• What’s keeping most of us sane these days are things that we get excited about whatever that may be for you. Baking, knitting, crossfit, crossword puzzles, writing jokes, screenwriting, whatever scratches the creative itch, I support you. For me, yeah, I’m writing and consuming way too many movies and books (see the latter part of these notes for evidence) but what gets me most excited is making mashups. This new 30-minute epic I crafted (yeah, I said “crafted”) this week entitled “I’m In The Club Hollerin’ Somewhere Over The Rainbow” is different from my previous editions in that it has quite a bit of comedic influence woven through. Yeah, there are songs that wouldn’t tonally match that I would describe as humorous (we got such odd pairings as “Wannabe” by Spice Girls and “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf syncing up TOO well) but I also have actual comedy drops in this one ranging from Beavis and Butthead to Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer to Bernie Mac to “You Might Be A Redneck” to the “1, 2, 10!” guy from “Home Alone.” Honestly, it’s very fun to jam and hear classic (classic is up to your interpretation here) jokes at the same time. Yes, this thing is 30 minutes but pop it in now from the link below and listen to it while you read the rest of this. You just might hear “Baby Shark” in a whole new way.
• I haven’t done old material since March 11. On the few Zoom shows I’ve done, I restructured Tweets to be said aloud basically which were met with understandably mixed reactions. However, it’s been so long, I wanted to dust off the old bits I used to love so much. Thanks to Rebecca Kaplan’s very fun virtual hour-long showcase, I got to get some of the rust off of what I used to love to do on stage (I legitimately had butterflies in my stomach when Rebecca sent me a private Zoom message that read “You’re next”). It went pretty well, I put my face right up in my webcam, shadowboxed and riffed on the previous comic. It felt like a return to normal. The secret? Standing up. By sitting at my desk for the first few shows, I lost the physicality. It really is called stand up for a reason- being on your toes, brings a new energy to a performance. Also, Rebecca’s audience was spectacular- her Dad fact checked my jokes and after everyone’s set, people had kind words in the chat for all the performers. I don’t know how live shows are really going but virtual comedy is slowly becoming more sophisticated and I thank Kaplan for the opportunity to let me see that. Now go flood her DMs asking for a spot. JK. Don’t do that.
• Completed just one profile this week and it’s all about my new friend Bizzy Coy. She and I met over Twitter and I immediately became taken with her warm writing style. It was a shock when she reached out to me to write a profile since she’s an accomplished writer in her own right. As a result, my piece is very self aware and addresses that I’m writing about a superior talent. In fact, it’s titled, “Bizzy Coy Is A Better Writer Than I Am.” Highly recommend reading it as it charts Bizzy’s path toward becoming a successful freelance writer. If that’s something that you’d be interested in, there’s a link in the comments just for you.
• I might have used a second non-family Amazon account to score a second free trial week of Cinemax. Worth it. Here are select highlights/brief reviews/sloppily written recounts of what I checked out these past seven days:
“A Thousand Words” (2012): Feel free to think I’m crazy for this (Anna Paone did) but I thought this was a LOT better than “Dolemite Is My Name” as cheesy, ridiculous as this movie is. For the uninitiated, the high concept story is Eddie Murphy’s book publisher (why do characters always work boring, high powered jobs) character greenlights a book by a sage who teaches him a lesson by only giving him 1000 words before he GASP! DIES! High stakes indeed. There are pointless side characters (Kerry Washington plays Eddie’s wife and in one scene where she wants to spice up the marriage, a friend says something about lingerie and tequila never hurting to save a marriage which was the only time she was in the movie), a mixed tone (the whole time I was like, “OK, that’s from the original draft, that’s an Eddie ad lib, that’s a fourth draft to make the story more serious by drawing out Eddie’s Mom’s dementia, that ball joke is a punch up from a comic) and things that make no sense (why does Eddie continue going to work? Why does he buy a banana split on a boardwalk to eat at one point while walking and this is never commented upon?). Still, he gives a peak, charismatic performance that reminds you why he’s so damn good to begin with. NOT ONE OF HIS BEST, BUT YOU MIGHT END UP LOVING IT (Streaming on Netflix).
