This Is My Life with Michelle Collins

[00:00:00] Hi, before you listen to today's episode we want to dedicate some time to the Black Lives Matter movement. You folks have given us a voice so we intend to use it as best as we can.

[00:00:11] Every week in June we are going to highlight a different organization dedicated to and run by Black trans and non-binary people. This week is dedicated to the Emergency Release Fund, a mutual aid fund that helps LGBTQ and medically vulnerable individuals in New York City jails and ICE detention.

[00:00:32] Donations to the Emergency Release Fund go towards bail as well as advocacy efforts, and you can learn more at emergencyreleasefund.com Additionally, we are committed to using our platform to amplify Black voices both in booking more Black guests and covering Black directors on the show,

[00:00:52] the first of which will be announced at the end of this mini-series. We know actions speak louder than words, so once again we encourage you to donate if you're in a position to do so.

[00:01:03] Links for the Emergency Release Fund are available in the episode description and on our social accounts at Blank Check Pod. Thanks again. Enjoy this very, very silly episode and stay safe. Blank Check with Griffin and David What about the podcast?

[00:01:40] Maybe you'll get to like the podcast. It grows on ya. The first part of that was okay. I got okay, it got worse. You lost it when it grows on ya. You would have full mop it there.

[00:01:53] There's a fine line between Julie Kavanaugh and Cookie Monster, and that line is what she has written to success. If anyone could do Julie Kavanaugh, Julie Kavanaugh would not have had the career she's had. Yep, 100%. Hello everybody. My name is Griffin Numan. I'm David Sims.

[00:02:15] This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion products they want, and sometimes those checks clear, and sometimes they bounce baby.

[00:02:30] You're realizing it, aren't you? I am. Yeah, okay, good. We don't know what this mini-series is about. No we do! We do because you forget we've recorded one episode. Oh yeah. We're doing this very out of order because of the state of the world.

[00:02:45] We had recorded one episode before everything passed. I forgot about that. The one random pre-COVID episode. I could say definitively that we're doing a mini-series on the films of Nora Ephron and it is called You've Got Podcast. Right, right, right. It had to be. It had to be.

[00:03:02] It had to be that. I don't know. I'm sorry. But this is, yes, Amazers on the films of Nora Ephron and it's kind of a weird case because usually we start with the director's first film

[00:03:14] but in this case we have started with When Harry Metzali, a film she wrote not directed because it felt too important to the canon. It felt like we had to start there. And it's the ur text. Everything comes from there, yes.

[00:03:27] Totally. But this is her actual first film as a director and one of those cases of someone making such a big impact as a screenwriter that everyone was like, I guess you have to direct now. We have to see what you would do.

[00:03:44] So yes, this is You've Got Podcast and today we're talking about This Is My Life. Now, a thing we love on the show is when guests talk before they're introduced. Hint, hint, winky, winky. No. I'm not doing it. I was raised in a home.

[00:04:01] And now she's, she spoke. I'm sorry, I was raised in a home with both parents so I didn't talk until I'm introduced. Take it away. Any either comedians or no comedians? Actually, Bob was. My father did do stand-up comedy in the 1980s. What? That's true. Like Dottie Engels?

[00:04:18] He's a little mini bald chub-chub-dottie Engels. Wow. Yeah. And my mother, my mother was the funnier one. People don't know who's speaking because he didn't introduce me, but I like that. We'll get to that in about 30 years. That's our boss. That's our boss.

[00:04:33] Question. Was your dad's act like any of the other comedians in this movie? Was he like a prop guy? My dad was, were Jewish people so he used to do Jackie Mason impressions. Wow. At like old, very youthy, loving, waiting for Guffman.

[00:04:50] Like, he would do parody songs. He had one, I mean, I'm not making this shit up. Like there's a reason why I'm a controversial figure on the comedy scene. Because in my background, he had like instead of Shake It Up Baby, he had Shake It Up 80.

[00:05:07] And instead of the Wanderer, he had The Hondler. He was doing song parodies and impressions of a different standup. That's correct. Who by the way dated my mother, Jackie Mason. What? That's a crack. Oh my God.

[00:05:24] I'm saying all people don't realize I'm connected, baby. I have hookups in this industry. Okay, wait, I cut you off. You were about to tell us how your father's Wanderer parody went. I was. It just went, well, I'm the type of guy who goes from store to store.

[00:05:42] There's a reason he didn't make it big. And that reason is he wasn't that good. My dad, he's still with us. Making those little choices comedically. I don't know. He goes from store to store. Oh my God. Song, yeah.

[00:05:58] You, and as I said, I'll introduce you in about 30 or 40 minutes. Yeah. You are a friend and when we were trying to figure out who to ask to be a guest on this miniseries looking at the list of movies.

[00:06:10] This was a movie that I feel like has almost no cultural reputation. I was like, I don't know if anyone's seen this. So let's try to find a guest who might have some sort of thematic connection to it.

[00:06:20] And I was like, oh, we should have a standup on threw it out to you. And then you told me that in fact not only had you seen it, but this was one of your favorite movies when you were 11.

[00:06:31] And now we find out on top of that you were also the child of a standup. That makes sense. This is like a trick. Yeah, no one knows that.

[00:06:42] First of all, I love this movie and I do remember it was this movie in a movie called Gloria with I think Gina Davis. Like I loved movies that are struggling single moms when I was little. I don't know why but yeah, I loved it.

[00:06:55] Wait, I'm trying to find this Gloria movie because there's there's Gloria with Sharon Stone and Gloria with. Jenna Rowland. Sure. The movie is called Angie. Yes, okay. Angie. Yes. Angie. I know I could picture the video in my head. What did you say? Gandalfine's in that one.

[00:07:16] Yeah, that's right. And she's got like red curly hair. Is that right? Yeah. It was a good movie but I mean imagine like a little kid being like, I love when like 40 year old ladies struggle with their children. Like I was a little adult. I know I know.

[00:07:30] Movies about like outer borough ladies who are like, look, I'm just trying to find some time in between dropping the kids off and making dinner. Yes, I loved it. I love the struggle. I'm trying my hardest over here. You're doing good.

[00:07:45] I'm working on it by the end of this episode. I'm going to be pitch perfect. Yeah. No, I just we were like let's just ask and then it turns out you have all these roots with the movie and I was joking earlier when I said 30 or 40 minutes.

[00:07:58] Our guest today is Michelle Collins, the great Michelle Collins. Thank you. A comedian extraordinaire and also host of the Michelle Collins show. That's right. I'm serious XM. Now before we get into this movie proper, I want to ask you. Yeah.

[00:08:11] Because you host a daily radio show that has now gone to at home remote records. That's correct. Many of us podcasters are struggling with figuring out how to adjust to these weird times. And you are doing about five times as much as everyone else.

[00:08:29] Thank you for saying that. It's all true. What have you have you learned it like is there anything you figured out, like things that help make an at home record good things to avoid anything like that.

[00:08:41] Well, my listeners are familiar with my neighbor who's across like the air shaft for me for weeks had this little cage hung out of her window. I assume it's a woman who put it out sex and statement. And it had a sandwich inside for the birds.

[00:08:55] And so for weeks every day when I would do my show, I would just watch these birds peck away. I don't think it was a sandwich with some kind of seed block or something.

[00:09:02] But I like to picture it as a sandwich and I would watch it every day and it would like weirdly suit me. And then when that huge storm came through last week, she took it down. And I'm not joking you that since that bird sandwich has been removed.

[00:09:15] I have actually felt myself getting more and more stressed doing the show. I'm not joking like since they can't it's I'm like, no, you know, I need something. I don't know what it is your Tony Soprano with the ducks to bring up Gandolfini twice. Please never stop.

[00:09:30] So it's been hard and actually it's funny because I'm sure you guys feel this too. Like there's no audience like you have no one to be funny with. I don't even zoom with them so it's like just via the headset and it's hard.

[00:09:41] Yeah, and it is. It's like I think people don't realize how much body language still comes into play in an audio format.

[00:09:50] If you're talking to other people and just the difference of oh, there might be a half second delay or even just your only getting a medium close up of someone. It changes at all.

[00:10:00] I'm going to admit now that the reason I asked you that question was because I realized I had forgotten to do the thing that I have come up with as a hack to better remote records.

[00:10:10] Which is what I have realized that I think I do a better job when I'm wearing shoes. Wow, what makes it feel a little more like formal a little more like profesh. So I was put my shoes on while you were giving your answer about the bird cage.

[00:10:28] I know this is an all male podcast in me. Pointedly a point of all male. And I'm a broad shouldered girl so it's still cussing but that I have to wear a bra during my show like I can't.

[00:10:42] I have not done the show without a bra on same. So I can't and boys I don't want to nauseate you all at once but I am like the milking ladies in Mad Max I need a bra.

[00:10:52] I have some problems you know and without it I feel so unkempt like it just makes me feel too loose. I don't know.

[00:11:02] I know I think we got it and I like similarly it's like there's a difference between if I'm wearing pajama pants versus real pants and I had like started this process being like well here's the silver lining you can be comfy during your records but I'm now realizing I might be like two steps away from wearing tops and tails during remote podcasting.

[00:11:21] Are you jeans right now Griffin. No I'm wearing like my fake pants. I'm really into. Yeah I'm really into pants that look like jeans but are actually kind of secretly sweat pants but they feel a little more pant like. Sure. Jaggings. Jagging. I'm pretty much wearing jaggings. Yes.

[00:11:39] Hip hugging jaggings. So okay this this movie you say to me when I throw this out to you. I love this when I was 11. I forgot about this movie until you just mentioned it but that was weirdly a movie I watched a lot.

[00:11:52] I have no idea if it's like still good and there's almost nothing you can find about this movie. It barely came out. I found like 10 reviews in total on the internet from when it came out. The Wikipedia pages unfinished.

[00:12:07] Whoever made the Wikipedia page didn't bother to add the cast. The thing every single movie and TV show has on Wikipedia. Yeah. So I was expecting for this to be a classic like what we like to call movie that doesn't exist.

[00:12:23] And then Dave and I both watched this and we're like this thing fucking rolls. It's pretty great. I love I cried. I loved it and I wonder it's hard obviously to know but if I had the emotional depth at 11 to understand the pain.

[00:12:39] I don't want to spoil the plot yet but later on the pain of what these daughters and their mother is going through in the mistrust and the abandonment and all that stuff.

[00:12:48] Did I feel that as a kid like somehow and is that why I was gravitating towards it. It's an interesting thing but it broke my heart watching it as an adult. It is so much of it too.

[00:12:59] You joking that it's weird that you were into all these like single women doing it on their own movies as a young girl but this movie is so much a daughter movie too. Yeah.

[00:13:11] Which is also the affront thing is she likes to translate these tough things into like fairly light easy comedy like and I was obsessed with sleepless in Seattle when I was a kid and there is nothing for a kid to relate to in that movie.

[00:13:26] That movie is about being like afraid of getting married and you know like are you going to is everything going to work out for you in your 30s or like I don't know what I liked about that as a kid except that I loved it.

[00:13:38] I watch it over and over and over again. Well it's about death. It's about being a widower. If I can use my my most overused phrase here on the podcast.

[00:13:51] This movie is such a Rosetta Stone because I feel like Nora Efron's most famous quote is everything is copy which she would say all the time like you can make something out of anything and her career really started writing all these very kind of personal essays and pieces that then led to writing

[00:14:10] and then to a film which then led to her becoming a screenwriter and then ultimately a director and then this is her adapting someone else's book but her and her sister deal yeah.

