#107. Matt Gaetz and You

I guess he's back to being an attorney specific.

Hi everyone,

I don’t know if it’s just this time of year or if things in the entertainment industry are actually perking up, but I feel like there’s been more fun stuff to watch lately? Maris and I have been on the edges of our seat (same couch) with Season 2 Bad Sisters on Apple’s original tv platform that they seemingly forget to tell anyone exists. Season 1 was GREAT and Season 2 has kind of the same thing going as the second season of Search Party (an all-time favorite show) where these characters had a fun time solving/committing crimes for a while, and now they/we have to sit in the reality of what they just did. We also started Interior Chinatown which rules so far. (I don’t love the voiceover, but I am really into all the other meta-genre stuff!) Huge shout out to Ronny Chieng and Jimmy O. Yang who are really great as cousins/friends! We’re also excited to start the new Mike Shur/Ted Danson show on Netflix. I think it’s called Man on the Inside, but I will not look it up, so that might just be a grandfatherly recollection of the name of a heist movie Spike Lee made.

On Sunday, Maris and I went to a For Your Consideration screening of Wicked in Manhattan, and I was kind of blown away how much I enjoyed it. I read the book a realllly long time ago, and I’ve forgotten basically everything about it, and I never saw the stage show. The movie really got me though! Ariana Grande is super funny, and Cynthia Erivo gives such a good performance that you almost forget she’s not actually a magic green lady who lives in the world. Peter Dinklage is very good as a talking goat, which I mostly mention because one time we crossed paths while walking our dogs, and his sweet puppy jumped up on Bizzy (R.I.P.), and he responded by gently chiding: “Hey…respect your elders.” And Bowen Yang is good in everything, obviously!

The thing that kicked my ass about Wicked is how earnest the whole endeavor is. So much entertainment lately feels so burdened by the weight of iterating within genres that have existed for so long, but Wicked, despite it being a prequel to an existing play/movie, kind of (to use IMMEDIATELY dated language) fell out of a coconut tree. There’s one tiny little winking joke towards the end, but other than that this movie is SO SINCERE about Oz and magic and this mythical high school for youthful 30-somethings. Nothing against Deadpool, but it’s very un-Deadpool, if that makes sense.

That, plus getting a BUNCH of advance copies of friends’ books (brag!!!), finishing a script I co-wrote with a friend (that no one is asking for), and reading this short essay by my buddy

Dan Perlman

, I’m feeling pretty energized about creative stuff! That’s all despite my feeling of dread that in the wake of the election, rich execs in LA are going to greenlight mostly things that some hypothetical poor (white) people that they imagine will want to watch, and the results will be really misguided and unpleasant.

I was in SUCH a bad mood all day on Saturday, but between a fun show on Saturday night and all this other stuff, I’m back to feeling good heading into the holiday.

Okay also! THIS WEEK I am going on a little tour with Ted Leo and Aimee Mann which I am so excited for! I’ll be probably doing a teensy little bit of standup and a few goofy bits as part of their Christmas shows along with the rest of the traveling party, Paul F. Tompkins and Nellie McKay!

Don your gay apparel and come to a show!!!

ONE MORE ANNOUNCEMENT

My pal Alison Leiby an I are hosting our (extremely sporadic, borderline premise-less) show Sup, Bro? at SF Sketchfest on January 25th!!! Alison and I have so much fun co-hosting a live show, and the lineup is straight up BANANAS. So far we’ve got Aparna Nancherla, Dulcé Sloan, and the aforementioned Paul F. Tompkins on the bill! Bay Area: Come through and have a good time with us!!!

Simon & Garfunkel-ass photo by Arin Sang-urai.

PEP TALK FOR MATT GAETZ

Rep. Matt Gaetz, presumably spotting a high school in the distance. Mario Tama/Getty Images

Follow me on Bluesky if you’re so inclined.

Congratulations to this big ol’ creep on his greatest accomplishment! When I posted this little joke on Twitter (where the lights have come on and the floor is visibly sticky), several people with user names such as TrumpLovr1776 sent me replies like: “He should and will SUE YOU for SLANDER for this!” (and then tagged Matt Gaetz, like he’s gonna kiss them on the forehead for being such a good little guy).

First of all: You mean libel, idiots. Slander is spoken out loud!

Second of all: I’ll admit I was a little cavalier on social media. For the sake of humor, I used some inaccurate and possibly reckless language. So I want to say, for anyone reading…I’m sorry that I implied that Matt Gaetz ever was or will be the Attorney General of the United States. That was wrong of me, and I won’t let it happen again.

