#73. Boeing Airplanes and You

Is this just going to keep happening?

Hi everyone,

I’m going to try and make this week’s newsletter a little shorter than usual, an aim I fail at approximately 100% of the time that I attempt it. I’ve been extra busy with work stuff the past week, which has been energizing and slightly confusing in the midst of a long period of goofing around and taking care of professional things fully on my own agenda. On Tuesday I went into the Writers Guild of America East office for a half day in a writers room for the Writers Guild Awards which I’m hosting in less than two weeks (!!!). It was a great feeling to be back in a room for a day!

But, in my year and a half of being extremely freelance I’ve…forgotten how to go to work. I know how to do work, but I’ve lost my knack for getting up and going to a place efficiently or regularly. I got to the office and saw my friend and colleague Julia sitting with an iced coffee and thought…oh shoot. If I wanted an iced coffee I should have considered that earlier. Nobody told me this gig would require foresight!! I can’t just get up and leave for fifteen minutes whenever I want. What the heck? And I can’t just wear a matching sweatsuit all day because people will see my pants? Hmmm. Seems weird but okay I’ll play ball this time.

I also last week (as previously alluded to) emceed the New York premiere for the new series of Taskmaster. The logistics of the event were a little hectic, but I had a great time on stage with Alex Horne and Greg Davies, who are extremely funny and gracious. Most of my friends have said “that’s nice” when I told them about this show, but 10% said something like “I would have chopped someone’s head off with an axe to get to be there” which is intense, but that’s the kind of fandom Taskmaster inspires, I learned! I’ve been trying to take more pictures with friends and people I work with, not for clout just for fun. Although I am posting this one here for a little bit of clout.

I got to keep the task card.

I also did a live Bugle show (which is now a podcast) in Edinburgh (from my apartment in Brooklyn via Zoom) and it was so much fun. It’s a surreal thrill to get laughs onstage 5,000 miles away. Then I spent the weekend doing shows at the Comedy Attic in Bloomington, IN, one of the best clubs in America. I’ve had a great experience being on the road so heavily the last year and a half, and the Attic is one of the places that feel especially supportive and comfortable to do shows. 

So much of the work of standup (unless you sell out massive rooms, which I do not) is about making sure your act is STRONG and KILLS IN ANY ROOM. And while I have a humiliatingly New England attachment to GETTING THE JOB DONE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, it’s so so so nice to get to do creative work under the best possible conditions. It’s a similar feeling to being in a happy, healthy romantic relationship. It’s not that you don’t have to try, it’s that your effort is rewarded in the ways you’d hope it would. Input is multiplied, rather than diminished, in the output. I am going to try to hold onto this feeling while I prepare for my special taping in June!

Also, speaking of romantic relationships, Maris and I celebrated ten years of dating last week-ish! Because we’d mostly been celebrating wedding anniversaries since we got married, it kind of felt like we went from six years (of marriage) last year to ten years (together) this year. It snuck up on me in a way that felt very warm and cozy and delightful when it hit.

Halloween, 2014, the oldest picture of us I had in my phone.

Lastly (for now) I heard a great question in line at TSA yesterday: “Do you have metal or anything weird in your pockets?” That feels like two very different things, right? “Are you carrying any house keys or a live salamander named Wolfgang and loose hair of unknown provenance?”

Anyway! This weekend I’ll be in New Orleans telling jokes! Come hear them if you’re nearby!

PEP TALK FOR BOEING AIRCRAFTS

This was from when their planes used to stay in the air.

You’re doing your best to keep it together under difficult circumstances, and who among us can’t relate to that.

(This is a pep talk for the planes themselves, not the parent company.)

PEP TALK FOR A READER

I’ve condensed this request a little for clarity. That’s all!

