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I think I was just playing an old, old man.
I was doing something with my cane as the old guy you know, hilarious improv comedy.
And then my friend Dan White was like, Oh my God, hes crushing bird underneath his cane!
It was kind of funny at the time.
I was thinking, It would be funny if he were extremely old.
Whats a way he could do that and shout in this elevated language?
So at some point, he became an oil baron.
I did it like four or five times in Chicago and forgot about it.
And then when I heard Adam Driver was going to host …
This was my first episode ever, by the way.
Congratulations!Thank you.
I got hired like two weeks ago.
So when I heard it was going to be Adam Driver I was thinking about things for him.
I thought he would probably be very good at my weird oil baron thing.
So I had to expand it and make it a five-minute scene instead of a 45-second character.
And I feel like oil is such a weird, disgusting substance.
That line mothers milk is the thing that comes to mind.
The earths milk, I heard someone say.
I thought it was such a disgusting, partially sexual phrase that tickled me for some reason.
I also feel like we dont have oil barons anymore.
Its a thing that we dont think of, not anymore.
Hell eat a bunch of boiled eggs or whatever and go to sleep at 4 p.m.
This was your first episode.
They gave me some good notes like [Melissa Villasenor] is maybe more into it.
Then the next day is the table read.
I hate everything about this; its not funny.
Luckily I came in with two other writers from Chicago, Alison Gates and Alan Linic.
They both read it and said it was good.
I said, Youre lying; its terrible.
But then it went to table read.
And right before table read, you could go around and give the cast a note or two.
I had to go into Adam Drivers dressing room and give him a quick talk.
Its 150 percent Adam Driver doing it and being extremely good at acting.
I lucked out so hard with him.
They go into Lornes office and choose which sketches are going to be put on.
Mine was put on.
And then I didnt know what to do.
He helped me out with literally everything, because I did not know what was happening.
From there, I met with the production team, all the designers, and they were great.
They truly crushed it.
Did you get to choose the cane and the bird?
They asked what kind of bird I want, and I said, Um… seagull?
And the class was Ms. Linders class, my favorite teacher from high school.
That was cool when some friends from high school caught that.
At rehearsal they showed me some cane options, and I picked what I thought was a good cane.
They were working on the bird, so they had a stand-in bird at the initial rehearsal.
Adam really didnt want to crush it all that much for that first go.
At dress, they showed me this seagull that was full of beans.
We used that at the dress rehearsal, and I loved it.
Did you say beans?It was kind of like a beanie baby with bird wings on it.
And when Adam crushed it with his cane, it kind of crunched.
We changed the bird, and I was a little bit nervous about it.
But when I saw that cane going through that birds heart, oh boy.
It warmed mine to no end.
That worked out so well.
I was a little worried because I did audition with a different piece that involved crushing a bird.
But in a much different context!
I dont want to be known as the bird-crushing comedian.
Thats too bad, because its going to be the headline of this interview.Eli Coyote Mandel, bird-crushing comic?
But there was another thing with a bird involved that I auditioned with.
I liked the visceral weirdness of a bird.
And they seemed to enjoy that.
So do you hate birds?
Or do you love them?
Whats with the birds?I have no strong opinions on birds!
I do think theyre weird.
Because they aint dogs, and they aint cats, so what the hell is they?
Its the most close-to-nature animal you will see in a city.
Im from the country originally.
In college, I took a dinosaurs class and I found out that they are dinosaurs.
They are straight-up dinosaurs.
