• When I moved to NYC in 2013, my big goal was to attend as many episodes of “Saturday Night Live” live as I could. Seriously, I wanted to go every single week. In order to be a lucky audience member, I quickly found out, you have to wait in what is called a standby line. There are tickets for folks who are friends and family of the cast, writers and crew, VIPS and people who won the lottery to get tickets. I was never one of those. So, each time, I would get to 48th Street and 5th Avenue with a 100s of other diehards and wait in varying weather conditions for up to 18 hours. I did this roughly 20 times and wrote a long blog about the process in 2014 but it’s very outdated and details sitting outside for a certain cancelled comedian. If you’d like to read it, I’m happy to DM but not promoting it here! After awhile, my goal was to go once a season as I tired of the process and as much as I miss seeing the dress rehearsal’s cut sketches, I would rather relax on Friday nights.
Anyhow, my story is fairly common. People do it on occasion and give it up. Not Christopher Anthony William Bligh. My friend and fellow SNL superfan has attended over 100 consecutive episodes of the show (excluding the digital “SNL at Home” episodes obviously) and I made a short documentary about him back in 2014. Just got around to editing it. It’s brief (2:40), tells you his story quickly and features “Portofino” which I think is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I’m very proud of this snapshot and would love if you watched (linx in comments). Chris has a truly unique story and it’s one I think worth checking out.
• As you may know, I started a side hustle this week (it’s really my only hustle as I am currently unemployed like 10-million-plus Americans; feel free to correct my numbers) where I profile comedians, actors, writers, directors, anyone. My entire life, all I ever wanted was someone to write an article about me. I feel many in the arts feel the same way. A profile is a dream come true- someone paying attention to what you’re doing in a way that feels legitimate. I wanted to bring that service to the world and for cheap. So far, I have around 50 clients which shows that I’m not alone in fellow artists wanting profiles written about them! It’s a true honor to do these and if you’d like to check out what I currently have up you can read about performers as varied as the Weird Al-loving/military family raised Stephen Bolles, album releasing/talented storyteller Niles Abston, MacGruber stan/romantic Alex Stypula and oversharing/Broadway megafan Laura High. Much more to come soon! You can find all of these articles here: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou
• Got a few Twitter threads going this week that were a lot of fan. The first was one where I asked, “What's your favorite feature-length comedy movie that you think flew under the radar? Let me know! I want to see it if I haven't already.” I was pleasantly surprised to receive hundreds of responses of films I’d never seen or heard of. If you’re worried you got “to the end of Netflix,” check this thread out. There’s more for you to see!
The second thread I got embroiled in was about a Snapple fact that baffled me. I wrote, “Yo @Snapple. Got this fact from you: In a room of 23 people, there is a 50% chance that two people have the same birthday. Please explain.” My friend Hattie Hayes quickly explained the phenomenon to me which I had no idea about. Soon after, Snapple responded with “We call them "Real Facts" for a reason.” Folks, now is the time to get the snarky response you always dreamed of from a corporation’s social media person. McDonalds has Tweeted at me too during quarantine when I complained that ranch should be free and we should pay for ketchup. Now is our time to stand up and revolt! Say what you want to the food places you like!
• Quick props to a large assortment of folks doing fun/cool stuff on the internet:
-John Field wrote a wonderfully life-affirming Medium article about how to handle rejection as a comedian. It’s a slightly longer read but flows so well you’ll feel like it took no time at all to consume it. Some key excerpts from the piece are about John being rejected THRICE in an hour and another where he employs a Chuck Klosterman-esque hypothetical: A wizard came in and cast a spell that made it so that everything I want for a career could never happen, what would I do? After I get over the hurt, would I still do stand-up comedy/YouTube/make Bytes?
If this is your kind of thing the link is in the comments.
-Birthday dude Matt Vita made an incredibly fun and elaborate music video starring himself about 4/20. It’s not only hilarious, catchy and a great way to spend three minutes but also features cameos from Anna Paone and me! Took about five minutes to film them! I love that in the future filming myself lip syncing rap lyrics while sitting in my overly comfortable yellow chair can get me in a rap vid. The future is tight.
-My pal, former fellow Onion intern and current Colbert writer Django Gold had a hilarious piece about his quarantine on Colbert’s at home version of his show this week. I actually watched it at 4 AM and found myself laughing out loud (quietly so as to not wake up Anna). Gold’s comedy is the closest thing I think we have to “The Simpsons” golden years and he captures that tone here perfectly. Also, especially love that The Turtles song. Link’s in the comments. 225K folks watched this one; you should too.
- Read an amazing Facebook status about what it was like to be on “Jeopardy!” by Shawn Dugas. He appeared on an episode that aired last week and reading about how it all went down was illuminating. It’s a zippy, semi-gossipy read about the behind the scenes of the show and you’ll love hearing about what went down during his appearance. I know I did. LIC (link is in the comments).
- One of my favorite comics Derek Lamar has been Tweeting/Instagramming about what he “misses” about working in the service industry and it’s hilariously relatable. If you’re a veteran of the tables, you should be following and be on the inside before his account blows up and goes stupid viral. You can find said accounts in the comments!
• Caught four moviefilms this week. They were:
“Nothing Lasts Forever” (1984): I’d always dreamed of seeing this movie. It’s an unreleased classic directed by one of the original directors of SNL shorts Tom Schiller and somehow (won’t tell you how!) got my hands on a Quicktime file of it this week. Just under 80 minutes, it’s a strange, moving, satirical, homage to 40s films, the elderly, the future and features cameos from a never better Bill Murray as well as Aykroyd, Imogene Coca, Eddie Fisher, Mort Sahl and stars Zach Galligan from “Gremlins” (which I need to see still). IF YOU WANT TO SEE THIS, DM ME. I CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!
