• Validation is a hard thing to come by in any field. Your hard work might not get recognized at the office by the boss or on the stage by club bookers. Been there before. It’s especially difficult if you’re trying to make a feature film with little experience and trying to attract semi-well known actors. For a month or so, I attempted to reach out to actors’ agents (my dream cast was Ellen Cleghorne, Tim Meadows and Luke Null; basically all cast members who had been on SNL at some point) through IMDbPro with zero luck. Nothing.
Then, I figured out a hack. I needed to make a website and have a domain that wasn’t a Gmail. This might give the project a shred of legitimacy and in return, I might get the validation I’ve been desperately chasing after. So, I logged onto Squarespace, whipped up a few pages and got myself a new email: matt@sharkjumpersthemovie.com. An email from that domain seems a tiny bit more professional. I then sent emails out a second time to actors I’d been after. My inbox remained empty until I got one reply. Steven Anthony Lawrence AKA Beans from “Even Stevens” had his agent reply to me. She said she’d send my email his way. I haven’t heard back but I’m no longer at nothing. More emails to come.
If you know any former SNL cast members that would like to be in an indie feature, I would flip if you told me or them. You could even show them my site here. Check it. I’m super proud of this.
• Another great week in the books for podcasts, sketches and Instagram shorts made by comedians on the come-up. Here’s just a select few favorites:
- Every time I hear of a great podcast premise, I think, “How did that not exist yet?” As soon as I clicked play on Michael Palladino’s “Adult Humor,” I knew I had stumbled onto another great “how did that not exist yet” idea for a show that is too tantalizing to not already be on Stitcher or Earwolf. In the show, Palladino has guests on to discuss vintage issues of Playboy. Genius. Mostly, Palladino and the guest break down the issue’s “dirty jokes” to see how they hold up to today’s standards. It’s delightful. There are six episodes currently available but the one I listened to featured Hattie Hayes as a guest with the two of them talking about the May 1994 Playboy. The two reached a state of comic nirvana over the hour with stories of cats peeing on the famed nudie mag which led to an exceptional bodily fluids joke and then the dissection of lengthy jokes about bug bites, IRS auditors and your typical _____, _______ and ______ walked into a bar bit. It was an excellent listen and I can’t wait to hear back episodes about other back issues.
- As a proud graduate of the UCB sketch program, I am very aware of a small NY comedy secret: the class shows are always surprisingly good. I recently happened upon a virtual Sketch 301 show and I couldn’t help myself. I had to indulge. It’s just as fun as I remembered. The games of the scene are sharp and even though it’s over Zoom, it brought me back to that ramshackle, anarchist vibe that the UCB Chelsea theater had for so many years. Anyhow, in the show I watched, two sketches stood out in particular and both were penned by the gifted Stan Talouis. The first is his “White Gremlins” which can be found at the 8:40 mark. Structured like a trailer, it’s a spot on send up of a horror film but one with a Gremlin that is painfully white. Come for the satire and stay for the goofy, high pitched gremlin voices. The second is Stan’s absurd “Jinx” (30:20 into the video) where the classic “Jinx you owe me a Coke” expression goes to much weirder places than a simple jinx should ever go.
- It’s hard to pinpoint why exactly going to a party once you get a little older sucks. Is it you? Or does everyone else suck? Chris Barnes brilliantly breaks down why it IS everyone else that sucks in his 22-second wordless “Going to a party in your mid-late 20s” Instagram vid. He plays all five parts here and each is funnier than the last. No need to spoil jokes about who he runs into at the party- it’s better to discover these relatable types you’ve undoubtedly run into on your own.
- I’ve been fascinated by what accent coach Jordan Yanco has done for a minute now. The man studies and teaches accents to performers for a living so they can emote with nuanced, realistic interpretations of the way people from other countries speak rather than the caricatures we naturally reduce them to when we imitate folks without any formal training. In fact, he said when folks do, let’s say a Boston accent, they’ll do it at a level ten which doesn’t sound like a real person. Jordan teaches you how to take it to an authentic five. I wanted to know more about the process so I listened to Jordan discuss what he does on the fun “There It Is” podcast. Here he shares secrets toward hearing authentic accents in the wild like asking a Southerner about their favorite BBQ spot and noticing connector words like how an American person may say “what” while someone from the UK may pronounce it “watt.” He even breaks down the subtle difference between “Mary,” “Marry” and “Merry” which I’d never noticed before. It’s an insightful, humorous chat about the way we all talk and made me more self-conscious about my southwestern dialect than I’d ever been before.
