• This next Saturday, Anna and I are putting on our screening of her movie “Our Lady of the 80s” and my compilation of favorite sketches I’m calling “The Best Of Matt Levy.” I’ve mentioned this a few times before but wanted to do so one last time if you, the reader, are on the fence about going. I get it. There’s other stuff going on in the City. You might want a night in ‘cause “things are crazy right now.” Paying $9.75 is nuts. All valid reasons.
However, I have a counterargument for you. It’s: Why not?
Yeah, that’s the ticket!
I can promise you that if you make it to the show, not only will you get to see fun films and sketches on the big screen in a cool indie theater but you will also receive a commemorative program for the night to memorialize the night, an exclusive patch with my face on it that reads “Made you look” and, best of all, if you can’t pay the $9.75, you can let me know and I’ll give you a special promo code to get you in for free.
Plus, you’ll probably end up in Stray Notes next week.
Hope to see you there.
Here’s a link to the event by the way.
• Came across a majorly helpful Substack newsletter this week by comedy manager Ethan Jones called “Tools for Mgmt.” In the newsletter, Ethan covers a variety of topics ranging from the confounding BitClout to NFT explainers but my favorite parts are learning about the day-to-day of a comedy manager. This is exemplified best in his most recent edition where he tells the story of one of his most provocative clients having their Instagram disabled and the process of getting them back online. It’s a great look into what representation does for talent if you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes.
• A little over two months ago, the very funny Orli Matlow told me about Brent Forrester’s “Writing the TV Comedy Script” class. At the time, I had no real interest in writing a pilot or spec script; I only ever really wanted to write sketch and screenplays. However, after looking a bit more closely into the course, it started to make a lot more sense. Brent has a nearly unbeatable comedy resume having worked on “The Simpsons,” “King of the Hill,” “The Office,” “The Ben Stiller Show” and “Mr. Show with Bob and David” to name just a few things you and I both love. So, I signed up. It was one of the best choices I’ve ever made.
You know how you always hear “comedy is a science” and it’s always so annoying to really figure out what that means? Well, Brent truly does break it down making the process of writing scripts seem far less daunting and dispensing invaluable advice through the entirety of the course walking you through the steps of finishing your pilot or spec script. I won’t share too many of his secrets but here’s something I found invaluable from one of the first classes:
When Brent reads scripts from new writers trying to get hired, he looks for, “Joke writing ability, naturalism of dialogue, strong POV, act breaks, escalation, how satisfying and surprising the ending is.”
It might seem like common sense but to have that criteria to grade your work on before you submit to any screenwriting competition or potential writing job is invaluable. Plus, that’s just one of a million pieces of wisdom he doled out. Keep an eye on his site for an announcement of when the next class will start. I just might sign up and take it all over again.
• Saw three very funny sketches on Instagram this week all worthy of your eyeballs. Here’s why:
- The first was Tom Achilles and Charlie Dawson’s supremely absurd “Chess Wizard.” In this super short 1:55 avant garde piece, the two guys sit around trying to come up with something relatable for their New Yerker cartoon. With rapid fire, off-kilter editing reminiscent of Tim and Eric, the two find a rhythm all their own that’s very funny and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Come for the jokes, stay for the stylistic innovation.
- Number two is Jared Schwartz, Claire Alexander and Cliff Benfield’s animated “Serious Relationship” that starts small with a waiter asking, “How are you doing tonight, ladies?” and escalates into an overshare about a failed “serious relationship.” It’s a pitch perfect parody of the lies one tells themselves post-failed relationship and the repetition of “serious relationship” from Alexander’s character elevates a humorous situation into a truly well-observed meditation on how people cope when things don’t work out.
- The final sketch I caught this week “Office Suicide” was directed by John Connor Hammond and stars Noah Findling as an office drone who’s fed up with it all. Just as he’s about to do something drastic, the sketch heightens beautifully and becomes something entirely different from the typical scenario we’ve seen 100 times before with this setup. Noah’s enthusiastic performance coupled with Hammond’s camera work make this two-minute sketch feel like something that easily could be an SNL pre-taped sketch.
• I watched one movie on a Delta flight, listened to three podcasts and read a New York Times profile of a comedy legend this week that I think bears mentioning. Without further ado, here are my impressions of each:
“News of the World” (2020): For a brief period of time, this Tom Hanks starrer seemed like a shoo-in for a 2021 Best Picture nominee at the Academy Awards. When the campaign fell apart, I forgot this movie existed like most other failed prestige pics. However, when I saw it listed as a “New Arrival” on a six-hour flight, I gave it priority over “Kong V. Godzilla.” Was that the right choice? Possibly. This is a charming post-Civil War South buddy drama where newsreader Hanks travels the country captivating audiences by reading crowd pleasing or gripping news stories to them. In a way, it feels like early, topical comedy. Along the way, he takes a preteen girl Johanna (the expressive and excellent Helena Zengel) under his wing and on the road back to his wife and finding Johanna’s hometown, hijinks ensue. Except they’re dramatic hijinks. “NotW” is the rare buddy movie with all the beats of a comedy but played for drama. And it works. The two don’t know anything about each other, can’t communicate but somehow team together to stave off potential creeps, dive off horses and literally and metaphorically save each others’ lives. PROBABLY NOT BEST PICTURE WORTHY BUT A GREAT ONE TO SEE WITH THE FAMILY (Streaming on Amazon for $6.30 for some reason).
