Simon Rich, From SNL to Pixar and Beyond

As the youngest writer ever hired at ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Simon Rich achieved his biggest dreams ridiculously early in life. Everything that’s followed, including a stint at Pixar writing ‘Inside Out,’ running his own shows—‘Man Seeking Woman’ and ‘Miracle Workers’—and turning his multi-part ‘New Yorker’ story ‘Sell Out’ into the movie ‘An American Pickle’ starring two Seth Rogens, has been beyond his wildest imagination. And for him, that’s really saying something. On this episode, Rich reads an excerpt from his latest short story collection ‘New Teeth’ and reflects on his incredibly prolific career as the most ambitious comedy writer in the game. Plus, hear stories about what it was like to guest-write an episode of ‘The Simpsons,’ the rejected sketch he pitched to LeBron James on his first-ever SNL episode and tackling Willy Wonka’s origin story in the upcoming prequel starring Timothée Chalamet.   Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter @mattwilstein Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram @lastlaughpod   Buy ‘New Teeth’ on Amazon   Highlights from this episode and others at The Daily Beast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices