Suggest a guest thread!
I'm opening up the floor to suggestions once again.
Here are some guidelines...
The guest cannot be ironic
The guest should be doing interviews for some reason -- either they're not hard to get hold of, or they have a book out, or they're on tour, or whatever. This time stuff is much better when it's a month or six weeks in the future, for logistical reasons.
I always double-welcome ideas for awesome women guests, because I try to fight against the show's sausage-party tendencies.
They should be awesome.
Also, bonus question: should I book the Gorrillaz? Like, the cartoon group? Not sure what to think of this possibility that has crossed my path.
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Here are some guidelines...
The guest cannot be ironic
The guest should be doing interviews for some reason -- either they're not hard to get hold of, or they have a book out, or they're on tour, or whatever. This time stuff is much better when it's a month or six weeks in the future, for logistical reasons.
I always double-welcome ideas for awesome women guests, because I try to fight against the show's sausage-party tendencies.
They should be awesome.
Also, bonus question: should I book the Gorrillaz? Like, the cartoon group? Not sure what to think of this possibility that has crossed my path.
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posted by Jesse Thorn at Wednesday, November 01, 2006
31 Comments:
Todd Glass, Andy Kindler, Andrew WK, Neil Hamburger, Patton Oswalt
I know I had a suggestion, but I can't remember who it was.
In the meantime, I would recommend the band The Aquabats. They're all about the awesome, and they're superheroes (the live shows include attacks by supervillians). The relevant part is that they have a new TV show (Yo Gabba Gabba), and I think they're going to have a new album soon. They've been around for maybe 10 years, and they've done some pretty interesting stuff in that time.
I think it would be more interesting if you could interview Jamie Hewlett and/or Damon Albarn, instead of the Gorillaz "themselves".
a few suggestions:
Catherine O'Hara: apart from her obvoius past awesomeness (and femaleness), she's got For Your Consideration coming up soon, and she's doing a voice in the Where the Wild Things Are movie.
Fred Willard: also For Your Consideration
Ben Garant and/or Tom Lennon: they've got the Reno 911 film, Balls of Fury, Let's Go to Prison coming soon.
Maurice LaMarche and/or Rob Paulsen: they've got more Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain DVDs coming out, and these guys have SO much voice acting experience, they'd make for great interviews.
2nd for Todd Glass! also, I saw Ian Bagg for the first time at the Hollywood Improv last week and he absolutely killed. I'm sure he'd be good on the show.
also, thumbs up for Gorillaz (in any of their forms)!
I second the Let's Go to Prison guys, with the addendum that if you can get anyone from that project, get Arnett, for he is lord.
The Hold Steady are a fantastic, relatively well-known band with a new record out. Craig Finn would probably make for a damn good interview.
A 3rd on Todd Glass.
Jon Glaser
And... Ricky Gervais, Borat, Jesus, Tony Kushner and John Hodgman.
Deltron 3030 or either one, David Bowie, Sean Lennon, Jeff Tweedy, Ben Folds
If possible, I'd like to both second and third Jon Glaser.
Yay! I love this thread!
-Emo Phillips - Has shows on the west coast in November 2006, and January, February and March 2007. He’s just awesome and based on anecdotal evidence, very fan-friendly.
-Jack McBrayer from 30 Rock. Dunno how hard he would be to get.
-Kristin Schaal, she does voices on Freak Show and is uniquely funny (although supposedly Freak Show’s on the verge of cancellation)
-More current interview with Eugene Mirman. He’s one of my favs and he’ll be on that new Turner broadband site that’s launching soon. You could also interview him and Bobby Tisdale about Invite Them Up, they are doing a mini-east coast tour in December, maybe a larger tour is in the works?
-the Chapman Brothers, creators of homestarrunner.com, consistently awesome, no ads, money off merch sales only which aren’t crappy (like ::cough:: dane cook:: cough::) and pushed to the point of annoyance. In our controversial-YouTube universe, they are quietly putting out consistent high-quality, funny stuff.
