• Whenever taking on a creative project, artists of all kinds do this odd thing when talking about what they’re passionate about: they pretend like it’s nothing. In an effort to stay humble, I find many toss off their life’s greatest achievements as “some little project I’m working on” when pressed about “what they’ve been up to.” It’s nice but I’ll admit I love when folks get cocky about what they’ve done or are doing. It’s the best when a creator loves whatever it is they’re making so much that they forgo humility at the risk of boring others or sounding self indulgent. Tarantino and Scorsese come to kind and their earnest enthusiasm for their work is infectious. I kind of did that this week as a guest on Steve Cohen’s PromoteU podcast. Cohen’s pod is different in that it’s all about how comedians promote themselves rather than how they generate bits or got started in comedy so it’s a breath of fresh air; we’re talking about a whole different part of comedy which is “How do you market yourself?” It’s the rare series you’ll want to go back and listen to every episode of and learn others tricks to get ahead. In any event, in my episode I talk about my business AProfileAboutYou, the evolution of Comedy Stray Notes (damn, meta), Liz Miele’s business cards she gives out at shows, how every show of mine that I ever produced had a gimmick because I was afraid no one would come if I didn’t have something special for audience members AND we still didn’t even get to how I used to DM 500 people (maybe even you, dear friend) to promote my gimmick show “It’s Everybody’s Birthday” back in the day. To be clear, this episode is me being completely braggadocious and when it was over I felt good that I didn’t hold back and stay humble. Pride may be a sin but sometimes pride in what you do feels so good. Link below if you’d like to indulge me being me for 56 minutes.
• I haven’t shot a sketch in almost two months since I got a temp gig. The day before I was hired, Anna Paone and I did shoot a bizarre little short thing without much of a plot about how Southwest picked its hold music. I’ve always wondered, “How do they choose the completely average song that they do that customers have to listen to on loop for hours?” This answers that question. Anyway, I finally finished the thing this week and it’s all over the place for two and a half minutes. Tons of music drops, jarring jump cuts and a really out of left field button at the end. I don’t know exactly what to make of this thing or if it’s funny to anyone but me but I do thoroughly enjoy it every time I watch if only because Anna is completely committed to playing a professional character and halfway through I do a Stitch from “Lilo and Stitch” impression for no reason at all that is never commented upon. That’s my kind of thing.
• Only completed one profile this week but it was a doozy. I had the honor of covering the first season of my friend Robb Coles’ podcast “Thoroughly Modern History.” Coles’ podcast is all about life during the Gulf War Era, how he processed it as a youngster and how he processes it now after researching that time period extensively. It’s a nice time capsule and if you want to learn more about Saddam Hussein but in a funny and entertaining way, check out the linked profile that will lead you to the podcast.
• Went hard watching movies, TV and podcasts this week as I do. Here’s a semi-zippy rundown (OK, it’s actually very long) of what I put in my ears and eyes the past seven days:
“Hamilton” (Filmed in 2016; released in 2020): I was one of the billions of people that got to see this Broadway smash for the first time this week and it exceeded expectations of whatever I thought it would be from having heard the cast recordings so many times. The exciting choreography (the execution of the rewind sequence alone was worth the price of admission live I imagine) and the fact that it felt like if Kanye’s song “Monster” became a 2.5 hour play with all the different rap styles from Daveed Diggs’ speed to Lin Manuel’s spoken word approach to Okieriete Onaodowan’s brash, playful demeanor culminated together for the best history lesson of all time. On top of that, the visionary multicultural color blind casting led to something unlike I’ve ever seen effectively recontextualizing history that will be imitated for the rest of our lives. My only gripe was with the audience at these shows- I have no idea why they laughed when they laughed. I feel that way at every play I go to. For someone who writes about comedy a lot, I am often confused by what makes folks laugh. THIS IS A MUST SEE AND I CAN’T WAIT FOR WHEN THEY REALLY ADAPT IT TO THE BIG SCREEN (Streaming on Disney + obviously).
