• Got my birthday wish last week and staged a Zoom reading of the 89-page play I wrote based on the bizarro curiosity that is the 1980-81 season of Saturday Night Live. There were zero rehearsals because it was a lot to ask of all the actors who were already giving up their free time to stage said birthday reading. Still, everyone showed up and performed the Hell out of somewhat half baked second draft material. Since everyone killed it so hard, here’s a quick shout outs to the actors who brought these words to life: Lauren Vino who played the headstrong Jean Doumanian with steely reserve and grace, Michael Margetis who made the unlikeable (how I wrote him) Dick Ebersol charming, Lawrence Paone who brought old school showbiz smarm to the Fred Silverman role, Anna Paone played eight (!) roles ranging from Denny Dillon, Charlene Tilton, Robin Duke, Gail Matthius, Catherine O'Hara, Ann Risley, a nameless female audience member and Laurie Metcalfe bringing something different to each of them which was an insane undertaking she made look easy, Jeff Ayars impersonated Don Pardo effortlessly, Steve Girard put his own spin on the already iconic voices of Gilbert Gottfried, Lorne Michaels and Chevy Chase, Gianmarco Soresi did more than justice playing the couldn’t be more different Charles Rocket, Mr. Bill and Tim Kazurinsky, Dave Columbo also used his rubbery voice to slip into the personas of Jim Carrey, Elliott Gould, Del Close, Al Franken and Tony Rosato, Neko White embodied Eddie Murphy better than anyone I could ever imagine doing it and Joey Saunders brought goofy warmth to Joe Piscopo and fiery venom to Michael O’Donoghue. Also, major thanks to Usama Siddiquee for reading stage directions making lines like, “Jean sits down with her goopy drink” seem funny somehow. Finally, thanks to my family, professors and friends that tuned in. This thing went almost two hours and people were logged in the whole time. I was high off the excitement of this highly nerdy and personal performance all week and it’s thanks to you all. If any of this this sounds interesting to you at all, happy to send the script or a recording of the Zoom your way. Just hit me up in da DMs.
• When I first signed up for Facebook back in 2007, it was mostly used to meet people in my college dorm. As the platform morphed over the years into the premiere online social gathering/major corporation rather than just for small circles of peers, I picked up friends that I didn’t actually know but admired from afar. To me, the highest profile friending was of original SNL writer, “It’s Garry Shandling Show” co-creator and “700 Sundays” writer Alan Zweibel (among many other notable achievements with a pen). I’ve admired Alan’s writing from afar on Facebook casually liking statuses but he recently had a high profile book release and thought to myself, “Man, I’d like to know more about this guy.” Well, thanks to the launch of his very funny and informative memoir “Laugh Lines” I now do. I had recently heard Alan on WTF talking about the book but it was even better hearing him talk about said book on Gilbert Gottfried’s podcast which inspired me to read it right after I finished listening. Said podcast started with jokes about how the movie “North” led to the demise of Roger Ebert (Google “Roger Ebert North” if you don’t know this story) and how the two reconciled (not gonna spoil this great bit) and led to amazing anecdotes about Lorne Michaels hiring him at SNL back in 1975 (like I said, no bit spoiling here), Bill Murray heckling him at a gig when he was just starting stand up, Garry Shandling and Rodney Dangerfield waking him up in the middle of the night with bit ideas and how he concocted the classic sketch “Lord and Lady Douchebag” which I ripped off in a sketch myself a few years back. This all made for a great primer to the book which fleshed all these stories out fully. Either way, the best part of the podcast and the book to me (they’re excellent companion pieces) was learning about all the forgotten comics of yesteryear. Alan does a great service pointing out and crediting Catskills comics, NYC club comics, old TV writers who may not be household names but whose jokes we know. The book is a breezy, well written 250-page read but more than anything it’s a love letter to comedy and a template for how to have fun hacking away at the joke slinging trade for half a century. Definitely did not expect these exciting life lessons to be a byproduct of creating a Facebook account way back in 2007. But here we are. Buy his book and listen to the pod. Well worth your time.
