One of my favorite podcasts (and public radio shows) is KCRW's "The Treatment." Elvis Mitchell's interviews can occaisionally feel a bit sycophantic, but they're always insightful. And his guests usually merit the respect he gives them.
This week's episode of the show features an interview with Ali LeRoit. LeRoit has been one of Chris Rock's writing sidekicks for many years, since the Chris Rock Show days. In the interview, he talks charmingly about working with Rock, the Oscars, and "Everybody Loves Chris." Elvis even claims to love "Head of State." I saw that flick in the theater, and I can't say I agree (though Bernie Mac was pretty great in it).
This week's Sound of Young America broadcast is a delightful ride through the world of comedic entertainment. A Joketacular, if you will.
My guest is Brian Posehn. Brian is a standup comedian who's appeared on almost every sitcom ever made as "that guy." He was also a writer and actor on HBO's Mr. Show.
I talk with Brian about his chidhood as a self-described "misfit." He describes being called in to the counselor's office, so the powers that be could check on "Brian the ticking timebomb." He also describes his early 20s, when he drunklenly leapt from a lifeguard tower and was paralyzed from the waist down. Brian also talks with us about the writer's room at Mr. Show, and his feelings about being recognized on the street. The version of the interview contained here is somewhat shortened, the full, unedited version is available here.
We also hear comedy from all over the world (OK, it's all from the US, except for one song from New Zealand, but still).
Today's Sound of Young America guest is Brian Posehn, who's best known by the average American for his work as "that guy" on sitcoms like Just Shoot Me and Newsradio. He's also an accomplished standup comic and was a writer and actor on Mr. Show.
I talked with Brian for nearly an hour, and I'll be editing it for broadcast, but I thought some Sound fans might like to hear what Brian had to say about all kinds of things, from growing up in small-town Northern California, to his early days as a standup in the Bay Area, to his first writing gig for MTV, to Mr. Show, to everything since.
Brian Posehn is one of the guests on this coming week's Sound of Young America broadcast. I think I'll release a director's cut of the interview sometime -- he talked a lot about his remarkable history in both comedy and life.
Then he told me this great (breaking) story, about a guy who bragged on the net about spitting in his burger at a Bob's Big Boy the other day. The moral of the story is: don't mess with Brian Posehn. He has people.
On this week's College Years podcast, Jesse, Jordan and Gene pick Official Stuff of The Sound of Young America.
Official Bubble Gum Comic: Bazooka Joe Official Lummox: Gene for Stepping on Jordan's Cord Official House: Run's Official Dance: Etch a Sketch Official Caller: Molly
Wholphin is a new DVD magazine from the good people at McSweeney's. They've already featured material from folks like Bob Odenkirk, Spike Jonze, and Patton Oswalt.
If you're interested in getting your high-quality comedy short or other short film featured in Wholphin, contact Sound of Young America listener and blogger Ian Brill by email at ibrill (at) gmail.com.
Tod Maffin informs us that CBC Radio 1 has begun to podcast... you can find a full lineup, including great shows like Quirks & Quarks and As It Happens, here. There are also regional podcasts, for those of you who are looking for all the hottest news from Saskatchewan.
One of the great heroes of The New Sincerity is profiled in PopMatters: Jerry Lee Lewis.
In '57, with Sun founder Sam Phillips manning the dials, Jerry Lee recorded "Whole Lotta Shakin'" which eventually rose to the top of the country and R&B charts. Later that year, he cut "Great Balls of Fire", a rumbling, crudely suggestive rock ditty penned by black tunesmith Otis Blackwell. The song, in all its immortal stomping glory, still sounds wondrous today. And the title itself pretty much encapsulates the whole of Jerry Lee's public existence.
The rock of the 50's is absolutely FILLED with New Sincerity. Can you imagine what it must have been like, in 1957, to see Jerry Lee Lewis? Or Little Richard? It boggles my mind.
My dad listened to Ray Charles records in his basement, with the speakers turned off, by putting his ear next to the needle. He hid the 45s in his bed.
Tavis, of course, hosted an NPR talk show, designed to attract African-American listeners, for a few years. Then he left, because he felt unsupported at NPR. These days, he has a new, weekly show on Public Radio International. That's the folks who distribute This American Life, among other programs.