*Bonus listening: Jordan was on another pod called “Yes And I Am” where he played Ian McKellen without breaking character for a good 20-30 minutes. It’s an impressive tightrope act of mimicry, improv and character commitment.
• A few weeks ago, The Writer’s Guild of America put on a free panel with all of SNL’s head writers (Michael Che, Ken Sublette, Eric Kenward and Anna Drezen; Colin Jost was noticeably absent) moderated by Aidy Bryant. In exactly one hour they shared vast chunks of wisdom about what it’s like to work on the 17th Floor at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (this is where SNL takes place). Here are some choice chunks:
- Every time the writers write a sketch, they forget how to write too.
- Six consecutive episodes was difficult to start this past season was not easy to pull off.
- When hosts say, “I’ll do anything,” they realize by Wednesday they don’t want to do most things pitched to them.
- Hosts don’t pick an entire show but they can get one sketch in OR taken out of an episode.
- The writers like writing with each other to boost each other’s self esteem.
- They all started in comedy differently. Drezen got her start at Reductress, another writer started at a toy company called Rumpus and a third literally started writing comedy at the show.
- Being a head writer means having to cut stuff off the top of a sketch on the fly and tell the other writers to state the game more clearly.
- “Always keep trying at comedy. Never give up. Just keep doing it. In your head it’s perfect but no one will pay you for a script you didn’t write.”
- Use less words.
I doubt this is recorded anywhere for posterity but it was great to see the staff’s easy rapport in action and learn about all the above plus minutiae where they dove into what a Monday at the show versus a Tuesday is like. I’m sad to say I already forgot the difference.
• I’m more than a little behind on tiny reviews of things I’ve seen or heard. Here’s an assortment of random specials, films, anthologies, sports documentaries and podcasts I feasted my eyes and ears on recently:
Rory Scovel’s “Live Without Fear” (2021): The idea of a completely improvised stand up special sounds absolutely awful. Why would I want to see a comic get up and work out half baked premises? However, when Rory Scovel is the comic in question, it’s suddenly much more exciting. The guy is simply one of the most energetic, glib and self aware comics I’ve ever seen. He’s also mad funny. This half special/half documentary about the process of Scovel’s is a fantastic encapsulation of what Rory can do with a microphone, stage and no prepared material. He turns an observation about driverless Ubers into a fully-realized chunk that would sit comfortably in most other comics’ traditional specials. However, there’s quite a bit of madcap, live wire material like Scovel simultaneously arm wrestling/thumb warring an audience member, an act out where he plays poop (yup) and a very silly extended riff on capes the whole crowd gets in on. It’s a little all over the place which makes the hour a bit formless but I can’t complain. It’s livelier than 99% of comics’ “routines” (including my own of course).
The special also doubles as a history of the Relapse Theater in Atlanta where the six nights of shows that made up the special were filmed. The owner Bob Wood tells the story of how he bought the space, had cops protect it (!), had it taken away and then returned years later. It’s a wild story and one that fits right in with a wild special (Streaming on YouTube).
* Note: Rory pretending to magically open an automatic minivan door made me laugh very hard.
“Emma” (2020): I tried to watch this film with Anna Paone at the beginning of the pandemic (remember the pandemic? lol) but I fell right asleep. It’s allegedly a “comedy of manners” but this Anya Taylor-Joy starrer is essentially an extended “Bridgerton” minus the juicy salaciousness that made the show so watchable. In this fairly dull costume drama, there’s a polite love triangle with minimal conflict stretched out over two-plus hours. Character clashes are introduced and quickly squashed. Yes, there’s the occasional insensitive remark masquerading as story but really this was MOSTLY AN EXCUSE TO LOOK AT PEOPLE IN FANCY CLOTHES (Streaming on Amazon Prime for $3.99; I saw it on a Delta flight).
