Jeff Daniels on bringing stories and skits to life in new season of
Emmy winner Jeff Daniels has launched season two of his audio memoir “Alive and Well Enough Continues,” featuring stories and music from his decades-long career. The podcast, available on Audible, blends stories, music, and skits, offering a unique perspective on Daniels’ journey.
In one clip, the star of “The Newsroom” and “Dumb and Dumber” detailed his 1991 Saturday Night Live hosting experience, where over-preparation met the show’s notorious last-minute rewrites.
“By Thursday night’s rehearsal, I had all 15 sketches memorized,” Daniels said. “If you have never hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ and you are about to, don’t memorize all 15 sketches by 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’re aiming at one listener, and they are walking, they are treadmilling, they’re doing whatever they’re doing. You’re taking them away for 30 minutes,” he said,
The project, a collaboration with his son Ben as the engineer, allows Daniels to reflect on lessons learned.
“Let’s kind of find out this more about this life I lived and see on the way if I can’t talk about what I learned from Meryl Streep, what I learned from Mike Nichols, what I learned doing comedy with Jim Carrey … just share that with people, and 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 where I am this morning, and I want to know what I went through. As you start to writing, which is what I also love to do, I’ve never been an actor that sat around and waited for the phone to ring so I could be creative again. I was creative while waiting,” he said.
