The Last Late Late Show: Chapter 4 — The Pandemic

0:00 the quarantine era of the show was difficult

0:08 [Music] kovid was coming we could sense it everyone

0:15 was talking about it but we of course

0:16 only thought it would last a couple of weeks

0:18 we had a big week the week before we went out now horn was here he was

0:23 doing four performances a sketch he had one

0:25 performances where he's literally walking through the audience I

0:28 remember that week so well we were all kind of like hearing about it James and I

0:31 were sat in his office and on the news

0:32 it was like okay we're shutting down the country

0:34 America at a standstill tens of millions of people

0:37 stay home because of the coronavirus schools businesses

0:41 and public places are forced to shut down

0:43 we went from something that was a news topic

0:47 that we spoke about to something that was

0:50 a national emergency and changing the way we lived

0:52 it's been a scary time without an audience

0:59 so earned from like no audience to like no

1:03 crew to not being allowed in the building

1:05 in like three hours I remember we had a text

1:08 chain with the other show Runners of late

1:10 night all of the late night shows actually talking

1:12 to each other and trying to figure out

1:14 how can we do shows we're all going through

1:17 the same thing together and even if nothing feels

1:20 particularly funny right now where you can at least

1:21 talk and that's helpful and important and I remember

1:23 a real turning point in the thinking of it

1:25 was don't think about what you can't do

1:28 because what you can't do is irrelevant it's just

1:30 going to frustrate you what can we do how can we make the best possible show it

1:34 pivoted pretty quickly to figuring out how to create

1:36 a show in James's garage but we didn't

1:38 want to ask anyone to put themselves in danger that we weren't willing to do so

1:43 that ended up being me and Tim mancinelli

1:46 the director and Robin Galla the producer like emptying James's

1:49 garage out and carrying stuff down into his basement

1:51 and Lou Travy coming in and building a little set Robbie rub it yes oh hi

1:56 Robbie the technical challenges of of covid were immense

2:00 you know we're taking what's a long tried

2:02 and true facility of cameras and switchers and things

2:05 like that and putting basically a zoom into James's

2:08 garage the speed in which we had to adapt

2:10 and the talents of the people we've surrounded

2:14 ourselves with to figure things out and the fact

2:17 that we could just rise to an occasion

2:19 that very Uninvited very unwelcome occasion but figure out

2:22 a way to make a television show during

2:24 that period the first idea that we had was to do a show called home Fest which

2:28 essentially was to try and get the biggest artist

2:30 in the world to perform from their homes and and I had this this thing I said

2:34 to Ben I was like let's try and bring

2:36 everybody together to keep everybody apart welcome to me

2:41 on what is without question one of the strangest

2:43 specials uh I'm ever likely to make the idea

2:47 was that we could feature artists that were going

2:50 through the same thing everybody else was going through

2:51 they're on lockdown they're stuck in their homes

2:54 and get to the absolute Global nature of it

2:57 because tonight we really just wanted to make

2:59 a show to try and bring some joy and some

3:01 music into your home that home show was was a raw show it was so unknown

3:07 and I'm here on my own with just these three cameras I can show you my view here

3:12 this is what I can see we pushed

3:17 everything out it's all behind that curtain and now

3:19 it's just you and it's me for the next hour plus some of the biggest artists

3:24 in the world are going to join us

3:25 and we had Andrea Bocelli in Italy that was suffering

3:28 so bad at the time we had BTS Boys in South Korea we had Dua leaper in London

3:32 and it was essentially like we're all isolated

3:34 right now we're all going through something but actually

3:36 watching home Fest showed our viewer that they

3:39 weren't alone and I think that was what was

3:41 really lovely about that show because we absolutely

3:43 will get through this we will and that's why we wanted to make this show to try

3:48 and share in these feelings together share music that we

3:52 love with people that we love and then James at his desk in that garage there

3:56 was something quite Charming about it something quite

3:57 honest about it that's where we held our show

4:00 for the next two or three months we're here we're doing it I mean Ian is there

4:06 a worse setup for comedy than what we're doing

4:08 right now no this is as bad coverage shows were

4:12 probably some of the hardest shows we ever

4:14 did we still wanted to entertain we still wanted

4:16 to do games but none of these things

4:18 have ever been tried the great thing about late

4:20 night we have to react to whatever's happening

4:22 whether that's good or bad and how do we

4:25 make the best of it I felt the worst for James having to do a monologue to no

4:33 one I can't imagine that was a lot

4:34 of fun you know safety comes first comedy comes

4:38 second so keep that in mind as we head

4:41 into today's headlines I mean that those weeks doing

4:45 the show in my garage were they it

4:48 was horrible it was just so Bleak because also

4:50 the news that you were getting every day was

4:52 so Bleak we're all going through something and you're

4:55 just trying to keep everybody employed sorry now

5:07 I've got that out the way I hated every

5:10 waking second of the garage shows yeah I'm

5:13 just going nowhere just like always but now I'm

5:16 in my garage going nowhere couldn't you honestly

5:19 believe that this is on TV probably the low

5:23 point of my time uh on James's show is uh that period where we were all at home

5:29 with too much time on our hands and James hired a bunch of people to either be

5:34 Frozen or Frozen it was a great illustration

5:38 of people using a pandemic to no it was

5:43 actually a horrible illustration of people using a pandemic

5:46 to entertain are you frozen or are you

5:48 posing Frozen oh there we go Josh you're good

5:53 at this so there was a lot of stuff we did during the quarantine era of the show

