TOBIN: Kathy.

KATHY: Tobin.

TOBIN: Big news.

KATHY: Ok.

TOBIN: I have finally answered a major question for myself.

KATHY: Ok, what’s that?

TOBIN: My patronus is a Capybara.

KATHY: [LAUGHS] I don’t know if I know what that is.

TOBIN: It’s a rodent. It’s an adorable rodent creature.

KATHY: Ok.

TOBIN: They are large and cuddly.

KATHY: Ok.

TOBIN: Looking at the wikipedia page it says that they prefer social of around 10 to 20. Same.

KATHY: Ok.

TOBIN: Interaction with other humans…. they’re friendly but its not encouraged. Same.

KATHY: [LAUGHS] In my head I’m imagining you as a giant hamster, is that what this is?

TOBIN: Exactly…. that enjoys hot tubs.

[THEME]

VOX: From WNYC Studios, this is Nancy!

VOX: With your hosts, Tobin Low and Kathy Tu.

[THEME MUSIC ENDS]

[WHISTLE]

TOBIN: Kathy, I have a question for you.

KATHY: Yes?

TOBIN: What do you know about lip syncing?

KATHY: What I know that I’m not good at it.

TOBIN: Ok.

KATHY: Boy bands are the best at it.

TOBIN: How dare you? keep going.

KATHY: And um, it’s a thing that happens on Drag Race!

TOBIN: Very good! All of those things are true. But have you seen the lip sync videos by Bowen Yang on Twitter?

KATHY: Yes, and not just because you’ve shown them to me a million times, but because they’ve gone super viral, millions of views.

TOBIN: Ok, so for people who haven’t seen it a million times, imagine taking an iconic scene from TV or film...like say Tyra Banks flipping out on America’s Next Top Model...

[CLIP] AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL

TYRA BANKS: When my mother yells like this, it’s because she loves me! I was rooting for you! We were all rooting for you! How dare you!

TOBIN: So now imagine Bowen, sitting in his room, he’s a gaysian, just like us...he’s got short hair, glasses, he’s in selfie mode on his phone and he is lip syncing the entire scene. Word perfect. Like one of my favorites is him as Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada...

[CLIP] THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

MIRANDA PRIESTLY: That blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of “stuff.”

TOBIN: So you can’t see it right now, but he’s giving you gestures, he’s giving you the breathes...the subtle eyebrow raises.

KATHY: You really have to go online to twitter and see it yourself.

TOBIN: So Bowen is a comedian and producer, and now a writer on Saturday Night Live, which is also the longest running sketch comedy show in the US. That makes the fact that Bowen is on the writing staff such an amazing thing.

KATHY: Yeah ‘cause I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that SNL hasn’t always had...let’s say the most diverse writing staff.

TOBIN: Right. But now they have Bowen, who they are so lucky to have.

KATHY: Yeah.

TOBIN: And we asked Bowen to come into the studio to talk to us.

[WHISTLE]

TOBIN: Fellow queer Asian Bowen Yang, thank you for being here!

BOWEN: Thank you for having me!

KATHY: This is so exciting.

BOWEN: This is huge. I was...Tobin was greeting me and I said this is a big moment in queer Asian media history.

TOBIN: When we started this interview, wherever Sandra Oh is, she stopped and went something's happening.

BOWEN: Something's happening. Sandra...yeah. The wind shifted and wherever she is...upstate, I'm sure she's upstate.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

TOBIN: So I'm gonna start by saying your bio says you were a mediocre chemistry major.

BOWEN: I was a mediocre chemistry major. I was a B.A. not even a B.S. which is shameful.

KATHY: How?

BOWEN: A Bachelor of Arts in chemistry.

KATHY: How?!

TOBIN: What does that mean?

BOWEN: It means that I just didn't...I didn't take the right classes. I was really I don't know I just didn't really ever think to talk to a single guidance counselor person advisor at NYU. Yeah.

KATHY: Why chemistry?

BOWEN: Because...this is a true story, speaking of Sandra Oh, I was misled into thinking that I wanted to be a doctor because of Grey's Anatomy...

TOBIN: [GASP]

KATHY: Oh. My. God.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: It really warped my whole self perception. I was like, “Oh yeah I'm going to do that when I grow up.”

