The History of Sketch Comedy A Journey through the Art and Craft of Humor

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Yes. And so we deep dive into that. It was very, very interesting. And Keegan and El have a very close creative relationship. It's a nice thing to see. And he's in Schmigadoon. Schmigadoon. Schmigadoon is still out there.

And in this book, he dresses like characters in the past. I think Charlie Chaplin all the way up, I think Wayne's World.

Yeah. He analyzed your Bye Bye Sketch, the flight attendant sketch. Oh, did he? Oh, yeah. He did. Yeah. We won't tell you what he said.

And on the cover of it, Keegan is doing all these eardresses, all these famous archetypal characters through the history. And there you are with Garth. So I was absolutely flattered though. Absolutely.

We did actually call Mike for permission. We didn't call you, sorry. But we did call Mike and I said, I want to do Wayne or Garth from Wayne's World because it's so iconic.

So people who just joined us, we're live. Elle and Keegan wrote a book about the history of sketch comedy and have a podcast.

It's not Garth's World. I'm the guy next to the guy, you know? So but that's very generous.

So basically, Chronicle is the publisher and they asked, they said, do you think you could get a couple of quotes from some people in sketch comedy?

Give a list. It's unbelievable. From Chris Rock, Mike Myers, David, of course. And then Cal Burnett, who I did call- Did you reach out to me and I blew you off? I don't remember being asked, but I would have done it.

No one can get near David Spade. I will never, even though I'm the second in command on the cover. Long before the cover.

So basically what I did is try to figure out, so there's, I kind of broke it down to 10 different sections, 10 chapters, and figure out what would make sense. So we did talk to Kevin Nealon and there are a bunch of, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

So there are some people that talk, like Kevin Nealon talks about Lorne Michaels. He also does talk a little bit about, you are, I mean, you are, he talks a little bit about Hans and Franz.

Hans and Franz is in the book. So I probably would try to figure out what subject in the book, and I would tell you what they are, that you had some kind of relationship to.

So for example, you said you love the stuff about the early television. Yeah. So then I would ask you about something that has to do with early television and then made a little sidebar in that chapter on your thoughts.

So then that podcast that you, the Audible series came about because when COVID started, I pitched my team and agents this idea of I'm going to write this book on sketch comedy, and I'm writing it as a kind of a love letter to Keegan and my love of comedy.

And I said, sure. And then I pitched Audible this idea that if Keegan Michael Key was teaching an NYU course on sketch comedy, and it was a 10-part class, it would be a very, very crowded class, and it would be a lot of fun.

And I wanted to continue that with the book, which is why when I designed the cover, I pitched Audible this idea of what if instead of Keegan performing, what if we dress Keegan up?

And as a matter of fact, Luza Kerrion helped me with all the hair and makeup who's on Saturday Night Live does the hair and makeup.

And then the original idea for the book cover was the evolution of man, like the Cro-Magnet. Yeah, yeah. The Erectus Erectus. The classic.

Yes. The substitute teacher is ahead. It's just only because of the time. Well, I did look up that 213 million views on YouTube, another tour de force as the substitute teacher on the Keegan Peele show.

What I loved about the book when you got into naming, OK, who was the linchpin for television? How did people adapt from vaudeville to radio? I was into all that section, which I found fascinating and how Milton Berle was kind of the first TV sketch comedy superstar.

I like all that stuff. It's really cool. I really liked the variety TV. I don't know how far you got into variety TV.

And then we started doing this deep dive of every single person we could find who was on a variety TV show. Amazing, right? Yeah, it was nuts. If you think about the fact that Howard Cosell had a variety show called The Howard Cosell Show.

And then it was Saturday Night Live, right? As well. I think it was.

Then it was called Saturday Night with Howard Cosell. Everyone had every musician, Glen Campbell. I mean, yeah, it's infinite, right? Everybody had one. Everybody had one. It was amazing, right? Yeah. And then sometimes they're on ice skates, right? Sometimes Donnie would be on ice.

It was, you know, when I was watching those, of course, I loved them growing up. And Captain and Tennille. It seems like if you have one hit song, you get 13 episodes of a variety show.

Of a TV show. Anything. Everyone, they just threw them out there. Johnny Cash had one. The Brady Bunch.

The Brady Bunch. Had a variety. More. That's right, with David Letterman and Michael Keaton. Yeah, they're very short-lived. We're in the cast.

So you had to apply interviewing him and then kind of get this narrative and look up Milton Burles and kind of expand.

And then Keegan would help me and then we'd figure out. It was a little bit of a challenge because the podcast and the book are different.

There's a lot of clips from the podcast that are kind of through line. But I also, for the book, was very fortunate enough that people like the brilliant David Spade gave me a few minutes of their time.