bee  08:18

Let it die, let it wither.

 

Busy Philipps  08:20

I know but I was glad that I called my friend first. That was for I made the day before I texted and regretted.

 

Samantha Bee  08:29

That’s good, you text. You have good friend relationships give you hard advice. You give you the like the difficult advice, and you take it and you listen sometimes.

 

Busy Philipps  08:42

I mean sometimes.

 

Samantha Bee  08:43

Okay, okay.

 

Busy Philipps  08:44

And I think it’s but I do also think it’s like I’m getting better at that for myself, too. It’s just a process, right? Yeah.

 

Samantha Bee  08:51

Is it getting better as you as you get older? Like it’s just maturity or you’re just bringing a fresh just evolution?

 

Busy Philipps  09:00

Yeah, I think like yeah, like therapy and like working through your stuff and like getting on the other side of some of the things and then you realize like, why you are why that is a complicated thing for me, you know, like people pleasing can trace back to your family of origin or whatever you know, and once you’re more aware of those things, making those choices does become easier.

 

Samantha Bee  09:28

How do you slough off being a people pleaser? How teach me getting better at it, but it is hard. That’s one of the that’s one of the hardest things to just like, say no to things and live in your true feelings. And I know not care how it’s received.

 

Busy Philipps  09:51

Have you ever done any of this like somatic work? No people are so into now.

 

Samantha Bee  09:57

I don’t even know. I don’t think I know what that is, what is that?

 

Busy Philipps  10:00

Somatic Work is like body, like getting into your body. You know, like the body keeps the score or whatever. So it’s like, helpful, I have been doing like a little bit of this like somatic stuff recently with this woman in Brooklyn. And it’s so hard for me to identify, like, where in my body, like, like, even to, like, sometimes she’s like, what does it feel like right now in your body? And I’m like, right? I don’t know. Does it feel like in my mind, what should it feel like in my body? I might not inside.

 

Samantha Bee  10:38

I am not inside my body.

 

Busy Philipps  10:41

Yes, and like, so you’ll be talking about a thing or whatever. And then she’s like, where are you feeling that? And then you kind of like, have to, like, identify it and then put words to it. Breathe into a, it’s complicated, because but part of it is helping you to identify, like, what it is that you actually need, and what it is that you want.

 

Samantha Bee  11:08

Right, is it like the type of work where she’s like, okay, so you’re just gonna, like, loosen your body, and we’re going to talk about this thing. And then you’re talking about the thing. And then she’s like, oh, I just noticed that your left butt cheek is so clenched, and just on that side, and just in that spot, and you’re like.

 

Busy Philipps  11:26

No, I don’t know, there’s no, it’s not, there’s no, there’s no, she doesn’t really, she doesn’t touch me. More like, there’s like, grounding, like your feet on the ground, and then breathing. And then, and then there’s some talking. And then like, if there’s any emotions that come up, just from literally from breathing, it’s weird, it’s kind of cool. But I understand and part of why I was interested in it is exactly this thing of like, when you’re a people pleaser, part of the issue, I think, is identifying for yourself, what actually you do want because sometimes what you do want is to do the thing. Because if you know, it would mean so much to somebody else that you love.

 

Samantha Bee  12:16

Right.

 

Busy Philipps  12:17

And that’s okay too like, that’s valid, you know, even if it isn’t kind of what you want to do, but you have to be able to, like be in full awareness of, uh, so that you don’t end up holding on to resentment or feeling like, I’m always doing things for other people that they would never do for me.

 

Samantha Bee  12:37

Do you feel like this is so random that I’m going to ask this, but I think it’s like, kind of like a baby a little generational. Like, I feel like I’ve taught my children to be such non people pleasers, that they have actually lost the ability to do something that is pleasing for someone else. Just because they love that person. Like they’ve kind of they’re disconnected from the idea of like, sacrificing, anything to make someone else just like feel great or like to not not I don’t mean to, I don’t mean to characterize them that way, but they’re like, why would I know that? Like, why would I go to this dinner party? I don’t I really don’t know anybody there, why would I go? And I’m like, what? Because that’s what you do? Because sometimes you just go to a different party, right? Sometimes you just have to you just have to, and they’re like, yeah, but why? I’m like, look, no, you just have to get in the car, sure.

