How Did This Get Made? - Last Looks: Passion Play

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

This week, Paul dives into all your Questions and Omissions from Passion Play, Jason joins to talk about his upcoming season of Taskmaster, and Paul announces next week's movie! You can listen to the Yes, Also podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/yes-also/id1740198149 HDTGM Spring Tour 2025 tickets are now on sale for Austin, Denver, Seattle, Boise, San Fran, Portland, & LA at hdtgm.com.Order Paul’s book about his childhood: Joyful Recollections of TraumaCheck out new HDTGM movie merch over at teepublic.com/stores/hdtgmJoin the HDTGM conversation on Discord: discord.gg/hdtgmPaul’s Discord: discord.gg/paulscheerVisit Paul’s YouTube page: youtube.com/paulscheerFollow Paul’s movie recs on Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/paulscheer/Friend Zone w/ Paul and Rob Huebel live on Twitch every Thursday 5pmPT / 8pmET: www.twitch.tv/friendzoneLike good movies too? Listen to Unspooled with Paul and Amy Nicholson: https://www.unspooledpodcast.com/Listen to The Deep Dive with Jessica St. Clair and June Diane Raphael: www.thedeepdiveacademy.com/podcastWhere to find Paul, June, & Jason:@PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter@Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on TwitterJason is not on social media Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using the link: siriusxm.com/hdtgm.

A wedding invite, a physicist calls, and I do a take two on someone's tagline. That's right, all this and more coming up on How Did This Get Made? Last Looks hit the theme! to answer the question which is better first impression, or which is better first impression, so life sucks. Hello, all my little circus freaks with wings. Don't fly away. It's me, your host, Paul Sheer. And I wanna welcome you to How Did This Get Made? Last Looks, where you, the listener,

get to voice your issues on Passion Play, a movie that Discord user, The Awesome Tier, with an assist by Frosted Nebula, both think the movie's tagline should be Passion Play colon. When a Jacob's Ladder scenario has a Red Bull, it gives you wings. I like that. Complicated, but I like it. Maybe I should have read it like this. Passion play.

When a Jacob's ladder scenario has Red Bull, it gives you wings. Oh yeah, that's a little bit better. I like that. Thank you, Awesome Tear and Frosted Nebula for that alt tagline. Remember, if you have an alt movie tagline or title, submit it to us on our Discord

and we might just read it on the show. And the first time I read it I might not do it good. Second time, yeah, I might do it better and there might even be a third time if it's very complicated. But not today. Coming up on today's show we will be hearing all your corrections and omissions on Passion Play. I'll even share an exclusive deleted scene from that episode where June recommends a tv show that she is loving Jason and I are gonna talk a little bit about Taskmaster. That's right Jason's gonna be on Taskmaster we get the first inside scoop of what to expect plus as always I will reveal the movie for

next week's episode But before we get too far into things, I gotta give a big shout out to Andy Jacob for that amazing theme song. Andy, you knocked it out of the park. If you want to be like Andy, not the gambling side of Andy, Andy, you got a problem. Anyway, if you want to be like Andy, send us your songs at how did this get made at earwolf.com. Keep them short. You know the drill. 15 to 20 seconds is best. Brevity, soul of wit. Alright people, here's the deal. Rob Hubel and I have started a brand new show. It is called The Dark Web. You can find it on YouTube. But if YouTube is too hard, just enter,

watch the dark web on your web browser. That's right. That's our web address. Watch the dark web dot com and you can watch all the episodes right there. We're talking about everything from old men teaching other old men how to fight with their cane to trying to figure out what Liam Neeson movie is that poster from. We go deep into the dark web, it is totally free. It's 20 minutes, it's a bite size episode.

I think you'll love it. Watch the dark web.com. Get on it. It is a blast. All right, people, what else do I wanna tell you? Oh yeah. Happy Valentine's Day. That's right.

If for those of you who celebrate Valentine's Day, have a great one. And if you want a little Valentine's Day listening, I urge you to check out Un unspooled where we are talking about 10 things I hate about you, which I finally watched for the first time. Gotta tell you, I liked it. Oh, and how could I forget our how did this get made spring tour? That's right. We're gonna be in Austin. We're gonna be in Idaho. We're gonna be in San Fran, Denver, Portland, Seattle.

Get your tickets at hdtgm.com. Make us proud. And by the way, if you're going to the Tree Fort Music Festival, we'll be there. But if you're not going, you could just buy a ticket for us. Win-win. All right, that is all the plugs that I got. So let's get into it.

