• Well, it’s my birthday. Honestly, there’s no other way I’d celebrate than firing up my Discover Weekly on Spotify (complete with ads because I’m not going to buy Premium) and writing Comedy Stray Notes. On we go.
• Every year on my birthday, my dream is to make something creative happen. It rarely happens because creativity and celebration rarely exchange hands; to make something creative happen takes effort and work and logistics and organization which are all the enemy of fun. Last year, I wanted to shoot a sketch about a family mourning the loss of an iPhone. Couldn’t find a location and I still haven’t shot it. With everyone quarantining this year, I figured I would pounce and since we’re all parked at our desktops, I would make something big happen. That “something big” is a 90-page play I wrote about the 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live. For those not in the know, it was a trainwreck of a season but a fascinating story. It’s one of those rare footnotes in comedy history that I feel only true nerds really know about. I want to end that and get it on people’s radar. If you’re interested in attending, the show is tonight (July 12) at 6 PM EST. Should be about two hours. If you can’t make it, it will be recorded. Just jump in the DMs. No pressure at all- this is a reading of a rough draft but if this is something that interests you, I’d be happy to give you the Zoom link information.
- Also, I wanted to thank a few folks for giving me extensive notes on the play. First of all, my wife Anna E. Paone. She read this baby and was instrumental in helping me figure out the tone. Next, my pals Barak Ziv, Jason Planitzer and Charlton Jon read early drafts when this thing was only 15 pages and asked important questions about the story and had me clarify details to make it more reader-friendly. Danny Rathbun and I exchanged drafts of work we had recently completed and Danny’s micro notes for joke punch ups were instrumental in helping me clean up logic gaps and historical inaccuracies. Darin Patterson, one of the biggest SNL fans I know, aided me in understanding what a fellow superfan would want to see in a play like this- I want this thing to feel like you’re opening a bag of Halloween candy and it’s all Reeses (or whatever your favorite type of candy is). Matt Starr, helped me come up with a structure for this thing and gave it a framework to exist in. I would have no idea how to have written this thing without his guidance (hire him if you have an idea but no idea how to make it feasible) and finally, Julie Mitchell who made me actually want to rewrite this thing (I rarely do second drafts of anything out of pure laziness) and make the characters feel less like stories I had read and more like people that exist. Long way to go but I am grateful to all these folks for their notes.
• As we all know, Kanye is “running for President.” I love the guy but now might not be the right time to influence the most important election of our lifetime. I digress; no need to get into politics. What’s notable Kanye running for President is he had a bizarre “interview” with Forbes. I wasn’t aware of said interview until my friend and comedian Matt Storrs sent me a screenshot that said Kanye is running not as a Republican or Democrat but with the “Birthday Party.” Then, he said, “If elected, ‘It’s Everybody’s Birthday.’” Not sure if you’re aware but Jesse Swatling-Holcomb and I ran a show called “It’s Everybody’s Birthday” from 2016-2018 where the theme was that it was everyone in the audience’s birthday. Some people have advised I sue. Should I derail Kanye’s campaign? Anyone know how to make this happen? Love his music but let’s dismantle his political aspirations so he doesn’t get our sitting President a second term.
• Published a single profile this week about my friend from ASU and NYC Danny Vega. If you’re unaware, Danny runs the very lively and engrossing Facebook group “Am I The Asshole” where folks debate who is the asshole in questionable anecdotes. I framed this profile just like an “Am I The Asshole” debating whether or not Vega was an asshole. You’ll have to find out what my conclusion was by clicking that little link in the comments.
• Wanted to shout out Natan Badalov and his crew for putting together an amazing animated short called “Park West” about a young, non-believing Jewish kid in Hebrew school. Not only was it incredibly relatable and punchy but it was also a step toward what I think the future of our entertainment is going to be. In a time where we all have limited resources to produce content, animation is the future. Natan is one step ahead of all of us.