TOBIN: Wow so you saw Sandra Oh on Grey's Anatomy and were like that. I'm going to do that.

BOWEN: Yep. Basically. That is that is representation that is ultimately damaging.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: That ultimately just tells you to do the wrong way in life.

TOBIN: It's bad representation.

BOWEN: Bad representation. There is such a thing. Absolutely.

KATHY: And then when did the shift happen? When did you decide comedy is it.

BOWEN: The shift, well I mean it was always sort of there was the undercurrent like I was that really annoying person on the college tours who, at the end, be like, "yeah so do you guys have a comedy group here?" Like I was...that like figured into my where I would matriculate. And like I...it was sort of there at the back of my mind but I just lied myself, I had tricked myself into thinking this is just a hobby. It's a little side gig, whatever. But then the moment that I was like, "Oh I made a mistake" was at commencement. It was NYU. We traditionally at the time at least we did our commencement in Yankee Stadium, but I sat with all the theater, arts kids. I made a conscious choice not to sit with my other chemistry buds, my pre-med buds, and I sat with the arts kids because those were mostly my friends anyway from doing improv at school. And then I just looked around and everyone was so happy. And everyone was so excited to go into this next chapter in their lives. And I was were like, "Oh no this is not how I feel at all." And that was like the first big sort of sea change for me where I was like, "Oh no I biffed it." Like, I got to do something else.

KATHY: What’s one thing that sticks out in your memory as something you learned from your med school days?

BOWEN: Oh. Probably that Asian people lack alcohol dehydrogenase, which is the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol, which accounts for Asian glow.

TOBIN: Wait, OK, but...

BOWEN: [LAUGHS]

TOBIN: What does it mean if I am fine with alcohol. Am I just an anomaly? Or like...

BOWEN: I think you just you genetically express that protein, that enzyme. Then great. Like, good for you, Tobin. Like you can...

KATHY: [LAUGHS]

TOBIN: Not to brag.

BOWEN: ...shotgun ten beers in a night.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

KATHY: God, Tobin. Geez.

BOWEN: Wow, privilege.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

KATHY: Wow.

BOWEN: Alcohol dehydrogenase privilege.

KATHY: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: On Nancy. I can't believe this.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: Just flagrant.

TOBIN: Who were your comedy heroes growing up?

BOWEN: Comedy heroes growing up, and this is so funny, because this is also an instance of bad representation. It's not even representation, but it was like...Alex Borstein on MadTV. I was like, "Oh she's the best."

KATHY: [GASP]

KATHY: But then, and we should talk about this...

TOBIN: Yeah.

KATHY: Yeah.

BOWEN: Ms. Swan is very complicated.

TOBIN: Yes.

KATHY: Yes. I agree.

BOWEN: I mean it's flagrantly offensive, so offensive.

TOBIN: Well so to back up, this is a character from MadTV that Alex Borstein, who is not Asian...

BOWEN: Right.

TOBIN: ...played. But it's basically a caricature of a...I don't even remember what she's supposed to be...Japanese or Korean?

KATHY: Just Asian.

TOBIN: Oriental.

KATHY: Yes.

BOWEN: Pan-Asian. She was the Polynesian sausage of sketch characters.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

[CLIP] SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

OFFICER: I need to get a description from you and it’s only going to take us a few minutes, okay?

MS. SWAN: I saw everyting...okay?

OFFICER: Great, can you describe the perpetrator to me ma'am?

MS. SWAN: Yeah…he look like a man.

BOWEN: Yeah. So nondescript so broad like terrible so offensive. But I would watch that and I would be like that is...that looks so fun. I want to do that. Top of mind for some reason, comedy hero is Alex Borstein. And she's great and she's fantastic and she has a really good career. And she has had a good career. But her and like...this is the thing about being just another of anything is that you have these heroes who end up disappointing you anyway in the things that they do. In these, in these sort of problematic ways and you have to sort of negotiate how much what you want to take away from each of them. So I was I was going to say like Tina, Tina Fey is like huge deal. But then like, you know, you look back at her work and like the way she's sort of rendered Asian characters or Asian people in her work is also just like yikes.

TOBIN: Right.

KATHY: Hmhmm.

TOBIN: That one character and Kimmy Schmidt.