Last week, we talked at length about passion play. Well, we had some questions and we might've even missed a few things. Here's your chance to set us straight. Fact check us if you will. It's now time for Corrections and Omissions. For all the things we talked about, there were things we did leave out.

So now it's time for corrections and omissions. Thank you, Dornheim for that theme song. Let's go right into it. Ashwin gives you wings. Wow. A lot of Red Bull this week. Um, in the podcast episode, Paul mentions that the bottle of Gordon Shumway is a bottle of gin. My pointless correction is it is actually a bottle of Scotch whiskey.

Okay. So I appreciate it. It is actually a bottle of Scotch whiskey. Okay, so I appreciate it. Basically, he asks for gin, she grabs that. Or is it Scotch? They make a very big deal out of only drinking gin. Anyway, let's see, Bolognobac? Bolognomatic? Oh, that's it, Bolognomatic.

Okay, I know June did mention this. Bolo, why-matic? Oh, that's it. Bolo-no-matic. Okay. I know June did mention this. Bolo, why you doin' it? But I think it is worth emphasizing that the guy's supposed to be on a redemption arc and he immediately gets into human trafficking. Why is he going to heaven? Yeah, Bolo-no-matic, I think we all mention that. There is no arc. He's a piece of shit. GT75 writes, It's a good thing for the Carnival that this is a Jacob's Ladder scenario because otherwise they seemed doomed for failure. For starters, the entire Carnival is just a freak show and one tiny, sad ferris wheel. More importantly, the carnival barker seems really upset that someone might know that

the bird girl is legit. Wouldn't it be better for business if people knew the freak show wasn't a scam? Absolutely, and this just goes to show you that Mickey Rourke's character was dumb because even in his hallucination, he didn't make any choices that made sense. Let's go to the phones. All right, LJ and Rancho, Cookamonga, what do you got? Hey, I'm talking about Passion Play.

I believe the reason why she had wings and they were like bird wings is because she saw that bird right before he died. Oh my God. LJ. It was there all along. That is. Wow. Every now and then y'all blow my mind and LJ you just did it.

All right. Well now everything's going to pale in comparison. Am I right? Let's see. Oh, next caller from New Mexico. What do you got? Hello, Carl John Shearer. This is my name is Cano, T-A-N-O. Long time listener for Suncaller. I have a tiny bit of insight on the location shooting for this ridiculous movie, Passion Play. So I recognized the place in the scene where they sort of set up a reveal for Happy to

See that the angel actually has wings and they're in this like theater and they open up these doors and he can see through the binoculars. That is the Santa Fe Opera. I recognize it. It's an outdoor opera theater that only performs in the summer. So that explains why you could see when they look through there's snow on the ground everywhere. Clearly it was the off season and that's how they got, you know, this Rinky Dink production must have gotten hold of the opera house. So the opening of the

door is that is a thing at the opera house. It's an outdoor theater and they can open up the back of the theater. So during a performance you can sometimes see through all the way into the distance. Love the show, see you later. You know what? When I said I shouldn't even play another call because, you know, LJ kind of knocked it out of the park, that was actually a perfect call because it was good information.

It wasn't mind blowing nor is it trying to be. It was just information and I give it an A plus for info. And finally, let's go to Liz. Hey, Paul, Jen, and Jason. My name is Liz. I was listening to the recent episode about passion play. About eight minutes in, you mentioned if someone is a physics professor, they could examine what you were talking about in that particular scene.

And I thought, my time has come. Because I teach physics in Wisconsin and you were talking about the unlikeliness of Megan Fox flying around with Mickey Rourke held in her arms. You mentioned the force of gravity along with her weight or his weight. So the force of gravity actually is weight. That's what we, when we talk about an object's weight or a person's weight, we could say force of gravity interchangeably. Our weight is how hard the Earth is pulling down on us. So those aren't really two separate things. So what we'd have to look at is if she is flying at a constant height or

like not accelerating, her wings would need to support both her weight and Mickey Rourke's weight. I'm not, I'm a physicist, I'm not a bird expert, but I did some quick bird wing research. The wing strength, it doesn't actually seem impossible. I was looking up like some birds of prey, like certain types of eagles apparently have been seen carrying prey that's up to like 30 or 40 pounds and those birds themselves are no more than 15 pounds. So wing strength actually okay there. Now she had to accelerate to get into the air. That is going to mean she does need more force because she needs the wings need to not just keep her at a constant

height or keep her going at a constant velocity but change her velocity to speed her up. So yeah, so she's going to need more force there from her wings. Still, so with the eagle, if it's picking something up, so that actually seems okay. What gets brought up about the Eagles and why they're able to carry so much is their talon strength. Really it's her arm strength and her hand strength in holding Mickey Roar, because that is the most ridiculous part. I did also briefly look up like women's records for curls in like lifting competitions and I couldn't get anything definitive really quickly but it still seems pretty unrealistic and unlikely there.