2023 was the worst year I've ever had. A major relationship of mine ended, I checked myself into an inpatient mental health facility, my dog had a health emergency (but came out okay!), and my depression was at an all-time high. I'm trying to pick myself back up in 2024 by working out more, drinking less, and trying to improve my self-image, but it's hard and I'm tired!
- ‘23 Panned Me

What I love about your plan, is that you’ve created so many different things you can do right. Which, the way I see it, means it’s okay to fall short according to some of these metrics some of the time. You’ve really set yourself up for success (and a completely reasonable amount of failure). After all, you’ll never hit 100% peak efficiency. That’s not even a good goal. BEST case scenario, that journey turns you into one of those tech guys who only eats nutrient paste and has a treadmill desk that is also a standing toilet so they can always be working and eating and walking and pooping at the same time.

Sometimes when people set goals that are too specific and limited, it can feel really bad when they biff it. (“Oh no! I didn’t get married by age 30! My life is in shambles!”) You are so smart to have identified a whole bunch of dials you can turn up and down to feel healthier and/or more productive. And depending on your needs and schedule, you probably don’t have to crank them all to full blast at all times. You set yourself up with a buffet of progress! You can drink less but also work out less if that suits you. You can work more and also work out more. You can work less and still think more highly of yourself. I am not going to list out all the combinations of wins and losses, but the others also exist. Thanks to multiplication, it’s more than you’d think!

You’ve done so much to reverse course after what sounds like a true drag of a year. And even if your reversal reverses itself from time to time you can re-reverse the reversal and get yourself back on track!

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK: Beyoncé - “Ya Ya”

I am not the most informed Beyoncé completist, but I love how she can force a moment of monoculture. I’m also not a huge country music fan, but I love the way Cowboy Carter collates genres into each other in such a maximalist way. “Ya Ya” does SO MUCH. It sounds like the climax of a musical about the 50s that takes place at an integrated high school dance. It’s like the Grease megamix if it was good. (Side note: A few years ago, at a Desus & Mero staff karaoke event, Ziwe performed the entire Grease megamix solo, and Maris swears that’s when she knew that Ziwe would be famous.) One thing about Beyoncé that even as a casual I can appreciate is that she always appears completely in control of her artistic vision and has so much comfort interpolating so many musical styles and quotations and collaborators into a vast project that ends up miraculously (well, effortfully and skillfully) cohesive. 

I’ve also been really into the new Future and Metro Boomin album, surprising even myself. The track with Rick Ross is unfortunately *dan flashes voice* EXACTLY my style. (Relatedly I think I’m going to get to see Tim Robinson’s show at the Beacon Theater this week if my ticket hookup comes through! Anyone else going?)

COMEDY CORNER

Ramy Youssef’s SNL monologue was really good! Funny and sweet and bold!

Also, if you’re in Los Angeles, you’ve got to go see Alison Leiby’s show on 4/2 (Tuesday night) at the Elysian Theater!

UPCOMING SHOWS

I’ve got some really fun shows coming up! Come see one! More NYC spots are listed on my website, and more road dates are coming soon! OH ALSO: In April I’ll be guest cohosting Butterboy at Littlefield with my friend Maeve Higgins every Monday! :)

4/1: Butterboy at Littlefield in Brooklyn

4/5-4/6: Junk Drawer Coffee (New Orleans, LA) (Four shows!)

4/14: Hosting the Writers Guild of America New York City ceremony!

4/25: Lovett or Leave It in Washington, DC

5/2: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me Live Recording (Chicago)

5/3-5/4: Commonwealth Sanctuary (Dayton, KY) (Four shows!)

5/8: Cobb’s Comedy Club (San Francisco)

5/10: Here-After (Seattle) (Two shows!)

5/12: Helium Comedy Club (Portland)

5/16-5/18: Vermont Comedy Club (Burlington) (Five shows!)

6/15: Kismet Improv Theater (Pawtucket, RI) (EARLY SHOW SOLD OUT! LATE SHOW ADDED!!!)

6/21: NEW SPECIAL TAPING AT THE BELL HOUSE IN BROOKLYN (Late show tickets on sale now!)