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I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions at SCOTUS. We are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight every single week. New Amicus episodes every Saturday, wherever you listen.

You're listening to Comedy Central.

Hey, Daily Show Ears Edition listeners. This is Sarah Hamlin, segmenting Director for The Daily Show. I'm here with one of the newest members of The Daily Show news team, Grace Kuhlenschmitt. Welcome, Grace.

Hey, thanks. Yay. Yay.

Welcome to the family.

The studio audience is going wild right now.

You can't hear them, but they are losing it. The rat that lives in the corner of our building is absolutely dying in a glue trap. Grace, did you ever imagine that your Daily Show debut would be debating with Michael Costa about whether you should take $500,000 or have lunch with Jay-Z?

It's crazy. I've always had this vision that it would be that. No, definitely not. But I was so thrilled. And working with Costa for my first piece was really, really fun. He is actually unbelievably kind and made me feel so comfortable, and I felt really, really grateful.

Would you also take the money?

No way. You definitely have lunch with Jay-Z. Look at his list of accomplishments. He married Beyoncé. He dated Beyoncé. He probably has Beyoncé's phone number. So yeah, definitely lunch. Screw the 500 grand. I'd pay that much to have Beyoncé spit on me. Yeah, of course, we'd all pay half a mil for Beyoncé to spit on us, but that's not the question, Grace. Between Jay-Z or half a million, you got to take the money.

So what was your first day at The Daily Show like? Did you have an expectation of what The Daily Show office was going to be like, or were there things that surprised you?

Yeah, I mean, I spend very little time in offices, just by trade. So I immediately clocked the free soda. I immediately clocked free snacks, and I thought, I could really find a home here.

So when you walked in, you were like, This is just like an episode of The Office. You guys look at your cute desks.

Even just having a with glass windows and doors around it, I was like, This is so cool. And everyone's off. I truly spend no time in an office ever, so I'm having fun. Oh, great. But then my first day on set, the first day I walked onto the actual set, I was like, This is unreal. It's so just detailed and beautiful, and all the lights are dope, and there's so much equipment. Also, there are so many There's so many more people who work here than I could have ever imagined. It's really cool.

I'm curious, did you seek out advice from any current or former correspondence for the show?

I really went in blind, but I do that with most things in my life, honestly. I don't think about the future too much. I'm very good with the flow.

You got to stay in the moment. Yeah, exactly. By the way, I did talk to Roni the other day, and he was like, Oh, I got to call Grace because I think when he started, John Oliver gave him a whole speech. So he's been trying with new correspondence to give them a whole speech. Okay, that's cute. I did it for Troy, but I haven't done it for Grace yet.

You know, Roy did send me an email. Oh. Yeah, it was really sweet.

Can you give me a highlight? I mean, Obviously, cone of silence.

Yeah, for some reason, I'm like, I think I can't say the coolest thing about it, but it is notes from past correspondence and tips.

Oh, that's really nice.

And Roy had unreal advice. I felt like I was reading a constitution. It was really cool.

That's really sweet. Okay, so before seeing Grace on The Daily Show, you probably saw Grace's viral sketch videos on Instagram and TikTok Grace, how would you describe your brand of comedy and the types of content you make?

I guess very character-based. I mean, I think I'm like, goofy first. I do think all my stuff is very silly. I don't take myself too seriously. I don't take my comedy too seriously. I'm typically not trying to make a political statement with any of my stuff, but also I do think any of my stuff will reflect my views and how I see the world. But yeah, I mean, definitely character-based. This is a funny job, too, because it's the first time I'm ever playing myself to a certain degree. That's been a It was a really fun adjustment, too.

Yeah, I remember when they told us that you were going to be starting on the show, and I went and watched a bunch of your videos, and I was like, Oh, my God, this girl is so funny. I think one thing we were trying to figure out with doing your first field piece was when Costa came in, it's just you see him and you're like, Yeah, news guy. Totally. But you are not fake journalists. What's your voice going to be? So then, yeah, with the piece we did together, I was like, Oh, you're just so... You do this lifestyle influencer thing really well in some of your videos. I was like, That would be a really fun character to put with this guy who's living this outrageous lifestyle.

It was really fun. Working with Josh Spodek was so fun because we are definitely completely opposite people. But there was a huge mutual respect. I think what he's doing is unbelievably cool. It was really fun.

Yeah, we I got to do your first field piece. I got to direct you in your first field piece about living off the grid in Manhattan, where you sat down with astrophysicist and NYU professor, Joshua Spodek, who's been living without electricity for over a year now.

So what is your problem with electricity? Did it kill your family? Or did it? Because I'm now realizing that's something that could happen.

I do use electricity. I have my solar panel that I take up to the roof and charge the battery, but that's it.

