Oh, you like podcasts?
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
We are going to play a clip of some of Kumails material.
Its from his 2013 stand-up special,Beta Male.
And then afterward, were going to talk about that and things related to that.
I was sweating in the back watching that!
Whens the last time you watched that?Thirty seconds ago.
Before that?Oh my God, years and years!
Whatd you think?[Laughs.]
I think that guys going places!
I like those jokes.
That was nine years ago.
I havent done a special since then.
I think with my delivery, sometimes Im pushing in a way.
I can tell Im not fully comfortable onstage.
So thats all I can hear: nerves and discomfort onstage.
How did you write jokes?
What was your process?
I had to write for at least ten minutes without stopping or deleting anything or judging.
In the beginning, it was all one-liners.
In a minute, I could tell four or five jokes.
Would you be word-perfect for everything?
Was everything written down?Everything was written down.
That feeling of being confident?In my stand-up.
I dont have that level of confidence in anything in my life now.
Before that, I wasnt like that.
Pete Holmes still makes fun of me for it all the time.
He does an impression of Old Kumail.
His New Kumail sucks too.
But because I was nervous, there were only certain kinds of jokes I could do.
I couldnt really do anything that was personal.
I dont mean personal in the sense of opening my heart and soul.
Even like, I watched a movie or something that happened to me, I could not do.
Weird way to say wife.
This led to you having a meeting with Judd.
You tell him the Emily story, and he tells you to write that movie.
Thats a story that you said you didnt think youd be able to work into your stand-up.
So I was feeling a little bit constrained by stand-up.
There are great comedians who are able to do everything onstage.
I never got to the point where I felt absolutely, completely creatively fulfilled doing stand-up.
So I want to play a clip from that movie, 2017sThe Big Sick.
So I believe both Michael Showalter, the director, and Emily wanted to cut it.
The joke came from me, Emily, and Judd.
I dont remember who else was there.
This was before the movie was greenlit.
I mean, it didnt get greenlit until right before we started shooting.
But Judd kept saying, It has to be constant conflict and super-fucking weird the entire time.
Like, these people should not be together in this situation, and yet they are.
For instance, he was like, Maybe her dad can ask you how you feel about 9/11.
And I remember I just said to Judd, It was a tragedy.
We lost 19 of our best guys.
And I laughed, and nobody else laughed.
I was like, Guys!
And I was like, Lets just film it, okay?
You do a bunch of takes, and its just me weirdly defending 9/11 15 times!
I think we tested it without that joke, and I was like, Lets just test it.
I was the only one who was pushing for it.
It did so well at the first screening that there was no discussion about that after.
And I was just pushing for it because I thought it was very funny and surprising!
I just thought it was a great joke.
In thinking about it, did your character have to be a comedian for the movie to make sense?
Part of it is it depicts how a comedian would interact in this situation.
You were a comedian when this situation happened.
Hes always making jokes, you know?
I had to convince Emily to do it she didnt want to do it at first.
And then when Emily came on, suddenly it was way better.
To that point, nobody had seen it other than a tiny test audience.
Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks.
For me, the goal was just to make the movie.
Having people watch it was not something that was part of my mathat all.
As the lights were going down, it really kind of hit me.
I dont know how it has affected how I do my work going forward.
I dont think you’re able to anticipate any kind of reaction from people.
Thats really as far as you’re able to think.
No, they just like that movie.
Could anyone pitchThe Bigger Sick?Yes.
We actually have been contacted about a sequel, and I was like, Whats it gonna be?
Our lives became boring after that.
I want to ask you a stupid question, which is: Is acting fun?
It seems like you really like acting.
Is acting really fun?Its so fun!
Its the fucking best!
Its so, so fun.
I love it so much.
Youre sort of in the present and the future at the same time.
Thats whats really fun about it.
I do a lot of prep for acting.
I work on the scene a lot.
And when they yell Action!
I forget all that and just take a stab at be in the moment and see what happens.
Sometimes you go to weird places.
Its the same with acting.
Sometimes they yell Cut!
and youre like,Wow, that was exciting!and its been a scene where youre very quiet.
That is really exciting.
I think the prep for acting is very intellectual.
Youre really just reacting and in the moment and seeing the other person.
With acting, the goal is to not think at all, to just be in the moment.
It almost feels to me like meditating or something.
Were speaking on November 12.
Do you think of yourself as a comedian?
I just havent done it at all since February 2020.
Like, getting ten great new minutes would take me a while.
Remember whenyou hostedSNL?Yeah, I do remember when I hostedSNL.
I was so nervous for it, but its really not a nerve-racking experience.
Its really, more than anything, an exhausting experience.
That week isso busy.
Youre going, going, going, going, going.
That was the rehearsal!
I have to do all that again!
When I was asked, I was like,Oh, I want to write a good stand-up set.
I hadnt been doing stand-up a lot and I just kind of wrote this new seven-minute set.
That was the last time I was really, like, trying to build a stand-up thing.
Beforehand, they told me, Just so you know, sometimes Steven Spielberg comes and watches.
If you watch it, youll know exactly what moment it is.
I take a deep breath and I look away, and then I go back to it.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
