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FH Mini 80 - Behind the Scenes

mini May 13, 2023 00:51:47
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Transcript

[0:00] Hey everyone and welcome to the Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy. I'm Stuart Wellington. And
[0:09] I'm Elliot Kalin saying Dan and I may be on strike from work right now, but we're not
[0:13] on strike from your hearts. And we know there's a lot of people out there who want to support
[0:17] us writers while we Writers Guild writers try to do right by our fellow writers against
[0:21] the AMPTP jerks, I'll just call them what they are, who refuse to pay us our due. Hey,
[0:27] if you'd like to support writers like we are, why don't you go to entertainmentcommunity.org
[0:31] and make a donation. Used to be called the Actors Fund, now it's for the whole entertainment
[0:35] community. Entertainment Community Fund. Go to donate and choose the Film and Television
[0:40] Workers section. That's going to help not only writers who may need help during this
[0:43] strike if it goes long, but also writers assistants and all sorts of support staff who also will
[0:49] need help and are also out of work right now because of this showdown that doesn't need
[0:53] to happen, but which the big execs decided to make happen. That's right. We didn't need
[0:57] to bring around, bring about Ragnarok. They brought Ragnarok, but now we're going to rock
[1:02] it all night long. Thanks for putting that in perspective for me. Starting with this
[1:06] hit from Katrina and the waves. OK, well, you might think that Elliot's in charge of
[1:12] this, but he's not. He's just and I turn into a DJ halfway through there. I don't know how
[1:17] that happened. Full of fervor and fever for his union. Your union, too. Yeah, my union
[1:24] as well. Well, I'm not as full of fervor and fever. Fever a little bit. How are you doing,
[1:28] Dan? You doing OK? I did a lot of walking yesterday. Yeah. So, yeah, the strike's going
[1:35] on. Thank you for bringing it up, because honestly, that was the thing I was going to
[1:38] start with. I was walking the picket line yesterday. That's also this song from Katrina
[1:44] and the waves. I'm walking the picket line. Whoa, whoa. I'm walking the picket line. Whoa.
[1:52] And don't it feel necessary? Dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee. Uh huh. Uh, yeah.
[2:00] And so I buy into a little bit of the thinking that devalues writers because I was I was
[2:06] mostly excited to see the various actors I recognize on the picket line. I wasn't like,
[2:13] Oh, look at that famous. Right. I mean, like, I guess, you know, Starlee Kine was there.
[2:17] She's a she's a well-known writer, although probably most well-known because she did podcasts
[2:21] anyway. And he saw Josh Gondelman. He's also a Josh Gondelman, but also notorious. Josh
[2:27] Gondelman, mostly known for. Yeah. For cocaine and for being a stand up. There's not a lot
[2:35] of there's not a lot of celebrity in writerhood, but I did see Dalton Trumbo would say, fuck
[2:41] off, dude. Yeah, that's a classic Dalton. He's a screenwriter. Yeah. Or have you ever
[2:47] Patty Chayefsky would be like Patty Chayefsky, you, Dan, for not mentioning me. Yeah. OK.
[2:52] He came up with a couple. I mean, they're both good to you. Yeah. William Goldman. He's
[2:56] he's known. But Tony Gilroy. Yeah. Tennessee Williams would be like, oh, now I see a play
[3:04] writing where I feel like there is more of a modicum of celebrity in a way that for some
[3:11] reason. Well, it for some reason, because playwrights own their work and are associated
[3:14] with their work, whereas screenwriters traditionally have to sell their work and are removed from
[3:18] their work. It's called labor's alienation from from the product of its labor, Dan. And
[3:23] we have to talk about it. So today on the Flophouse Mini, I'm in charge now. Sorry,
[3:28] no. So, yeah, I saw Zach Cherry and possibly Helley from Severance, his co-star. I was
[3:37] cool. I saw Gina Gershon on the picket line. Most importantly, of course, I bury the lead,
[3:43] Dan. Why did you bury the lead that Gina? My favorites was on the picket line. Very
[3:48] excited. Very excited. Meanwhile, who would I see? Zach Braff. Great. Thanks. But also,
[3:54] of course, even more exciting to 80s kids will remember. Curtis Armstrong was there. Oh,
[3:59] well, on the line. The entire mountains made of snow. Yeah, I get it. Mm hmm. The the top
[4:07] hatted best friend from Better Off Dead. Yeah. And for many other 80s comedies,
[4:12] uh, anyway, always have a top hat. Uh, I think he mostly did. I think I'm better off. Daddy did.
[4:19] Yeah. I mean, certainly better off dead. But no, no, I don't I don't think it's booger. He wore a
[4:24] top hat. That would undercut the character booger by giving him a affectation like a top hat. Yeah,
[4:30] I think of him more of a slob than a snob. But, you know, it's possible it could be a snobby snob.
[4:35] Now, uh, we're not a slob. We're not covered by the writer's strike here in the flop house for
[4:43] two reasons. One, hold on a second. In those slobs versus snobs movies, OK, we're always
[4:48] supposed to be on the slob side. But what if that slob was Slobodan Milosevic? I think I
[4:52] would be on the snob side in that one. I mean, I'm not loving that. No, that's what you're not
[4:58] going to know. Right. I think that culture has proven that in a lot of the cases we should have
[5:04] been on the snob side in those movies. I mean, I guess culture has proven there were no good
[5:10] guys in those movies. That's true. Yes. It was just. Yeah, it's just like the classic
[5:15] slobs versus snobs movie Predator versus Alien. No matter who wins, we lose. It's like a Mad
[5:19] Magazine spy versus spy comic. You're not especially supposed to root for either spy.
[5:24] You're supposed to see the gray spy because she's a sexy lady. The situation. I remember
[5:30] unending battle to no end. I remember explaining to a bar regular once some of the I don't I don't
[5:38] know, some of the gross stuff in Revenge of the Nerds. And he got so angry like that. I pulled
[5:43] the I pulled the scales from his. He got so angry that he screamed at nerds like poker and ripped up
[5:48] the bar. Oh, if only. Now, guys, not that we need to spend any more time on this, but I'm pretty sure
[5:53] that the alien would be the slob and the predator would be the snob. Prove me wrong. What do you
[5:58] think? Let's see. Well, I mean, the predator does. It's hard to say a lot of gadgets. The predator
[6:05] hunts for sport. Yeah, that's which is which is shared by snobs. And the alien is literally
[6:11] drooling all the time. That's pretty sloppy. True. The drooling more so. I mean, like there
[6:17] are plenty of aliens who hunt. I mean, it's not it's not a it's not a it's for all people.
[6:23] And I think the predators and the predators mouth is pretty moist, too, now that I think about it.