BOWEN: In Kimmy Schmidt and in 30 Rock. And you know it's hard to not have flies on any of your heroes when you grow up as...especially as an Asian person or especially as a person of color, as an other in general. But yeah that's like the fun thing you have to navigate as one of us.

KATHY: I have to admit that I also was a big fan Ms. Swan.

TOBIN: Yeah, me too.

KATHY: And I was like MadTV is so much better than SNL because they have Ms. Swan.

TOBIN & BOWEN: [LAUGH]

KATHY: Can you imagine saying that now?

BOWEN: I mean yeah. I mean you can't say that now. But like, at the time it's like you were grasping at straws, you were fighting over crumbs. Like, that was the crumb and it was something.

TOBIN: Right.

KATHY: So we feel obligated to ask this as Asian folks.

BOWEN: Hmhmm.

KATHY: What do your parents think of what you do?

BOWEN: Aha. They, up until like yeah like three four months ago, were like, "What are you doing?"

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: They were like, "You're making a huge mistake." I mean they've...they've had a very sort of...I mean to their credit they've been very patient and very practical in that very immigrant sense of like, "Just make sure you're ok," like "We've made sacrifices to make sure that you will be OK and you're still doing like bar shows in a basement like at 11pm on a weeknight. Like is that what you want to do?" Which is a fully understandable, pragmatic concern. But yeah, it wasn't until my mom saw me on TV doing something and then her co-workers be like, "Oh my god. We saw it on TV." It took other people to sort of validate that for her to feel comfortable.

KATHY: My mom is always yelling at me about just make sure that you can eat. She's really worried that I can't feed myself.

BOWEN: Uh huh uh huh. Yeah. They're concerned at every level of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: They wanna make sure that you have shelter and food, like...

KATHY: It's so true.

BOWEN: Uh huh.

TOBIN: Is there an example of a joke about either your queerness or being Asian that you might not have told before, but that you're like more recently like I'm gonna talk about this. I'm gonna joke about it.

BOWEN: Yeah I tell this story. So a few years ago I was working with like a three year dry spell of just like not having sex with anybody.

TOBIN: Hmhmm.

BOWEN: And then there was this guy who was visiting from Taiwan on business. There was a bit of a language barrier. Even though I speak Mandarin Chinese, we both spoke Mandarin, like my Mandarin proficiency was basically the same as his English proficiency, like it just...those were bumping up against each other. But I met him at his hotel and he [LAUGHS] he stopped sort of in the thick of things and is like, "Do you have poppers?" which are alkyl nitrites which vasodilate you to facilitate anal sex.

TOBIN: Yes, science.

BOWEN: None of this will make it to air, will it?

TOBIN: Probably will.

BOWEN: Probably will?! Great! And I said, "No, do you?" He goes, "No, but I have something that will make you feel good." And he reaches into this dopp kit, pulls out like a little dime bag with like little flakes in it, and then pulls out a glass pipe. And he starts to like load it and then he's like, "Here, take a hit of this." And I go, "What is that?" And this is where the language barrier comes back. He goes, "I don't know what you guys call this in English.".

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

KATHY: Oh no.

BOWEN: So then I ask him, "Is it opium?" And he says, "What's opium?" And then I feel a racist for assuming that a Taiwanese man would carry opium on him.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

KATHY: [LAUGHS] Oh no...

BOWEN: And so at that moment, that was the perfect intersection of like oh no, like, what a terrible misunderstanding. Just terrible. And then...so then I smoke it...

KATHY: Out of guilt?

BOWEN: Out of guilt. And like ah, I better smoke this.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: And then we have like aerobic seven hour sex. And then afterwards like post coitus, I'm like, "What was that?" like "I really want to get to the bottom of what that was." And he was like, "Hmm..." And now he starts to like actually put in an effort and he starts rummaging, he's like, "I think you guys call it T." I was like, "Huh that doesn't ring any bells. Do you know of other names?" And he goes, "T is short for Tina." I was like, "That means nothing to me. What does...what does Tina mean?" He goes, "Oh Tina for Christina." And then I start putting two and two together, and then I go, "Oh. Christina. Crystal. Was that meth?"

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: And then he has like the worst eureka moment, he goes, "Oh meth!".

