Four years ago, Matt Rogers was at a personal and professional low point after a breakup and not getting hired on Saturday Night Live. But then, like a phoenix from the ashes, he emerged as the prince of Christmas with a one-person show called Have You Heard of Christmas? Now, in 2022, that show is set to debut on Showtime on December 2. With songs co-written with Henry Koperski, the person Rogers had broken up with in 2018, Rogers performs as “Matt Rogers,†a version of himself that takes himself soooooo seriously as a pop star, despite, you know, not actually being one. The songs are so good, and the jokes are so funny. It is a gift.
On Good One, Rogers talks about how the songs came together, how drag has influenced his comedy, and how he made the special a love letter to who he is and was. Read some excerpts from the interview below or listen to the full episode of Good One wherever you get your podcasts.
How do you start coming up with a concept for a song? Like, when you decided on doing a Christmas show, were you just whiteboarding Christmas?
What inspires me more is listening to a type of song and thinking, How do I put that genre of song in my show? For example, the song “Every Christmas Eve,†which is a fuck-you revenge ballad from Mrs. Claus’s perspective as she’s crunching the numbers that there’s no way Santa is visiting every house in a night — I listened to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Party for One†and, over that chord progression, I wrote my own lyrics and then slowed it down so that it was a ballad. Then I gave that to Henry, and then he creates a bridge and I write over that, and by the time we’re done, we have a completely different song.
I love that song. That’s the song I listen to when I just want to listen to one of the songs.
It is the song I am most proud of musically because it’s really hard to sing. I do think the best I ever sang it is in the special, so that was a huge relief. It’s actually also very much inspired by the song “Burn†from Hamilton.
I was going to say!
I’ve actually told Lin-Manuel this at the Critics’ Choice Awards. It was so embarrassing. I was wasted drunk. I went as Bowen’s date because he was nominated. This is when they were trying to make the Critics’ Choice Awards a thing. They’re trying to make this the new Globes. So everyone’s at this party, and I think Bowen had known Lin-Manuel because Bowen may have been there when Lin hosted SNL.
Or, at least, I’m sure Lin has showed up since.
Also, people approach Bowen. When you’re with Bowen, people approach Bowen; that’s just what it is. So I turn around and there’s Lin-Manuel, and I’m wasted at this point. And I go, “I saw Hamilton right after Pulse.†And his eyes got so wide and went to the ground and I was like, “I’m so sorry! Did I just throw you off for the rest of your night?†and he goes “No, no, no, I’m just absorbing it!†And I was like, “Okay, well, sorry I did that, but I absolutely loved it and my favorite song is ‘Burn’!†He’ll never remember me saying that, but I really genuinely was inspired by that song. And whenever anyone’s like “My favorite song is ‘Satisfied’! My favorite song is this, that, whatever†from Hamilton, I’m like, “Bitch, give me that Beyoncé moment anytime!†It’s such a powerful moment in the show. And I was like, “I want Mrs. Claus to have that moment.†So when I heard that Carly Rae song, I put it all together.
So when I have an in to the type of song I’m going to do, the comedic idea is secondary, honestly. I am interested in women and underrepresented points of view. With Mrs. Claus, we literally have never been told her story, and that to me is so funny. We just have not attempted to explore her and her reality at all. Even in the era of “We’re telling women’s stories,†we’ve seen nothing! Nothing!
Besides playing Mrs. Claus, of course, during the special you play Christine Baranski as Martha May Whovier from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Can you tell me about your history with watching drag and having it influence your comedy?
There were two things that really cracked open for me what my comedic voice was. It was doing Las Culturistas with Bowen, because I don’t think I understood that I, myself, could be a valid comedic voice. I didn’t see any stand-ups that were like me talking about the things that I was interested in. The comedians I was really identifying with were women, but then the men that I sort of “had to†listen to were like the Dane Cooks — that era.
But then in Drag Race there’s the idea of “You’re all born naked and the rest is drag.†You create your own rules and reality. We’re all doing drag to an extent, and to think that you actually have more power than you think beyond identity was really revolutionary for me. This idea of lawlessness in drag really inspired me and changed my comedy because I stopped being afraid. I also got this from Amy Poehler’s book, Yes Please, that if you’re having fun, they’re having fun, and that has served me right every single time.
Then I saw that there’s a ton of amazing drag in NYC, and I was exposed to a ton of it. I think one of the most talented stand-up comedians is Bob the Drag Queen, and I was at Bob’s show every week. It was this permission that Bob was giving themselves to completely not give a fuck. I connected to drag, and therefore drag revolutionized my comedy in a way. And there is something about putting on the wig, and you just change. Like, I physically morph when I put the wig on — not in terms of appearance, but I’ve been told this a few times and I see it in other people, like “Damn, when you put that wig on or those heels on, you become a different person.†Like, it really does. It’s a tool. It’s an elevation.
How do you think of the “Matt Rogers†you play in this special?
I honestly think that my stage persona is a lot stronger and more sexually confident and more bold than I am in my real life. I’m goofier. I think that I’m sillier. But onstage for some reason, especially in this show, I really have the instinct to dominate. There is this weird alter ego that comes out when I’m performing that feels impenetrable. He’s imaginary, but he’s also very much like a narcissist extension, a dragon version of myself. The Matt Rogers in this show is like a version of myself that I would drag.
