The Commercial Break - TCB's Endless Day #2: Rachel Bloom

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

TCB Endless Day (3/12) - EP #760: Rachel Bloom's Links: Follow Rachel on Instagram Watch "Death, Let Me Do My Special" on Netflix Rachel's Website It’s Mental Health Awareness month. If you or anyone you know needs help or is in crisis you can text HOME or HOLA to 741741 to reach a live volunteer Crisis Counselor. 24 hours a day. Don’t go through it alone! Text us or leave us a voicemail: [phone]TCB FOLLOW US: Instagram:  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/thecommercialbreak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tcbpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.tcbpodcast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CREDITS: Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bryan Green⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ &⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Krissy Hoadley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer: Bryan Green Producer: Astrid B. Green Voice Over: Rachel McGrath TCBits / TCBits Music: Written, Voiced and Produced by Bryan Green To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get an ice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too.

Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. On this episode of The Commercial Break. Rachel Bloom is an accomplished writer, director, actor, and comedian. With hit TV shows like

My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Reboot, Julia, and The Muppets musical to her credits, Rachel is a force of musical comedic neuroses. And now she can add TCB guest as her entertainment Everest moment. I'm almost certain she would agree with that sentiment. Right? Wouldn't she, Rachel? We'll add her links in the show notes. One more thing. She's got the greatest name in the history of the world, and she spells it correctly. Here's your first guest and your second episode of TCB's Endless Day.

It starts now. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Where in the world is Rachel Bloom? I'm in my office in Los Angeles. My dog just threw up on the lawn, as she does all the time. Because she's eating grass? No. Just because she throws up?

She's 15 and a half and her stomach is a mess. She's allergic to chicken and her stomach is getting, and we don't give her chicken, but her stomach's getting more and more sensitive by the day and... Aww, you know, you talk a lot about your dogs and how much you love them, especially in your new special, which is, or your special, which is great, by the way. Thank you. So do you find that being a parent and having a dog changes the dynamic a little bit? Yeah, I mean, especially in the beginning, dogs are way better with their bodies.

Especially a full grown dog. A dog has better body awareness. When you have a newborn, your dog is a genius. Like, oh my God, I don't have to worry about my dog breathing. The dog is so smart. And then I think what's interesting is- I don't have to worry about that. I just got that. I don't have to worry about my dog breathing. Then they start to even out around, well, this thing is kids get maybe smart like dogs, but they're still bad with their like bodies and walking. So really around like two and a half, three, you're like, okay, the dog and the kid are basically equal in their kind of sense of the world. Although

look, the dog is more physically intelligent than I am. Even though she's 80 in dog years, she can traverse stairs. Her balance is still way better. So I think that there's a general, she goes from being like, the dog went from being my daughter's big sister to now seeming like her little sister. It's an interesting way of looking at it. Yeah. Yeah, we, the dog was the queen of the house until the children showed up and she has taken

it so gracefully, but there is no other place to go but down when the child comes because now children and dogs are so much alike, children and puppies are so much alike, but in one way, but in another way, the dog can take care of itself. I can leave the dog for a couple of hours, I can't leave the child for a couple of hours, and so you really find that you're so much more attentive to the children than you are to the dog.

You have to be, otherwise the child will die. Yeah, the child dies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you literally have to be. My husband was very mindful to not do a lady in the tramp situation and have our dog be neglected when our daughter was born. So he was really mindful at including the dog. And she's still very much our princess. And then, I mean, you know, for me, I can't, no, I can't do it on the dog as much, but I don't know.

We're pretty, because also she's old, we have to do it on her. I mean, I just gave her her special drops. She had, she needed this thing called TPLL surgery, which is like dog ACL surgery on both legs. There was a period of time where we had to put a gate around the couch so the dog wouldn't jump on the couch. And so we had to lecture our daughter like, okay, don't do this, don't do that. So she's like our fragile queen still. Right.

Oh, and 15 years old, you've gotten that, what kind of dog is it? So to me, she looks like a border terrier mix when we've done the dog genetic testing because of course. Of course. Both times it said she isn't a terrier at all. She's half purebred Shih Tzu and then half the other side is like a chihuahua. A huge mix. Husky.

Like a bunch of things. Terriers not on there at all, but she, like a bunch of things. And Terrier's not on there at all, but she looks like a border Terrier. Very interesting. Oh, wow. Very interesting. We have a Yorkie, which, and we've had all kinds of dogs, but the Yorkie is certainly, I think, the most intelligent and the most obnoxious at the same time. Love her to death, but she just, they talk.

That's what they do. They talk. And when you're time, love her to death, but she just, they talk, that's what they do, they talk. And when you're talking, they want to talk. And when someone else, you know, when you're having a conversation, they want to be involved in it. Also, I, and what I found so, what I like about your special, what I also found relatable about your dog conversation is when your accountant or business manager, you know, told you, you needed to get dog insurance. My dog has also had that surgery and it saved our financial lives because we would have

been in ruin had we not had that insurance, which paid back like 90% of the cost of the insurance worth every penny. Yes. This year, she is finally, I think we came to the conclusion she's old enough to wear her yearly fee, we did the math, is officially going to be higher than any medical bills. So I think we might be leaving insurance just because it doesn't, they won't, you know, they won't insure enough. I know.