[00:14:23] Efron who was one of the first writers ever on SNL were both the daughters of a screenwriter mother who is the one who told them everything is copy.

[00:14:36] Like they grew up in a household with a mother who was like you take every embarrassing thing that happens to you and you make it into something like you got a milk all of that for material. Phoebe Efron is the mother. Yeah.

[00:14:49] So this you can just see like even though she's adapting someone else's book there is such a clear reason why she reads this thing and goes like oh I see the movie that could be made out of this.

[00:14:58] I actually to look it up because I really thought that Nora it was Nora Efron's story. Totally. I was like oh this must be based on her childhood because it's so raw and like personal you know.

[00:15:10] One of the other reasons why David I don't know if I can speak for you but for me why I love sleepless in Seattle and why I love this movie is I loved Gabby Hoffman who as a fellow child prodigy.

[00:15:22] I felt very connected to you know this little actress who was so she was so ahead of her time you know what I mean like energy she was great.

[00:15:32] And also she's so different in this and sleepless in Seattle is just the next year and it's a totally like she's such a cool weird kid in that one. And then this one she's such a little sweetie pie. She's like a genius. Yeah. Little genius. Yeah.

[00:15:47] This is also one of the only movies where she seems like a kid and not an adult in a kid's body like Uncle Buck. She's also kind of weird grown up kid.

[00:15:57] She's like a lot of child stars the success is like look at this kid they act like an adult. They have this weird precociousness.

[00:16:04] That's that's the trend play thing he goes up to the you know he wins a critics choice award and he gets up and he's like I'd like to think the broadcast film critics. Right. Everyone's like the fuck is this kid.

[00:16:15] This is what I look like right now on this. I look like Jacob Charlie. What am I looking like right now. You know make up on. You look like America's hottest movie stars. Talking about a hot watermark. Yes. Wow what assholes you are.

[00:16:30] You're like you don't look as good as Jacob Tremblay. I'm just saying look I mean show Michelle. Okay.

[00:16:36] You thought you were shitting on yourself but that's like a pretty heavy back pat to say you're looking like tremor room when I saw room I was like what are we talking via five hot oil treatments like what. That is making his hair so silken.

[00:16:49] That's what I think throughout room. Yeah you locked yourself in a room for five years just to try and get that yeah. Whatever that kid's doing it's working.

[00:16:59] Did you know that Jacob Tremblay loves the Star Wars movie so much that his dog is named Ray after Ray from Star Wars. I thought of Ray Charles. I was sure he named his dog after Ray Charles. Yeah because he's such a Taylor Hackford fan. Specifically.

[00:17:17] Google the Tremblay's parents. What have you seen them. I don't think so. Have you never Google Jacob Tremblay's parents. Nope doing it now. Benefits of the video off when you start to jerk off about how hot they are. Okay. Because they are so hot. You are.

[00:17:33] I'm going to turn my video camera off because I have Jesus fucking. Oh my god. You've never seen the Tremblay's. Holy shit. That was Mr. Tremblay calling me. That was the guy calling as we all. Yeah. Simultaneously. This is insane. Both the Tremblay parents look like catalog models.

[00:17:55] Beautiful people I've ever seen in my life. His dad is a cop. His dad's a Canadian detective. Holy. That guy's a fucking detective. I have to change my pajama pants. My jacket. I'll be right back. Holy shit. Tell me about that mom. What does she do?

[00:18:14] She's a homemaker. I mean, I would watch a show called the Tremblay's that's about like his hot dad solving hot crimes. I would watch his father. I mean truly if he had an only fans account, I would be home for house for what do they say?

[00:18:30] He is so and that's why when I look at Jacob, I'm like, what happened? He's like, wait, he's like cute. He ain't hot. He's like 11. Look at this. He's I believe he's 13. He'll glow up though. He's he'll glow up. You never know.

[00:18:47] You'll either do the reverse mu-ness or the mu-ness. For the first is when you're really cute kid and then you grew up on Q and then the mu-ness is where you are cute kid and you grew up to be frank. Right.

[00:19:00] The listener at home who hasn't Googled Tremblay's parents yet. Yeah, let me just say, you know when you watch like an NBC cop show and you're like, that's not what a detective looks like. Right. I don't go to the hairdresser every two weeks.

[00:19:16] A guy who's that like young and full of life would never rise to the ranks of a detective. Daddy Tremblay is proving that a hella wrong. I actually forgot how hot they were. I just Google them. It is it's upsetting. It's absurd. It's actually infuriated. Yeah, yeah.

[00:19:31] Jacob will be cute when he grows up. He has to be. He looks like a beautiful Orthodox Jewish woman as a child. You know, because he has that sort of silken hair. Yeah. I'm like, yeah. Where you're like, that's a right. On Orthodox. What's your name? Yeah.

[00:19:47] Like Ezra Schifrin. I don't know her name. I would love to see Tremblay do a reverse Linda hunt in Year of Living dangerously. I would love to have them be like, look, we try. We tried to find a 47 year old actress to play an

[00:20:01] Orthodox Jew and ultimately Tremblay had the best read. We're just going to suspension of disbelief. The guy sells it. He can do anything. He can do anything. Come on. Pro. I think we've talked about this before on the podcast. Maybe Michelle, have you seen the movie Doctor Sleep?

[00:20:20] The sequel to the shining? I've never heard of it came out last year. Big flop. Secret masterpiece. Secret masterpiece worth watching. Good move. But Jacob Tremblay long, very long. Jacob Tremblay. He's he has a two scene cameo. Is he even credited in it?

[00:20:38] I think he might be, but it's it's a yeah, it's a small role. He plays spoiler of victim. Right. He's the two very moring scream. Yes. Like the oversized over famous movie star to be killed off quickly. I got you. He's the most famous person in the movie.

[00:20:55] It's him. I got him. Gregor. Yeah. Oh, you and McGregor isn't it? You and McGregor plays the kid from the shining grown up. Hold on a second. You don't have to sell me anymore on it. You and for me is my top number one of all time.

[00:21:09] You will love this movie. Oh, I have to watch it. Okay. Here's the pitch of doctor sleep. Hey, imagine if you were the kid from the shining 30 years later, you'd probably be a full on alcoholic, right?

[00:21:21] That might sit with you that they are that whole experience a little bit. It is only it's like 40% horror movie 60% pretty realistic recovery drama. Right. Is he a doctor who sleeps a lot or is this he go to a doctor who helps in sleep?

[00:21:37] He is an orderly old person's home and he gets the nickname doctor sleep because he helps people sleep. Like with them. Hmm. I would like doctor sleep is actually like a nice heartwarming plot point in the movie. Yes, it's not a creepy thing.

[00:21:56] I thought it was like a nickname for booze. Oh yeah. He's like, oh, I got to go visit doctor sleep. Yeah. No, it's this thing where I got an appointment. Is there anything funnier than this being booze? The weird sort of like the classic like hand symbol.

[00:22:15] With your fingers. Yeah, exactly. The shocker. Yeah. Now this is the shocker. Isn't it? No, isn't it a shocker? What is this called? Oh yeah. I can't remember. I don't know. We should definitely revisit it. Doctor sleep is really good, but I just want to say.

[00:22:30] Tremblay has this cameo, which is essentially just to be brutally murdered. Spoilers disembowel. And it's like horrifying and like super graphic and he's giving this incredibly good terrified performance, like screaming and crying and begging them to stop murdering him a bunch of adults.

[00:22:49] And the story on the set is they like film that scene and the actors who were like attacking him or having a hard time staying in it because his reactions were so realistic that they were worried that they were actually traumatizing him.

[00:23:04] And the director calls cut and Tremblay just pops up and smiles and like runs off to the craft services table. Oh, and it's like hot dad is there like in the back, like in a hoodie watching that's so cute. Yeah.

[00:23:18] And he like winked at them and was like pretty good, huh? Wow. The dude can apparently just fucking turn it on and turn it off. Okay, when the scene was finished, Tremblay popped up, covered in blood, gave his hot dad a high five.

[00:23:32] I added in the word hot and then went off in search of a snack while the rest of us were shell shocked and traumatized. The high five was the detail I forgot that he popped up high five hot dad. Yeah. What a fucking legend are finest movies.

[00:23:50] I just love him. And of course, I also appreciate that hot people can still have smart kids because my read on it is that only average to ugly people can have genius children. So I'm happy. It makes me feel good.

[00:24:04] But I feel like often when you see like an impossibly beautiful person and you're like, oh my God, their parents must have been so hot. You look it up and you're like, oh no, it's a weird combination. Their features don't work separately but you mix and match.

[00:24:18] Tremblay is like bucking all trends. He's smart. He's talented. He's humble. Silky hair. No, I always feel like when people, you know, every country has a type of animal they look like. Like, you know, the British are very bird faced. Germans are quite piggy or frog face.

[00:24:37] The French are very froggy obviously. Americans, I would say can lean towards piggy. I think we lean piggy a little bit. I think we can find beautiful animals. I hope that I'm making sense. The point is what, I agree with you that two hot

[00:24:53] people normally do not make hot children. Something goes wrong. I think you need an ugly parent to mix up the genetics so that the final product is like other ones. Right. I think two hot parents often is like putting the wrong sides of the magnets together.

[00:25:11] I know this isn't the point of the podcast but can I just, while we're talking about celebrity people, you know, we can't really see the point of the podcast. It's like a trend play podcast. The point of the podcast is out the window. Yeah, it's a blank check.

[00:25:25] Go ahead. Say whatever you want, Michelle. I just see the paparazzi photos of Andy McDowell and Margaret Wally crawling under the gates of run-in canyon. Yes. That, I'm sorry, it bears repeating. Has to be one of the funniest things I've

[00:25:39] ever seen in my life that these two idiots went to run-in while the gate is closed but that was the start of one subplot in time and all of a sudden, come on. Right, they knew someone's going to do it. Someone's going to dare. I went.

[00:25:51] I sent it to the chat. I went on a rare daylight grocery store run recently because I've been trying to do my grocery shopping at really off hours in order to respect social distancing but I did a daylight run and I saw a guy out on the

[00:26:10] street who had like two different long zoom lens cameras around his neck and I was like this has to be a COVID paparazzi, right? It's a bad thing. He had the energy of a paparazzi. Right, he wanted to be like celebs by dried beans too or whatever.

[00:26:30] He's looking for something like that. No, I think they're mask shaming people. I think that they're out to catch people breaking the social distancing. That's what they want to catch. Yeah, where were you? Were you like in Trey Becquah? I was not.

[00:26:44] I'm not going to say where I was. Fair enough. It was not a hip neighborhood. Like it was also, I was like this is a weird place. He was in fact stationed outside of and maybe he was just changing SD cards or whatever but

[00:26:57] he was stationed outside of a closed movie theater and I was like dude, I think I'm the only person who's going to be walking back and forth this spot over and over again crying. I am not famous enough to be worth your time.

[00:27:10] If I saw you weeping in the Daily Mail I would slowly close my laptop and take the longest nap. I would just be like, close rip. I was outside AMC location like it was like the spot where like, you know, River Phoenix fans outside the Viper Club.

[00:27:27] By the way, way to tie it back into the film. Thank you. Thank you. I'm on. I know about that. Are you going to tell everybody else? Yes. So this movie we're talking about today. This is our life based on a Meg Woolitzer novel. This is my life.

[00:27:41] This is my life. And they keep saying, no, this is my life. Dualist narrators. I read it like the Shirley Bassey way. This is my life. You know that song? Sure. And I don't give a damn about emotion. You know that song? First of all, 10 single points.