So I just thought I would share that if you ever need any physics assistance I am always here to help. Alright, thanks so much for all you do. Your podcast is fantastic. Makes my day to listen to new ones and I'll see you in Denver. Thank you Liz for taking the call. Yes, physicists, we need you. Thank you for doing the research on the bird wings

and the talent strength and female bodybuilding arm strength. Okay, wow. Basically, so we're right, but man oh man, I guess what you're saying is possible, but not likely. And you know what? I like absolutely not better than anything, but I love our physicists,

so thank you Liz for giving us a call. All right, let's go back to the Discord. Pete, the S-Man, skadoosh, writes, I have a friend who worked on this movie in craft services. She said, every day Mickey Rourke would ask for a canteen filled with milk. He would drink the milk through the day without refrigerating it.

And they were worried it was spoiled by like hour eight when he was still drinking it. My friend assumed Mickey was off the wagon and secretly hiding liquor in it. But at the end of the day, when she inspected the canteen by smelling the inside, it reeked of spoiled milk, not alcohol. Not sure how he kept it down. Pete, I don't get it. I need more. Maybe that's why you had such a sour

face. Oh boy. IQ Winehut writes in Charles Bukowski's book Hollywood about his experience during the filming of Barbet Schroeder's 1987 barfly starring Mickey Rourke as Bukowski's alter ego. Hank, he writes that the lead actor Jack Bledsoe aka Mickey Rourke was insistent that he wear novelty palm tree sunglasses in a particular scene. Against the wishes of both Bukowski and Schroeder, Rourke can be seen in the film wearing the exact pair of novelty palm tree sunglasses mentioned in the novel. So it looks like he got away with it at least once.

Well, there it is. I mean, we know he's a eyeglass fiend where the rest are they prevented it, but not this movie. Wow. So many great corrections and omissions this week. And I gotta say, you know, look, Liz, the physicist calling us, I wanted to give it to her, but LJ, I think this week you are the winner cause you blew my damn mind and you get nothing,

but you do get this amazing song from Hominin. Hit it! You win nothing. If you want me to judge how smart you are, that's not what we're doing. If you want to chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit up the Discord at discord.gg slash HDTGM or call me at 619-P-A-U-L-A-S-K. All right, coming up after the break, Jason will stop by to chat about Jason's upcoming season of Taskmaster. Also, if you're not watching Invincible on Amazon Prime, you're missing out. Really good season.

We're going to also talk about our new favorite improv podcast. I can't get enough of it. Oh man, it's so good. But first, take a listen to this bonus deleted scene from our Passion Play episode, where we talk about June's interest in the tattooed woman from Passion Play and her new love of Ink Master. What I wanna look up is that woman with the tattoos.

I'm so taken with those tattoos. That was really beautiful. And all I could think of is after we've been watching Ink Master, wow, that must've hurt. If they're real, like the nipple tattoos. Oh, okay. Now that we've been watching? Oh, Jason?

What do you mean now that we've been watching Ink Master? June, go ahead. Wait, don't, you can't drop that at the very, now that we've been watching Ink Master. Oh yeah, Ink Master is... It's big in our house. ...on a lot in our house. Like, and I first, I didn't start watching it,

but now I can't avoid watching it. June and our son is like in... It's our favorite show. ...deep, deep seasons. And they're talking about, I walk in on them talking about David Navarro and what's going on with this team. Is this Kat Von D?

Yes, although we're not watching. No, it's not. It is, but we're later on. We're exploring the later work. Okay. Is it still on? Does it exist now? I actually don't know.

Or are you watching an old show? I think so. I think so. Okay, okay. It's great. I mean, it just popped up on Paramount Plus and these two, they are like... What, I'm curious what precipitated it? Like what led it to be like chosen?

Or was it just on in the background and you guys got into it? You know, I think that, I actually don't know. I think Gus just asked what's Ink Master and I was like, oh, I think it's a show about tattoo artists. And then there you have it. I mean, there's some language that's simply inappropriate for children, but that hasn't stopped us.

