{"id":469632,"date":"2025-12-24T22:43:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469632\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:43:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:43:17","slug":"matt-rogers-on-holiday-tour-state-of-hollywood-potential-new-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/469632\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Rogers on Holiday Tour, State of Hollywood, Potential New Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOver the last near-decade, Matt Rogers<\/a> has been putting forward his pop culture takes on Las Culturistas, the podcast he hosts with real-life pal and former<\/a> Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actor, comedian and singer has quite-literally taken his show on the road for his annual Christmas tour, dubbed Christmas in December for 2025. During the show, he performs his Christmas comedy album Have You Heard of Christmas? to crowds across the country.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s on a quick break from that tour during this conversation, preparing to wrap just in time for Christmas. Immediately after we wrap, he heads to Andy Cohen\u2019s Watch What Happens Live, alongside Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Heather Gay. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Today\u2019s] the day before Jen Shah is released<\/a> from prison. I said, \u2018It\u2019s like the opposite of Christmas Eve probably for her,\u2019\u201d he jokes on a Zoom call. He\u2019s doing a quick recap of his recent pop culture favorites \u2014 a \u201cculture catch-up,\u201d a common segment on his podcast, for any Readers, Kayteighs, Publicists, Finalists or Kyles out there.<\/p>\n

\n\tLady Gaga\u2019s \u201cAbracadabra\u201d was his top song of 2025, according to his Spotify Wrapped, but he insists it\u2019s a misrepresentation despite being proud of the fact. He says \u201cThat\u2019s So True\u201d by Gracie Abrams actually took his most played spot of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m watching Pluribus and [Real] Housewives of Salt Lake City,\u201d he says moving onto television before sharing his unsurprising movie of the moment. \u201cI\u2019ve seen Wicked: For Good three times. That\u2019s a combination of my best friend being in it and also gay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps the most unexpected pop culture revelation Rogers gives is his desire to read Olivia Nuzzi\u2019s American Canto. \u201cSomething I\u2019m not really that open about anymore because I just don\u2019t want the smoke is I am a political junkie. I always have been,\u201d he explains. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m toying with the idea of starting another podcast,\u201d he says before pausing and adding, \u201cthat\u2019s breaking news,\u201d but it\u2019s something he\u2019s thinking about it. \u201cI\u2019m trying to figure out ways to do something that\u2019s going to be interesting to me and reveals maybe a new side of myself, but also doesn\u2019t open myself up to chaos and some energy that I don\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow, Rogers shares more about his tour, dealing with the occasional parasocial nature of being a podcaster, his thoughts on the state of Hollywood and how he takes care of himself. <\/p>\n

\n\tHow has your tour been? What have you been having the most fun doing while on the road?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tEvery year I say it\u2019s the most fun tour yet, but I do think that this year it\u2019s for real. We\u2019ve been having a blast. The key to how much fun we have every year is just the group that I take on the road. I get to be a person now that says \u201cI love my band,\u201d but I truly do. The six of us are really traveling like a pack. We have me, my musical director, Henry, who\u2019s on the keys and has been doing the show with me since 2017. [We also have] my drummer, Derek. We have my bassist, Jordan, my backup singer, Melissa, and our tour manager, Ethan. We\u2019re one big happy family. We\u2019re actually going to finish off the tour in Orlando, Florida, and I\u2019m taking them all to Disney World.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you decided to start doing this yearly tour, what were the apprehensions you had in taking this on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWeirdly, I\u2019m more comfortable singing now than I am without singing.<\/p>\n

\n\tReally?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah because I do feel like it\u2019s how I would naturally express myself anyway. I\u2019m always bursting into song. I also like the idea that it\u2019s what sets my show apart. It\u2019s not something I think you see everyone else doing. I don\u2019t know, maybe it\u2019s just the little gay boy in me that always wanted straight A\u2019s because I have best little boy in the world syndrome. It can\u2019t just be comedy. It also has to be a full length album.<\/p>\n

\n\tEvery year I\u2019m like, \u201cThis year I\u2019m going to take it easy on myself. I\u2019m going to scale it back.\u201d But no, I\u2019ve added a new song, we got a new medley going. Doing this sort of pop star character that I do every year around this time of year is really fun for me because you get to embody that for a little while and it\u2019s a blast.<\/p>\n