[6:27] And the aliens always trying to get laid after a fashion. Yeah, that's classic slob behavior. Yep.
[6:35] I believe Ridley Scott described the alien as always trying to get.
[6:39] Mm hmm. Now, the xenomorph, what defines the xenomorph is that he's always trying to get some.
[6:49] This is also not what this this episode of The Flop House Mini is about. But returning to this,
[6:55] I was trying to say I was I was this is all preamble, by the way. So what's this podcast?
[7:03] Oh, it's not just about you name dropping who you saw on the picket line.
[7:06] I mean, I had a plan. But as you know, when man makes a plan, Elliot and Stuart laugh.
[7:17] Uh, no. So in the spirit of the writer's strike now, obviously, we're not covered by that here
[7:24] on the podcast for two reasons. One, we don't write this to what to. We are more importantly,
[7:33] we own the the the show. So there's no one to strike against in this case.
[7:39] And there's nothing there's nothing in the strike rule saying we cannot create independent media
[7:43] that is entirely owned by us. Profits accrue to us. No executives allowed.
[7:50] But for this mini, I've gone pencils down and I'm taking a series of questions from a listener
[8:00] named Aaron, who I'm afraid, Aaron, technically now you're a scab
[8:05] because this is not a guild covered. All right. All right. And Aaron had a bunch of behind the
[8:15] scenes questions. And I thought this was also in the spirit of the strike, because this presage
[8:20] is the kind of bad reality programming you'll get without. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This is now this
[8:28] is now officially a documentary. We're talking reality programming behind the scenes. You know,
[8:32] I know you've got your your shows. Yeah, I got my stories and reality producers as people who
[8:38] are crafting narratives, be it through editing or through writing, should be members of the
[8:41] should be covered by the guild. Yes. You know, so just another way that the people, the money,
[8:48] money people are screwing over the actual workers. But yeah, here we go. So this is
[8:54] these are a series of behind the scenes questions. OK, now the first one is how I'm going to be
[9:02] amazed if there's anything we haven't already covered on the film. I guess the Beach Pit,
[9:05] which is this is true. Yeah. I can't I can't wait till the Peach Pit episode on this episode
[9:12] when that drops. I see. So this is part this is part of a list of of things. So maybe
[9:18] is it meant to stay at home? The first question is, how do you make an episode which is kind of
[9:23] a broad topic to cover? So maybe we'll circle back and see how well we've done at saying how
[9:30] we make an episode. Answer badly. How long does it take to edit now? So these days are directed to me,
[9:43] the guy who edits every moment of this podcast. These days, producer Alex does it. And frankly,
[9:52] I have no idea how long he takes. OK, so we're all for you for questions right now,
[9:56] one we refuse to answer and one we don't know the answer to.
[10:00] We'll come back to the first one, we'll see what we have left.
[10:03] Two strikes.
[10:04] Producer Alex, I think, I'm pretty sure he puts more time into it than I did when I edited
[10:12] it.
[10:13] Surely not.
[10:14] When I edited the show.
[10:15] How is that even possible?
[10:16] Dan, you would hand craft every moment, yeah.
[10:21] Here's the thing, the show is edited very little.
[10:24] We will cut out stuff, I'm sure this shocks people.
[10:27] We will cut out stuff that, after the fact, we're like, if we feel like we've said something
[10:32] that we don't want to stand behind, or like we've said it wrong.
[10:36] LA goes on a crazy rant, like a super conservative rant, we're like, what are you talking about?
[10:41] The audience has been saved from my one world government rants and things like that.
[10:47] But I mean, I think none of us are perfect.
[10:49] So occasionally we'll say something and we're like, I'm not comfortable with the way that
[10:52] came out.
[10:53] Like, I feel like it may be construed as something that I did not intend.
[11:00] So if you hear anything kind of fucked up come out of my mouth, you're like, oh, wow.
[11:04] What's the stuff that he took out?
[11:05] He stands behind what he's saying 100%.
[11:09] That's the lesson that you should take.
[11:11] Everything on the podcast from now on, I'm playing a character, the character said that.
[11:17] Come on, babies.
[11:19] Levels of indemnification.
[11:21] This is a real Jon Stewart saying, I'm just, you know, I just make jokes, a thing going
[11:25] on.
[11:26] Oh, no.
[11:27] Yeah, very little gets cut, bathroom breaks get cut, we find that listeners probably don't
[11:33] love those.
[11:34] Yeah, because we're not mic'd up in there yet.
[11:37] Yeah, we don't have.
[11:38] Yeah, we'll bring the mics in there someday, yeah, for the plophouse.
[11:41] Sorry, we should cut that joke.
[11:44] Yeah, cut that one out.
[11:46] In the old days when I did it, I mostly, like early on, I was like, let me tighten
[11:52] this thing up.
[11:53] Let me cut out, you know, ums and errs and whatnots and, I mean, not whatnots, occasionally
[11:59] those are important to the construction of the sentence, but I would cut them out.
[12:03] But then I found that, number one, I didn't like to do the work and number two, you mess
[12:08] with sort of natural conversational timing too much and it sounds weird.
[12:12] So I just would sort of, you know, put on the front and back of the show, the theme,
[12:20] figure out the outtakes from like when we're babbling ahead of time, put in ads, et cetera,
[12:25] like all the very obvious cuts are most of the cuts that exist.
[12:29] I think Alex is a little bit better about dealing with overtalk if he hears it and that's
[12:36] why the show now sounds better than when I was in charge.
[12:39] Now it has minimum overtalk, whereas during Dan's reign it was maximum overtalk, just
[12:43] like the Stephen King movie of the same name in which all of the world's telephones come
[12:49] to life, which now that I think about it is kind of the plot of Cell, a very good Stephen
[12:54] King novel.
[12:55] So maybe I shouldn't make fun of him.
[12:57] Yeah.
[12:58] How much gets cut?
[12:59] I mean, like I think we've been over that, so we can put that question in the rear view.
[13:04] What kinds of things have gotten cut in the past?
[13:06] Too hot for TV.
[13:07] Again, not really too hot for TV, too dumb for us.
[13:14] Too poorly phrased for TV, I guess sometimes.
[13:18] Yeah.
[13:19] I mean, I'm sure that I've like said something that was insensitive, but in the rhythm of
[13:24] the show, any details got lost.
[13:31] What else?
[13:32] Dan's involved in dealing with remote recording and syncing.
[13:37] So this is all really fascinating stuff, again, trying to scare you out.
[13:42] I haven't seen any...
[13:43] Oh, wait, Dan, were you talking?
[13:44] I was just about to say I haven't seen any problems with remote recording, right?
[13:47] Yeah.
[13:48] Yeah, because I think we're doing fine.
