#134. Ketamine and Recommendations

TO BE CLEAR: I am not making ketamine recommendations.

Hi everyone,

I’m writing this intro from a delayed Amtrak train sitting at Union Station in Washington DC. It’s certainly not an ideal situation. I made the uncharacteristically prudent decision to hydrate well last night, which is the only reason I’m not currently writhing and groaning in my chair and bothering the my very personable and very pregnant seat mate. I didn’t even drink last night, but I was out until 2am, and at forty years old, I can either be awake that late OR enjoy a cocktail (OR I guess feel like ground beef the next day).

I came to our nation’s capital (and more recently I guess the site of the offices of the people trying to dismantle the functional parts of our federal government) for Liberation Weekend, a music festival put on and performed by many transgender artists and some cisgender friends. In some spaces where I work, I feel like kind of a mouthy, if gentle, lefty shitstarter. At Liberation Weekend, I felt like Kevin James. (No offense to the King of Queens himself, but he is a little, let’s say, square.) It was an extremely politically righteous space, and all the profits went towards causes protecting and fighting for trans rights, which rules. And also, some of the performances were intense. One band consisted of two members, one of whom wore a witch hat and brought out a sword to “knight” the audience, which was a little wilder than I usually get at shows. It reminded me of how last month a friend of mine was canvassing for socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani at a May Day rally, which she assumed would be like getting petition signatures from fish in a barrel. Over and over though she ran into several avowed anarchists who said things like: “Oh, you vote for mayors? Cute.”

I emceed the late show on Saturday night alongside my friends Rax King and Mattie Lubchansky (whose band Faith/Void had played earlier in the day). Sensing the vibe in the room at that hour was not, let’s say, “ripe for bits,” we mostly shouted out the festival’s organizers and ethos and did a few quick goofs between bands. I had such a great day seeing truly killer sets by great acts. In addition to the ones I mentioned I also saw Speedy Ortiz and Ted Leo for the zillionth times, and Pure Adult and Big Girl for the first times. (Sadly I missed The Ophelias and Bartees Strange.) Ekko Astral brought out a bunch of festival guests to play a set full of covers ranging from Fleetwood Mac to Joyce Manor. Obviously their rendition of “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs brought a special energy to a room full of millennials and older zoomers.

I set a new personal best for hand stamps in a single day.

I probably spent six total minutes onstage during the three-hour show, but I was there to be present and stand with trans people in their ongoing fight against the Trump administration’s attempt to punish them for existing. You’ve gotta say shit like that with your chest, and I was honored to be asked to do it. Thanks to Jael from Ekko for having me along. What a fucking night. Happy Pride, everyone!

Special shout out to my childhood (and adulthood) friend A.B. who let me hang out at his house and throw my pants in his dryer after I got caught in a downpour immediately upon arriving in town.

Also, while we’re here, if there are any NYC residents reading this, I’m planning to follow the Working Families Party suggestion to rank Zohran first, Brad Lander second, and then Adrienne Adams, Zellnor Myrie, and Jessica Ramos on my ballot. Importantly, I am not planning to rank Andrew Cuomo, who is trying to become mayor after resigning in disgrace from the governorship, like an actor who is too toxic on set to book work and starts doing standup comedy as a fallback.

I’m hanging out or co-hosting (tbd) Frankenstein’s Baby at Union Hall tonight if you’re in Brooklyn and looking for something to do! Thanks to Benny Feldman, Meredith Dietz, and Erin Depke for ripping it on last “night’s” What’s New? show! And thanks to everyone who came out early on a Sunday!

A LITTLE APOLOGY

LOOK! I know I PROMISED that I’d announce my standup special last week but the TRUTH is that after I said that, the record label’s publicist secured an exclusive announcement in a fancy trade publication but not until this week. INFORMATION SOON, I SWEAR IT! (And this doesn’t mean a delay for the release itself, which is still very soon!)

But also last week maybe I was slightly loose-lipped on the most recent episode of The Bugle. So…

PEP TALK FOR KETAMINE

Damn, remember when the people associated with drug use were cool? How far we’ve fallen.

Ketamine, you’re responsible for many people’s intensive depression treatment and many other people’s intensive appreciation of electronic music. It’s not your fault that the world’s richest man is (allegedly) abusing your therapeutic qualities to the point that he is nodding off on camera and (again allegedly) routinely peeing his pants. (Honestly an improvement over his consistent pissing in the gas tank of the federal government.) It used to be that rock stars and literary rascals were associated with over-indulgence in substances. Elon is the worst thing for drugs’ reputation since Eagles ripped a bunch of lines of cocaine and recorded “Peaceful Easy Feeling.”

Some people are making fun of Elon Musk for his purported drug regimen. But I think he can prove those haters wrong and do way more drugs. I think he’d feel amazing and it would ultimately be good for the rest of us too.

SOME RECOMMENDATIONS

I’ve been a little gripe-y about the state of the entertainment industry and some of the products that it has pushed out into the world lately, so I thought I’d shout out pieces of culture and art that I’ve been enjoying over the last few weeks. None of this is sponsored, and nobody asked me to do it. Maybe people will ask me NOT to do this afterwards. But I thought it would be fun! I love to talk about good things I’ve been watching and reading!

