#24. People Who Are Already Exhausted
Just another sleepy Monday.
Hi everyone!
It’s Monday and I’m really dragging. Can you tell from when I’m sending this newsletter out? I think I’m so sluggish today because I’ve been…doing a lot of stuff? And that, despite what my most optimistic self things while making plans, can really take it out of you.
Last week I went up to the Catskills to emcee the groundbreaking for the Borscht Belt Museum (a real thing, and very fun and exciting), then on Thursday I flew to Chicago to record an episode of Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me with celebrity guest Weird Al Yankovic, and then on Friday I flew to Wilmington, NC for some very fun standup shows at the Dead Crow Comedy Room. There were a few annoying travel delays which [redacted for boringness]. All that is to say, I’m a little zapped from zipping around the country, and I hope you excuse a slightly shorter and later newsletter than usual.
But, if you are starving for Josh Gondelman news and entertainment this week, fear not! I appeared on one zillion podcasts in the last seven days!
In addition to Wait Wait, I talked to Sam Sanders on Vulture’s Into It about AI music and the WGA negotiations with the big studios, plus I chatted with Karen Han on Slate’s Working show about putting together a comedy special, and I chatted with The Watchers about Yellowjackets S2E4 (many spoilers within)!!! And, if reading is your thing (and if it weren’t, why would you be here?) I talked about the Boston Celtics with
for her wonderful newsletter !Oh ALSO! People of New York City: I’m doing another What’s New? show at Union Hall on Monday 5/8 at 7:30pm! I’m going to tell a bunch of new-ish jokes, and I’ll have some special guests telling jokes too! These have all sold out so far, so grab tickets now if you’re interested! (One confirmed special guest is currently secret, but she’s GREAT!)
Finally, I read an advance copy of Mattie Lubchansky’s upcoming graphic novel Boys Weekend, which you can preorder now, and it RULED. So inventive and heartfelt and funny (and the art is great too)! STRONG recommendation for this!!!
PEP TALK FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE STARTING OFF THE WEEK TIRED
(Note: This is a pep talk for me, as much as anyone else.)
It feels unpleasant to the point of injustice to be tired on a Monday. Despite all the standard Monday indignities (going to work, not not going to work, etc.) we at least expect to be well-rested at the beginning of the week. It is, frankly, unfair to be expected to do things while already tired. That’s a medical fact. (In fairness, some people start every week tired, and if that is the case for you, please replace “tired” with “extra tired” over the course of this pep talk.)
Even if right now you think you might perish from your aching desire to crawl back into bed (or never leave it in the first place) and stay there for a full lunar cycle, you will survive this week! Maybe you’ll have to half-ass some responsibilities, or cancel some plans you were realllly hoping to get out of the way. Or, maybe it’ll just be a shitty week. That possibility is absolutely in play. Hell, you can have a shitty week after waking up from a Sleeping Beauty amount of rest. But the upside to a shitty week is that it’s only a week long. With apologies to Kurt Vonnegut, time, the cruel torturer that it may be, generally moves forward in a fairly linear path (in my experience at least). That means as miserable as the next few days may be, they will not, by definition, last forever. They will happen and then they will be over.
As Axl Rose so eloquently put it: Even November rain ends at the end of November.
Unless you are some kind of aeronautical engineer, you will most likely make it through this week without any major sleepiness-based catastrophes. And even if you are a rocket scientist, Elon Musk recently showed us that sometimes things can just explode and you can call them successes anyway!
Good luck! You will get through this! Either it will be better than you fear, or it will be worse than you imagine (or exactly what you thought it would be). Regardless of how bad it is, it will not be forever.
PEP TALK FOR TUCKER CARLSON
PSYCH! Eat shit, loser!
PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK: Beastie Boys - “Unite”
I loved this song when I was 13, and I love it now. I’ve written a bunch about the Beasties in the past, so I won’t go too deep here. Essentially, they are not technically perfect rappers, but they are perfect Beastie Boys. I never hear anyone talk about “Unite” but it’s fun and bouncy and feels relevant this week because of its explicit Knicks fandom. Congratulations to all Knicks fans on your proximity to winning a playoff series!
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
I’m gearing up for the second leg of my 1900s Kid Tour, and the first few dates are listed here! The rest of them so far are of course on my website!
5/8 - What’s New at Union Hall in Brooklyn
5/10 - Spokane Comedy Club
5/11-5/12 - Upper-Left Comedy Festival in Seattle
5/19-5/20 - Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia (Three Shows)
5/31 - The Comet in Cincinnati (ticket link hopefully coming soon)
6/1 - Helium Comedy Club in Indianapolis
6/2-6/3 - Helium Comedy Club in St. Louis
Tucker Carlson can do more than eat shit, imho, but I, too, am tired and zapped on this Monday and can’t think of anything more creative.
dear josh,
you are great!
who pep talks the pepper?
answer: me!
love
myq
PS do you consider yourself a "pepper"?