There’s nothing funnier to me than people who take themselves super seriously. It is a common thread of a lot of the characters I’ve played. I remember I went to JFL with a Channing Tatum who was ultraconfident and then, in the middle of the striptease, stops and goes, “Do you guys like me because I’m an actor or because of my body?†Or I did this really confident James Bond villain who was like, “Ooh, Mr. Bond, yes, your martini shaken, not stirred, now I will order my drink.†And he turns to the bartender and he’s like, “What do you guys have? Okay, let me look at the menu. Sorry, I’ll be two seconds. Okay, you were here first! You go, you go.†So, if I’m going to present myself in a special, it’s the type of character I like playing. At the core of it is hopefully the vulnerability.
There are a few parts in the special where the line between you and the persona really blurs. One is where you acknowledge that you used to date Henry to set up the song “Rockefeller Center,†saying he never would take you there. How did you decide you wanted to approach that?
I don’t even just consider this my show. This is half Henry’s show. All this music is co-written. While I write the lyrics and I come up with the basic melodies, he composes the songs and he is the reason why I think it’s to the level that it’s at. But also we have such a storied history between us. It is so thick that part of the joy of being able to do this with him still is being able to make fun of the people that we were when we first wrote this show.
I’ll start crying again … [Starts tearing up.] There was a moment where after “You Still Make It Rain on Christmas†and the show is over, I lean over the piano and we have this moment together. That was so important to me. I told them, “Please keep that in there,†because to me it’s not just a comedy show. The whole show is an encapsulation of so many things about my 20s and me coming up and understanding who I was as a person, and Henry’s such an important part of that. The C story of the show is a love story between us and that we were able to overcome truly so much and still do this together.
That Rockefeller Center stuff about him not going there with me is not actually something he did. That was just an excuse for me to sing the song “Rockefeller Center,†which really was just me taking back that part of town for myself.
You’ve talked about how that song was partly written about the experience of auditioning for SNL at the same time as Bowen but ultimately not getting it. I remember when that happened, this show was where you put a lot of your focus and energy.
It saved me. It really did.
What does it mean to have it now where you are having so much success?
Bowen actually texted me the day I recorded it … [Starts crying.] God, I’m literally sobbing. I’m inconsolable. He said, “Let this show be a love letter to yourself and all the hard work that you’ve done.†And I was literally like, “I will.†Then I was really ready to go onstage and take a deep breath and be confident because I knew that’s what it was. I still get emotional when I go back to New York now and walk around and see the corners where I used to hook up with boys — all this stupid messy shit. And then I was taping it at Joe’s Pub, which I say in the show used to be a goal for me to even go there. Forget about being able to perform there now and have it etched in time that I did a show there. For me, it felt so right to be doing it exactly right there and for it to be that show.
September is when you find out you don’t get SNL, and then it’s October and November of depression, and then in December, when I did the show, it brought me back to life. It made me believe in myself as a performer again because I knew doing it that this is not something that probably other people could do because it was very specifically my voice and my talent. I’ve had people around me believe in it so much, and now for it to get where it’s gotten, it’s very meaningful.
All comedians struggle to find their voice ultimately. But I always think how important it has been for both you and Bowen to have a person who is right there that gets it, that can see you and be like, “You’re being yourself.†What has he meant to you?
He does really see me. Honestly, it’s when he laughs that I know. I don’t think there’s anyone in the world I like making laugh more than him. That’s why the podcast is a success: We genuinely enjoy each other every minute, and honestly, we’re each other’s sounding board in a genuine, honest way because we’ve seen each other through it all. I mean, really been through it — I’m talking the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And I know we’ll be friends until the day we’re dead, for real, just because for a while there we literally were doing everything together. You can’t lie to a person like that. So when we are creating together, it’s like a synergy and an energy, which is another reason why I really needed him in the special — because I knew that he would elevate not only the special but also me because I’ve just known from the second, the second I saw him perform, that he was a star. I’m not even kidding you. And I think that a lot of people probably would say the same thing, but I really knew from the time I was truly 19 and meeting him. I was like, Wait a second, there is something different about that energy, and I want in. Then when he felt the same way about me; it just gives you a confidence that you know you can do anything.
What’s crazy is the way that we were so in lockstep, and then it went so divergent, and that was honestly a true test for us. But also, it made us both so much stronger. I can’t speak to the reality of what it’s like to work on that show — publicly — but I know he’s going to be so much stronger at the end of it, and I know I am so much stronger from the experience of not getting it. Because we were getting to the point where we were starting to use each other as a crutch a little bit. You don’t want to be known as “Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang,†you want to be known as “Bowen Yang, and then there’s Matt Rogers, and then when they come together it’s cool.†We were getting a little bit codependent in so many ways that it was just important for us to have this big moment because now we can strengthen as individuals. And when we do come together, now there’s a different perspective on it. We can see it now in different ways on top of the strength of what we’ve built.
More From This Series
- Ego Nwodim Is in Her Silly Season
- John Early Breaks His Silence on His Joke About Us
- How to Turn a Comedy Podcast Into a Comedy Documentary