Yeah, we're getting to that point also with our dog. How old's your dog? Well, our dog just turned 10, but the way that they calculated for certain breeds, we had like a price hike last year, but then now, like I think when they get to a 12, there's some kind of crazy price hike, which all, where all of a sudden it just, okay, we're not going to do that. But then at 12 years old too, you have to start thinking if it's serious about the quality of life of the dog. And so we'll just

figure it out. With our luck, that dog will be 20. That dog will outlive me. I'll have it in the retirement home with any luck. I love looking at facts about the oldest dogs because it gives me so much comfort, joy and hope. So the oldest dog in the world just died. He was a dog in Portugal named Bobby. Oh. And after my friend Allison, she was living in Portugal during the pandemic and her dog had just died

and she made a pilgrimage to go meet Bobby. And she got close with Bobby and Bobby's owner and she went to Bobby's, I want to say it was Bobby's maybe 32nd birthday and then Bobby passed away soon after. Wow. 32 years old. So the 31 or 32. So I mean- There's hope.

There's hope. But you know, my dog like your dog is puking up all over the place, so I just don't know what's going on. I just don't know what's going on. Dog puke is the worst too, I gotta be honest. Oh, it's, it's, although here's what I'll say, it doesn't smell. That's true. Human puke, my daughter had a, had like a 12 hour stomach bug the other night where she peeped four times in one night. Human puke is actually, I think, the worst smell

because you're not supposed to smell it. Yes. Like it's something that's inside, at least with poop, like, no, your body's supposed to make the poop. The poop is supposed to come out. Poop is not good, but like at least it's supposed to, there's a hole just for the poop to come out. That's not what your mouth is for.

So there's something with vomit that inherently is like, this is wrong. We have transgressed, you know, it's Jurassic Park. It's like the hubris of man. What have you done? You've taken the insides and made them outside. You might be right about this. Evolution-wise, we are actually trained to smell

our own stink coming out of our rear ends, right? But we are not trained, it is not in our DNA or in our, I guess, genetic makeup, to know what, or to be pleasantly, I don't want to say pleasant, but that puke smell, to me, I agree with you. It makes you want to throw up more. Puke is the worst smell in the world. Then when they put that orange shit on top of it, like when you go to a school or a Walmart

or whatever and they have the emergency- Oh, like the sawdust or whatever? Yeah, the sawdust. It just doesn't do anything for the smell. It just makes it twice as bad. I understand you gotta clean it up, but can we not scent it also? Because now you're just mixing the orange with the puke.

It's absolutely disgusting. How old is your daughter? Five. She's five years old. Yeah, that 12 hour stomach bug, is that the kind where it just comes out all of a sudden? Like you're just- Oh, it was just, it was like a shot.

And the thing is, she doesn't know, she didn't know the word for nauseous yet. That's how little she's thrown up in her life. And so she kept trying to go to sleep. She was exhausted and she kept saying, oh no, the burp feeling is happening. And I was like, oh yeah, it does feel like you have to take a super burp and then-

Yeah. It's so sad. I know. It feels and then. Yeah. It's so sad. I know. Yeah. It's so bad for them. It's the worst. I have a number of small children and one time they got that 12 hour bug, but they got it within minutes of each other and my wife was out for the night.

So one of them started throwing up in the bed. And then when I carried him to the shower as he was throwing up all over me and everybody else. One of my daughters walked in gray as she could be and then she just said, daddy, but the word didn't make it out. Rachel, it was a night I will never forget. Number one, because I honestly just have a phobia of puke and now it's all over me and all over everything. But second of all, I've got two of these things now running around just puking and they also don't have the words, they don't have the knowledge, they don't understand, they don't know why you're taking them to the toilet, they don't know to go to the toilet. It was a whole thing. But these are the things we learn as we're growing up as parents.

That is disgusting. That's how old are they? One of them was three and one of them was two at the time. Oh, that's two. That's two young. They don't even know what the... They just don't know what's going on. No, they're scared. They get scared. Yeah, it is. Yeah, of course. And so now you have to calm them down. Yeah. Because they don't know why all of this is coming out of them or what's going on.

Yeah, and your body's doing it. Like, I felt... When I was feeling, I was like rubbing her back as she was puking and like, it feels very adult. I don't know what other way, like you feel the gurgle of the vomit. And it's like her body is doing a very grown up thing of like, we need to get this out. And they're like, no, what is this? The demon seed.