- Amy Sedaris, but I think you mentioned she may already be in the pipeline. Her book recently came out and it is amazingly funny, plus Strangers with Candy will be on DVD soon (although I can’t find a date based on a quick google search)
- Spoon (the band) – They did original music for the movie Stranger than Fiction that’s coming out November 10th
- Judah Friedlander from 30 Rock. He’s funny and you’ve got to admit based on how he presents himself, it’s pretty awesome that he’s on TV
- Daniel Radosh – writer and creator of the The New Yorker cartoon anti-caption contest. He has a book in the works about Fundamentalist Christians.
- Neal Pollack (funny guy and friend of Hodgman) has a book called Alternadad coming out January 9th.
- NY Comedian, Bob Powers, is coming out with a book called “Happy Cruelty Day: Daily Celebrations of Quiet Desperation” on December 26th
- Dan Kennedy – author of “Loser Goes First” and regular McSweeney’s contributor (IMO, one of the best) is coming out with a new book at some point in 2007 called “Rock On”
- Rob Riggle – he’s on the daily show now
For your female guest needs, how about Mindy Kaling from The Office? Comedian, illustrator, writer, actress.
And a local Dairyland plug for the creators of the Chad Vader videos on YouTube.
And I'll +1 Neal Pollack.
I think Neko Case is the bee's ankles, and her 2003 Austin City Limits performance was recently released on DVD. I have no idea if she's an easy "get," though (I suspect not).
Season 2 of Dr. Katz comes out on Nov. 21, and anyone involved with that show would be great.
Rain Pryor just wrote book about her relationship with her father, and I believe Ralph Steadman recently released a book about his relationship with Hunter S. Thompson.
I'm a big fan of Salvador Plascencia's "The People of Paper," which is coming out in paperback soon.
The "10th Anniversary Edition" of David Foster Wallace's novel "Infinite Jest" comes out this month (the book is apparently so good it's never at my local library), and I think he'd be a great interview.
I'll also reiterate my suggestion of William Christenberry.
I would love Neal Pollock, Andy Kindler and Rain Pryor. Also the Tenacious D movie is coming out soon. Try to get them now before they're huge. It would be good to see interviews with documentary filmmakers Paul Rachman (American Hardcore), David Leaf (The U.S. vs. John Lennon), and Gabriel Range(Death of a President). Also Police Squad comes to DVD this week. A good book came out a couple of weeks ago by another McSweeney's author, John Moe, called Conservatize Me, where John pretends to be a Republican for a month.
RE: Aquabats. I think getting them would be allright if you insisted that the interview not be in character. If it was, it would just sound like goobbelty-gook to non-fans.
I did read an non-character interview with the "Bat Commander" back in the day and he was really interesting. He seems like he puts a lot of thought into what he does.
I didn't know they were having a TV show. I remember when I was an intern at FOX a few years ago I read a long-abandoned pilot for them that was collecting dust in a drawer with promotional materials for the show "Clone High"
Yeah, get Gorillaz. It's a famous thing right? Do they do in-character interviews?
Any luck on David Simon? That would be a good one to do around the time of the season 4 finale.
Any or all of the members of Variety Shac.
Stephen Merchant
Mega dittos to Jon Glaser.
Also, Paul Michael Glaser.
Many many great suggestions here, thank you! Some are already in the pipeline, keep them coming.
Cartoonists like:
Gary Larson
Garry Trudeau
Aaron McGruder
Bill Amend
and maybe editorial cartoonists like Tom Toles.
Sarah Brown, host of the monthly New York-based Cringe adolescent journal readings, mistress of the upcoming Cringe-related book and TV program, and generally hilarious lady.
Quick one:
How about one of the guys from The Human Giant?
They can talk about their upcoming show on MTV.
Stephen Merchant would be GREAT.
+1 for Jon Glaser.
-1 for Gorillaz (out of character would be ok though).
Vicki Bennett, all-around genius and the brain behind People Like Us (peoplelikeus.org) would be fantastic. And probably not too hard to set up. I love her stuff.
second try :)
Tim Schafer. Game creator extraordinaire! Apparently he just won the British Oscar for videogames.