[00:27:56] I do. Shirley Bassey, Welsh legend. One love. I love her too. And but yeah, sure. It's sort of a, you know, like when it's the daughter, it's kind of like, well, this is my life. And when it's the mom, it's like, no, this was my life.

[00:28:12] I didn't just how I wanted. Yeah. I love this life. All right. She's back to Cookie Monster. But the three leads of this movie. Life. That's the other name that they were for it. Just the crew. My life. This whole life is good enough for me.

[00:28:34] The three leads of this movie are Julie Kavanaugh, aka March Simpson. Yeah. I mean, just impossible for our generation to watch a Julie Kavanaugh performance without constantly thinking about March Simpson. And we're going to get back to this and talk about it in a second. Yeah.

[00:28:50] Gaby Hoffman who we discussed and then Samantha Mathis. Yeah. Who is a River Phoenix's girlfriend tragically on the night at the Viper Club. She also dated Christian Bale. She was like a, yeah, yeah. Well, this is her second movie ever the year before this is

[00:29:10] pump up the volume with Christian Bale. Another favorite of mine when I was little. No, absolutely great movie. I think she may have made this before pump up the volume or maybe not. This movie was made along right. It was made like in 1990, right? Was it?

[00:29:24] I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't know. I feel like pump up the volume is credited as her debut, but that is definitely her big debut. She almost immediately reteams with Christian Slater or Fern Gully where I always forget that they are the hot elves

[00:29:38] in that movie. Yes, yes they are. The hot tree fairies are one of the. Christa and Pip's. Controversially, I have never seen Fern Gully. It's absolute trash and it's like hook and it's one of those movies our generation is like that was great.

[00:29:54] I saw it when I was six. What are you talking about? I'm like, go watch Fern Gully. It looks like they drew it over a weekend. No, it's horrible. It's a nightmare. It was the first animated movie that Robin Williams signed on to

[00:30:05] and when they offered him Aladdin, he was like, you can't advertise me being in Aladdin because I'm really all in on Fern Gully and I want them to have sort of like the exclusive shine and then you watch Fern Gully

[00:30:18] and you're like, this is a dry run for Aladdin. Yeah, like he has not figured out how to play a funny bat. I agree that Fern Gully is a bad movie. It looks like trash. If you think Tremblay's parents are hot,

[00:30:34] check out the animated tree fairies that Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis. Why are they hot? They are hot cartoon characters. I think the reason they all look like Stalger for that movie is because it was a sexual activator for a lot of

[00:30:48] I mean, they all look like they're at some like rave. They all they're all dressed like, you know, in these sort of midriff bearing shredded clothes in Fern Gully. They look like they're, you know, I don't know. What did the kids do? Lollapalooza.

[00:31:01] Well, what was like a 1992 thing? Yeah, right. Let me say a couple things. I've never seen even the animation from this movie until just right now. Mm-hmm. He looks like a combination of Marissa Tomei and Mike Zambini and a little Debbie Maze are thrown in for a lap.

[00:31:16] Mm-hmm. Yeah. And the body on him is a genge, which you know is my type. Oh sure. And the body on him is insane. Yeah, the body don't stop. Yeah. The body don't stop. But he kind of looks like Chris Catan is mango with the right. Oh boy.

[00:31:34] Wow. Yes. I mean now that you've said it, yes. Right. And we all we all love the mango. Yeah. And we all have jerked off to mango. So you were right, Chris. It is just crazy though that it's like she's playing 15, 16 in this movie.

[00:31:50] Well I feel like she's playing from like 12 to 18 almost, right? Like she seems to be like very young when the movie begins. Well she's 22 in real life when they film this, I think. Yeah, I know. I know. And then the following year she's in fucking Super Mario Brothers.

[00:32:06] Yeah man. She was playing a dope John Leguzamo's Royal Love Interest. Yeah. That was what I knew her from. Well of course. Yeah. I had no idea that she was 22 until just until you saying it now. And I was also very confused about her age throughout it

[00:32:22] because she behaves like a 13, 14 year old. Right. Like she's so childish but also emo and funny. I also noted that her fashion in it was so of today. Like everything she wore was like Williamsburg Nighthawk evening out. Like high waisted jeans. Yes. The cuff. Right. Yeah.

[00:32:44] Head to toe, totally normal today. But then she like has sex with a dude. I was like wait, huh? But I feel like this movie spans, it doesn't get into it too hard but it spans several years. Like it starts with them in Queens and ends with Julie

[00:32:56] Kavanaugh as like a relatively famous comedian. Like it's not set over one year. Well I don't know. I viewed it as like how fast this shit can move. But you think it's several years. Yeah no. Because she gets a boyfriend. You know like yeah no.

[00:33:10] There's time passing here. I will say I was relatively relieved when I did the Google search and found out she was 22 and this movie was filmed because talking about her fashion. The second she showed up I was like this is someone I have a

[00:33:23] crush on at the Metrograph. Like this is. I mean. Invite. Survised like with your ticket in half there. 100%. Like all rude. Yeah. Right, right. She disaffectedly rings up my $5 Boylands ginger ale bottle. Yeah. Yeah. I could see you two together actually grippy. Absolutely.

[00:33:44] That's like a cute little coupling. I think it would work. What's Mathis doing now? She is, I looked it up. She's been doing. She's been on billions. She's still recurring on billions. She lives in New York. She moved to New York about 10 years ago because she

[00:33:59] was tired with Hollywood and she wanted to do theater and she mostly does theater and she was a musical that was supposed to open the night that all the Broadway theaters closed. That was Whisper House. It was called. She's also like a VP in SAG. Yeah.

[00:34:15] I saw that. Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything because like, you know, Andrea Carter is ran SAG forever. I mean, I'm barely in the union, but that's not bringing up my professional career. I'll say this about her. That's an apocalypse. I'm starting called barely in the union. Right.

[00:34:31] Just shit about SAG and how it got like two screeners this year and it was the Joker. And some other bull shit. And I was curious about the point back to math. This is like what 50 something now. I think she's 49 15. 49 years old now. Yes.

[00:34:47] 49 and I just am fascinated. There's a musical called Whisper House because nothing's going to not get me in a seat. Oh, you got to see the big fun musical. It's traffic. We spent. I'm good. Yeah. It does sound like some sort of British chocolate company. Like.

[00:35:04] I just got a sampler from Whisper House. It's not like a Japanese reality show. Like have you seen Whisper House on Hulu? They literally do not speak over two decibels. It is great. It's so calm. Nothing ever happens. They just sit there making food.

[00:35:18] Calling a musical Whisper House essentially ensures that the show has no ballads in it. It's like, do you want to hear zero belting from people and sing? Now I just want to circle back around to the the Kavanaugh Marge connection because it is weird.

[00:35:37] This movie comes out like three years after the Simpsons starts and it's obviously become a cultural phenomenon. And at this point, like she was a sitcom star. She won an Emmy. She's been in a lot of films. She had been in a lot of TV shows.

[00:35:53] It's so weird now because she very rarely acts on camera and it's kind of impossible to get a film. And it's kind of impossible to imagine seeing her on screen in a movie four years after the Simpsons came out and not being thoroughly distracted.

[00:36:11] But in the early 90s, she was able to coexist as like, oh yeah, Julie Kavner who you know also fun fact is the voice of Marge on the Simpsons rather than the opposite where it's like fun fact.

[00:36:22] Do you know that Marge used to be in movies and TV shows? Right. And there's like a person, a human person that's when her mouth is open, she speaks with the voice of Marge Simpson, the cartoon character.

[00:36:32] It also shows you that it didn't take much for her to be Marge. I mean she's a genius but I'm saying that was a genetic lottery ticket basically of having like that one larynx cord snipped and all of a sudden she's you know, a billionaire. Absolutely.

[00:36:46] The performance that's actually good is Patty and Selma. That's where she's actually messing with. Because that's the she plays all the bouvies. Yes. Yes. I love the Simpsons. Yeah. It's also one of those things where like she only is the

[00:37:03] voice of Marge because she was on the Tracy Oldman show where those shorts originated. She was part of the ensemble cast for all those sketches. Right. As was Dan Castellonetta and then there were two other regulars on the Tracy Oldman show who did not get to voice Simpsons.

[00:37:22] You're kidding. Who are they? Sam McMurray and Joseph Malone. Yeah, both good actors, comedians. You would recognize Sam McMurray. Sam McMurray you would know. He plays Rich Guy's on the top. He's like a classic character actor, but it's one of

[00:37:36] those things where you're like there but for the grace of God go I like just coin flip. Like I don't know why don't you play five of these Simpsons characters? A question I have is why didn't Tracy herself voice one of the characters?

[00:37:48] I think she views that as one of her big regrets. She's fair. That's me. By the way she's on Mrs. America. I don't know if you guys are watching on Hulu. No, not yet. Not yet, but I'm going to.

[00:38:00] I'm not just saying this because I'm a woman who went to a Barnard, but it is fantastic. It's really, really good. She's phenomenal on it, but she really like, I mean, she was Tracy Oldman. Yeah. And then you just had the Simpsons and that's

[00:38:15] like her legacy almost which is kind of sad. I know. I know it's crazy. I want to say one last March thing before we go on to the movie proper. Yeah, yeah. And the background is like a spread of Marge with

[00:38:28] her hair down sprawled out in a bed. It's hot Marge. Okay, now you folks probably saw this and went, oh great Griffin Googled Simpsons porn. Of course an infinite well on the Internet and he found a slightly tasteful example of Simpsons erotica.

[00:38:43] This my friends is in fact the actual official photo from Marge Simpsons Maxim cover spread. Oh my God, that's funny. There was an issue of Maxim in which Marge Simpsons was the cover girl and they had like eight drawings that were signed off by Matt Groening.

[00:39:04] And I like had this in my memory and I was like, am I wrong about this? Let me double check. And in Googling to double check, I was reminded not only did that happen, there was also a Playboy issue. What? In which Marge's nipples were visible.

[00:39:19] Oh no, no thank you. I swear to fucking God. I want to see Marge's nipples in Playboy. I don't want like the fake porn Bonnie Island version. I want the official Marge nipple color. Yeah, this is officially licensed a show that is now

[00:39:34] owned by Disney and is on Disney Plus. Wow. I'm looking here. Okay, no. They're like human. Her nipples are a light pink. They're pink. I regret to inform you that Marge is, yes. Put it up on my dude's background please. She's wearing a see-through nightie.

[00:39:49] I'm going to add it to the chat. She has like a plate of donuts. And she's on a bear rug, which is very strange. What are you saying? There's so many words coming out of your mouth. You're sending it to us? I'm waiting.

[00:40:05] Yeah, it's one of these things. Can you just like imagine like Disney buying the Simpsons and being like, fuck there's no way to like men in black memory flash this from the consciousness? To be fair, no one remembers this.

[00:40:17] Yeah, but it will also exist on the internet forever. Yes. Okay, I sent it to the chat. My friends click open. Oh boy, here we go. The article is called The Devil and Marge Simpson. Correct. The Devil and Marge Simpson. So let me say something.

[00:40:30] Clearly what this picture is, is they animated Marge. And then they did take a human, I think a photograph of ladies breasts. I would imagine so. And then just like, because the color doesn't even match. Like they're beige and she's yellow.

[00:40:44] No, it looks like they traced over a photo of a Playboy model and then just put Marge Simpson's head over her head. That is exactly what it looks like. I'll tell you this. I knew I was going to be fat shamed on this podcast.