All right, now that we've roomed everyone's breakfast. So your daughter, you, this special that you put together for Netflix, which I think is imaginative, heartfelt, extremely funny, very creative, really well done. I think it's a put a point on it. You're welcome. The special starts out, I don't think I'm ruining anything for anybody who hasn't seen it. The special starts out with a voicemail. You're leaving somebody, hey, I think this COVID thing is not going to go away. So maybe we just need to postpone the special. We'll do it when all this settles down.

And then you fast forward to 2023, I think it is. And then you're making the special. But a lot of life happened in between then for you. Is that, was your daughter born during that time? Or just before? Yeah, so my daughter was born in late March 2020. And that's when the special is basically about she was born, basically my daughter was born the night, so COVID was already happening.

The night she was born, I found out that my songwriting partner had COVID, which I had no idea, and he was across the country in upstate New York. And then she was in the NICU, which we didn't expect happening because I had a normal pregnancy. But they also don't warn you

that going to the NICU is actually rather common. About 10 to 15% of babies end up in the NICU. She was in the NICU is actually rather common, about 10 to 15% of babies end up in the NICU. She was in the NICU for a breathing problem, which during a pandemic that affects the lungs was horrible. And then- That's weird. My child too. Yeah, it's very common. It's very common. It's rather common. And then my writing partner died of COVID basically a week after she was born. So that's what the special's about.

Yes. And so that's crazy terrible. Was your writing partner young, older, or did he just get COVID and it just- He was 52 and had no pre-exist. He just got, can I curse on here? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Okay, good. I was making sure. I don't know why I got my- Thank you. No, I appreciate it. Yeah, he just got fucked. I mean, he was living in Manhattan. He got a full blast of it. And he just got fucked. Some people just got fucked.

Like, there was no rhyme or reason to some of the people who died very, very, especially very early on, there was no pre-existing condition you could blame it on. There was nothing, uh, he wasn't a smoker, like, it's... He's got fucked. Yeah, he just got fucked. And I think I agree with you is that early on, I mean, we'll all, like, I think we're all still in a little bit of a daze about all this. And I do think it will take generations maybe to put any perspective that makes any sense. But early on, there's no pathology, everyone's confused, no one

knows what to do. When you are having your daughter, Chrissy and I are starting this show. Yeah, my mom had just passed away too that March. Her mom had just passed away. And just remember that kind of fog of war thing. Like, oh, this will go away in a couple of weeks. know, or hopefully this will die down. And then in May or April and May, realizing, holy shit, I've got children. I've got a pregnant wife.

Like, for me, I've got a pregnant wife. And now everything's locked down. Everything's, everyone's acting differently. The world kind of seems to be on edge and going crazy. I think this special seems to be like really revealing in a way I imagine, but you tell me that the whole special changed. Like everything changes.

Oh yeah, that was the origin. I mean, I was gonna do a special, basically I'd been working on a special that was just kind of stand up into songs. And then the inspiration for it was I was with my daughter at 5 a.m. one day and she was two or three months old and I in my office I had this whiteboard where I break down, I was breaking down what the special would be kind of stand up bits into songs and I looked at it and I thought this is so stupid. And then I started thinking like, oh, what if there's a special about that, about the

trying to stick with silliness despite the world going tits up. And that's like how I got to thinking about it. And I thought about this a lot in general, about the world getting horrible. And the more you read about, I mean, I'm not a historian, but the more I learn about history, it seems as if the human experience is actually more chaos and disease and war and economic collapse than it isn't. I feel a connection with Gen X I never had before because I feel like for Gen Xers and millennials and boomers for the most part, it was a period, especially in America, of relative, I mean, the 60s, the late 60s were horrific.

So I guess I'm talking more like the 70s and 80s, 90s for the most part. It's this period of kind of tranquility. They call 90s the end of history for a reason. And the more I read about history, I'm writing about the anomaly, periods of tranquility. Hmm. Hey, Rachel. But, but yeah. Hey, Rachel, repeat that last sentence because for some reason you just froze. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Look at that. I have a pretty stable internet connection. Yeah, we do too. But sometimes it happens, you know. So just repeat that last sentence if you would. The more you read about history, the human history seems more often than not on instability. And I think that, and this is me, I only know what my own life, but I think that, and I don't know if you caught this, but they called the 90s something like the end of history.

Yes, I've read that before, yeah. It felt like, yeah, we wrapped it all up. It's the end of the movie, right? Yeah. And I think as opposed to the way that boomers, Gen Xers, millennials grew up, especially in this country for the bulk of our lives, that's what we thought life was. And I think that that's actually not what life is for most human beings and most of human history.

It is trauma. It is disease. It is war, unfortunately. And so I think that that's what I'm still reeling from. And I think that generationally, a bunch of us are reeling from is like the look of shock I see on someone's face who's 20 years older than I am is the same as mine. Because it was, you come up, like part of the whole, you know, gen Z thing of like, don't be a sellout, don't try so hard, is you have the luxury of being able to say that when the world is in relative calm and relative peace and you can be disenchanted with suburbia. And again, and I'm not saying this on a personal level, I was miserable in the late 90s, but the world was. Yeah, true.

