-Lin-Manuel Miranda!
-Ba-ba-ba-ba-bay!
-Come on.
You were our first guest in
the "At Home Edition."
Do you remember?
I mean, it seems
like forever ago, but --
-That was...five years ago
was that episode?
-Fifth anniversary of
the "At Home" show.
I have to talk about "Hamilton."
-Here we go.
-Can we just even just stop and
say "Hamilton" for a second?
Just let it just sit out there.
This is coming out soon.
This is being released.
-You just will have it.
It's funny --
I was on Twitter yesterday,
and people were like, "But will
you have 'Say No To This'?"
And I was like, "Yes.
You will have it."
"What about this song?"
You will just have it.
-This is insane, 'cause this --
I mean, I've seen the show,
you know --
I always hate to even --
But I've seen the show
so many times.
Every cast is amazing.
But the first time was,
you know, with this cast.
-And you saw it at the Public.
The first time we met was --
you bid on your voicemail.
-You're still my voicemail,
by the way, and I'm not kidding.
Not to name-drop you --
-Five years later.
Like almost exactly
five years later.
-Dolly Parton just left
a message on my machine
and freaked out and said,
"That is the best message
I've ever heard.
-Well, you just made my day.
Dolly Parton knows who I am?
That's incredible.
-Dude, I'm like, "What?!"
So, then I meet you.
Then this show becomes the
biggest thing in the world.
I remember going home
that night after I met you.
I flipped out,
and Nancy was flipping out.
I went home and tried to Google
anything I could find.
I couldn't find anything
about "Hamilton,"
except I found a blurry video
of you performing
at The White House for President
Barack Obama and Michelle.
-In 2009, like six years prior.
If you want to see me
at my most afraid, like,
you can watch video, because
I know that "Hamilton" is, like,
a bad elevator pitch.
Like, "Rapping founders?"
Like, "What? No."
Like -- And I think that
the audience really thought
it was a joke, like,
"This is like a
'Schoolhouse Rock!' thing
or this is like
an epic rap battles of history,
like, gag thing."
And if you watch the video,
my eyes are
constantly scanning around.
because I'm looking for
an escape route,
if this goes sideways.
Like, how do I get out of
The East Room?
What are all the exits?
How much I bomb
in front of, like,
the President of
the United States.
-You could see people laughing,
and they're kind of
going like...
[ Laughs lightly ]
Like, "What's going on?"
And then, all of a sudden,
I was like --
You see people going like,
"Well, this is actually --"
-Well, they -- What happens to
them is what happened to me,
is, like, they get
sucked into the story
and they go, "Oh.
Oh, I didn't know that."
Oh, I didn't know..."
And then by the
end, they're all like...
-Yes. Yes!
-And that's been
the experience of "Hamilton"
is just, "This is a weird idea,"
and then, you know,
Hamilton's story
is so remarkable
that people get sucked in.
-I don't know
if you understand this.
More people will see "Hamilton"
now than have ever
seen your work ever.
-I know.
I mean, that's
the crazy thing about
the scale of
theater versus film,
like, the way "Hamilton"
has entered
the popular conversation,
and, yet, more people will see
it next Friday and Saturday
than have seen it in all of its
incarnations so far.
I can't wrap
my head around that.
