Kristen Wiig's Odd Jobs While Performing With The Groundlings | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

you know what fascinated me about you is. that I can a bit relate I got into it. all a little late you were not someone. who was aggressively doing improv and. trying to act when you were a kid right. no I it wasn't really in my uh. atmosphere at all there was no talk of. like do you want to go to like a theater. C it just wasn't nobody was doing that. where I lived that's that's for me too. yeah yeah and it was it just wasn't a. thing and I would always look at like.

you know I'm dating myself you know like. a Teen Beat or a Bop whatever that Bop. was it bop just been Bop Dynamite tiger. be tiger be bop there was a Bop. something like those magazines and it. just looked so far away and like oh you. have to like live in California and. that's just like a different right. Planet I just didn't even think about it. but I think deep down I always dreamed. about it but I thought doesn't everybody.

I don't know exct I just wasn't. something I I I relate 1,000% to what. you're saying which is I'm thinking. about this and I'm doing some stick in. the Mirror by myself were you reading. tiger bead as well I was reading he was. I was writing letters to Scott. Bao dear Scott Bao such a chachy crush. um didn't we. all uh but I still write them um.

but I uh I I just it wasn't in my world. and I think what the internet has done. is kind of made it look like and this is. true it's very Democratic so you can be. in the tiniest little spot in Kansas and. you can do something funny and it can. get a lot of positive feedback and I. think that's terrific before that there. were people like me long before you when. I was a kid doing shtick in front of the. mirror and takes and absorbing stuff on.

television and in movies that I saw. doing it in front of the mirror but then. thinking yes this is what all sad little. boys do and I got to go to soccer. practice Yeah well I don't no soccer for. me art. class my paleontology Club hello fellows. anyone uh but yeah there was no there. was nothing you know you just you.

thought so I fully in high school and. then into college thought uh that's not. happening I mean I did like little you. know I was like a munchkin in The Wizard. of Oz you know right right in the back. right right just cuz my friends were. doing it but it wasn't you know but it's. not like you could put that on a resume. so I. tried number one first came to LA and. you needed a resume I'm like well maybe. I should write this on here so you did. another thing we have in common is I.

graduate college and I come out to LA to. get started in Show Business and I'm. lucky enough to get a job writing on a. show I immediately tried to get into the. Groundlings into an acting class and. that's where I met the world of people. improvisers and in 1985 I would tell. people yeah I want to do improv and most. people didn't know what I was talking. about I wouldn't have yeah I didn't even. know what it was when I came out here.

someone was like you got to go to the. Groundlings I think you'd like that and. I'd never seen improv before and then I. remember my first show Jennifer kulage. was in it and Mike Hitchcock and they. did improv and I was like oh I want to I. I think I I want to do that I want to. try that and then I just like signed up. but I had no I knew sketch obviously. from SNL but improv I didn't even know. that was a thing yeah and to me it was a. revelation because the only thing.

uh that I had kind of heard about was. standup right and I remember watching. stand-ups and really admiring them but. thinking that's not really what I want. to do and maybe I could figure out a way. to do it in some way but I don't want to. be the only one talking and I want there. to be and I want to be able to play. these different realities and I have. that kind of brain and then finding out. no there's a whole thing called improv. where you do that and if your mind works. that way um it actually is the perfect.

thing to do yeah and so that's where I. met Lisa kudro that's where I met these. just so many incredibly talented people. and I thought okay this. is this is proof to me I loved getting. up on that stage it's a really small. stage it's an equity waiver theater uh. 99 SE but it's where I mean as I said. Phil Hartman came from there Paul Rubin. I mean the list of people will Ferell.

um you know he left the groundings and. was never heard from. again but I mean the list is I can't. even begin to list it it's insane how. many people it CH that place changed my. life for sure yeah so you're up there. you're doing the Groundlings and you're. are. you working a regular day job while. you're doing that what are you doing I. had many many a day job um my favorite. was I worked in a like a floral design. studio I did like floral arrangements MH.

oh my God I was a server I worked at. Universal Studios in the executive. dining room oh wow I used to work there. and eat in that well not the executive. one yeah the like the the the one with. the the nicer one with the yeah ex I. couldn't get in that. place but it's funny because. I people and I'm like hey I waited on. you um that's so funny so I have I had. this conversation the other day where I. I I mean I I think I do it just because.

this is how my mom taught me to be and. and which is I I really try to be nice. to uh anyone who's serving me but also. way in the back of my mind is they will. be in control of show business in three. years and you don't you know what I mean. you're just and so many people have. later come up to me and said yeah I when. I was uh Jennifer Garner waited on me oh. how cool when she was and this is years. after she became a. star she just terrible gambling.

addiction and no. she people were like Jennifer Garner no. there was a place where you could get. brunch on the upper west side and I was. doing the Late Night show and she said I. came in once and um she said I was nice. and everything but that I then started. to read the paper it's like no we really. need that table and she remembered this. years later and I was so embarrassed. like you never know you never know who's. going to be there.