Martha Stewart’s cooking up some comedy with Conan O’Brien and Seth Meyers on “Martha Stewart Presents: Men Who Make Us Laugh” (7 p.m. March 27, Hallmark Channel; *** out of four).
Stewart sits down with O’Brien on the set of his TBS talk show, “Conan,” for a surprisingly serious discussion about his career ups and especially the recent downs when NBC threw him under the bus to bring Jay Leno back to “The Tonight Show.”
But O’Brien also cracks up, taking Stewart on a tour of the studio and explaining how his make-up artists work.
“What you can’t see is the hose,” he jokes. “They fire a hose of flesh tone at me.” (He also offers up the “recipe” he uses to keep his famous pompadour so tall.)
On Conan O’Brien’s make-up and hair routine
CO: This is where they put 60 pounds of make-up.
MS: Wow, from that little tiny table? It doesn’t look like a lot of make-up.
CO: What you can’t see is the hose. They fire a hose of flesh tone at me.
MS: Your hair is done here too?
CO: My hair is actually done in a separate engineering room were we have a lot of hydraulic machinery.
On O’Brien’s famous hairstyle
CO: I had this hairstyle going back to eighth grade. And yes I was mocked, I was hit, I was beaten.
MS: But mom went with it too.
CO: No, mom mocked and hit and beat me.
On O’Brien’s dark side
CO: I kid Martha, that’s what I do. I joke, I jest.
MS: But it always has a dark side to it. You’re never dark with you’re children, are you?
CO: At night. Just before bedtime I usually tell them we’re only here for a small amount of time. No one really knows what happens after we die. Have a good night’s sleep. So they’re both getting a lot of therapy now.
Meyers is the focus of the hour-long special’s second half. The “Saturday Night Live” head writer and “Weekend Update” anchor travels to Stewart’s Connecticut farm, where he attempts to help her with her chores, with hilarious results.
A clip reel provided by Hallmark (above) makes the Meyers interview seem more silly than revealing, but Stewart does expose more about the funnyman who went to Northwestern University and got his comedy start at iO in Chicago. (Click this link to see another version of Meyers’ sneak peek. Go to Page 2, “Men Who make Us Laugh.”)
On Seth Meyers’ and Martha Stewart’s jobs
MS: So I would think it would be kind of hard to wake up every morning and know that you have to be funny. I mean, that’s my feeling.
SM: Right. I would feel like it would be hard to wake up every morning and know you had to make something in the kitchen. So it’s good we’re doing what we’re doing.
On Meyers’ favorite co-stars
MS: Who else do you like working with on Saturday Night Live. Everybody? Do you like everybody on the show?
SM: I like everybody. I really do like everybody. Yeah. Oh, except for Andy Samberg, I don’t like him. Thank you for reminding me, I do not care for Andy Samberg. He’s like my archenemy.
On Meyers’ salary
MS: Do you make a lot of money doing “Saturday Night Live”?
SM: You can’t believe how much money I make. I mean like, it’s not a contest, but we are way closer than you think, you and I (looks around). My stables slightly bigger I guess. Yeah I make tons of money, tons of money.
On Meyers’ taking Brian William’s job
MS: Would you like to host a late night talk show?
SM: I want Brian William’s job. I don’t want to lie to you. Not because I think I’d be good at it but I just think it would really burn him if I pushed him out. That’s my goal