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: So yeah like I got roped into smoking meth with a Taiwanese man and that is bad representation.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: That is bad sexual diversity. Anyway. But that is like a moment.. And like, I tell that story on stage and it's fun. Everyone's on board with it thankfully. But yeah that's like that's like the perfect intersection of like queer identity, Asian identity being fully fucked up. So.

TOBIN & BOWEN: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: Yeah.

TOBIN: That's a great story.

KATHY: Wow.

BOWEN: Thanks. But yeah I mean I wouldn't have felt comfortable telling that even five years ago. So.

TOBIN: Now it's out there.

BOWEN: Yeah. [LAUGH]

TOBIN: I think we want to talk about lip syncing a little bit.

BOWEN: OK! Let's talk about it.

KATHY: We have to!

BOWEN: We have to?

KATHY: We gotta.

TOBIN: So you have taken let's say like the queer art of lip syncing...

BOWEN: Uh huh...

TOBIN: ...and created these short videos on Twitter where you lip sync iconic scenes wordperfect...

KATHY: Yes.

TOBIN: You've done Tyra Banks.

BOWEN: Yes.

TOBIN: You've done the Meryl Streep scene from Devil Wears Prada.

BOWEN: Yes.

TOBIN: And it's not just that you like lip sync them, you do like gestures perfectly, you do the breaths perfectly.

KATHY: Yeah!

BOWEN: Thanks.

TOBIN: So basically we just want you to walk us through the process of how you...

KATHY: Give us your secrets.

BOWEN: Happy to. Happy to.

KATHY: Tell us.

BOWEN: Of course. It's really, really fun. It's just yeah...I'll pick out a snippet of something and then basically will just sort of chunk it out by like 30, 20 second increments and just run those, run those, run those. It really is that thing of like just sticking with it and like...I do like a hundred plus takes for each one, and 99 percent of them are terrible. And truly like I pick between two takes where I'm like, "OK those are technically clean. I'd fix this and this and this, but you know what, not being too precious about it. Let's post." Like it really is just about running it over and over and over again, spending like four hours in my room doing each one.

KATHY: They all look so effortless.

BOWEN: Thank you. Thank you. But no they I mean, there's so much effort being put into them.

KATHY: [LAUGHS]

TOBIN: I just love the energy of them because they remind me of being a little queer boy in a bedroom and idolizing like iconic female performances.

BOWEN: Yes! Where it's like you would do like the you know "...Hit Me Baby One More Time" chorey. It was like it was that thing basically of just being...for me it was my basement and just...just recreating those moments. In that same way, it's that very childlike instinct of just celebrating something that you were responding so emotionally to.

TOBIN: And then going mega viral online.

BOWEN: And then yeah. Well then, yeah just posting it and seeing where it goes

[MUSIC]

KATHY: Coming up, Bowen talks to us about Awkwafina, rivalry, and SNL.

TOBIN: Nancy will be back in a minute.

[MIDROLL]

TOBIN: And we’re back.

KATHY: So one of the reasons we really wanted to talk to Bowen is because he is now one of the writers at SNL, and that is a big deal because SNL has had a long history of having mostly white writers.

TOBIN: Bowen’s only been there for a short while, but he’s ALREADY written some of my favorite sketches to date, like GP Yass…

[CLIP] SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

ANNOUNCER: Introducing GP YASS! Due to the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Garmin has expanded our voice options to include drag entertainers. Let GP YASS turn your unstimulating trip into a sickening one!

WOMAN: Oh, look honey. The icon for the car is a glamour link fingernail!

GP YASS VOICE 1: Entering school zone.

GP YASS VOICE 2: Bitch! Slow your ass down so you don’t squash a child flat like a squirrel.

KATHY: And here’s something I didn’t know: SNL’s process for hiring writers sometimes involves having them audition them like actors. I would not do well.

TOBIN: SAME.

BOWEN: I was on my way out to a show and I'd been sort of in process for like the past year or just like going in and doing like screen like audition. So just like coming up with the characters and they brought me back in a few times over the year. It was always really fun. It was nerve wracking but it was ultimately like a good process to just like come up with stuff and to work within like these parameters of...well the only impressions I do can only be Asian people. And so...

TOBIN: Who were you bringing in?