“Small Axe” (2020): Steve McQueen is one of the most incredible directors working today and one of the few that becomes increasingly harder to pigeonhole with each subsequent project of his. “Shame” is nothing like “12 Years A Slave” which has very little in common with “Widows.” Now, he’s made an anthology film “Small Axe” that is five separate films all thematically linked to his politically charged upbringing in London in the 60s and 70s but tonally incongruous. Take your pick from the stirring courtroom thriller “Mangrove,” the sumptuous house party in real time “Lovers Rock,” the stirring ‘change the system from the inside’ cop drama “Red, White and Blue” (my vote for the best of the bunch), the coming of age story for a naive young man learning hard truths behind bars in “Alex Wheatle” (featuring the coolest image of the year where a frame has a record spinning on its edges until it fades out) and a powerful tale about education inequality rightfully titled “Education.” They’re all wonderful, sad, beautiful and one of the most dizzying, satisfying, groundbreaking film experiences I’ve had in a long time. Together they run around six hours (“Mangrove” is two hours; all the others are in the ballpark of an hour) but it’s TOTALLY WORTH DEVOTING A WEEK TO (Streaming on Amazon Prime).
“Long Gone Summer” (2020): While “The Last Dance” made all the headlines for ESPN’s “30 for 30” last summer, this doc about the McGwire/Sosa summer of 98 fell by the wayside. Before you ask, yes, they cover steroids (what I didn’t know was the roids they were using were over the counter and the game hadn’t banned them so they weren’t totally at fault; it was a lawless system). But that’s not REALLY what this is about.
As a diehard baseball fan in the 90s, watching this nostalgia piece made me cry. It just brought me back to being ten-years-old and how damn fun that summer was. Lost youth captured on television. The documentary itself is good; if not artless. There’s a colorful cast of characters like the ball collector/comic book creator Todd McFarlane who has many of the moon shots from the season. There’s the perspective from Cubs pitcher Steve Trachsel who gave up McGwire’s 62nd. There’s the groundskeeper who kept the ball and ended up doing panel on Letterman to talk about the experience. There’s McGwire’s son Matt who was my age and was there for every home run his dad hit. There’s Chip Caray and Roger Maris Jr doing their absolute best to be the legacies of their forefathers but are mostly boring pale imitations.
There’s the retro Sportscenter coverage, Sosa’s improbable 20 home runs in a month, the slumps, the origin stories where we learn McGwire wanted to pitch while growing up and Sosa was a shoeshine boy in the Dominican Republic, the lack of cell phones, the footage of their challenger Ken Griffey Jr and the overarching narrative about how this wild season ended baseball’s drought after the 1994 strike. Basically, if you’re a baseball fan, this is the ultimate comfort viewing like Beatles concert footage for a music junkie or…”The Last Dance” for an NBA fan. I hate rewatching anything but I could probably see this doc 50 times and never tire of it. ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE WITH STEROIDS (Streaming on ESPN+).
WTF with Quentin Tarantino: I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a conversation between two baby boomers. Yes, QT has done a few other pods but WTF always FEELS like the definitive conversation on record.
Here, things begin with a quick mini interview with the always engaging Tom Scharpling who shared an excerpt from his new book. Apparently, in the 90s, Maron inadvertently inspired him by comparing record store employees and MTV heads onstage. Scharpling was in the audience and working at a record store at the time. Love it. Perfect way to gas us up for the main course to talk to the world’s most famous video store clerk.
