Podcast Corner: Amy Poehler ropes in old pals for Good Hang show
Among Amy Poehler's first guests on her podcast were Tina Fey and Rashida Jones.
It’s always a joy seeing Amy Poehler on screen, whether that’s alongside Tina Fey presenting an award at the Oscars or doing a bit at their old alma mater of Saturday Night Live for its 50th anniversary.
Ten years on from the end of Parks and Recreation, though, and her acting resumé has had few hits since, for whatever reason - bar voicing Joy in the Inside Out animated movie franchise.
Poehler and Fey are actually doing live dates around the US over the next few weeks, dubbed the Restless Leg Tour, a la Martin Short and Steve Martin’s Dukes of Funnytown show.
Whether she feels like she should be doing more or diversifying, Poehler has started up her inaugural podcast, Good Hang. Her first guests: Fey, Short, and her former Parks and Rec co-star Rashida Jones. “It’s rough out there, we’re just trying to lighten it up a little,” she says in the trailer.
The bio adds: “The podcast is not about trying to make you better or giving advice. Amy just wants to have a good time.”
But like Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson on their show IMO, which we featured last week, no matter how big the host’s name, the first couple of episodes of a new podcast can be rough. The first three interviews on Good Hang are so pally and saccharine sweet that you might struggle to even recall highlights afterwards.
“I just have to do snapshots of your wide and illustrious career because you’ve just done so many things - you do so many things so well - and because you’re a curious person who likes to challenge themselves, you’re always doing new things all the time… you are just of the world, you just want to experience a lot of things,” she tells Jones.
She admits to Fey at the outset, “I am kind of nervous. I guess it’s funny to talk to your friends who you’ve known for so long and interview them.” Saying all that though, there are still laughs to be had here - Poehler is whipsmart and will hopefully get comfortable in the host’s seat.
Meanwhile, two more Parks and Rec alumni podcasted together recently. Adam Scott was on Literally with Rob Lowe talking about Severance. A nice little Irish aside happened early on, as they talked about how “nothing happens in Los Angeles” anymore due to how expensive it is to shoot there, with few incentives.
Lowe says he actually shoots his game show The Floor in Dublin, while Scott is going to Cork, “out in the countryside”, to shoot a movie (Hokum).
They add of Ireland, practically in unison: “It’s great, it’s so fantastic, it’s beautiful.”
Lowe explains: “It's cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot at Fox right now and shoot it there.”