 

Busy Philipps  13:36

I mean, that’s weird. I don’t know, I actually think that’s interesting. I think that one of my children has more of a tendency to do something that she doesn’t want to do, because someone else really wants her to do it. She’s, she’s more, she’s more she’s sort of more empathetic in that in that way, now, they’re both they both have empathy, but they’re not something amazing. So I would say no.

 

Samantha Bee  14:10

No, to be clear to be clear.

 

Busy Philipps  14:13

No, but I have one child who’s just like a little bit more sensitive to others. And their and like their feelings. In terms of like her participation during our funeral. I mean, like my my older daughter is so sensitive, that sometimes I really relate to it, sometimes I see her shut it off, because it’s just too overwhelming.

 

Samantha Bee  14:39

We’ll be right back with Busy Phillips after this.

 

Samantha Bee  15:01

If you look back at the spectrum of your life, is there a choice that you’ve made that you think like impacted you so when you think whether it was like a big one or a little decision, something that you that still like, reverberates through your life, even today.

 

Busy Philipps  15:16

I mean, ever every decision I’ve ever made. Every everything, just everything I need in recent years, obviously, the decision to go to New York for three for what I thought what we thought was three weeks, in September 2020 changed my end, what I was expecting my life to be moving forward. Also in a moment in time where I think no one knew what to expect.

 

Busy Philipps  15:16

No one.

 

Busy Philipps  15:18

But that was a that was a wild choice.

 

Samantha Bee  15:53

Why did you decide you? Why did you make that decision?

 

Busy Philipps  15:58

I can tell a little bit of it, I just like it, there’s part of it that’s like a little, a little bit strange. But basically, after that first lockdown, and the summer and the our house was like, which we loved our house. But I was just feeling like I couldn’t stay there, like I needed to, I needed to get out of that house. It I was feeling like, I don’t even know, it’s it’s hard to even like put my brain back in that place, yeah you know? But what we thought we were gonna do. And what we were looking to do was just rent a house in a different place for like, a couple weeks. And we tried to rent two houses in Malibu. And our dog was a puppy, and it was rejected. The both of our both of our things were rejected, even though she had gone to like full training puppy school. And so our plan was like, we’re gonna just rent a house somewhere else for a few weeks, we kept getting rejected everywhere. We tried in Los Angeles, and then Mark, who’s now my ex husband, but was my husband at the time, found this rental in New York, in Soho. There was like, gorgeous, that would take the dog that was less expensive than the Malibu rentals we were looking for, because it covers 2020, not a ton of people were looking to come to New York.

 

Samantha Bee  17:27

Right, there was an opposite migration going.

 

Busy Philipps  17:30

But if you remember, checking those numbers, the numbers were down in New York. And Mark was like, why don’t we just do that? And I was like, that seems insane and he’s like, I don’t know. Is any of this like, what is real? Like, what is a of this? And then those horrible wildfires of that year that summer has started, literally, like, we had the conversation. Actually, I said to him, send an email to the person and see if Gina can come my dog. I’m like, send an email to the person and see if Gena’s allowed. And then I woke up the next morning and took Baby Gina out to pee. And Ash was like falling on my face, and then he was like, she said that we could bring the dog and I was like, great let’s go and we were on a point in like.

 

Samantha Bee  18:31

Wow, that night? Wow.

 

Busy Philipps  18:34

Which was nerve wracking in and of itself, but like, but was okay. And got to New York. And then it was beautiful. Yeah, people were, the numbers were down. People were eating outside. And it felt okay like we were, you know, we were masking and we felt safe, and then week, two of our, I think it was maybe it was three or four weeks, we’d rented this house week to Tina Fey called me and said, why are you in New York? And I was like, Tina, I don’t know. It’s a long story. I kind of lost my mind. And she’s like, oh, do you want to stay? Because I know that sounds crazy but we’re doing a show for peacock and ah, and Marina Scardino? You know, Meredith strip from Kimmy. Do you remember her? It was like yeah, of course. Meredith wrote this show it’s like about a girl group and Sarah Allison, Renee Elise Goldsberry are going to do it, and there’s this part we want you for do you? Do you think you’d you guys would just stay and you could do it? And I was like yes. Yeah, of course.