Tarantino entered. High pitched voice, the laugh, the references. What we all love about the guy. He was there to promote his new novelization of “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” which is discussed quite a bit but this talk ends up being quite a few other things as well. They obviously cover the whole “I’m only doing ten movies and I’m out” philosophy but Tarantino also shares that he a.) memorized one of Maron’s bits (going so far as to call it his own), b.) had a kid in his 50s with his Israeli wife, c.) often goes to The Comedy Store, d.) cast Julia Sweeney and Kathy Griffin because he hung out with The Groundlings in the 90s and did improv for a bit, e.) that “Coming Attractions” song that always plays before his movies is called “Funky Fanfare,” f.) Tarantino’s real last name is Zastapil and he changed it to Tarantino at 18 or 19 since it sounded cooler/came from his stepdad, g.) his real Dad crawled out of the woodwork when Quentin became famous, and best of all h.) Sal Pacino (Al P’s estranged father) and Tarantino’s dad did straight to video movies back in the 90s capitalizing on their sons’ names and fame. Excellent. Exactly the anecdote I came for.
Working It Out with Bill Hader: This time, a conversation between two Gen X’ers I couldn’t be more excited for. My elders speak to me. Here, Hader tells so many great stories that it’s hard to narrow down what’s best. Some choice conversational avenues they went down were Matt Stone’s warnings to Hader about aging which he felt right around the time he turned 41 and when writing screenplays “it’s not AND then this happen, it’s SO then this happened.” Wise.
Some other great tidbits include:
A funny story from the set of “Trainwreck” involving a child actor that’s too great to ruin here in print. A confession that Hader is that guy that religiously reads and shares Onion articles. Another confession that he doesn’t know how to make punchlines land when improvising. A fantastic Pete Holmes burn by Birbiglia. A wild anecdote about Hader hanging out with Ben Stiller at 17 in Oklahoma. Most importantly, an informal announcement that the third season of “Barry” will be filmed in a couple months. YES.
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend with Barack Obama: Yeah, I’m a week late with my Conan appreciation but that’s because most of my Conan content these days comes from his pod. Yes, he’s probably the funniest host to ever occupy the late night chair, yes, he’s formally daring, yes, the show in the 90s was extremely formative for an entire generation to see what you can do with the medium, but here, I just want to talk about how he did a pod with Obama.
First off, Obama is a heck of a podcast guest and Conan is a heck of a host. So when Obama tells a story where Psy sang Christmas songs poorly at a White House event, you better believe Conan has an anecdote ready to go about how his son was in line to meet Obama at that event and simply wanted to leave. Better yet, Justin Bieber tried to convince his son to stay. Yes, it’s a wild name dropping trip of a pod that gets better and better. Obama gleefully admits how much he enjoyed watching comics try and fail to follow him at White House Correspondents Dinners and how one time he had to perform at one of these dinners while an American pilot was caught behind enemy lines and he had an earpiece in telling him what was going on while he was onstage telling make ‘em ups.
Should also be noted that this very fast hourlong pod is also a chat between two Dads (Conan and Obama obviously) sharing parenting tips about keeping your kids fed and well rested as well as make sure that you treat Malia’s soccer games with the same level of importance and enthusiasm as national security issues.
Best of all, Obama respects Zach Galifianakis for not bowing down to guests on “Between Two Ferns.” You gotta love a President who knows all about “Between Two Ferns” and also admits to being a huge fan of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.
• We’re very near the bottom so I figured I’d tell you I did a second open mic a little over two weeks ago now. It went very badly and I broke many of my comedy rules like writing all my material on the train simultaneously coming up with it and trying to memorize it all at once. This never goes well (unless you’re Rory Scovel). Yeah, you can write maybe one bit on the train to cram in the middle of your set but the whole thing? That’s a recipe for disaster.
I’ll admit it. Due to my ill-prepared five minutes, I walked two audience members. This is everything I didn’t want to be. The only saving grace is I wore pants this time around.
When mic three happens or whatever live comedy I do next takes place, you’ll be sure to hear about it way down at the bottom here.
• This IS the actual end of Stray Notes now. Just wanted to say, if you’re free on July 31 and you read this far, I’d really, really, really love for you to come to the screening of my “Best Of” sketches and Anna Paone’s “Our Lady of the 80s” in Greenpoint. None of our show was written on the train and it will be really fun and good.
Plus, since you got this far, email me (matt@sharkjumpersthemovie.com) for a promo code and I’ll get you in for free.
You earned it