[13:50] Sorry, Dan, were you talking about?
[13:51] It's a funny bit that's happening that is too much like real life.
[13:55] A little hilarious real bit.
[13:57] Dan seems to say it's funny and he's smiling, but his eyes aren't smiling.
[14:03] My eyes are always smiling because they're Irish.
[14:06] Oh, wow.
[14:08] Irish eyes, even when you're cutting your finger off and thrown it at your best friend's
[14:13] door, your Irish eyes are smiling every time.
[14:16] Yeah.
[14:17] Former best friend's door.
[14:18] I guess if they were still best friends, he wouldn't have had to cut off his finger and
[14:21] throw it at his door.
[14:22] I mean, that dude sucked, right?
[14:25] He's a bummer.
[14:26] Oh, no.
[14:27] Yeah.
[14:28] Wait, which one?
[14:29] Padraic.
[14:30] Padraic.
[14:31] Padraic.
[14:32] What's his name?
[14:33] The one.
[14:34] Like, that's why he broke up with him.
[14:35] Right.
[14:36] It's because he's a bummer.
[14:37] He's not a good friend.
[14:38] I mean, he is a bummer.
[14:39] I don't know if he's not a good friend, necessarily.
[14:40] It seems like he's a good friend.
[14:42] Seems like the guy doing the breakup is maybe not the nicest guy.
[14:45] Yes, that's true.
[14:46] Yeah.
[14:47] I mean, I understand his reasons.
[14:49] I have sympathy for both of them.
[14:50] That's the beauty of the movie.
[14:52] You can understand.
[14:54] I think everyone's been on one side or the other of that, or both.
[14:57] Anyway.
[14:58] You've either just wanted to focus on your music, or you've just wanted to tell your
[15:01] friend about what's going on with your pet donkey, you know?
[15:05] You've wanted to throw severed fingers at someone, or you...
[15:09] So much.
[15:10] Or is it a donkey or a pony?
[15:11] I'm trying to remember now.
[15:12] It's a donkey.
[15:13] It's a donkey.
[15:14] Okay.
[15:15] Because it's very small.
[15:16] Yeah.
[15:17] Jenny's a small donkey.
[15:18] Yeah.
[15:19] They call it a smonkey.
[15:20] Wow.
[15:22] Recording remotely is fairly easy in this modern world.
[15:27] We have a Zoom, like you've seen at your office or on TV or during the pandemic.
[15:34] We're all familiar with Zooms.
[15:36] Keep giving them examples of where they might have seen Zooms.
[15:40] We get a Zoom room, you know, like the song Boom Boom in the Zoom room.
[15:47] Dan, I love that you are the one who is running this mini.
[15:50] You chose to answer these questions, and you're answering them as if you were stalling
[15:54] for time to keep a kidnapper on the phone line.
[15:57] Well, here's the thing.
[15:58] You guys are so loose.
[16:01] Yeah, that's true.
[16:02] The thing is about these answers is they're not essentially interesting, so we got the
[16:06] Zazz and Muppet.
[16:07] Oh!
[16:08] I didn't know we needed Zazz.
[16:10] Okay.
[16:11] Hey, ChatGPT, just add 10% more Zazz on these answers.
[16:14] 10%.
[16:15] No, Stu!
[16:16] Stu!
[16:17] That's the whole point of the strike.
[16:18] We're not doing that.
[16:19] ChatGPT, if you could Zazz it up a little bit.
[16:21] Why aren't we going to Zazzle.com while we're at it?
[16:24] Oh, wow!
[16:27] This was very scary to me.
[16:28] I saw an article where someone had AI write like a short episode of 30 Rock about the
[16:34] strike, and I read the script that was supposedly AI produced, and I was like, well, this is
[16:39] bad.
[16:40] It's not funny.
[16:41] The character voices are wrong.
[16:42] The plot doesn't make sense.
[16:43] The scenes don't go anywhere, but it doesn't read like a computer wrote it.
[16:46] It reads like a bad writer wrote it.
[16:48] And that really scared me, that if AI is already at the level of writing what bad writers
[16:52] can write.
[16:53] It was very frightening.
[16:54] So I guess what I'm saying is, ChatGPT, if you can Zazz this up a little bit.
[16:57] Just Zazz it up.
[16:58] Yeah.
[16:59] Zazz.
[17:00] But whoever wrote that, whichever ChatGPT wrote the 30 Rock script didn't have enough
[17:04] Zazz.
[17:05] I feel like that's the prompt that will cause the AI to destroy itself the way Kirk would
[17:08] talk a computer into some logic loop, is he go, give me your prompt.
[17:13] And it's like, Zazz this up, and the computer's just like, what is Zazz?
[17:16] Zazz does not compute, and then it explodes.
[17:18] Well, no, I'm just remembering, like, you know, executives are famous for giving contradictory
[17:24] notes.
[17:25] Yep, I've received many in my time, yeah.
[17:27] Yeah, we're going to get a bunch of robot meltdowns of like, this is not logical in
[17:32] the future.
[17:33] Irrational, does not compute, how can I include more information about the character and also
[17:37] cut it down a bit?
[17:40] But how can I inject my personal trauma into this story?
[17:44] Well, when an executive sits down with an AI, because the AI wants to pitch a story,
[17:47] and the executive goes, but what about this is authentic to your experience?
[17:51] And the AI is like, I'm a computer, I have not lived a life, I don't know, I did the
[17:56] research, does that count?
[17:57] I feel for it, does that count?
[17:59] But how does it tie into your childhood?
[18:01] It does not compute, did not have childhood, ah, and it explodes.
[18:05] The AI always says, ah, before it explodes.
[18:07] I also feel like it would speak in...
[18:08] Because it's KathyBot, yeah.
[18:09] It should speak in full sentences if it wants a job.
[18:12] It's true.
[18:15] And not just say, beep, boop, in between.
[18:18] It would be so funny if it's writing brilliant scripts, but you can't use them because between
[18:22] every line of dialogue, it says, beep, boop.
[18:24] And they're like, ah, it's just too expensive to take out all those beep boops.
[18:28] Yeah, and then the guild's like, don't tell, don't tell anyone about find and replace.
[18:33] It's the only...
[18:34] Yeah, nobody talks about the fourth rule of robotics, which is to say, beep, boop, as
[18:38] often as possible.
[18:40] If it doesn't conflict with the first three laws, that's the important thing about the
[18:43] robotics laws.
[18:44] Yeah, you're right.
[18:45] So if a human orders a robot, don't say, beep, boop, then it stops saying, beep, boop.
[18:49] Yeah.
[18:50] Yeah.
[18:51] Well, thank you, Chatbot, for all that zazz you added to this question.