 

Samantha Bee  19:37

Yeah.

 

Busy Philipps  19:38

100%.

 

Samantha Bee  19:38

That sounds great.

 

Busy Philipps  19:39

And she told me, they weren’t going to offer it to me because of the pandemic and I lived in Los Angeles.

 

Samantha Bee  19:48

Get the hell out of here.

 

Busy Philipps  19:50

No, like she was she was very clear. She was like they were auditioning people and testing people in New York for the part.

 

Samantha Bee  19:59

Wow.

 

Busy Philipps  20:00

And then she saw on Instagram that I was in New York and was like, wait, wait, wait, wait busy in New York. Why are you in New York?

 

Samantha Bee  20:07

That’s incredible.

 

Busy Philipps  20:09

I wouldn’t have gotten the part. I mean, I wouldn’t have been offered the job.

 

Samantha Bee  20:13

Yeah, you wouldn’t have even known about it. No one would have asked, they would have not said, would you come here? They were just like, forget that.

 

Busy Philipps  20:19

No, because it was, again, the middle of the pandemic. And she Tina is a reasonable person, who, by the way, never wants to leave New York. You know, and so she always assumes people feel the same about wherever they are.

 

Samantha Bee  20:34

You’re like, ashes are on my face? I’m just I don’t, I cannot. Oh, my.

 

Busy Philipps  20:39

Yes, and so she literally was like, yeah, no, I, I we were in the process of casting. And I saw on Instagram that you were in New York and said to Meredith wait, we wait. Busy is here. Yeah, I don’t know why should we find out?

 

Samantha Bee  20:56

That’s awesome. That’s a great story.

 

Busy Philipps  20:59

Well, is real, it was a real choice.

 

Samantha Bee  21:01

Kudos to Tina for scrolling through Instagram, and just finding a way to make that totally work. Finding just all those pieces together. Just in that moment, you mentioned that little free song that she got on her tummy where she was like, she’s here wait, what? Oh, no, reach out, that’s exciting.

 

Busy Philipps  21:21

I know.

 

Samantha Bee  21:24

Okay, can I ask you about your divorce sale? I think that’s such a good idea. Yeah, and so okay.

 

Busy Philipps  21:29

It was kind of great.

 

Samantha Bee  21:31

Yes, so you had a divorce sale where you and your ex sold a lot of your collective items.

 

Busy Philipps  21:38

Yes.

 

Samantha Bee  21:39

And then have you donated some of the proceeds to abortion funds. How did you decide to do?

 

Busy Philipps  21:43

$1,000.

 

Samantha Bee  21:44

Are you serious? That’s awesome.

 

Busy Philipps  21:46

Yeah, to the national network of abortion funds.

 

Samantha Bee  21:49

That’s awesome. How do you decide what you’re gonna sell?

 

Busy Philipps  21:52

Was interesting, because we accidentally moved to New York, as I said, and then sort of accidentally got divorced. No, I mean, we, that’s not, it’s not fair. But we separated in the last few years, or yeah, after we moved to New York. Um, a lot of our stuff from LA went into storage, immediately, like, just there’s talk about downsizing. I mean, there’s, it’s like, I don’t even know what to say. I mean, it’s we went from a house that was very large, with lots of room, rooms and furniture that was big. And I didn’t even realize that our furniture was big. Until I moved into we moved some stuff into this, like, into the townhouse that we have that our kids live in that we like, sort of share and go back and forth. And we’re like, oh, this furniture doesn’t fit in here. It’s too big.

 

Samantha Bee  22:51

Wow, right. Like all those big wood slabs, like, oh, this.

 

Busy Philipps  22:57

Yeah, you have like big giant rooms in LA. Anyway, so we had a lot of our stuff went kind of directly into storage, and I met this woman, Liz Wolfe, who runs Kara Thrift. Do you ever go to Kara thrift?

 

Samantha Bee  23:13

No, I go to Las Vegas, but wait, I gotta do that.