BOWEN: So this is the thing. Because of the lack of representation, I had to really like scrape the bottom of the barrel but it meant that I could have fun with these things.

KATHY: Hmhmm.

BOWEN: So I did a Michiko Kakutani.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

KATHY: Wait, that doesn't make...

BOWEN: She's a New York Times...she was a New York Times...the chief New York Times book critic. And she was so mean, was so like just a real hard ass. And like everyone in the literary world was trying to please her for like decades.

KATHY: Oh.

BOWEN: And then she just retired a couple of years ago but she's never done an on camera interview. Her photo's been taken maybe twice in her entire career.

KATHY: Wow.

BOWEN: She's just this very mysterious aloof person. And so I was like, "Well no one knows what she sounds like and people barely know what she looks like." I will...I basically just put on a wig, a scarf, a blazer. I was just like [SCREAMING] screaming like this! But like it was just Michiko and she was like going through, she was doing shooting rapid fire reviews. She was like, "Jay Mcinerney, trash!" It was just, she was just like going through all these books and just shitting on them.

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: And then like the closer was, "OK well I got to go. I gotta go punch Toni Morrison in the face!" She's just...that was my take on her and it was just really fun and crazy. I did her [LAUGHS]. I do- I did Alexander Wang.

KATHY: The fashion designer?

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: My take is that Alexander Wang's coming out with a new fashion line for Asian ghosts.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: I mean like, they're out there. But like I just had to really dig deep into like, OK I need to build from scratch, like it's not like a Christopher Walken thing where everyone has a version of that impression. I got to really build this from the ground up which is actually really fun and really rewarding.

KATHY: And then now that you write on the show.

BOWEN: Hmhmm.

KATHY: What is it like?

BOWEN: It's really fun. It's it feels like there's there's like a really fun like camp summer camp like college dorm aspect to it, where on Tuesday nights everyone writes, stays up until like 5a.m. And the pace of it is crazy and...what was really nice was having Nora there, Awkwafina there, the second, my second week there. And I'd worked with her on her pilot in the summer before and that was oh my god that was like one of the best experiences. Truly it was just working on the pilot and just walking into a set with all Asian people and thinking, "Oh this is, this is how white people feel all the time."

KATHY: Yeah.

BOWEN: But really like it was, we just sat there. It was me, Awkwafina, B.D. Wong plays her dad. I played her cousin and I play her douchebag cousin who's visiting from San Francisco and is talking about his like Silicon Valley life.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: Total, total jerk. And then it was Lori Tan Chinn from Orange Is The New Black.

TOBIN: Oh, yeah yeah.

BOWEN: She plays her grandma. So it was the four of us in this family scene in a Chinese restaurant. We were shooting in Chinatown and in between takes in this restaurant, we started talking about like wood ears. Like we had food in front of us, a dish had wood ears, we start talking about wood ears. They're like little fungal things that grow on trees that are in Asian cuisine.

TOBIN & KATHY: Hmhmm.

BOWEN: And then like we start talking about Asian, like, travel to Asia and like all these different cultural things that like no one had to explain. And that was like a huge deal where I was like, "Oh." Because in so many environments and you folks probably feel the same way too where you just have to like, if you spend most of your time hiding these little grains of Asian identity, but then as soon as something slips out, you have to be like, "Oh hold on I gotta do like a little primer for everybody."

KATHY: Right. Right.

BOWEN: Like I've got to explain everybody what mochi is. You know it's like silly things like that. But like this was just a moment where like everyone was on the same page about this. It was just a really cool thing. And then really like yeah really got to know Bradley, B.D., and Nora and it was so fun. And then to have to have Awkwafina come on the show and host SNL was really special and got to work on her monologue. And she was just like the best. And I've only worked there three weeks but it's been really special so far.

KATHY: I have this very specific experience that I'm not proud of.

BOWEN: Uh huh.

KATHY: But when I'm working in a very like say let's say like all white...

TOBIN: Hwhite.

KATHY: White environment.

BOWEN: H.W. Yeah.

KATHY: I'm used to being like the only Asian person around.

BOWEN: Hmhmm.

KATHY: And then when I see another Asian person pop up I'm like almost instantly competitive with that one person.

BOWEN: Yeah yeah.

KATHY: And it goes away real quick.