• One of the all-around funniest stand ups in New York City is easily Ranaan Hershberg. He brings an infectious joy to each of his performances that makes watching him feel like a necessity. While quarantining, he’s been very inventive with the content he’s produced but my two favorite things he’s done are a.) a video of him in an Arizona desert performing to cactus which made me laugh out loud. It’s a great variation on the “performing to no one” video trope and a nice heightening of how distant we can be from others now. My other favorite thing Raanan did was his b.) incredibly well-written flash fiction about an insecure comic who is racing toward the end of the world while his Tweet is going wildly viral. It’s hysterical and a nice commentary on how braindead social media makes us toward our reality. Honestly, it’s Simon Rich-level funny which is as high a compliment I can pay a writer. The links to both are in the comments and are both top notch.
• I totally missed my friend Harrison Greenbaum’s edition of his “Who Books That” podcast he did with comedy hero Larry Willmore back in May. Couldn’t believe that my pal was talking to one of my all-time favorites and I excitedly watched/listened this week learning that Willmore was an avid magician growing up (had no idea; magic is Harrison’s thing) and stories about Tommy Davidson on “In Living Color” that were then bolstered by the fact that Harrison showed clips and images from the stories which made it instantly better than your average podcast. He did what podcasts have failed to do for so long by showing instead of telling. Felt like I was seeing “Oz” in color for the first time with this nifty podcasting trick. Still, Harrison had an easy rapport with Larry and they shared the nugget of wisdom, “It’s better to get famous before bitter” (I may be misquoting). A lot of folks stake value in fame rather than the fun of creating stuff and this quote epitomizes that; no need to ever get bitter. Finally, if you’re on the fence about checking this out, you certainly should for the high profile cameo mid-episode from Neil Degrasse Tyson. I was shell-shocked. That’s a big get! Check out this episode; this is what all podcasts will look like in five years.
• Here are brief, pretentious reviews of movies, TV series and podcasts I caught this week from folks I am not friendly with on a personal level:
“Beavis and Butthead do America” (1996): I’m embarrassed to say how much I laughed at this incredibly dumb and brilliant farce. It really holds up. Mike Judge’s story is exceedingly simple- Beavis and Butthead’s TV is stolen which leads them on a cross country trip from Vegas to DC trying to track down said TV and “score.” I was nearly crying laughing at Beavis and Butthead accidentally charming an elderly woman on a tour bus and Beavis’ impish Cornholio routine. The movie goes a bit too far in places for it’s trim 81-minute runtime but it’s TOO DAMN FUNNY TO MISS (Streaming on Cinemax- free seven-day trial with Amazon Prime).
“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963): This shows up on every single “Greatest comedies of all time” lists and I had to see what the fuss was about. For starters, it’s nearly three hours but honestly never felt long. The movie is basically the prototype for the early 2000s “Rat Race” and the TV show “The Amazing Race.” A killer cast of comedy legends (Jonathan Winters and Milton Berle to name just two of dozens) encounter a grisly car crash that leaves an elderly man dead. His dying words are about a treasure he buried and the chase that ensues to find his fortune. The rest of the movie is just a tentpole to hang hijinks upon that are fun but ratchet up 1000% in what looked like a really dangerous, practical stunt where eleven actors or so are suspended on a ladder high above onlookers. Everyone ends up getting injured in cartoonish ways that leads to a finale where the entire cast, bandaged up laugh in unison. While watching, I wondered if this movie invented the cliche where the entire cast laughs at something dumb to end movies or show that has been mocked for years. I think it might be. NOT ESSENTIAL BUT IT’S NOT BAD (Streaming for free on YouTube with ads).