[00:40:57] I didn't know it was going to be because of the naked Marge. I'm joking. I'm kidding. But I feel fat shamed. She's so slim. Well, she's always been very slender, but I will point this out. This is, she has the up hair, the classic Marge beehive,

[00:41:13] whereas in the show like Marge's hair being down is like when Marge is hot. Like in my Maxim virtual background, that's hair down. So the movie This Is My Life starts in a way that immediately made me angry with how good it was because I recently,

[00:41:35] while struggling to do anything creative during quarantine, was like, oh, you know, I'm going to do the whole way to start a movie. Having a character tell the audience this is not my story. Like wouldn't that be an interesting way to frame a movie?

[00:41:47] And that's literally how this movie starts. Yeah, I had no idea beyond that, but I was like, I'm going to be able to unwrap that into something interesting. This movie has these dueling narrators. It's narrated by Samantha Mathis and Kavanaugh switching off more Mathis. Yeah, yeah.

[00:42:06] Occasionally Kavanaugh comes into interject. I wish there was more of that though. It kind of drops that after a while. Kavanaugh disappears for a good chunk of the movie and it really becomes almost exclusively from the daughter's perspective.

[00:42:18] Yeah, but that don't get to get some purpose because she's appeared from their lives. Yes. Yeah, I think it's pretty smart. But yes, the movie starts with like, this isn't my story, but I'm going to tell it anyway. I guess it is actually kind of my story.

[00:42:32] And then you see the title This Is My Life. Julie Kavanaugh like resets the narration and says, like, this is my life. And they show the opening title card again and then Maya's crossed out and Maya's written in. And already I was like, does this honk?

[00:42:48] Yeah, that was when it got me. Is this honking right out the gates? Well, I'll tell you when they're honking, it's when they're driving to Manhattan. Carly Simon sings. First of all, everything that you wanted in this movie happens. Mary Fisher shows up and Carly Simon sings.

[00:43:06] The two things that would want... Mary Fisher shows up wearing a great silk scarf. Oh, first of all, she probably has never looked better than she looks in the movie. I mean, she's so sweet. She's constantly smoking, which made me wish I smoked again.

[00:43:18] I was like, oh, it's like so sexy, like just lighting up in the middle of a room surrounded by children. I love that. Oversize fake teeth. Big, the cap teeth. But we forgot to mention that in the opening scenes, George Costanz's mother was also featured with her honking.

[00:43:36] Stell Harris. Yeah, Mrs. Potato Head herself. Yes. Yes. And also in the opening scenes, because the movie, like it gets going pretty quickly. It ramps up, but it's Julie Kavana, single mother, husband just ran off, was never heard from again, has never been tracked down.

[00:43:59] She's living with her aunt and her two young daughters. She works at a makeup tester at a department store. With J.B. Har. I was going to say. You said her name wrong, and that does make me laugh. I'll be honest.

[00:44:14] I was like half in half out at this point because I was like scrambling to like get Washington time. I actually missed Joy and only saw it in the credits. I was like, oh, that's funny. But she also works at the possibly now bankrupt Macy's. Oh, yes. Yes.

[00:44:29] But it is this thing of like. You see her. She's doing a whole placentipate. She's real in a man. She's got presents. She's got a routine. She's got the mic and she uses this opportunity not just to sell some makeup, but to sell some jokes. You know.

[00:44:44] But it's like retail. Yes. I worked at the Disney store. Oh my God. Yeah. A nightmare scenario in which much like Julie Kavanaugh and this is my life, you have to be performing all the time. You cannot behave like a normal human being.

[00:44:59] The managers would come up and give you notes. Line readings. In food and drink. But I also did work in a menswear store, which is the most boring job in the world because no man ever wants to talk to you.

[00:45:13] Like no man goes into a menswear store and is like, what do you think? Like, you know, they're usually just like they just get their shirts and they leave there. They're like, goodbye. It's all just folding shirts.

[00:45:23] I worked at J crew and years ago and when they put me in the men's department, I was like, this is the worst shit in the world because like they didn't want help. They wouldn't flirt. They were all married.

[00:45:33] It was just like, well, what is the point of being alive in the store? If I can't, you know, Right. I mean, judging by most anyone who wants to flirt has no money to go to a menswear store or doesn't know what a menswear store is.

[00:45:45] Like they're right. Yeah. Or what I was going to say from most movies I've seen, if you're an employee at a clothing store who wants men to flirt with you, you should work in the women's department. Yeah.

[00:45:59] And then it's the like, I'm buying this for my mother and then you start dating some scumbag who pretends he wasn't in a relationship when you met. Yeah. Yeah. That's sweet. Yeah. It's old fashioned. Guys, remember flirting with people in menswear stores. Oh my God.

[00:46:15] Don't even say the F word to me right now because I am losing it. Did I say that close enough into the microphone? That's why I'm truly, I've turned into now. Like I see a leaf in Riverside Park and I'm like spinning around. I'm out of my mind.

[00:46:27] I will say you, Michelle said that you, this movie made you cry. I got really verclimbed at several different points. The first of which was unexpectedly within like the first five minutes of this movie, Estelle Harris dies. She leaves behind the inheritance and it makes

[00:46:44] Julie Kavanaugh realize this is my opportunity. I have money now. We can move to the city and I can make a real go of being a stand up. She flips their Queens house and they move to the Upper West Side. Right.

[00:46:55] And then there's a montage of them driving over the bridge into Manhattan. Through Central Park. That made me so close to tears because of the nostalgia I had for a place where I currently live but cannot really access.

[00:47:13] It wasn't even like, oh, the New York of my youth. Like I was expecting, oh, I'm going to remember what New York was like in the 90s. It was literally just most of these blocks look the same and I can't walk them anymore. Right.

[00:47:26] No, it's not the same thing. I was like, or it's that a twine read. I was like weeping like yeah, like all these stories. It was hard to watch. Losing my mind and it's like an extended just like clearly not stock footage just like the

[00:47:42] perspective of the front seat of a car turning corners, driving through like six different areas of Manhattan and all of it just made me so overwhelmed while a Carly Simon song plays because Carly Simon wrote an entire album for this movie including a song that became a hit.

[00:47:59] Nothing to do with the movie. Yes. Nothing to do with the movie. She liked her movie and she's like, you've got a love of my life. Yeah. Who's the love of whose life? I thought they were moving. Dan Akroy? That's what these songs are about. Fucking Akroy.

[00:48:12] What do you think that she has like a friendship with Nora Efron and Nora was like, look, I'm directing almost like favorite soundtrack. Yeah. It might be that. And maybe and it was also right. Like it's like after Working Girl, it's like

[00:48:25] if you want your rom-com to, you know, to really say right. But the only thing I do know about this movie is that Julie Kavanaugh was cast in a smaller role. My guess probably the Carrie Fisher role, something like that.

[00:48:39] And Joe Roth, who is in charge of Fox, the legendary chairman of Fox was like, no, she should be the lead. Like the lead should be someone we don't know because it's about someone getting famous. Wow. So yeah. So that is and Nora Efron says that

[00:48:57] like that's why the movie's good. Kavanaugh has no vanity. It's like, like she doesn't care about anything like making the character more sympathetic or anything like that. I do think she is also one of the only actors I have ever seen playing a stand-up

[00:49:13] where in those performance scenes, you really buy her being a stand-up. Like there's something about the energy she has on stage, especially like that sequence where they do, they see her in Vegas and she's doing the routine with the looks. I was like, she actually has like a

[00:49:32] very specific stand-up timing aside from the fact that she's someone who like did a live studio audience, sitcom clearly has like experience working with a crowd is naturally funny. There's that thing of like a lot of actors can play a musician, but the thing that's

[00:49:51] hard to buy is an actor playing a rockstar because there's something about the energy on stage and how they feed off the audience that like if you haven't done it just doesn't ring true. And Kavanaugh in this, like you buy it

[00:50:05] in a way that you know many actors I don't. I felt like she was good, certainly better and not to throw this show on for the bus, but a show that I have a real problem with the stand-up is Mrs. Maisel only because

[00:50:20] the jokes are so bad in it. Yeah. And she's a great actress, it's really not her fault. It's like whatever whoever's writing the stand-up doesn't know how to write stand-up jokes. I don't care so it makes it really annoying as a performer

[00:50:34] to watch her and be like are you fucking kidding me it sucks, like nothing funny about this. Sure. Other than that she's like small ribbed. You know that's the one thing that she's got little ribs. Other than that I don't really see what it's so funny.

[00:50:45] But with I rear-viewed that she was good I just I get very secondhand embarrassed when I just see any actor doing scripted stand-up. Like it just inherently makes it's like watching someone rest. It doesn't feel spontaneous at all. You can always tell. You're right.

[00:51:02] It's scripted. She is good. She was good. But even like the pauses and the beats and the fake audience laughter for me it's a little bit like I don't know I want it to like mildly Armadillo. I agree. I agree. And I think it is less

[00:51:17] embarrassing than most actors playing stand-up. And I also think in a way this movie isn't trying to position her as being like an amazing genius stand-up. They're positioning her as someone who just like is kind of confident enough as a performer. Their material is just good enough

[00:51:37] and they've like That's fine. They've established like their brand like they have their like their catchphrases like this is my life and I got the dots thing and you're like this person totally could have ascended to like a mid-level of visibility for two years in the 90s.

[00:51:54] You know like she's just good enough to buy that. Because you mentioned the Joe Roth thing on the opposite side of the coin John Peters who we've really been talking about a lot on this podcast. Well, he comes up a lot. He comes up a lot.

[00:52:06] Notoriously kind of one of the most blowhardy producers of Hollywood in the 80s and 90s. The film was originally at Columbia Pictures where John Peters was before they put it into turn around in 1990 and this is the quote from Wikipedia

[00:52:24] one of the only things on the Wikipedia page. Efron allegedly asked John Peters if he had read the script he answered, I've made over 60 movies I don't have to read a script to know whether it works or not but I don't get what that even means

[00:52:39] this is what it means by all accounts John Peters is functionally illiterate and has never read a script in his life. Yeah, yeah. So someone was just like it's about a comedian and she's gonna he's like no, no, thank you. Goodbye. And he tried to like make that

[00:52:56] seem like it was like my instincts are so strong I don't even have to read it when in fact if someone put a paper in front of him he would break out in the cold sweat well as opposed to Dan Ackroyd

[00:53:06] where if you put a paper in front of him he makes a fucking meal out of it literally. He's playing he's playing Sam Cohn who's famously eight paper. Yes. The founder of ICM one of the most influential agents of all time famously eight paper

[00:53:21] and Nora Ephron put it in the movie to show like look at all these weird eccentricities that like agents and reps have and then a lot of critics were like this is like so broad like this movie is so sick, Tommy there's a guy who eats paper.

[00:53:35] Isn't it funny that my one thought when I was watching Man in Quarantine was God he's like only eating paper and he's still not thin. I was like that's gotta stop. It's Ackroyd at his most robust. He's quite needy in it. It's like my real Ackroyd. Yes.

[00:53:52] And I was just like if I ate napkins all day I better be walking a runway next week because it's actually still pudgy. I was feeling, I was upset. He does not have the figure of a man on the napkin diet.

[00:54:06] But I don't think he eats paper to diet. He eats paper it's like a power move. It's like a Mike isn't it like pika what do they call it? Pika that's what they call it yes. Yeah. I love that. But yeah they moved to New York and

[00:54:19] or no but even before they moved to New York there's the scene where she drives the girls into the city to meet with the agent. Yeah. And gets the rejection. So you're getting the sense of just like she is limited by how much

[00:54:31] she can put herself out there. But also it's just like that weird sense that the kids know what she does but they don't really know what she does. Like they don't really see her being a comedian for a long time.

