Dirty Laundry co-hosts Lily Du and Grant O’Brien talk the Dropout show’s new look and their dream guests

The season five premiere of Dirty Laundry aired Tuesday night with a new, art deco-inspired look for Dropout’s drinking game show and a cavalcade of new, ridiculous stories to gab over. I talked to co-hosts Lily Du and Grant O'Brien about the changes, the show’s evolution from season one, Lily’s first season as a Dirty Laundry executive producer, and who their dream guests would be.

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I wanted to start, Lily, by congratulating you on getting the hero edit of the Game Changer episode “The Drinking Game.”

Lily Du: You know, it was fun to find out that it was going to follow me, but I did immediately ask Sam Is this because I was the worst actor? Is this because people couldn't possibly believe that I was drunk? And I have seen that response, Well, nobody could believe she was drunk, so she had to be sober. And I'm like, It's the edit, man.

This season of Dirty Laundry comes with a few changes to the set and format. How do you feel the show has evolved from the first season to now?

Grant O’Brien: We've really learned how important it is to get four people who have some dynamic. Either they know each other, or they have some shared history. The real secret sauce of the show, I think, is that it really feels like a good hang with people you like to hang out with, and the more the people like hanging out with each other, the more that's going to come along. That's something we keep relearning, and keep saying Wow, that just works, doesn’t it? That's been fun to find.

Lily: I think we've evolved so much from season one in learning how to make the show run best, how to get the best rapport out of our guests, how to make the day go smoothly. The show is a well-oiled machine now, but we're still fine tuning. Anytime we see something that slows things down or could get tweaked, we fix it in the next season, and it gets even better. And I have gotten to get more involved. In season one, I was just the host. Now I'm involved in casting, in the set design, and noting the edits. This is the first season I have an EP credit, and it's fun to feel so creatively involved in this project I care about.

Grant: It comes across, too. Having some perspective like that, and your fingers in the pies – I mean, look at the style of this season, look at the vibes.

Lily: A lot of that is Paul Robalino, our producer and director. He really wanted a new look and a refresh to celebrate season five. And I think it looks amazing.

What do you like most about the new look of the set?

Lily: I think in the earlier seasons, they wanted like a Graham Norton vibe, and they really got it. But for this season, we wanted speakeasy cozy, really feeling like you're at a bar with your friends. And I think it does that. I think the lighting is just so flattering on our guests now, and everybody looks their best.

Grant: I think that speakeasy energy kind of gives it a little bit of danger, which is nice, like, Ooh, who knows what could happen in this space? It makes it just very palpable.

A big part of the show is learning a lot about other people, maybe too much.

Lily: Never too much.

What have you learned about yourselves doing Dirty Laundry?

Grant: We start every season with an e-mail from Paul Robalino saying Okay, let's get some stories. We're gonna get them into production. And every season I start with Paul, sorry to say I'm out. I don't have anything. I'm fully cashed. And then I'll think for a little bit, and then I'll be like, Well, no, that's something. Well, that'll work too. I guess I have a video of this. This will be something. So it starts with me feeling like I have no stories, and it ends with me realizing, boy, a lot of bad things have happened to me.

Lily: You know what? I'm gonna brag. I think I'm a great host, and I don't think I saw that in myself or knew that until they let me host a show. Because I think in real life, I have a kind of controlling, confrontational, very direct personality, and you wouldn't think that would be that inviting, but when it comes to getting gossip out of people, that is just what you need.

Grant: That's the secret of it. That's why it works. You’re a great host for that reason.

What have you learned about each other doing the show?

Lily: Grant is so aware of the character he plays, and pacing. He always lets himself be the heel of things to elevate the comedy of the episode. But really, he's like a comedic genius. He's so good at knowing when to chime in, when the episode needs an energetic pickup, when to back off. He plays the part of the bumbling drunk, because he is, but he also knows what he's doing.

