• At the outset of quarantine, over 100 days ago now, I signed up for Slackjaw’s comedy writing competition. I hadn’t written a “humor piece” in years but remember what we were like mid-March? It was a time of dreaming big, exiting your comfort zone and taking on projects you otherwise would have pushed to the side. I entered, followed all the guidelines, gave and received feedback for other projects with fellow writers in the Slackjaw community and submitted my piece, “Here At Sierra Mist, We Will Continue Assuming No One Knows About Sprite.” I did not advance in this competition. Instead, they very kindly published my piece on their site this week which was a nice consolation prize. It’s brief (Medium estimates that it’s a two-minute read; I bet you’ll finish it in 90 seconds flat, you’re smart) and is linked below if you’re so inclined to check it out. I skewer Sierra Mist pretty hard and I mean no offense in advance if you have an allegiance with that copycat soft drink.
• OK, this is a crazy idea. I’ve had a few of these wild ideas these past few months but here goes. I’m thinking of starting a Patreon. It wouldn’t be for content that I release though. No, it would be for me to be your manager (comedy, music, actors, directors, all welcome) for different pricing tiers. Essentially, for a small amount of money, I will talk to you about your career or whatever you like (all about you) for as long as you want over the course of a month (which can be renewed if you so choose). If this idea strikes your fancy, give this post a WOW reaction and I’ll DM you to discuss specifics to see if this is something you’d be interested in. Just a thought and figured I’d put it into the world.
• The very funny stand up CW Headley (not on Facebook) spread his wings over quarantine and released a fantastic album called “Tomb By The Country.” Not a comedy album by any stretch of the imagination either. It’s an earnest, wry and catchy 15-track debut that demonstrates major promise for CW as a lyricist, singer and guitarist. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it sounded like- mid 2000s indie? 90s alt rock? Nah. It sounds completely new. It’s worth your time and the proceeds go to NAACP and Bail out Fund. Links in comments as always.
• Had quite a few Patton Oswalt run-ins this week. My fandom for the guy grows every day. First and foremost, I became completely engrossed in his love letter of a memoir to the movies “Silver Screen Fiend” which I finished in a week (it usually takes me a month or two to finish a book; couldn’t put this one down). Basically, while reading It felt like I wrote this book but I was a better writer than I am? Got into my head like that. This memoir of sorts is full of wonderful stories of Patton in the mid 90s spending all of his time watching movies at LA’s New Beverly Theatre and is all about obsession with pop culture and a compulsion to consume it that I’ve never seen someone else put to paper. Plus, there are anecdotes about young Marc Maron, Bob Odenkirk and the 90s LA comedy scene as well that don’t hold back; it’s refreshing to read someone’s writing that doesn’t feel like it was informed by an NDA. Should also be mentioned that the final chapter is one of the coolest 15-page stretches in a book I’ve ever read (this statement will only ring true if you’re a die-hard cinephile).
In any event, I was moved to Tweet about this book and tagged Patton saying, “I’ve never connected to anything more” and he retweeted me saying, “I’m so sorry.” What’s amazing about this was Patton has 4.6 million followers. Never had that kind of platform for anything in my life. What came of it was many people not knowing this book existed. Essentially, I did free PR for Patton. Worth it. Also, listened to an abbreviated episode of Oswalt on “You Made It Weird.” It was fun but not nearly as memorable as any of the above. My biggest takeaway other than their chatter about being stuck at home was Patton telling a tale of how he did a show at a commune he bombed at. In fact, I barely remember that story but I remember it made me laugh. Otherwise, a nice, short inoffensive episode in the “You Made It Weird” canon.
• Published a handful of profiles this week that turned out quite well. The first one I completed was about the mysterious, globetrotting possibly not real Svetlana Kenobi, second featured scholar and athlete turned international comic Ben Frank and my third and final piece of the week was on humanitarian and comic writing phenom Alexa Kocinski. All are roughly six-minute reads (once again, estimated by Medium) and are linked below.