\n\tI feel like what gives me trepidation every year when we\u2019re going on the road is a lot of the songs I\u2019ve written for myself are not easy to sing. I wrote a lot of them when I was 27 years old, and my voice was just cellularly different than it is now as a 35-year-old. But I\u2019ve been working with a vocal coach, Doug Peck. He\u2019s actually essential to me doing this every year.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the years go on, between your own work as an actor and and the podcast with Bowen Yang, things have certainly become increasingly busy for you. Do you feel like this tour is something you can sustain doing down the line?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWhat I try to do all the time is just follow the fun, which is actually something they tell you in improv. It\u2019s one of the true core lessons of it, is just do what feels good and do what feels fun. I really feel like as long as I\u2019m on stage or doing whatever it is I\u2019m doing and I can have fun doing it, that is what is important to me. Whether it\u2019s acting, performing on stage, doing the podcast, hosting here and there, writing; I just like to work in general. I\u2019m way happier when I feel like I have professional purpose. That does go on hand in hand with the fact that I genuinely love what I do. I feel bad for people that when they\u2019re out doing press and they\u2019re on shows, it\u2019s clear that they don\u2019t love the project.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlmost everything, knock on wood, that I do, I can fully get excited about talking about. I just try to keep it interesting for myself and keep it fun for me because then it\u2019s fun for everyone else. So far, I don\u2019t have anything that I\u2019ve done that I\u2019m like, \u201cOh God, this is a drag. I hate it. I\u2019m not looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to go chasing them next year either. I feel like next year my goal for myself is to just enjoy what I\u2019ve worked hard for and stop chasing as much and just really focus on the things that I have that need fostering. There\u2019s a lot of things I need to get started on. Bowen and I have this movie at Searchlight, we have the podcast, we just resigned a contract for a few more years. I was super excited about that. We have the Culture Awards renewed, we have a book to write. There\u2019s a couple other things that not everyone knows about that we\u2019re working on, so it\u2019s a lot. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll necessarily be striving to add more onto my plate because there\u2019s already a lot on there, luckily.<\/p>\n

\n\tHearing you say you follow the fun, there are obviously going to be things that come along where it seems like it\u2019s something you should do or it feels like the next step. How do you come to terms with taking the things you have to do versus the things you want to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI feel like this year more than ever, I\u2019ve been more confronted with that. If you want to be busy, you can be busy. I\u2019ve always identified as someone with limitless energy, and that\u2019s just not true no matter who you are. I think some people have maybe more energy than others, but a couple times this year I just turned around and caught myself and I was exhausted. I think it has to do with the fact that I feel so lucky to get all these opportunities because I know there are no guarantees. You have to understand, my dad\u2019s a physical education teacher. My mom\u2019s a hairdresser from Long Island. No one in my family was involved in the arts or entertainment. Honestly, I think it was a good thing because I think if I had family or close friends who were really involved in the industry or really tried to be involved in the industry, I might\u2019ve been cautioned away from trying to do it because really it\u2019s a sort of heartbreaking road that has very little to do exclusively with being talented or working the hardest. Those are parts of it, but it\u2019s not all of it. It\u2019s definitely not a meritocracy. Now I can look back and say my parents were really supportive, but I think it\u2019s because they were uninformed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey didn\u2019t quite know.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tExactly. When I get all these opportunities to do these things, I always say yes to them because I feel like how could I ever let the opportunity, the chance to do some of these things pass by? But that does come ultimately at the expense of your energy. I\u2019m just learning to balance all these professional opportunities that I\u2019m so grateful to get what\u2019s healthy for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re finding your actual bandwidth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, because I think we all lie to ourselves a little bit about what we can and can\u2019t handle. You\u2019ll tell yourself a lie because you don\u2019t want people to worry about you or because you don\u2019t want people to think you can\u2019t do it and go to someone else who will gratefully take it on. At the same time, there\u2019s the other side too, where people talk themselves out of things all the time. I never want to do that. I never want to have regrets about something that passed me by. It\u2019s a little bit of a walk, but it\u2019s a happy one. It\u2019s truly a first world problem.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve been doing the podcast for a while. You and Bowen have been pretty open and honest about yourselves there. But at the end of the day, the people listening don\u2019t actually know you. How do you handle that almost one-way street of people feeling like they know you<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\n\tI really welcome our listeners approaching us with whatever energy it is. When it comes to the podcast and sharing about my life, I\u2019m pretty much an open book. That\u2019s not something I worry about. However, when your platform grows to include people who are not necessarily always listening with the best interests, it\u2019s really just other people in my life that I get concerned about oversharing for. Certainly stories that I would tell from dating when I was doing the podcast in 2017, 2018, 2019 would affect someone differently that\u2019s in my life now in 2025, heading into 2026, to all of these people. It\u2019s not because I don\u2019t want to share everything because I know that\u2019s what binds me to my audience. I\u2019m so grateful for that, but it\u2019s really just me wanting to take care of the people in my life and also wanting to take care of other artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the things about our podcast is we\u2019re very honest about our opinions, and we\u2019re talking about pop culture in a fun way. But now being someone that\u2019s an artist in the entertainment industry, which is an asterisk because it\u2019s different than just being an artist in everyday life, there are so many considerations and things that go into a finished product that would make it a little bit unfair to judge it and drag it across the coal. I think that my maturity and my education of how all of this works is maybe informing maybe a little bit of a conservatism when it comes to talking about pop culture. We still have fun with everything. But I\u2019m not going to go out there and attack another artist because I know that\u2019s what it takes and what it\u2019s like to create at this kind of level means that there\u2019s a lot of reasons why something might be worthy of critique.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou guys are at a very different stage than when you started when you were able to give all these opinions, but now a lot of these people are your colleagues, and I imagine that\u2019s uncomfortable.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think that there\u2019s comedy and then there\u2019s just being a dick. There\u2019s a huge difference. I think that people can tell the difference and can feel the difference. I\u2019ve spoken to people who I\u2019ve discussed on the podcast, who\u2019ve been in projects that I would feel I was nervous about interacting with them. Then they laugh. People have a sense of humor, but I think that\u2019s only because we\u2019ve gotten a lot better, and I think the world has gotten a lot better, at least the public facing world, the online world has gotten much darker.<\/p>\n