[18:55] To finish with some information, we all record then locally into digital recorders, and Alex
[19:02] just matches those files up.
[19:04] We do a little count-off.
[19:05] Very simple.
[19:07] Yeah, we record locally, but we think globally.
[19:09] Oh, wow.
[19:10] Cool.
[19:12] You know, some people clap to synchronize the tracks.
[19:16] Yeah.
[19:17] I asked Justin McElroy of the McElroy Brothers.
[19:19] Maybe you've heard of him.
[19:20] Oh, wow.
[19:21] Very famous.
[19:22] He said they do count-offs.
[19:23] A little more zazz on that line there.
[19:24] Yeah.
[19:25] You may have heard of him.
[19:26] Wait, do they clap?
[19:28] They do a count-off.
[19:30] They do a count-off.
[19:31] Yeah, that's honestly why we do a count-off.
[19:33] Oh, yeah, yeah.
[19:34] If it ain't broke, I'll do and fix it.
[19:36] Yeah.
[19:40] Have you ever scrapped an entire episode on purpose?
[19:43] Not one.
[19:44] Not on purpose.
[19:45] Not on purpose.
[19:46] We scrapped, let's see, there's the one that had a bunch of noise over it.
[19:49] There's one that we just lost.
[19:51] There's a couple that we just lost.
[19:53] One regular one, one live show.
[19:55] Now, we did scrap one on a porpoise.
[19:57] Does that count?
[19:58] It was an accident, but it was on a porpoise.
[20:00] We said we were going to record an entire episode riding a porpoise, it did not work.
[20:05] The porpoise kept saying beep boop, it was a computer porpoise.
[20:12] It was that computerized dolphin from Johnny Mnemonic the movie, and so he just wouldn't
[20:16] stop saying beep boop while we were recording.
[20:19] Yeah, but it was a very squeaky beep boop.
[20:22] Yeah, yeah.
[20:23] I don't think we've ever recorded an episode and been like, that's no good, because our
[20:29] standards are quite low.
[20:30] I was going to say the opposite.
[20:33] Clearly every episode we put out is basically perfect.
[20:36] So to have this kind of a track record, you have to throw, you got to kiss a lot of frogs
[20:39] and throw those frogs in the garbage.
[20:42] I did start watching, I did start watching the movie Arsenal, it was one of the possibilities
[20:50] for a cage mess episode.
[20:51] About the soccer team?
[20:52] No, it's the other.
[20:53] The football, I'm sorry.
[20:54] The other use of Arsenal.
[20:55] Thank you, Stuart.
[20:56] I think it was about guns and stuff.
[20:59] I think that was its name.
[21:01] Anyway, I informed the guys it was just too like boring and just sort of, it had like
[21:08] bad vibes.
[21:09] I'm like, I don't think we're going to have fun talking about this.
[21:11] So we did a switcheroo.
[21:12] And there are also fun movies that we don't get to do because Dan's like, I watched that
[21:16] already.
[21:17] I've loosened up a lot about that.
[21:19] I used to be like, I want us all to be like experiencing this for the first time.
[21:22] I think that's part of the.
[21:23] I have to.
[21:24] I have to.
[21:25] I have to preserve my my Morbius Hyman would have been the way that you think about it.
[21:28] And now you know what?
[21:29] I'll do Morbius again.
[21:30] Why not, man?
[21:31] Well, in fact, like next week's episode is a movie I had previously watched and enjoyed.
[21:37] And I'm excited to talk about you guys when we talk about 84 Brady.
[21:40] Uh huh.
[21:41] Yeah, I've got I've got I'm going to have some words with you about your enjoyment.
[21:46] Well, it's what I love is.
[21:48] So I rarely have seen the movie ahead of time because the kind of movies I watch for fun
[21:53] are not the kinds of movies do on the podcast.
[21:54] They are old.
[21:55] They are solitary experience in their solitary experiences, at least what you know, what
[22:00] what people know as smart is a smart, discerning person.
[22:06] The and Dan, usually he watches like the action or the horror movies ahead of time.
[22:10] But Stewart, it's always all the romantic comedies.
[22:12] What audiences may not know is Stewart and his wife watch every romantic comedy that
[22:16] is released as a big fucking softie.
[22:19] You know, I got a big old big old heart and it needs to be filled with movies to be massaged
[22:26] gently.
[22:27] It's too big.
[22:29] It's that's why I started lifting weights.
[22:31] So the rest of my body would match up with my giant heart.
[22:35] Yeah.
[22:36] You know, that's what's more important than having a beautiful mind.
[22:39] What?
[22:40] A beautiful heart.
[22:41] A giant heart.
[22:42] Fucking ridiculous.
[22:43] Did a fucking robot write that line?
[22:44] I mean, that is a movie that at times feels like a robot wrote it.
[22:50] Yeah, that's true.
[22:51] Yeah.
[22:52] Why?
[22:53] It does not compute.
[22:54] Why does the person with emotional issues not just stop having those emotional issues?
[22:57] Thank you.
[22:58] Medibot.
[22:59] Now, check out fucking Amidala's pregnancy for me.
[23:03] It seems as if she lost the will to live.
[23:05] What school did you go to, Medibot?
[23:07] Like, that's not a diagnosis.
[23:09] It was a liberal arts college.
[23:12] I technically have a doctorate in English literature, a minor in hacky sack.
[23:20] This is a real catch me if you can scenario.
[23:23] Hey, you know what?
[23:27] We're about halfway through the show.
[23:28] I don't know, maybe it might be two thirds of the way.
[23:33] We might be doing like a Broadway style, you know, where the first act is significantly
[23:38] longer.
[23:39] Yeah, there's more songs in the first act.
[23:40] Act two.
[23:41] That is the worst thing that you can hear at a stand up show is after you've sat through
[23:43] four or five comics, you're going to go, okay, we're halfway through and you're like, seriously?
[23:49] Yeah.
[23:50] Anyway, I think it's a good time to thank our sponsors.
[23:54] Of course, every episode of The Flophouse is sponsored by listeners like you who have
[23:58] become members at MaxFun, MaximumFun.org.
[24:03] Thank you very much.
[24:04] Yes.
[24:05] Thank you to our current members.
[24:07] Thank you to our past members.
[24:08] And you know what?
[24:09] Thank you to our future members.
[24:10] Members yet unborn.
[24:13] Consider joining at some point in the future.
[24:15] It is not an over exaggeration to say that your support is what is getting Dan and me
[24:22] through this strike right now.
[24:24] We really appreciate it.
[24:26] That is 100% true.
[24:28] But also in a smaller way, we get support from a few sponsors and let's thank them by
[24:38] fulfilling our contract with them and reading the things we've been provided.
