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Here are the 4 KEEN ON AMERICA take-aways in our conversation about the dysfunctional American immigration system with Felipe Torres Medina1) Background & Immigration Journey* Felipe Torres Medina is a comic writer for "The Stephen Colbert Show" and author of the new book America Let Me In about the US immigration system* Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Medina moved to the US at 21 on a student visa to pursue a master's in screenwriting at Boston University* Medina received an "alien of extraordinary ability" visa (talent visa for artists) after graduation, and eventually got a green card after marrying2) On the US Immigration System* Medina describes the immigration process as expensive (costing "tens of thousands of dollars" in legal fees) and filled with bureaucratic challenges* He emphasizes that legal immigration requires "tremendous privilege and money" that most people don't have* The book takes an interactive "choose your own path" format to highlight the maze-like nature of the immigration system* He points out that there hasn't been comprehensive immigration reform since the Clinton administration (nearly 30 years ago)3) Comedy as Commentary* Medina uses humor to process his experiences and create community around shared frustrations* He was inspired by writers like Julio Cortazar, George Saunders, Tina Fey, and Carrie Fisher* The book aims to educate Americans who "have so many opinions about immigration" but "don't know what it entails"* He mentions that making the book interactive and game-like adds "levity" to a tense topic4) How to Fix the System* While critical of Trump's immigration policies, Medina says the book isn't specifically about Trump but about a "flawed and messy" system created by multiple administrations* He suggests moving US Citizenship and Immigration Services out of the Department of Homeland Security to change the narrative that immigration is a security threat* His proposed reforms include creating better pathways for educated immigrants and hiring more USCIS staff to reduce backlogs FULL TRANSCRIPT* Andrew Keen: Hello everybody. It is Sunday, March the 9th, 2025. Interesting piece in the times. A couple of days ago, The New York Times, that is about the so-called British flame thrower who is a comic best suited to taking on Trump. They're talking about a man called Kumar. Nish Kumar looks very funny, and apparently he's very angry too. I have to admit, I haven't seen him. It's an interesting subject. It suggests that at the moment, even in spite of Trump and outraging many Americans, the state of American humor could be amped up a bit. My guest today is a writer on The Stephen Colbert Show and a comic, or certainly a comic writer in his own right, Philippe Torres Medina. He has a new book out on Tuesday. It's called America Let Me In, and I'm thrilled that he's joining us from Harlem in Manhattan today. Congratulations, Phillip, on the new job. What do you the new book? I was going to say job. That's a Freudian error here. What do you make of the Times's observation that American humor isn't in its best state when it comes to Trump?Felipe Torres Medina: Oh, wow. That's that's an interesting question. First of all, I love Nish Kumar. I think he's a wonderful, wonderful comedian. He's very funny. He has a level of wit and his observations are just wonderful. I hadn't seen this article, but I really appreciate that the times recognized him because he's been working very hard for a lot of years. I think more than American humor not being fit for the moment. I think at least personally for me, a little bit of addressing Trump again began. And addressing Trump in general is, you know, jokes have to be new. And after basically ten years of Donald Trump every day, all the time, it's certainly hard to continue to find new angles. Now, the dysfunction of the administration and perhaps sometimes the cruelty and whatever they're doing does provide you with material. But I think it can cause you as a writer to be like, oh God, here we go again. More Trump stuff. You know, because that's what we're talking about.Andrew Keen: Do you see your book, Philippe, as a Trump book? America? Let me in. It's about immigration. I mean, obviously touches on in many ways on Trump and certainly his hostility to immigration and immigrants. But is it a Trump book, or is it a broader kind of critique or observation about contemporary America?Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah, I never set out to write a book about Trump or a Trump book. My goal is to write a book about the immigration system, because I went through it, and as a comedian, I encountered in it many contradictions and absurdities that just kind of became fodder to me for comedy. So I try to write this book about the system, but the system was caused by many administrations in many parties, you know, now, the current hostility or the current everythingness of immigration, you know, immigration being kind of in the forefront of the national discourse certainly has been aided by Republican policy in the past ten years and by Donald Trump's rhetoric. But that doesn't mean that this is a book about Trump or as a response to Trump. It's actually a book responding to a system that is flawed and messy, but it's the one we have.Andrew Keen: Yeah. You described the book as a love letter to immigrants, but it's not a love letter to the system. Tell me your story. As you say. You went through it so you have firsthand experience. Where were you born?Felipe Torres Medina: So I was born in Colombia. I was born in Bogota, Colombia, which is the capital of Colombia. I lived there most of my life. I moved to United States when I was 21 on a student visa, because I came here to do my masters. I did my master's in screenwriting at Boston University. And after that, you know, I started working here as a comedian, but also as a writer. And I was able to get an alien of extraordinary ability visa, which is a very pretentiously named visa, kind of makes you sound like you're in the X-Men, but it it's just what they call talent visas for artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, educators, whatever. And so I got one of those and then several renewals of those. And then, you know, thanks to my work as a writer, as a comedian, initially as a copywriter in advertising, I was able to I bought I met the love of my life, got married, and then I have a green card and that's why I'm here.Andrew Keen: Yeah. As and quoting here, it sounds rather funny. An alien of extraordinary ability. Do you think your experience is typical? I mean, the even the fact that you came for grad school to to Boston puts you in a, in a kind of intellectual or professional elite. So is your experience in any way typical, do you think?Felipe Torres Medina: I wouldn't say typical. I would say my experience is the experience of many people who come here. And I think it's the experience of the people who are, quote unquote, the immigrants we want. Right. And, you know, if we're going to dive into the rhetoric of the of immigration these days, I came the right way and did everything, quote unquote, the right way. You know, but what this book and also this journey that I took to immigrate here proves is that it's it's only possible with tremendous amount of privilege and tremendous, tremendous amount of money. You know, it's a very expensive process for the majority of people.Andrew Keen: How much did it cost you?Felipe Torres Medina: Oh, I think in total since I started. I mean, when you count the fact that for most, like master's programs, you don't get any sort of financial aid unless you get, like a scholarship from your own country or a sort of like Fulbright or something like that. There's already the cost of a full master's program.Andrew Keen: But then you weren't coming. I mean, you didn't pay for your master's program in order to get immigration papers, you know.Felipe Torres Medina: Of course, that, but I, I had to pay for my master's program to be able to study here. You know, I didn't have I didn't have my any sort of aid. But, you know, discounting that in terms of immigration paperwork, I've spent tens of thousands of dollars because you have to hire immigration lawyers to make sure that everything's fine. And those are quite expensive.Andrew Keen: Was it worth it?Felipe Torres Medina: Well, yeah. You know, I met the love of my life. I live a.Andrew Keen: Very. I mean, there are lots of loves of. You could have met someone else, and that's true. Or you might have even you might have even met her or him at an airport somewhere else while they were on vacation.Felipe Torres Medina: That's that's possible. But yeah, I mean, I live a I live a good life. I do what I wanted to do, you know, I, I took got my master's because I wanted to write comedy professionally and I get to do that. And I do think when I set out to do this, I was like, well, the place with the best film and television industry in the world is and was then and still is the United States. So I was like, well, I have to go there, you know, and I was able to become a part of this industry and to work in this art form.Andrew Keen: You didn't get any job. You You got the combat job? Yes. I believe you drew the the short straw, right? I bet nobody else was right. Just Stephen Colbert.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah, I'm very lucky. And but again, it's a mix of luck and hard work and all those things. So yeah, I don't I don't regret moving.Andrew Keen: So some people might be watching this maybe some some MAGA people. I'm not sure if MAGA people really watch this, but if they were they might be thinking, well, Philippe Torres Medina, he's a good example. He's the type of person we want. He jumped through many hoops. He's really smart. He's really successful. He brings value to this country. Is now a full time writer on the Colbert's show he came from it came from Latin America. And he's exactly the kind of person we want. And we want a system that's hard, because only guys like him have the intellectual and financial resources to actually get through it. Well, how would you respond to them?Felipe Torres Medina: I would say that I appreciate the compliment, but I wouldn't necessarily say that that's the best way to move forward on immigration now. I will say this book is a humorous take on the whole immigration journey. And so what? Like I tell different stories of different people coming here made up or inspired by real life. And one of the paths that you can take in this book, because this is kind of an interactive choose your own path book, is mine. But I think what this book tries to prove is that even if you do everything right, even if you, you know, have the money, sometimes it's very, very hard. And that, I think, does put us at a disadvantage when it comes to having a workforce that could be productive for the country, especially as birthrates are declining. You know, we are headed toward a but, you know, people have described as a barrel economy. If we don't simply up the population and the people who are upping the population and actually having children are immigrants.Andrew Keen: One other piece of news today, there's obviously a huge amount of news on the immigration front is apparently there's a freeze on funding to help green card holders. You've been through the process. You write about it in the new book. But how much more difficult is it now?Felipe Torres Medina: You mean under the current administration? Yeah. I wouldn't know. I you know, I think that.Andrew Keen: This idea of even freezing green card. Yeah. That holidays, even if you have a green card, you get frozen.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah, exactly. And I think that that, you know, I think that that's what Trump did in his first term, more or less with legal immigration, was to create roadblocks and freezes and these kinds of things to kind of just like stymie the process and make it slower, make it harder, even for people who, again, are doing everything right to be able to remain in the country.Andrew Keen: And I'm guessing also some of the DOJ's stuff about laying off immigration judges and court stuff, they're taking office to leave. Apparently 100 immigration court staff are retiring. This adds to it as well.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS is a very particular part of the government because it is one of the few parts of the federal government that funds itself. Again, going back to cost the fees that they make are so big, they make so much money that if there's a government shut down, actually, USCIS does not shut down. It's one of the few parts of the government that didn't need to shut down, because they make so much money out of the immigrants trying to come here. So it's a really, really strange part of the government. It kind of doesn't know where it belongs. So seeing like the the DOJ's cuts that arrive into the and that may be implemented into USCIS. Kind I'm not familiar with any Dodge cuts recently on USCIS, but I suspect that they would be strange because it's a it's a very strange division of the federal government. It's not like the Department of Education or the like the Forestry Service. It's it's it's own kind of like little fiefdom.Andrew Keen: Are you wrote an interesting thing or you were featured recently on Lit Hub, where this show actually used to get distributed about how to write a funny book about American immigration. Of course, it's it's a good question. I mean, it's such a frustrating bureaucratic mess at the best of times. I do write anything funny, Philippe, about it.Felipe Torres Medina: Well, I think the, the to me, the, the finding a format to be able to explore this, this chaotic system. It's so, so complicated. It's like a maze. So to me, having this kind of interactive format allowed me to have some freedom to be like, okay, well, you know, one of the things that they taught me in my comedy education, when I was training at a theater here in New York, the Upright Citizens Brigade is the premise of if this is true, then what else is true? You know, so if this absurd thing is reality, then what? How can you heighten that reality? And for me, you know, the immigration system is so absurd. It's it's so Byzantine and chaotic that I was like, okay, well, I can heighten this to an extra level. And so when I keyed in on, on this format of like allowing the person who's reading it to be the many characters to inhabit the, the immigrants and also to be playing with the book, you know, going out and going to one page, making their own choices. It allowed me to change the tone immediately of the conversation because you say immigration and everyone's like, oh, you know, it gets tense. But if you're saying like, no, no, this is a game, you know, we're playing this game. It's about immigration, but it's a game. All of a sudden there's a levity to it, and then you take the real absurdities and the real chaos of the system and just heighten it, which is basically what you do with comedy at all times.Andrew Keen: Who are the the fathers or perhaps the mothers of this kind of comedy? The person who comes to my mind is is Kafka, who found his own writing very funny. Not, and I'm not sure everyone necessarily agrees. He, of course, wrote extensively about central mid European bureaucracy and its darkness and absurdity. Who's inspired you both as a comic writer and particularly in terms of this book?Felipe Torres Medina: Well, actually, Kafka also has a great book called America.Andrew Keen: Yeah. Which is a wonderful first paragraph about seeing this. Seeing the Statue of Liberty.Felipe Torres Medina: Yes. Which is also kind of about this. But I would say my inspirations comedically are, you know, I don't think I would have written this book without, like, the work of Tina Fey. I think Bossy Pants was a book where I was like, oh, you can be funny in writing. And Carrie Fisher is a big Star Wars nerd, you know, to like great, funny writer writers who are just, like, writing funny things about their lives. But I think the playfulness of it all, actually, I was inspired by this Argentine writer, Julio Cortazar, who wrote a novel that in English just translated as hopscotch. And this novel is a huge, like, structural disrupter, you know, in the like, what we call the Latin American boom of writing in the 60s, 70s and 80s. And he wrote this novel that is like a game of hopscotch. You're jumping from chapter two chapter. He's directing you back and forth. So I read a lot of that. And I, you know, I read that in my youth, and then I read it. I reread it as I was older. And then there are writers like George Saunders, who can be very funny while talking about very sad or very poignant things. And so that was also a big inspiration to me. But, you know, I am a late night writer, so I was interested in actually making it like, ha ha, funny. Not just, you know, sensible chuckle funny, you know, kind of like a very, like, intellectual kind of funny. So I was also inspired by, you know, my job and like Colbert's original character in Colbert's book, America, I am American. So can you the writing of The Onion and, you know, the book, The Daily Show Book America, which is just kind of like an explanation of what the federal government is and what the country is written in the tone of the correspondents or the the writers for The Daily Show back in the original Jon Stewart iteration. So those books kind of like informed me and made me like, realize, oh, I can you can make like a humorous guy that's jokey and funny, but also is actually saying something isn't just like or teaching you something. Because the biggest reason I started writing this book is that Americans don't know their own immigration system, and they have so many opinions about immigration, particularly now, but no one knows what what it entails. You know? And I don't just mean like conservatives, you know, I don't just mean like, oh, MAGA people. Like, I was living in New York in the Obama years or like the late Obama years, and none of my liberal Brooklyn, you know, IPA and iced matcha drinking friends had any idea what I was going through, you know, when I was trying to get my visas.Andrew Keen: The liberals drink IPA. I didn't know that I drink IPA, I mean, I have to change my. Yeah. It's interesting you bring up in the first part of that response, the, the the Argentine novelist. There's something so surreal now about America. An interesting piece in the times about not being able to pin Trump down because he says one thing one day, the next thing the next day, and everyone accepts that these are contradictions. Now, the times describes these contradictions as this ultimate cover. I'm not quite sure why they're a cover. If you say one thing one day, in the next something the opposite the next day. But is there a Latin American quality to this? I mean, there's a whole tradition of Latin American writing observing the, the cruel absurdities of of dictators and wannabe dictators.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah. I mean, it's it's part of our literary tradition. You know, the dictator novel you have. But again, just as the feast of the goat, and you have Garcia marquez, my my compatriot, you know, like that.Andrew Keen: Was one of my favorite magnificent writing.Felipe Torres Medina: It's it's possibly, I hesitate to say, my favorite writer because it creates ranking, but.Andrew Keen: Well amongst your.Felipe Torres Medina: Favorite, among my favorite writers, 100 Years of Solitude. Obviously that is possibly my favorite novel, but he has also, I believe it's the Autumn of the Patriarch, which is his novel about. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, there is a there is. I wouldn't say it's a South American or Latin American quality to it. I think it's just once you encounter it, it is so absurd that art does have to come out and talk about it, you know, and, you know, you see the in a book like the Autumn of the Patriarch. That is a character full of contradictions. That is a character who, in chapter one, hates a particular figure because they he they think that they're against him and then is becomes friends with them and then hires him to be his personal bodyguard. You know, that is what dictators are, and that is what authoritarians do. It is the cult of the person. It is the whims of the person, and the opinion of the person are the be all and the end all to the point where the nation is. It is at the whims of, of of a a person, of those of those persons contradictions. So I wouldn't say it's necessarily a Latin American nature to this, but I think Latin America, because we experience dictatorship in many times supported or boosted by the United States. Latin Americans were able to find a way to turn this into art. And quite good art is what I would say.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and of course, it's the artists who are best able to respond to this. As you know, it's not just a Latin American thing. The Central Europeans, the Czechs in particular. Yes.Felipe Torres Medina: Milan Kundera.Andrew Keen: Yeah. Written a series of wonderful books about this. But the only way to respond to someone like Trump, for example, who says one thing one day, the next thing the next day when he talks about tariffs, he says, well, I'm going to have 25%. And the next day, oh, I've decided I'm not going to have 25%. Then the following day he's going to change his mind again. The policy people, I'm not very helpful here. We need artists, satirists of one kind or another humorist like yourself to actually respond to this, don't we?Felipe Torres Medina: I think so. I think that that that is what. Helps you? I mean, it's the emperor has no clothes, right? That's how you talk. And it's about all kinds of government, obviously. Autocracy or dictatorship is one thing, but at all in all systems of government, these are powerful people who think they have they know better and who think that they are invincible. And you know what? What satire or humor and art does is just point out and say like, wait, that's weird. That thing they just did is weird. And being able to point that out is, is a talent. But also that's why people respond to it so well. People say like, yeah, that is weird. I also notice that. And so you create community, you create partnership in there. And so all of a sudden you're punching up, which is something you want to do in comedy. You want to make fun of the people who have more power, and you're all punching up and laughing at the same thing, and you're all kind of reminding each other. You're not crazy. This is weird.Andrew Keen: Yeah. I mean, the thing that worries me. I was on Kolber on the Colbert Show a few years ago in the original show. I mean, it's brilliant comic, very funny. But him and Jon Stewart and the others, they've been going so long, and they. I'm not saying they haven't changed their shtick. I mean, writers like you produce very high quality work for them, but it's one of the problems that these guys have been going for a while and America has changed, but perhaps they haven't.Felipe Torres Medina: I mean, it's an interesting thing to bring up, particularly with with Stephen, because his show was completely different. Ten years ago, it was a completely different show. He was doing a character. Yeah, right. And now he's doing a more traditional late night show. I think I think the format of late night is a very interesting beast that somehow has become A political genre. You know, it didn't used to be with Letterman. Didn't you see with Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno? You know, they would dabble in politics. They would talk about politics because it's what people are talking about. But now it's become kind of like this world. It all has to be satire. And there's some there's some great work. And I do think people keep innovating and making, like, new things, even though the shows are about ten years old. You know, you have Last Week Tonight, which my wife writes for, but it's a show that does more like deep dive investigations and stuff like that. So it's more like end of the week, 60 minutes, but with jokes kind of format. But I do think, yeah, maybe like the shows, can the shows in the genre in general, like there's genre I could do with some change and some mixing it up and.Andrew Keen: Well, maybe your friend Kumar could.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah. Well, what? Let us get.Andrew Keen: A slot to his own late night show. And I wonder also, when it comes to I don't want to obsess over Trump or that course it's hard not to these days, but because he himself is a media star who most people know through his reality television appearance and he still behaves like a reality television star. Does that add another dimension of challenges to the satirical writers like yourself, and comics like or satirical comics like Colbert and Jon Stewart?Felipe Torres Medina: I think it's just a layer of how to interpret him as a person. At least for me, it's like, okay, well, you have to remember that he is a show man, and that's what he's doing.Andrew Keen: Yeah. So they're coming back to your your metaphor of the air and power and not having any clothes on. He kind of, in his own nodding wink way, acknowledges that he's not pretending to wear any clothes.Felipe Torres Medina: Yeah, and, well, sometimes he is and sometimes he isn't. And that is. That's the challenge. And that's why writing jokes about him every day is hard. But, you know, we we.Andrew Keen: And the more I know I watched Saturday Night Live last week that Zelensky thing and it was brilliant. Zelensky and Musk and Trump. But I'm very doubtful it actually impacts in any way on anything. Well, and I.Felipe Torres Medina: Think that that's also a misconception people have about comedy. You know, comedy is there to be funny. You know, comedy isn't there to change your mind if it does that, great. But the number one impetus for For Comedy should be to make you laugh. And so the idea that, like, a sketch show is going to change the nation. I don't know. Those are things that I think are applied on to comedy. They're kind of glob down to comedy. I don't necessarily think that that's what it the, the people making the comedy set out to do so. I think if if it made you laugh and if it works. The comedy has done its job. Comedy, unfortunately, can't change the world, you know. Otherwise, you know, I'm sure there would have been a very. There are many good Romanian comedians who could have done something about it has.Andrew Keen: You know, time to time. I mean, Hava became Czech president for a while. You, you, you know, that you sometimes see laugh, laughter and comedy as a kind of therapy when it comes to some of the stuff you do with Kovat. Are you in in America? Let me in. Are you presenting the experience, the heartbreaking experience? So certainly an enormously frustrating experience of the American immigration system as a kind of therapy, both for people who are experiencing it And outsiders, Americans in general.Felipe Torres Medina: And for myself, I think.Andrew Keen: And of course, yes. So self therapy, so to speak.Felipe Torres Medina: I think so, I mean, it is for me a way to like comedy is a way to process things for me. It comes naturally to me, and it is inopportune at times when dealing with things like grief and things like that. But I mean event, anyone who's gone through grief, I think, can tell you there's one moment when things are going really bad and one of the people grieving with you makes one joke and you all laugh and you're like, this. This somehow fixed for one second. It was great. And then we're back to sadness. So I think comedy, you know, as much as again, I go back to what I said a second ago, it's about making you laugh and that making you laugh can create that partnership, can create that empathy and that that that community therapy, I guess, of people saying like, oh wait, yeah, this is weird, this is strange. And I feel better that someone else recognized it, that someone else saw this.Andrew Keen: It certainly makes you saying, hey, you wrote an interesting piece for The New Yorker this week. In times like these, where you, you write perhaps satirically about what you call good Americans. Is the book written for good or bad Americans or all Americans or no Americans? Who do you want to read this book?Felipe Torres Medina: Oh my God. I want everyone to read it and everyone to buy a copy so that I've got a lot of money. All right. No, I think it's written for most Americans and and immigrants as well. People living here. But I do think, yeah, it's written for everyone. I don't think I wrote it with particular like, kind of group in mind. I think to me, Obviously with my background and my political affiliations, I think liberals will enjoy the book. But I also think, you know, people who are conservative, people who are MAGA, people who don't necessarily agree on my vision of immigration, can learn a lot from the book. And I purposely wrote it so that these people wouldn't necessarily be alienated or dismissed in any way. You know, it's a huge topic, and I think it was more of a like, I know you have an opinion. I'm just showing you some evidence. Make with it what you will, but I'm just showing you some evidence that it might not be as you believe it is, both for liberals and conservatives. You know, wherever you are on the spectrum, liberals think it's super easy. Conservatives that think it's super easy but in a bad way to move here. And I'm here kind of saying like, hey, it's actually this super complicated thing that maybe we should talk about and we should try to reform in some way.Andrew Keen: Yeah. And I think even when it comes to immigration, often people are talking about different things. Conservatives tend to be talking about quote unquote, illegal immigration and progressives talking about something else, too. You deal with people who try to get into America illegally, or is that for you, just a subject that you're not touching in this book?Felipe Torres Medina: I address it very lightly toward the final pages of the book. I first of all, I can, like, claim ownership on all immigrant narratives. And I wrote this about the legal immigration system because it's what I've navigated. Again, I am not an immigration lawyer. I am not an activist. I'm a comedy writer who happened to go through the immigration like system, so I but I did feel like, you know, okay, well, let's talk for a second. You've seen how hard it is because I've shown you all this evidence in the first couple stories in the book. And again, I say in the last pages because because of the interactive nature of the book, this could there is potentially a way for you for this to be the first, one of the first things you read in the book, but to where the last pages of the book, I say, okay, let's talk about you. We've seen how hard it is. Let's talk about the people who do so much to try and come here and who go even harder because they do it in the like, in the unauthorized way, you know, or the people who come here seeking asylum, which is a legal way to come to the United States, but is very difficult. So I do present that, but I do think it is not necessarily the subject of a comedy book, As I said earlier, when you're dealing with comedy, you want to be punching up. You want to be making fun of people in authority figures or in a sort of status position that is above the general population or the the voice of the comic. And with with undocumented immigrants and people trying to come here in irregular ways. It's it's very hard to find the humor there because these people are already suffering very much. And so to me, the line is threading the line of comedy there. It can very quickly turn into bullying or making fun of those people. And I don't want to do that because a lot of people are already doing that, and a lot of people who are already doing that work on this in this administration. So I don't I don't really want to mess with that.Andrew Keen: Philip, I'm not sure if you've got a a Spanish translation of the book. I'm sure there will be one eventually.Felipe Torres Medina: Hopefully.Andrew Keen: If people start reading this in Colombia, where you're from, Bolivia or Argentina, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, they think themselves, this is so hard to get in, even legally. Even if you have money to pay for lawyers, they might think, well, f**k it, I'll just try and get over the border illegally. And do you think in a way, I mean, it's obviously designed as a humor book, but in a way this would encourage any sane person to actually give up. I mean, go try and try and go somewhere else or just stay where you are.Felipe Torres Medina: I think, I think the book has a tone of I'm I'm a pretty optimistic person. So I think the book does have a tone of optimism and love for America. I do love the United States, where I, while presenting it as a difficult thing, I am also saying, like it? It's pretty good. You're going to have a good time if you make it here. So I don't think it will be a deterrent. Whether it's some sort of Trojan horse to create more people, to try and go through the border. I don't know, it'd be pretty funny if a funny book tended ended up doing that, but.Andrew Keen: It'd be great if we just got hold of the book and blamed you for for for all the illegal immigrants. But in all seriousness, it was been a lot of pieces recently about, according to the New York Times, people going silent for fear of retribution. As a comic writer and someone clearly on the left, the progressive in American politics. Do you think that there is a new culture of fear by some of your friends and colleagues in the comedy business? Are they fearing retribution? Trump, of all people, doesn't like to be laughed that some people say that he he only wanted to be president after Obama so brilliantly and comically destroyed him a few years ago.Felipe Torres Medina: I think in comedy, you know, I think people are tired of talking of Trump because, again, as I said, ten years of writing about him. I don't think anyone is necessarily afraid of talking about him or making fun of him. I think that is or his administration. I think that is proven like this past week with explosion of memes, making fun of J.D. Vance, his face, you know, to the point where J.D. Vance has tried to hop on the meme and be like, ha ha! Yes, I enjoy this very much too. Good job members. So like, obviously, first of all, he doesn't like it, but I think everyone is. And I think this is something that America does so well. Americans like to make fun of politicians, period. And even though I think in certain spaces of, you know, politics and activism, there might be fear of retribution that is much more marked. I think the let's make fun of of the Emperor for having no clothes that make fun of them is an instinct that that it's not going away and it won't go away any, anytime soon.Andrew Keen: Philip, finally, you've written a funny book about immigration. But of course, behind all the humor is a seriousness. Lots of jokes. It's a very entertaining, amusing, creative book. But it also, I think, suggests reform. You've given a great deal of thought. You've experienced it yourself. How can America improve its immigration story so that we don't have in the future more satirical books like America Like Me and what are the the reforms, realistically, that can be made that even conservatives might buy into?Felipe Torres Medina: Well, I think one of the biggest things is, if you look at it historically, there hasn't been comprehensive immigration reform since Clinton. Which is ridiculous. You know, we're nearing on 30 years there, and we're. We're basically 30 years since. And, you know, I'm 33, so it's a whole lifetime for a lot of people with no changes to a system, no comprehensive changes to a system. And that just means that, like it is going to become outdated. So obviously it's very hard right now with the tenor, but what we really need is for people to sit down and talk about it as a normal issue. And this is not an invasion. This is not a national emergency. It is simply an issue, an economic issue. And I think one of the biggest things, and one of my personal suggestions is that. The US Citizenship and Immigration Service has always been, as I said, this kind of strange ancillary part of the government. It started as part of the Department of Labor, eventually joining the Department of Justice. Then it goes back to labor. It kind of always bounces around. They don't know where it fits. And in after 911, it became part of the Department of Homeland Security. And I think that creates a an aura around immigration as something that is threatening to homeland security. You know, which is not true.Andrew Keen: Yeah. I see what you're saying. It's become the the sex when it comes to, in the context of Victorian something that we don't talk about, and we use metaphors and similes to, to, to describe. And I take your point on that. But what about some and I take your point on the fact that the system hasn't been reformed since Clinton. But let's end with a couple of final, just Doable reforms, Philippe, that can actually make the experience better. That will improve that. That might be cheaper that the the Doge people might buy into that both left and right will accept and say, oh, that's fair enough. This is one way we can make immigrating to America a better experience.Felipe Torres Medina: I think, rewarding if we're talking about this idea of like, we want the best immigrants, educated people. I think actually rewarding that because the current system does not do that for most people trying to get a work visa. They're subjected to a lottery where the chances are something like 1 in 16 of getting a work visa to be here, and that is really bad for companies in general. It's something that the big tech firms have been lobbying against for years, and because there's no consensus in Congress to actually do something. We have been able to address that. So I think actually rewarding the kind of like higher education, high achievement immigrants. In a way that isn't just like if you have $5 million, you can buy a gold car. Yeah, and.Andrew Keen: That's what Trump promised.Felipe Torres Medina: Right? Actually rewarding it in a way that's like, okay, well, if you have a college degree, maybe you don't just get a one year permit to work here, you know, maybe you can. There is a path for you to if you made your education here, if you start your professional life here, if you are contributing because all these immigrants are paying taxes or contributing, maybe there's a path that isn't as full of trapdoors and pitfalls. I would say that that that's one of the biggest things. And honestly, higher up, like I, I do think maybe this is my progressive side of me, but it's like get more people working in USCIS so that these waits aren't taking forever and getting more immigration judges, you know, hire people who are going to make this system efficient, because that is, I think, unfortunately, what Dodge thinks that the, you know, we're going to slim it down so it doesn't cost that much. Yeah. But if you slam it down, you don't have enough people. And there's a lot of people are still trying to come here and they're still trying to do things. And if you don't have enough people like working those cases, all you're creating is backlogs.Andrew Keen: Yeah. I'm guessing when those transforms the American immigration system through AI, you'll have another opportunity for you to write a book. Yeah. I mean, I let me in an important book, a very funny book, but also a very serious book by one of America's leading young comic writers full time, writing for Stephen Colbert, Philippe Torres Medina. Philippe, congratulations on the book. It's out next week. I think it will become a bestseller. Important book. Very funny too, and we can say the same about you. Thank you so much.Felipe Torres Medina: Thank you so much for having me.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

