Amy Poehler admitted that hosting awards shows is no easy feat, as she shared that her three-time run as co-host of the Golden Globes was a hefty challenge she wasn’t sure she’d be able to match performance-wise each time.
“It’s hard and it’s a little bit of a diminishing returns,” Poehler shared with her “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” guest Regina Hall, whom she’d applauded for her hosting talents. “When you pull it off the first time, you’re like, ‘We did it.’ They’re like, ‘Come back and do it again.’ It’s like, ‘I don’t know if I should.’”
Poehler took the Golden Globes stage as co-host alongside her fellow “Saturday Night Live” alum Tina Fey for the first time back in 2013. The pair went on to lead the show together for the 2014 and 2015 ceremonies before officially tapping out.
While praising the gift Hall — who co-hosted 94th Academy Awards and the 2019 BET Awards — has for guiding major events, Poeher said hosting requires a certain skillset that not everyone can master through training.
“I feel you have something that hosts need that you just kind of teach, which is you have to be a little ambivalent, a little relaxed,” Poehler explained. “You can’t care too much about it.”
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“Because people can feel that,” Hall chimed in to agree.
As far as how Hall maintains her poise while hosting, she shared that once the mic is on, it’s time to start the show no matter how anxious you may be.
“Once the curtain goes up, you’re like, ‘Well, here it is.’ There’s nothing you can do. It’s like that breast exam, it’s on. The shirt is off. The machine is open. We got to slap them on in there.”
She added: “You’ve got to feel that what you’ve got is enough, ’cause I always feel like the minute you panic, that’s when it’s going to be your hardest.”
When Poehler asked Hall how she was able to get through “the year of the slap” between Will Smith and Chris Rock, Hall said she had Wanda Sykes and Amy Schumer by her side as co-hosts.
“It was wonderful to have them and not be doing that alone,” Hall said. “There’s something about the show-must-go-on mentality … Because at that point, you are thinking of your audience. You want your audience to continue to enjoy the show … And that’s the thing about a live show, anything can happen anyway when you’re doing anything live.”
Watch Poehler and Hall’s full segment above.