It's been on for 16, 16 seasons. And currently the host is- Joel Madden, right? Joel Madden. Yes. I love that you called him David Navarro. I give the proper respect to his name. Mr. David Navarro.

Mr. David Navarro. Well, yes. Yeah, so I couldn't, yes, obviously I love tattoos and I really want to understand that woman's tattoos. How did this get made? How did this get made? Welcome back everybody. I'm sure you've noticed that every week we have re-released

old How Did This Get Made episodes back into our feed. We love it. It's a matinee app. This week's matinee was Tammy and the T-Rex. I'm sure you've noticed that every week we have re-released old How Did This Get Made episodes back into our feed. We love it. It's a matinee ep. This week's matinee was Tammy and the T-Rex. Next week's will be Velocif-Pastor. Ugh, I hated that one. So keep on checking out all the replays of classic episodes every Tuesday.

Okay, without further ado, it is now time to welcome Jason to Last Looks for a little Just Chat. John Cohen, play me in. ["Just Chat About It"] Jason, welcome back. We talked about a bunch of great stuff last time. How you doing? Great.

I've got a bunch of other stuff to talk about this time. Jason, let's start off with the biggest piece of pop culture news on this show. You Shorzy, season four coming in March. Jason, you are on Taskmaster. People are freaking out. You don't have an air date yet. I don't have, but it'll be either late March or early April, I believe. Give us some, just, we'll talk about it as it comes up, but maybe even, we may have to turn this into a watch-along and get your take post-show. Oh, funny, that would be hilarious, yeah.

I would love to do that. And it's interesting because this is something that I have been just genuinely keeping a secret at this point, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie, and get your take on the show. Oh, funny, that would be hilarious. I would love to do that. And it's interesting because this is something that I have been just genuinely keeping a secret at their request until a week ago,

or not even a week ago. And it's tricky because they do it in front of a live studio audience, so people knew. Yes, hundreds of people knew because they came to the live shows that we recorded in London at the studio, at the Taskmaster Studio, uh, when was I there? In October? Was that the last time I was there? August?

It started... So, the craziest part of this has been, I've had to go to London three different trips. Uh, one of which thankfully coincided with our UK tour. Well, that was so interesting, because I remember you're like, oh, I'm away. And I'm like, what are you working on? Then, you know, it's like this, cause it was, it was very scattershot when you were going and when you were here in a way.

I also couldn't tell people what I was doing. I could just say I was working on a job and that was weird. Um, but yeah, so I, I, and the way they do that show is in distinct chunks, you know? It's a week of tasks here, it's a week of tasks there that you're doing alone. And then, you know, many months later, it's a week of the studio show.

And so it is these distinct pieces of the show that all get kind of cobbled together. Paul and I talk about how much we love this show. It was every bit as absolutely stupidly fun as I thought it was going to be. It was, and it's absolutely dynamite. Well, okay, just before we move on, because I wanna ask one more question,

just tell me who you're on with, because we saw the promo, and again, these might be people that we may or may not know, but just give us, again, a little bit more question, just tell me who you're on with because we saw the promo and again, these might be people that we may or may not know, but just give us again, a little bit more taste because people do wanna hear you talking about it. And you know, I'll give you, I'll, you know, and I'll also like, because this is an opportunity

because I feel like people, there's gonna be a tremendous amount of people who are listening to this who have no idea what Taskmaster is, who have no idea what we're even talking about and may have even not even noticed it when we mentioned it in episodes past. So Taskmaster is a British panel show,

kind of like a game show type of a show, except that all the contestants are comedians, the hosts are comedians, and so really it feels a lot more like a bits show, like a comedic, a show where people are funny and teasing each other, but there is like an overarching kind of everybody gets given the same tasks they need to accomplish. And how they accomplish them are usually very

funny, very stupid, very silly, and sometimes very embarrassing. And then everybody gets to make fun of each other for that. And that's kind of it's it's every season is 10 episodes. It's the same five comedians for those 10 episodes. And so my cast is myself, and then a tremendous British, a couple of great British standups, Stevie Martin and Fatiha El-Ghouri, who are absolutely hilarious. I can't recommend enough.

People should check them out, look their stuff up on YouTube. Very, very funny. Stand-ups, a podcaster, Rosie Ramsey, who's super funny. And she's also a, like, she has a live show that she does and tours. And then Matt Bangton, who people might know as the creator and one of the stars

of the British version of the show, Ghosts. He was also in Wonka. He's been in a bunch of stuff. He's in Horrible Histories, which is a big show there that people have seen that I wasn't aware of. Anyway, that's the five of us. By the way, I want, I just want, I know they have Brit Box, I get it. But I want, I want, like, I know you can get it.