ELECTION DAY BONUS!!! We're dropping in on our Julianne Moore-athon with a special look at her Emmy-winning portrayal of Sarah Palin in the 2012 HBO film Game Change! Join in as we discuss our favorite election movies, Palin's post-2008 career, other HBO ripped-from-the-headlines movies, and our memories of the 2008 campaign. Plus: Could an Alaskan become president? How did the real people feel about this movie? Should we be rating romances that are essentially just true? And, most importantly, what is Sarah Palin's hockey team? Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe! Next week: Safe (1995) -------------------------------------------- Key sources and links for this episode: Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin (2010) Bossypants by Tina Fey (2011) “The ‘Palin Effect' in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election” by Jonathan Knuckey, Political Research Quarterly (2012) Alessandra Stanley's 2012 New York Times review of Game Change "Celebrity" ad by John McCain Paris Hilton's response to the McCain "Celebrity" ad Playlist of Tina Fey's Palin sketches on SNL

 Lisa discusses and analyzes Tina Fey's memoir Bossypants, which she wrote in 2011. It is more like a comedy sketch than a deep-dive memoir. The Washington Post describes how this book doesn't go beyond Fey's humor. She sticks with her funny Saturday Night Live types of bits. She doesn't share her life's challenges. In The Guardian, writer Carole Cadwalladr talks about the fact that Fey doesn't offer up any details about her life than her fans already know. She points out that there are very few revelations.  Books Discussed: Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott  Finding Me by Viola Davis.

The Amazing, Incredible and Unbreakable Tina Fey One of my favorite funny people of all time is Tina Fey. If you haven't read her book Bossypants -treat yourself. By the way, can Tina Fey and Amy Poehler just host all awards shows on the planet? Here's a little info about Tina, in case you've been living under a 30 Rock. http://www.JudyCroon.com

Have you ever wondered how a tech industry insider might crack up the comedy stage? Alexis Gay did just that, and she's here to spill the beans on her unexpected leap from tech to stand-up, podcasting, and beyond. As we chat with the brilliantly funny Alexis, she peels back the curtain on her transformative pandemic experience and how it led to the birth of her podcast, Non-Technical. We get a real look into the personal influences that flavor her comedic style — from an unwavering love for "Parks and Recreation" to the anthems of Lady Gaga, Alexis opens up about the media and muses that have molded her into the performer she is today. When it comes to finding laughter in the shared absurdity of office life, shows like "Silicon Valley" hit close to home for both of us in the tech world. We reminisce about the characters that felt like colleagues and the show's uncanny knack for capturing the essence of tech culture. It's not just about the jokes though; Alexis and I unravel the deeper threads of connection that these workplace comedies weave into our lives, revealing how humor has become a vital part of our identities. And we don't stop at TV — our conversation spins a thread that ties the power of music to our personal narratives, acknowledging those anthems that have seen us through the highs and lows.The laughter doesn't end there; Alexis shares gems from her journey, including the importance of using what you've got when you're starting in comedy and some dream podcast guests she'd love to grill with unexpected questions. We also relive that heart-stopping moment when her Twitter video went viral, reshaping her path in an instant. Whether you're here for the giggles or to catch a glimpse of what it takes to pivot from a well-trodden path to the wilds of improv and stand-up, Alexis Gay delivers. It's a rollercoaster of insight, wit, and the kind of stories that make you want to hit subscribe for more.