“Time Bandits” (1981): Terry Gilliam has always been a “favorite” of mine even though I find some of his stuff really inaccessible. For some reason, I was always intimidated by this supposed kids film. This week, I actually plunked down to watch it and it’s pretty fun! The movie is your classic time travel hero’s journey starring an 11-year-old British kid and a pack of thieving but heroic dwarves. The ragtag team traipses through history to the Napoleonic era (ironically, Napoleon is far more height-obsessed than the dwarves), to Greece I think and then we meet Robin Hood too. It’s episodic and basically a less fun “Princess Bride” or if Monty Python didn’t care about being funny (apparently, the dwarves were based on each Python’s personality). I read the Wiki after and realized I missed quite a bit but I had fun watching. THERE MIGHT BE NO BILL AND TED’S WITHOUT THIS, GIVE IT A SHOT (Streaming on Cinemax- free seven-day trial on Prime, folks).
“The Dead Don’t Die” (2019): OK, gonna list off the cast of Jim Jarmusch’s zombie film and your jaw is going to drop: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Iggy Pop, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, The RZA, Rosie Perez and a few other familiar faces. It’s like a better version of a Wes Anderson cast. You’re probably wondering why you didn’t really hear much noise about this fairly recent release. Well, it’s not Jarmusch’s best (I vote for “Coffee and Cigarettes”) but it is fun with winning performances from all of the above and fun meta jokes throughout. Still, there is on the nose social commentary about MAGA, global warming and how WE are all zombies with our phones. Ya know, even Gen X icons like Jarmusch become boomer humorists. Gotta give credit to Tilda Swinton for killing it and also to Jim Jarmusch for one very funny, running meta bit where everyone is a Sturgill Simpson fan and is aware of a lesser track of his. Never got old for me. THIS IS ONE OF THOSE SUBPAR MOVIES THAT YOU SHOULD PROBABLY JUST SEE FOR THE CAST (Streaming on Cinemax).
“Night Shift” (1982): I’d always heard this was the movie that MADE Michael Keaton. I get it. He is electric in this flick. For starters, it’s about a morgue working stiff played by Henry Winkler (yes, the Fonz) who is relocated to, yup, the frickin’ night shift. He’s paired with wild card Keaton who basically invented Norm MacDonald’s comedic persona with this movie doing “Notes to Self” throughout and the two of them start running a brothel out of the morgue with star woman of the night...Shelley Long. Yup, wholesome Diane. You also get to see a young Clint Howard (Ron Howard’s little brother that’s in all of his movies) and Richard Belzer. It’s honestly very fun throughout (Keaton really does give a star making performance), surprisingly woke in sections (some is incredibly not woke too to be fair) and with all the ad libs feels like the precursor to the Judd Apatow/Adam McKay school of improvised dialogue comedies. THIS IS A REALLY UNDERRATED, FORGOTTEN CLASSIC (Streaming on Cinemax).
“Reality Bites” (1994): You know those movies you’ve seen parts of but you’d be lying to yourself if you said you’d “seen the movie?” That’s what this is for me. I know it’s THE Gen X movie but I’d never seen it all the way through and grasped what it was really about, man. Glad I finally did. You get to see a young Janeane Garofalo at the height of her comedic powers, Winona Ryder bratting it up, Ethan Hawke doing the brooding, tortured artist bit, Stiller playing a corporate stiff and Steve Zahn hamming it up as Garofalo’s closeted friend. There’s also Andy Dick and David Spade cameos. The movie has a lot to say about a.) generational differences as exemplified in a great scene at a post-graduation dinner with Ryder’s divorced parents and b.) differences between “creatives” and “suits” when Stiller’s exec type botches Ryder’s “visionary documentary” (I preferred Stiller’s version so I must be a sell out). Anyhow, the movie is really fun for its first ⅔ and the last part turns into a love triangle thing where there really is no right choice for Ryder between Hawke and Stiller. IT’S A GREAT 90S TIME CAPSULE (Streaming on Cinemax).