“Mr Roosevelt” (2017): SNL has this habit of casting female impression impresarios and then not really letting them flourish if they don’t quite break out in the way that Kristen Wiig did. Just a few examples off the top of my head include Michaela Watkins (did a killer Hoda Kotb), Noel Wells (great Bjork), Melissa Villasenor (honestly everyone but I’m partial to her Christina Aguilera) and Chloe Fineman (her Timothee Chalamet is better than Timothee Chalamet). It’s interesting watching their careers progress outside of SNL which is the platform designed for them to flaunt their characters. Noel Wells, especially. She may be the lowest profile on this list and was given the least exposure on the show which seemed unfair when she was cut a few years back. It’s nice to know that she’s still working in some capacity though, writing, directing and starring in a feature-length film. Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t fully work as a comedy. It starts great with her showing off her wide range of impressions at a failed audition in what feels like an “Annie Hall” homage which is exciting and fun that is completely dropped after the sequence. Soon after, the plot kicks in and we find out her cat is sick in her hometown of Austin. Said cat, aptly named Mr. Roosevelt, still belongs to her ex-boyfriend (comic Nick Thune who has decent moments toward the end when he plays in a band but is ultimately pretty bland which may be by design since he’s supposed to be neutered by the new girlfriend character) who is living with his aforementioned new girlfriend played by Britt Lower (very funny and ironically catty here; you might recognize her as the sister in “Man Seeking Woman” too). She has to travel back and deal with the repercussions on a relationship with many loose ends, being the third wheel and finding herself. By the end, it’s a treatise on anxiety and mental illness in a surprising and upsetting third act turn. Still, this movie that started out as a promising comedy turned into a semi-depressing, navel gazing (Anna’s words!) dramedy. Also, Doug Benson is in this for like a minute playing Wells’ jerk boss. Majorly wasted opportunity. IF COMING OF AGE DRAMEDIES FOR EMOTIONALLY STUNTED ADULTS IS YOUR THING, GO FOR IT (Streaming on Netflix).
Orgazmo (1997): I’m a sucker for Trey Parker and Matt Stone projects and somehow I had missed this one. Watched it early Saturday morning and couldn’t stop laughing at how damn funny this low-budget send up of the porn industry was (kind of feels like the spiritual sequel to “Boogie Nights” which somehow came out in the same year). The story is of a Mormon missionary (Parker; they love mocking the Mormons!) in LA who is preaching the word of the Latter Day Saints and ends up at a porn producer’s mansion. In a hilarious turn of events, he beats up security guards in a test of his martial arts abilities and it’s determined that he would make the perfect star of the fake pornographic film within a film “Orgazmo.” He’s torn because of his wholesome beliefs (which, amazingly, are never really looked down upon) and the potential thousands of dollars he could make (he’s oblivious to how much he’s worth in the industry). Still, the movie is brilliant in its own way with its superhero movie within a superhero movie structure (the porn director is actually a villain!), an abundance of visual jokes (every time any female nudity is hinted at a dude’s butt fills the frame and a film crew going to fight for the director because they’ll do anything he asks), the intentionally awful porn soundtrack, and the character Choda Boy (masterfully played by Dian Bachar) who you might remember as “Squeaks” from “Baseketball.” He might be the most underrated character actor from the 90s. Speaking of, this movie brought me right back to the 90s and the early sensibility of the “South Park” guys and Eminem. A bit toxic and now bordering on offensive but their hearts were always in the right place skewering people in positions of power. IF YOU LIKE “SOUTH PARK” THIS IS ESSENTIAL (Streaming on Netflix).