And I'm not asking for people to tell me where I can get it. I can get it, but there should just be an app to just streams British television. Like give me what you got. Oh, well there's the thing is there's multiple apps that do it. Acorn TV does it. Britbox does it.

IT, what is it? I4 TV player, all these. But a lot of these, a lot of these, these shows, Taskmaster has its own app, which is great. What is it? I for TV player all but a lot of these a lot of these these shows Taskmaster has its own app, which is great. You can subscribe Monthly yearly, whatever you want to do Right now also the entirety of Taskmaster every season every clip show everything they've done is on YouTube for free So if you want to watch Taskmaster jr

If you want to watch Taskmaster last season or the first season, it's all on YouTube. All right, I've been watching it on the app. The app goes right to Apple. Oh, the app is great. It's right to the app, the Apple TV. The app is great. And the kids version is great. And both are, you're gonna pay for

a commercial free version of this thing. Right. You know what I mean? So. I guess what I'm saying is a lot of these, like not chat shows, but these like game shows, those are the ones that are harder to find. I can find a British comedy, I can find a British drama.

Trying to find these conversations. It's very hard to find Would I Lie to You? Or Celebrity Mastermind, or any of, so there is, and forgive me if this is boring for some people, but there's a category of show that exists in the UK called a panel show that we simply don't have here. The closest you can come here is a little bit what dropout TV is doing, or maybe after midnight,

sort of. There's a whole category of shows in the UK that are comedians, late night comedic talk shows, in which everybody's on stage together. There's ostensibly some sort of game element, but really it's an opportunity for comedians to riff, be funny, and showcase themselves. And so like for a lot of younger comedians in the UK,

the way that they come up, there isn't, you know, like, whereas here I feel like we had like Adult Swim and Comedy Central, these networks and these people that were fostering younger voices or up and coming voices rather, in the UK that's panel shows. What I think is so crazy is it's podcasts, right? These are podcasts, these are podcasts on television

in a great way and it seems like America is holding off from engaging that, which is clearly what we want. We love podcasts, we love all this sort of stuff. We want funny people that you may or may not know in a format that you- That's the vibe. You're absolutely right. The vibe of Taskmaster especially,

and all these other shows, a lot of them, that are so comedy forward, the vibe is the same vibe you get from listening to our show, listening to Comedy Bang Bang, listening to comedy podcasts, which is, this is a group of funny people riffing off of each other, playing off of each other. These shows are not scripted, they're shaggy,

they're funny, they're outrageous, they're crazy. And what you are watching is the same sense of surprise and discovery that you get from podcasting or from unscripted shows. Right, because they kind of can exist in a, you know, at any time, this is what people don't know, but a lot of times when you doed shows. Right, because they kind of can exist in a, you know, anytime, this is what people don't know, but a lot of times when you do these shows in America, it's very tightly scripted as far as,

here's how long your segment's gonna be, we're gonna talk about this, we're gonna do this, and one of the best things, and we were talking about this the other day, like Taskmaster is an hour. When they brought it to America, they shrunk it down to 30 minutes, and I do think that that was one of the biggest factors

that made the show less enjoyable. Because it, yeah, because it really didn't allow it to breathe. It's not about like just getting, I think always here, we're like, what's the next thing? What's the next thing? What's the next thing? Well, I think here we are more interested

in the competition. Who's going to win? Who's got the most points? Blah, blah, blah. And it's like competition is so paramount here. And there, again, the points don't matter. The winner doesn't matter. Like it's all arbitrary.

The point system is dictated by Greg Davis, the host of the show, the taskmaster himself, who is, it's arbitrary. It's just, it's fucking around. And that's what's fun about it. The show that I would compare it to, that you and I have talked about a million times that you and I were in, or a couple of shows, the best version I can say

for what it is to be on a British panel show that our audience might've seen is your, uh, and mine episode of, uh, Chris Gethard show. Yes. Uh, the what's the, what's in the dumpster episode. Uh, another man's trash is what it's called. Um, yeah. And it's such a, again, that show was so fun because they would do a live version that would stream.