• Anna Paone and I went hard this week watching movies after taking a brief respite from streaming last week. Here’s what we saw:
“Mudbound” (2018): Dee Rees’ complex yet simple tale is about two families in 1940s Mississippi who are brought together by a farm they share. However, racial tensions run deep since the white family (featuring Jonathan Banks as an overtly racist Southern grandpa, an angry Jason Clarke, solid Carey Mulligan and a never better Garrett Hedlund) employs the Black family (with Mary J. Blige as the matriarch and an unstoppable Jason Mitchell as her son who just returned from WWII) and what animosity is at first unspoken later escalates in tragic ways. The movie is sadly very timely and also very well done on a technical front. The cinematography is remarkable and led to the first Oscar nomination for a female director of photography. Plus! There’s a standout scene early in the film where a family shows up to a house they thought they bought but folks were already living in it which was something I’d never even considered getting conned on. THIS IS A CLASSIC MOVIE THAT GOT SNUBBED FOR A BEST PICTURE NOMINATION (Streaming on Netflix).
“Eurovision” (2020): If you know me, you’re well aware that I think “A Night At The Roxbury” is the most underrated comedy of all time and I genuinely mean it. I honestly don’t think Will Ferrell has ever been funnier. I can quote the entire thing and I HATE rewatching movies (my reasoning being that there’s so much to see and I don’t like to see stuff a second time when I could see something new). Anyway, that’s all a preamble to this new Netflix release starring Ferrell and Rachel McAdams that is garnering quite a bit of praise online which is weird because it’s essentially a lesser version of “Roxbury” that was famously critically reviled and never got the cult classic status it deserves. This above average movie, about two Icelandic singers who surprisingly advance much farther than expected in the Eurovision competition is a fun romp where lessons are learned, genuine laughs are had (the biggest ones come from a life-sized hamster wheel, a troll with a knife and American tourists decked out in Arizona State gear), amazing talents are displayed (the “songalong” in the middle of the movie is a genuine showstopper), American actors attempt Icelandic accents and Pierce Brosnan and Dan Stevens give bizarre supporting turns. IT’S GOOD BUT NOT EVEN CLOSE TO ROXBURY (Streaming on Netflix).
“She’s Gotta Have It” (1986): Spike’s a visionary. This movie has a style all of its own, is fairly progressive regarding sexuality (some of it veers off into almost pornographic territory though) and a lot of the jokes really hold up (to be fair, some really do not but it’s hit to miss ratio for a movie that’s over 30 years old is not bad). Most impressively, the scene where the film goes from Black and White to color shocked me more than “Wizard of Oz” ever did. It was a jolt of energy that brought this already lively movie to a dizzying high of sensory overload. The confrontation with all the boyfriends at Thanksgiving toward the end of the film was a perfect heightening of the movie’s conflict and made our lead character have to make a decision in a pressure cooker of a situation- truly strong screenwriting. The final shot, while sexy, was brilliantly tragic. My biggest takeaway of this whole 84-minute venture is I selfishly wish Spike had pursued acting even more. The dude is so funny and I would have loved to have seen him in more movies in his prime. DON’T SLEEP ON THIS CLASSIC (Streaming on Netflix).
“Shirley” (2020): This Sundance darling about the life of author Shirley Jackson starring Elisabeth Moss was helmed by one of my favorite up and coming directors Josephine Decker (she did the insanely brilliant “Madeline’s Madeline”) but this movie barely registered with me. Lots of highbrow couple fights where scholars tell each other their writing is no good, infidelity among said scholars sharing a house runs rampant and bizarre imagery abounds. I wanted to like this so much more but NOT FOR ME (Streaming on Hulu).
Here are some podcasts I listened to while I was at work:
“Good One” with Moshe Kasher: Kasher is so funny and this quick episode has him covering a multitude of topics in relation to his crowd work album he recently released. He shared that when he started doing crowd work in his act it was like he was “Opening for myself.” Brilliantly put. Jesse David Fox, the podcast host, shared a story about how a comic did crowd work on him calling him Harry Potter and years later, the comic admitted he didn’t remember because he allegedly did that for every audience member wearing glasses when Fox confronted him about it which made me laugh. Other memorable tidbits included Moshe’s first joke he ever did being so good it ended up on his album, how comedy really is all about having fun and a great industry-insider street joke that I won’t spoil. Classic episode.