Fair enough. True story. Yeah, and I think if you grew up in the 90s, like I did, like Chrissy did, and you reflect on that time, it really was a time of prosperity and tranquility, at least here in the United States, right? There's always strife somewhere in the world. But here in the United States, our experience was largely that of a drama-free existence because there are, in history, there are a lot of, and I'm not historian either, but there's so much strife and pestilence and disease and war, and we're always struggling with like fighting against ourselves or fighting against other human beings.

And until COVID hit, I think all of us who had been alive since this period of time, you know, born in the seventies or eighties or nineties, had been relative, like life was relatively easy, so to speak, and we go through this one hiccup, and the entire fabric, it felt like at that moment, just kind of tore apart. And I see so many people, we still see it,

have been affected by this, and they haven't kind of picked themselves, they haven't repaired that, it's not there, it's gone. And so, did you feel like this, how were you feeling in that moment? Your partner dies, you have a new daughter, the world is locked down. What is your just like general sense of wellbeing

at that point? Are you just, I mean, I don't know, I can share my experience. Just trying to hang on. I mean, I think just trying to hang on. I think shock. Just trying to parent, you know, while living in relative isolation.

Um, trying to find the joy. I mean, that's what I, that's what I realized is I've always valued comedy and joy, but, but I will say the reliance in a wonderful way that I had on things that made me laugh, TV shows, movies, books. Like I went back to these old, I have these anthologies of The Onion. Oh, yeah. And I just would go back and reread those.

And it was, I would try to work this into the special, it never quite worked, but the idea that laughter, for a moment you defy death because you feel the weight of the world suddenly feels lighter. And so laughing in the face of death even, making death a joke, it conquers it for a brief moment. That's interesting. That is what helped me.

And now when people say, I was always really honored when people said, oh, I watched, you know, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which was my TV show. I watched it. Great show, by the way. During a, thank you, during a hard moment in my life, I would always be really touched. But now I really get it. Because I'm like, that's the stuff that keeps you sane. It's actually not frivolous entertainment.

And I think that it took me a while to realize that because when I looked at that whiteboard of my special, right, with all the stand-up bits and songs, the thought that I had was, this is so stupid. But then in retrospect, the thing that continued to get me through was stupidity, was jokes, was little moments of idiocy. And without that, you would drown. You would die. And it actually, I think that silliness, it's why my special, and I don't want to spoil it too much, but like my special begins on a dumb song

and then a bunch of stuff happens where, I'll just spoil it, there's a heckler in the audience, but it's not a heckler, it's Death, personified, played by my friend David Hall. And Death is saying, you're not being honest, talk about me, talk about me. But then after, so there's a whole arc of the show where I talk about Death, and then the show ends with the same silly song. And the reason it does is because there is a, there is, it's almost like if nothing matters, why not this song about trees that smell like cum? And what if trees that smell like cum and that stupid

song about it is the point of the universe? Yes. Yeah. And so that was, it's something I still think about. I think it's a beautiful point made and it's something that I believe, and I lean more toward it the older that I get, the more that we do this show, the more that I get text messages that say, well, let me back up for a second. We used to do this show and you talk into the void, you have a microphone, no one's responding to you. It's not like when you get on stage in front of a thousand people and they respond instantly to whatever is going on. It's a little bit more of a lonely venture. It's

a less brave venture, but it's maybe a little less noble, but it's a lonely venture. You talk and then maybe somebody texts or calls or whatever. But then sometimes we'll get a text message or an email and it'll say, hey, I was having a really hard time. Remember one specific guy said, I'm going through a divorce. My wife took the kids. I'm really having a hard time. I was in a really bad place. I found your show and I'm a truck driver. I've just been listening to it for the last two days, all your episodes. And I got to say it may have saved my life. And I thought that's, that's a really big statement. But I think that the broader point that I'm feeling and leaning more toward as I get older is that life is really about these

kind of beautiful moments of creativity. It's where God is found. God is, you know, there's a lot of things we'll never understand. There's a lot of pain, there's a lot of strife, a lot of struggle. But these moments, these momentary moments, almost like moments of silence with laughter or with a song or with a movie that you enjoy or a lover that you have or whatever it is, these moments where God comes in and gives us brief respite from this suffering is the whole fucking shebang. That's it. That's what we're supposed to recognize is that these are the moments. These moments when you're laughing, these moments when you're creating something that someone else is laughing, God's coming through you and giving those people, and I say God, you know, however you want to say it or believe it,

but God's coming through you and giving others and yourself like this brief moment of respite, and that is what it's all about. And healing happens there, and love happens there, and beauty happens there, and sometimes sadness happens there. But I think comedy can be a real healing force as well as a driving force for a lot of other things, but I think it's beautiful.