I try to minimize my footprint as much as I can. Now, what exactly is electricity? I know the basics. It's the stuff that's in the air. Electric Actually, it's very complicated. When people think it's simple, I'm like, Are you dumb? In one sense, it's simple in that it just works because that's how it works in gravity. It is. Gravity. We've learned to control this power through wires and batteries and things like that. Almost always, you're going to be polluting. I'm curious, too.

As we were working on the piece and getting closer to shooting it, how are you balancing celebrating what he's doing and then also poking fun?

It did feel hard at times. My biggest thing was making sure that he didn't feel made fun of. Because I think to the audience, hopefully it's clear I'm not making fun of him. I wanted to make sure it was clear to him. So much of sarcasm and satire can border on making fun. That's not something I've ever done. If anything, my comedy is making fun of myself.

It was funny, too, because you guys both have this earnestness, but he is just such a straight man and so, so serious. He's like a scientist. Then that just like, you playing this person who doesn't understand anything was so fun with him because he was so patient with you and explaining everything.

He was the perfect... I did improv for so many years, and improv can be so many things, but it is a common thing for there to be a goofy character and a straight man. He did fit that bill perfectly because every time he It was like an alley-oop. He just dunked it right in where I would say something absolutely ridiculous, and he would respond with, Sure. It is a good punchline. I do think he is funny, and I I think he knew what the joke was all along, too. He's obviously smart. There was so much cut, too. We had a full bit, obviously, at Precycle with Katerina, who's the owner of Precycle, which, by the way, is a really cool store. I had a blast in there. There's another one that just opened, I think, over the summer. It's just one of those stores you could spend 30 minutes just looking at things. But yeah, we had a whole interview with her that we didn't really use much of. But there were some really funny bits in that, too.

Then there was the bit in Times Square trying to get people to eat the stew that you made, the raw stew. Yeah.

Did I try that stew? I can't even remember.

Oh, that's what I wanted to ask you, too, because I feel like in the segment, we see you make a face when you tried the kombucha. I felt I mean, I also tried the kombucha, and I felt like… I remember Josh talking a lot about because he had been living this lifestyle for so long, he couldn't even eat a piece of candy. It would be poison to him, and his taste buds had completely changed. But to me, that kombucha, it was like drinking vinegar. I need sugar. The Skittles thing was not fake.

That's one of the less good juices I've had in my life, but not the worst. Yeah, so the fruit has Sugar. Sugar. That's what it's missing. Okay. I think there are places where Skittles were taken off the market for being so unhealthy. That's so effed up, dude.

I want to just come back to TikTok TikTok and social media. I remember when we talked a little bit about how getting on TikTok really changed things for you as a comedian. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Sure. I almost wish I had the stats of how my career started written down somewhere, but I don't. But before the pandemic, I probably had 3,000 followers on Twitter. So small, but honestly, it felt big to me. That's how my career started, was fully on Twitter. I probably I got 30,000 followers before I ever started posting on Instagram. Then I had my first manager, Kathleen. She was like, You need to post on TikTok. I was like, I do not want to. I don't know why. Frankly, it was probably some of the best advice I've ever gotten. I think now it is just if you want to be in this career, you do just have to say yes to these things, or you have to accept the fact that you're not going to go viral. When I was posting on TikTok, it was June of 2020 was when I first started posting on there. I was happily unemployed because I hated the restaurant I was working at before the pandemic. I was like, Oh, my God, I can make videos all day long. And so I was. I was making three videos a day. Now, I do not have that stamina, but I'm so glad that I saw an opportunity and went for it.

And also, like I said earlier, I didn't anticipate anything happening. I was living in Chicago, and I was doing comedy, but Chicago is such a weird comedy place because there's no industry there. I was doing shows every night for five people, and those five people were also performers.

I'm interested to know, so much of the work that do on social media is about making fun of social media, making fun of content creation, which is really fun. So how do you balance using your platform as a space for comedy while also doing that social commentary about social media usage?

I mean, it's incredibly hypocritical, and I just have to embrace that. I'm in my 20s on TikTok. I just have to take it at face value. And Yeah, I mean, I'm working towards my hour of stand-up right now. It has been so fun thinking more long term about a standup hour. I have this 10-minute bit right now that I literally hired a cinematographer to help me do. It's a video, and I'm just parodying influencer my day in the life as an influencer in New York City. I mean, it's goofy because half the things are true for me as well. I can make fun of an influencer getting a brand deal, but it's like I've also done many brand deals. I think maybe as part of that is just being self-aware of how privileged any angle of influencership is and being able to make fun of yourself, too.