 

Busy Philipps  23:17

She’s amazing, and she’s very, her stuff is like super curated and she stopped incredible taste. But she started at all of her, all of her proceeds that Kara Thrift go to research for type one diabetes.

 

Samantha Bee  23:32

Ah, amazing.

 

Busy Philipps  23:34

She’s incredible. And also, her husband is my gastroenterologist and did my colonoscopy.

 

Samantha Bee  23:42

This is worlds. This is a full circle.

 

Busy Philipps  23:45

So circle. It’s a full and it’s yeah, it’s a full service for there. But I met Liz, like we I followed her online and then an Amy Sedaris had done some sales with her, like some pop up sales with her. And, and then I had a photoshoot in December that the photographer was friends with her and we used like, her apartment for the photoshoot. And she was there. And she and I started talking and I was like, Oh, I’ve been meaning to talk to you because I have all this stuff in storage. And she’s like, Oh, I just rented the space next to my store. And it’s just an empty space. And I’ve been what I’ve had been talking to Amy about like doing some pop ups there. I want to do some pop ups there with people. And I was like we’ll do it with us. And then so Mark and I have like most of our storage unit brought to her space. And then but then we were like opening boxes that we haven’t looked at or opened since 2020, and going through things and, and yeah, like going through like our life together. But it was kind of it was really cathartic. Like we didn’t, we weren’t initially calling it the like our divorce garage sale, but it quickly became known as that’s what we were doing.

 

Samantha Bee  25:19

Right.

 

Busy Philipps  25:22

You know, and then I was like, well, let’s just lean into the marketing on it because you know, people are into it. But also it was really, it ended up being really beautiful in a way because we were looking at these things that made up this life that we had had together for 15 years, you know, and we were able to kind of like, reminisce, be a little sad sometimes laugh, like, some of the stuff was like, really funny remembering things. And then also just, like, let it move on, like, those things become somebody else’s future.

 

Samantha Bee  26:05

This is, this is probably the wrong word. But it’s making me it feels really like wholesome to me. It’s like, oh, like, it’s like, like a wholesome biscuit. I’m like, no, but it’s like, you have a chance to like, rates are reflecting. And it’s also moving stuff through your life, which is benefits beneficial to the recipients of the abortion funds, who really need it, it’s beneficial to the people who are going to use these items and care for them. It’s actually like, feels like a really wholesome kind of, like, weird loving way to kind of end something.

 

Busy Philipps  26:41

Yeah, it felt good. I’m like, I don’t know, if, you know, I think that that sort of distance, the time, you know, the amount of time in between, when we sort of split up and when we did this sale, definitely helped us in terms of making it not the sad situation, you know, because we, it’s not like Mark and I have a very, I guess I would say like a progressive type divorce. You know, we’re like, very close, we’re super committed to what we call like our business we run together, which is raising our children and our, and loving them the most, and also committed to our friendship and our relationship. But we also went through a period of time where we’re like, dealing with the disillusion of like, one part of our relationship that was complicated and painful at times and like, emotional. But we were able to get through it, both of us and, you know, I look, it was nice, it was nice. I’m gonna say it. It was nice.

 

Samantha Bee  27:56

I like it, I’m just saying I’m not saying the whole enchilada is nice, t’s not, it’s not like the you know.

 

Busy Philipps  28:00

Not ideal.

 

Samantha Bee  28:04

Not ideal.

 

Busy Philipps  28:05

I’m gonna say I’m gonna say it’s not ideal.

 

Samantha Bee  28:07

But you’re making a delicious, wholesome other snack out of it, like making something out of it making something out of What could have ended up being pain bitter and painful forever. It’s nice to seek.

 

Busy Philipps  28:23

That’s what we’re like all tasked with. That’s what you’re doing with this podcast, post your show.

 

Samantha Bee  28:29

Yes.

 

Busy Philipps  28:29

We’re all in this constant state of like being asked to kind of, move through these things and see what we can like. Take out of it, forward, right?

 

Samantha Bee  28:42

There’s more with busy Phillips in just a moment.

 

Samantha Bee  29:02

I was excited to learn the you’re going back still. You’re going back to late night. Come on. That’s cool.

 

Busy Philipps  29:11

Listen.

 

Samantha Bee  29:12

Why the fuck.