Yeah. And I think it's beautiful what you did with your special, because you must have felt a lot of pain writing that special and going through it and going through the motions and figuring it out. Was it cathartic for you? Yeah. I mean, I think that a lot of the emotions, I didn't start writing the special until,

I don't know, a little bit of time had passed. I mean, there was a period of time where I really couldn't look at photos of that. Oh, I can't imagine, yeah. And we were also still in the thick of the pandemic, so there was no live performance because I started working it out live. The first time I even, I think I had this special idea for a little, maybe a little bit. And then the first standup show I did, even coming back, was May 2021. So by the time I really started talking about it, because there was no live performance, about a year had passed, the thing the show forced me to do, because I

had grieved and I was still grieving, but it forced me to make sense of that grief and think about the kind of what now. Okay, I grieved, I went through this thing. What do I do with all of this? How does it affect the way I see the world? How do I not let this completely poison the way I see the world?

So that's what it helped me do. And that's what writing generally helps me do, is it helps me think and work out how I feel about things. Because in writing, you have to, you know, you're solving a driving question, you're writing on a theme. You have to know what the thing you're saying is in order to make a coherent piece for everyone else.

And so it forces you to figure out some sort of conclusion, some sort of thing, because you have to communicate your, sorry, you have to communicate your insides to the outside going back to vomit. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a great show. Where does that come from? Like, where does this come from in your place in your head? It's a great show. And as the title says, you know, we all have one, but where does this come from?

Where did Crazy Ex-Girlfriend come from? Well, I was doing music videos on my YouTube. Yep. Most of which were pop satires that were also very much about my being vulnerable emotionally. I basically like doing cool genres in a very uncool way. And my writing partner, Raleen Brosh McKenna, was procrastinating and saw one of my videos and started watching my videos and then said, do you want to get together and talk about creating a musical TV show? And that's how it happened.

Was that an easy pitch? It's an easy pitch to go in and say, I want to do a musical dramedy. I just can imagine that Hollywood in general pooh-poohs the idea. Here's the thing. So a couple things. We pitched it in 2014, which is the start of, you'd say, I guess you could argue mid beginning of peak TV. Yeah. So people were very open to things. Also, there were so many more places to pitch.

Mm hmm. Here are the places we pitched. AMC, MTV, IFC, Comedy Central, Amazon. Oh my gosh. Amazon, FX, Netflix, HBO. I might be forgetting one of them, right? So a lot of those places are not. In existence. There's no MTV anymore. I don't think Comedy Central's doing shows

like this anymore. So there were also just, there was a lot more hope. Yeah. A lot more shows were this anymore. So there were also just, there was a lot more hope. Yeah. A lot more shows were getting made. And Aline Brosh McKenna, who is about 20 years my senior, she is a big deal screenwriter. She wrote The Devil Wears Prada. People have been wanting her to do TV for many years.

So walking in with her, having co-created the show with her and this premise was very different than had I created the show with someone and this premise was very different than had I created the show with someone more on my career level, someone, you know, burgeoning YouTube star. I mean, I was never like a huge YouTube star, but like, you know, cult YouTube star, just starting out, like she walked into rooms and- People paid attention. Yeah.

There were a couple of people who were prepared to buy it just to work with her. So that really worked in our favor, but we were a show of people who were prepared to buy it just to work with her. So that really worked in our favor. But we were a Showtime pilot. I mean, another buyer that's now just a tile on Paramount Plus, right? We sold it to Showtime. We made the pilot with Showtime. Showtime passed. So we had a dead pilot.

And then Aline watched Jane the Virgin on the CW. It was like, oh, the CW is doing really interesting shit. And that's how we got our series. We were CW series. So it was a combination of a, of a bunch of things. And then it's why I got asked a question a couple of weeks ago of like, Oh my God, you did such daring things on the show. How did you do that? And it's like, that's not, I mean, yes, I'm very proud of the show, but

plenty of people in life want to do daring things, but they just don't have someone backing them. Yeah. We had a network who let us do pretty much whatever we wanted. They were super supportive of the concept. They were there. They kept renewing the show. They paid for the show. I mean, that's... The odds of that happening are so incredibly small.

And it's... That's just luck. I mean, I would say fortune. Luck is a hard word because luck implies that you didn't, you know, do anything for it. You didn't earn you know, do anything for it. I mean, I will say the further I get out of having a show that aired 2015 to 2019, I'm like, no, that was luck. To be in that period of television, that's pure luck.

Yeah, you really, you hit it and now, you know, now it's, we talk about this all the time with everybody who comes on the show, how the streamers have fundamentally changed the way that everybody behaves and acts around the creation of content. It's just the way that it is. The streamers and YouTube, and podcasting quite frankly,

have changed the landscape of media in general. So you did, how did you meet your writing partner on that show? How did you meet her? No, it was, she saw my music. She literally just reached out to you? Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah. That is amazing. Did you freak out? I was very excited. I didn't want to get my hopes up. Yeah. And I was almost so, I knew what a big deal it was. I almost was like, okay, calm down.