5:57 that was like good for quarantine and now

6:01 looking back on it you're like oh four months

6:05 we've been doing this and I got to tell

6:06 you it hasn't got any easier welcome back

6:08 now you might be wondering you know what's going

6:12 on why is the door opening what who's

6:15 what's going on I don't think there were great

6:17 shows but there was something beautiful in the fact

6:19 that we were doing them okay guys how you doing hey I think we did the best

6:24 with what we could but I just remember thinking

6:29 we've got to get back in the studio as soon as we can it's showtime let's do

6:34 this good it's all good I think nobody could

6:41 have been more excited than James probably that he

6:43 got to do the show back in the studio even though it was going to be different

6:46 than how we did it before after four months away it's so nice to see so many

6:52 people in the studio again our camera crew

6:55 Mark Joel Jimmy P look at Pete look up here I never thought I'd be this happy

7:02 to see Pete in lieu of an audience we needed

7:06 there to be some atmosphere in the room and so we all decided just to be

7:09 in the room together and we'd be the audience

7:11 for James do you want to do the headlights no

7:14 [Applause] Lawrence joins you the headlines no no

7:23 all right well yeah we're doing them I was

7:28 like we have to be the group of friends

7:30 that people can't meet up with at the pub people are at home they can't meet up

7:34 with their friends where we will be those friends

7:36 what's your ultimate sandwich yeah we haven't got time

7:42 what I think the last thing that this show

7:44 should become is a group of friends chatting

7:46 about something happened and it just became kind

7:52 of magic in here nice shirt tonight Pete

7:54 thanks we're looking at here sharks fins up baby

7:56 baby yeah I think it unlocked the part of James that I had known for eight years

8:04 that a lot of America had not gotten to know the show that it was for the first

8:08 20 minutes in those shows back in the studio

8:11 in govid were the thing that I always

8:13 thought the show would be who's had the worst

8:15 first date in this room what do you

8:17 think oh CeCe go on uh a guy took me to see Schindler's List on our first

8:22 date and he had already seen it building

8:27 these characters of the crew Pete and Mark and Joel

8:31 and Susan and Susan and like finding these things

8:35 that just became us so oh my God

8:38 we're doing it we've done 866 shows for you at home this isn't for you this is

8:43 for us it kind of reminds me of like sitting in a green room after a show

8:48 with other stand-up comedians I'll wrestle you now

8:50 I know you'd wrestle me now but I'm not

8:52 wrestling you now why and for me it was like a dream because for half an hour

9:02 to 45 minutes every night like I could go

9:04 out there and just like joke around with like

9:06 a bunch of my good friends I'm genuinely losing my mind look at what we're doing

9:11 and then they put that on television which is

9:13 insane I would be shocked if anything that happened

9:16 in the last 45 minutes gets on television

9:18 tonight we did like covering ourselves in glow sticks

9:25 and turning all the lights off and dancing

9:27 and chucking a shrimp into Ian's mouth Ian you want

9:30 a shrimp I would laugh so much what's

9:37 happening on the show right now is so great

9:39 because you are teetering on the knife's edge

9:41 of Sanity it felt weirdly dangerous because you really

9:44 didn't know where the conversation was leading and like

9:46 all of a sudden James was calling Oprah

9:48 this is madness foreign Oprah hello is that Oprah

10:02 it's Oprah Oprah it's James Corton oh man it

10:05 was such fun the relationships that were created

10:08 in that moment that I would I would treasure

10:11 it every day viewers were also excited to know

10:15 what was going on with this group it

10:17 was kind of incredible what's been going on here

10:20 guys [Music] and you explain who wait here

10:26 oh my God I know this sounds ridiculous I

10:30 genuinely think some of those shows were our best

10:33 shows in terms of like are we doing something that no one else can do yes

10:38 at 100 we should do a week of shows from a cruise ship only if I can share

10:45 a room with Pete nobody checks our bags when we get on post covered we've held

10:52 on to the looseness that we discovered during that kovid

10:55 less audience no audience garage show period so there's

10:59 this like really upsetting moment that always happens

11:02 is like you're saying something we're interacting then you

11:05 know he comes over and he brings the mic but then he decides when you're done so

11:09 like maybe you'll I think the way that we do the monologue now I really plays

11:20 to my strengths far better than it did when

11:22 I would stand on a mark and tell these jokes

11:25 and stuff we've added a new noise we've added a new noise to the thing listen

11:29 to this [Music] [Applause] defined a lot of what

11:36 our show is today the interaction James has

11:38 with his team crew the banter the relaxed part

11:41 one who thinks there are more doors in the world

11:46 okay and who thinks there's more Wheels [Applause]

11:50 okay there's no way there's more Wheels you're sitting

11:54 on five Wheels [Applause] [Laughter] forget it we've

12:02 held on to certain things and ways of doing

12:05 things that we would have never ever known

12:07 about never been forced to learn about had we

12:10 not had the experience of 2020 2021 that all

12:13 came from covid and was a really good addition to the show but it was something

12:18 that we had to learn by going through that pandemic

12:20 from the absolute bottom of my heart this has

12:22 been the strangest and oddest and hardest year

12:29 at points but coming in here and sitting

12:33 down and talking to everybody here has been without

12:37 question the best part of most of my days

12:40 and I will I will always cherish this feeling

12:46 that we've created in here I mean it I will I will I will miss it hugely