“Manchurian Candidate” (1962): Did my semi-regular movie viewing with Anna and our friend Justine this week checking out this classic we’d all heard about but had never actually seen. The first hour or so is a disorienting affair, so much so that I pulled off the rare feat of not looking at my phone once so I could make sense of it. I’ll do my best to synopsize. I believe the movie is about a man who has been hypnotized so deeply and manipulated by his mother that he’s led to assassinate. This is another classic story that I know because it was brilliantly spoofed by my all-time favorite show “Stella” and once they hit the familiar beats of our hero being groomed to assassinate, I got where it was going. Still, this movie is notable for a number of reasons. We get to see a passable dramatic acting turn from Frank Sinatra and the rampant imagery of Abraham Lincoln who was famously assassinated. Just a year later, JFK met the same fate. Sinatra felt so guilty he bought the rights to the film to not further its influence (Anna told me this). Also, there’s a crazy makeout scene where the lead (Laurence Harvey) makes out with his Mom who is played by...Angela Lansbury. THIS ONE WAS WILD, RACIST IN PARTS AND FASCINATING (Streaming for free if you get the seven-day Cinemax trial).
“RiP: A Remix Manifesto” (2008): Longtime friend L. Ritchie recommended this little-seen open source documentary saying, “It’s about Girl Talk.” I love the hell out of Girl Talk and was excited to see this movie to learn more about his process and concert footage. The movie provided that all right but this is also a major political statement about copyright laws in the United States and how bizarre and convoluted they are (Girl Talk samples music to create his own spin on songs which makes him a vital central point to the story). My favorite point the doc made was about Walt Disney blatantly being “inspired by” works of fiction like “Cinderella,” “Pinocchio” and “Steamboat Bill” only to turn around and create copyright laws. Walt is evil. I did wonder while watching though: would Girl Talk be angry if we sampled his samples? Wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes with pride over one’s work even if it’s originally from the work of others. ANY MOVIE THAT MAKES ME ASK THIS MANY QUESTIONS IS WORTH YOUR TIME (Streaming for free on YouTube).
“Sunset Strip” (2000): I lied when I said I didn’t know anyone involved with these films I’m reviewing. I actually caught my film professor Adam Collis’ feature film for the first time this week since it’s streaming. It was a real treat to see this; he pulled off the quintessential ensemble slice of life movie about 70s rock and roll with a sprawling cast of characters. Plus, the movie features a young Judy Greer, Adam Goldberg, Jared Leto, Simon Baker, Mary Lynn Raskjub and a ton of other folks you’ll look up on IMDB and go, “I knew I knew them!” It’s fun, well-directed and made me proud to say I learned how to make movies from the guy that made this. IF YOU LIKE MUSIC FLICKS, YOU’LL LOVE THIS ONE (Streaming on Hulu).
“Supersize Me 2” (2019): Morgan Spurlock was cancelled for sexual misconduct. In fact, I believe he called himself out and cancelled himself. Still, he released this movie last year and I’ll admit I was a really big fan of the first “Supersize Me” so I was curious to see what direction he would take this story. The second time around he points his aim not at McDonalds but at big chicken who lie to Americans and tell us poultry is much healthier than it actually is. This is an eye opening story of the lives of baby chickens who are incredibly cute being pumped full of hormones and given very limited “free range” access. Spurlock employs man on the street interviews showing just how little we all know about what organic and local really mean. It all culminates in a genius skewering of fast food restaurants with a franchise he started called “Holy Chicken” that calls out all the corrupt things that these fast food places do to us on a daily basis. He even gave credit to a farmer who fought Tyson Chicken and seeing said farmer get his moment in the sun made me tear up. No joke. LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, THIS MOVIE WAS EYE OPENING (Streaming on YouTube).
- I do not re-watch movies. It’s my only real rule. I love to see new stuff more than anything. Still, it was my birthday week and I revisited my two all-time favorites “The Goonies” and “Man on the Moon.” Hadn’t seen either of them in years. “Goonies” more than holds up even if some of it feels corny; it still just brings me right back to childhood. “Man on the Moon” is great for its bombasity but rewatching as a 32-year-old dude (not that I’m that mature) I recognize just how emotionally stunted Andy was. Wish I had caught that as a kid. Dude was insane in maybe an unhealthy way.
