CH: It is. Someone called me out and was like, “You keep a diary. Just admit it, you keep a diary.” I don’t.

CD: I’m interested in the fact that you two just produced work on a regular basis for so long despite the fact that you were flying under the radar. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I heard that the Comedy Central exec who actually ended up contacting you about the series had been watching your videos for six months without you even knowing.

MP: Longer, actually. He’d been watching for two years or a year and a half or something.

CD: That’s amazing. It must really change the way you give advice about comedy because clearly the trick to being successful in comedy is to just make things. Lawyers and doctors have to go to school and pass tests to do their jobs, but the only test for a comedian is whether or not they’re creating comedy. 

CH: It’s the least-satisfying advice to hear, but it’s the only advice that exists.

MP: Charlie and I both have done a bunch of meetings. You meet people and you hear about what they’re looking for and all that nonsense. You get a sense of what the industry actually wants, and what people are talking about.

I remember the first time I had a meeting where someone was like, “We’re looking for someone like Louie.” When I first heard that, I was like, “That’s so cool. They’re hip and they want something cool.” But realistically, that’s an insane thing to say, because what they’re saying is, “We want somebody that’s unique, that has a voice that no one else can do.” It shows how much building a voice confuses the industry, because the industry now thinks that that’s a successful model for a show, that we can now tell people that we’re looking for things like that.