Episode Summary: In this episode, Kelly and Alix take us on a romp through absurd, witty, nonsensical, and funny books that will add a delightful touch of comedic relief to your life.Topics Discussed:[2:45] Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams[8:25] Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett[14:52] Infernal Devices Series by Cassandra Clare[18:48] Bossypants by Tina Fey[26:38] The Princess Bride by William Goldman[33:02] My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows[38:40] Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir[43:27] Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery[47:42] Flavia de Luce Series by Alan Bradley[52:23] A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi LeeOther Resources MentionedSword Catcher by Cassandra ClareThe Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare@henderson_nikThe Lady Janies Series by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi MeadowsThe Martian by Andy WeirThe Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay KristoffPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenHarriet the Spy by Louise FitzhughThe Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi LeeWhat's New at LitJoy?The Dark Artifices Jesse Blackthorn Replica LocketThe Ocean at the End of the Lane Collector's Illustrated Edition by Neil GaimanFollow LitJoy!InstagramTikTokJoin our Lunacorns private membership groupUse the code PODCAST10 for a 10% off discount! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hear about a few autobiographies that cover topics from silly to serious. Laurie Dreyer, manager of the Lansingburgh branch of Troy Public Library, recommends a few that she loved listening to as audiobooks. Her selections include: "My Beloved World" (Sonia Sotomayor, 2013); "You Can't Touch My Hair" (Phoebe Robinson, 2016); and "Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir" (Ashley Ford, 2021). Laurie gives honorable mentions to Tina Fey's "Bossypants (2011); Dick Van Dyke's "My Life In and Out of Show Business" (2011), and Michelle Zauner's "Crying in H Mart: A Memoir" (2021). For more details, visit www.thetroylibrary.org. To find other libraries in New York State, see https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/libs/#Find. Produced by Brea Barthel for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Mary are discussing: Bookish Moments: fun new hobbies and maybe not having a bookish moment Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: our love for all things memoir The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site) .  .  .  .  .  1:39 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 8:06 - Our Current Reads 8:14 - Bride by Ali Hazelwood (Mary) 10:29 - Wolfsong by T.J. Klune 11:58 - Unhinged by Vera Valentine 12:29 - Renegades by Marissa Meyer (Kaytee) 12:40 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer 15:47 - The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune 16:47 - Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (Mary) 19:55 - An Inconvenient Cop by Edwin Raymond (Kaytee) 20:03 - Booktenders 24:51 - A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall (Mary) 28:26 - @ginnyreadsandwrites on Instagram 28:44 - Fairyloot 29:07 - Pango Books 30:16 - Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson 30:34 - Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross 31:53 - A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (Kaytee) 32:10 - Betty by Tiffany McDaniel 35:29 - Deep Dive: Our Love For Memoirs 36:10 - Sarah's Bookshelves 39:49 - The Black Count by Tom Reiss 41:43 - My Life in France by Julia Child 42:30 - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling 42:32 - Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling 42:46 - Bossypants by Tina Fey 42:51 - Spare by Prince Harry 43:12 - Becoming by Michelle Obama 43:42 - Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe 43:47 - I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg 44:04 - I Have Something to Tell You by Chasten Buttigieg (young readers' edition) 44:59 - Waypoints by Sam Heughan 45:31 - Finding Me by Viola Davis 46:20 - As You Wish by Cary Elwes 46:58 - Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes 47:50 - Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother by Beth Ann Fennelly 47:55 - Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly 48:06 - Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan 48:10 - These Precious Days by Ann Patchett 49:04 - Soil by Camille T. Dungy 49:15 - An Exact Replica of A Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken 50:29 - Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder 50:37 - What Looks Like Bravery by Laurel Braitman 50:43 - After This by Claire Bidwell Smith (amazon link) 50:58 - Tragedy Plus Time by Adam Cayton-Holland 51:15 - Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottleib 51:30 - When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 51:53 - A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter 52:02 - At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider 52:52 - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver 53:05 - The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green 53:12 - A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg 53:43 - The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton 53:45 - Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson 53:48 - The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore 54:03 - Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer 54:15 - I Take My Coffee Black by Tyler Merritt 55:17 - Meet Us At The Fountain 55:21 - I wish to press the Ember Quartet series, starting with Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. (Mary) 55:30 - Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir 56:52 - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 56:53 - Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 57:22 - Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros 58:38 - My wish is for more bookish board games. (Kaytee) 58:47 - By the Book game Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. April's IPL comes to us from A Room Of One's Own in Madison Wisconsin! Trope Thursday with Kaytee and Bunmi - a behind the scenes peek into the publishing industry All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the special insights of an independent bookseller The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

Fellow later-in-lifer and Philadelphia-based therapist Mallory Hanfling is our special guest on this episode of CO&B. Her practice, Courage to Grow Counseling, caters to the Queer community, working with individuals and couples, specializing in identity development, coming out, communication skills, and connecting with one's most authentic self. Mallory is a doctoral student at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) working towards a PhD in Human Sexuality, working on a dissertation about how community mitgates the impact of compulsory heterosexuality on those who come out later-in-life. Mallory coined the inclusive term "Fireflies" for women/ non-binary/trans people to encapsulate a spectrum of identities and experiences reflected in the later-in-life community. Mallory offers a weekly Firefly peer support group where Fireflies at various stages of their journeys can come together to support and empower one another through the highs and lows of their experiences. You can learn more about Mallory and her work on her website, https://www.couragetogrowcounseling.org/aboutBooks that resonated with Mallory are Untamed by Glennon Doyle https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52129515 and Bossy Pants by Tina Fey https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167987272-bossy-pants?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=zHsUsI2...Mallory's coming out song is Drive by Incubus. https://youtu.be/fgT9zGkiLig?si=g98J8LJ24IjUvXBmThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

Fellow later-in-lifer and Philadelphia-based therapist Mallory Hanfling is our special guest on this episode of CO&B. Her practice, Courage to Grow Counseling, caters to the Queer community, working with individuals and couples, specializing in identity development, coming out, communication skills, and connecting with one's most authentic self. Mallory is a doctoral student at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) working towards a PhD in Human Sexuality, working on a dissertation about how community mitgates the impact of compulsory heterosexuality on those who come out later-in-life. Mallory coined the inclusive term "Fireflies" for women/ non-binary/trans people to encapsulate a spectrum of identities and experiences reflected in the later-in-life community. Mallory offers a weekly Firefly peer support group where Fireflies at various stages of their journeys can come together to support and empower one another through the highs and lows of their experiences. You can learn more about Mallory and her work on her website, https://www.couragetogrowcounseling.org/aboutBooks that resonated with Mallory are Untamed by Glennon Doyle https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52129515 and Bossy Pants by Tina Fey https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167987272-bossy-pants?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=zHsUsI2...Mallory's coming out song is Drive by Incubus. https://youtu.be/fgT9zGkiLig?si=g98J8LJ24IjUvXBmThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy

EP 19: QUICK HIT: Put Your Bossy Pants On Welcome to the YOU CAN CALL ME “BOSSY” PODCAST! In this quick hit episode, I discuss why it's time to put your bossy pants on. I get into three powerful client conversations revolving around the same theme: putting on your "bossy pants." Despite the experiences of these women, they all faced similar challenges and fears, ultimately needing to step into their power and confidence. Join in for practical advice on standing in one's truth, asking important questions, and embracing imposter syndrome. Get ready to feel inspired and empowered in this thought-provoking episode! Key Takeaways: The common theme of empowerment through assertiveness in various client conversations The importance of sticking to one's values and integrity, especially in leadership roles Addressing imposter syndrome and the feeling of being underqualified for the leadership position If you enjoyed this episode and are excited for more, please be sure to SUBSCRIBE and write a review to help build momentum and support the show (5-stars would be AWESOME!)___________________________________ JOIN US IN - THE CLUB - An annual membership where high-achieving women come together to unapologetically OWN THEIR “BOSSY” in order to rise to the top, make massive impact, and not burn out while doing it. Grab your spot in THE CLUB today by CLICKING HERE! ___________________________________ LET'S FREAKING GO! LET'S CONNECT: Follow me on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, or join my STAND IN YOUR POWER FACEBOOK GROUP Grab a signed copy of my bestselling book STAND IN YOUR POWER HEREWatch my TEDx Talk “The Wisdom of Your Ancestors Should Be Ignored” HERE

Up Next: “Bossy Pants” by Tina Fey. "Bossy Pants" is Tina Fey's witty and insightful memoir that offers a humorous yet candid glimpse into her life and career. In the book, Fey shares anecdotes from her childhood, her journey through comedy and television, and her experiences as a woman navigating the male-dominated entertainment industry. With her trademark humor, Fey discusses topics such as motherhood, feminism, and the challenges of being a female leader. Through her sharp wit and relatable storytelling, Fey delivers not only laughs but valuable lessons about confidence, perseverance, and finding one's voice in a world full of obstacles. Laugh along with Moni and Kat this week and enjoy this very giggly episode. Cheers!*Please be advised this episode is intended for adult audiences and contains adult language and content. We are not professionals and are expressing opinions on the show for entertainment purposes only.Dedication: To our lovely patrons!! We love you, thank you!Moni: To all the bossy ladies getting shit done!Kat: All the artists that participated in Art In Bloom at Newfields especially friend of the show Dee@55Rosestreet  and Greg @hay_kidd.About the Book: Tina Fey's Bossy Pants https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9418327-bossypants 283 pages, Kindle Edition, First published April 5, 2011Audible: 5 hours 32 mins narrated by Tina Fey.About the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Fey

Katie Couric was once told Twitter was beneath an evening news anchor, Steve finished Bossy Pants, Ridley Scott tells historian to get a life, Soup of the Day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Katie Couric was once told Twitter was beneath an evening news anchor, Steve finished Bossy Pants, Ridley Scott tells historian to get a life, Soup of the Day Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brooke and Amanda are recovering from Halloween while celebrating cute dresses, perfect avocado usage, and the Eras Tour movie. They then discuss playing to their strengths and joys when it comes to helping others.Brooke also shares the scoop on a hilarious new improv podcast, and Amanda's doing her eyes a favor that sounds ridiculous but is surprisingly effective.Visit www.goodenoughish.com for links to everything mentioned on the show.Support the podcast: Good Enough-ish on PatreonSnag Some Merch: goodenoughish.com/shopJoin the Good Enough-ish™ conversation in our private FB group: Good Enough-ish private Facebook groupIf you like this episode, please take a moment to share a positive review on Apple Podcasts, and share with others who may enjoy Good Enough-ish!We'll be back each week with new topics, stories, tips, and personal experiences, as well as some good old friendly banter and lots of laughter. Don't forget to find us on Instagram @goodenough.ish, or contact us with your episode ideas, questions, and comments.

Alyssa Feller, Writer and Script Coordinator, joins Susan and Ben to discuss The Devil Wears Prada, a 2006 comedy-drama. Alyssa shares what it's like having a career as a script coordinator and freelance writer for Frog and Toad on Apple TV+. She discusses how her role evolved during the show, creating the world of Frog and Toad, finding career inspiration in Tina Fey's Bossypants, and working with SpongeBob SquarePants voiceover actor, Tom Kenny. Alyssa plays our “Who Wore It Better” game. Follow Alyssa on Instagram and Twitter @Alyssa_Feller, or IMDb. Find her work at www.alyssafeller.com. Watch Frog and Toad on Apple TV+. Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more listeners. Find out about our guests and upcoming events by following us at Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, contribute to our Patreon, or shop at lifeinthecredits.com. Life in Our Credits Hosts: Susan Swarner and Ben Blohm Executive Producer: Michelle Levin Logo Art: Melissa Durkin Music Composer and Performer: Steve Trowbridge

A new week means new questions! Hope you have fun with these!The US call it Cilantro, what is it known as in the UK?Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy and Kim Hunter starred in what 1947 play by Tennessee Williams?In 1985, a photo of young Afghan refugee Sharbat Gula by American photographer Steve McCurry appeared on the cover of what magazine? Ozone is made of what gaseous element?What is the first calendar date of the 21st century?Who was the leader of the Soviet Union between Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev?In flowering plants, what part of the stamen produces pollen grains?What corse woven fabric is commonly made from the skin of the jute plant?What are the four colors from the memory game Simon?Bossy Pants was written by what Saturday Night Live alumna?Pheidippides ran to Athens from what location to deliver news of a victory in battle?MusicHot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames, Ambush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Don't forget to follow us on social media:Patreon – patreon.com/quizbang – Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support!Website – quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question!Facebook – @quizbangpodcast – we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Instagram – Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Twitter – @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia – stay for the trivia.Ko-Fi – ko-fi.com/quizbangpod – Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5857487/advertisement

Being a billionaire is fantastic until… It's not. I command my world, but I can't buy the two things I want: The woman I desire and a miracle. Neither are for sale. And both are out of my reach. I'm one hundred percent in love with my best friend's sister. I have been for years, and she just told me she's moving away. Like heck, she is. Not without me. I've been her rock for the past six years. She needs me. Okay, I need her just as much. The other thing? The miracle? My girl thinks she's broken because she can't hear. To me, she's perfect. But because I would give everything to heal her, she thinks I only want to fix her. She couldn't be more wrong. She's my world, exactly as she is. Now, I just need to convince her of that before it's too late. Get the eBook: https://geni.us/3ENfMIQ Amazon: https://geni.us/UUJ0 Giveaway: https://geni.us/TSTaJZZ The Bad Boys Series:  https://geni.us/YwS Mine Every Night Step Challenge ♥ ♥ ♥ BRAND NEW ALEXA RILEY: https://bit.ly/3h0y68D AR Taboo: https://bit.ly/3YcaWwL Signed Alexa Riley Paperback: https://bit.ly/3PfiXwQ ♥ ♥ ♥ RMR Website: https://bit.ly/3ifFIyw Weekly New Release: https://bit.ly/30iDete Follow Read Me Romance on Instagram: https://geni.us/uUVdVeY Join Read Me Romance Headquarters on FB: https://geni.us/IdL7B Read Me Romance Theme Song by L.B. Ballard Podcast Production by Lola

Being a billionaire is fantastic until… It's not. I command my world, but I can't buy the two things I want: The woman I desire and a miracle. Neither are for sale. And both are out of my reach. I'm one hundred percent in love with my best friend's sister. I have been for years, and she just told me she's moving away. Like heck, she is. Not without me. I've been her rock for the past six years. She needs me. Okay, I need her just as much. The other thing? The miracle? My girl thinks she's broken because she can't hear. To me, she's perfect. But because I would give everything to heal her, she thinks I only want to fix her. She couldn't be more wrong. She's my world, exactly as she is. Now, I just need to convince her of that before it's too late. Get the eBook: https://geni.us/3ENfMIQ Amazon: https://geni.us/UUJ0 Giveaway: https://geni.us/TSTaJZZ The Bad Boys Series:  https://geni.us/YwS Mine Every Night Step Challenge ♥ ♥ ♥ BRAND NEW ALEXA RILEY: https://bit.ly/3h0y68D AR Taboo: https://bit.ly/3YcaWwL Signed Alexa Riley Paperback: https://bit.ly/3PfiXwQ ♥ ♥ ♥ RMR Website: https://bit.ly/3ifFIyw Weekly New Release: https://bit.ly/30iDete Follow Read Me Romance on Instagram: https://geni.us/uUVdVeY Join Read Me Romance Headquarters on FB: https://geni.us/IdL7B Read Me Romance Theme Song by L.B. Ballard Podcast Production by Lola

Rob is in Atlanta filming his special, but he had time to talk with Tyler Chronicles about a meriad of subjects including Mis-en-sen. They talk about how they both worked for two of the same companies comming up in Atlanta. Tyler is a comedian, writer, actor, producer, and cannibus enthusiast. You might have seen him on Bossip TV and Wild'N' Out, but Tyler has writen on many award shows including the BET Awards and BET Hip Hop Awards. He also writes on the game show The Cube. Tyler has multiple comedy albums Live from the Atlanta Comedy Theater and I Wrote This in the Strip Club. He's on the road with the Haha Mafia check them out if they are in your town and look out for the movie Da Partments coming soon.Follow Tyler @tylerchronicles Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Studio has way too much fun in this episode as they kinda go-off on how to handle the people who tell EVERYone what to do AND the people who expect an answer to EVERY question they ask!  _ _ _ _ _Official WebsiteInstagramTwitterFacebookYouTube

