The Press Box - Ep. 159: 'Writers' Room' With Travon Free, Cathy Lew, Pat Barker, Joel Solomon, and Brendan Lynch

Episode Date: August 4, 2016

On the inaugural 'Writers' Room,' a rotating cast of 'Any Given Wednesday' writers chime in with their thoughts on pop culture, sports, and the power of the internet deep dive. First, writers Travon Free and Cathy Lew discuss the anticipation for Frank Ocean's new album and if the world can handle a Kanye-Drake collaboration. Then, Pat Barker and Joel Solomon join to break down what's grinding their gears in the sporting world. Finally, Brendan Lynch and Cathy Lew wrap it up with Brendan's most recent internet deep dives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This room podcast on Channel 33. My name is Trevon Fri. I'm a writer on any given Wednesday, and I'm sitting here with one of my really cool, fun and hip co-workers. Kathy Lou, Kathy, say hi to the people. Hi, people. We are going to be talking about the stuff we, the AGW writers are interested in, fun stuff like music, sports, pop culture, entertainment, everything.

We try to cover on the show. Our first segment is going to be me and Kathy talking about music. We got a lot of fun music stuff to talk about. and that's going to be followed up by our middle segment with Pat Parker and Joel Solomon talking about sports. And then we're going to come back with Kathy Lou again. It's going to be in here with Brendan Lynch doing one of his fun deep dives. What are you guys talking about, Kathy? There's a lot of great copper talk and then it just gets better from there.

I don't want to give it away. So a deep dive on copper is coming up. I hope you guys are excited for that. Me and Kathy are going to start this off with something. We both are through the moon about. it's Friday coming up this Friday If it's happening I'm very scared

Trayvon's very confident I'm very confident I'm very confident I'm seeing a lot of press We're talking about the return of Frank Ocean This Friday I hope there's a sound effect there Boys Don't Cry

Throw in a sound effect Maybe a sound bite from the movie Boys Don't Cry I don't know put something in it Yeah Frank Ocean's back So you're I mean percentage wise Like how confident are you that it's coming out on Friday.

I'm going to put myself at like 85 to 90%. Wow, that's pretty serious. Only because the anonymous person in the New York Times report sounds like a total plant where they just like, they sent this person out here to do this anonymous report, and I'm using air quotes right now, so that it seemed like somebody was leaking something that was happening between Apple and Frank Ocean,

which is ridiculously stupid because you would lose your job if you really did leak the album release of Frank Ocean between Apple and Frank. And then there's that video that was put up with the screenshot of the Apple Music logo in the corner. So all these little things, I'm turning into a Reddit person right now. All these little things are giving me hope. I know. I'm just scared. Like that, that video froze my computer. So I was just like waiting for something to happen. I tried to refresh. But truthfully, like, I feel, so burnt by him at this point.

And I honestly am just like, I was looking through the stages of grief and I realized I'm fully at the anger phase. Oh yeah, I think we're all kind of helping. This is what we went through with detox. I know. And then we got to the end and we realized it was never going to happen.

So if Dre put out detox tomorrow, no one would give shit. Because you've made us wait too long. And I think Frank, if he wants to continue this music game, and continue to be relevant, you can't keep doing this to people. It's been four years, though. I was thinking about it, and I was like, I could have become a lawyer within this time.

Like, I could have finished mid-school. Yeah, I could be someone totally different by now. And so I'm just like, I would say after 2015, I kind of was like, all right, I'm done. Like, I can't wait around anymore. You drop your anticipation and you just like, if it happens, it happens. like the guns and roses thing exactly it's like just hovering between anger and depression and i feel like you have made it to the other side of acceptance and hope and like that's why i like talking to you about i'm trying i can't i can't go on like this frank you have to like give us because like we've waited

four years and now music and pop culture it all changes so fast that you get left behind so easily. Yeah. So when you get into like year five, year six, and you've put out nothing creatively but like two blogs and... A super robust Tumblr is what you're trying to say, Trayvon. And a video, we just go, all right, that Frank Ocean thing was fun. But then the expectations become so high.

Every year, the expectations for your album rises and rises. And I feel like it gets to a crest where every year, when we get to the peak, every year on the other side of that peak, even if you put out the best album you could possibly make, it won't live up to anybody's expectations. Yeah. And I also think that there's a certain level of like meme culture that's taken over. And it's like almost become a running joke of just like it's never. Right. And for me personally, like it was just never funny because I was so pissed off. But I think that that's kind of when you have to insert yourself too and like assert your own control over the narrative.