\n\tMaybe that\u2019s why. It\u2019s just like I see how much worse the trolling has gotten online and the social media bullying has got maybe because I\u2019ve experienced the negative end of some of it. Not in a crazy way, but in a way that\u2019s made me [decide] I\u2019m going to be more mature and more thoughtful. And therefore, I hope more intelligent and funnier than I would\u2019ve been about going on something I didn\u2019t like. But I don\u2019t think that the podcast has really changed that much. I think if you really listen back to when we started it in 2016, 2017, we treated our friends who were doing shows at UCB the same way we treat J-Lo now. They come in, we make them feel like the superstar that they are or have not yet become, but we feel they are, and we make them feel good. We use that as a stepping stool to start a great conversation and really just to make everyone feel like they hung out with someone for an hour and a half alongside us.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow are you and your friends in the industry feeling about what it\u2019s like for talent out there right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s feeling much worse. It gets worse every year. I really think we need to say that too. Even as people who \u2014 I think people associate us with being busy, we\u2019re still working hard to be this busy. This is universally across the board. I talk to all of my friends. We can all agree none of us have ever gotten less auditions. When you audition, we\u2019re still doing the self-tape thing, which is not a good way to do it. It does not showcase how a performer can take a note. It does not showcase how quickly a performer can adjust to a note. It puts the performers in their own heads because they\u2019re having to look at themselves all the time. [Self-editing] shouldn\u2019t be part of acting.<\/p>\n

\n\tI have a litany of problems with the state of the Hollywood thing right now. I\u2019ve always been someone that really didn\u2019t take myself very seriously, and I try to lead with that all the time. I really do think that\u2019s the key to so much, just stop taking yourself so seriously. Honestly, I try to just laugh at it because the stuff that they\u2019re trying is just not working, but they\u2019ll just keep doing it.<\/p>\n

\n\tEspecially as all these companies merge, you kind of just have to laugh. And that\u2019s why I\u2019m like, what am I going to \u2026 I\u2019m not going to say no to any opportunity. No, not if I feel like it\u2019s fun to do, because what am I waiting for? You\u2019re not waiting for anything. To answer your question, it is a terrible time in the industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow do you learn to take care of yourself then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThis is going to sound, on paper, sad, but I have less friends. I have fewer relationships in my life that I\u2019m really pouring into, and the relationships that I\u2019m really pouring into are really worthwhile and really fulfill me. I\u2019ve never felt in my life more surrounded by people that love me and want me to win. It\u2019s hugely important. I don\u2019t overextend myself to try to force people into my life anymore. I feel this has been a big year for me. I\u2019m 35. I think things have to come into moderation a little bit. I pushed myself to my limits this year in a couple of ways, and now I\u2019ve landed in a place where I feel healthy. I prioritize sleep. Sleeping is huge. I also got a beta blocker prescription, which has been an unbelievably big deal for me. It\u2019s just revolutionized my life because I just didn\u2019t understand that anxiety was physical. I feel more confident than ever because I\u2019m living in the moment more. I\u2019m rested, I feel hydrated, I\u2019m surrounded by good people and I\u2019m beta blocked, babe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over the last near-decade, Matt Rogers has been putting forward his pop culture takes on Las Culturistas, the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":469633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[69818,1582,276,2961,76093,224,5337,69820,975],"class_list":{"0":"post-469632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-bowen-yang","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-las-culturistas-culture-awards","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-matt-rogers","16":"tag-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115776966157484526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}