BOWEN: Totally.

KATHY: But still and just immediately...

BOWEN: Right.

KATHY: I get the feeling and I'm not proud of it, Bowen, I'm not proud of it.

BOWEN: I get it and it's not something you should feel pride or shame about. I think it's just...just to see it as what it is and to praise it for what it is. It's just a byproduct of a lot of spaces being mostly white that you've worked at probably. For a while I felt OK sort of being one of the only Asian people I knew doing comedy in this like very alt Brooklyn-y scene. But then, um, this guy named Joel Kim Booster moves to town.

TOBIN: Hmhmm.

BOWEN: And then this other guy from Chicago like puts us on the same Facebook chat and is like, "Bowen. Joel. You guys should meet each other. You're both gay, Asian, and funny." And then both of us were like, "Eww. What?"

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

BOWEN: "Who is this person?" But the reason...but like, we immediately sort of like had this, it wasn't antagonistic, but it was like we were both suspicious of each other because this other white guy put us on the same thread and was like you two, like you guys should like be friends. And it's someone else's invisible hand sort of like pushing you two together.

TOBIN: Right.

BOWEN: And then we met and then we would have conversations and now he's one of my best friends. I don't know. I think it's a little...it's a little mindfuck.

TOBIN: Right.

KATHY: Yeah. Tobin, I just want you to know that I felt a tinge of competition when I met you at Transom.

TOBIN & BOWEN: [LAUGH]

[MUSIC]

TOBIN: We met at the same like radio training program.

BOWEN: Uh huh. Uh huh. Wow. And was there that...

KATHY: We were the only Asians there, only queer Asians there.

BOWEN: And now like you...

KATHY: Look at this.

BOWEN: Now you're the spiritual leaders of the entire movement! Of this Asian movement!

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGH]

TOBIN: Bowen, thank you so much for coming in to talk to us.

BOWEN: Thank you for having me!

KATHY: This was so much fun.

BOWEN: This was so much fun, you guys are the best.

[MUSIC]

TOBIN: Bowen Yang is a comedian, producer, and formerly mediocre chemistry major based in Brooklyn.

KATHY: And by the way, that pilot Bowen was telling us about, the one with Awkwafina? It just got picked up by Comedy Central.

TOBIN: CONGRATS BOWEN!

KATHY: CONGRATS!

[MUSIC ENDS]

[CREDITS MUSIC]

TOBIN: All right, credits!

KATHY: Producer…

TOBIN: Alice Wilder!

KATHY: Sound designer…

TOBIN: Jeremy Bloom!

KATHY: Production fellow…

TOBIN: Temi Fagbenle!

KATHY: Editor...

TOBIN: Jenny Lawton!

KATHY: Executive Producer…

TOBIN: Paula Szuchman!

KATHY: I’m Kathy Tu.

TOBIN: I’m Tobin Low.

KATHY: And Nancy is a production of WNYC Studios.

[CREDITS MUSIC ENDS]

KATHY: Bowen.

BOWEN: Kathy.

KATHY: Bowen.

BOWEN: Kathy.

KATHY: I wanna know...what is Kate McKinnon like?

BOWEN: She...the last week we were on, when Seth Meyers hosted...so in between dress rehearsal and air, um, everyone gathers into Lorne's office, as he reveals what the final order of the sketches is. He gives quick notes and it's just all the cast, all the writers, all the producers just stuffed in his office. And Kate and I were sitting next to each other and then we just made eye contact really quickly, just like playfully. And then she leans over to me, puts her hands on the sides of my face, pulls me close like within an inch of her, and she goes, "I feel tremendous affection towards you."

KATHY: Aww!

TOBIN: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: And then she goes, "I don't know why. I barely know you." And then I go, "I feel tremendous affection towards you." And then she goes, "I barely know you, imagine if I did know you at all." And I go, "You'd be immediately disenchanted." And she said, "No. I'd be more in love." And then she pulled away. She's just...she's the best person, she's the nicest. And she got me hooked on 90 Day Fiancé Before The 90 Days...It's a reality show on TLC.

TOBIN & KATHY: [LAUGHS]

BOWEN: It's bonkers. It's also Lady Gaga's favorite reality show I found out.

KATHY: Wow.

BOWEN: Yeah.

 

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