 

Busy Philipps  29:14

Yeah, I don’t know somebody who is bus like, I don’t know. You know, you figure it out like I.

 

Samantha Bee  29:22

Okay, let me tell the listeners you tell show is called Busy This Week.

 

Busy Philipps  29:27

Yes.

 

Samantha Bee  29:28

Okay, it’s your second late night show. I feel okay, so tell me about tell us about it. I’m excited because like, double dipping in that world is cool to me.

 

Busy Philipps  29:40

Thank you. Well, it’ll be available on QVC plus.

 

Samantha Bee  29:43

In May?

 

Busy Philipps  29:44

May, yeah so soon.

 

Samantha Bee  29:47

I know, oh, my God.

 

Busy Philipps  29:48

We’ve been working on this. I mean, we’ve been working on this a long time. And, you know, essentially, it’s like that, you know, it’s like the saying there’s no seats at any tables. All right, I’m gonna go to a different cafeteria.

 

Samantha Bee  30:02

Filter on table get in a different cafeteria. Like, okay,

 

Busy Philipps  30:07

This industry is so interesting, and like you I’ve been doing this a really long, long time. And I think one thing that’s been evident to me is that change is super slow. But the money is pretty consistently from one place. And that’s products. And true, yeah, I’m sorry it’s just it.

 

Samantha Bee  30:31

It is.

 

Busy Philipps  30:32

Yeah, and so you know, I had this opportunity. I’ve had so many great experiences working with different brands. And after my first late night show Busy Tonight was canceled. Can you see St. Onge, she was my producing partner and I we do our podcast together? You were lovely to be a guest on.

 

Samantha Bee  30:56

So much fun. It was really fun.

 

Busy Philipps  31:00

I sort of was like, Casey, why don’t we just go directly to brands and see if we can just get them to fund this show, we had gotten a bunch of information after our show was canceled, that that one of the ad sales people at Universal probably shouldn’t have divulged. Which was just about like how how our ad sales, how successful our ad sales were for them, and how they had gotten some pretty big buyers ad buys specific to us and specific to that show. And, and I’ve worked with brands for years, and so, you know, I was like, let’s just put this together. Let’s just go to rent, let’s cut out the middleman. Let’s just go directly to the brands and then we’ll we’ll figure out where it’s gonna live. Like maybe we can find a partner and it can live. So we were talking with Vox V. Vox media for a minute. This is like 2019 in early 2020. And we were sort of like building out what this could look like. And I have been working with a couple of P&G brands. And so we were gonna go to P&G. And then literally the, like, legit. The meeting was supposed to be March 18 2020, or something like that was like, God, yeah. So everything’s sort of like fell apart. Casey and I pivoted and started doing our podcast about pivots. Because we didn’t know what else to do. And we put it on the shelf, not deep in the shelf. But we were just like, confident that if it found a way to be resurrected, and in, we would be able to do it. And so last year QVC came to me, and asked if I wanted to do like a like a holiday special for them. They had money to do original programming. They have a huge audience that crosses over with my audience. And they were all fans of busy tonight. And we’re just like, what, what would that look like to do as the course you know, like a holiday Christmas Eve special?

 

Samantha Bee  33:14

Try one out.

 

Busy Philipps  33:16

Let’s try. Casey and I worked with them and did the special and had a great time working with them? And I said to her I was like, do you think we can talk them into doing a late night show? And she’s like, I think we can try? I was like I do too.

 

Samantha Bee  33:27

Oh, my God, I love it so much.

 

Busy Philipps  33:30

Yeah me too, and I’m and I have to say like working with them has been amazing, I am a fan of QVC well, I love buying things. I love selling things, I love buying things.

 

Samantha Bee  33:40

Oh yeah so yes. Oh, I’d love to buy things sold.

 

Busy Philipps  33:43

Very decisive and my buying I rarely have buyer’s remorse, rarely. But yeah, so we’ve been working on this for a long time, and they have been great. And we’ve been putting it together and we’re going to start off with yeah, we’re going to do it once a week and starts May 8, and we’re gonna have guests and people are like, are you going to be like selling things like on QVC and that’s not exact no, we’re not no gonna be. But you know, we also did say to them I love the idea that like everything you see could you could buy like if you like that, why now?