So you could actually watch like a fat version of the show and then they would cut it down. But it was just like little inner jokes, people having fun. There was a relaxed nature to it that I think I always really respond to because I love Howard Stern. And Howard Stern would have long conversations, long bits, interrupting a bit to talk about something

then go back into the bit. Well, it's not prescribed. It's not like the show is gonna unfold like this. Beat, beat, beat, beat, beat. You really don't know. Like that Gethard show, you don't know what's gonna happen. Like the other thing that I will say

is an example for people is, because you and I have also done this, is like doing those episodes of Nicole Byers Nailed It. Oh, so much fun. A baking show that looks like a competitive baking show for amateurs, but is really all about celebrating the failures and the discoveries and the surprises of how poorly or how well it can go.

I don't want to pat myself on the back, but I'm going to do it twice because, uh, well, same reason why I went on Nailed It. I was like, I want to be a contestant on Nailed It, which they had never done before. Now imagine four comedians or, you know, cooking on Nailed It. It's a way funnier show in my opinion, right? I mean, I love Nailed It too. Oh, and a bunch of comedians just roasting them the whole time. Right, which is kind of like the great British Bake Off. They'll do like a Red Nose Day special.

Casey June is gonna be on a great American Bake Off, which is great. Rob Riggle was on one. And then... If you wanna see past guest James Acaster, past Taskmaster guest, past How Did This Get Made guest, he has one of the most incredible breakdowns on an episode of Celebrity Great British Big Bang. And by the way, that was very hard to find,

but I did find it, it's a lot of Googling. Uh, the other thing is, when I went on Family Feud, that was the other thing, they wanted my family on there, and I was like, no, I wanna bring my friends who love the Family Feud, that was the other thing. They wanted my family on there. And I was like, no, I want to bring my friends who love the Family Feud on. And then it became way more fun. Now, granted, I've talked to those producers like, oh, we didn't even know what to, we, it was hard for us to run the actual game through it because it was so full of bits and dumb shit.

Oh yeah. Oh no. When, like, when you see the episodes of Taskmaster that we did, you know, you are gonna watch a, I can't remember, 45 to 50 minute version of a show, like a network one hour TV show. But we shot those episodes for over three hours. And in some cases longer still, because they were,

our cast was absolutely delighting in finding tangents and going sideways and pursuing conversations that Greg Davis would consistently say to the audience and to us, there's absolutely no way this will make the cut, but we're going to keep going. I love it, I love it. I mean, so we have a lot to talk about.

When that comes back up in March and April, we will dig into it more. But I just wanted to make sure that people got their, their taste of you talking about it because it has been, I felt like people were coming to me in their excitement for you. Well, you said, you said when people were like, you were getting-

8 AM in the morning, my phone was blowing up as if that's the only way to get to you. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. By the way, I took it in pride. I was like, it's like, you're like an Olympian. You got to go do the, you know, you're representing all of us. It was crazy.

I will say it was an absolute blast. And to do it all in secrecy was hilarious. I love it, I love it. I love it. I wanted to talk about something else because I realized you need to talk to Jason about this podcast. This is for the comedy nerds. This is for the improv nerds. Suzy Barrett's podcast called Yes Also.

I cannot shut up about this podcast. So excited about this. I forgive me if you have talked to me in person in the last few weeks, because all I have done is talk your ear off about Susie Barrett's fantastic podcast. Yes, also, it is an interview podcast with improvisers about improv,

about their journey in improv, how they started, what schools and teachers they came up in. And then it's really just about the impactful lessons that you learned while coming up in improv and then also how those lessons impact your life. But then also just on a, this is where it gets really nerdy on a very process level to be given access to very smart, thoughtful discussions

between incredible improvisers. Susie Barrett talking to, you know, Will Hines or Mary Holland or Lauren Lapkus or Craig Kikowski. Carl Tart. Carl Tart, Phil Jackson. They just released an episode with our friend Chris Gethard, who we just mentioned. Part one. Part one, which is incredible, which is a great discussion.

So you know, it's a deep dive podcast. It's very niche in what it's talking about. What I love about it is it is a very inside baseball, and I mean that in the best way, conversation. It is incredible conversations about a thing that I feel very much has been how I've, what I've almost dedicated my life in pursuit of. You know, so.