And like you can't let yourself like get played by the internet like that. I saw I saw a Pokemon Go meme of somebody catching Frank in a pokeyball like they finally found him. See like it can't come full circle like that. Like when you have like your references from the early odds like coming back to bite you in the ass, that's rude. That's straight up rude. Why do you think we're so obsessed with Frank? Do you think it's because of his talent or because he's like someone who's so talented, but also embraced being a gay R&B singer, which is kind of unheard of?

Do you think that has anything to do with our obsession with him while we love him so much? I think he's elusive. And I think that that's a huge, huge part of why we're so obsessed with him. because I think that to juxtapose that with the way that it feels like all other artists are just totally overexposed, extremely calculated, and it just almost gets boring to a certain point. Like publishing tons of Instagrams from like your Fourth of July party so that we can all see what it looks like. You know, it's just like, you know, we know too much. And so I think that it maybe now I'm realizing like we created this problem because it's like the fact that we know

nothing about what he's been up to, where he's been, except for, like, a couple of, like, random people stalking him. It means that we just assert kind of our own, like, hopes and dreams for him, I think. But what's your take? I kind of, I agree. I think it's a mix of he doesn't present himself to us often enough where we feel like, we know we're Frank Ocean, we know what he's up to, we know that album's coming where it's like, you drop Channel Orange and then you disappear and everybody's loving this album and is in love with the the person or the phenomenon that is Frank Ocean yeah for sure and you're like wins the next album it's kind of like how Adele made people wait like a solid five or six years before between 21 and 25 right and

she went away completely and 25 dropped and it broke every sales record known to man pretty much and I wonder if in a way he's kind of captured that here captured that as an R&B artist where you get into not oversharing and making people want you when you do come back so that you can actually then go away again and Chris Rog does this where he says he puts out a special and he goes away because if people get oversaturated with you and then they don't care as much about what you have to say whatever you're putting out. So I think it's in part his dealing with being Frank Ocean, which whatever that means

emotionally and being in a business that's very hetero and male dominated when you are not necessarily a part of their game. Because I've heard some things where he's like people who are like not wanting to work with him or whatever the case. It's like he's fucking super talented. So that's their loss. But I'm hoping that that time. was just spent going away to make one of the most amazing albums that we will hear in the last

five years. Yeah, in a weird way, listening to you talk about it. It almost reminds me of kind of the conversations we've had about the night of that the reason people are so obsessed with it is because it's so quiet, it moves so slowly that there's an absence of information. And like, that's why everyone's talking about it and trying to really like hone in on what is happening and it's almost the same phenomenon because of how kind of saturated the marketplaces yeah because when's the last time he did an interview yeah like I don't I don't know I can't remember him saying anything publicly in the last few years but I think that helps drive moments like this where you go out of nowhere my album drops Friday and the fucking

world loses its mind but to pivot to album drops and surprise albums. This has been a big week for Trayvon and I, truthfully. This Kanye and Drake album that Kanye mentioned at OVOFest that's supposed to be happening. I mean, that's something that I can only, I can only hope it comes out before the Frank Ocean album, truthfully. I'm like, I have more faith that that'll drop like tomorrow. If it showed up before that, I don't know what would happen to music. So I was thinking about this.

what do you think is the motivation for Kanye to do this collaboration, and what's the motivation for Drake to do this collaboration? For Kanye, I think he's a guy who wants to be a part of anything he thinks is great or anything he thinks is culturally relevant. And there's very few people more culturally relevant than Drake. And he's proving himself extremely talented. His album's been number one for 12 of the last 13 weeks. and it's someone like Kanye who is an amazingly talented musician and producer to combine those two forces. I feel like it's us two sons colliding. I don't know what the effect of that is, but I imagine it destroys everything within like a galaxy away from it.

So to think of Drake at his best and Kanye at his best, or even just thinking of watch to throw. and how much I loved Watch the Throne and how much how great that concert was. I saw it at Staples Center to see those two the most two of the most emotional and egotistical guys in music who also bounced back and forth between super emo and super ego. I feel like you just get this amazing mix of something that would just blow our heads off. Yeah, emo to ego, I think, is the name of great television show or the name of the album. Yeah, so if you're listening,

Drake and Kanye, name it emo to ego. Yeah, the songs start out very emotional and they get progressively more. Just a perfect arc of human emotion. Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited and also, like, more than anything, I'm just happy that there are collaborations that I'm excited about rather than, like, Lincoln Park and Jay-Z

where I'm like, why is this happening? Like, because for a while there, I feel like so many of the collaborations were just sort of like, do we dare, like, release this into the world? Right. And I was like, don't test me. Like, I don't want to listen to this. You're right. Like, how did that even happen? I don't know.