Do you watch The Daily Show? If so, don't miss this awesome podcast episode featuring Vance DeGeneres!Show NotesVance on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_DeGeneresVance's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vancenotvance/?hl=enVance on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0214699/Michael's Online Screenwriting Course - https://michaeljamin.com/courseFree Screenwriting Lesson - https://michaeljamin.com/freeJoin My Watchlist - https://michaeljamin.com/watchlistAutomated TranscriptMichael Jamin (00:00:00):To me, I'm guessing the goal of it was just to be creative and make music. That's still, that's it. But do you have, are there, are, is there, are there other future ambitions? Is there more ambitions there more you hope to get outta this though?Vance DeGeneres (00:00:13):Just, just the enjoyment of, of being musically creative. Right. And and that, that's it. I mean, I, I'm under no illusions that I'm going to get another record deal. Right. You know, capital Records is not gonna call and offer me a deal again. Right. but that's fi that's fine. You know, the, it's, you know, it's a fun band. It's, it's a good band. And we play lo we play live gigs, you know, like two or three times a year. Right. and we make, we make our records. And that's, that's enough, right? I mean, it's just fun.Michael Jamin (00:00:49):You're listening to Screenwriters Need to hear this with Michael Jamin.Michael Jamin (00:00:56):Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin. Welcome back to Screenwriters. Need to hear this. I got another good guest for you. This is another reason to sit through me talking because my guest is actually an old friend of mine. And his name is Vance DeGeneres, comedy writer, TV producer, film producer, film executive musician. And I met Vance many years ago and can tell Quick story, Vance. And then I'll let you chime in for the rest of the interview. Please. First of all, I first please. I gonna just get the elephant outta the room. Yes. Vance. His, his little sister is someone you may have heard of Ellen. Ellen Generous, but we're not talking about her now. We're talking about you Vance. So stop bringing her up. Vance DeGeneres (00:01:34):Yeah, yeah, please,Michael Jamin (00:01:35):Please. So, I'm met Vance many years ago. I'm a first job as a, as a comedy writer. I was a comedy writer and show on the Mike and Maddie show. It was a morning TV show. I was very nervous, very excited, didn't know anything about the business. And Vance was the other guy, the other comedy writer. And we shared an office. And I just did. I was like, Vance, I, I don't really know what I'm doing here. And Vance was like, it's okay. We'll be okay. I'm not sure if Vance knew what he was doing, but I did everything. You did Vance. I wore shoes to the set. I wore a a jacket to the set. I did whatever you told me to do. Whatever you did, I just copied. And you were, andVance DeGeneres (00:02:12):It, and look, look where you are today,Michael Jamin (00:02:14):. I'm sitting in front of my computer screen in my garage.Vance DeGeneres (00:02:18):, can I, can I, can I just say I I do have to to thank you because we're not for you. I wouldn't be able to do this.Michael Jamin (00:02:30):That's right. We did a lot of that. And you got, you got a nice lot of,Vance DeGeneres (00:02:33):You taught me toMichael Jamin (00:02:34):Juggle. I taught you that. I didn't, what else You taught me to juggle. Didn't I teach you how to love as well?Vance DeGeneres (00:02:40):Well, I was gonna say, yeah, I was gonna say that, but since you brought it up Yes,Michael Jamin (00:02:45):Vance has, go ahead.Vance DeGeneres (00:02:48):No, I was just gonna say, you know, we I think we laughed a lot in that, in that office. It, it was it was an interesting job.Michael Jamin (00:02:57):Did we make anyone laugh? , I'mVance DeGeneres (00:03:00):Six monthsMichael Jamin (00:03:02):. We made each other laugh and then on six month time they showed, they showed me to the door .Vance DeGeneres (00:03:10):Yeah. And yeah. And I didn't last a lot longer.Michael Jamin (00:03:13):You didn't, I don't remember. But you've had such an amazing career event cuz you have done something. Like you are truly a very creative person and you've made a career out of being creative, but not pigeonholed in any one category. Like, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start by telling, refreshing your memory, how you've, how much you've worked in the business. I guess you first started, you were a musician, you in a, in a band called House of Shock, which was Gina Shock, who was in the Go-Go's. You formed a band with her, right? Was that your first band? IVance DeGeneres (00:03:43):No, no, no. I, no, I, well, very quickly, I, I had, I had been in bands since seventh grade. I had my first garage band. Right. and then I was in a s a really successful band in New Orleans called The Cold in the early eighties.Michael Jamin (00:04:01):Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:04:02):And and then I moved out to Los Angeles in 85. And the Gogos had broken up and a friend introduced me to Gina and we put together house of Shock. And so she and I were partners on that.Michael Jamin (00:04:17):And you toured a lot of with her?Vance DeGeneres (00:04:19):No, we didn't tour a lot, but we rec we Gina and I wrote, wrote the album and it came out, we were on Capital Records, Uhhuh . And and that came out in 88.Michael Jamin (00:04:30):Now, when you moved to LA was it to become, I mean, it's weird, you know, you're very, very funny, very talented comedy writer. But was it, is music really your first love and look at your background there?Vance DeGeneres (00:04:42):My first love is music. But I had done bef Okay. . I, I've got such a, such a a checkered a career path. Originally I had done, oh boy. Yeah, this is, it's too much to get into. But I, I was the original Mr. Hans with the Mr. Bill Show, and IMichael Jamin (00:05:04):Wanna talk about that. Okay. So that came firstVance DeGeneres (00:05:07):That Yeah. After yes, when I was 18, I guess I, I met this guy Walter Williams, and we, we got an apartment together and we started doing, we were both Big Bob and Ray fans. Right. you know Bob and Ray,Michael Jamin (00:05:25):Right? Yeah. Ellis dad . That's how I think about it. Yeah,Vance DeGeneres (00:05:28):Exactly. Exactly. but they used to do this improv improvisational comedy. And so we thought, yeah, we can probably take a crack at that. So we started doing little comedy bits and then started shooting little tiny movies. And Mr. Bill was one of the movies. And anyways, so, you know, what happened then?Michael Jamin (00:05:49):Well, for many people who, who don't, I wanted to tell them, so Mr. Like, Mr. Bill was a, a little claymation character on Saturday Live, A little sketch they did on Saturday Live, or in the early years of sa And this Mr. Bill was like, before the internet, it went viral before the internet virality was a thing. And it was like this, I remember everyone was talking about Mr. Bill, Mr. Oh, no, Mr. Bill. And it was Mr. Hand was the char, another character. And like everyone talked about Mr. Bill cuz it was like this sketch on Saturday. It was recurring sketch that everyone talked about. And so yeah. Go into that. That's a, that was when I found out you were Mr. Hand. I was like, you're Mr. Hand.Vance DeGeneres (00:06:26):Yeah. Well, oh yeah. Well, it's, it's a, it's a a very long and a very frustrating story actually. But I, I'll just tell you that we started it in New Orleans and we did these, you know, we, we started doing nightclubs in New Orleans there. This was before there was even a a comedy club in New Orleans. This was in 73 45 Uhhuh six. And so we would do these kind of live shows where we did comedy and we showed, we showed our eight millimeter films. We'd set up a screen, Uhhuh, and then when Sarah I live came on we sent in a reel of our shorts and they liked Mr. Bill and they put that on.Michael Jamin (00:07:11):How did you know, you just sent it to like, what do you mean you sent it? Vance DeGeneres (00:07:15):Because, because they they had a thing, Lauren, Michael said, Hey, if if, if you have some funny short films, send them to us and if we like it, we might put it on. Right. So we we sent 'em a, a reel of our, our shorts and they liked that particular one. So Lauren aired it and it was during Mardi Gras in New Orleans when it first aired. And, and Saturday Night Live was preempted for one of the parades, Uhhuh . So nobody in New Orleans got got to see it. But they invited us down to the N B C affiliate to watch it in the control room. Uhhuh . So we got to see speed.Michael Jamin (00:07:58):How, but how, but did you do several of them? There's We did,Vance DeGeneres (00:08:02):Yeah. Right. We did. And then we, we well we had a weekly radio show in New Orleans called the Mr. Bill Show, and where we did little sketches, and then we even did eight local TV show few episodes.Michael Jamin (00:08:17):Like 18 when you were doing this.Vance DeGeneres (00:08:20):In 19, yeah. 18, 19, 20, kind of a big. And and then once it was on Saturday Live, we we picked up a third, a third member named David Derickson. And we moved to, we got a, we got a loan for $3,000 and moved to New York and got a, a one bedroom sublet. And we did the the improv once a week on Monday nights, we would do our standup. And then we we made a couple of other Mr. Bills. And after the second season, I, I decided to, to leave the act. And I moved back to New Orleans. And then my friend Dave, who, who was a third member, took over as Mr. Hands.Michael Jamin (00:09:08):What, when you left what to go back to New Orleans, what, what were you, what was it to pursue at this point? What did you wanna do?Vance DeGeneres (00:09:15):Well, comedy, comedy, I, I went back to New Orleans and I, I wrote a a half hour, another comedy show, a full half hour like sketch comedy show and and cast it. And I got Loyola University gave me their TV station to shoot the thing in. But they said You got 12 hours because 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, we're tearing up the, the, the studio to redo it for the, for next semester. After we shot the first sketch, there was a power brown out on campus. And and that was it. I I, we were done. So I, I, I had no show. Right. I, I got, I was really depressed. It's like, Jesus, this is, you know what, I spent months putting this together and I just thought, you know, God show business kind of sucks. , whatMichael Jamin (00:10:12):AmVance DeGeneres (00:10:15):Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so I mean, what, what, what would you do if if you were in that position? I thought I'll join the Marines.Michael Jamin (00:10:27):Right. I forgot you were Marines, which is what I did. Yeah. Which is, that'll be easier than showbiz. . .Vance DeGeneres (00:10:36):You know, it, it's, I I'm not sure which is tougher.Michael Jamin (00:10:39):Yeah. . And so you, you were, I forgot you're a Marine. Like, oh my God, I got all the branches that I'll, I'll gimme the one that's the hardest to do.Vance DeGeneres (00:10:50):That's exactly what I wanted. I, I, I wanted, I wanted a real challenge. And and, and honestly, I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade you for anything. I'm glad I'm not still in it. Uhhuh . But boy, does it give you discipline?Michael Jamin (00:11:06):? Yeah. I'm so surprised. Cause you're not exactly you know, as a comment writer, you're like, anti-establishment. It's like, it's odd to say, well, I'll just join the establishment where, where I can't mouth off and I can't be a wise ass. I'll do that for three years. . So you got outta that andVance DeGeneres (00:11:22):. So, and, and, and so I came back, I came back to New Orleans in 79 and with the intent of continuing in, in tv, radio, comedy. And I, I got a job as a as the morning guy at a local fm radio station. And in the meantime, some friends started a, a new wave band. There were a couple of, there were just a couple of writers. They were journalists and could play guitar a little bit, but the whole new wave thing happening. And they said, Hey, you know you're a good musician. Why don't you, why don't you, you know, join? And so I did. And it was just gonna be a little side project, and it turned into something like really, really big in, in new Orleans and in the South. We put out a bunch of records. We had some hits. And and by 85, I couldn't go any further there. So my, my sister who you mentioned Yeah. Was living in LA and she said, you know, you should really come to live in Los Angeles. So I, I made the move and it was to continue in music at that point. So that's when I met Gina Shock. And we, we formed House of Shock. We did the record on Capital and by and by 89 that had that was ended at that point. Michael Jamin (00:12:52):Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:12:52):And that's, that's when I transitioned back into being a writer.Michael Jamin (00:12:57):And then, yeah. And how did, okay. What came, how did you do that? , everything, history, everything you've done sounds like a mystery. How did you do that? .Vance DeGeneres (00:13:06):It, it it's, it's crazy. I was I, I was actually, I was paying, I'm also a painter a little bit. And I, I did, I did a bunch of paintings. This couple came over to, to see some of my paintings that they were interested in buying. One, the guy happened to be a, a showrunner named Carl Schaffer. And he Carl Schaffer had a show on CBS b s called TV 1 0 1.Michael Jamin (00:13:39):Okay.Vance DeGeneres (00:13:40):And, and he had a place called the Fourth Floor on on Hollywood Boulevard on the corner of Kanga and Hollywood. What's that?Michael Jamin (00:13:49):Above the Pizza store, right? Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:13:52):Right. And he, he had a deal with Hurst Entertainment, and they subsidized this whole floor and parted the second. And Carl rented it out to writers that he liked. Okay. and Carl, Carl knew that I had done Mr. Bill. We talked about that. And he said you know, you should really come take an office up on the fourth floor and just start writing again, Uhhuh. And it's like, yeah, okay, why not? Yeah, sure. Yeah. So, and he, he rented out for 125 bucks a month. Right. You got, you got an office. And and so I, I, I got an office. I, I had no computer. I didn't even have a typewriter. I said, I, I, you know, what should I write ? He said he said write a pilot. There's a there's a guy, a comedian. I like, let's create a show for him. I'll, I'll tell you the format. So I, so I started writing by hand. Right. and anyway so I went through this process with Carl wrote this, this pilot. And it, nothing happened with that. But Carl then got a show called, called Erie, Indiana Right. On nbc.(00:15:12):And he, he gave me my first job in 91 as a staff writer on Erie, Indiana. And I wrote, he gave me two episodes to write of that. And that that was my real start in tv.Michael Jamin (00:15:25):Yeah. Man, that's amazing. And then, and then what happened after that? You, cause you've bounced around you. I wanna say, you've done a lot of stuff, including, we'll get to all this, you we'll get to all this, but I want, just for people who are listening, like to know what to expect. You were also a daily show correspondent, like the first, this is the first season, right? When, when it was just starting?Vance DeGeneres (00:15:45):Well, it was, no, it had been when John Stewart took over, when John took over. But yeah. Skipping stuff.Michael Jamin (00:15:53):Is there stuff I should, I should talk about stuff in between. I don't wanna, but I wanna mention that. So, cuz I we're gonna talk about that. But what happened next?Vance DeGeneres (00:16:02):Well then after Erie, Indiana, Carl got a a blind pilot deal at a B, C, and he asked me to create a show with him for that. So he and I created a show. We wrote the pilot Uhhuh called Lost Angels for a abc. And it didn't go, never do. And then yeah. Yeah. and then my my agent called and said, Hey you like Dick Van Dyke, you wanna write a for Dick Van Dyke? Said, I love Dick Van Dyke. And it was diagnosis murder.Michael Jamin (00:16:35):All right. You always wanted to be a doctor, so if it fit right in. Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:16:39):Yeah. . Exactly. Anyway, so I, I wrote I wrote a couple episodes of Diagnosis Murder, and and then I think right after that was Mike and Matt was there right where, where weMichael Jamin (00:16:56):Met, we met, and that was, man, that was a trip. I really did. I really, I'm so grateful for You took me under your wing. It really was. What do I do? Vance . And we would sit in the morning, we'd come up with bits. A lot of them weren't used. I don't, I don't remember many of them make you there. .Vance DeGeneres (00:17:16):Well, well, well, here, well, here's the thing. There was absolutely no reason to have comedy writers on on that show. I mean, it was, it was a morning show. And although, although Mike you know, was a, he was a standup. He had been a standup and done, done warmup for sitcoms. There, just, there really, there shouldn't have been comedy on there. Yeah.Michael Jamin (00:17:42):But we didn't wanna, we didn't wanna bring it up that to anybody. Hey, you know, why are, you shouldn't be any . You don't need comedy in this show. But I remember when I took the job, there was Tamara Rawitz, she was a producer, and she produced Living Color. And her goal was, and I was so exci, I I was excited. This was my first job. She hired me and I was like, fantastic. And but her goal was like, she wanted to turn it into the Morning to Letterman show. Cause like, basically Letterman show in the morning. And I remember thinking about Letterman had a show in the morning and it didn't work.Vance DeGeneres (00:18:12):It didn't work.Michael Jamin (00:18:13):Don't say a word, but Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:18:15):Yeah. Now yeah, you're right. I mean, that was, that was the thing. Yeah. she, I mean, she sold me on the idea that this could be, you know, a really cool, you know, comedy show in the morning. And it, it just was not built for that.Michael Jamin (00:18:28):No.Vance DeGeneres (00:18:29):That particular show. So, butMichael Jamin (00:18:33):Recipe. But,Vance DeGeneres (00:18:34):But we, we met there and and went went on to bigger and better thingsMichael Jamin (00:18:40):We did. And so yeah, I was, but yeah, that was the first job. And I was, I felt rich for the first time. I wasn't rich, but I felt it because I felt like at the first time I had pride in myself. I was a comedy writer, and I, I was, I think I was making like 50,000 a year or something felt really good for me. And then, and then the back, the hammer came. Yeah. and then what happened? You, what did you do after that? I, I remember I went home crying. Vance DeGeneres (00:19:05):Well, it, well, in the in the meantime I was, I was shooting little episodes of a, a mock talk show called The Fourth Floor Show Right at the fourth at the record, which you, you rememberMichael Jamin (00:19:18):I was a part of it. I remember you had friends Help out, and some of your friends included George Clooney , and he was in it. Yep. and that was really, that was a really, I'm always fa like, I'm sorry that never went further than it did because it was such an interesting show, and it was so, what's the word I'm looking for? It was like, it is edgy, but it was like, also like anti, it was kind of counterculture. It was really interesting show. It was a talk show that took place in your office. That was the premise.Vance DeGeneres (00:19:45):Yeah. And a tiny office where it was me and Alex Hirschlag, my sidekick mm-hmm. Who who had to share his microphone with the guest. When the guest came in this, we had that one mic.Michael Jamin (00:19:59):The guest sat on the couch opposite you, . I mean, the,Vance DeGeneres (00:20:03):Well, the, the audience. There were five audience members who sat on the couch directly in front of us. So the whole, the whole concept was take away all the niceties of of a regular talk show. Yeah. And and then we actually, I don't know if you remember, but we actually e wanted to do it as their five night, a week late night show.Michael Jamin (00:20:27):What happened?Vance DeGeneres (00:20:27):And we, we, we shot, we shot the pilot and it aired, but it didn't, it didn't go to series.Michael Jamin (00:20:34):Oh, so you re reshot a pilot for e for Not the one I was in You Reshot something. Oh, wow.Vance DeGeneres (00:20:40):Re yeah, we re reshot it. Yeah. With Rob Robert Town. Robert Townson was the guest on that one.Michael Jamin (00:20:46):And so you basically rebuilt your office on a sound stage.Vance DeGeneres (00:20:49):Yeah.Michael Jamin (00:20:51):. Yeah. How fun. . Wow. Yeah. That's cool. And so right when that didn't go, you were obviously bummed out. Like e e everything's a matter of, everything's always a strikeout in Hollywood. You getVance DeGeneres (00:21:04):Closer. Well, you know, it's, I mean, it's, it's, it's all timing. If the internet had been around, that would've been the perfect thing to, you know, to go viral. Yeah. You know, these, these short episodes of this ridiculous talk show.Michael Jamin (00:21:19):Yeah, you'reVance DeGeneres (00:21:19):Right. But it was not around. SoMichael Jamin (00:21:22):Do you ever think of dusting it off and doing it again for the internet? Or why bother?Vance DeGeneres (00:21:26):You know, we had talked about it David Steinberg. Yes. You know, loved the show. And, and and we, we did talk about, you know resurrecting it years ago. But it, it just, it didn't happen.Michael Jamin (00:21:45):You gotta, it takes momentum. It just takes momentum, you know? Yeah. And so, okay, so then what happened after that? You,Vance DeGeneres (00:21:54):Well, let's let's say I then I wrote for a couple of sitcoms. I wrote I wrote for the, the coming out season of my sister's sitcom. Yeah.Michael Jamin (00:22:05):Your, your, your, it's funny, your comedy voice is, you know, is very similar to hers. And I remember you pitched jokes and you go, yeah, yeah, that's exactly something your sister would say. That's, that's the right tone. Like, you seem like you're the perfect writer for your sister.Vance DeGeneres (00:22:18):I'd like to think so. . But but so I, I wrote for that. And then I, I wrote for a couple of, when she hosted the Emmys, I, I wrote for a couple of notes. I wrote for a couple of Grammy awards and a couple of Oscars when she did those.Michael Jamin (00:22:35):So what is that like you're, you know, do they bring you in? Do you get an office and you're like, is there a small staff ofri joke writers coming up with bits? How does that work? I've never done an award show.Vance DeGeneres (00:22:46):Yeah. It's, it's a, well, yeah, it's a small staff. Well, she would, she would choose who she wanted to write, you know, it would be maybe five or six, seven people and months ahead of time. She would have us start writing bits and jokes and send them to her weekly. Right. And she would go through 'em and like this, I don't like that. And start honing in a little tighter on, on what she wanted to do. And then as it got closer the week of, then you go down to Kodak and and you have a meeting room where, you know, you're, you're all sitting around writing jokes and coming up with bits and and the tension gets more and more as you get closer to mm-hmm. to the day. And and I, I, I was lucky enough to besides writing, I wrote the opening song for the first Ox Oscars that she hosted where we had a gospel group come out Uhhuh on stage. Wow. And I wrote that song. So I, I had to deal with that as well as the other stuff. And that was that was a lot of pressure for that. ButMichael Jamin (00:24:13):Global audience is there, the part of my dr like, in my mind, the moment, like my fantasy, because when you, sometimes you're on a show and you pitch a lot story or a joke, and the actor goes, I'm not doing that. Right. And you're like, and my, my, in my fantasy, like some people think, well, can, can, can the writer just make the actor say it? Like, not unless they're a puppet. You can't make 'em say it, you can't put the words in their mouth. But my mind, like, because she's your sister, is there any of like, eh, pulling her aside and pressuring her? Did that ever work?Vance DeGeneres (00:24:42):No, no, no. You know, I tried, when I, when I write for Ellen, I, I, I always tried to make myself just one of the writers. I, I never wanted to have any kind of special influence. So that was, that was important that the other writers felt like I wasn't getting preferential treatment.Michael Jamin (00:25:01):I see. I would think that to the opposite. I, I would think that they say, come on, Vance, we like, we all like this joke. Like, you know, but no, you,Vance DeGeneres (00:25:08):Yeah. Yeah. No, no. I, I, I really, I thought it was important to yeah. To make that clear.Michael Jamin (00:25:15):Right, right. And so, okay, so you did the, you did all that, all that joke writing, which to me, I think I, it's a shame. Like I never got a chance to do that, cuz I, I feel like that would be really fun and excitingVance DeGeneres (00:25:26):And Yeah. You, I mean, you'd be good at that. So if, if you get the chance, do it.Michael Jamin (00:25:30):Never called my, the phone won't ring for that. I do know some writers, like, I knew writers that wrote for, like, I don't even if they have 'em anymore, the sbs, like the p n awards, I'm like, let me get me to do that show. I'll do that. No, no one's interested. Yeah. No. Like, isn't there, isn't there a court no one's ever heard of that they can get me? They can ask me to write for? No. all right. And so then was it after that that you did the Daily Show?Vance DeGeneres (00:25:57):Yeah. So this I then I, I, I, I wrote for another city com and then my agent called me and said Hey John Stewart is taking over the Daily Show, and they wanna know if you're interested in, in being a correspondent. They wannaMichael Jamin (00:26:17):How do they even, what do you mean they wanna know if you, how at this point you're just a comedy writer?Vance DeGeneres (00:26:23):Well, okay, well, I, I, I mean, I skipped over stuff. I, okay, so the fourth floor show was seen by some other people. They, they, they cast me to host a show called The Beef which was a show about it was almost like a daily show in a way where correspondents would go out and, and talk interview neighbors who had beats with other neighbors. And it was, it was comedy. Right. and, and I I was cast as the host of that. We, we did the pilot we went to Vegas to theMichael Jamin (00:27:03):Oh, you cast as the host of that. Did you audition? I mean, you auditioned for it, because that's a big jump from behind the camera to in front of the camera,Vance DeGeneres (00:27:10):Because they saw the fourth floor show and they, they loved the fourth floor show. And they, they asked me to do a, a story for the beef. Okay. So I went out as correspondent and shot a piece. And then when it came time to, to cast a host, they asked if, if I wanted to to audition to be the host. And so I said Sure.Michael Jamin (00:27:34):Did,Vance DeGeneres (00:27:35):Did no, no, not really. No. I, I just, I I thought it would be fun. Yeah. And because it, it, I was doing a character that I had established with the, with the fourth floor show.Michael Jamin (00:27:50):He was very lemme see if I can describe him. What, how would you describe him? He was very earnest, very he didn't, he almost, like, he didn't have much of a sense of humor. Right,Vance DeGeneres (00:27:59):Exactly. He, you know, very earnest a good guy. But the last guy you would, you would want hosting a talk show,Michael Jamin (00:28:06):, he's the Alaska . Right. That'sVance DeGeneres (00:28:10):Enough. So that was my character.Michael Jamin (00:28:12):Right, right.Vance DeGeneres (00:28:13):Yeah. And so, and so, I, I just did, when, when I did my audition to host, I, I just did my, my Ernest guy. Right. And they liked it, and I got the job. And anyway, so we went through all this stuff and it looked like it was gonna go, and then it didn't. And then when the original Daily Show was going on the air, they brought me in. They were looking for a host for that. They brought me in to, to interview me for, for that. I didn't get that right. But then when John Stewart took over, they've remembered me from bringing me in originally. Right. And so they gave me a story to, to go shoot a couple of months before John took over. So I flew up to to Saskatchewan, Canada, Uhhuh , and met one of the producers up there and shot shot a story. Was he, and then yourMichael Jamin (00:29:19):Idea was the story, like how does that work with your correspondent?Vance DeGeneres (00:29:24):No, that they they had a story and they just, they as they assigned it to me, they, who I guess they hadMichael Jamin (00:29:33):Who did they figure out? I mean, you have to figure out what's funny about it or you're just, I had loving on camera.Vance DeGeneres (00:29:37):Well, the way this worked was basically you're gonna go up to Canada and you're gonna interview this, this guy, he's a, a, a farmer, and he he's in the Farmer's Alman act for forecasting the weather by Licking Pig SpleensMichael Jamin (00:29:56):. Okay. All right. So that wasVance DeGeneres (00:29:58):Funny that that was it. That was, that's it. I mean, that's, that's the basis of the story. So so I met the producer. We drove four hours into the middle of nowhere and shot this story with this guy. I flew back to Los Angeles, they called a couple of weeks later and said Hey we, we love the story. Can you, can you come here in once it a week or two weeks? Right. so I, I flew to New York. It was the Monday John started and I worked with an editor and a producer editing the piece, putting it together. And then they, they aired it on, on the Thursday show of John's first week. And then the next morning they called me into the executive producer's office and said, how soon can you move here? And I said I guess I can be here in about a week. Ah, and I flew home put my stuff in storage and moved, moved to New York.Michael Jamin (00:31:05):How, and how, how long was your contract? Do you remember?Vance DeGeneres (00:31:09):Well, I was there. I don't remember how I, how, how long the contract was, but I was there for two and a half years.Michael Jamin (00:31:15):Right. And when you were coming, working as a correspondent, are you looking for storage? Are you coming up with the edge and what the angle, what makes it funny? Or you're working with other writers or what?Vance DeGeneres (00:31:25):Yeah, they ha well, you know, they've got writers, they've got field producers. So the field producers, that's their job is to scour, you know wherever looking for these, these stories. And so they would, they would assign different stories to different correspondence. And then you'd be assigned this producer or that field producer, and then you'd meet with them and you talk about the angle you want to take with the story. Then you fly out and you spend, you know, a whole day with these people shooting the story and come back and then spend a few days cutting it together. And then,Michael Jamin (00:32:04):But you're doing on