[00:54:41] They're just into the idea of her as a comedian. Like they love that their mom does this magic everything in entertainment but especially stand up is like a numbers game where it's just like you're going to succeed such a small percentage of the time

[00:54:55] both in terms of like people who will hire you people who will rep you after you meet with them but also just shows that she is so limited by being a full-time mom and being like a you know bridge and tunnel away from most of the clubs.

[00:55:10] So yes Estelle Harris dies they flip the house they move to the Upper West Side. Yep. Is there anything you want to say about this because you teased something in the slack that I am not going to force. Everyone knows that I grew up in England. Where?

[00:55:31] I grew up in England. I moved to England when I was nine years old. Yeah we all know that. Yeah okay. Live there for 13 years. Michelle might not actually know this because we haven't really dug into my life. Okay. This is my life one might say.

[00:55:43] But Michelle for the record I know this it's very well established. Let me just say that probably why I like you because I love the English people. But before I lived in England I moved to England from the Upper West Side

[00:55:56] where I lived for the first nine years of my life. How am I just hearing about this for the first time? My mom. You grew up in the United States? My mom moved to the Upper West Side when she was I don't know 23 years old

[00:56:13] or whatever when she moved to New York basically. And she lived there from the 70s all the way through 1995 the same apartment. Are you saying that we could call you Uptown Davey Sims? That's right. I was an uptown boy. Wow. Can I ask why you moved to England?

[00:56:31] My dad got a job like my dad was English but also like then he got a job in England and like we did like a year where he was there and we were still in New York because we weren't sure what to do.

[00:56:42] But then it was clear it was like now he's got to say it. So we all moved to England in 95. Exciting. Were you in London? Yep. North London baby. Kentish Town. Kentish Town is nice. I know, do you know off the record

[00:56:56] I just got to edit that out because it's actually my friends. You just listed the specific house number. Make a note please to cut that out. We'll bleep it out. Thank you. Yeah. I was actually going to say more but I shouldn't say more.

[00:57:17] Did you know where it is? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty. But yes, but before then I was an Upper West Side boy and I do love an Upper West Side in the 90s movie and this is that movie for sure. Back on the Upper West Side

[00:57:32] was still a middle class neighborhood. I mean when my mom moved there it was dangerous. I also like the energy. There's the scene where they're meeting with the lawyer and going over the inheritance and he's like, I have the house now. Like how much, I'm sorry, she's like,

[00:57:50] I get the house now? And how much could I sell it for? You're doing really good. I'm gonna be spot on perfect by the end of this. And he's like, I don't know somewhere upwards of like $100,000 and she's like how much upwards? That's a lot of territory there.

[00:58:09] But the idea that like, that's a big lump of money to get all at once but also the next thing you see is she's moved into a doorman building in the Upper West Side. I love the idea that she's like

[00:58:21] not being conservative with the money she just came into. She's like, this is my chance to make a real shot at living the life I've dreamed about. I'm gonna go straight to the nice apartment and try to like dress for the job I want

[00:58:35] and go all in, push all the chips in on the stand-up career. I respect that personally. I think that's, you know, that's the way to be. I love spending every dollar I earn. Did you know that about me? You got it. And a little more even, honestly.

[00:58:48] I think you want to spend a dollar more than you've made. Yeah, always. They came out with a new cheap iPhone. I was like, okay, no thanks. I'm like earning almost no money now. I'm like, I'm good. I'll get the 11 pro. Thank you.

[00:59:02] I had a couple zeros to that and we're talking. You refuse to buy cheap products. I just don't do it. I won't. So I respect that. She could also be renting that apartment. But even still, but even still it's like the point is

[00:59:15] in a lot of movies like this, she's not making the conservative choice. In most movies where someone moved to New York City to follow their dreams, the apartment you see them move into that they're renting is like a flitin, yeah, kind of. It's like the Blues Brothers apartment.

[00:59:31] You know, you can hear the neon lights and gunshots next door. And like even if she's renting it, she goes straight to like, I'm going to fucking like fake it till I make it. There is the scene that I love as you said, David,

[00:59:44] that like they know their mom is funny, but they have no idea whether she's funny in a professional way and they've never seen her do it. And then the first time you see her do stand up is when they go to the club,

[00:59:55] meet Carrie Fisher for the first time, which is after that scene where you see all her stand-up friends that she's been making come over for dinner, including Tim Blake Nelson in his first film role ever. Incredible one scene performance from TVN. He's got two. He's got two.

[01:00:11] Well, okay, fine. But you know what I mean? Like that fish monologue. I saw him do one of those like recent career retrospective all my roles videos online for some magazine and he said that she let him write his own material. So all of his limerick jokes are

[01:00:30] Tim Blake Nelson originals, I believe. Who's the name of the guy who was also in like the three stooges movie Bob? I want to say it's also Nelson, but you know the guy in the ball? Yes. It's Bob Nelson. Yeah. He's also great. And Carrie and Jamie. Yes.

[01:00:47] Are any of these Seinfeld people? Oh, yes. Of course. Did you recognize Jerry's girlfriend in the movie? Yes. As one of the two who babysit, right? Yeah. Yes. I got excited. I always love his Seinfeld callback. Oh, yeah.

[01:01:02] Oh, it's such a pleasure to see that she's a new man wouldn't date because she wasn't his type. It's the big salad episode. Yes. Big salad. Yeah. She's so pretty. I'm waiting. Her name is Merida. That's her name. Yes. That's right. Yes. All right.

[01:01:24] So who's the comedian does the baby routine? That's that's Ed. That's Bob Nelson. That's Bob Nelson. Yeah. Okay, that is an insane act and I can't imagine that existing anywhere and that he's honing it. It really threw me off.

[01:01:40] I just got I kept being like that guy who used to go on Carson all the time. He was like really weird, right? I have no idea. Are you joking? Is it based off a real guy? No, Bob Nelson, right? Like Bob Nelson. Bob Nelson. Yes. Yes.

[01:01:57] So, he's a comedian cop. He played the boyfriend of the other police officer. I mean, I feel like these are exaggeratedly shitty versions of the types of comedy acts that were happening during the comedy boom in the 90s.

[01:02:10] When people were so desperate to be like, I got to have such a clean hook, you know, like all these people are getting sitcom deals. I need to be the blank guy. So as much as I like, I don't know if you'd ever

[01:02:21] actually see a dude who wears a hat with a fish head sticking out of it, doing solely fish fill. He has limericks. It's maybe only 5% over the top from what was actually happening on TV at that time. Like that guy might have gotten a spot on our senior.

[01:02:38] What about that on, are we allowed to go a bit ahead in the movie? Sure. Yeah. A cameo that I personally really enjoyed was Ellen Cleckhorn. Yes. Who played the talk show host and Ellen Cleckhorn to me has always been a comedian who I believe never

[01:02:55] really got her due. She did not. And I don't know why that is. I always found her hilariously funny. She's funny in this. It's the SNL. If you don't make it on SNL, then you never really like happen that you become if that just becomes

[01:03:09] your entire career is like, well, flamed out on SNL. She did like a half season WB sitcom in like the first year that the WB was a thing. Oh, wow. Called like Ellen. I believe it was called Cleckhorn. Cleckhorn. Yeah.

[01:03:24] I think that was the name that Ellen was taken. It was actually called Cleckhorn. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And it was with Garrett Morris. Oh, I mean another like both two legends. Yes. And never had the post SNL careers they deserved.

[01:03:41] And Ellen Cleckhorn is like, I think it is a combination of racism and sexism. Honestly. I would say Garrett Morris had a bit much bigger career than Ellen. It wasn't as good as she was in. I mean, and he had the worst career of all the

[01:03:54] original cast members from SNL. But yeah, it's like one of those things where you're like she should have been doing roles like this for the next 20 years. There's no excuse why Ellen Cleckhorn didn't become at the very least just like a steadily working

[01:04:10] ace in the whole character actress. And she like rarely shows up. She did a bit on the SNL 40th special and she was so fucking funny. She's funny. She has that scene in Armageddon. I always think about that. She's so good. She's the nurse doing all their physicals.

[01:04:26] Great scene. Anyway, I do yeah, all that comedy stuff is good. It's nicely sprinkled in like all those it's it always feels like it's from the kids perspective. Yeah. So they always feel like appropriately cartoonish if they like you know they're like these weirdos

[01:04:41] that would be in the house that you would just remember. Right. They have everyone over for dinner and the kids clearly are like these people are comedians but there's also the joy of for the first time mom has friends who also do comedy

[01:04:53] as opposed to just like co-workers who know that she's funny. But I love that they just like you still haven't seen her do stand up up until this point. That scene ends with her revealing that she has an agent after someone makes a joke about having an agent

[01:05:08] and then everyone looks at her with like like a dead eyes like sociopathic glaze. Kathy Nemiji does a great bit where she pretends to stab herself in her cleavage. It's a good good butter knife bit. That's how I'm ending the pot. That's why I'm in my work.

[01:05:26] Right in the middle of my chest. I love seeing Kathy. Let me also say that I have never identified more with a moment on film than watching a bunch of comedians be jealous of another comedian for their success. It felt like very appropriate. They're not happy at all.

[01:05:43] It's really hard. I don't know if it's like this in all businesses, but like when you hear someone getting a Netflix special on it can be someone you like when it's someone you don't like you literally want to just blow your brains out.

[01:05:54] When it's somebody you like, even though you're like, that's awesome. I'm going to tweet like, yeah, I love this person, but deep down you're hating yourself. And that is right there. Why is the worst business to be in? Yes. Anytime someone retweets someone else's good news,

[01:06:12] comedian to comedian and frames it as like, so well deserved. Not only one of the funniest people in comedy, but also one of the nicest. Yes. It means they are seething with rage at the job that that person just bought. Wait a minute.

[01:06:30] Is that the name of my new podcast, Seething With Rage? It might be. Or barely in the union. You're establishing a couple new shows. You might be building an entire network worth of shows. You boys are really inspiring me to thank you. It's a guest.

[01:06:44] You call it seething with rage, but the whole podcast is just you saying how nice your guest is. Like you never acknowledged the title. Yeah. A stretch of major fan, please welcome one of my just favorite guests and I'm like making so slowly.

[01:06:57] One of the first people out there, but more importantly, one of the good genuinely good people that I've seen one of the good genuinely good people in comedy. Supports other women. That's how you know that love supports women. That's the biggest bullshit line comedy, by the way,

[01:07:15] when you, I don't even know where to begin with this one. I just will say this. I find, well, I don't want to say because I like to work and I actually don't want to make any enemies,

[01:07:23] but there are a lot of people out there who are like, I support women and I support fucking women. Okay. Like I, but I don't do it with a whole marching band behind me. I just do it. Like I don't need a fucking, you know what I'm saying?

[01:07:38] I don't need to have like my soliloquy about do it. You're not looking for the keys to the city just cause you're right. Yeah. Right. No, DiBlasio ticker. Tick or take parade. Yeah. People who do that shit and then rag about it. I'm like, okay,

[01:07:54] you literally are so bad to women, but I'll allow it because I like work. We can talk about this. Good for DiBlasio though guys. I'm like, your work is a mess. I mean, I'm not gonna take a day off. I think you're gonna be like,

[01:08:06] I think it's like two months into this nightmare every day. I'd wake up and I'd be like, when is the future ticker tape parade for nurses going to be announced? When are we getting it? I need it on the schedule. Finally, or mayor stepped up. This guy.