“Entertainment” (2015): Rick Alverson is the king of the anti-comedy that wades into such strange, ugly territory that it barely resembles a film anymore. Yet, I keep coming back for more. I saw “The Comedy” with Tim Heidecker in theaters back in 2012 which was an equally upsetting experience. This movie starring Gregg Turkington AKA Neil Hamburger starts interestingly enough depicting stand up in a more accurate way than I’d ever seen. There are tiny highs for Turkington (jokes going over very well at a prison gig) and light laughter but not out and out bombs. He has an actual clown as his opening act who destroys. John C. Reilly plays a supportive cousin who doesn’t quite understand comedy. The third act is disturbing and completely strays from the very well-done first hour of the movie. I SORTA RECOMMEND (streaming for free on Amazon’s subsidiary service Magnolia Selects if you opt for their free seven-day trial).
“Meatballs” (1979): This is one of my Mom’s all-time favorite movies and I believe the inspiration for “Wet Hot American Summer.” Plus, it’s peak Bill Murray. The recurring gag with a counselor waking up in his bed placed in different places is an incredibly inspired prank. So yes, I stayed up until 4 another night watching it (I’m an insomniac now!). It was delightful. Yes, there are fairly unfair depictions of nerds and overweight folk (I identify as both) but I wasn’t offended. Worse was the treatment of women. Murray, funny as ever, is kind of awful to his crush in a way that doesn’t quite register as funny in 2020. Still, IT’S A CLASSIC (Actually streaming for free on YouTube. There are short commercials but not bad).
“Saved” (2004): Saw this in theaters way back when but my movie-viewing group caught this this week and it holds up. I’d call this Macauly Culkin’s second greatest role (leaving this open ended but you know it’s “Home Alone”) and this is such an easy watch that I could view it every year and never get sick of it and I say that as a person who hates rewatching movies because why do that when you can see a new movie? Either way, DEF RECOMMEND (streaming for free on YouTube as well with a few commercials).
This is everything else I caught:
Famous 1986 episode of SNL directed by Francis Ford Coppola: It’s a tiny, tiny footnote in the show’s history but the one I might be most obsessed with and had always, always wanted to see it. Turns out I’d seen some of it already! Probably on Comedy Central summer of ‘02 or something. Hosted by George Wendt (Norm from “Cheers” and Jason Sudeikis’ uncle) this is an amazing commentary/take on the show that hasn’t been done before or since. I love the meta nature of this and wish the show took risks like this all the time. If you’re interested...hit me up. I might have a secret link.
Fox News Protest: Watch this. The link is in the comments. You may just recognize Tim Robinson from last summer’s “I Think You Should Leave” making the world’s greatest cameo.
Whitmer Thomas’ “The Golden One” (2020): Remember when you got into comedy and had grandiose dreams of what you wanted to do? Have powerpoints, music, interludes, change what standup was? Then you started and saw what worked so you repressed your vision to succeed? I do! Well, Whitmer Thomas made the special we all dream of making when we start out. Ambitious, sad, darkly funny (not THAT funny to be fair) and full of artistic touches, this is another fantastic subversion of what standup can be. The songs he sings/plays are amazing The Cure-like jams and an ode to his deceased mother. It’s moving, self-indulgent and exactly what I wished I could make when I started out. THIS COULD BE FOR YOU (Streaming on HBO).
SNL At Home: I Tweeted this last night (I actually manically live Tweeted like 75 times) but here goes again: The first SNL At Home was iconic and history will forget this one but I think this episode is the template for what quarantine TV should be. I stand by that. Last night, they REALLY upped what we can do while at home. There was an insane number of cameos ranging from Brad Pitt as Fauci to Adam Sandler, Paul Rudd and Charles Barkley. I also learned what Bad Bunny looks like. Most interestingly, the show is conducting a contest for the biggest donor to write a joke that will be in the next Weekend Update. Thinking we should all pool our money together and write something extremely lame (a super hacky pun would work) that Michael Che has to say with a straight face and then NOT mock us because we donated a ton of money (Streaming on Hulu).
Got a nice, little WFH week ahead. Gonna do my pal Danny Braff’s Instagram Live show on Tuesday at 2 PM EST, watch Catherine Lamoreaux and Anna Paone’s Dragonfly reading of a “Golden Girls” episode (I’ve never seen the show!) and writing as many profiles as I can! If you want one, let me know. I’d love to write about you.
It’s raining outside. Nice. What a spring!
01.) Friday Night Standby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahFD5T6BBLA&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U&index=2
02.) Best underrated comedies thread https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1253593084505489409
03.) Snapple fight https://twitter.com/MattLevy51/status/1252718451707297793
04.) John Field article (https://medium.com/@AmericasComic/none-of-youll-make-money-off-of-this-how-to-handle-rejection-as-a-stand-up-comedian-8d8696a1d093)
05.) Matt Vita rap video (cameos in modern day) https://www.facebook.com/GnarBois/videos/227792821824129
06.) Django on Colbert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlZu5BZDlwg&fbclid=IwAR2H4qJYOjkz_BpGq84YmZB732YKDHz9qLb32vb49MBTzWTEBCx-VK9Hby4
07.) Shawn Dugas status https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10101360345773165&set=a.721430400735
08.) Derek Lamar Instagram and Twitter https://twitter.com/iamDerekLamar
https://www.instagram.com/iamdereklamar/
09.) Tim Robinson https://twitter.com/billkuchman/status/1252052132737568768