the spot. You're ad you, I mean, you must be ad-libbing. A lot of, you know that you have to Right. That's just you thinking, oh,Vance DeGeneres (00:32:11):Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, well, well, I mean, you know, I would go in, I would, I would write, I would write the opening standup. Right. we'd shoot that. And then I had, I would write, you know, a list of questions along with the, the field producer. You know, we'd have this list of questions, and so I knew what I wanted to ask. Right. but that everything else is just ad lib.Michael Jamin (00:32:33):Yeah. Is there any sense of your hope questions that you're hoping are, are you leading them at all? Are you hoping to get a certain answer? Are, are you hoping to corner them with an answer, a question, rather? Well,Vance DeGeneres (00:32:42):Sure. I mean, you, you, I mean, you're hoping that you hear something that you'll be able to you know, get in, you know, some, some kind of a a line. Because you, you, you never, you never knew you know, what, what was gonna happen or what they were gonna say. So, I mean, you're, you're just kind of bouncing around.Michael Jamin (00:33:03):And at this point, did the, did the audience, were they, whoever your interview, the guests rather I, are they aware that they're gonna be spoofed or no?Vance DeGeneres (00:33:13):Well, ba you gotta remember this, this was early on in the Daily Show. So we were lucky in that most of the people that, that I did stories on just thought we were this daily show that did, you know, stories of interest.Michael Jamin (00:33:28):Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:33:29):And because if they're in on the joke, it's not as funny.Michael Jamin (00:33:36):Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not gonna spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michaeljamin.com/watchlist.Michael Jamin (00:34:00):It's, and you make them, you're done. You get to sign that release, and then you put it on , put it on the air. Is there any ? Is there any blowback? And like, wait a minute. I didn't, I'm not supposed to look like an idiot. ,Vance DeGeneres (00:34:10):You, we, you know, I'm, I'm proud to say I never had, I never had one complaint. I mean, some, some of the stories that other, other people did, people did complain, but I always tried with all my stories, I tried to make myself look like the idiot. Right. as opposed to, I mean, it's, it's not fun to, to like, you know, poke, poke a finger at, look, look what an idiot this guy is. Of course. You know? Of course. Because for the most part, they were just, they were just very nice people who had an interesting or, you know, weird story.Michael Jamin (00:34:45):Yeah. Right. Right. Now, who were the other, let's talk about this. Who were the other correspondence that you, that two seasons that you were there?Vance DeGeneres (00:34:54):Yeah, probably nobody that you've heard of. Steve Corll. Yeah. Michael Jamin (00:34:59):Go on. I never heard Stephen.Vance DeGeneres (00:35:01):Stephen ColbertMichael Jamin (00:35:02):Doesn't ring a bell.Vance DeGeneres (00:35:04):Yeah. Nancy Corll moka.Michael Jamin (00:35:09):Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:35:10):Beth Littleford.Michael Jamin (00:35:12):Right. And so you were in good company. It really was a great ensemble. You were, you know, and that show was Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:35:20):Oh, they were, they were amazing. Yeah. They were all just so great. And all, all the writers and field producers were all super talented and funny. Yeah. And just made it a a a a great working environment.Michael Jamin (00:35:36):Did you get a sense that there are writers or producers on the show that wanted to get in front of the cameraVance DeGeneres (00:35:41):There? Yeah, there were a few.Michael Jamin (00:35:43):Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Were they able to at some point? Or is it, are you not?Vance DeGeneres (00:35:48):I think, yeah, I think, yeah, a couple of couple of them did. And I, one friend of mine did a couple of stories and then kind of realized that he, he'd rather be back behind the camera.Michael Jamin (00:36:01):Why? What was the, what, what was let you know, what did he discover in front of the camera?Vance DeGeneres (00:36:08):I, I, I, I don't know. He just, I, I, I guess he just wasn't as comfortable right. In front. Right. But very funny. Right. You know, very funny writer.Michael Jamin (00:36:18):And so, and that was how you met, obviously, among one, you became close with Steve Corral and then Yeah. I, I imagine then, cuz after, after, and at some point you, you ran his production company.Vance DeGeneres (00:36:30):Yeah. This, I mean, if, yeah. If you want to jump I, let's see. Well, I, I started, I started it in the end of 98 on the Daily Show, and I left in the middle of 2001. Yeah. and then if you wanna jump ahead to,Michael Jamin (00:36:46):To when I, well, let's just talk about even leaving. Was, was it hard to lea anytime you leave a job or any kind of security in Hollywood, anything at all? It's scary.Vance DeGeneres (00:36:54):Well, well, here now, I, boy I decided that, first of all, I was not, I was not really a, a New Yorker. I didn't care for the cold winters. And I had I had broken up with my girlfriend of a year and a half. And my agent was saying, Hey, aren't you gonna come back here at some point and create your own show? And, and we were kind of hearing some rumors that maybe John might might move over to a, b, c with a late night show. And I just thought that, you know, this might be a good time to, to leave and go back to LA and try to create a show. So. Right. So that's why I did, if, look, in hindsight, I, I should have stayed another couple of years probably. But I, so I left and I I created a show with with a guy named Andy Lassner who had a deal at Fox. Okay. Do you know Andy?Michael Jamin (00:38:00):No, I don't.Vance DeGeneres (00:38:03):He had a deal over at Fox and he'd been a, a fan of mine on the Daily Show and said, Hey, I've got this deal. Let's create a show together. So we, we created a show called Your, your Local News that, that he and I wrote and I, I hosted, and we shot a pilot half hour pilot. And that didn't goMichael Jamin (00:38:25):Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:38:27):So yet another show that didn't, thisMichael Jamin (00:38:29):Is par for the court. It's not a knock on you or any, it's just this, this is how the business is, you know? Yeah. You get an at bat and you can, you can hit it outta the park and they go, you know what? We think someone else will hit it at the park further. , you know, this is how it'sVance DeGeneres (00:38:44):Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got, I've got so many of those shows that Yeah. That that didn't go, but like a lot of people. And so so then I, I produced a, a few other, other shows not, not really even worth mentioning. And then Steve got offered a, a production deal at Warner Brothers and he said, Hey, would you, would you be interested in, in running my production company?Michael Jamin (00:39:19):But what did you know about running a production company?Vance DeGeneres (00:39:24):What do you, what do you have to know, Michael? I don'tMichael Jamin (00:39:25):Know. , I, I often ask that people sitting desk, what do you know, , I mean, tell, tell people what, what it means to run a production company? Vance DeGeneres (00:39:35):Well, I, I think for Steve, he wanted, he wanted somebody to run it who, who he trusted and who he knew had the same kind of sense of humor that, that he did, because we, we would be, we'd be the comedy shingle at Warner Brothers. Right. and that's, that's why he decide to sign with Warner Brothers. So he, he asked me and a another friend of his, a writer actor named Charlie Hartsock. And so we became co-presidents of he named the Carousel Productions. Right. So we we had a deal for six years at Warner Brothers. And we produced crazy Stupid Love and What's thatMichael Jamin (00:40:25):Good movie. And so, but how does it, and, and Go, yeah, go on. What are the other projects?Vance DeGeneres (00:40:31):We did another movie called the Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Right. and then we did produced three seasons of Inside Comedy. I showed that David Steinberg hosted that we interviewed with all these comedians.Michael Jamin (00:40:45):Oh, it's funny. So that's how that came back. So, and so all this time though, Steve is doing other projects, so, you know, they're acting in other projects, but basically what it means, you're, you're running his studios, like you're looking, you're looking for scripts based. I'm, tell me if I'm wrong, you're looking for scripts that you think that he would be good in, but, but he wasn't. Yes. Did you, did you produce any think projects that he was Wait, that he wasn't involved the inside? Yeah. Yeah. That one you didn't, of course. But you're looking for script for him, and he's deciding whether he likes it or not. And then if he likes it, you take it to the studio and you see if the studio likes it. Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:41:22):Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's how it works. We would I mean, we took lots of meetings with with writers that, that their agents would submit scripts, would read 'em if we liked him, the writers would come in, would meet with him, and and then we'd, if we liked it enough, we'd we'd send it to, to Steve to read, to see if he was interested enough that we would we'd produce it.Michael Jamin (00:41:46):But was it would, so they would sometimes bring s scripts here, but sometimes you'd just, it was a general meeting and they, and they, they, they'd pitch you ideas too, right?Vance DeGeneres (00:41:55):Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.Michael Jamin (00:41:57):Yeah. And then you, if they like it, and if Steve likes it, may, then you bring it to the studio, and then the studio's, like, now, whether they wanna put money on it or not, sometimes did you, you could, I'm sure you had a deal where you could bring it to Warner Brothers, and if they don't, it's a first look. If they don't like it, then you could bring it somewhere else.Vance DeGeneres (00:42:14):Yeah. Yeah. And that happened a lot. You know, Warner Brothers, you know, not every project was right for them. So we, you know, we'd wind up taking something over to Universal and, you know, we wound up developing a movie over there. And then a mo we Charlie and I sold a an idea for Movie two Lionsgate. And we wound up hiring David Jabba to write that. Do you know DJ Jabba? No. He was a, an executive producer on The Daily Show and Okay. Really funny writer. And it was, it was a movie that had a, at, at start a North Korean uhhuh. And we don't need to go into the whole story, but you know what happened with the thing at Sony withMichael Jamin (00:43:11):Yeah. My friend Dan Sterling wrote that mo that movie the what was it called? The what was it called? The North Korean movie? What was it called? TheVance DeGeneres (00:43:21):I can't, I can't remember.Michael Jamin (00:43:24):But it was him with, it was James Franco was in it. Right. And they go to North Korea. Yes. Yeah. And so, yeah, Kim Jong Gill took issue with it, and hacked Sony and Kim released everyone's private information, and that was the end of that. Froze.Vance DeGeneres (00:43:39):And, and then that was the end of, of our movie. Right.Michael Jamin (00:43:44):Right. Cause that could kill your movie. Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:43:46):It, it totally, there's like, they're like, Lionsgate was like, there's no way we can touch this right now. Yeah.Michael Jamin (00:43:53):So forever again. And so the, and that's not, has nothing to do with you. We saw the movie to 20th century Fox called Only Child, and everyone loved it until suddenly there was another movie in the works called Middle Child, and I'm not sure they had anything in common other than the world child , and suddenly ours was dead. It's like, we'll rename it. Nope. Sorry. Vance DeGeneres (00:44:16):God. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it's, yeah. Projects die for so many different reasons. Yeah. But, but that was, that was a pretty insane reason to have a movie killed. Yeah. but, and we, we developed so many movies with so many different writers over, over the years and it's, it's just, it's tough to get a movie made. You know, even if you have a deal with a studio, it's, it's still toughMichael Jamin (00:44:46):With, with a major star attached to it. A major star willing to do this project. Major star an alien. Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard, it's hard to get something made. And so, and you ton of scripts I'm sure, which is hard, it's hard to go home and read a script, right? I mean, you know. Yes. Especially if it's bad. What are you, what, what do you see, I don't know, what were you looking for? I imagine some of these scripts were almost, I'm gonna say something and put words in your mouth, were almost written in crayon, right? I mean, some of them were kind of bad, or, no,Vance DeGeneres (00:45:19):I wouldn't mind a script written in crayonMichael Jamin (00:45:21):As a, as a, as a lark. I mean, there's a lot of, like, you read a lot of scripts that were, I'm sure were not good. Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:45:28):A lot. Yes. A lot. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's kind of shocking actually. How many scripts you get that we got submitted that just weren't just, were not good. Certainly we're not what we were looking for. Michael Jamin (00:45:41):And how far would you go into the script before tossing it? How many pages would you give it?Vance DeGeneres (00:45:48):I'm, I'm, I'll would give a script at at least, at least 20 or 30 pages.Michael Jamin (00:45:53):Generous estimate. I mean,Vance DeGeneres (00:45:54):If it, if, if it was really awful you know, maybe, maybe a few less than that. But I would, I would, I would tend to give it 20 or 30 at least.Michael Jamin (00:46:05):Right. But you're not gonna finish it if it's, there's no point. If you're, if you're not hooked in 2030, you're, why, why would you bother when you have a stack? Yeah. You know, youVance DeGeneres (00:46:15):Know, and, and, and, you know, we, we knew the kind of stuff we were looking for, you know, that the right tone of comedy you know, there's a lot of different, different tones of comedy and you know, maybe some of them were, were right for somebody else, but not for what we were looking for. Right. and in the, in the beginning we were really just looking for, for comedies and I guess four years into our deal the head of the, the, the studio came to our office and said Hey we need you guys to to really concentrate on on looking for tent poles, which was not what we were looking for in the beginning.Michael Jamin (00:47:02):Which, what is a tent pole? A big, a big giant blockbuster.Vance DeGeneres (00:47:07):A big, a big blockbuster.Michael Jamin (00:47:08):Yeah. As opposed to, it's hard to think of a big blockbuster comedy. I mean, there really aren't, you know, are there comedy zone? We're not talking about like, we're like a tent pole. You think it was like a Marvel movie or, you know, something like that. Or an action thriller, not a comedy. Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:47:26):Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, that's exactly right. I, I guess you, you could look at a film like The Hangover when that came out. Right. You know, that, that, that it was a little movie that just happened to do really well.Michael Jamin (00:47:39):Yeah. I, but I know, I can't imagine conceiving that, Ooh, wait, here's a tent pole. Like, no, here's a, here's a crapshoot that just worked, you know?Vance DeGeneres (00:47:46):Yeah. Yeah. So, but any, anyways, so we you know, we had to kind of turn the boat around a little bit and start looking for, you know movies that had the potential to be more international, I guess. Right. You know, and Right. They were very concerned.Michael Jamin (00:48:04):And that is hard because it, comedy is hard for, so you're talking for international means, I, I'm guessing means broader, more physical comedy, less reliant on joke, le less reliant on, well, maybe dumb, maybe, maybe dumber, maybe dumb dumb, maybe kind of dumbing it down a little. I mean, kind. Is that what that means? Broader?Vance DeGeneres (00:48:24):I don't, I don't know. I mean well, well, here's an example of, of something that, that we found that we, that we developed as, as a comedy, and that that could have been Big Acme mm-hmm. , you know, Acme the, the cartoons with Yeah. You know, the Road Runner and Right. We we developed a live, a live version, Uhhuh of of Acme. And the guys that directed crazy Stupid Love wrote the script for it. And it was, it was really good. It was really, it was funny and, and big. ButMichael Jamin (00:49:06):But Acme is basically, it was people running into walls and, and boxes. Right. That crates that say acne on it, that explode. Yes. That kind of thing. So it was very physical.Vance DeGeneres (00:49:17):Yeah. Yeah. And it actually would've made a, a really funny and, and a very big movie as well. Right. but but we didn't get to make that either.Michael Jamin (00:49:29):Right. Like, I mean,Vance DeGeneres (00:49:30):But that's just an example of, of how it's like, maybe we can take this and maybe this could be something that would be, you know, appealing internationally.Michael Jamin (00:49:40):Right. As opposed to like Little Miss Sunshine, which he was in, which is a small film, small little character study that blew up somehow, you know? Yeah,Vance DeGeneres (00:49:48):Exactly. And, and nobody, nobody knows what's gonna work and, and what's not.Michael Jamin (00:49:53):Was it hard for you to make the leap to executive? I mean, it's a whole different, you're, you're doing a lot of, you're, you're making the rounds, you're pitching more, you're, you're getting in that you have to get your lay of the land, you have to schmooze with other executives. I mean, it's kind of a, was that hard for you? That hard jump for you?Vance DeGeneres (00:50:11):Yeah. Yeah. It's, yeah. It was, it was, it was a little, little tough. I, I don't like being a salesman. Yeah. and there were times when, of course we had to, we had to go out and sell him. The, the o the other part of it, I did enjoy, I did enjoy meeting with, with writers and actors who would come in and and we, you know, we'd have great meetings and, you know, we, we would be pitching their projects, you know and that was, and that was, that was fun when we found projects that we'd liked and we would develop it with the, with the writer Uhhuh. So that, that, that part was, it was very creative and great. And that was, and that was a lot of fun. And it was, and it was also so great you know, getting to run Steve's company. Cuz you know, Steve's, he's one of my closest friends, and he is just, you know, he's such a great guy and he is so hilarious. Yeah. so I, you know, if I was to run anybody's company, I'm glad it I got to run his,Michael Jamin (00:51:17):See, that's another thing. So when a writer comp, so many people, you know, say I post a lot on social media and so many people are like I have a script I wanna sell, and, but I, I don't wanna change a word. I'm like, you have, what are you talking about? You come in, you with an idea, you picture show if someone else is interested, you play ball. You. It's a very collaborative, if you stay home, if you are not willing to take a note, you know, it, it's like,Vance DeGeneres (00:51:39):Yeah. That, I mean, that's, yeah. You gotta, you know. Yeah. If you don't, if you don't want to change a word you better have enough money to finance it yourself. Yeah.Michael Jamin (00:51:49):Right, right. You have to get people attached and it's, it's all about, yeah. So what, what advice do you have for people trying to break in the indu industry today? I mean, it's, it's changed even since you've left.Vance DeGeneres (00:52:04):There'sMichael Jamin (00:52:05):Former production of Shrugs, I don't know, , I don't know.Vance DeGeneres (00:52:10):God, it, I mean, it's, it's just so, it's just so scattershot now. I mean, I, I, I think, but at, at the, at the very base, I think it comes down to you have to wanna do something. If you want, if you wanna write, then you just have to write, just, you know, you know, get a, get a book on, on, on writing scripts and teach yourself and just write, write, write. And you know, it's not easy because it helps if you, if you know somebody to send it to, because you can't just send in scripts unsolicited generally. Right. but, you know, but a lot of, a lot of people get into it through doing improv and then, and then shooting little bits and, and you know, putting 'em, if they go viral,Michael Jamin (00:53:00):But, and that's basically what you did. I mean, you're, you're vi it's like you did long before Vi Viral was a thing, was you just did it. And, and I, I used to tell everyone, stop asking for permission. Just do it. You know,Vance DeGeneres (00:53:12):John, that, that's, no, that's, that's exactly right. W because we did the fourth floor show, because it, it entertained us. It was something that if we could do any show, this would be the show that we would do, so we just did it.Michael Jamin (00:53:27):Yeah. Yeah. Right. You get a bunch of people that kind of want the same thing and you do it. Yeah. Yeah. And then now, now you have this, you're basically back to your first love, your first love music. I'm not talking. Yeah,Vance DeGeneres (00:53:41):Yeah. Pretty, pretty much. I mean, af after, well, after Carousel, after we lost our deal I had a deal for God, another nine or 10 years at, at Warner Brothers at tele Pictures. Yeah. At tele Pictures at Warner.Michael Jamin (00:53:58):What are you doing there?Vance DeGeneres (00:53:59):I was developing TV shows.Michael Jamin (00:54:01):I didn't know that. I didn't know. Yeah,Vance DeGeneres (00:54:05):Yeah, yeah. My, my, my deal just ended in October.Michael Jamin (00:54:08):Oh, wow. I had no idea. And so you were, okay, you were for Warner Brothers, but not on a pro, not on a production shingle, but actually just for Warner Brothers doing the same.Vance DeGeneres (00:54:18):Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I, my, I mean, all told I was there at for 15 years,Michael Jamin (00:54:24):But at this point, you're more of a buyer as opposed to a seller if you're working on Warner Brothers. Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:54:29):Well, n no. No, I, no, I, I had a deal to, to develop shows. So that's what I was doing.Michael Jamin (00:54:36):You had Oh, your own deal. Okay. Yeah. It's your, wow. Good for you. That's unusual. Okay. You were Okay. You got a shingle, basically. Yeah. You, that's what you were Yeah. We weren't in studios. Exactly. Yeah. You're okay. Wow.Vance DeGeneres (00:54:48):Yeah, exactly. No, exactly. Exactly. And then, so, so now that my deal is done I'm, I'm still gonna take, I've g I got a couple of shows that that I'm gonna try to sell, but in the meantime, I'm, I'm doing a lot of music again. Right,Michael Jamin (00:55:05):Right. And let's, let's talk about that. You now, who's your band? Who and who are these people in your band?Vance DeGeneres (00:55:11):The band is called The Light Jackets. And it's been my, my project on the side for the last 10 years with the other Bandmates or Eddie Jemison, who's who's a great actor. You know 'em if you saw 'em. Okay. Tim Ford is the drummer Dermot Kieran is the keyboard player. And bill Angola is the lead guitar player. And, and GoMichael Jamin (00:55:39):Ahead. How often and how often do you guys meet and get together and jam and write and perform?Vance DeGeneres (00:55:45):Well, we've, we, we just released our fourth record about a week ago. Right. And we've, so we've got, yeah, we've got four, we've got three eps and one album that we've released over the past 10 years.Michael Jamin (00:55:58):Right.Vance DeGeneres (00:55:59):And so, you know, it's just, I mean, it's always been a passion. So I've, I've never really stopped playing music. I've always managed to do it, you know in my spare time.Michael Jamin (00:56:14):And so what ha, what happened was you posted this really cute video that you guys shot, and it was, you did with all the puppets, and it was wonderful and saw it. And I, I go, let's talk about this. Tell me, tell me how that came up together. And the song was great. And you know what? That's what, this is a perfect time. We're gonna play a clip from that song. We're gonna play it. We'll come back and you'll everyone have a listen, and then we'll talk about itSong Clip (00:56:40):All. Cause it's a better way. The outside world would never know that we were here. We have known interfere A Little Nation will be our salvation. I know. It's gone. Well get, join. We can leave right now.Michael Jamin (00:57:15):So yes, the song, I love that song you wrote that song? Yeah, yeah.Vance DeGeneres (00:57:19):One that you wrote. It's called, yeah, it's called Our Little Revolution. And it's, it's one of the five songs on our new ep. The EP is called fall So Far, if you look for it on iTunes or whatever.Michael Jamin (00:57:32):Yeah. Where, where should we look on iTunes, Spotify, everywhere.Vance DeGeneres (00:57:37):Yeah. All the usual places.Michael Jamin (00:57:38):Right. The light jackets stand.Vance DeGeneres (00:57:41):So I, I I decided that because of the theme of the song, which the theme, the theme of the song is really kind of about where we are in society right now, about how, how polarized we are. Yeah.(00:57:55): and I didn't want to do a video with depicting real people in the, in these, you know, angry situations. Yeah. but I've got, I've got some friends that have a puppet production company. They do these, they do these videos. They're called rag, mop and Goose. And it's my friend's Gus Renard and Jesse Cabalero they're married and they do these amazing little puppets. So I asked them if they would do a video for the song. And and they, they did such a great job. They did. Yeah. Really happy with it.Michael Jamin (00:58:37):How, how long of a shoot was that?Vance DeGeneres (00:58:41):It, it didn't take 'em long. We got together, I, I gave them, I gave them a very loose outline, and then they came up with the rest, and then they went off and shot it and cut it together. In, so youMichael Jamin (00:58:53):Weren't even involved in the shoot, you said, Hey, good run with this.Vance DeGeneres (00:58:57):No, I, I, I was very happy to farm it out. It's like, you know, this is this is what I'd like to, you know, to see. And then they went off and shot it, and they, and I have to say, it's probably the first time my, in my entire career where I was sent a project back where I didn't give them one note.Michael Jamin (00:59:16):Really? Wow. Yeah. You did a great job. And so, to me, I'm guessing the goal of it was just to be creative and make music. That's all. That's it. But do you have, are there, are, is there, are there other future ambitions? Is there more ambitions there more you hope to get outta this though?Vance DeGeneres (00:59:33):Just, just the enjoyment of, of being musically creative. Right. And and that, that's it. I mean, I, I'm under no illusions that I'm gonna get another record deal. Right. You know, capital Records is not gonna call and offer me a deal again. Right. but that's fi that's fine. You know, the, it's, you know, it's a fun band. It's, it's a good band. And we play lo we play live gigs, you know, like two or three times a year. Right. and we make, we make our records. And that's, that's enough. Right. I mean, it's just fun.Michael Jamin (01:00:09):That's it. That's it. And that's what I'm always telling people, just do it if, and there's so much in Holly, like, there's so much where you don't get paid in Hollywood. There's a lot of work that you do that you don't get paid. And if you're not enjoying the work, well, this is not for you then. I mean, you have to be , you know, whatever it is. Whether it's music or writing or acting. Like if you're not enjoying, you shouldn't be chasing the paycheck. You do it cause you enjoy it. Right.Vance DeGeneres (01:00:32):Yeah. No, that, and that, that's a good point. And that, you know, that's, that's also good advice for people who are looking to get into this business, is if, if you get asked, you know, to do a favor for somebody, just do it.Michael Jamin (01:00:45):Yeah. You don't know.Vance DeGeneres (01:00:48):Yeah. You don't know what it's gonna lead to and Right. You know, plus you're gonna be getting experience.Michael Jamin (01:00:54):Yep. Yep. What's so other than, so what's next for you? You're, you, you have a couple show ideas, you'll take 'em out, these ideas that you developed. Yeah, yeah,Vance DeGeneres (01:01:04):Yeah. Yeah. Michael Jamin (01:01:06):Warner Brothers must have really liked it. Yeah.Vance DeGeneres (01:01:08):It was it was, yeah. It, my my time was spent well over there. I, I like the people over there and yeah. It, it was, it was a, it was a good experience. And I've got, I, we may or may not still have one, one movie with Steve Corll over at Disney. It might be dead at this point. Charlie and I sold an idea for an updated Swiss family, Robinson to Disney. Right. Called called Brooklyn Family RobinsonMichael Jamin (01:01:39):.Vance DeGeneres (01:01:41):And oh, well, it was just a modern day version of the Family comes from Brooklyn. And and we, God, we probably have gone through four sets of writers over the years because we, we sold it while, while we still had Carousel open.Michael Jamin (01:02:02):But then why so many writers, like, what, what hap how does that work? Because youVance DeGeneres (01:02:09):You, you, you write, you the writer writes the draft, you bring it to Disney. They say, Hey, this is fantastic. Right. Let's bring in another writer to do to it even better. Yes. right.(01:02:22): and then the writer, you, you hire, you, you interview other writers. They give you different pitches on how we could make it even more fantastic. Right. you decide with Disney, okay, we'll, we'll, we'll pay this, this writer X amount to go off and write this new version. Right. they, they do that. In the meantime, this exec at Disney has been fired or left on their own. Yep. A new exec comes in that didn't know anything about this project. Right. You turn the script in and they say, this is really a fantastic script. Yeah. But why don't, why don't we bring in a different writer to, to let's try a little different,Michael Jamin (01:03:03):That way they can, the executive put their own stamp on it, basically.Vance DeGeneres (01:03:07):Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And that happened you know, several times with, with this project. And it's unfortunate it would've, it would've been a fun project, but I think at this point, it's probably probably not gonna happen.Michael Jamin (01:03:22):The maddening thing is, most executives, they tend to take a stay the jobb two or three years and, you know, and then it's a shop price somewhere else when their deals up. And that's not a lot of time to, you got e