Grant: You know, I think to myself in the show sometimes like, Ooh, do we have that story? Have we gotten all of that? And Lily does such a good job being the ears of the audience and the brain for everyone who's watching, making sure that whatever little detail needs to be there [is there]. It's probably just Lily being a good storyteller and hearing it in her head. But being the audience surrogate is tough and impressive.

Lily: I’m genuinely nosy.

If you could pick your dream Dirty Laundry couch line-up, dead or alive, who would you love to have on the show?

Lily: Well I’ve never been asked dead or alive before. I have my answer for live.

Grant: I have dead!

There you go, you can split it up.

Lily: I really want the hobbits from the Lord of the Rings movies. They're just such good friends.

Grant: You know what? And this is such a specific hipster answer. There's a dead essayist named Eve Babitz, who's my favorite writer about LA, and she was just such an interesting party girl who could talk. I think she'd be, she'd be perfect for something like this.

Lily: Joan Didion…

Grant: There you go, yeah! Judy Collins, let’s get everyone.

Lily: You know how they love to do new media streaming comedy.

Do you have a fourth one for that group, Grant?

Grant: Pete Seeger.

Grant, you brought up earlier how it’s difficult to find new secrets for yourselves because of how long you've been doing this. Does it change how you operate in the real world?

Grant: Something we've learned as we've done the show, it's a good story rather than a good secret. It doesn't need to be salacious, it needs a beginning, middle and end. So a lot of the thinking is less What crazy thing can I say? and more What has some narrative to it? Which really is comedian brain. So it's really more of a “mining personal tragedy for art” mindset.

Lily: You never run out of stories, stand-ups do hour-long specials every year. Hey, if they can do it, why can't we come up with two stories? You know, there's that phrase, “do it for the … [uncertainly] … story.” I’m so old, I’m not online.

Grant: Do it for the ‘gram!

Lily: No, it’s like “do it for the…” Someone will know it.

Grant: Do it for the Vine!

Lily: Do it for the Vine dot com. I will say in the past, maybe I lived my life that way. So hopefully I just have a back catalog of things. I certainly do try to do things that are exciting and interesting to me in my life.

If you two had to switch roles on the show for next season, what would the other be best and worst at?

Grant: Lily doesn’t know the drinks.

Lily: I've never mixed a cocktail in my life. A lot of people would be getting vodka sodas. A lot of people would be getting whiskey sodas, tequila sodas. Grant would be too drunk by the end of the day to be able to control a group of people.

Grant: A fun thing from the bar is I get to play along with the game. Lily doesn't know the stories, but has on the card whose story it is. I get to find out when they find out. I would love to watch Lily find out when people find out, because Lily screams, and it's good fun.

What’s the biggest challenge of filming a show where some of the guests get drunker as recording goes on?

Grant: Or co-hosts.

Lily: If people want to drink, and not all our guests do – Grant always does – it's fun, and people get loose and wild, and it brings a fun energy. So I would never curb that, but definitely we only have so much time to film. Sometimes me and the director do have to be the bad guy and be like, Everybody's having fun, and I have to move us on. But it's always the balancing act of being like, well, we want you to have as much fun and feel as loose as you can. But also, we have to get our guesses in. We are doing a show.

Lily Du recommends:

I've been reading all of Ann Patchett’s books, and I love them. My recommendation, though, is my two favorite comedy shows that people don't watch. Stath Lets Flats is the funniest show ever made, and then This Way Up. I wish everyone would watch it. It’s Aisling Bea’s show. It's so funny and heartbreaking and good. These are not new shows, but I think everyone would benefit from watching them. I love them.

[Stath Lets Flats is streaming on Peacock and BritBox. This Way Up is streaming on Hulu.]

Grant O’Brien recommends:

[Laughs] I hate my answer already. I just finished reading the Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson book Abundance, about how to remake liberalism for the 21st Century. I found it very informative and wise. So I recommend everyone be an old nerd like me.

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