Yeah. I had a lot of anxiety issues. I hadn't worked out then too. So I think I, part of my way of dealing with anxiety was to, I don't know, ignore it or downplay it or whatever, but yeah, no, it was a huge deal. Yeah. Yeah. So luck, but someone who knew that, knew good content, knew that there was someone

out there who could help, you know, boost a project, young and up-and-coming talent took a chance on you. And you're right about that. I think about this as a content creator. You need somebody in your corner, right? It's so hard at any given time, but especially these days. It's so hard to get noticed, to make a move, to get ahead, to cut through the mustard, whatever you want to say. It's so lovely to have somebody that's in your corner. If you find that person that is willing to say, I like what you're doing and I'm willing

to help you get it out there, whatever it is, that's a blessing. And more and more, as we leave a monoculture, there are fewer and fewer people who can have that power and really do that. And again, it's just a right place, right time thing. Look, what I'll say is I've been busting my ass on those music videos for a while. I've been busting my ass. I've been often spending my own money.

I continue to bust my ass. I have two TV pilots right now that I busted my ass on that I'm waiting to hear about. Behind me on this whiteboard are a bunch of new stand up bits and songs. Like I am proud that I value hard work and I value people who work hard. And I think that I have to believe from my own sanity that busting one's ass does pay off in some way. However, also knowing that there are many people around me who are, you know, amazingly hard workers who haven't sold a show. And so all you can do is work hard. And I almost

think it's, it's kind of, you have to at this point, if you're, and this is a very specific thing, if you're a, a working writer who is, especially for TV and film, who is selling things, who has the good fortune of selling things, that you have to almost in a meditative way see that as the, as the goal that I get to write for a living because getting things made, the odds are so small. And that's why YouTube and TikTok are so great because there's no gatekeeper. Yeah.

You can bypass a gatekeeper. And that's why I always go back to live performance, frankly, because I mean, TikTok and then YouTube, you're still editing in a room and you're putting it out and the way that you get audience feedback is by looking at comments, which you shouldn't do. I know. I never. So that's the problem is that we strive to create and connect with people and you get

that on a film set. And you even get that in a group editing room. But if you're on your own with TikTok, I think there's a little bit of, and when I was doing YouTube videos, there's a little bit of solitude with that, right? Of you want the feedback. Live performance, I will never ever, ever stop doing live performance because it is a way to reach an audience directly in front of you without a gatekeeper. Yes. Yes. And the feedback is instant, right? The feedback is instant and you can position

and pivot. And if you're good, then you know how to take something that's not working and massage it and get it better. Being on stage in front of people, is that the favorite, is your favorite version of creating? Probably. Yeah. I mean, I really love, I would say also like, the whole process of creating TV is really wonderful because it is so communal,

between a writer's room to table reads, to being on set with other people, that's every day of work is that little, is that little kind of slice of joy. It's a different joy. But live performing, just people are so, they're right in front of you and they're real and they're not behind a keyboard and they're not,

I don't know, they're not judgmental in the same ways. It's so true. At least the shows I do. I mean, I was never a club comic playing places where they would throw beer bottles at you. So I do indie comedy shows. Shows, yeah. comedy shows or my own shows where people are primed to be a bit kinder. But yeah, it just, it's, it's human and it's healing. And for how polarized the world is, um, getting in front of people is just, it

is and remains extremely healing for many, many things. Yeah. It is and remains extremely healing for many, many things. Yeah, I also think when you do content and you put it out for free, it's kind of, you know, you get what you pay for from the creator side, and that is the feedback. Never look at the comments, but of course you look at the comments.

But you crave something. I mean, that is what's lonely about it, right? It's like the whole reason you make art is to connect with people. Yeah. And that's why I think, I is what's lonely about it, right? Is like, the whole reason you make art is to connect with people. And that's why I think, I don't know, I have very mixed feelings about the internet and social media, despite the fact I started-ish on YouTube is you create art to make a connection,

but, and I'm not the first person to say this, this is not a hot take, but, you know, the internet is fundamentally, it's false connection, right? It's a disconnected connection. There is nothing that can replace interacting with a human being in real time. There just isn't. And it's something that I'm still navigating and working through and I have a daughter. Like, I don't want her on social media.

Like, I don't want her as a teenager. I mean, this is a far off problem, but like, you know, do I leave to set an example for her when she turns 13? Do I just peace out and leave Instagram? And just hope that I get shit made through film and TV and live performance? I don't know.

This is the biggest question that for me as a parent that is always omnipresident, all the small shit, all the little shit, just getting them physically, making sure that they don't kill themselves physically is for their own mental health, how do I navigate this world of access to digital media? When we already know, just this little bit in, we already know just how incredibly dangerous it is, speaking of mental health, for our mental health. Full grown ass adults who have heads directly on their shoulders get taken down by the stuff

that happens online. And it's a disconnected connection because some people, it just really feeds this side of them where they become little keyboard shitheads, right? And they say and do anything that they want to because there is no repercussions on the internet. And that's a scary place to be. And the bullying and the la la la la la la. It's so fucking scary.