On this Between Two Butts, Tice, Jay, and Becca are joined by director and choreographer Stefan Sittig, whose recent work includes Urinetown and The Mystery of Edwin Drood at the Workhouse Arts Center, as well as Man of La Mancha, Xanadu, and many others. Stefan fills us in on his journey from DC to South America to Charlottesville and Richmond and once again to DC...including how growing up steeped in samba in Brazil affected his style of choreography, how being at UVA at the same time as Tina Fey made him not able to read "Bossypants", and his current adventures in podcasting, directing and choreography. This last topic is the theme of our final game, where Jay plays Cupid for an increasingly flirtatious Stefan and puts a date with Tice on the line.   Check out more about Stefan at his website! www.stefansittig.com

Our bodies know when we want to be touched, and when we don't want to be touched. Desire and agency simmer in our throats, ready to emerge as “Yes” or “No,” to protect our sovereignty over our own bodies and sexuality. But centuries of patriarchy and violations in our personal histories may have disconnected us from the channel of our desire, and the agency of our voice.  In today's episode, we explore how “yes” and “no” in the sexual realm are intimately and irrevocably intertwined.  We linger on re-learning our right to say “no,” for, as Sheryl reminds us, there is no true yes without no. One depends upon the other. We explore some of the common themes that emerge when people feel disconnected from their desire—history of assault or abuse, feeling touched out, grappling with sexual pain, buckling under pressure and expectations. And we invite the warm light of compassion and gentle love to wash over us and bring us back to safety.  Within this vast, deep, and sometimes painful conversation, there is also room for rediscovering eros, for finding solace, power, joy and laughter within sisterhoods and within ourselves.  We can gently uncover pathways leading us back to the place that most naturally belongs to us—with time, patience, gentleness, and a bit of ferocity.  References and Resources: Sheryl's Sacred Sexuality course information and registration Sheryl's blog post, "This is One of the Best Ways to Get Sexually Aroused" Perennials Podcast Episode 61: Embracing Weakness with Shannon K. Evans Sheryl's upcoming Sacred Sexuality free webinar Women Who Run with the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler Story about Amy Poehler in Bossypants by Tina Fey Lizzo, body positivity and self-love 

New Year, New You but this time we are taking advice from famous people! We read Bossypants by Tina Fey and learned the important life lessons about photoshop, men peeing in jars, and balancing your career with motherhood. It is of course a hilarious book that mostly aged well and might just be what you need to start of 2023 with the right mindset.