“School Daze” (1988): I’m turning into a bit of a Spike Lee completist; it’s nice that so many of his movies I always wanted to see are streaming. This one was a classic, ambitious second feature where Spike tries to do so much (all of which is admittedly way ahead of its time) and ends up forgetting to throw a story into his film. There’s a lot going on here about a fictional all-Black university with Spike trying to join the toxic fraternity run by a pre-Gus Fring Giancarlo Esposito. On the other side, Spike's cousin is played by Laurence Fishburne, a militant leader of a political group on campus. Along the way there are extended musical numbers that come out of nowhere, insanely stylized cinematography, an uncharacteristic Samuel L. Jackson cameo and not a single white person. As much as I could have used a simpler hero’s journey to guide me through the two hours, this one doesn’t need it; Spike needed to make this so he could bring us “Do The Right Thing” just one year later (by the way, Bill Nunn AKA Radio Raheem has a small, throwaway role in this). A LESSER ENTRY IN THE CANON BUT NOT INESSENTIAL (Streaming on Netflix).
Side note: Anna and I watched this with friend Justine House, who gave excellent commentary throughout the movie.
VHYes (2019): Half-watched this movie that was written and directed by Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins’ son, Jack Henry Robbins. It’s got one of those concepts we’ve all dreamed up but never made- what if there was a movie about someone changing the channels and we watched all the different shows they flipped through? Robbins followed through with mixed results. Part fake infomercial, part found footage horror movie, all-shlocky late 80s/early 90s nostalgia fest, this thing never fully congealed for me as a cohesive feature but I did admire the attempt to do something different. Especially impressive was Robbins pulling in a number of favors from well-known B-list stars like his parents, most of the cast of “Reno 911,” Charlyne Yi and John Gemberling to name just a few. Basically, this is a good movie and a great cautionary tale for aspiring writer/directors to see what they would do given the resources that our parents were successful movie stars and we were given carte blanche and a real budget to write and direct the movies we want. NOT FOR ME BUT GOOD FOR MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS WITH HIPSTERS (Streaming on Hulu).
Lady Dynamite (2017-2018): Man, what a two-season run for Maria Bamford’s little show that could. The pilot started with a meta commentary on sitcoms for stand ups (in it, Patton Oswalt tells Maria she shouldn’t do stand up because all the other shows do it; he’s right. She still does and bombs). The show got more gloriously weird along the way in Season One with her talking dog, hypercritical mother (played to perfection by Mary Kay Place), insecure and clueless agent (Fred Melamed is one of the best comedic actors ever and gives this role more depth than one could ever expect in a sitcom) and brash friends Bridget Everett and Lennon Parham. At one point in Season One, I found myself having to get off the treadmill (I told you I’ve been watching this forever; haven’t been to a gym since March) because I was laughing too hard and couldn’t run anymore. Season Two is where the show really found its stride though when it started employing every episode with an A storyline taking place in the present about her relationship with her new husband, a Past B storyline where we go to her years as a teenager in Duluth Minnesota and Future C storyline where she sold out and acts in a fictional sci-fi show directed by Ana Gasteyer, who plays one of three characters named Karen Grisham. There’s clearly a lot going on. Some truly amazing jokes come out of the season as well. My two favorites were 1.) a genuine, harsh critique of Season One’s faults in the middle of an episode; it blew me away. I’d never seen a show point out its flaws in such a direct way. My respect for the show quadrupled after that. The second was 2.) A character who came out of nowhere that attended Exposition U. Just a perfect meta joke that played nicely and hit my comedy sweet spot. On top of all that, at the end Bamford employed hundreds of Filipino actors in the series finale, had an episode with dozens of working Native American actors AND gave all of her real life friends lines. Loved that. This show is very much itself; the only real predecessor for it is “Arrested Development” and it makes sense because Mitch Hurwitz was one of the show runners here. Still, I get why it was cancelled as it got more critical of Netflix in Season Two and increasingly odder with its editing rhythms but IF YOU’RE A COMEDY FAN, THIS IS A TREAT (Streaming on Netflix).