“The Other Two” (2019): Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider prematurely left their SNL head writing gig to run this show at Comedy Central. I was angry they left since they were so great but after having seen how incredible this show is, my anger has subsided. This sitcom is one of the best I’ve ever seen (wasn’t surprised that Joel Kim Booster wrote for it). Anyway, basically, the show is this- two aimless late 20s siblings (played by Drew Tarver and Helene Yorke) have a younger brother who blows up into a Justin Bieber-level popstar overnight. Imagine a sophisticated and wittier “Entourage” with Molly Shannon playing their Mom. There are so many great reasons to watch this show and I’ll list them in rapid fire succession: the emotional reveal of how their Dad dies pays off incredibly well in an emotionally satisfying and darkly funny way, a music video director teleconferences in to direct the younger sibling’s (his name is Chase Dreams) music video while eating nachos showing just how trivial a director can be, they all live together in Justin Theroux’s bizarro empty house, the episode that takes place at a school dance with kids is one of the funniest sitcom episodes of any show I’ve ever seen (featuring my favorite joke of the series too. The dance is “Old Hollywood” themed and Old Hollywood by their definition includes “Anchorman” and “Knocked Up”), Chase’s manager Streeter ( Ken Marino) is so nuts that you can’t believe there would ever be anyone quite like him but then he’s injected with pathos at the end before you end hating him again, Tarver’s restaurant boss gets really into gay culture in a funny recurring bit, Richard Kind plays Tarver’s manager who takes gig economy jobs like driving a cab and delivering food while taking calls from clients, excellent character moments like Yorke showing her talent as a dancer and Tarver being incredibly vain after just a taste at fame. At just ten episodes, you’ll be depressed when this is over but so elated you saw it. MAKE THIS THE NEXT SHOW YOU BINGE (Streaming on Comedy Central).
A Crisis in Six Scenes” (2016): Anna and I joked that Woody Allen will probably be cancelled six more times before he dies (his career is a crisis in six scenes, baby!). True. Still, I was curious about this Amazon short-form series he released a few years back. It got vile reviews. I went in wanting to dislike it but this six-part series featuring Woody and Elaine May as his spouse won me over. They take in radicalized home invader Miley Cyrus who turns them onto the revolution. What would have seen ham fisted and preachy years ago now seems prescient as we turn on our government and systemic racism. We are becoming radicalized again which is a good thing and makes the jokes about the enlightenment of the elderly in this show funnier. Sure, some of this is a slog but it pays off nicely in the final episode that wraps everything together neatly in a bow putting a button on every setup we didn’t even realize were setups. Best of all was the ending with Woody and Michael Rappaport pulling him over that bookends the first scene of the show. WOODY, I HATE TO ADMIT IT BUT YOU DID IT AGAIN (Streaming on Amazon).
• Colin Jost was doing the rounds this week promoting his new book and I took in two of his press appearances. First was a Zoom chat with Michael Che. It was pretty damn funny that they were promoting his book and Che outright admitted he hadn’t read it. The thing kicked off with a promoter reading their cringeworthy bios that praised them and watching them read aloud was a treat while the two winced hearing what PR folks had written about them. The show got underway and Che proceeded to treat Jost with the same playful disrespect they have on Weekend Update referring to his fiancee as Scarlett “Jimhenson.” The conversation moved to how Carmelo Anthony gets unfairly criticized and that’s why they don’t read criticism of themselves because Carmelo is great (paraphrasing big time) but it was more fun when we got to the best joke about how Jost is in the White Tang Clan with Pete Davidson and Impractical Jokers (Wu Tang is also from Staten Island like all of these comics) and how he has “Heel face” which makes sense because his book is called “A Punchable Face.” Jost was also on WTF promoting this week and he talked about quarantining in Montauk (trying very hard to downplay his privilege) and how he didn’t talk until he was four. Maron challenged him into saying he does not look or sound like he’s from Staten Island which is fair. Jost deflected nicely joking that he actually pronounces “Staten” correctly. Maron expressed resentment over Jost going to Harvard and he deflected again instead highlighting how he went to a lower income high school doing speech and debate and highlighting his Mom’s Catholicism. The conversation moved toward the less personal and they talked about how Lorne instills confidence in performers and Kenan’s longevity on the show. He also pointed out that “Weekend Update” is the “restart” of the show. Never thought about it like that. It really is the second cold open. It should also be said there was a very moving section where Jost talks about his Mom helping out on 9/11 and how his family knew Pete Davidson’s family for years through this. Quite a connection.