Yeah. Well, you have such an earnestness about it that it never feels mean. It just feels really accurate It's not your favorite. But it doesn't feel like you're punching down or like... Oh, no, definitely not. That's what's so interesting, I feel like, about your comedy. Yeah.

Also, I am basic at the end of the day, too. I can make fun of influencers, But at 10:00 PM, when I need my brain to shut off, I'm on a YouTube channel watching an influencer. So what are you going to do, guys? I'm just trying to live my life.

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I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape, the many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions at SCOTUS. We are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight every single week. New Amicus episodes every Saturday, wherever you listen.

I remember seeing your Daily Show audition. You showed it to me, and it was so funny. What was that audition process like? And what do you think it was about your audition that got you the job? Or maybe you got some feedback where they were like, We I loved this.

Yeah, it really was so... I mean, it was basically an entire year ago. I was asked to basically write my own one to two-minute segment. So I wrote this really stupid segment about how I was at the Spy Museum in DC, and I just needed a few more bucks to get some more freeze-dried ice cream. I rewatched it with you. I rewatched it since then, too, and I'm I do just think I was having so much fun making that. I thought it was so silly. I think that is probably the piece of advice that I tell myself with all of my comedy is I don't need to be trying to make other people laugh. I do just need to be making myself laugh because once I'm trying to make some random person with a completely different perspective of mine laugh, it's not going to work. It's not going to feel authentic. I felt really good about that audition, but I felt about it in the way that I was like, This is funny, and not in a way of, I'm going to get this job. It felt unattainable and absolutely random to me. Meeting with producers here was like, What the hell is happening?

But now I'm like, This is so cool. I feel so lucky to be here and just excited to bring in a new voice and bring in my own spin on things. Also, I love collaboration. That's something that I don't get to do online. I'm just writing, directing, filming my own stuff. And so that's something that's been really cool. Working with you on that piece, we worked on it for so long. I feel like we both had to adapt to so many new things, and I learned an unbelievable amount, and it was really fun.

Yeah, that was so much fun coming in and doing all those joke meetings and getting to bring the writers in.

I know. That's some of my favorite part is working with the writers, too. It's so fun.

Do you feel like coming here and being able to bring that queer perspective to field pieces or what stories you cover, chats? Are there certain subjects you're excited to go into?

Yeah, I mean, I'm game to do anything gay, obviously. What if I was like, I really don't want to be pigeonholved? No, I love being gay. Well, I'll just say that my favorite comedians, I could name 10 comedians right now who are my favorite. I think every single one of them is queer. I'm biased, I guess. But I also think being in comedy, there's something about it where it's like you're not explicitly trying to It's not really political, but it always is. I think being gay has a huge factor to that, too. I could put something up and no one knows I'm gay, but I see that I have a queer perspective in everything that I do.

Yeah, I feel like also a lot of the characters you do in your TikTok and other videos are these heterosexual stereotypes. Can you talk about playing with that? Definitely. Or just the comedy of heterosexuality, which feels like something a little bit newer to make fun of.

Sure, which is fair. I think it reminds me of how silly the low blows are for gay characters in TV for the past however many years where it's just like, Oh, you gave this gay character one personality trait. I'm like, Why don't we do that? That's fine, actually. Let's do that. We can keep that, and let's also do that to straight people. Also, it's like, I was closeted for so long and not in a sad way, honestly. I was so high in high school that I didn't know I was gay. But I think it's so easy to... It should easy to make fun of heterosexual. It should be easy to make fun of homosexual. None of it needs to be punching down. I just think there's obvious things about people culturally that we can all agree are funny. Also, none of that needs to be a generalization. If I'm making fun of heterosexuality, I'm making fun of one very specific type of annoying person in the same way that if I'm making fun of homosexuality, I'd be making fun of one very specific annoying gay person.

Yes. I'm trying to remember this one video you have as the lesbian girl drama video and the woman who's just going on this rant about what's going on in her circle and like, If you knew, and That was one of my favorites. Oh, thanks.

Basically, everybody's been wondering what I know, and it's a lot. Now, if you all are wondering, do I know these girls? Yeah. I know them actually very well. Do I know them personally? No. But we hang out in the exact same circles. I'm just outside of that circle. I made so many videos at one point in 2020 that people will say to me all the time, Oh, my favorite video of yours. And I'm like, I think I did that.

I don't think anyone can remember anything about 2020. That is a good point. Try making sourdough bread.

Yeah, exactly.

Do you have thoughts on... You're talking about playing yourself as your daily show character, but Do you have ideas on how you want to build that persona as The Daily Show, Grace Coolen-Schmitt? Make the character your own.