“Hollywood Ending” (2002): This, I had seen before. In fact, I own it for some reason. I think it’s because I couldn’t find this movie online 15 years ago so I bought it at Best Buy when people still did stuff like that. Anyway, I popped it into the DVD player this week to watch with Anna and we laughed at the threadbare “let’s make a movie” plot where Woody fumbles through psychosomatic blindness to make a movie while blind and a cinematographer who doesn’t speak English he can’t communicate with. However, after further inspection, I wondered: Is this movie about Woody’s own blindness toward his actions with the Farrow family and subsequent Soon-Yi marriage? Kinda doubt it because it ends with the opposite of self awareness as he makes out with a way out of his league Tea Leoni. Woody’s films are interesting comedically- his movies are SO HIM. It feels like there are no rewrites, no studio notes from anyone else, everyone is playing a version of him because that’s how he writes roles. Essentially, his movies are open mic sets. They don’t have “show polish,” they have a more “let’s see what sticks, this seems fun” vibe to them. WHAT I’M SAYING IS THIS AND MOST OF WOODY’S LATER WORKS COULD USE A COLLABORATOR AND A BIT OF LOVE AND CARE RATHER THAN FEELING LIKE A TOSSED OFF IDEA HE DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THAT MUCH (I own the DVD. No idea how you’ll find this one unless I just give you the DVD).
I listened to one podcast this week. I’ll keep this short:
WTF with Seth Rogen: I’ll listen to Rogen talk anywhere. He’s a live wire, wild card of an interview and is always down to be funny or insightful. Well, this was quite a convo and ended up going semi-viral controversially later in the week. The conversation starts in a friendly manner doing a live version of the Hanukkah Song where they debate who is and isn’t Jewish and they learn Gene Hackman is NOT a member of the tribe. There’s talk of family backgrounds and Maron acknowledges it’s hard to talk to Rogen a second time (he interviewed him in 2014) and not cover his comedy origin story for a promotional interview. It’s these second episodes where you get real and the well has run dry on the typical podcast narrative where things go off the rails. In this case, Rogen and Maron admit they’re both a little anti-Israel. They spell out their cases but you can’t just say that when you have all that media attention and power without it getting misinterpreted by the press. So, Rogen will be apologizing for this casual conversation forever. He does discuss the effectiveness of Jewish death rituals having you drink and eat while you grieve and praises the social aspect of the religion I share with him but his one slip up (I agree, not the most responsible thing to say) is all anyone will glean from this conversation. He knows it too, saying something to the effect of, “I know I’m going to get in trouble for this.” That’s why I always listen to podcasts he’s on- dude always keeps it entertaining.
Not a lot on the docket for this sleepy, surprisingly overcast August week for me. On Saturday, I’m doing Chris Khatami’s Spec Script show at 4 PM EST. The conceit of the show is someone writes a spec script for a show they’ve never seen. This installment is an episode of “The O.C.” written by Sarah Kennedy. I have never seen the show but I expect chill summer vibes.
Hope you’re liking the mashup. The part with the Seinfeld theme, Mariah Carey, Coolio and the 1988 World Series Kirk Gibson home run call about 14 min in makes the hair on my leg stand up
01.) I’m In The Club Hollerin’ Somewhere Over The Rainbow: https://vimeo.com/443236188
02.) Bizzy Coy Profile: https://medium.com/@aprofileaboutyou/bizzy-coy-is-a-better-writer-than-i-am-15712630ba46
03.) WTF with Seth Rogen: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1143-seth-rogen