PEP TALK FOR A READER

This was an especially nicely written pep talk request!

Dear Josh,

You’re a sports guy (no Bill Simmons) and I’ll put my pep talk request in those terms. Blowouts feel bad but it’s the close calls that really kill you. Like I imagine Malcolm Butler jumping Russell Wilson’s pass sticks with Russ forever. (Am I kissing enough Boston sports ass? LOL.) 

Rejection is one thing. But getting so close to an opportunity, and then it being snatched away, is really hurting me of late. I dealt with a layoff a few years ago, it took me several years to get back into my field, then my company folded in less than 3 months.

Now, professional near misses happen for many reasons. Lack of funding, changes in priorities, something else to complete the rule of 3s. That said: it’s still tough.

People tend to encourage me to start my own company as a response to this frustration. And I get that. Hell, in my heart it feels like the best way. But man. I need money for these Wale tickets NOW. 

Love,
Close But No Cuban

My comedian friends and I talk all the time about how there was this brief window where the internet felt like a place where artists and other creative folks had the opportunity to make and share good work and maybe get some recognition for it. Now it can sometimes seem like garnering that kind of acclaim is a prerequisite for working in creative fields. Industry tastemakers are more like tasterecognizers, seeing whose name has a big number next to it and throwing opportunities at that person. When a gig ends, artists are encouraged to start a Substack or a Patreon or an OnlyFans. And I appreciate the acumen of folks who can balance creative work with the hustle it takes to make it as a freestanding entity. But sometimes you just want to have a job, not start a company. With respect to Jay-Z, not every businessman needs to be a business, man.

As much as I admire any artist who finds ways to make ends meet, I do also think you can see the #grindset of certain creative types coming off of them like cartoon stink lines. You can feel it when a comic’s hour set is just an infomercial for their merch table. You can tell when a podcast host puts a little too much mustard on their ad reads, and you’re like…are you, like a casual Super Bowl viewer, mostly here for the commercials? I think we can all intuit when a writer/director/artist/actor/influencer is honing a craft and when they are making “content.”

Maybe I’m being naive here! I don’t begrudge anyone (wellllll, I don’t begrudge most people) an opportunity to make a living from a job well done. And unless you’re one of a very select group of people, that does take a little bit of elbow grease outside of your creative output. As I get older and gain experience, I start to notice how often the people who fade out of creative fields are the ones who can’t stomach sending a “just following up” email. And with deregulation allowing multimedia conglomerates to form like Voltron, there are fewer and fewer independent outlets (or, even legacy outlets) where you can just do art. The vampires who run these companies would gladly replace us with a single computer program that raises Earth’s surface temperature and never has an original thought if they could. So there’s some water-treading required just to stay afloat unless you’re Ryan Murphy. But again, with all due respect to Oscar winners Three 6 Mafia, I get a little itchy when I see people who are all hustle and no flow. Just go work at a hedge fund, then, weirdo!

Obviously I’m working out some of my own shit here! But what I mean to say to you, reader, is that you don’t have to be an LLC to stay in the game. You’re allowed to turn your own “COMMERCE” dial as far up or down as you feel good about, and figure the rest of it out from there. Not everyone has the luxury of making art for art’s sake and letting the chips fall where they may (then asking their parents for more chips if their old ones fall wrong). There’s no shame in paying for concert tickets with money you earn elsewhere. But it’s a drag how much of this is business, man.

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK: The Both - “Milwaukee”

Ted and Aimee’s collaborative album The Both came out ten years ago, and Maris and I went to see them live at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. I bought a t-shirt, which was one of my favorites until it mysteriously disappeared. Now I’m doing a little tour with them, and I’m very excited. To paraphrase the guy from the beginning of that one Weezer song: Sometimes life’s so rad.

And, while we’re here “tv off” from the new Kendrick Lamar album makes me want to jump up in the air and break bricks with my bare fist like a Mario Bro. I’d listen to an entire Kendrick/Mustard album that just flips nearly identical string samples like this and “Not Like Us.”

UPCOMING SHOWS

I’ve got a bunch of NYC dates coming up, and then a few back on the road! See you there?!?!

11/25: Whiplash at UCB (NYC)

11/29-12/8: TED LEO AND AIMEE MANN CHRISTMAS SHOWS (Several Cities)

12/12: Uptown Showdown at Symphony Space (NYC)

12/16: Co-Hosting Frankenstein’s Baby at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

12/19: Bushwick Comedy Club (Brooklyn)

1/9: Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me Live Recording (Chicago)

1/25: Sup, Bro? at SF Sketchfest