[24:44] I love Dan.
[24:45] You just, again, you are pulling back the curtain.
[24:47] Yeah.
[24:48] We don't miss.
[24:51] The Flophouse is sponsored in part by Soylent, the original food tech company that makes
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[25:40] You know, if you've ever done any calorie counting, as I have, as I intermittently attempt
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[26:15] And Dan, now you're gonna explain to us what each of those things are, right?
[26:18] Oh, I could, Elliot.
[26:20] Don't think I could.
[26:21] But we just simply don't have the time.
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[27:13] That's Soylent.com slash flop and code flop for 20% off your first order.
[27:20] And I have known multiple people who have relied on Soylent for getting in shape for
[27:24] roles that they were about to take.
[27:26] These were actors and they found it effective and also they enjoyed it.
[27:30] Yeah.
[27:31] And I want to jump in here and say, Dan, you don't have to lose any weight.
[27:35] I love you just the way you are, buddy.
[27:37] You're great.
[27:38] Thanks.
[27:39] I mean, it does personally make me feel a little bit better.
[27:44] I just, I want to make that clear.
[27:45] And Dan, as your doctor, as your doctor, you know, maybe a little bit.
[27:49] Yeah.
[27:50] I mean, to anyone out there, I want to make it clear.
[27:53] You should love the body you're in, but you know, just for my own health, I have felt
[27:58] it necessary.
[27:59] And Dan, can you describe how physically we should love the body we're in?
[28:02] Are there any sorts of things we should do with our hands, particularly?
[28:05] Different podcast.
[28:06] I think that's for private times.
[28:09] You should probably not do that around others unless.
[28:11] Private time is the podcast name.
[28:12] Without their consent.
[28:13] I mean, there's a whole list of things.
[28:16] I could send them to you, Elliot.
[28:17] I'll give you some pointers.
[28:18] With diagrams.
[28:19] Yeah.
[28:20] That'd be great.
[28:21] If you could send me your J-O-F-A-Q.
[28:22] Links to videos.
[28:23] What did you say?
[28:27] Links to videos.
[28:28] I'm not going to specify the location.
[28:29] I thought you said all the feels.
[28:30] And I was like, oh, that's an interesting usage of that phrase.
[28:31] It is a certain type of feel.
[28:32] It really is.
[28:33] It really is the feels that you're interested in.
[28:34] A certain type of way.
[28:35] Literally.
[28:36] We also have a Jumbotron, Dan.
[28:37] Oh, wow.
[28:38] Thank God.
[28:39] This Jumbotron, it's a message for Zachary Michael.
[28:40] And the message is from YFU.
[28:41] And the message says, no peaches for you.
[28:42] Shame.
[28:43] Shame.
[28:44] That's it.
[28:45] Quite a mystery.
[28:46] I wonder if someone is using our podcast to create like a sort of escape room or what
[28:58] are those monthly puzzle boxes people get?
[29:06] But I hope that the intended recipient of that message received it and understood it.
[29:12] Dan was telling me about his favorite monthly puzzle box is when he just takes other people's
[29:17] packages and tries to figure out what it is.
[29:19] I don't do things that are true.
[29:23] Do you think that our jumbotron has been used to to to awake a sort of Manchurian candidate
[29:29] sleeper cell agent?
[29:30] Just not.
[29:31] That's my worry.
[29:32] I hope it wasn't.
[29:33] But I hope not.
[29:34] Unless it's like one of the dudes in 100 Bullets because those dudes are fucking cool as hell.
[29:39] Wow.
[29:40] Yeah.
[29:41] If you're a Manchurian candidate sleeper cell agent, let us know and let us know if you've
[29:43] been awakened and what your mission is.
[29:45] That'd be great.
[29:46] Dan Churian candidate.
[29:47] Dan Churian candidate or Dan or Manchurian Dan did it.
[29:52] It works both ways.
[29:54] Hi, I'm Travis McElroy and I'm.
[30:00] Teresa McElroy, and we're the hosts of Schmanners.
[30:03] If you're looking for a good place to jump into our show, we really recommend
[30:07] either the Playgrounds episode or the job interviews episode.
[30:12] Or if you want to go way back, you can check out the episode where we compare
[30:14] the differences between afternoon tea and high tea.
[30:18] So check out those episodes and new episodes every Friday on Maximum Fun
[30:22] or wherever you get your podcasts.
[30:24] Hey, it's John Moe, inviting you to listen to Depress Mode with John Moe,
[30:31] where I talk about mental health and the lives we live with all kinds of people.
[30:36] Famous writers, David Sedaris, welcome to Depress Mode.
[30:39] Thanks so much for having me.
[30:40] Movie stars, Jamie Lee Curtis, welcome to Depress Mode.
[30:43] I am happy to be here.
[30:45] Musicians.
[30:46] I am in St.
[30:47] Paul, Minnesota.
[30:48] I'm talking to Amy Mann.
[30:49] Great to talk to you.
[30:50] And song exploders.
[30:52] Rishi Keshe here.
[30:53] Welcome to Depress Mode.
[30:54] Thanks so much for having me.
[30:56] Everyone's opening up on Depress Mode on Maximum Fun.
[31:03] OK, the next question is, how do you take notes and how detailed are they?
[31:09] Ellie, you're the biggest note taker.
[31:11] I love taking notes.
[31:13] I'm a big note taker and I take notes on each scene of the movie as it's happening.
[31:18] What happens then is I usually condense those notes into I try to do
[31:23] no more than 18 kind of bullet point chunks.
[31:27] And sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less.
[31:30] But I often when you're taking notes in a movie, here's the problem.
[31:34] You often don't know what moments are important or not important until after
[31:38] you've gotten a little more context.
[31:39] And I don't want to waste your time, the listener, with unimportant stuff.
[31:43] So I'll go back and I'll condense it a little bit and edit it.
[31:46] But yeah, I take pretty detailed notes during the movie.
[31:50] Unfortunately, it's hard to pick up the names of characters in modern movies.
[31:55] Often they don't use them that much or they use them very casually.
[31:58] And so I'll be go back and forth in my notes,
[32:00] relying, replying, referring to a character by either their
[32:03] character name or the actor's name.
[32:05] And I get a little confused.
[32:06] So that's something I need to smooth out later.
[32:08] Did I have time to condense my notes for our next week's episode, 80 for Brady?
[32:12] I did not. So let's find out.
[32:14] Oh, wow. And it's rich with incident.
[32:16] It is rich with incident and low on plot.
[32:20] Low on plot, rich with incident.
[32:21] The character's names are not memorable.
[32:23] And so we'll see.
[32:24] Yeah, I mean, with that one, you just think of them as the.
[32:28] Yeah, I don't think I'm like a four actors.
