"Nick Kroll"
Comedian and actor Nick Kroll joins the Smartless podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett for a wide-ranging conversation. They discuss Nick's career origins, his animated shows Big Mouth and the upcoming Mating Season, his famous father's corporate investigations business, and personal anecdotes including how Harry Styles helped him plan his marriage proposal.
Summary
The episode opens with the hosts engaging in their typical pre-guest banter, discussing morning routines including Jason Bateman's habit of fast-forwarding through recorded Dodger games, Will Arnett's Wordle-style word games with friends, and Sean Hayes' reflections on consuming depressing news. The conversation touches on the value of morning walks and meditation as alternatives to starting the day with bad news.
Nick Kroll is introduced as the guest, and the hosts immediately establish a warm rapport. Will recalls first meeting Nick at Ted Sarandos' Grammy dinner, while Nick reveals they had actually met earlier at an LA scavenger hunt organized by a man named J.P. Manu. This leads to a nostalgic discussion about elaborate celebrity scavenger hunts and water-gun assassination games that were popular in LA in the 1990s, and the hosts muse about reviving such events.
The conversation turns to Nick's impressive voice acting range — reportedly around 80 distinct voices — with demonstrations including Gunter from Sing and Douche from Sausage Party. A significant segment is devoted to clearing up a long-running misconception: many fans believed that Will Arnett voiced the Hormone Monster 'Maury' on Big Mouth, when it was actually Nick doing an original voice that happened to resemble Arnett's. Nick explains that the voice evolved from a character called Nash Ricky on his sketch show, Kroll Show.
Nick discusses the origins of Big Mouth, which he co-created with childhood friend Andrew Goldberg, describing how the show is autobiographical in nature — based on his and Andrew's experiences going through puberty at age 13. He notes the show ran for eight seasons on Netflix, making it one of the platform's longest-running scripted series. He previews his upcoming follow-up animated show, Mating Season, premiering May 22nd, about animals dating and falling in love.
The hosts explore Nick's background growing up in Rye, New York in a wealthy, conservative Jewish household. They discuss his father Jules Kroll's remarkable career building a corporate investigations and risk-mitigation firm, which included tracking the hidden fortunes of dictators like Saddam Hussein and Baby Doc Duvalier on behalf of governments. Nick is open about his privileged upbringing while acknowledging his own hard work in building his comedy career.
Nick recounts his comedy origin story: bombing at a Georgetown University freshman comedy competition where his planned 'pee my pants' bit fell apart due to lack of preparation. Mike Birbiglia won that competition and later invited Nick to audition for a sketch show, which Nick describes as a transformative moment — the first time he knew comedy was what he wanted to do with his life. He went on to discover UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) theater, which further cemented his direction.
The episode also covers Nick's personal life, including the fact that his sister Vanessa is a professional puberty educator who founded Dynamo Girl, and that his other sister is married to Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers podcast. Nick discusses having two young children and how fatherhood now factors into his career decisions.
A memorable anecdote involves Harry Styles helping Nick plan his marriage proposal to his wife Lily during the filming of Don't Worry Darling. Nick also discusses his hypnotherapy sessions — first to quit smoking with a Santa Monica therapist, and later with a Deepak Chopra Institute practitioner to curb late-night snacking by associating junk food with disgusting imagery.
The episode closes with the hosts praising Nick's body of work, including the Kroll Show, the short-lived but beloved Cavemen TV series (Nick's first job, requiring four hours of prosthetics daily), and his character Liz from Kroll Show. Nick closes out in character as Liz, a publicist, satirizing the podcast itself.
Key Insights
- Nick Kroll claims he voices approximately 80 distinct characters across his career, including Gunter from Sing and Douche from Sausage Party, the latter of which he originally performed as a British Disney villain before the character was rewritten.
- Nick Kroll reveals that the Hormone Monster 'Maury' on Big Mouth is his own original voice derived from a character called Nash Ricky from Kroll Show — not an impression of Will Arnett, despite widespread public belief to the contrary.
- Nick Kroll argues that Big Mouth was autobiographical, based on his and co-creator Andrew Goldberg's real experiences going through puberty at age 13, and that the show ran for eight seasons — more than almost any other scripted Netflix series.
- Nick Kroll describes bombing his very first comedy performance at Georgetown — a planned 'pee my pants' bit that failed because he forgot to bring the necessary props — and that Mike Birbiglia, who won that competition, later invited him to audition for a sketch show that changed his life.
- Nick Kroll states that his father Jules Kroll built a major corporate investigations firm that tracked hidden fortunes of dictators including Saddam Hussein and Baby Doc Duvalier on behalf of governments, and that the company has continued under various forms including a current entity called K2.
- Nick Kroll contends that he recognized immediately upon doing improv and sketch comedy that it was all he wanted to do, and that his privileged background gave him a safety net that allowed him to pursue it without catastrophic risk of failure.
- Nick Kroll argues that the cultural climate around comedians playing characters outside their own identity has been 'settling,' suggesting there is now somewhat more room for nuanced portrayals compared to the peak of sensitivity debates, with intent being the key distinguishing factor.
- Nick Kroll recounts that Harry Styles was closely involved in helping him plan his marriage proposal during the filming of Don't Worry Darling, and that Styles was one of the first people Nick told after the proposal succeeded — before informing his own family.
- Nick Kroll describes using hypnotherapy twice: once with a Santa Monica therapist to quit smoking, and once with a Deepak Chopra Institute practitioner to suppress late-night snacking by associating junk food with disgusting imagery, with only partial long-term success.
- Nick Kroll reveals his sister Vanessa became a professional puberty educator, founding a program called Dynamo Girl initially focused on sports for girls, which evolved to include puberty education — which Nick sees as connected to the same subject matter that inspired Big Mouth.
- Nick Kroll describes his current creative strategy as keeping multiple projects at different stages of development simultaneously, including the upcoming show Mating Season, a live-action comedy about self-help influencer gurus being written with Jason Mantzoukas, Sam Richardson, and Vanessa Bayer.
- Nick Kroll recalls that his very first professional acting job was the TV series Cavemen — based on the Geico commercials — which required four hours of prosthetics each morning, was critically and publicly reviled, and was canceled after 13 episodes, though he reflects it was a perfect first job precisely because of how bad it was.
Topics
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