I didn’t get to watch the season finale of The Rehearsal until after last week’s newsletter went out, but when I got to it, the way everything wrapped up knocked me on the floor. I know that Nathan Fielder’s work is not for everyone—some of it is not for me—but The Rehearsal lives in an exact replica of my head with rent money coming from a line item on the show’s HBO budget. I’ve never seen a tv show that more successfully creates visible, exterior scenarios to mirror a character’s interiority. Yeah, I said it! Take that, dream sequences!!! The second season, which you can watch without having seen the first, interrogates questions like: “How much do you really need to know about yourself?” “What does it mean to be ‘taken seriously?’” And of course: “How can we prevent plane crashes?”

During the final episode, I kept looking over at Maris and saying: “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” With all due respect to Daniel Day-Lewis walking around pretending to be Abraham Lincoln in his personal life for six months, he wants what Nathan Fielder has. Joaquin Phoenix would, no joke, literally have to complete a successful bank robbery in character as The Joker for me to be as impressed.

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My friend Jayson Greene profiled singer/songwriter Ben Kweller for Vulture, and it made me cry. Both the writer and the subject have lost children to tragic accidents, and the way both talk about life and grief is so gripping, and so sad without being depressing. It’s heavy, but it’s worth it.

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In an abrupt tonal shift, I loved this deeply reported piece about how a bird in the Charlie’s Angels movie came to be referred to by one name, look like another bird entirely, and emit the call of a third, unknown species. I love it for the story but also for the transparency of how dogged the pursuit of this trivial information became.

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Massachusetts legend Mike Birbiglia.

Mike Birbiglia is one of my favorite comedians and has been for many years. He’s always been extremely kind to me, and something he said at a talk that he gave fifteen-ish years ago has informed how I’ve thought about comedy since then. I am constantly relaying it to people (with attribution). Okay fine, since nobody asked, here it is, paraphrased: When you’re writing a joke or developing any creative work, do it exactly the way you want at first. Then, if it’s not resonating with people, take a step towards them in your next revision and see if that brings them over to you. You shouldn’t start by trying to guess what people want, and it’s your responsibility as an artist to decide how many steps towards the audience you’re willing to take to make yourself understood.

Good, right?

The reason I bring this up is: Mike’s new Netflix special The Good Life is really good. Maris and I started watching it, and even though she had to stop in the middle to go to bed, she wanted to finish it together later instead of asking me for a recap in the morning, which is a hallmark of good comedy in our household. There’s so much smart and tender stuff about family and love and mortality. But also, he’s the first person I’ve heard talk in a funny way about being on the the (weird…it was weird right?) excursion that a bunch of comedians took to meet Pope Francis last year. One joke I won’t reproduce here (no spoilers) especially made me laugh because at Desus & Mero, the show’s lawyer once called us urgently insisting that we cut out an instance of Mero casually referring to the Pope as “that motherfucker.”

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It’s good! It’s more about organized crime than some people expected!!!

I’m halfway through Deli Boys on Hulu, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s funny and propulsive. It feels a little shaggy in that it’s not a perfectly tight crime narrative, but the tone is (so far) consistently exciting and enjoyable. I’ve never seen a show set in a Pakistani/Philadelphian community before either. It’s a good time! (And a little violent, so if that’s your thing or not your thing, know that.)

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Poker Face is on Peacock here in America but this is the best artwork I could find!!!

Similarly, I’m having a blast watching the new season of Poker Face. Natasha Lyonne is just completely in the zone (The Lyonne Zonne) as a lady who drives around the country drinking beers and solving crimes. It’s got a great 90s mid-level premise feel like Quantum Leap or Murder She Wrote or The Pretender if anyone remembers that show. I love the vibe of very-good-but-not-prestige tv. Each episode is thoroughly considered, but it doesn’t feel like homework. I also love a breezy show about weirdos that never takes a digression into a full episode that’s like “oh, their father hit them so that’s why they’re like this” in black and white.

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netflixisajoke

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And here’s a fun little video! I think John Mulaney is so good on camera with kids. This clip from Everybody’s Live kills me for real. Mulaney is really curious in a way that’s funny but not disrespectful. He treats children like small people who have thoughts and feelings but don’t know a ton of information and are sometimes clunky communicators. We need a Sack Lunch Bunch 2 now!!!

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And finally for now, I have been loving the

burger diva

newsletter! It’s especially worthwhile for burger-eating New Yorkers, but Christina Casillo’s weekly burger reviews are some of my favorite emails to receive. I cannot recommend it more as a fun and servicey gift to yourself!

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK:
Big Girl - “quit ur job”

I saw Big Girl this weekend at the aforementioned music festival and loved their set. I did not get to tell them in person, but I have included this fun song from their brand new EP here! I hope you like it! (My favorite of their songs is “Mother Tongue” but it’s not as much of a pick me up!)

UPCOMING SHOWS

I’m out and about in NYC a whole bunch coming up, plus a few shows on the road!

6/9: Whiplash at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

6/12: Fundraiser (Brooklyn)

6/16: Co-hosting Frankenstein’s Baby at Union Hall (Brooklyn)

6/18: Minibar (Brooklyn)

6/26: Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Taping (Portland, ME)

7/2: In Conversation w/ Maris Kreizman at the Harvard Bookstore (Cambridge, MA)

8/8: State Theater for Guster On the Ocean Festival (Portland, ME)

9/13: Headlining the Fairfield Comedy Circle (CT)