The always-funny Tim Meadows was a "Saturday Night Live" cast member for almost 10 seasons. Friday, he'll serve as the first guest for the 2012 season of "Wits." We caught up with the man behind Leon "The Ladies Man" Phelps to talk public radio, stand-up and "SNL."

Q: How'd you get involved with "Wits"?

A: Paul F. Tompkins did the show [in 2011] and afterwards he sent a mass email to his friends and suggested that if we had the ability to do it, that we should do it because he had a great time.

Q: Are you a public-radio guy?

A: I like "All Things Considered" and "All Songs Considered." I've listened to "Prairie Home Companion" for years. I was interviewed by Terry Gross years ago and she was genuinely inquisitive about how I do my job. It made me feel good, like, "Wow, someone who has interviewed world leaders did her research and is actually taking an interest in me."

Q: Can monotone, professorial public radio hosts learn anything from Leon Phelps, a fellow radio man?

A: I doubt it. I think NPR is way above what Leon does. If anything, Leon has a frank, honest, inquisitive nature about sex. And he's not that afraid to say what he thinks, even if it's gross to other people.

Q: Are you familiar with Rhett Miller, your musical cohort for "Wits"?

A: I had heard the Old 97's before, but I wasn't like a huge fan. But after I heard he was gonna be on the show, I went to iTunes and started downloading some of their stuff and I like it, it's good.

Q: You came up as an improv guy, but you've gotten into stand-up in the past couple years. Enjoying it?

A: I am enjoying it. It's a different muscle than improv; you're on stage by yourself and you have to deliver. The thing that's cool about stand-up comedy is that everything is based on your individual perception of things, so you can't help but be original unless you're bad at it.

Q: Do you and your former "SNL" castmates stay close?

A: I did a thing for Will Ferrell in D.C. a couple months back for the Mark Twain Prize. I spoke for about five minutes and got to see him, Adam McKay and a bunch of our old friends there. Adam Sandler and I keep up with each other; same thing with Chris Rock and some of the writers.

Q: Is it strange hearing different castmates remember the "SNL" experience?

A: I think all of our perceptions of what actually happened are the same, but I think that the level of intensity that we all remember it as is different. I've heard Julia Sweeney or Janeane Garofalo talk about how horrible the experience was. But when I hear them talk about it, those were honestly the things that I loved about it. I loved that it was competitive, I loved that there was no promise that anybody was gonna get a sketch on, I loved that you had to produce -- nothing was handed to you.