A version of this was originally posted on cpluscomedy.com in 2019.
Are you at work right now currently?
Matt Koff: I am yes.
Oh, okay. So this is like an actual what do you guys do on Fridays there?
Koff: Well. You know, it’s sort of like we write guest questions for the upcoming week. Get questions and preparing for the next week and also evergreen assignments. We have debates coming up so we’re writing what we can ahead of the news. Just so we are prepared kind of like banking material
Speaking of those debates, you guys went the show went live for the last debate and for a lot of stuff in recent memory. Do you have to write jokes live? Are you writing beforehand? As you watch the debate? How does that work?
Koff: We are writing through the debate kind ofpitching jokes, watching for like the funniest and most interesting moments. Trevor and producers are like “Okay, well, somebody said this. This thing happened. Someone spoke spanish unnecessarily.” I just kind of have to kind of toss out ideas like all the writers. Most of us are just in a room together where there’s somebody at a laptop -- actually, a lot of us with your laptops -- then just talking out ideas.
It’s fun. I mean it’s a long day obviously because we you know we go home around like midnight but you know, it’s fun because it’s kind of feels like it’s there’s more adrenaline than the average day.
So you write for the show and then you wrote for a couple of things and then you and then you wrote you write for yourself when you do stand-up and this album. Do you ever have trouble delineating which jokes go between The Daily Show and stand up? Obviously, one is more topical than the other but do you ever you ever find yourself writing a joke for the show for Trevor or for one of the correspondents and then thinking “Oh, that was a pretty good joke, I should use that for myself.”
Koff: Not very often. Because a lot of it is, you know, what I write for Trevor is topical going because I’m thinking so much that his voice when I when I’m writing for him, I feel like my voice is so different that it never occurs to me... But maybe it should because we all write a lot of things that never even make it to the show at all.
Yeah, most of the time it’s just kind of like I’m writing for Trevor and either he likes it or doesn’t. But it’s just really a different part of my brain. There’s maybe been like one or two times... And also when I write something I instantly -- like it’s a job -- I can instantly forget about it.
So somebody says “Oh, I like that joke,” even though I wasn’t in the show, I’ll be like “Oh yeah, that was a good joke and it didn’t make it into the show.” Maybe I will use it for myself. That, maybe, happened like once or twice in the six years of working here with both John [Stewart] and Trevor. It’s kind of like improv in a way since you’re putting stuff out.
I also write a lot of garbage for The Daily Show, but you still have one good joke one day that’s good. That might be the wrong answer. It’s just a different muscl I would say.
You so you mentioned you’ve been riding for the show for six years and then you’ve been doing stand up for 10. Those first four years, were you in search of a job writing for a show such as Daily Show, or were you just doing stand up to say “I’m going to do stand up to make a career out of it?”
Koff: It was more like I’m doing-- I do comedy or trying to. When I first got to the city in 2005 or 2006, I wanted to start with a sketch group because I love sketch comedy. Mr. Show, Monty Python. That kind of thing. And I found it very difficult.
Comedy is hard and just coming up with this stuff. But also trying to keep a group together is hard. My original ambition was to somehow make it in sketch comedy. And I was like this is impossible. Then I transitioned into stand up but I think at that point, I had never really ever had dreams about being like a big stand up. It was more kind of like “ well, I’m in New York City. I want to do comedy somehow.” Stand up really scared me. I thought that if I tried, I might have a panic attack on stage. So I tried it once and I didn’t have a panic attack. And so I kept doing it. But it was more like a thing just to kind of show people that I was in New York City and [was] a funny person, so hopefully I can get a writing job one day.
Then I got the writing job. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue, you know, once I got hired for The Daily Show. But a couple people including like John Oliver actually, he had like see me around just before I had gotten The Daily Show. He was like you should keep doing stand up.
Because a lot of times people will write for The Daily Show for years and years and then they want to do something else but they have cultivate no other skill. I was like “Well I might as well maintain this.” If John Oliver’s telling me I should keep doing it, I guess I will.
It gives me a nice clean expression. So my entire day isn’t just like writing Trump jokes for a handsome South African man. It’s also writing jokes for an awkward Jewish person that happens to be me.
These have these are these live in two separate worlds, but they can come together, obviously. When did you decide that you were comfortable enough to do a full album? Because most people they do one after maybe a couple of years. I’ve talked to people who’ve done it after a year, which doesn’t make sense. But when did you decide that this is going to be your first album after a decade of doing comedy?
Koff: I wanted to do something. I’ve been doing it lot, obviously. I guess I just kind of felt like it was time. I just had this material.
You kind of want to close a chapter on material. I think that was it. It was doing a lot of stand-up, I got to be on The Daily Show... I don’t know. Its sort of plateaued. When you have a good full time writing job, it’s hard to look really go out on the road. So it was kind of like my life mostly was just going to The Daily Show and then during an open mic or a bar show in Brooklyn or something.
I wasn’t at the level where I was being given Netflix specials or anything. As a writer -- a writer who is not on camera -- I feel like I’m an active stand up, but I’m not getting a ton of on camera opportunity.
An opportunity came up to record an album. I was like I’m not going to give this to [whichever streamer] or whatever the fuck I’m just going to like do an album. It just felt like a natural progression.
Now that I can close the book [on my first] nine years, it’s like “Okay get this stuff out of the way and see what else I have to say.”
It is like you’re closing a book like you’re; like you’re turning to another chapter at least in your comedy career. I like that you said that you thought your stan dup was plateauing . After plateauing after your comedy plateaued do you ever see yourself trying to find a new innovative way of telling your stand-up doing your standup?
Koff: I’m thinking about that all the time because, as somebody who’s just kind of like thing basically doing and thinking about comedy for 15 hours at a time, I do feel like it... I’m sure people said this but [comedy] is kind of like porn or getting high. The more you’re exposed to it, the harder it is to find it satisfying. I have already holding on that. I don’t really have a specific plan. My first love with comedy was like sketch comedy. Now I’m primarily, in terms of a performer, I don’t discuss how I do stand up. I would like to find a way to unite stand up with sketch. But you know, I think whatever I do next is a little bit more different; a little bit more theme focused or kind of like yeah, I don’t know. I was inspired by Julio Torres like he has like a, you know, new HBO special. He managed to incorporate some sketch and some stand-up. I want to find a new form and I’m not sure what that is yet.