Emmy winner Jef Daniels has launched the second season of his audio memoir “Alive and Well Enough Continues,” featuring stories and music from his decades-long career. The podcast, available on Audible, combines stories, music and sketches and offers a unique perspective on Daniels’ journey.
In one clip, the star of “The Newsroom” and “Dumb and Dumber” describes his 1991 Saturday Night Live hosting experience, which mixed over-preparation and the show’s infamous last-minute rewrites.
“By Thursday night’s rehearsal, I had memorized all fifteen sketches,” Daniels said. “If you’ve never hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ and you’re about to, don’t memorize all fifteen drafts before Thursday night’s rehearsal. Cue the rewrites. Pages and pages of rewrites.”
Speaking on “CBS Mornings,” Daniels explained the intimate approach of his podcast.
“You focus on one listener, and they’re walking, they’re walking on the treadmill, they’re doing whatever it is they’re doing. You take them for 30 minutes,” he said,
The project, a collaboration with his son Ben as an engineer, allows Daniels to reflect on the lessons learned.
“Let’s find out a little bit more about this life that I’ve lived and along the way see if I can’t talk about what I learned from Meryl Streep, what I learned from Mike Nichols, what I learned from doing comedy with Jim Carrey…just share that with people, especially younger actors,” he said.
The podcast isn’t just for fans, it’s also a way for Daniels to share more of himself with his family.
“I want them to know what I went through to get to where I am this morning, and I want to know what I went through. When you start writing, which I also like to do, I’ve never been an actor who sat and waited for the phone rang so I could be creative again while I waited,” he said.