Thank you for indulging me. Figured if I get one day to get creative license to write as much as I want it would be my birthday. I’ll keep the rest of this nice and tight, so you can get on with your life. Let’s start with the movies I saw this week:
“Palm Springs” (2020): It’s so hard to not spoil this movie, so all I’ll say is it’s a riff on the Bill Murray classic “Groundhog Day.” Yes, I know it’s a genre unto itself (in fact, even I made a sketch based on the trope that I released earlier this year starring David Rey Martinez) but this movie flips the whole premise on its head in a way that’s more fun and emotional than any of its predecessors like “Happy Death Day,” “Edge of Tomorrow,” “Russian Doll,” and that one with Jake Gyllenhaal that I’m too lazy to look up. To tease it, it stars a never better Andy Samberg alongside Cristian Milioti and JK Simmons at a wedding that they’re guests at. We’ll just leave it there. DEFINITELY WATCH THIS; IT’S AN EARLY CONTENDER FOR MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF THE 2020S (Streaming on Hulu).
“Cinema Paradiso (1990): This is on everyone’s all-time must watch movie lists and I’d started it many times over the years but never got farther than five minutes in. On Monday, the film’s composer, the legendary Ennio Morricone passed away at 91, and I was inspired to pay my respects by finally getting around to this movie. I’m so glad I did. This is a perfect love letter to cinema about a fatherless child who lives at the movie theater in the projection booth watching every movie from high up away from the audience. The movie accurately captures what loving movies feels like, with the camera gazing on the euphoric expressions on audience member’s faces as they watch the pictures flicker on the big screen before them. There are a few hilarious sight gags (a lot of illicit stuff secretly goes on in the theater- I’ll leave it at that) but more than anything, there’s an unbelievably beautiful moment halfway through when the projectionist Alfredo reverses the projector to a wall and the audience watches outside the theater. This leads to tragic consequences but for a minute, everything was perfect. IF YOU’RE A MOVIE FAN, TREAT YOURSELF TO THIS FEAST OF A FLICK (Streaming on HBOGo)
Now a quick rundown of a few podcasts I listened to while temping:
Laurie Kilmartin talking to Conan: Earlier this week, Patrick Hastie shared this video and I immediately checked it out after having read Kilmartin’s stream of conscious jokes on Twitter about the process of her mother dying from COVID. This is only ten minutes and a sobering, tender and at times funny chat between Laurie and her boss Conan. If you’re a fan of either of them, they’re both operating at the top of their abilities here and you can find the link below.
“You Made It Weird” with Lara Beitz: A few years ago, Sarah Kennedy asked me to help run the Devil’s Cup Comedy Festival in Manhattan and in doing so, I met a ton of comics from all over the country who have since gone onto huge things. One of those comics was Lara Beitz, who I really only chatted to in passing but have since seen on David Spade’s Comedy Central show and hearing about as Pete Holmes’ go-to opener on the road so I was extra excited to see she was the guest on the podcast this week. It didn’t disappoint. They had a nice rapport that was more friendly and gossipy than one based on agents and managers having set up a conversation. The two of them share inside jokes, discuss their relationships and then halfway through, they really struck a nerve talking about weight loss management. Pete and Lara had some novel thoughts about how to manage weight but one particular statement stood out to a person who finds themselves overeating constantly. Pete said, “Your highest moments don’t need to be balanced by overeating to bring you back to an equilibrium where you feel shame” (OK, I’m paraphrasing). Now, that I know I’m not alone on this, I want to share it with everyone that’s ever experienced it. Nice work on this podcast guys.
“Good One” with Aidy Bryant: Went to middle school with Aidy Bryant in AZ (she was the seventh grade president at Madison Meadows when I was the fifth grade president actually) and I try to keep up with everything she does. On this podcast released this week, she’s talking about her unusual sketch from this past season of SNL called “Overnight Salad.” It’s a fairly casual, low-key conversation about how the sketch originated as a joke on the set of “Shrill” and made it to air almost a year later when they were running out of ideas during a mid-March show. The episode kicked into high gear when they started talking about the SNL At Home episodes. Aidy likened the sketches to making a short film and had her husband Conner O’Malley shoot footage for her. She detailed working from home parameters saying that the costume designer mailed wigs and some were even delivered by writers walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to meet cast members in the street. Aidy gets emotional at the end talking about her time on the show and how these episodes were special because she hadn’t seen an episode of SNL live on tv in a decade since she’s been on the show so long. Great listen for any fan of hers.