Finally, here’s a few standout podcasts from this week as well:
Boom/Bust: The Rise of HQ Trivia: As an avid HQ player along with Anna and Adam Suzan, I was very excited for this eight (!) part series. Each episode is compact, never coming in at more than 40 minutes and it was nice to look forward to them on a weekly basis for two months. The show is pleasant and informative with tidbits like Scott Rogowsky planning on staging an on air strike and details about planned Last Comic Standing-style spinoff of the show had it continued. As things went on, it got a bit darker as we learn about the “who cares” attitude toward the end and the harrowing insider details behind one of the co-founder’s suicide. However, in the final episode, things get really juicy. A debate emerges about whether or not this podcast is journalism or entertainment when all of the interview subjects debate getting paid by The Ringer. There’s a confrontational sequence with Rogowsky where the host asked him about going behind her back asking her boss Bill Simmons for more information about getting paid. The whole show was worth it for that last segment; it’s up there with the most awkward exchanges I’ve ever heard. Both of them are in the wrong and they both sort of know it.
“You Made It Weird” with Topher Grace: Fun, long episode that moved briskly. Somehow the host and guest riffed on “Saved by the Bell” extensively which led to a great recurring bit where they did the “Extra Extra” sound effect from Mario Lopez’s “Extra.” Other interesting nuggets from this edition include Topher Grace talking about his role in “BlackkKlansman” as David Duke which has to be extra uncomfortable now and how Topher Grace was discovered in a play and got famous out of nowhere. As nice as that sounds, he talks about just how strange it was for him as a teen. Would recommend this one for any fan of the podcast or Topher Grace and I am both of those things.
WTF with Carl Reiner: As we all know, Carl Reiner passed this week at the ripe, old age of 98. He’s already sorely missed. Luckily, we have so many artifacts of his career to sift through and discover. This week, I dove into this podcast episode. Here are the highlights from this 75-minute interview that aren’t in every tribute of his storied career: Carl profusely praises his son Rob’s directorial career pointing out how great “Princess Bride is and still insults Rob’s famously bad movie “North,” he talks about performing for the troops in WWII, then tells the famous story of Albert Brooks being the funniest person he’s ever met and he knew this when Brooks was 16 (you read that right, Albert not Mel Brooks). Also, it was very funny how the phone rang multiple times throughout the episode and Reiner picked up every time. Another great curiosity was Reiner having famous manager George Shapiro tag along for the episode. Shapiro fell asleep. Loved that. Finally, the best part of all was about how Carl was a Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton fan back when they were actually making movies. The guy has been around the block. RIP Carl.
“Good One” with Horatio Sanz: On this podcast, the host interviews the subject about a joke or comedic performance they’re proud of. This one highlights a strange sketch I barely remember with Sanz being a pharmacist who called out people’s ailments; in 2020 speak, it comes across more as insensitive than funny. Still, this 60-minute low-key chat had some revelatory moments like Sanz talking about why SNL employs recurring characters (it’s because people don’t watch the show all the time and they figure it might be an audience member’s first time seeing said character) and the cast fighting for scraps and doing anything they can to get airtime. Sanz also admitted that his SNL “Best Of” DVD is basically already just Jimmy Fallon’s “Best Of” since they worked together so often which is a generous confession. He also reflected about his time on the show where he often “broke” in sketches. He said his laughter was a reflection of how he wanted to emphasize the live aspect of the show. I respect that. He wanted to go one step further conceptually and literally break sets during scenes to give audiences a closer look at the live element of the show. Finally, the show closed out with a perfect Truman Capote impression that he did in his audition for the show. Overall, this is hit or miss but Sanz is so much fun that it’s a good one to take on.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” with Jon Stewart: Have never actually listened to a full episode of Rogan’s podcast before even though I’d tried but never finished the Andrew Yang one. I’ll listen to Jon Stewart talk about anything so this was the one where I finally gave it a full shot. Gotta say, not super impressed. Rogan is...dull. For the first half, we’re just listening to him and Stewart, two very rich folks discussing wealth inequality in the country which felt very false. Things picked up when Stewart talked about 9/11 responders being treated poorly and how it messed up their lives which he brought to Congress in the past. However, the episode got great when Rogan refused to let Stewart be right about overweight people ruining their lives by being overweight. It was intense and nice to see both of them stick to their guns rather than back down. Finally, a real debate where the gloves come off. Also, for the record, as an overweight person, I think they’re both right- Stewart is in the camp that folks can eat whatever they want and Rogan believes that we all really should get in shape. Neither is wrong.