[01:08:20] And what you do. You know who steal is. It's just the show is, um, I call him weird ASL. Yeah. Yeah. like also like a 90s throwback. Like he feels like a 90s New Yorker, his fashion, his hair. Right. Oh my God. Oh, please. I love him. Yeah.

[01:08:36] We're weird as all Yankevic. That's 100 comedy points. That's really good. Thank you. And that's I mean, that's good. Finally, I get asked. I know that's good out loud. I can only imagine how funny it would be written out. Visually, that joke is perfect.

[01:08:54] I think I got seven states on that tweet. So thank you so much. Absolutely. That's a real hit. Thank you. This movie has a bunch of scenes and moments and lines in it that are things that I feel like,

[01:09:09] oh, that's a very specific thing about the world of comedy that I have never seen represented accurately well before. And one of them is the scene where the daughters see her perform for the first time where they meet Carrie Fisher at the club.

[01:09:24] They're sitting at a table with her waiting for mom to go on. The introduction of Dan Ackroyd as well, the moss showing up to see her for the first time as this legendary agent. And it's like, a those two character types are so spot on.

[01:09:39] They carry Fisher agent because I feel like so many people when they do like show busy agent characters, just make them into like monsters, which most of them are. Or they're like the agent from Friends. Like, you know, right?

[01:09:51] It's like a cartoonish tiny old woman who has like a thousand cigarettes in her eyes and is like, yeah. Which is funny to be clear, very funny. The very specific thing that they're getting right with the Carrie Fisher character, both in Fisher's performance

[01:10:08] and in the writing is person who works on the business end of comedy is not a performer, but also desperately wants to hold court at all times. The fact that she's just constant stream monologue chain smoking, she's so jokes to these two young girls where

[01:10:25] she's like, I need you to think that I'm funny. Even though I'm not a performer and I have no aspirations of being a stand up. I work with funny people, but everyone needs to know that secretly I'm the funniest one.

[01:10:35] It's just like unspoken, but so fucking spot on. And then the Ackroyd comes in and it's the opposite thing where it's like guy who seems radically disinterested in all comedy. Right. He seems to not even like being outside, like let alone having to watch a performance.

[01:10:53] He'd rather just be locked up overnight in the napkin fact that's why I love the spoiler or I love the reveal that he's sleeping with Kavanaugh where both of them they barely even make eye contact with each other at any point in the movie.

[01:11:05] Like they don't give a shit. It's so good. But but the moment when Kavanaugh comes on stage, she's first up and she just like immediately starts working like that she's hitting with the crowd. They like go in on Mathis and Hoffman and it's like these two

[01:11:23] girls realizing I think she literally says it in voiceover. Like I there she was like she was doing it. She was on stage. She was getting laughs. I never realized mom was actually funny. Like I knew we shot thought she was funny.

[01:11:36] And it's that feeling of like when you meet someone socially who is a comedian before you've ever seen them perform. Or you have a friend who's getting into stand up for the first time and you're just like this is so nerve wracking

[01:11:50] because if they suck, I'm never going to be able to talk to them ever again. And the relief you have when they start like actually hitting on stage and you're when they don't. Oh, that's the worst. Is the worst feeling in the world?

[01:12:06] The single worst because you're like I can't talk to this person again. I can't be friends with them. I cannot pretend that I respect them comedically even if they're funny at a bar. Interesting thing about my family, my mother who has

[01:12:18] her own little like Internet fan group fan club fan group, you know the same things. Anyway, she is hilarious. Like honestly, even she can make if you're on this, you'd be dying from her. She's so funny. But what I realized in my 20s when I started doing

[01:12:35] stand up, she came to New York and I was like, you have to do a bit on stage with me. Like it's gonna be so funny. She'd never gotten up on stage with me. And she got up and she was so nervous and so out of

[01:12:45] sorts from that, that she bombed. It was honestly one of the most scarring. I remember I'm on that stage as I'm telling the story because I remember the feeling of like having an anvil dropped on me. Like, Oh God, she's not.

[01:12:58] She just made such an off color joke about coming like my mother was like, Oh my God, this can't be happening. And she was like laughing but nervously. It just, they think it really stresses her out. And they think that in fact, when they first saw me

[01:13:13] perform on stage, which was not that long ago, it was even nerve wracking for my parents because what if I wasn't funny as a performer and like, thank God, I'm great. So they are like, Oh, thank God, they can have seen me

[01:13:24] and not be wasted is the zero concerns. My father, I largely forbid him from coming to see me perform back when I still performed or any of us still performed. Because the few times he has, he tends to, if he's invoked, start yelling out jokes from the

[01:13:42] audience as if suddenly we are a two person comedy team. He just thinks that that's you opening conversation with him like that. Well, but no, but he's also, but he's trying to be a stand up. Like he's not responding as if like, Oh, I don't

[01:13:56] understand this isn't a private conversation. And he always, the wealth he always goes to is Ron Jeremy reference. Oi. And it's almost always too oblique to track. Why do your parents work so blue? Both of you. I don't know. And I've been doing a podcast thing too oblique

[01:14:15] to track, to oblique to track. Put it on the network, the Collins network. I've been doing like more Instagram live shows during all of this and my dad keeps on crashing the comments and making Ron Jeremy jokes. No, that's horrible. Wait, what is what is a Ron Jeremy?

[01:14:33] Like, come on, like what joke is he making? He's like, I mean, this is like apropos of nothing in a stream of comments. He'll be like, uh, uh, Griff, you learn that joke from the Ron Jeremy School of Comedy. Griff, any, any thoughts on Ron Jeremy?

[01:14:54] Like sometimes that's the joke is just saying that. But Griff, do you remember that the night where I think it was the second time we met after you did my show and you met my father? And I fell in love with your dad.

[01:15:05] Your dad is like a real flirt and he's so funny. And I remember being like, Griff's dad is like, he's got it. He's like very. Well, but this is what we're talking about. My dad incredibly charming. Very like king of like a cocktail party conversation.

[01:15:22] Oh my God, he was great. So fucking good at it. We had him on the podcast. He tried to cancel like 20 times. We had to like really massage him into it. He was so nervous. He came with 20 pages of notes.

[01:15:36] He ended up being really good, but he is very much one of those guys where you're like, you're so funny. You could just get up on stage and be funny like your mom. And then he tries to perform and he can't do it.

[01:15:48] Like he just his instincts go out the window. And there's that moment in this when Kavner's jokes start landing where you realize like, oh, you've been watching her for like 20 minutes. Be funny in a way that a movie character is funny, where she's making

[01:16:03] like off the cuff jokes to her daughters. And then she gets on stage and Kavner really nails the difference in performance of this isn't someone who's just naturally funny. This is someone who actually understands how to frame herself on stage.

[01:16:18] And she is heightened and it is an act. And that moment where you feel that relief of just like, oh, she knows what she's doing. Is like this beautiful moment. And also to see and it is the difference, Michelle, what we're talking about

[01:16:31] of like when you see someone, you know, bomb versus when you see someone, you know, turn out to actually be good and the relief that. But also it's like, you know, you later when they're in Vegas, you see her fans and they're like old, you know, mom type,

[01:16:45] you know, right, right there, like older ladies. Like it's clear like she knows who she's exactly who she's pitching herself to. And also when fans will come up to her, she like goes straight back into performance mode where like her response is like,

[01:17:00] oh, I hope they didn't cancel the show or like whatever. You know, like she's got some going back and forth here on my cabinet. But but she like, yeah, she like she has the persona down separate from the ways that she is funny in conversation.

[01:17:18] It turns out that she's like closer to being ready from the time she moves to New York than you would think. Right. I mean, and also after you see her in this performance we're talking about, that's when she sort of leaves the movie

[01:17:29] and it more becomes about the kids. That's when she's now just getting famous. She's sort of in and out. Yeah. And and it's like it's the Samantha Matthis, Gabby Hoffman show. That's sorry. What were you going to say, Michelle? No, I just said they're so good in it.

[01:17:42] Like they have such a good sisterly connection. They're very funny with each other. And it you know, it's really like a coming to page movie basically about this teenage girl who feels rightfully so, in my opinion, abandoned by her mother. Yeah, right.

[01:17:59] Especially because her mom's a single mom. So there's you know, there's no one else around and it's obviously tough on the mom. But it's not when I like it's not a movie where they worship the forgotten dad.

[01:18:09] Like the dad is like not even an entity until right at the end of the movie. And then when he shows up, he's not an entity. I mean, that's the sort of twist with the dad, I guess. But yeah, it's annoying.

[01:18:21] It's sucky. I would I would present it to even though like as a viewer, I understand it. You know, everyone is good at making you sympathize with everybody. When the parents aren't around, you can get into trouble.

[01:18:33] You can that's over, you know, someone to make out with them. You can fall in love with the dorkiest boy in the world. Well, yeah. Ben was disappointed this movie didn't turn into house party once she became famous. Yeah, get a flat top.

[01:18:50] Um, were any of you abandoned by parents? Like this is a good question. No, no. I was a latchkey kid. Yeah, I mean, my mom was like a city hall reporter. She got home later. Dinner time was at like eight o'clock or whatever, eight thirty.

[01:19:07] Like, you know, that was just so but that was just like how they figured it out. Like it was like, look, this is when we get home. So you're just going to stay up late. Yeah, my dad would work late, but then the weekends were mostly dad time

[01:19:19] and my mom would like lock herself in her room. Like I was like, I'll take these five days and then I need two days to just fucking decompress. I found watching it and I don't know if I don't know how it works

[01:19:30] if we can jump ahead or not. Yeah, you can jump ahead. It's not a party movie in the words of Christopher Cross. We could jump around. God bless. Say it like Marge and jump around. Here comes the shaggy attack. That's my favorite Marge line.

[01:19:46] Look out for the shack attack. I said Christopher Cross instead of Chris Cross, too. I fucked up my own joke. That's a different guy, different singer. I know. So what I was going to say, though, is that her little romance with Jay Sherman's son from the critic was.

[01:20:01] Yes. Oh my God. That's so spot on. Yeah. Because I was like, this is what's his little name? By the way, I rewatched all of the critic like the first week of quarantine. Oh, yeah. And it really holds up. It is so funny.

[01:20:14] I was like, I don't know what it is about this being locked inside that's making me remember a verge of things I loved when I was like 15. But I've been going back to watch a lot. I know a lot of people who are doing this,

[01:20:24] so watching just like cartoons and stuff they used to love. Yes, absolutely. It feels healthy. I think it's comfort. You know, the way. Yes, I've been watching a fair amount of primetime cartoons that got canceled under one season. Like what?

[01:20:37] I watched all of Mission Hill, which I think is very good. The show that Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein did after they quit the Simpsons and is all viewable on YouTube. It's a really good show. But also, I just I said this on another podcast,

[01:20:52] but I just immediately like day two of quarantine was like, I'm going to watch the first 10 Adam Sandler movies. Oh, wow. I mean, did it? Yeah, I just did. I was I'm just going to watch like everything through to 2003. And what is that?

[01:21:06] It's so hand is not in that right now. That's the next wave which I'm about to embark on. I did everything through to anger management. But Michelle, it sounds like you're us, that you're a big zoe hand fan. You're a big zoe hand.

[01:21:18] So hence and I'm a big zoe. I'm a zoe stand. We I love this is a podcast that regularly considers that zoe hand might be his crowning achievement. Yeah, let me tell you this. I believe that the the Golden Globe.