Yeah, well, I think the people, like it's such an interesting thing because I always feel like there are improv books and I've, I read them actually. I've read Will Heinz's book. I think the trick is reading an improv book is interesting. I'm doing it already. I've gone through things and it,

but there's nothing that I've ever found that speaks to me as a performer who does it. It's not about, and I think it's a conversation that we don't often have, we just do. And yeah, since you recommended it to me, it's a fast, it's just like, oh yeah, this is what I want. It's interesting, I think of it the way that it's, when I hear really good

or watch really good interviews with musicians. You know, yes, we all are doing the same thing, improvising. We're all making comedy out of nothing, right? And from the audience's point of view, they are receiving just, comedians performing characters and making clever jokes or whatever, eliciting different emotional responses

from the audience, whatever. But the how we do it is all different. And that's what this show gives us access to. It's not just that we do these things. It's not remember this show, remember that show. It's like, are you, and this is where it gets really, where you drill down, when someone like Will Hines or somebody will say, do you trust,

do you trust a premise-based initiation? Right, right. And I'm like, okay, let's go, because that's a great question, you know, and stuff like that. And so- I don't even know how I would answer that. How would you answer that?

I would trust it, but not inherently. Like I feel like, I feel like premise based initiations are more often than not thin. It's I have a clever premise. Okay, we can play that for a minute, but without an emotional point of view on that premise, without knowing how I feel about that,

or how you feel about it, if you just gave me a premise, boy, would I wish you would tell me how you felt about that, or how you feel about it. If you just gave me a premise, boy would I wish you would tell me how you felt about that premise, unless that's baked in. Yeah, that's an interesting point. For me, I can always play against somebody that I know how they feel,

but I can't always play against somebody that, I mean, I can't always know how to play the next move if someone's giving me like an equation, like an idea that I can tell they've got something. I'm like, well, how do you, if I don't know yet how you feel about it, like, how do I come in? I always think it's an interesting idea when you, like I was taught so strongly at UCB to be like,

to come in with something. And I think that like, you know, we often were, I think where improv can sometimes go really bad is when it is like, I like that like, you know, we often were, I think we're improv can sometimes go really bad is when it is like. I like an initiation. I like a, a premise based initiation as a kickstart to a scene that then can be kind of. Jettison like it's just sort of like, it gives us a place. It kind of sets, uh, some tones. Cause there's, cause a lot of the times you're working so quickly.

Like I love a slower improv, but that's so rare nowadays where you can find it. Like McBrary and I used to do slower, where you just like find it, but it's hard to find it. You still do it. I do a monthly show called Manzoukazan, that's just me and one other person do one scene for over an hour.

See that's exciting to kind of find. Very slow, you know, very slow, very quiet at times. There's nobody gonna come in and tag you out. There's no rush. And so the scenes become oftentimes slow and quiet at times, like real moments of silence and emotional investigation. And I think that's what it is. There's nothing wrong with a premise-based initiation.

And the premise can oftentimes be like the substructure or the foundational elements of a good scene, but I'm saying I just wanna know how do you feel about it? Because a lot of times, a lot of times, what people won't quite grasp is that it's not just enough to have a clever thought or idea that could be funny, but it would help a lot more. It's a point of view on it too, right?

It would help a lot more if you point of view on it too, right? It would help a lot more if you had a point of view. Yes. Anyway. It's interesting. And while we're talking so nerdily about improv and Susie Barrett's wonderful podcast, yes, also, I will also shout out our friend Will Hines' sub stack. Love that.

That is also a, I think, once a week deep dive article about improv and improvisation and the theater that he's started here in Los Angeles called WGIS? W-G-I-S, W-G-I-S, thanks, Matt. Yeah, Will Hines, we mentioned his book, you mentioned his book earlier. Yes, How to Be the Greatest Improvisor on Earth. Yep, he's got, he's I think one of the first,

if not the first episode of Susie Barrett's podcast. And his sub stack is fantastic. And if you are interested in comedy, if you're interested in improv, if you're interested in what we do, how we came up and all that kind of stuff and the stuff we talk about, his sub stack would be something

that I think would be great to check out. Yeah, it's called improv nonsense is what his sub stack is called, yes. If you're an improviser out there, if you're an improv- Yeah, it's called improv nonsense is what this sub-stack is called, yes. If you're an improviser out there, if you're a young person who wants to be getting into comedy, these are all resources. These are all things that, boy, do I wish they existed when I was-

Oh my God, I'd be- You know, in the 90s when I was a up and coming improv kid. Yeah, I mean, it really is. It is a important, I don't know. It, like, I think what I found when I came up doing improv was there were two texts that were pretty much it. It was like, you got like an improv,

which is a very old text, it was not capturing much of anything in the- Johnstone, right? Yes. And then truth and comedy, which was a lot more alive, you know, in modern, but that was really it. And- Oh, and they were like, I don't know about you, but for me, they were not, not improv necessarily,

but truth and comedy, Rodney Rothman, who I went to college with, brought truth and comedy back to college from a summer, after a summer break, he'd found it and he'd been given it. And he brought it back to us and we devoured it. We'd never seen low-form improv. We were just a short form, form improv team, doing short form games. And we read that book and we devoured it. We'd never seen long form improv. We were just a short form improv team doing short form games.