- Listened to the short, viral podcast Ben Stiller was on called “The Last Laugh” this week where he talked about being very careful making “Tropic Thunder” with the NAACP and Robert Downey Jr’s character but didn’t do damage control on how offensive Simple Jack was. Hilarious character for sure but definitely offensive. Good reminder to be wise thinking a few years into the future about how your writing will age. He then went into why the podcast went viral: he refuses to edit Donald Trump out of “Zoolander” citing that no one else (Trump made a ton of cameos in the past) has done it. Fair, but be the one that makes the change, dawg! He then shared that he engages people on Twitter (if you’re a fan, hit him up) and it ended. This was really short. Only 19 minutes. There’s another one he was on but I didn’t listen.
WTF with Jim Carrey: Carrey is in some of my all-time favorite movies (“Truman Show,” “Man on the Moon,” “Eternal Sunshine” to name just a few) but I never knew much about him other than the broad strokes about his story and how he paints now. This podcast showed a different side that makes me like him even more now. At the beginning, he generously offers advice on how to deal with PTSD (not what I expected from a comedy pod!) and then details cleaning toilets as a kid. He’s basically the dude you talk to at a party with a totally different worldview that opens your third eye, man. He goes into talking about his persona and new showbiz satire book. This led to sporadic spot-on impressions of Dennis DeYoung from Styx and Paul Lynde and this piece of sage advice, “If you’re interested in what you’re doing, that’s what makes you interesting.” Carrey said he stole the quote from Meisner but it still resonated in a big way. Finally, he shared a story about meeting Richard Pryor and smoking with him in a parking lot. Pryor said, “I’m not sure those last 40 years was me.” Even Richard Pryor had comedy doubts. Damn.
• For those that are cynical about the future of the comedy industry, definitely read Vulture’s piece on the direction that Comedy Central (linked in comments of course) is going. They’re going to create more digital content AND make a ton of feature-length films. I have no idea if this is sustainable but we should all jump aboard if we can.
• Finally, I wrote a profile that I kept under wraps for a while. A friend (who shall remain nameless at their request) and I collaborated on a piece about the fictional Svetlana Kenobi. Still, it was incredibly fun to write with the freedom of not having to play by any rules. It’s a short-ish read (like four minutes) and it’s fun to imagine a world in which this Kenobi character exists.
Don’t have much of anything going on this week. Mostly just trying to get those 10,000 steps in. Y’all getting 10,000 steps a day? It’s a nice way to live.
Hope you’re well, fam
01.) “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast” with Alan Zweibel: https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/alan-zweifel/
02.) Raanan desert video: https://www.facebook.com/raanan.hershberg/videos/10101212881483044
03.) Raanan’s Medium story: https://medium.com/@raananhershberg/a-million-likes-6f0db2ea830a
04.) Harrison Greenbaum’s “Who Books That” with Larry Willmore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpe0u3fcfbc
05.) It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxxGDcWWoc
06.) RiP: A Remix Manifesto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quO_Dzm4rnk
07.) Supersize Me 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSyicDf9UvI&t
08.) WTF with Colin Jost: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1139-colin-jost
09.) The Last Laugh with Ben Stiller: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ben-stiller-on-the-new-abnormal/id1456474041?i=1000482636729
10.) WTF with Jim Carrey: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1140-jim-carrey
11.) The Remaking of Comedy Central: https://www.vulture.com/article/comedy-central-reinvention-chris-mccarthy-profile.html
12.) Svetlana Kenobi profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/holy-shit-svetlana-kenobi-might-be-banksy-90158af8df59