Smartless with Mitch Hurwitz: A podcast with Jason Bateman and Will Arnett sounds too good to be true (Sean Hayes co-hosts as well). It’s like the comedy Gods asked me exactly what I wanted for comedy Christmas and delivered. Unfortunately, when you get that Christmas gift it’s NOT quite exactly what you wanted. Yes, this podcast is fun like a laid back episode of “Arrested Development” but the episode I listened to with “AD” creator Mitch Hurwitz wasn’t quite as great as I imagined. Sure, there are inspirational anecdotes that live up to expectations like the story of Hurwitz working his way up from runner to head writer on “Golden Girls,” a glorious “AD” what-if about how Tobias Funke was supposed to have an in-character arc on “House” and the amazing piece of psychological insight that “Kids who are told they’re smart give up as opposed to kids that are told they’re hard working because the kids that are told they’re smart are instilled with a fear of failure.”
However, I had two issues with this podcast. First, all the fawning. The three hosts constantly praise Hurwitz to a degree that’s painful for the listener. Yes, we know he’s a friendly, nice guy but I don’t need to hear that over and over. Second, the treatment of Sean Hayes as the third banana host borders on genuine bullying. It’s just weird to hear Bateman and Arnett be so nice to the guest and then so rude to Hayes. I may be overly sensitive/this could be a bit but these two quirks of the pod got under my skin.
However, I might be a hypocrite because I would listen to another episode because when this show works, it really works.
Working It Out with the Sklar Brothers: In terms of riffers, it’s pretty hard to top the Sklar Brothers. With their double act, they ratchet up the comedy so fast and furious it’s hard to keep up and they know why- whereas other duo acts like The Smothers Brothers disagree on everything, they intentionally agree on whatever is said. Then, even when they’re off the cuff on podcasts like this one telling stories like the time they secretly got into needlepoint without telling their parents, workshopping dual bits about how getting their children iPhones is like saying goodbye to them and dispensing wisdom on how to follow Joe Rogan at The Comedy Store when there’s no host in-between, they sound like a single person talking even when it’s the two of them. It’s a live hive mind.
Most impressive of all were their punch up suggestions to Birbiglia for his new skiing bit. Most guests on this show simply tell Birbiglia how much they like the joke rather than suggest anything. This episode is an anomaly; here, you get to hear a fun joke evolve into a dense punchline machine. All that being said, I didn’t even mention the best story they told or funniest bit of theirs. I’d rather you discover it on your own.
Plus, points to the Sklars for referencing the world class Zingerman’s deli on the University of Michigan campus. I’ve been once and everyone in the world should know about this local treasure.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend with Seth Rogen: The more podcasts I listen to, the more ad copy I hear over and over. The hosts rarely put their soul into it. However, you gotta give it to Conan. His improvised corporate shilling (for New Balance here) is unmatched.
As is his ability to take interviews to strange and fascinating places. It’s not that hard when you have a guest like Seth Rogen telling George Lucas stories but this episode felt special. This was most evident when Rogen asked about a story he’d heard through the grapevine where Conan was eating at a restaurant when a man fell through the roof. Somehow, Conan forgot this even happened. It was one of those rare moments in life where the storyteller rediscovers the story for themselves trying to piece together all the details while telling it.
Also, this podcast has the rare distinction of being so funny that I almost fell off the treadmill listening to Conan riff on making Seth Rogen theoretically wait to speak while he records an overly long intro. It’s a perfect mockery of the medium; the listener always DOES kind of think the guest is just chillin’ waiting to speak while the host blathers on for ten minutes before the interview begins. Guess that’s not the case.
- Speaking of Conan, his trusty sidekick Andy Richter was profiled in the New York Times right around the time Conan left TBS. Here, he dives into what it’s like being the last true sidekick of late night (which discredits Steve Higgins’ role on Fallon but I digress), how he wanted to “do characters on the show” instead of being a sidekick but changed his mind at the last minute in the show’s inaugural season and how once he started taking the second fiddle role less seriously because the stakes are low, he became much funnier as a result. There’s a bit of heaviness to this piece as well as Richter opens up about his divorce and how had he not gotten Conan, he would have worked at a movie theater. Goes to show that successful comics barely have a backup plan. Laughs or bust.
• I’d like to leave you with one last quote I heard in Brent’s class that I can’t get enough of. It comes from Charlie Chaplin who said, “When a man walks into a manhole, that’s slapstick. When a man walks over a manhole, then gets hit by a truck, that’s comic irony.” Truth.
See you at the screening