“Good One” with the “Oh, Hello” guys: Mulaney and Kroll show up completely in character for this and do not disappoint with erudite tangents about their Princess Diana podcast and Bernie Goetz. In fact, they’re so funny here, that host Jesse David Fox barely says anything at all. Out of everything I listened to this week, this went down easiest- I was genuinely sad when the hour was over. I’m excited to listen to their actual podcast soon.
WTF with Alan Zweibel: This podcast opened my week as I sat down for work on Monday and things got off to a very somber start. Pre-interview, Marc Maron legitimately sounds unwell like he didn’t want to go on. It was a tough pill to swallow and I imagine his life is very difficult at the moment but luckily he rebounded toward the end as he went into classic ad copy. As for the interview itself, Zweibel was effortlessly charming as always. The guy has so many amazing stories and has been there for everything in the past 45 years of comedy (he’s one of the original SNL writers and is still cranking out gold) but it was most interesting listening to him talk about what John Belushi was like at the end of his life and his relationship with Garry Shandling where they would talk on the phone for hours and Zweibel’s wife would have to break it up. Very excited to read Alan’s book which is sitting on my bookshelf at the moment and is next on my list to read.
“Good One” with Paul Scheer: Always loved Paul Scheer and it’s fascinating to hear this interview from 2017 where he praises Aziz. That’s the thing about all these cancelled celebrities; artifacts of their collaborators talking about them in a positive light exist all over the web in many different formats. Despite that oddity in the interview, Scheer tells great stories and dispenses valuable comedy wisdom. The most valuable lesson I learned here was differentiating between homage and parody. Scheer contends that imbuing your work with emotion and stakes leads to evergreen, meaningful comedy rather than just jokes that don’t age well. He also dunked on the Wayans Brothers in the episode saying he wasn’t a fan of their work. Wish this was a real comedy feud that existed. Also, he looked down upon “Not Another Teen Movie” which is legitimately fantastic but I’ll let it slide. Finally, if you’re a Criss Angel fan, there’s a few very funny behind the scenes stories of him from Scheer who hung out with him quite a bit in the early 2000s (the joke covered in this episode is a Criss Angel homage- NOT a parody).
No plans for me for the week. Honestly, just the way I like it.
Links:
01.) PromoteU with Steve Cohen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEyWe40O76c
02.) The Origin of Southwest’s Hold Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LD-DmmnIjo&list=PLoBsCsHJsKMrx6cuZ4Se8CQ_QBfOUcJ5U
03.) Robb Coles AProfileAboutYou: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/thoroughly-modern-history-with-robb-coles-isnt-just-a-podcast-it-s-a-time-machine-4da9c7a4b4d0
04.) The Ringer’s HQ Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/65F5z1u5FCLX9ddueCHJRb?t=0
05.) “You Made It Weird” with Topher Grace: http://youmadeitweird.nerdistind.libsynpro.com/topher-grace
06.) WTF with Carl Reiner: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/carl-reiner-from-2013
07.) “Good One” with Horatio Sanz: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/horatio-sanzs-dons-apothecary-sketch/id1203393721?i=1000384200615
08.) Joe Rogan Experience with Jon Stewart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXOUCRLW2UI
09.) “Good One” with the “Oh, Hello” Crew: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oh-hello/id1203393721?i=1000475797690
10.) WTF with Alan Zweibel: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1135-alan-zweibel
11.) “Good One” with Paul Scheer: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-scheer-and-human-giants-illusionators/id1203393721?i=1000382540100