“You Made It Weird” with Adam Sandler: Sandler always seems like a huge podcast guest. Some celebrities just have an air of being above this kind of DIY thing even as humble as he is. Either way, this fast pod starts with Sandler talking about how his friends that he casts in his movies have more fun on set than he does since he’s in charge (very relatable). Then, he shared a little bit of wisdom that I’ll never forget. He said that he and Judd Apatow always call back to the best joke in their script at the end of the movie. Think about “You can do it!” in “Waterboy” and how that was so satisfying. That was a formula they established while making “Billy Madison.” Stealing it. The podcast continued and Pete and Adam pointed out that the audience wants you to do well when you perform so you should always just have fun which I believe in, then Sandler told an anecdote about how the Safdies always give a backstory to their actors which is another good inside filmmaking nugget, they talked quite a bit about Sandler’s “Murder Mystery” movie too which I admit I fell asleep in and then one moment of humanity happened toward the end that really surprised me. Pete Holmes texted his gardener to not get loud because it’s irritating. Neither of them realized just how privileged this action was. Sure, I come from privilege but this felt painful to hear.
Charlie Kaufman New York Times profile: One of the all-time great screenwriters is releasing a 720-page book this week called “Antkind” and on the promotional leg of the release, he did a time-hopping, all over the place profile with the Times that was originally finished mid-May but with all the changes in the world had to go through several iterations. Yes, this is a profile on Kaufman but it’s also a nice record of how time moves and how we process things in quarantine. Also, Kaufman shares one essential piece of writing advice. He says, “Don’t write about being angry, write angry” (paraphrasing again). If you write in the moment, it will shine through. Another tip I’m stealing. If you look for it, you can really find wisdom from established creators in PR pieces.
• Since today is my birthday, my family made me very funny hand drawn, homemade birthday posters as they do every year. This year, they were better than ever. Major thanks to my wife Anna, my Mom (wisely not on Facebook), my Dad Andy Levy, my brothers Ben Levy and Sam Levy and my sister in Law Tiffany Wood and Sam’s girlfriend Stephanie Ramos. There are a lot of Kurt Vonnegut quotes hanging up which is a great thing. Also, many of the posters are "Wheel of Fortune" fill in the blank style posters that I know I'm going to spend all year trying to figure them out.
• Lots of virtual stuff going on for me this week. Tonight is the SNL play (6 PM EST), I’m watching Colin Jost and Michael Che in conversation tomorrow (look it up on EventBrite if this is your kind of thing) and on Tuesday, I’m watching Catherine Lamoreaux’s autobiographical pilot called “Community Theater.”
Thank you for reading. It’s now officially everybody’s birthday. That's right. I'm taking it back, Yeezy
01.) Kanye West’s Presidential Campaign Forbes article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/randalllane/2020/07/08/kanye-west-says-hes-done-with-trump-opens-up-about-white-house-bid-damaging-biden-and-everything-in-between/#12feccd047aa
02.) Danny Vega Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/is-danny-vega-30m-the-asshole-7b8d994b2e63
03.) Natan Badalov’s Park West: https://www.facebook.com/natanbadalov/posts/10158218552011251
04.) Laurie Kilmartin on Team Coco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS4EXLOTI8
05.) “You Made It Weird” with Lara Beitz: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/0/b/a/0bae0dae478fd89c/Lara_Beitz.mp3?c_id=77737094&cs_id=77737094&destination_id=81568&expiration=1594585136&hwt=1d4683bfee57ec15700dcca4ff92b8cc
06.) “Good One” with Aidy Bryant: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aidy-bryants-overnight-salad/id1203393721?i=1000483139592
07) “You Made It Weird” with Adam Sandler: http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/b/5/9/b59eb13ff5fabe7a/Adam_Sandler.mp3?c_id=77154182&cs_id=77154182&destination_id=81568&expiration=1594579623&hwt=33746ed9720d0e645b4a972237adf159
08.) Charlie Kaufman New York Times Profile: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/magazine/charlie-kaufman.html