And then you're raising children in that environment. And they already, and I'm sure you're experiencing this too, already at a young age, are wondering what that is. And you're just trying to protect them. You're saying, hey, listen, don't be in a hurry to grow up. It's really scary. Are you already experiencing that? No, she doesn't really clock.

Luckily she doesn't, we don't watch a ton of YouTube. No, YouTube is a no-no in my house. Like the way that it is in my house is we watch TV shows. And so I haven't really turned her on to like those influencer-y unboxing videos things. Like that's just not, I guess it's just not what my husband and I want. I don't know, I don't know how,

she'll probably find it when she goes to elementary school next year. No, I mean the thing that she thinks the internet is the source of A, information, or I'll look something up, or it's a way for her to buy things. So that's what she does know is like, I want a sparkly skirt, go, order it now. Order it right now when it will be here. So that's, and I dread the day that she realizes she could order this.

She can do it herself. Alexa, she hasn't realized that yet. My son has. But when she was a, when I was still pregnant, we played around with the Alexa and in like a baby voice, we were like, Alexa, order me a thousand boxes of cereal. And Alexa was like, a thousand boxes of cereal. We were like, oh, come on. No, it's coming. So the day she has not yet, because I've never ordered anything vocally with Alexa

on purpose because I'm, once she realizes she can do that. It's game over. Yeah, it's game over. So no, she's not, she's not, She's not a weird. She's not super aware. And I have to say, I don't get recognized like a ton, but when I do, I always worried about it being weird for her

because I didn't grow up in this industry at all. And so the idea of like having people come up to my parents, I don't know what that would have been, but she's fine with it. It's either she doesn't care or she's like, oh yeah, I'm proud of my mommy too, thank you. Like it's not weird. It's not, um, weirder or jarring for her. And I don't put her on social.

I don't put her on my social media at all. So I'm not like, sweetie, say hello to the fans. You are incredibly smart, Rachel. Uh, and I follow the same program. Well, cause also like, you can't, it's why like I'm being, you can't close the box once it's open, right? So like I haven't even shared her name publicly. There's a lot.

And it's not even like that, will I eventually share more about her? Yeah, I will. And like I've posted pictures of like the side of her face. It's just that you can't close that box and the AI shit of, I mean, I do clear at the airport, right? Where it goes,

we have finished taking pictures of your eyes. Yes. I'm trying to keep her out of the system for as long as possible, theoretically so that it's her choice. Yes. Again, I could, I don't know, this is an imperfect science, right? Like, I'm in the new Angry Birds movie, which will be coming out in January. Oh my God.

There will be a premiere for that. Am I, I'm going to bring her to that premiere. Yeah. Will she want to do a red carpet? I don't know. Will she be in public pictures from that premiere? Maybe. You can't... I can't completely block her from things. It's weird. It's not... It's imperfect. I'm figuring it out. And I just... Her safety and well-being is... And happiness is the most important thing to me. It's paramount. Yeah. I could be pimping her out and getting a lot of free shit.

Yeah. It's true. And a lot of parents do. And that's a sacrifice that I remind her of every day. I'm like, you know, if I wanted, I could get everything for free. Yeah. And I don't. I don't.

It's like that little kid on YouTube. He's making, you know, what is it, $92 million a year, unboxing videos, whatever his name is. It's crazy. It's just not, it's not, it's not, fame is not, and I say this as someone who is marginally cult famous. Fame is not a normal, it's not a normal state of fame. No it's not.

No. And you, and luckily I started, I mean I started in a comedy theater. I'm still doing comedy where the work comes first. I think there are very few kids and teenagers who can actually have a measured view of themselves from getting wildly famous. I'm friends with Mara Wilson. I went to school with her.

She has a very good view of it. Like she's incredibly smart, has very good perspective about it. Auditioning as a kid was kind of always her choice. Yeah. I think that's rare. And this is a larger thing of like the ethics of, like I love what they do on Bluey, that they haven't even released those kids' names. And this is a larger thing of like the ethics of,

like I love what they do on Bluey, that they haven't even released those kids' names. I think it's so cool. The ethics of putting anyone whose brain is not fully formed in a spotlight, it seems like this very, very weird experiment. That's been going on for hundreds of years. Mozart was a famous prodigy when he was like seven. So it's going to happen. Kids are going to get famous. But I don't know. I think about this stuff. Yeah, but the difference is, is that Mozart in his time could be famous for about 10 square

miles. Do you know what I'm saying? Like he wasn it wasn't like, I mean, I guess that was, I guess that's all relative because his 10 square miles were his 10 square miles, but I totally get it. And it's an experiment that I think you're, my wife and I choose not to share the names. We don't put them on social media. You know, our, we have a Facebook page that's closed to just our family and friends.