And we read that book and we started doing the Herald in the coffee shop and it was terrible. But like I've never been, I've never felt more excited and more alive. You know? Yeah, no, and now you're getting people like McNapier, Billy Merritt, all these people who actually have a lot of performing experience write these books.

And honestly, I mean, this is my own opinion. I wish that the UCB's improvisation manual was a little bit more user friendly. It's very much a test. It is a, yes, it's dense. It's dense. I also wish it had a little, I wish it was a little more playful. Yes. And I think it's like, and maybe in that sense that you were saying, it's good to, if you are nowhere near improv and you can't see improv, although now you can watch a lot of these shows

streaming online, it's a great way to be like, okay, this is something, it's gonna be a lot of examples, really, but it's not a fun read, whereas like truth and comedy, like I felt like I was alive in these scenes and I was there and I remember all those details to this day.

Yeah, truth and comedy feels like it's for hobbyists and the UCB's book feels like it is from a college course. And I mean that in a good way, it is thorough, but it doesn't have the lightness or the, it doesn't, it's not as, I don't know, it just isn't as, yeah, I guess just that. There's, it could use a little more like the joyful discovery of improv.

I would argue it lacks a voice because it isn't really, it's more of theory than a point of view. You know, in many respects, it shares similarities with the premise-based improv. It's very much like, here are the, this is structure. It's institutional. It's an institution's point of view.

It is not a person's point of view. So, you know, and again, it's good. And Will Hines is one of the authors of it. I think Chris Gethard contributed to that, to the curriculum, you know? Yeah, there's so much. I mean, all right, there's so much. I mean, yeah. All right, that's all for this time.

We'll see you next time on Just Chat. All right, everybody. Thank you, Jason. Remember, Invincibles on Amazon Prime right now. I have since that conversation devoured. Yes, also. Love it. Can't get enough of it.

It's really, really good. And make sure you're checking out the dark web, which is on YouTube every single Thursday. All right, enough of my fumpfarin is time for me to announce our next movie. We're going from a wingin' woman to an invisible man. No rhyme, but it worked. Anyway, that's right. Next week, we are watching a movie voted on by you. how did this get made listener? Discord listener, it's the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen starring Sean Connery I'm not gonna even attempt that again

Here's a short breakdown of the plot a team of extraordinary figures culled from great American adventure fiction including Alan Quartermaine ordinary figures culled from great American adventure fiction, including Alan Quartermaine, Van Pyrrhus, Mina Harker from Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde, Captain Nemo and Dorian Gray are called in to stop a villain intent on turning the nations of the world against one another. Rotten Tomatoes gives this film a 16% on tomato meter and Jamie Russell from the BBC says, the movie is destined to go down in the history books as the heaven's gate of superhero flicks. This is nothing more and nothing less

than an extraordinary waste of time and money. And honestly, I can't agree more. This is a how did this get made? Don't watch, just listen, but also listen to the trailer. Their powers are legendary. Their origins are unknown. trailer. And the game is on. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. You can watch this on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango Home.

And here's the thing, people. Check out Hoopla Canopy and Libby. Those are digital media services provided by your local public library that allow you to access movies, TV, music, audiobooks, ebooks, and comics for free. And before we wrap up today's episode, we have a brief return to Mailbag. That's right, Cody is back in the producer's chair and she is bringing us Mailbag to listeners Brianna and Reid who sent us an invitation to their wedding. Jason, June, and I cannot attend.

No, we will be recovering from our spring tour, but we wish you all the best. That's it everybody. Thank you for listening to Last Looks. Make sure you buy our tickets to see how did this get made on the road. That's right, we're gonna be on the road and coming to towns maybe near you, I don't know.

Go to HDTGM for tickets. If you listen to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us and make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we really appreciate it. Visit us on social media at HDTGM and the conversation on our Discord continues at discord.gg slash HDTGM. A big thank you to our producers, Cody Fisher, Molly Reynolds, and our movie picking producer,

Avril Halle, and our associate producer, Jess Cisneros, and our engineer, Casey Holford. We'll see you next week for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. How did this get me? I'm a big, big, big, big, big, big, big hero!