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes. These guys are awesome. They ooze with New Sincerity. They are a punk super-group (members of NOFX, No Use For a Name, Lagwagon) who cover some cheezy songs from our past. But their music totally stands on its own, and completely rocks, even if you don't know the old versions. Plus they have a new album out called Love Their Country. Good stuff!
Get more members of sketch comedy groups!
Kevin MacDonald has a new sketch show coming out. I'm sure Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch are available.
Robyn Hitchcock has a new album out. Very funny and talented songwriter.
I heard De La Soul are releasing the final disc in the Art Official Intelligence trilogy. They just put out a mixtape,too.
Ghostface would be good, if you can get him.
Bryan Lee O'Malley is an awesome Canadian cartoonist. He's most famous for his Scott Pilgrim series. The latest book came out earlier this year. Very New Sincerity.
or get anyone involved with Adult Swim or Stones Throw Records, they have the Chrome Children project coming out soon.
My favorite sci-fi/speculative fiction book of all time is Dream Baby by Bruce McAllister.
It's a gripping and excellently written novel about soldiers manifesting ESP type abilities in the carnage of the Vietnam War.
(Yeah, my description is bland, but I couldn't do the book justice if I listed the different story elements and strengths of the book. It'd sound like an airport paperback or a mess.)
According to the author, Dream Baby was partly based on interviews with combat vets.
I'd love to hear an interview about the writing and research of the novel.
http://www.geocities.com/bhmcallister/bio.html
*******************
Christopher McQuarrie wrote The Usual Suspects and the (underappreciated) The Way of the Gun I love to hear his thoughts on scriptwriting those movies and the craft, in general.
Thanks.
Johnny Lydon! hehhehe
But I second David Bowie, the Gorillaz would be grand too. Oh, and maybe even Tim Burton!
I once read an interview with the Gorillaz that had the same problem an in-character Aquabats interview would have- it came across as nonsense to non-fans. It was just an overly extensive backstory, and nothing else.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes could go either way- they're awesome, but there's always the potential for them to be somewhat disinterested, depending on who you get. They're kind of past the point of having to care about promotion.
Bryan Lee O'Malley = a good choice. I read that 1st Scott Pilgrim book and thought it did a good job of being two things and being them both well. I hear it is going to be a movie with the "Shaun of the Dead" guy directing.
Oh yeah, get the "Shaun of the Dead" guy.
Speaking of NS horror movies...
I know we've talked about it, but James Gunn would be FANTASTIC. "Slither" was one of the smartest, funniest, best movies last year
http://www.myspace.com/slithermovie
I hear he is pretty active on his myspace page. Maybe you could contact him through that.
The Elected perhaps? I am listening to their "Sun Sun Sun" album now and it is pretty dern good.
Mates of State maybe? A husband/wife indie rock duo. They will be in LA soon too.
A little off-the-wall maybe but what about Bill Nye?
I think Bill Nye is very New Sincerity.
Also, again off the wall, Alton Brown?
Bill Nye is to science what Alton Brown is to cooking. I like how they both are passionate about a technical subject, but instead of just rattling off statistics, they use humor to get their point across. Your interview could focus on the humor part rather than the technical part.
"Shaun of the dead guy", Jordan? You mean Simon Pegg?
I think he was on the Brass Eye.
You should also have They Might Be Giants on. They have a new album coming out soon.
Weird Al and Edan would be good too.
Oh, Ian MacKaye! He's really interesting- over the course of 25 or so years, he went from Minor Threat to Fugazi to the Evens (a total departure from anything he's done before), and he's certainly had a significant influence on music today. And the new Evens album comes out soon. Just don't ask him too much about straight edge- that's been beaten into the ground.
I will always agree with They Might Be giants, but for someone releasing an album within the month and who has a very NS approach to music, Nellie McKay's pretty awesome.
JON GLASER. i dont think an interview with him even exists, this would be a world exclusive!
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