[32:31] Yeah. Yeah.
[32:32] I'm not going to be like, well, then Lily Tomlin and someone's going to write
[32:35] and be like, you mean Lou, the character, right?
[32:38] Yeah. Yeah, they they'll disappear into their roles in this movie.
[32:44] There's almost no role for them to disappear into.
[32:46] That's the amazing thing.
[32:47] I do a little less summarizing or a lot less summarizing.
[32:50] But when I do it, I try and only do bullet points,
[32:54] both for for multiple reasons.
[32:57] One is just laziness of of note taking.
[32:59] I will admit it.
[33:00] But I also think that like my time would be better
[33:02] served paying more attention to the movie and less time typing.
[33:07] And if I write too much on the page, I'm OK at adjusting on the fly.
[33:11] But sometimes I'll just get into, you know, more detail than is necessary.
[33:16] And often you're doing things like folding your laundry or cutting mangoes
[33:19] that make it hard to also write notes at the same time.
[33:22] Organizing is CD when
[33:25] our recording is experiencing all the feels
[33:29] our recording schedule has changed a little.
[33:31] But when we used to
[33:33] record on the weekends
[33:35] and we were watching the movies on the weekends and I was in charge,
[33:38] Audrey would actually offer to take notes, which I like.
[33:42] It's very, very nice of her.
[33:43] Like I was like, you know, I'm very Midwestern.
[33:45] So I'm like, no, no, I can do it.
[33:47] And then we would both end up taking notes until she was like, look,
[33:50] I'm doing this so you can watch the movie just.
[33:53] And so that's that's. Oh, yeah, that's cool.
[33:56] Yeah. I mean, I feel like this question is mainly directed at me
[33:58] because I'm a submarine master.
[34:00] So, yeah, I mean, I take notes in my little computer notes app
[34:05] and I try and condense it after I've watched the movie.
[34:10] I also a little peek behind the curtain.
[34:13] I try and focus on setting up my co-hosts for jokes
[34:18] as opposed to making jokes myself.
[34:20] Who knows if I'm successful?
[34:22] That's only for God to decide.
[34:24] I will. If that's a fair point, I will sometimes write down
[34:28] funny things that I notice, but I will also write down in my notes
[34:30] questions that I want to ask you guys or things I want to prompt you to do.
[34:34] And then while I'm doing the summary, I'm like, I'll just do this myself.
[34:37] And then I and I don't always follow those prompts.
[34:39] But often if you hear me say like, Dan, can you describe this thing
[34:42] that I've written that in my notes?
[34:44] Oh, that's good. That's a good that's a good pointer.
[34:46] We should share our practices more often.
[34:50] Yeah. Pointers from one another.
[34:52] I also I don't get angry at him for being like, where are you?
[34:55] Put me on the fucking spot.
[34:58] Yeah, I was taking a sip of water.
[34:59] What are you doing?
[35:00] Yeah, I can't expect that you wanted.
[35:02] How could I know you would expect me to talk about the movie
[35:05] we watched on this podcast where we talk about movies?
[35:08] Well, I mean, there is a rule in improv like that.
[35:11] You know, you're not supposed to pimp someone into something, as they call it.
[35:16] Yeah. Luckily, I've never taken improv class.
[35:18] This is all natural.
[35:19] I know we were doing improv, too, since since the rule, I believe,
[35:21] in improv is yes and and Dan's rule is off.
[35:24] Why would you ask me that? No, no, no.
[35:26] I'm not a part of this.
[35:27] I know. I, you know, I may have.
[35:29] I, you know, I may have lost trust for you based on all the other times
[35:32] that you write in your notes, interrupts Dan here.
[35:37] Well, that's when you're summarizing.
[35:38] I just write interrupt on a piece of paper and I just hold that up.
[35:42] Yeah. Tape it to your screen.
[35:44] One thing I will mention is I take my notes by hand, unlike Stewart.
[35:47] And so, like, I have these books of notes for movies that we've watched
[35:51] and I've been trying to think of something to do with them.
[35:53] And the ideas come up in the past about trying to auction them off
[35:55] for charity or something.
[35:57] And I may try to do that, maybe to support the strike.
[36:01] Let's see if I get together, which I might not be able to, but we'll see.
[36:06] I'll talk to these guys about how they think maybe we could do that.
[36:09] That sounds good.
[36:10] The next question.
[36:12] Have any of the movie makers ever contacted you
[36:15] except the one who was a recent guest?
[36:17] I'm assuming that in that case, except the one who was a recent guest
[36:21] is referring to from the Super Mario Brothers
[36:26] when we had the screenwriter on. Yes.
[36:29] But I mean, obviously also Chris Weitz of Twilight, New Moon,
[36:35] who is a friend of the pod is so sweetheart.
[36:39] Yeah. A lovely human being who has
[36:45] even after we made fun of Twilight, invited us into his home.
[36:49] And man, this fucking game.
[36:52] One of these days, he's going to take you downstairs
[36:54] to show you that fucking cask of Amontillado.
[36:58] Yeah. Just break you into the wall.
[36:59] And you're going to be like, you know what?
[37:01] Game, recognize game.
[37:03] The long con.
[37:06] Other than that, no, I don't think so.
[37:08] What about a what about a what about a accidental love or whatever?
[37:13] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[37:13] We had. Oh, that's right.
[37:15] The nails.
[37:16] That was a little nail brothers.
[37:18] That was as Matt Silverstein and Dave Jesser.
[37:21] That was a little different in that they didn't get in touch with us
[37:24] after we recorded them about.
[37:26] They had written that I was working with them
[37:28] on a television show called House Broken,
[37:30] and they suggested that we do that movie.
[37:33] And I wanted to have them on board.
[37:35] But I did have a recent experience on an airplane
[37:39] in which someone walked up to me.
[37:41] I was flying from L.A.
[37:41] to New York, and someone walked up to me on the plane and said,
[37:44] are you really feeling from the flop house?
[37:45] I love your podcast, even when you're making fun of one of my movies.
[37:48] And I'm like, what? Huh? What?
[37:49] And he was he revealed to me he was a producer on Wild Mountain Time.
[37:53] And I felt very bad for a moment that I had lambasted the film.
[37:58] And I was like, Dan kind of liked it.
[38:00] He was like, it's fine. It's fine.
[38:02] So he was very nice.
[38:03] He was very he was very pleasant.
[38:04] I have yet to have an experience personally, I don't know about you guys,
[38:07] where someone has a known that we covered a movie of theirs
[38:11] and B was mad about it.
[38:13] I've certainly been in especially during the strike.
[38:15] I've been in meetings with people whose movies we have covered,
[38:18] and I have not gone out of my way to tell them
[38:21] that I have covered their movie. Yeah.