Tavis puts the conflict this way:
Smiley says race, however, was at the core of the breakup. "I'm loud, I laugh loud, I was younger than what they're used to, and certainly blacker," he says. "Everything about my personal aesthetic was antithetical to public radio."
An NPR rep says:
"Mr. Smiley is a smart man," NPR spokesman Andi Sporkin says, "so one would assume that he'd done his homework before joining NPR and understood that . . . NPR and public radio overall do speak to a very diverse audience and don't have TV-level budgets for marketing or advertising of any individual show. Given his concerns, we're frankly surprised he's remained in public broadcasting."
A bigwig at DC's WAMU (who air Tavis' NPR replacement, "News & Notes" at 2AM):
Mathes, who was not at WAMU when Smiley's old show was around, says Smiley has misread public radio's motivations. "If I could talk to Tavis one on one, I'd tell him: 'Don't feel dissed. It's not a sign of lack of respect for your show. It's a lack of marketing resources and a basic reluctance to add new programming. We are so listener gift-dependent that you just don't want to tamper with the apple cart.' "
Frankly, I didn't like Smiley's show that much, and I'm not sure if I like News & Notes, either. This from a guy who was basically an African-American Studies major in college (American Studies, really, but there's no ethnic studies departments at UCSC). News & Notes is kind of dull (although they do get points for having TSOYA pal Nick Adams on), and I felt that while Tavis' interviews were sometimes laudably lively, they too often felt kind of superficial -- going for liveliness over depth. They felt like TV interviews.
And I'm similarly ambivalent about the ghetto-ization of NPR News. I'm fine with an African-American issues show, just like I'm fine with, say, Justice Talking, which is about the law. Both are issues that appeal strongly to a smaller audience, and affect a very broad audience.
African-Americans are not a huge percentage of the US population, and highly educated African-Americans are a smaller group still, one that's tough to serve through commercial broadcasting (see: BET, where, needless to say, they are NOT well served). Having a show for specifically African-American issues, with an intelligent, educated perspective is great.
But I worry that NPR is creating a show like that to skirt the real question: where are these voices on All Things Considered? On Morning Edition? Why is it that Tavis can quite legitimately claim to be the only national voice of color on public radio?
This is a function of the cultural (and to some extent ethnic) homogoneity of public radio. Which is what the guy from WAMU should really be copping to. And when Tavis calls WAMU "elitist," I can see where he's coming from, and when I listened to that (excellent, btw) station, I felt a bit of that, too.
A great example of real diversity in public radio is Ray Suarez -- when he hosted Talk of the Nation, he wasn't doing it as an extension of "Latino USA," but his expertise in urban and immigration issues added to his qualifications. Now, almost everyone on NPR does a fantastic job (the current TOTN host Neil Conan included), but where's that kind of diversity? I, personally, don't always hear it.
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Have a good idea for someone to be on The Sound of Young America?
It helps if they have a recentely published book, or a recently released record, but it's not entirely neccessary.
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Things will be quiet from this end for a day and a half or so, I'm traveling to America's Breadbasket, aka the Central Valley, for work, and won't be back till tommorow night.
Paul Rust has big plans for this May Day, and they don't involve Maypoles or the workers of the world:
"May Day" is tomorrow, which if you remember, is that special day when we leave baskets of candy on people's doorsteps, ring their doorbells, and run away. If we get caught, we get kissed.
Call me wily (Pauly T. Wily), but I got a few tricks up my sleeve for this year's "May Day."
Yeah, I'm gonna' leave some baskets of candy on some doorsteps. And sure, I'm gonna' ring some doorbells. And hell yes, I will run away - but just one catch: I'm gonna' run away reeaaaaal slow. I'll surely be caught!
My 10-year-old brother EDDY DEMON and his PUNK ROCK BAND TOTAL ANNIHILATION will be rocking the snot out of the Potrero Neighborhood House Friday May 12th. It's a benefit for the Jhai Foundation, an international development NGO (find out more by clicking the link). Tickets are $10 at the door, no donation too large, no one turned away for lack of funds.
"Rust, a fungus disease, sapped the
wheat crop. Production of durum wheat dropped from the 10-year average
of 31,547,000 bushels a year to 4,976,000 bushels."