Amy Nicholson’s “Feature Presentation” with Quentin Tarantino: Nicholson, a great film critic, sat down with Tarantino to discuss his years as a video store clerk and geek before he struck it rich in Hollywood all while serving as promotion for “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.” As a cliche Tarantino obsessive, this was ear candy. There are excerpts from his never finished film “My Best Friend’s Birthday” and stories of his history with Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon.” I could listen to the guy’s voice all day. Linked below.
Conan O’Brien’s “Conan Needs A Friend” with Judd Apatow: Loved hearing Judd explain his reasoning for choosing Pete Davidson as the star for his most recent effort “The King of Staten Island” saying, “He’s the zeitgeist,” here. Even more enjoyable was hearing him talk about how after being treated to all the best foods in the world with his celebrity privilege nothing tastes quite as good as eating Red Lobster with Sandler before they made it big. The most interesting nugget here though was the two of them talking about rhythm comedy meaning just the way someone talks can register as funny. Apatow gave an example doing a gibberish version of Cosby (not the greatest example) but it really hammered home the point that “talking funny” is sometimes more powerful to the comic ear than writing funny material.
WTF with Stacey Abrams: Love the humanizing of a political candidate on a podcast. This was a fun episode where I learned that in addition to being a trailblazing politician, she was also a fiction author just a few short years ago. Had no idea. Still, the most shocking thing of all was learning that Abrams’ ballot was sealed shut this election go-round which made it very difficult for her to vote. When the politicians can’t even vote, something strange is afoot.
As for this week, got one thing planned if you want to hear my voice. Tomorrow night, I’ll be appearing on Steven Cohen’s live podcast at 7 PM EST talking about promotion. If you want a shout out, let me know if you’re watching and I’ll gladly shout you out! The link is in the comments. Let me promote you while talking about promotion to hammer home a point of some kind.
Finally, one last thing. This is not comedy related but more important than any comedy thing.
My friend from Central High School, Jessica O’Neil, is in the hospital battling COVID-19. She and I did speech and debate together for years and she brought so much joy to the team and has been a great friend over the years. The very least I can do is spread awareness of this and let you know that Jessica’s put together an Amazon wish list for her mother and daughter who can’t be with her at the hospital If you feel so inclined, go ahead and select something for them off their wishlist. You can make someone’s world a little brighter in this time of need for them.
Over and out. See you next week in July.
Links:
01.) Slackjaw Story https://medium.com/slackjaw/here-at-sierra-mist-we-will-continue-assuming-no-one-knows-about-sprite-1e54250c06ba
02.) CW’s album https://cwheadley.bandcamp.com/album/tomb-by-the-country?fbclid=IwAR2WzZUGEbXeRC3JqHvd8XkV9hk7_rnjG41FkMe-Ge8RTuZKB6RkOaVoDXc
03.) Patton’s episode of “You Made It Weird”
http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/patton-oswalt-returns
04.) Svetlana Kenobi Profile
https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/holy-shit-svetlana-kenobi-might-be-banksy-90158af8df59
05.) Ben Frank Profile
06.) Alexa Kocinski Profile
07.) Moshe Kasher on “Good One” https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/good-one-podcast-moshe-kasher-on-crowd-work.html
08.) Quentin Tarantino on “Feature Presentation”
https://www.theringer.com/quentin-tarantino-feature-presentation
09.) Judd Apatow on Conan’s “I Need A Friend” podcast
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/judd-apatow-2/
10.) Stacey Abrams on WTF
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1130-stacey-abrams
11.) Jessica O’Neil Wish List
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3AJ3ZA2OVBQCP?ref_=wl_share
12.) Steve Cohen’s Show