 

Samantha Bee  34:21

Why not? Like I feel like everybody is like, oh shop the shop the show. Like how do you do, that’s fun. It’s like a little slow little adventure. There’s nothing I like more than like comparisons that like of renovations. They’re like this is the expensive renovation, this is the cheap renovation, can you tell the difference?

 

Busy Philipps  34:42

I go down the rabbit holes on the Instagrams and tiktoks of the girls that do the outfits the like the real or the splurge Splurge […].

 

Samantha Bee  34:53

Yeah, whatever it is, I love that. Yes, that’s right. I love that stuff […] you know what’s exciting, it is exciting to talk about like to talk to somebody who’s like, I understand this business. And I understand that it is a business. There’s, you know, in the business of the business, you can make art.

 

Busy Philipps  35:15

Sure.

 

Samantha Bee  35:16

Definitely can make art, but it’s always a business first.

 

Busy Philipps  35:21

This know that, like, your art is being commodified, and someone else is making way more fucking money off of your art than you are a genuine church person most of the time, unless you’re Adam Sandler at this point.

 

Samantha Bee  35:36

Of course.

 

Busy Philipps  35:37

And it’s like him.

 

Samantha Bee  35:38

And it’s just him just like, right to the top, just one guy. But it’s like, so refreshing because like, our business is so much about the choices that other people make, like somebody’s choosing you like somebody, like having a panel and going like, are you is this the right person, let’s vote on like, let’s vote on it in a boardroom and decide if you’re so having a very you and Casey is incredible, obviously, just the goddamn best, the two of you like just driving, driving the car just being like, where we’re gonna go, we’re choosing, we’re gonna decide.

 

Busy Philipps  36:14

But maybe that’s also that has to do with age too, you know?

 

Samantha Bee  36:19

Sure. I mean, wisdom or experience to experience.

 

Busy Philipps  36:24

And being real, like being very realistic about what it is and like, and that and the thing, I’m constantly trying to remind myself, which is just the secret of life, you have to be able to hold all of the things both, you know, you have to have both, like, you have to understand that you can make a thing that is subversive, and interesting and has a point of view and says things, and you have to also understand that there will be like, you might have to sell some stuff to do that, you know, maybe you do probably you do.

 

Samantha Bee  37:07

You do you probably do. Like definitely do. I feel like there’s like a couple of different, there’s like a couple of different criteria for why something can exist, other people can see. And the main thing is like, because it sells lots of stuff. And it brings the right demographics to your project that totally Mercedes Benz wants to sell cars off of, or whatever, or it can just be so culturally relevant, that it gets like a steam that it brings, like it brings a golden shine onto the.

 

Busy Philipps  37:44

That’s rare, very rare.

 

Samantha Bee  37:47

That’s never happened. Or just like social media stuff. Like it gets, it’s like noise it like breaks through. Because it’s like, it’s like so it’s so wild. That everyone’s just like responding online. And that brings more attention to their whatever. Whatever it is they’re trying to solve was about that. So I agree with you, you have to like when we were in a conventional, more conventional television space, like a more established more conventional talent. You’re always like, well, we can’t offend […] today.

 

Busy Philipps  38:23

Right.

 

Samantha Bee  38:23

So let’s take out the, take out the PF Changs reference, please.

 

Busy Philipps  38:28

I would never offend them, that’s my favorite, I love those.

 

Samantha Bee  38:31

Never felt I would never say anything. I just chose them. I wanted to say Taco Bell, because we wrote so many Taco Bell jokes and they were like, You can’t do that, those core data’s pay your bills […] Don’t you dare.

 

Busy Philipps  38:45

That realization that […] pay your bills is something you know. And I feel like I had that realization legitimately when I was 20 years old on Freaks and Geeks and they were like, the show’s not gonna continue because you know, talk, we don’t have the ad sales ad buys from Taco Bell, basically.

 

Samantha Bee  39:05

Yeah, White Castle is not doing it, okay.

 

Busy Philipps  39:08

Then you guys don’t have the numbers, we’re not getting the thing. So you’re done, a show that anyone’s ever seen.