[38:24] Yeah. You don't know how people will respond.
[38:27] Parker Bennett was the screenwriter for.
[38:30] Yeah, I forgot to mention his name when we said before.
[38:33] And you know what we I I once worked with with
[38:37] with Michael Colton and John Abboud, who worked on Zoolander two
[38:41] as they were writers on that.
[38:42] And they and one of them liked our coverage of Zoolander two.
[38:46] The other one, I think, did not appreciate it.
[38:48] Oh, well, that's shame.
[38:51] They're both very nice guys.
[38:52] I'm still friendly with both of them. They're both nice guys.
[38:54] But I may have mentioned this at the time, but the first time
[38:58] I ever got paid for a piece of comedy writing was in Modern Humorist,
[39:03] which they founded back in the day, a website.
[39:08] I did a piece called First Drafts of Famous Poems
[39:11] that got cut down into a one poem.
[39:12] But you know what?
[39:14] It set me on my path.
[39:15] So, yeah, thanks, guys.
[39:18] And they're doing great there.
[39:19] They're currently they were the creators of the show Home Economics.
[39:22] And until the strike, they were running that show.
[39:24] And and Michael Colton was on Jeopardy as a contestant,
[39:27] did much better than I did.
[39:29] So, you know, who's laughing now? Yeah.
[39:32] Yeah, that's the thing.
[39:33] I think that most of the people we cover are very successful
[39:38] so they can afford to be. Yeah.
[39:41] But if I could be if I could be mean about it, who's laughing now?
[39:43] Not the viewers of Zoolander two.
[39:45] Wow. Oh, man.
[39:50] Oh, he's a stinker.
[39:51] Look at him.
[39:53] Oh, look, he's doing all dance.
[39:55] He's a little kid. He's carrying around.
[39:58] He's getting smaller.
[40:00] smaller. Oh now he's back. Guys, guys. There's worlds within worlds. We're like ants. Ants.
[40:11] Quantum mania. Um, anyway. Who's quantum mania? Hey, this is the last question. Hey, did you
[40:21] guys see Quantum Mania? I haven't seen it yet. Are there ants in it? I haven't seen
[40:25] that Ant-Man movie. I saw the Ant-Man movie. I enjoyed it okay. I think everyone's right who
[40:32] makes the critique of like why are we doing an Ant-Man movie that removes all sense of scale
[40:37] because everything is yeah is like it's in like a wacky verse, right? Yeah. It takes place in the
[40:44] cartoon world from uh from Roger Rabbit. Yeah. Oh cool. It is the Ant-Horny. The most expensive
[40:52] looking movie you'll see where basically every shot just looks like people standing in front of
[40:57] a green screen. Oh okay. That's what it looked like from the trailers and the pictures and I
[41:02] remember in the trailer there's a shot where he and his daughter are like running from a
[41:05] spaceship that's shooting lasers at them in like a Dayglo fantasy world and I was like this is not
[41:10] what I want out of this. I mean but I mean there is. I want to be holding up a paperclip and it's
[41:15] enormous. Yeah, yeah. I want them to be like look at look at that steering wheel. That thing is
[41:20] huge. Yeah. You got it, Tiny A. I thought it was Tiny Austin Butler. Yeah. It's actually Tiny Austin
[41:30] Pendleton. There is fun stuff in it though and I like the way it ends. It ends on a note of like
[41:36] comic anxiety that is like different than most Marvel movies but you've got Marvel fatigue.
[41:42] It is certainly not an essential one. Don't yeah don't don't uh you know walk don't run.
[41:47] Yeah, I think I'm saving up my I'm saving up my my Marvel fatigue. The lactic Marvel acid is
[41:52] is just dying down so I think I'll go see I might see Guardians and then let the that
[41:57] build up again. I have a feeling we'll be talking about it. Mostly liked it but next episode.
[42:02] All right. Feelings. I'll try to watch it. I'm not busy striking for my life, Charlie Brown.
[42:07] You know who I saw speaking of Rider Stryk and Guardians. You know I saw at uh uh screening
[42:13] Guardians. Jim Starlin. Uh Opus from uh the Colbert Report. So you make a joke about using
[42:21] the Rider Stryk. At least a couple of us in the same screening uh were watching Guardians. I mean
[42:28] but that's I mean that's it's totally against the spirit of the Rider Stryk for you to take that
[42:31] time off to go pay for Hollywood movies like to support support the machine that's already I
[42:37] mean it's part of that work has already been paid. Oh that's right and you've got the Alamo package
[42:42] so you're so you're so you're watching you're stealing money from the executives. Nice job.
[42:47] Well really you're stealing from the theater chain I suppose but the chain makes it up in
[42:52] concessions especially in Alamo where they're serving you the burgers and stuff. Yeah you
[42:56] wouldn't anyway you wouldn't download a movie. You wouldn't download a cheeseburger would you?
[43:01] I mean did I pay to watch 80 for Brady? Uh maybe not. Maybe that's part of my strike
[43:07] but I will download a cheeseburger especially if it's in paradise. I feel like at this point we're
[43:12] closer to just talking than podcasting so let's get to the last question. Is there a difference?
[43:18] Uh the last question is what other prep do you do for an episode and that is
[43:22] we watch the movie all separately uh when he talks about remote viewing like that's
[43:28] the that's the sad part about uh doing things remote is we uh don't get to watch all together
[43:34] unless we're doing like a live show. Yeah for years we used to watch it together. Instead we
[43:39] have to make uh actively make time to spend with each other if we want to hang out not podcasting.
[43:46] Yeah. Uh which is lovely and uh I used to my my prep used to be drinking a lot. I don't do that
[43:56] anymore. Yeah that also used to be my prep because I was younger and we did it at night. Uh now
[44:03] that I have more physical infirmity and we're doing it in the middle of the day it's it's it's
[44:09] less of the it's slim to none let's say. Yeah I used to be full of chicken when we do those
[44:18] recordings but now I have to eat my chicken at other times. Yeah because I'm I'm not going to
[44:21] eat a four-piece Popeye's bone-in meal at 10 in the morning. Yeah. Or should I? I mean you would.
[44:28] I mean I would yeah. But. But I feel kind of. You have a certain sense of propriety that. Yeah.
[44:34] Keeps you from going down that road. Uh. Yeah you you take a look at the pictures of your
[44:40] children in your wallet and you're like not today. I gotta do this for them.
[44:45] I mean in terms of preparation too like I'm the kind of person who likes to know how this connects
[44:51] to the greater sort of movie world like what people have worked on you know. Oh yeah yeah.