[01:21:32] I wish he had been nominated for an Oscar. So I could say I think that was to make up for not nominating him for zoe hand. Yeah, it's so funny in zoe hand. And my mother is from Israel. So it's like a very close story. Oh man. Yeah.

[01:21:43] If you have any family in Israel, you just know the culture. It is like a love letter to that country in a way because they all it's so funny. Yes. I loved it. I mean, it's terrible. It's like every movie where the first half an hour

[01:21:55] you're like on the floor laughing and then the rest of the movie is just unwatchable. But that first half hour have you ever seen the software prices right on SNL? Yes. Yes. One of my favorite sketches ever. Yeah. It's a top sketch for me of all time.

[01:22:08] It's essentially an entire movie of that sketch. That's what it is. It's the movie based on that sketch. Literally. Yeah. I believe the story behind that movie too is that like because they love Sabra prices right so much when they did it on SNL, which Smigel wrote.

[01:22:25] And would be announced there by the way on it. When Sandler had like his first or second movie like after maybe Happy Gilmore, they were like, let's write this script. And then they made the script. Shopped around to everyone

[01:22:39] and they were like, you will never make this movie. What the fuck are you doing? And to an extent the next 10 years plus of Adam Sandler's career, where him trying to build up the like box office prowess that no one could turn down Zohan anymore. And they didn't.

[01:22:57] And you know what? I'm glad it was made. It's better than some of his other movies for sure. It's better than most of them. It might be the best one. Thank you for being on my side about this. Absolutely. The little guy that she sleeps with.

[01:23:08] Oh, he's so good. I'm looking up his name now. He looks him up already. He has like no credits, I believe after 2005. He has a very tragic story. No, he does. Yeah. He was bipolar and had addiction issues. And he is unfortunately not alive anymore.

[01:23:25] No, you're kidding me. I know there's a very had a whole career before. I mean, he was in like, I don't know. He was in a bunch of stuff, right? Like he was in IQ. I was in my like a bad person.

[01:23:36] I was like, he doesn't have any credits after 2005. The same thing. Day of death. It looks like his last movie was basically what planet are you from? I mean, he was never a big star. He just has like a bunch of sort of like, you know,

[01:23:52] six credits and supporting roles or whatever. Oh, no. Oh, he died in 2012, 44 guy. Yeah. Jordan String, his sister. I think it's on Huffington Post. There's a really good piece that his sister wrote about him and sort of the lack of good infrastructure for health care in this country.

[01:24:09] Can you even go there with me? It's horrible. It's terrible. It's terrible. It's a good piece if you want to feel depressed, but it's, you know, someone standing up and saying, we need to build a society that offers more support to people like this.

[01:24:22] I've been in such a great mood lately. I could really go for a downer right now. Yeah. I think I'll look that up. Yeah. If you need to push me down, what's the opposite of a pick me up? Yeah, I need someone to shove me down, baby.

[01:24:33] Yeah. I gotta sign this thing. Yeah, there's nothing going on in the world that's really troubling at all. Yeah, I'm feeling too good. No, my nostrils are breathing in the same stale air since February 20th of 2000 and the 20th.

[01:24:48] But yeah, we all basically just live on an airplane now, live on our own airplane. Yeah, you're breathing in that leap day air. Yeah, I love that leap day air. Yeah, but this kid is so fucking good. And the section of the movie is just like

[01:25:02] because I was so ready for like, oh, this is one of those weird first movies like James Cameron making Piranha 2, where then the second film the director is just fully formed. Like suddenly the next movie is sleepless in Seattle and she just has it all down.

[01:25:15] But this movie has so many good touches. Like for someone who doesn't come from a filmmaking background, doesn't come from a technical background, is just a writer. She clearly is just such a good storyteller that there are even some really nice visual touches

[01:25:31] in like how this movie is handled and the sex scene in particular is just like the framing of everything is so ideal where it's it's so honestly awkward. Like it is one of the only teen sex scenes I have seen

[01:25:45] that is awkward in the way that you say it's over. I can't remember what exactly his. Yes, I think it's over. It's done. There is something like that. Just the writing, the performances, the framing, the editing.

[01:25:58] Like I feel like all teen sex scenes are either way too sexy or way too awkward in like a porky's way where it's just like, well, no human being has ever behaved like this. And this has like the patience to make it like the actual comedy moments

[01:26:14] are just like let's hold on the close up while he's trying to get the condom on and frame for like a full minute. You know? But like it's not a bit because the condom thing I feel like in teen movies is normally it's slipping around. Right.

[01:26:30] I don't know how to put it on. They're putting on their head. It's like surprising. They do put it on their head a lot, which is a classic mistake. Such a classic mistake. It doesn't go there. All those Howie Mandel teen movies.

[01:26:42] Oh, are we talking about Howie Mandel? Because I have time. Please. I'll be here all day. I love me some Mandel. I mean, well, hey, you said you were trying to my father. My father was regularly mistaken for Mandel in the 80s.

[01:26:54] It was I'm going to send you a photo, Michelle, and this is done. Dead fucking ringer. Having I have seen your dad in the 80s and yes, I'm going to say something that you're not going to like. What if I was like, I have slept with Howie Mandel

[01:27:08] and it was the most incredible night of my life? No, he did my show. OK. And I was so ready for that to be true. In person. What is he? 60? Yeah. You know, I think not touching germs helps.

[01:27:20] Yeah. Like he always knew Howie was always ahead of the curve. Him and Mark Summers. Mandel has been there and he was so funny and so attractive that it actually really threw me for a loop. I was not prepared. Wow.

[01:27:33] Thank you for letting me speak my truth. Of course. Sixty four years old. He's good. Jeez. It looks better than me right now. Also, I will not. I mean, it's 10 times better than me and not true. It does.

[01:27:46] My dad would literally people at bars would be like Mandel, Mandel, can I take a photo? And my dad would very commonly have to say like, I'm sorry, I know I look like him. I'm not Howie Mandel and people would not accept it.

[01:27:58] They were like, oh, I see how it is trying to big time us, Mandel. Just because you know Ed Beckley, Jr. doesn't mean you're better than me. You don't have time for your fans, Mandel. Go fuck yourself. I just wanted you to sign my Bobby's World, Stan D.

[01:28:14] I love Bobby's World. Rachel, that might be my next quarantine watch, actually. Bobby's World is great. People used to stop my mother in the early 70s and they thought that she was Julie Neumar. Oh, actress. Yeah. And which is why I have issues.

[01:28:29] And she would sign autographs as Julie Neumar. Wow. Oh, so she would just she would just go for it. She didn't give a shit. My mother was it out like out of a loud loony sec, you know? Yeah. She would be like Meow from Julie.

[01:28:44] Why I've talked about this before, but my my mom used to be frequently mistaken for Holly Hunter. And she would do the Gryffins mother looks very similar to Holly Hunter. Very similar. And like they're the same size and everything. She doesn't sound like her.

[01:29:01] The voice is very different. No, but she would do the Don't Ask, Don't Tell thing where like if she went into a store and started getting special treatment, right? She would do Ocean's 12. I can tell they think I'm Holly Hunter. I'm going to speak as little as possible

[01:29:15] and just not give them any reason to think I'm not but not lie. I like that, though. Yeah, I think women for the most well depends on who it is, but usually flattered. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What was I could say about the scene we were talking about?

[01:29:31] Oh, well, you said awkward boy, awkward boy. The the decision and it's like not called out, but the child's bed where the angle she chooses for the majority of the actual sex is like heavily framed around his headboard, which is some like child's cowboy design.

[01:29:51] It's so good. It's so good. And I also think this actor who is so good, it's so tragic. What happened to him? But when he shows up on screen, I was like, oh, boy, is this going to be like this kid is such a loser?

[01:30:07] The movie is like really dunking on him. They let him be really charming in spite of him being a very goofy kid seen in the park. You're like, I understand why she would fall for this guy.

[01:30:20] And it feels like, oh my God, it was so cute and nice and like innocent and sweet. It was nice. It's like the inverse of Nick Cage and Peggy Sue got married where it's like, oh, the guy who was hot in your mind's eye

[01:30:34] and the movie wants you to realize that he was actually really lame. So he does the dorky voice. And in this, it's like this kid looks like a classic teen movie dork. And then when he starts talking to her, you're like, he's like a good listener.

[01:30:48] He's pretty charming. He makes good jokes. And that scene afterwards where the mom seems like very like new wave accepting, walking in on them having sex. You're a gynecologist? Yes. And then you find out it's because she's a gynecologist and she makes them sit down for a lesson.

[01:31:06] And she I know you recognize these. Your ovaries is a very good line. It's so good. All of this is so good. And I love that Samantha Mathis and the narration frames it as like and mom disappears just while the most important thing of my entire life happened.

[01:31:22] No, that's just that's the back half of this movie. Right? It's the math this thing. It's the her resentment building up to the point that she decides to take an Amtrak to Albany or whatever to try and find her dad. But you see Julie Kavner,

[01:31:37] them watching Kavner on I think it's on the Kleghorn show. This is that scene, right? Where she makes the joke. All right. Yeah. About her daughter changing her name to the boyfriend's name and Samantha Mathis like flips out.

[01:31:53] Yeah. And early in the movie, they keep on saying like, you got to give us credit like that was our joke. We were the ones who told you to do a bit about that. But for the first time, they are becoming the material. Yeah.

[01:32:06] And it is like it's the everything is copy thing. Like you can tell it rings true for Efron, who also co-wrote this with Yili Efron, like it's two sisters writing a movie to be directed by one of them as the children of a playwright, screenwriter mother

[01:32:23] who told them everything should be turned into material. Yeah. And I just I just love the thing with the dad when they're like so many of these movies, the dad is going to be a fuck up. And instead he's just like, oh, it's you. Oh, hi.

[01:32:36] What's up? Like, you know, like he's just so uninterested in them. It's it's one of two things. It's either like the dad is a major fuck up asshole. He's like a charming fuck up. He's like Kyle Chandler in the spectacular now. Right. We're like, well, I get it.

[01:32:50] But also this guy can't like hold it together. Or it's like end of boyhood, Ethan Hawke, where you're like, oh, it's a shame. Like now he has a family. He knows how to be a wild to figure it out. Could have been me.

[01:33:04] I was stuck being the first kid. And this is just like he's just such a piece of shit in such a way. He looks like an ad for an accountant before the movie starts. I was right. OK, right. That was face and person.

[01:33:18] Let me add that I found the performance almost borderline anti-Semitic comes as I am. I was like, are you fucking kidding? You like not to direct this? Everyone in this movie is Jewish, though.

[01:33:31] Now he's like, so you're my kids and what am I expecting to do about it? Yeah, blah, blah. What do you want from me? Hugging the kids. Oh, yeah, mother's a comic. Big surprise. A lot of people used to laugh at it behind the back.

[01:33:43] But anyway, all right, it was like so I was like, what? Like, well, who made the choice to make him this like weirdo accountant, nasty Jewish guy? So weird and ugly. That having been said, he's not an attractive man. That having been said. He's just completely uninspiring.

[01:34:01] There's the only thing you can do is buy them a ticket home. Like that is his only like, you know who was good? The wife, who's a well known actress. She's great. Yeah. And she's in a lot of these, you know, the F-R-I movies.

[01:34:15] And that's example of like a character that is so often just so shitty. But she's just polite about it. She's like, oh, yeah, he might have mentioned he had some daughters. No, like a lifetime ago. You want some lemonade?

[01:34:30] Yeah. And also what kind of woman marries a man who has two grown daughters and he's a fucking piece of shit. If this were my husband, I would be like, get your bald accounting app up and you bother those children. What kind of a monster is she?

