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Andy Richter is professionally nice.
So whatisit like to work withSarah Thyre?
Well, most of the work we do together is off-screen and remains off-screen.
What is this, 2018?
So well be coming up on 24 years in March.
And staying married that long is not easy.
But its pretty great.
It makes for a wonderful sense of continuity, certainly one that Sarah and I never enjoyed.
My folks divorced when I was four, and hers divorced when she was pretty young.
So just to have given kids a continuity this long, just in terms of holding a marriage together.
Its the real foundation of my life.
Its sort of the only thing that really matters.
Most every other thing that I do, career-wise or showbiz-wise, its my job.
If I won the lottery, Id have a hard time keeping doing my job.
If I had money and the ability to hang out with these people, thats what Id probably do.
Speaking of your job, youve been on a nightly or near-nightly show for off-and-on 20 years now.
Good, long stretches of being on television every night.
You cant be too precious about any of the details.
Were laying tracks for a train that is moving.
You just gotta get it down and get it out.
Its almost a zen lesson of Just do it, dont think it, dont worry about it.
Just live it and breathe it and do it and make it happen.
But the reason these shows exist is not because everyone said Hey lets create a laboratory of spontaneity!
Theres just too much going on, they cant keep track of everything.
They found these very lifelike, weird, rubber dog puppets of different breeds, like hand puppets.
Here, check this out.
And wed use one of those puppets, wed show him riding a bicycle.
Wed build a cheesy little prop.
Not something thats going on your reel so that you could someday become Woody Allen.
This is just something stupid, and we put it on TV.
And thecharacter of Triumphjust came out of that.
Now Triumph is…Eminem rapped about Triumph, for Christs sake.
That was all just out of stupid expedience.
Just like, Ah, look, a stupid puppet!
Lets put it on that TV show where no one tells us what to do.
Most of your work is in the least-mediated part of entertainment.
Do you prefer one of those?
No, those two I like the most.
What I ultimately like doing is making things.
The roar of a crowd, it never mattered that much to me.
It was there even from my baby years on stage, doing improv in Chicago.
You get all you want.
Working for a live audience has never mattered that much to me.
I really responded to that.
I responded to different faces and different places and it always changing.
Its whatever the project is.
I like working on things that Im going to like.
I like the project.
I liked shooting the series that I starred in.
I liked doing those.
But I just like making good, funny work that I can be proud of.
That isnt to say Im above anything.
If youve got a reverse mortgage commercial for me, Ill take it.
Youve got Sketchfest coming up.
Yes, Im just realizing today that Im leaving tomorrow.
What do you have going on there?
I am doing things just with people that I like.
Im doing a show with Jesse Thorn.
Hes got his own podcast empire.
Im doing a show with Jimmy Pardo, and Im doing a show calledStinker Lets Loose.Mike Sackswrote a book.
[whispers] But it didnt really happen.
So its a movie novelization of a very particular thing.
And theres an audiobook of it, and were going to do a live reading.
And it comes out, and its really funny.
Everything is so spread out.
It doesnt all have to be about superheroes.
There are lots of pots on the stove right now, bubbling away.
And then you get lots of talented people who are into that process who go This sounds fun!
This isnt a superhero movie.
Does this fragmentation of the market make you want to get back into developing stuff?
Yes, yes it does.
As Ive grown older, I like to do projects that I really care about.
I had these ambitions.
If I could just play the bumbling security guard in juggernaut action movies, that would be crazy success.
Tom Arnold was inTrue Lies,and wheres Tom Arnold now?
Its not a sustainable plan to be not the action star of a bunch of giant action movies.
So as Ive gotten older, Ive just wanted to do stuff I like.
Stuff Im proud of.
I want people to see it, but it doesnt have to be gigantic.
So that part does kind of stink.
In some ways, the lessening of money in TV comedies is a natural correction.
That was ridiculous, and that all fell apart.
Well its like you were saying, with more money comes more unfunny unfunny hands touching everything.
There are lots of complicating factors that come into it.
Theyre like Sounds good, just dont spend too much money too fast.