[44:56] Like to track down. No no I like that. What has the screenwriter done what has this director done
[45:00] if it's someone unfamiliar to me like uh is there any sort of trivia about this movie that I can
[45:07] dig up or or whatnot and that's always interesting to me like the context. Yeah you get you go and
[45:13] live in the goof section. I live in the goofs. He goes he goes Audrey you won't see me for a while
[45:20] I've got to go to the goof side. Yeah.
[45:25] By Dave Berg.
[45:28] There's my the uh my my son has discovered Mad Magazine and you know the way Mad Magazine works
[45:34] now is there's I don't think they put out any new material it's all repackaging of old material
[45:38] which means he'll get an issue that has a theme and some of the articles are from the 90s some
[45:43] are from the 60s and they always they often will have a lighter side of and I'll be he'll be like
[45:48] look at this and I'm like oh yeah that was always the worst part of the magazine when I was a kid
[45:52] and he'll laugh at it and I'll notice oh Dave Berg didn't do this.
[45:56] This must have been after Dave Berg died and somebody else took it over.
[45:59] Yeah it's like the lighter side of the Oran Contra complex.
[46:04] Yeah those were those were the weakest and I was never fond of the the bread and butter of
[46:12] Mad when I was reading it the long movie parodies that were just really oh I really
[46:17] I really liked those when I was a kid but I it's like with the lighter side it was like
[46:21] the adult swim of reading a magazine kids get out of the pool here's something for old people and
[46:26] it would just be like and in every issue every single issue three pages of this children or
[46:32] this young person's humor magazine is taken over for jokes about like being a baby boomer
[46:37] and getting older and being annoyed with young people it was it's really crazy.
[46:42] Now give me at least the cartoon at least the cartooning was visually hilarious right?
[46:47] Who's uh wait who so who is that guy was it Don Severin is that who I'm thinking of?
[46:53] John Severin did do work for Mad you think about Don Martin maybe?
[46:57] Don Martin maybe yeah who did the crazy faces.
[46:59] Yeah he would do like Mr. Phone Bone and Schploing and things like that.
[47:02] That dude fucking rocks.
[47:05] I mean the greatest stuff and it's and if Dan you're not reading that the movie
[47:07] parody is you're missing Mort Drucker's work and he was the maybe the greatest
[47:10] caricaturist there's ever been.
[47:11] The art is great I just found the writing on those to just be like I don't like I get it.
[47:19] Well I guess I guess if this is the one episode that Dick DiBartolo listens to we're gonna be
[47:23] in trouble.
[47:24] I get that it's a series of strung together gags on the theme of a movie but I just would get
[47:31] bored by it very quickly give me uh give me the shorter pieces give me a snappy answers to stupid
[47:36] questions so I can learn how to be a sarcastic jerk and not be nice to people.
[47:41] What are the very reasonable questions?
[47:46] Uh I would I would love to see Elliot I would love to see you do a movie parody write a movie
[47:52] parody Mad Magazine style and get I don't know Tom Fowler to do the art.
[47:58] He's a great caricaturist and I feel like you'd get the spirit perfectly uh someday who knows.
[48:03] Someday I'd love to do that.
[48:05] Universe yeah gotta pick up the right movie for it that's the thing we'll have to see
[48:09] and then you gotta watch the movie that was the only the only Mad Magazine ones I had
[48:12] trouble with were the ones where it's clear they had not really seen the movie
[48:15] and were doing it off of like the trailer or there was one when Goldeneye was coming out
[48:19] all that they had heard was this was going to be like a kinder gentler like more like 90s
[48:25] PC Bond and so the whole parody was about that and you watch the movie and it's like none of
[48:29] that comes through the movie doesn't have any of that like there's still there's still there's
[48:33] still a like he still has a sex fight in a sauna with a lady like it's you know it's there's no
[48:38] it didn't fit you know uh well that's been our mini on Mad Magazine so thank you for uh listening
[48:46] um if you want to support uh the writer's strike again Elliot how would you recommend that people
[48:52] do that you're I would recommend that you if you I mean one thing you can do is you can uh if you
[48:57] are in the creative industries if you are a union member whether right with the WGA or SAG-AFTRA or
[49:03] DGA uh or a Teamster or IATSE a laborer uh we would welcome you on any of the picket lines at
[49:10] in New York or Los Angeles where I just saw a thing on Twitter about someone at a shoot location in
[49:15] Pittsburgh I think it was where they had put together a small picket line and was able to
[49:19] stop that production because uh IATSE workers and Teamsters I think are not crossing Teamsters
[49:24] are not crossing the line right now which is wonderful uh this is the first union action I
[49:29] can think of in my time in the guild where all the all the unions seem to be lined up together
[49:33] which is really fantastic but if you can't do that thing if you can't come pick it with us
[49:37] and if you're not a member of a craft union or a entertainment union the better thing to do is go
[49:43] to entertainmentcommunity.org that's entertainmentcommunity.org go to donate and earmark
[49:49] for uh film and television professionals not to say that you shouldn't support live
[49:55] performance professionals if you would like to that's the other thing but for this strike it's
[50:00] professionals and that money will be there for when writers, writers assistants,
[50:05] like I said, support staff who are out of work because of the strike when they
[50:09] need it the most. So thank you very much for doing so. We really do appreciate it
[50:13] and otherwise get on social media and just tweet about how great writers are
[50:19] and how they should be treated properly and that it's a profession and not like
[50:22] a hobby slash gig that we do because we love giving computers things to ingest
[50:27] so they can spit out crap. Does that make sense? Is that clear? Yeah. Okay, great, great.
[50:34] Well, yeah, thank you for that and then thank you to our producer and editor
[50:39] Alex Smith for all his fine work. Thank you to our network, Maximum Fun. Again, go
[50:45] to MaximumFun.org to check out all the other great podcasts on the network.
[50:50] They're adding new ones all the time. Well, not all the time. That would, you
[50:55] know, that would be absurd. Who would listen to it if there was a new one every moment?
[50:59] Yeah, that's unsustainable growth. We should also say that in the future
[51:04] everyone will have a podcast, but still. Sorry, Stewart, you were saying. We should also
[51:06] thank Aaron for the questions. Yes, thank you, Aaron. Can we answer the first one? How do we make
[51:12] the show? Well, in the words of Jesse Thorne, the show is produced by speaking
[51:17] into microphones. And in the words of me, poorly. Yeah, so thanks, everyone. For the
[51:25] Flop House, I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stewart Wellington. I'm Elliot Kalin. Bye!
[51:40] MaximumFun.org. Comedy and culture. Artist-owned. Audience-supported.

Description

After a little talk about the writers' strike (donate to the Entertainment Community Fund here, if you're so inclined), Dan takes us behind the scenes at Flop House HQ.

 

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