You mentioned in your set tonight that you're clueless about pop culture, but at SNL a considerable amount of the show is driven by that content. In your solo work, you and Eric rarely, if ever, focus on pop culture. Did that ever pose a challenge?
Luckily, we supplied the alternative to that and did our own thing. We already had our voice when we got there. I feel like parodying something that's already awful is not really interesting.

So you've been doing stand-up for the past few years now?
Yeah. It was very hard to do stand-up [while I was an SNL writer]. You have to do it a few times a week, so I didn't have any chance to get better at it. It was very hard to keep up then.

But now you've been able to dedicated yourself to it more than ever. You toured recently with Eugene Mirman and Michael Showalter, as well as with Demitri Martin on another tour.
Touring was great. It afforded me the opportunity to do a 20-minute or half hour set rather than the 8-to-12 minutes you get in New York. So I definitely learned a lot, and now I'm going to be doing my own half-hour comedy special for Comedy Central, so I think I'll be able to continue getting better, just being able to talk to an audience.

How did you find the reception on a national tour with comics who are largely considered "nontraditional?"
Well, with Demetri, The Daily Show [on which he serves as the "Trandspotting" reporter] is very powerful, so we drew audiences who knew what they wanted to hear. We had great crowds. It's like being in a band. That what's weird about it: you go to a comedy club where it should appeal to everybody. Maybe it should, but you wouldn't have a club that's like, "The Music Club" that hosts Death Cab For Cutie one minute and Metallica the next. When it comes down to it, I think your job is to do the best you can do to the best of your ability and hope that people like it.

What is your process for writing stand-up? Where do you find material?
I take notes and try to avoid things anybody else talks about because it just gets boring. You try stuff, and if it works, it works. I think I try to do stuff that's not going to make me feel bad about myself. I don't feel comfortable being like, "This sucks and here's why!" or "Fuck Cher! Look at her and her stupid hair!" That just makes me want to kill myself. And I try to talk about something emotional on some level, even if it's just silly and makes me laugh. I think it's important to talk about stuff that's interesting to you. That's the end goal: to talk about something everyone can relate to, but not in that way that's like, "Ooh, everyone picks their nose!" If it's honest, people respond.

What's next for Leopold Allen?
Eric and I are writing a movie and making a series of shorts for Super Deluxe. We'd like to do another stage show, but the problem is that it's very time-consuming. I'd like to write a book and continue writing. I like to work on stuff with people I like and admire. Personally, I'm just trying to become a really, really good stand-up which I believe is the hardest thing to do. That's always been the goal.

All photos courtesy of Anya Garrett.