We have a sharing app if people want to see pictures that are invited to that sharing app. And we just want to keep it secret as, not secret, we want to keep it their choice for as long as possible, as much as possible, and when they're old enough and have their own principles about them or their own desires and wishes, then we can say if you choose and it's age appropriate, then okay, then you can do that. What's next for Rachel? What are we looking forward to doing?

I'm sorry, I know you got to go. I just want to be sensitive to your time. No, I love it. I have, what's next for me is you are catching me on a day where I am in a holding pattern with two different TV scripts. I am currently at the Mercy, both of them with the Greater Walt Disney Company. Oh, come on, Disney. Come through, Disney. But it's just, it was what it is. So this is the first year in a while where I don't know what the rest of my year looks like actually. Is that feeling scary or is it okay for with you?

Um. Or both? It's both. I mean, luckily, there are jobs that have still paid, right? So I'm not, I'm not worried about like, oh, I need, I might get this. I've completed both of these jobs that were factored into my budget for the year. It's more like what does the rest of my year look like? And it's exciting, it's scary, there's a different level of uncertainty when you have a kid, of course. Also with our industry, everything is leaving Los Angeles, the United States. So it's like, okay, at a certain point,

when do those choices come in? When do I schlep my kid off to Romania or not take a job in Romania? I haven't been offered a job in Romania, but it's going to get more, this is her last year of preschool. Like, I'm fucking often taking her to Disneyland tomorrow because I'm like, oh, my best friend's in town. I'm like, let's beat the crowds. When they hit kindergarten, you can't like take them out of school. No, then the truancy cop shows up.

Exactly. Then you got a whole different animal. So you're catching me at a very specific time, I think a year from now. I don't know. We'll see. Well, Rachel, you're extraordinarily talented. We're very grateful for your time. Thank you for joining us on the 12 hours. You have been very, uh, transparent, uh, funny and creative about how you have talked about your own challenges

and struggles and hurdles as a human being in general, but then more specifically over the last couple of years. And I'm going to put links in the show notes, especially to her Netflix special, which I think everybody should go and watch because I think it's really fantastic. Thank you. And you're welcome back anytime. Rachel Bloom. Yes, good luck on your new projects too.

Yes. May Disney come through. If you want me to call Bob, let me know. No, no, it's fine. You need me to pick up the phone and call Bob. It's not, they're fine. No, I'm kidding. They're doing great.

Yeah. But as a guy who has five shares of the Walt Disney Company, let me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'll listen. Yes. Let me roll over on Bob and see if we can get this done. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Rachel. One down, so many to go. Rachel was great. Rachel was great. I like Rachel Bloom. Color me a fan, Chrissy. Color me a fan. Andissy. Color me a fan.

Color me a 5-hour energy. Pop one of those open. Episode number 2 in the books. Two of however many we can manage to get through today. Anyway, all of Rachel Bloom's information is in the show notes, so please go visit, follow, like, subscribe, all that good stuff to all of Rachel's stuff. It begs a re-watch of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I think. Chrissy? So please go visit, follow, like, subscribe, all that good stuff to all of Rachel's stuff. It begs a re-watch of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I think. I think so too. I really like that show. And let's hope she gets that new show so we can all be graced with the writing genius

that is Rachel Bloom. I like how she said that the world ended in 1990, or like humanity reached its peak human-ness in 1990. Yes. I think I might agree with her. I think so too, with her maybe that's why everything 90s is new again maybe that's why everyone really wants the night bring Bill Clinton back okay so he got a blowjob all right nothing that seems so insignificant I mean except for the poor girl who got lambasted you know through the media through all that drama. Of course

What was her name Monica? Monica Lewinsky? I'm so sorry That's It's a long time ago. It's we've reached our peak then I'm done I'm over with anyway except for Monica getting a shit on really poor really badly I would have to say that a blowjob in the ovalval Office doesn't sound like that big of a deal anymore. I know, bring those days back. Please, Arsenio Hall, Conan at 12.30, Dave Letterman on at 11.30, Bill Clinton in office, prosperity for everyone, Pearl Jam on the radio. Brunch.

We're all going back to the retirement home. Yep. Alright, Rachel Bloom, all of her links in the show notes, episode number two of TCB's endless day sponsored by Five Hour Energy in the can. Thanks to Bella at CTV for making all of this guesting happen. She's the magician behind all of the guests here on the commercial break. We love her love her lover and all the people over at CTV. Love you Bella. All right, we're gonna

try and go live here in a couple of hours. Make sure you're following us on Instagram for all of that information. You've got all of the details. 212-433-3TCB at the commercial break on Instagram, youtube.com slash the commercial break. This episode with Rachel Bloom is now live on YouTube. Okay. We will see you back here at the top of the hour. Hopefully, Chrissy, until the next episode a few minutes away, I love you.

I love you. Best to you. And best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until the next episode, we will say, we do say, and we must say, goodbye. Yeah boy!