 

Samantha Bee  39:18

We don’t give a shit, we’re cutting it loose. We can’t, can’t squeeze any more juice out of this orange, okay, so you’re all fired, go home.

 

Busy Philipps  39:27

Yeah, bye.

 

Samantha Bee  39:28

Go back to bed, bye. Can we wait a minute scattered to the wind for your art? Why don’t ya?

 

Busy Philipps  39:35

The other thing that I think is true, too, now Sam is just like, nobody knows where anything is or what anything is on or how anything is made. I don’t even ever I’m not like, I want to watch that documentary about Nickelodeon. I couldn’t tell you what network I’ll find it but like, I don’t know who’s doing it, you know what I mean?

 

Busy Philipps  39:55

Yeah, we don’t need to you don’t even like we can tell now. That is that is the benefit of this like, oh yeah, current glut of content.

 

Samantha Bee  39:55

Yeah, 100%, there’s so many I have a long list of things in my phone that are like these are things that like to watch. I’ll find them somewhere, sure.

 

Samantha Bee  40:15

Gone are the days of like three stop shopping like your three majors where you’re like sitting down in front of a TV for my evening of love.

 

Busy Philipps  40:25

I do miss it. I miss having because I it’s just so rare that there are those like, shared cultural experiences now. And so then when that happens, it gets it’s very exciting.

 

Samantha Bee  40:39

It is I realized that in my social media. I’m never fed anything sports related ever, like, ever. Like the World Series happened. I was late, I didn’t know that.

 

Busy Philipps  40:53

What about like, I didn’t? When was the world’s […]

 

Samantha Bee  40:57

Well, I just it was something I noticed when the World Series happened which I have no idea when it was I just remember going like baseball. When do they and all my Canadian families like hockey playoffs? I’m like, what? Still in March? Are you sure?

 

Busy Philipps  41:15

That was like wild. I didn’t ever put that together until you just said that. Yeah, I don’t.

 

Samantha Bee  41:20

Not one thing. Like a no ball bounces through my view ever.

 

Busy Philipps  41:28

I’m not good about it.

 

Samantha Bee  41:29

I don’t care, I don’t want to cheer. It could be happening on a literal other planet. That would be fine with me. Listen, we’ve talked for I absolutely love talking to you. I’m so excited for all your stuff. That’s I’m excited for Girls5evah, I’m excited that you’re so busy that you’re doing a new show, I’m ready for it.

 

Busy Philipps  41:56

Thank you.

 

Samantha Bee  41:56

Thank you so much for saying yes to this.

 

Busy Philipps  41:59

I’m so happy I said yesterday, so I’m also just want to say I’m ready for your next talk show and I just feel like maybe we go directly to Taco Bell.

 

Samantha Bee  42:09

You know what? I’m doing all this heavy labor for them. And I hope that they really appreciate it.

 

Busy Philipps  42:21

I’m here for I’m not saying I’m saying it’s not I’m that might be the thing? I don’t know, we don’t know.

 

Samantha Bee  42:27

This is my these are my this is these are my people. All right, thank you so much.

 

Busy Philipps  42:31

Thanks, Sam.

 

Samantha Bee  42:43

That was Busy Phillips and I had no choice but to look up one thing. She mentioned that she has started practicing somatic therapy and I don’t really know what that is. Well, okay. It’s a mind body approach that explores how emotions and traumas are trapped and appear in the body, whether it’s muscle tension and pain or stiffness. So you know what? It’s okay to listen to women’s bodies. And as always, there’s more Choice Words on Lemonada premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content, like a special outtake from my recent interview from South by Southwest with Ilana Glazer, Pamela Adlon and Michelle Buteau. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts.

 

CREDITS 43:38

Thank you for listening to Choice Words which was created by and is hosted by me. We’re a production of Lemonada media. Catherine Barnes to be up here in Reinstein and Chrissy Pease produce our show. Our mix is by James Farber Steve Nelson is the vice president of weekly content. Jessica Cordova Kramer Stephanie littles wax and I are executive producers. Our theme was composed by sulla shaman with help from Johnny Vince Evans. You can find me at real Sambi on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Choice Words wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.