I think every year that I've been doing comedy, which I sense maybe maybe 2015 because I started doing comedy in college, and then I moved to Chicago for three years. I do think my comedic voice changes and gets more refined every year. I also think in every segment that I've done here, I've gained more confidence truly in a way that's shocking. My first segment, live segment, I did feel honestly really confident, but in a way that felt really cool and empowering. But then the second one, I was like, Oh, my God, I'm twice as confident this time than I was last time. And that has kept growing. And also, I think working with the writers here has been really inspiring and really fun. I'm excited to see how my comedic voice evolves as well through this show, which I think it does with any job that I take.

I know one thing, just working with you as a director, a lot of the correspondence that we work with come from an improv background or a stand-up background. But I think because you come from this social media background, you have such a command of reactions and such an ability to do so much with your facial expressions. Do you feel like there are certain superpowers that you've gotten from doing so many videos for social media, seeing what does well, what doesn't do well, what people react to?

I mean, I do think it is a combination of my social media background, but also I did improv for so long, and I did it an insane amount. In 2019, I was doing improv five nights a week, and it was my life. In improv, to have one split second to make a decision. So that's a really interesting way of, which I guess I have used with Man On The Street stuff. I've learned through both improv and social media to trust my gut, first and foremost. I think that my brain, honestly, is going the fastest, is at its highest capacity when I'm acting. Every other time of the day, it's going at at a truly glacial pace.

You're just saving it up.

Yeah, exactly.

We're going into an election year, so it's going to be a lot of political stories. Are there any 2024 election stories or races or even bigger ideas about politics in America that you're interested in exploring? Do you want to go to a Trump rally? God.

I don't know. I'm like, I think I'd be truly scared. I don't know. I mean, it's interesting. I've obviously been at Pride so many times that I've been around super fucking crazy protesters whom are scary. I also went to a liberal arts school. Now I live in Brooklyn. And so it's like, I am in a total, and in this industry, a total liberal bubble. I think it would be interesting. I'm just so curious to see what's going to happen, election-wise. I mean, I can make a guess what I think is going to happen, but I think it's going to be a crazy year. We'll see. I mean, I'm excited to make fun of every single politician. So many of them are dumb, and I'm not saying I'm smart. I'm just saying they're dumb.

Yeah. I feel like we should do something about the don't say gay bill stuff in Florida because that is so wild.

It's truly ridiculous. There are absolutely bigger things to to worry about. Yeah.

A teacher could get fired for having a picture of their partner on their desk. Right?

But then they also need to carry a gun, so that's awesome.

Yeah, exactly. As they're doing their active shooter drill, hiding in the safe room. Oh, my God. That you see the art closet.

It's a horrible time to be alive, and yet we just have to enjoy it and see what happens.

Yes.

I guess maybe same question back at you. What do you want to focus on in the next year? What are you compelled to bring it into the show.

Oh, yeah. For 2024. I mean, I feel like reproductive rights are such a huge issue. Totally. Like thinking about what just happened with that poor woman in Texas. I mean, I'm a mom, and I can't imagine going through that heartbreak where you're so excited to have a baby and you find out it's not viable. You have politicians who are saying, No, you need to carry this baby to term and give birth to it. You could not to be able to have another child because they're being forced. It's just crazy barbaric stuff that's happening in our country. Of course, with reproductive rights, those stories are really hard to cover because they're so depressing. Sam Bee had a great segment on The Daily Show Years ago where it was like she just kept holding or meeting different cute animals because the story was so depressing. It was just this escalation of her going to the zoo and holding a sloth because the more information she got. Yeah, It's finding those games and those ways to take these stories that are really depressing about the state of our country and democracy and how do we find a way through that gets people thinking about that.

Again, I was so happy we got to do an environmental story. I'm always trying to get any environmental story on the show because I'm very passionate.

Because The Daily Show doesn't believe in climate change.

Yes. I'm like, Guys, hello. I can't believe you asked me a question. Crazy. Usually, nobody asks me questions except, How's my light?

Well, this was fun. Thanks for having me on.

Welcome to the show. It's so exciting you're here.

I am excited and excited to work with you again, too. Yes. It'll be fun.

Well, thanks so much for joining me and Grace, and thanks for listening to The Daily Show, Yours Edition.

Bye. Bye. Explore more shows from The Daily Show podcast universe First by searching The Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch The Daily Show weeknights at 11:00, 10:00 Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount+. This This has been a Comedy Central podcast.

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I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I'm host of Amicus, Slate's podcast about the law and the US Supreme Court. We are shifting into high gear, coming at you weekly with the context you need to understand the rapidly changing legal landscape. The many trials of Donald J. Trump, judicial ethics, arguments and opinions at SCOTUS. We are tackling the big legal news with clarity and insight every single week. New Amicus episodes every Saturday, wherever you listen.