0:00 Intro 3:16 Pop Culture 10:43 Europe 18:27 Infrastructure 20:49 Vaccine 52:06 Jamie Walden   - Processed food keeps people sick and diseased, easy prey for jabs - Rampant vitamin D deficiency IGNORED by medical science establishment - Scientific American won't tell BLACK women about vitamin D - WHO head Tedros clearly says nations are using vaccines to KILL children - Andrew Tate arrested in relation to rape, trafficking operation in Romania - Don't cross little miss Bossy Pants or she will have you SWATTED - Europeans totally unprepared for blackouts, warns Austria minister - A blessing we made it through Christmas Day without more power grid sabotage - Transportation nightmare worsens: Pete Buttigieg being GAY doesn't seem to solve airline problems - Australian vaccine pusher Dr. Chin dies suddenly at age 34, after injecting CHILDREN - The overblown Consumer Reports findings of lead in chocolate bars - why it's misleading - Insanity of vaccinated people buying organic at Whole Foods, as if they care about having clean blood - If you take mRNA injections, you might as well just eat at McDonalds, too - Full interview with Jamie Walden, author of Omega Dynamics For more updates, visit: http://www.brighteon.com/channel/hrreport NaturalNews videos would not be possible without you, as always we remain passionately dedicated to our mission of educating people all over the world on the subject of natural healing remedies and personal liberty (food freedom, medical freedom, the freedom of speech, etc.). Together, we're helping create a better world, with more honest food labeling, reduced chemical contamination, the avoidance of toxic heavy metals and vastly increased scientific transparency. ▶️ Every dollar you spend at the Health Ranger Store goes toward helping us achieve important science and content goals for humanity: https://www.healthrangerstore.com/ ▶️ Sign Up For Our Newsletter: https://www.naturalnews.com/Readerregistration.html ▶️ Brighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport ▶️ Join Our Social Network: https://brighteon.social/@HealthRanger ▶️ Check In Stock Products at: https://PrepWithMike.com

Hey Full House Podcast Listeners, Angela Bowen here, the host of Oh Mylanta Holy Chalupas: An Unofficial Full House Fuller House Podcast. Today, I covered Full House S5E24: Girls Will Be Boys, which aired on April 28, 1992. In this episode When her best friend Teddy ignores her for being a girl, Michelle decides she wants to become a boy instead. Meanwhile, Jesse gets a part on Joey's TV show, and DJ catches Stephanie listening in on her phone call. This was a good episode. I really liked it. Michelle loses Teddy (temporarily) to Aaron (Mr. Bossypants) when Aaron starts hassling Teddy about playing/hanging out with girls which apparently at age 5 is something boys just aren't allowed to do (according to Aaron). Teddy who will not stand up to Aaron follows his lead leaving Michelle to ponder, what do I do now, since I lost my best friend? She takes it upon herself to start dressing like a boy since that's the only way to get Teddy to hang with her. During a play session of playing guns (can't get more 90's then that, along with Michelle's idea of playing house)Teddy gets fake injured and Michelle morphs into rescue nurse mode. Upon seeing this Aaron calls her out on not being a "real boy" since boys can't be nurses and he takes Teddy who looks at Michelle and says "Nice try Michelle", like she was attempting to fool him. She was desperate to hang out and changing her clothes and attitude was the only way Teddy would respond. Danny explains that what's going on with Teddy is a stage or a phase and he'll grow out of it, so in the mean time she just has to ride this out. Danny starts to tell Michelle that one day boys will want to hang out with her all the time and that's when Danny goes through his "keep away from my daughter stage". This statement (which I get was played for laughs) just goes way over Michelle's head, she looks at Danny and tells him " I just want my best friend back". Luckily for her, Teddy has finally tired of Aaron's bossiness but when he tried to be friends again Michelle has already tied herself to her new best friend Denise. Michelle explains to Teddy he is going through a stage and doesn't want to play with girls and that's why they can't hang out. Teddy begs Michelle to take him back and she relents happily cheering "Yay, the stage is over". All the three kids ice out Aaron who is now friendless until they give in and tell him we're playing hide and seek and you're up first, so go hide and we'll find you. Michelle whispers to Teddy "Maybe" We can't forget DJ's payback on Stephanie for listening on her phone calls. She makes Steph so paranoid that DJ is out to get her that Stephanie jumps whenever DJ comes up behind her and freaks when she thinks DJ is going to feed her a poisonous brownie. I have to hand it to DJ, this plan was brilliant! Have a great week everyone! I hope you enjoy this Podcast Episode! To Email The Podcast GO TO: omhcfhfhpodcast@gmail.com

Hey Full House Podcast Listeners, Angela Bowen here, the host of Oh Mylanta Holy Chalupas: An Unofficial Full House Fuller House Podcast. Today, I covered Full House S5E24: Girls Will Be Boys, which aired on April 28, 1992. In this episode When her best friend Teddy ignores her for being a girl, Michelle decides she wants to become a boy instead. Meanwhile, Jesse gets a part on Joey's TV show, and DJ catches Stephanie listening in on her phone call. This was a good episode. I really liked it. Michelle loses Teddy (temporarily) to Aaron (Mr. Bossypants) when Aaron starts hassling Teddy about playing/hanging out with girls which apparently at age 5 is something boys just aren't allowed to do (according to Aaron). Teddy who will not stand up to Aaron follows his lead leaving Michelle to ponder, what do I do now, since I lost my best friend? She takes it upon herself to start dressing like a boy since that's the only way to get Teddy to hang with her. During a play session of playing guns (can't get more 90's then that, along with Michelle's idea of playing house)Teddy gets fake injured and Michelle morphs into rescue nurse mode. Upon seeing this Aaron calls her out on not being a "real boy" since boys can't be nurses and he takes Teddy who looks at Michelle and says "Nice try Michelle", like she was attempting to fool him. She was desperate to hang out and changing her clothes and attitude was the only way Teddy would respond. Danny explains that what's going on with Teddy is a stage or a phase and he'll grow out of it, so in the mean time she just has to ride this out. Danny starts to tell Michelle that one day boys will want to hang out with her all the time and that's when Danny goes through his "keep away from my daughter stage". This statement (which I get was played for laughs) just goes way over Michelle's head, she looks at Danny and tells him " I just want my best friend back". Luckily for her, Teddy has finally tired of Aaron's bossiness but when he tried to be friends again Michelle has already tied herself to her new best friend Denise. Michelle explains to Teddy he is going through a stage and doesn't want to play with girls and that's why they can't hang out. Teddy begs Michelle to take him back and she relents happily cheering "Yay, the stage is over". All the three kids ice out Aaron who is now friendless until they give in and tell him we're playing hide and seek and you're up first, so go hide and we'll find you. Michelle whispers to Teddy "Maybe" We can't forget DJ's payback on Stephanie for listening on her phone calls. She makes Steph so paranoid that DJ is out to get her that Stephanie jumps whenever DJ comes up behind her and freaks when she thinks DJ is going to feed her a poisonous brownie. I have to hand it to DJ, this plan was brilliant! Have a great week everyone! I hope you enjoy this Podcast Episode! To Email The Podcast GO TO: omhcfhfhpodcast@gmail.com

Hey Full House Podcast Listeners, Angela Bowen here, the host of Oh Mylanta Holy Chalupas: An Unofficial Full House Fuller House Podcast. Today, I covered Full House S5E24: Girls Will Be Boys, which aired on April 28, 1992. In this episode When her best friend Teddy ignores her for being a girl, Michelle decides she wants to become a boy instead. Meanwhile, Jesse gets a part on Joey's TV show, and DJ catches Stephanie listening in on her phone call. This was a good episode. I really liked it. Michelle loses Teddy (temporarily) to Aaron (Mr. Bossypants) when Aaron starts hassling Teddy about playing/hanging out with girls which apparently at age 5 is something boys just aren't allowed to do (according to Aaron). Teddy who will not stand up to Aaron follows his lead leaving Michelle to ponder, what do I do now, since I lost my best friend? She takes it upon herself to start dressing like a boy since that's the only way to get Teddy to hang with her. During a play session of playing guns (can't get more 90's then that, along with Michelle's idea of playing house)Teddy gets fake injured and Michelle morphs into rescue nurse mode. Upon seeing this Aaron calls her out on not being a "real boy" since boys can't be nurses and he takes Teddy who looks at Michelle and says "Nice try Michelle", like she was attempting to fool him. She was desperate to hang out and changing her clothes and attitude was the only way Teddy would respond. Danny explains that what's going on with Teddy is a stage or a phase and he'll grow out of it, so in the mean time she just has to ride this out. Danny starts to tell Michelle that one day boys will want to hang out with her all the time and that's when Danny goes through his "keep away from my daughter stage". This statement (which I get was played for laughs) just goes way over Michelle's head, she looks at Danny and tells him " I just want my best friend back". Luckily for her, Teddy has finally tired of Aaron's bossiness but when he tried to be friends again Michelle has already tied herself to her new best friend Denise. Michelle explains to Teddy he is going through a stage and doesn't want to play with girls and that's why they can't hang out. Teddy begs Michelle to take him back and she relents happily cheering "Yay, the stage is over". All the three kids ice out Aaron who is now friendless until they give in and tell him we're playing hide and seek and you're up first, so go hide and we'll find you. Michelle whispers to Teddy "Maybe" We can't forget DJ's payback on Stephanie for listening on her phone calls. She makes Steph so paranoid that DJ is out to get her that Stephanie jumps whenever DJ comes up behind her and freaks when she thinks DJ is going to feed her a poisonous brownie. I have to hand it to DJ, this plan was brilliant! Have a great week everyone! I hope you enjoy this Podcast Episode! To Email The Podcast GO TO: omhcfhfhpodcast@gmail.com

Kevin and Mel still aren't dead! In this episode, we talk a bit about all the things that have changed for us, make some excuses for why it took us six months to record six podcast episodes. Listen in to hear about what's going on with your favorite Bossypants and Nerd couple, and about their strong opinions on how the best Chinese takeout places make good hunan-style tofu.

I'm joined by Robbie "Bear" Steinbring (#1 on ITC '22 with SoB & @Rerolling Ones ) to talk about how Sons of Behemat interact with Generals Handbook 2022 with the Galletian Veterans & Proving Grounds.

Folks, the hilarious Vanessa Gonzalez joins us on this week's episode to hear about a mystery ice cream freezer that washed up on a beach, a new species of walking sharks, a huge brisket theft in Texas, the dumb reason a guy started a forest fire, and a picture of what meat was mistaken for a photo of a distant star Follow Vanessa on Twitter @vanessagcomedy and check out her album 'My Birthdays Tomorrow': https://bstlnk.to/MyBirthdaysTomorrow We are on Patreon! Become a patron for weekly bonus eps and more stuff!: www.patreon.com/whatatimepod Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/whatatimetobealive Get one of our t-shirts, or other merch, using this link! https://whatatimepod.bigcartel.com/ whatatimepod.com Join our Discord chat here: discord.gg/jx7rB7J @pattymo // @kathbarbadoro // @eliyudin // @whatatimepod © 2022 What A Time LLC

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critisJ. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights Mean Girls,the hit Broadway musical whose touring company production is now on stage at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theater. The satirical musical comedy about high-school social pecking orders is the product of an award-winning creative team, including director Casey Nicholaw (Aladdin, The Book of Mormon), composer Jeff Richmond (“30 Rock,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), lyricist Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde), and book writer Tina Fey (“30 Rock,” Bossypants). Mean Girls continues at the Hippodrome through Sunday, July 17. Follow the links for more information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ohmagosh, am I the bossiest person alive? Let's sort through some mess and dig into why some of us second-guess our assertiveness. You know when they say, "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself"?... Yeah, THAT! Greeting cards, stationary and other cool shit: www.dopehaus.co Email me your listener letter! holla@dopehaus.co Support my coffee addiction, my move to LA, and Invisalign lol: https://www.dopehaus.co/coffee Connect on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ohsodope.co/ See you next-next Thursday :)

President Joe Biden Tweets out an order to the forces that control the price of gas at the pump to drop it..."and do it NOW!" But what President Bossy-Pants doesn't know about the retail gasoline business can hurt you, and kill the Mom-and-Pop operations that run most fuel stations. Right Angle schools the amateur autocrat in the basic economics of the business. Scott Ott, Stephen Green and Bill Whittle host five new episodes of Right Angle each week, fueled by our Members. You can join now and unlock access to exclusive backstage content, and communication features that connect you with the production team of committed conservatives who create dozens of new shows each month plus a cataract of Member-written content behind the veil at https://BillWhittle.com Click the big green button at our site to join, or the big blue button to donate. Thank you.