[01:34:44] It's tough in like rental air or wherever it is they live. Like, come on. I do think Caroline Aaron though, like in her performance actually convincingly sells the one type of woman who would be oblivious enough to not tell her husband to be a better father.

[01:35:02] She's not being angry at the past wife and kids. All right, who's just like, oh, OK, right. Like, oh, the daughters. Right. Right. OK, yeah. Right. I knew it. Yeah. He mentioned that he went to he went to Cornell. He had two daughters. I always forget these things.

[01:35:24] She's even like, he does something in middle something. Yeah, like something in the middle. I don't really know a middle man for fruit. And yeah. And by the way, like how old is Gabby Hoffman in this movie? Eight. At most. If that I mean seven.

[01:35:42] It's not like the kids are 27 years old and they're like, Danny. Yeah, she's a tiny girl. Yeah, it's cool. Now, I didn't like that. I didn't like that. No, she is so much more warm to them than he does.

[01:35:53] But it is to the point like what kind of woman would not tell her husband to be a better father or tell them keep him in the rear view? I never want to hear you talk about them again.

[01:36:05] The exact type of woman who doesn't know what her husband does for a living. Maybe you might have a point. Like it's pretty consistent characterization. I agree with you that in real life, it's hard to imagine someone doing that. But I think this film creates a good example.

[01:36:19] The other moment that I think is just such a good like Efron kind of shorthand is the whole sort of extended Vegas chunk where they go to where they discover that she's in a romantic relationship with Dan at court as well.

[01:36:36] But that whole mini arc with Gabby Hoffman falling in love with the tech guy. He's so cute with his men's cap. Cute mid 20s guy who treats an eight year old like a grown up,

[01:36:48] which to her is just like, oh my God, this is what love must feel like. Like someone is actually respecting me and is like letting me wear the hat and sit in the chair and she just keeps on looking up at him so lovingly.

[01:37:02] And then her and Samantha Mathis have such different responses to Julie Kavanaer's bit about falling in love, which is her best stand up bit in the movie, I think. But but the fact that Mathis is furious because she's like mom's a hypocrite.

[01:37:16] There's no way she believes in love. She's not even like saying material that means anything to her anymore. And Gabby Hoffman is like, I get it. Like finally this rings true to me, truth and comedy.

[01:37:27] And then the sneaking out of the bedroom, them just finding the Mets hat. Yeah, Samantha Mathis consoling her. You think that's a dead end? And then the like double twist of she's sleeping with Ackroyd,

[01:37:40] not the kid, but also the reason the hat was there was because he gave it to Gabby Hoffman and she like swooned. It's so sweet. Yeah, what did we think about how like when you're a certain age, like you just hate your parents?

[01:38:00] That's what this movie reminded me of. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like why though? Why do we all do that? Because it's a thing. It's a thing you have to go through is the sort of like, wait, wait, they're actually like these guys are idiots.

[01:38:14] Like that just that sort of dawning realization. Yeah, I think it's that exact thing. You hit an age where you start getting cynical and realizing that the world sucks. And then part and parcel with that is, oh, my parents suck.

[01:38:26] Look at all these fucked up things they did. And then you get a little older and you're like, oh, no one knows what they're doing. You loop all the way back around to like sympathy for your parents. Or you're like, I guess they relatively did all right.

[01:38:42] Well, let's just let's just wrap up the movie very quickly. OK, they go to the father. They have this sort of brush off. They get in the train back to New York City where Julie Kavner is waiting for them at the train station.

[01:38:55] There's the heartbreaking scene before that where they're washing her on TV and Samantha Mathis starts doing her impression of a Julie Kavner routine. That scene for me. And I don't know because I'm a daughter. I'm the only daughter here on the show right now. That killed me.

[01:39:10] Like the idea of it was so raw. I can't explain it. That was one of the moments because I'm very close to my mom, but we have like a pretentious relationship, even though we talk almost every day.

[01:39:20] We do fight a lot and seeing that, I don't know, for some reason, really struck a chord because it was just like seeing how angry. And I actually am on the side of Samantha Mathis in the movie. I think she has a real right to be angry. Yeah.

[01:39:32] Watching her process, her her abandonment and her anger with her mom for me was almost too close. I was like, shit, this is like real. And the shift from everyone else in the room laughing at her doing the impression

[01:39:45] to the impression goes on too long and it gets too angry. No one's laughing anymore than to Julie Kavner has walked in and is listening and she doesn't know and she's still going on. And then their big fight that Julie Kavner essentially saying like,

[01:39:58] this is my coming of age movie. I never got to have a coming of age movie. You need to let me do this. And then the movie wraps up very quickly. Very quick. Kavner has the sort of like come to Jesus moment with

[01:40:11] Acroyd while they're visiting the dad when they get off the train. She's not angry at them. And then Mathis says that very sweet thing about like, and it was the one time she never gave me a life lesson when there probably was one to give.

[01:40:21] And then the movie ends with them like pitching a mom on a sitcom where she could work normal hours. And I like it ends with it being like, yeah, no one's going to change here. Like everyone's going to this is the situation.

[01:40:33] We just got to live with it. Right. And and and also Julie Kavner being like, it's very weird getting very successful very suddenly. And she also wears that line where she's like, I was miserable when you were happy and now that I'm happy, you're miserable.

[01:40:47] Like that's a great summary of it all. And as a Fisher says, like every child only wants their mother to be happy. And she's like, no, a child would rather their mother was suicidal but home with them than in Hawaii and happy. Yeah.

[01:41:01] Right. Because that's what kids, that's what parents. Yeah, that's the role we see them as especially when you're Gabby Hoffman's age. Yeah, totally good fucking ends on a freeze frame as they laugh and then the totally insane Carly Simon song flings again and gives us a V end.

[01:41:16] This is 1990. Like this is not like I don't know that is going out of style. But no, yeah, I'm in the end. I fired this movie up and I saw that it was 90 minutes. That was the first time I cried from happiness. It was like, thank fucking God.

[01:41:31] A perfect, a perfect length and a classic sitcom episode ending. It's going to be good for this many series in general. I feel like Nora never broke two hours, right? Yeah. Anyway, so this movie was a total bomb.

[01:41:44] It made like two million dollars total three, I think, like, and it's so irrelevant that it's not there's no box up his data for it. I'm just looking at the weekend. It supposedly came out, but it was clearly out of the top 10. Mm hmm.

[01:41:57] I hate to say it, but February 21st, 1992, Griffin. What was the number one movie? It's a comedy. It was beloved by, you know, teens. Is it Wayne's World? Yes, it's Wayne's World. Wow, that's all you needed. You have a hard out.

[01:42:16] So I'm really putting the pressure on myself to try to guess all of these really quickly, but I had a gut feeling. I remembered Wayne's World being a February release. Yeah, Wayne's World two weekends in two weeks. It's made 30 million bucks.

[01:42:28] It was such a huge hit, my God. I know it's not even one of those things where you're like, oh, that was a big surprise hit relative to expectations. It was just a flat out mega hit. Mega hit and also is a perfect movie is a great movie.

[01:42:41] As everyone's doing all these perfect movies on Twitter, that's a top to bottom, perfect movie. Yeah, there's nothing in Wayne's World that doesn't work. All right. Number two is a famous bomb. Action star doing comedy. Stopper My Mom Will Shoot. Holy shit. That's right. Wow.

[01:43:00] I'm telling you, Michelle, I work well under pressure and I got to get David out in the next three minutes. Wait, Ben, is that a Ben's Choice? Yeah, I love that movie. Oh, come on, odd couple. Maybe we should do stopper My Mom Will Shoot.

[01:43:16] I mean, all right. Number three. Number three again, this is just I guess this would just go straight to Hulu now. It's like an adaptation of a bestselling Oprah's book club type novel that was like a pretty big hit. Beloved? No. No, I'm just saying things.

[01:43:33] I'm out of this. No, you're not out of this. It's not Bridges and Madison County. Is it? No, it's like soul food or wedding to exhale. Yeah, you know, down in the Delta movies. No, Prince of Tides. No, these are all fine guesses. Can we better hint?

[01:43:51] Hope Springs. No, that's about female friendship. Boys in On the Side. No, good movie. How to make an American quilt? No, great movie, though. Oh my God. Fuck, I feel like we're so close to this. Um, it's not. Tomatoes. Yes. OK. Wow. Two Oscar winners. Yeah. Come on.

[01:44:12] That's a good movie, but it would go straight to Hulu if it were made today. You know what I mean? Like, seriously, I'd be like, what? It's about ladies and get out of here. That thing's going. Yeah, that thing's going to voodoo.

[01:44:23] Yes, unfortunately, it would be a crackle original if it were made today. Unfairly. Unfairly. Number four is a movie that we might cover on this podcast one day because it's probably one of the least well known movies by this action director. Is it? Is it Cameron?

[01:44:44] No, we've done Cameron already. Is it it's not Bay? Is it McTiernan? Yep. Wow. Shit. Is it what's a couple like the old couple that plays charades or whatever we're discussing. I'm not even playing anymore. I'm like, it's it's not No Mads Griffin. It's the other one.

[01:45:01] It's the other lesser known one that I'm fucking forgetting. Can you just because I want to get you out and Sean Connery is the star? Oh, it's it's not Rising Sun. No, although that is Sean Connery movie Lorraine Bracco, Sean and Lorraine. Jagged Edge. What's this?

[01:45:17] No, it's called Medicine. Man. Oh, Jesus Christ. Right. Which I can't I've never seen but can't wait to watch number five. OK. Huge hit, sort of a, I don't know, like a trashy word of mouth smash hit. This was a Disney movie, which is insane to think about.

[01:45:38] And it's a holdover from the previous year, I'm guessing. No, I think came out in January. It's like a thriller. Word of mouth smashed it. Keep going. It's like it could happen to you. Hey, there you go. There you go. The hand that rocks the cradle.

[01:45:55] Oh, I love that movie. Rebecca DeMorne and other stuff. I'm a. Annabelle Shara and Rebecca DeMorne. Oh. So that's the Barclays game. I am going to peace out, but you guys should keep talking. OK, I don't have all day either.

[01:46:11] I have to go put a new T-shirt on. We're going to we're going to wrap the show up. We all have shirts to change into. Michelle, thank you so much for being on the show. Michelle Collins, so still happening five days a week?

[01:46:23] Every morning, seven to 10 a.m. on Sirius 109. Follow me on Instagram also at mishcall. If you've made it this far, you can see what I look like with makeup on. Thank you. And I'm going to show you the best

[01:46:34] guessing soon and by my demand often because I need things to do with my life. You're the best and our listeners are the best. And thank you all for listening and please remember to rate, review, subscribe thanks to Andrew Guto for co-producing this show.

[01:46:51] Rachel Jacobs for editing help, Lame Montgomery for our theme song, Joe Bonaparte, Reynolds for our artwork. Go to blankies.red.com for some real nerdy shit and go to patreon.com backstash blank check for blank check special features where

[01:47:05] we'll be talking about the Mission Impossible movies, I think by this point. And as always, if I can please read the lyrics of Carly Simons, you are the love of my life that play over the end credits of this movie. Quickly, Griffin, Jesus. Here we go.

[01:47:24] You can you can end the call. I'm going to read them for the audience, David. You can drive me crazy. Bye. You can drive me crazy. You can drive me anywhere. Here are the keys. Just do as you please. It may not always be easy,

[01:47:47] but you are the love of my life. What a fucking demented song.