Molly Shannon, Viola Davis, Matthew McConaughey, Colin Jost—many stars are writing their stories. Librarians Katie and Sarah talk about celebrity memoirs they've enjoyed in this episode. These books vary in style, so you're bound to find one you'll enjoy. Titles and authors discussed in this episode include: Bossypants by Tina Fey; Open Book by Jessica Simpson; This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps; Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley; Yearbook by Seth Rogen; Dear Girls by Ali Wong; Hello, Molly by Molly Shannon; Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey; the TV series True Detective; A Very Punchable Face by Colin Jost; Mindy Kaling; Finding Me by Viola Davis; the TV series How to Get Away With Murder; Becoming by Michelle Obama; and We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union. Check out books and DVDs at countycat.mcfls.org, wplc.overdrive.com and hoopladigital.com. For more about WAPL, visit westallislibrary.org. Music: Tim Moor via Pixabay

Devin: What do you see as your standout superpower?Sharon: I’m very good at that big picture at the vision and then getting people feeling motivated by that vision rather than demotivated by the problems of the world.Sharon Schneider, the founder of Integrated Capital Strategies, helps uber-wealthy families and successful entrepreneurs align their lives more fully with their values. She paints a picture to allow them to see that their charitable giving is a small part of their social impact.Sharon came to see that the same principle could apply to everyone. In part, it was a journey of discovering her own power that she shared on her blog. “I was missing out, frankly, and I was misaligned in many ways.”Finally, she has put the words to work in her book, Handbook for an Integrated Life. The insights are helpful to anyone who has ever donated even the smallest amount to a cause. The book will help you align your life more fully with your values.The book includes a discussion of seven principles for an integrated life. Sharon and I discussed each one.1. See the CurrentBefore you can find that perfect harmony in your life, you need to see the corporate context in which we all live. “Western culture has normalized a lot of behaviors,” Sharon says of the marketing messages that engulf us. “You see things like the ten pieces you must-have for spring.”“Marketing power is the current,” she says.“If your fundamental value is wanting other people to be healthy and happy as much as you want to be healthy and happy yourself, you want the people that grow your food, teach your kids, work in stores, all of those things to be healthy and happy, too,” she says. “Step one is just to be aware of the ways that our mainstream culture is pushing you in a different direction.”Never miss an episode. Subscribe!2. Embrace “Yes, and” to Keep Making ProgressDrawing on the “yes, and” rule of improv, Sharon learned from Tina Fey’s book Bossypants, she suggests acknowledging what you’re doing and adding to it.In an improv context, the actors agree to accept whatever premise their partners bring to a skit and add to it. Yes, and.For a life lived more in harmony with your values, Sharon says, “start with small actions, start with what you can do today or maybe what you’re already doing and celebrate that.”“But that doesn’t mean you’re done,” she adds. Keep going.By way of example, she says, “If you take your reusable bags to the grocery store, yes, that’s hard. It’s hard to remember until you get in the habit. And what can you do next? For example, I now have mesh produce bags.”Ask yourself this question, “What’s the next step I can take?”3. Don’t Give Back; Just Give.“I have always hated the term ‘giving back,’” Sharon says. “It’s very individualistic. I’ll get mine first, and then maybe I’ll help some other people.”We can give along the way in many ways, from how we invest our money to how generously we tip and how often we shop in locally-owned establishments.“All those choices that we make that may not maximize the benefit to ourselves in the short term, but help everybody win along the way is really what ‘just give’ is about,” she says.4. Be Brave. “I have had moments in my life, and maybe you have too, where there’s something kind of sitting back here that you’re not really living in [line with] your values the way you’d like to, but you’d rather not look at that and think about it,” Sharon says, highlighting the context in which you may need to be brave.She used the current war in Ukraine as an example:A great example of this is Russia invading Ukraine and how it forced us to look head on into the bargain we had made around oil and that it wasn't just environmental impact, it was also human rights—that we had willingly made this bargain with the devil, if you will.That was like, we want that oil, so we'll keep allowing you to to make those trade offs. I can't personally affect the war in Russia, but I can make choices by being brave and saying, okay, this is something I’ve got to turn and face. I can make choices in my own life about my dependance on fossil fuels versus clean energy sources, right? So, maybe I can insulate my house. If I have the option to have an electric car or drive less, bike more, or put on a sweater instead of turning on the heat or like many, many choices that I can take.It does take an extra measure of courage to challenge your own behavior. “Step one is you’ve got to acknowledge that the cognitive dissonance that’s maybe been bothering you and make the commitment to do something about it,” Sharon says. “I think that does take bravery.”5. Resist the Allure of Convenience.We live in an Amazon Prime world. “In Western culture, we’ve been convinced, through many billions of dollars of marketing, that our own convenience is the most important benefit that a product can have,” Sharon says.That convenience comes at a price paid by workers incentivized to skip bathroom stops and the environment cluttered with plastic that will last thousands of years.She says, “Sometimes you pay a little bit of a convenience tax by going the extra mile” to shop at a small business. Giving up convenience can have positive impact on people and the planet.“If we continue to encourage each other and normalize [extra effort], we will get there,” Sharon says.6. Walk Lightly in the World“In Western cultures, we consume way more than the earth can reproduce in terms of raw resources in a year; we’re just literally using up the planet,” Sharon says.She proposes asking a series of questions before every purchase.Do you really need it? You’ve probably purchased a few things that you don’t need. Make a point to ponder the question of need before every purchase. If you do need it, move to the next question.Do you have to own it? It may not make sense to rent or borrow a coat if you live in a place with long, cold winters. On the other hand, if you want to power wash your house every other year, perhaps you can borrow or rent the equipment. If you decide you need to own it, move to the next question.Does it have to be new? There are many ways to buy used things, from thrift stores to eBay and even Amazon. You can reduce your impact on the Earth by buying something someone else no longer uses.If you decide you need to buy something new, you can look for something that producers grew organically, produced under a fair-trade arrangement or otherwise made sustainably. 7. Know Your Power“What is our power?” Sharon asks. “It is immense.”She explains:I realized, you know, I'm no billionaire, but there is still tens of thousands of dollars passing through my household every year, if you count my all of my consumption. So whether it's food, clothing, all of my financial products, my mortgage, my insurance, my cell phone, all the money I spend on entertainment, on travel, on maintaining my household, I have all this consumer power.Plus I have social networks. Right. I'm a sister and a mother and a daughter and a friend. My kids—I have schools that they go to. I have my professional skills and networks. I'm also a voter. I'm a voter and I'm an active volunteer in my community. If I only think of the 5 percent or 10 percent of my budget is what I have to spend to make the world [better]. That's like using 5 percent of your brain. It's like, how do we activate the other 95 percent? That's really the message of an integrated life. The more of those assets you can bring into alignment with your values, the more powerful that you will be.In her work, Sharon uses her superpower, helping people feel motivated by the big picture.How to Develop Helping People Feel Motivated by the Big Picture As a SuperpowerSharon sees her life’s purpose as helping people achieve an integrated life. “By focusing on what you can do and painting a picture for what our world could be,” she helps people overcome the sense that today’s problems are insurmountable. She helps people overcome the temptation to quit.She helps wealthy families and founders increase their social impact. Traditionally, foundations are required to give away 5 percent of their assets each year. Most ignored the social impact of how they invested the other 95 percent. Over the past 20 years, Sharon has been part of a movement working to change that.Over the years, I like to think that I've successfully counseled any number of families and foundation boards and endowment holders, nonprofit endowments, to to spend more of their focus on what the investments are doing as opposed to just treating them as a black box that generates cash that we can give away. And so really giving them the vision of giving 100 percent of the foundation working towards their mission.That is a significant achievement resulting from, she says, using her superpower. By following her example, you can develop this skill into a superpower that will help you do more good.SuperCrowd22Sharon will be presenting at SuperCrowd22 on September 15 and 16. “I love what you’re doing,” she says. “You’re getting people to expand their aperture. I’m just thrilled to be able to be a small part of it.”Her voice will be critically important; I’m excited to have her on the program. Remember, our free subscribers can register at half-price. Paid subscribers can register for free! Subscribe today. The conference will feature a variety of ways for interaction with the presenters and other attendees. Just as happens with in-person events, you’ll return with a collection of contacts to go with the information and insights you get. Because it is virtual, the conference is affordable with a light carbon footprint.In this article, we have used affiliate links, which may generate commissions if you make a purchase but that do not increase your cost. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

Rebel Wilson says future motherhood inspired her weight loss, Idina Menzel has a clothing line with QVC, and Happy 52nd to Tina Fey!!!!

We  are launching the Conversation Club on April 14, 2022. Sign up for founder's special opportunities here: www.possibilityexperiment.com/cc This membership will be a safe space where we and other life-experimenters can talk mind-to-mind and inner-voice-to-inner-voice. Each month we will highlight a new topic, and in April, we will be focused on unconditional alignment! Words matter. They help us create and they affect us way more subconsciously than we are aware of. Recently, we were talking recently about words we don't say anymore and it led us down a whole path around words in general. Some words we are letting go of include: grateful, gratitude, should, but, or and no.Hear why we've shifted our vocabulary and what words we are embracing along with our questions for our inner voices including:Do words matter?Do words have vibrations?What about the meaning of words?How is the energy of a word created?What new words you want us to hear now?Work with us!Work with Kristen: www.kristenmangas.comWork with Susan: www.beknow.coLinks Mentioned:Tina Fey's Bossypants

Welcome! Today Deborah Wastell is joined by actor, improviser, writer and teacher Avril Poole, and together they host a sumptuous soirée where the guest list is packed with women who have given Avril food for thought. Round the table, you will find:Avril Poole herself.As well as being with the long running group LadyProv, Avril created the improv groups, Moments In Time and Blend Off, which combines her passions for improv and whisky. She is also part of The Improvised Play, directed by Stephen Davidson, and runs improv workshops, both independently and  with various companies, the details of which she tweets about. Honourable mention to Stephanie Macleod Jill Murphy  (Focus on The Worst Witch) Tina Fey (Mentions here for: SNL, The Second City, Bossy Pants, 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)Boudica Avril's Friend Sheila (Real Life Connection, therefore no link)Leslie Knope(Honourable Mention to: Amy Poehler)Dawn French  (Honourable Mentions: French and Saunders, The ComicStrip)Simone Biles (Honourable Mention - Naomi Osaka)

Email Us Here: Disturbinglypragmatic@gmail.comWhere To Find Us!:  Disturbingly Pragmatic Link Tree!This Episode has EVERYTHING!It's got:Mentos, The Freshmaker!Kal Penn Comes Out, Yay!Harold and Kumar!Autobiographies!Rachel Dratch, the Lesbian Aunt We All Want!Paul Finally Figures Out Dave is An Insensitive Bag of Dicks!Dave Has Regrets!Paul Listens to Books, and Calls Tina Fey Old!Dave Gets Emotional About Tiffany Haddish!Love Island Appropriates "Avatar" Culture!Dave Discovers Sarah Schauer and Brittany Broski Nathan Lane!Reddit Fun!Web Sleuths Are Fun!Episode Links (In Order):"Yes Please", by Amy Poehler!"Girl Walks Into a Bar...", by Rachel Dratch!"Bossypants", by Tina Fey!"The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo", by Amy Schumer!"The Last Black Unicorn", by Tiffany Haddish!"Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster", by Kristen Johnston!"Too Much is Not Enough", by Andrew Rannells!Sarah Schauer's YouTube Channel!Wendy Ho's "Poop Noodle"!Macaulay Culkin, Gucci Model!Dave Chapelle - Tupac Is Still Alive!"What Happened, Brittany Murphy?" Documentary!Goofs and Gaffes!Kal Penn Wasn't on "Grey's Anatomy"; He Was in "House"!Kristen Johnston Wasn't on "30 Rock"; She Was in "3rd Rock from the Sun"! 0h Paul, you mix your words hahaMUSIC CREDIT!Opening Music Graciously Supplied By: https://audionautix.com/

What's the first rule of book club? Never stop talking about book club. Or something like that, anyway. In this week's episode we talk about the book club we are both a part of at our local library. We discuss are favorite and least favorite books we've read so far, and what keeps bringing us back week after week. Are you part of a book club? Tell us all about it! Books we mention in this episode: Interview with a vampire by Ann Rice, The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun, His Beauty by Jack Harbon, Wicked Villains series by Katee Robert, The Boys in the Bunkhouse by Dan Barry, Rich People Problems by Keven Kwan, Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley, Bossypants by Tina Fey, Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, Looking for Alaska by John Green, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, Wild by Cheryl Straid, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Immortal Life of Henriette Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, Beartown by Frederik Backman The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Martian by Andy Weir, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard. Check out Pages n' Pages on Instagram. These opinions of the books are entirely our own and may not reflect the actual book. Image by Kapona via Vector Stock.

Live from New York it's Claire and Ashley discussing Tina Fey's memoir, Bossypants! Ashley gets too caught up in the semantics, Claire defends Tina, nobody learns anything but we have fun along the way.Tees are Here!! Grab a Worm Tee or an Unhinged Tee here: https://celebritymemoirbookclub.square.site/Join the Facebook group to chat with the other worms!https://www.facebook.com/groups/cmbcwormholeFollow us on Twitter @cmbc_podcast and Instagram @celebritymemoirbookclub If you want even more juice subscribe to our patreon!!! https://www.patreon.com/celebritymemoirbookclub Art by @adrianne_manpearl and theme song by @ashleesimpsonrossSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/celebritymemoirbookclub)

Get ready to add to your #TBR pile, because we've got hot new book recs (and non-recs!) for you! Join Karly, Katie, Sara, and Emily for this month's edition of "What Else We've Been Reading" to hear our brief reviews of Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, Ask Again, Yes, by Mary Beth Keane, Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart, and Bossypants by Tina Fey. We also mention Yes, Please, by Amy Poehler, if you're interested! E-Readers like the Kindle Paperwhite or Kindle Fire make your bag lighter and your life easier if you're a traveler on the go. Or, if audiobooks are more your style, try out an Audible membership! Please note that as Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases, and the proceeds go towards production of even more great episodes like this one. Join the conversation! Follow us on Instagram at Overseas Reads, or send us an email at overseasreads@gmail.com. Overseas Reads' theme music is Anita Latina by Le Gang; music promoted by Audio Library. Thank you for listening! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Showing up as yourself can feel terrifying, especially when you have a drop (or gallon) of anxiety from past trauma. The good news is, once you show up as yourself without apology, the worst of it is over.  A lifetime of people-pleasing has been exhausting so I'm leaving it behind! I'd rather risk the occasional rejection than die the slow, soul-crushing death that comes from wondering if all of the ways I've tried to change for others was, or ever will be, enough.Of course, sometimes I still feel like Tina Fey when she wrote, "My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne." [Bossypants, 2011] Oh well... we all take it a day at a time!

Hey all! This is us introducing our new Podcast, Bossypants and the Nerd (we'll let you guess who is who). Look for our podcast to be released every week on Monday, we've got season one recorded for you with six episodes to look forward to!

In this episode the boys review the highly acclaimed autobiographical comedy book written by American comedian Tina Fey. The five week New York Times topping book, selling in excess of 2.5 million copies worldwide seems to deconstruct Reuben's toxic masculinity, finally make Zach laugh and prompt a disclosure in femininity within architecture from Kehinde... Twitter: @ITSNOTABOOKCLUBPODCASTInstagram: @ITSNOTABOOKCLUBPODCAST

Being transgender isn't always easy. And that's just on land! What about on a boat? In this episode we answer a listener question from Jeff who writes "Cruises are a super fun and generally safe way to be your true self without worrying about who you know might see you, or whether someone is judging you, but there are some peculiarities. Namely, getting through security when your passport's gender marker or name doesn't match your gender presentation, going ashore in a culture which may not be as educated about trans issues, dealing with cruise lines' various policies about gender expression, and of course, the bathing suit dilemma. I would sooooo love to spend a day in a bikini in the Caribbean, but I'm deeply concerned about how I'll be treated by the cruise line, the ship's staff, and how to remain safely tucked so I'm not viewed as 'the freak on the boat' people are staring at. Be sure and check out:    Rejected Gender Rebels Episode Ideas episode. Industrial Thong. Our episode with lots of tips on tucking.  Devils on the Deep Blue Sea book about the cruise industry. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace Tina Fey's book Bossypants. Why cruise ships fly flags of convenience like Panama and Liberia.  Wendover Productions' video about Maritime Law.  Article on specialty LGBTQ cruises.    Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards—like drinks with us at Stonewall Inn! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  And watch the brand new Gender Rebels TV Youtube Channel!  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes. 

《吐槽大会》在内地的持续热播，让脱口秀中的古怪形式 roast 开始为中国大众所知，素来不苟言笑的中国人，能心平气和的接受别人对自己的冒犯式调侃吗？本期《忽左忽右》的嘉宾邓拓普，长期研究美国流行文化，同时也是单口喜剧艺术的发烧友，从美国南部的乡村俱乐部，到纽约的电视喜剧现场，再到国内新兴的吐槽产业，他以独特的视角来审视中美两国表演者在“吐槽”一事上的风格异同，与电视人出身的杨一探讨 Insult Comedy（冒犯式喜剧）是如何在两块截然不同的文化土壤上发芽。【主持】程衍樑（新浪微博：@GrenadierGuard2） 杨一（新浪微博：@杨一1） 【嘉宾】邓拓普，美国流行文化研究者[03:45]Stand Up Comedy与脱口秀节目的区别[05:10]李诞一夜就火了！[07:40]李诞不是单口喜剧演员，而是编剧[12:20]中国相声与美国单口喜剧的不同[15:50]Woody Allen是个好的单口喜剧表演者吗？[20:20]政治调侃并非单口喜剧的“初心”[25:00]踩过“红线”的单口喜剧演员[33:20]中美颁奖典礼“气场”的不同[35:00]Roast形式的缘起[40:00]为什么《吐槽大会》现在火了/中国电视脱口秀的发展[61:20]中国人是不是对笑话天然亲近？[63:50]人的喜剧能力可以后天训练吗？【延伸资料】专场喜剧中心詹姆斯·弗兰科吐槽大会 Comedy Central Roast of James Franco (2013)喜剧中心唐纳德·特朗普吐槽大会 Comedy Central Roast of Donald Trump (2011)喜剧中心查理·辛吐槽大会 Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (2011)乔治·卡林：这对你不好 George Carlin... It's Bad for Ya! (2008)路易·C·K：臭不要脸 Louis C.K.: Shameless (2007)戴夫·查贝尔：天旋地转的时代 The Age of Spin: Dave Chappelle Live at the Hollywood Palladium (2017)Dave Chappelle: The Bird Revelation (2017)Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly (2000)The Dean Martin Show - Celebrity Roast: Ronald Reagan (1973)The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Frank Sinatra (1977)迪恩·马丁名流吐槽大会：詹姆斯·斯图尔特 Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart (1978)吐槽大会 第二季 (2017)宋飞正传 第一季 Seinfeld Season 1 (1990)书籍How To Talk Dirty And Influence People, Lenny Bruce (1965)Born Standing Up, Steve Martin (2007)Bossypants, Tina Fey (2011)The Comedy Bible by Judy CarterPryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences by Richard Pryor长文《“今夜”星光灿烂》，作者：老杜(@老杜找乐儿)【音乐】"浅草キッド"（北野武·Golden Best Beat Takeshi Single A-Side Collection·2015·株式会社JVC建伍胜利娱乐）【logo设计】杨文骥【收听方式】推荐您使用「苹果播客」、Spotify或任意安卓播客客户端订阅收听《忽左忽右》，也可通过喜马拉雅FM、蜻蜓FM、 荔枝FM、网易云音乐收听。【本节目由JustPod出品】【互动方式】微博：@忽左忽右leftright 微博：@播客一下 微信公众号：忽左忽右微信公众号：播客一下