Like Jay-Z and Lincoln Park. It's so wrong. And so that's why I'm like, this is, I think, a wonderful, like, it's a gift. And truthfully, I'm very nervous for 2017 because I feel like 2016 has given. given us so much amazing music and so many things to talk about, the 2017 is going to be a drought. Like, it's just going to be straight 21 pilots, like, all year. So it's like 83, 84, where all those great albums came out and then no one could touch music for like three years.

Yeah, it's too hot. You just have to back away from that. Like Thriller, just the number one album like three or four years in a row and like just crushing it. What kind of Drake do you think is going to come to this album? Like there are so many different archetypes for him. And I feel like it just, I don't know. They both have this interesting relationship with making music about women in their lives or about going through relationships.

And they both have this amazing ability to do ego rap at its finest. So I wonder if you do a balance where you get a mix. those songs where Kanye and Drake just put out a first name, greatest last name ever out like song, and then go straight to just hold on, we're going home some type of like super blame game Kanye where you get them just like crying on the microphone basically at that point because you can't, they're both so strong in both those categories. You have to balance it. So maybe you get an ego and an emo each song or someone's being super ego and super emo and then you get a couple of tracks where they just both go hard in both directions.

I hope future shows up. Listen, I feel like that's like a controversial thing to say, but I'm like, I hope you show up like in the middle somewhere. I feel like Future and Chance might definitely show up on this album and you might even get a peek at some designer because I feel like they're just. just that's just where they are right now. Yeah, I. Does it remind you of when Kanye was saying Watch the Throne 2 is coming for like a whole year and then we never got Watch the Throne 2? I've learned to take everything that he says like with a grain of salt, except for his tweets,

which I honestly take very, very seriously. I like, I'm not even kidding. Like I really look at those tweets as a living, breathing document. And, like, I really look at those tweets as a living, breathing document. Yes, I just compared it to the Constitution. But anything he kind of, you know, says nowadays, it's hard. Like, yo, Trayvon, celebrities and artists, they lie. They lie to us. I almost feel like, like, because every time Kanye tweets, I always post a red, like a red fire alarm gift to let everybody know Kanye's tweeting.

But I feel like if you, when you make those promises, or you say things like that. Every once in a while, one of them has to be true before we just lose all credibility with the public. And that's why everything goes back to Frank. It's one virtuous circle. All right, Kathy, well, it was great talking Frank and Kanye and Drake with you. Stay tuned.

We have Pat Barker and Joe Solomon coming up to drop some hot sports takes on you guys. This has been The Writers Room Podcast. All right, this is the second segment. of the writer's room podcast. This is a segment that is unofficially called Get Off My Lawn. That's what we named it.

This is, my name's Pat Barker. I'm a writer for the show. This is my buddy. Joel Solomon. Joel Solomon. This is strange because neither of us have a lawn. Right. Yeah.

Lawns are very expensive in L.A. Yeah. You can't afford one out here. But we're both just sort of, we're angry about shit and we want to talk about it. All right. All right. What do you,

so give me one. You know what I'm angry. I was watching the USA Olympic team, the basketball team, just dominate one of these poor countries that can't afford a basketball. And, you know, Clay Thompson hit a three or somebody threw down an alley-oop or something. And the players got happy. And Coach Kay got really mad. And he was like, sit down.

Sit down. We don't celebrate good things. And it's like, come on, dude. Like, do you, listen. These guys, they have flown, they are risking their lives right now by being in Rio. Okay, everything we've heard about Rio basically says like, if you're Paul George, you were really risking. Yeah, Paul George, of all people, should definitely be allowed to celebrate.

Okay. He should be allowed to celebrate when we win the opening tip. If he wants to do the fucking worm on the sideline after we win the opening tip, I'm all for it. Paul George has earned the right to do whatever he wants. But the rest of the team is risking their lives down in Rio. You can't drink the water. You can't breathe the air. there's a high probability you are going to die.

So these could be your last moments on Earth. I think you get to celebrate. I think it's a fair point. He can't treat it like Duke. I get it. But this is like an all-star team. You're blowing teams out by 50. Good.

It's tough to kind of be on the edge of your seat, not playing loose when you're up by 50. And yeah, yeah. Let these guys have fun. This is their off season, by the way. Have some fun out there. And listen, I assume the majority of our podcast listeners are in America. If you live in America, you know,

like America is kind of sucked recently. Like there's a lot of like everything's awful. All I have left is beating Angola by 70 points. Okay, let me have that. Let these guys have it. Do you think Coach Kay is over it? I mean, I think this is his third Olympics. Yeah.

And you've got coach, Ke, even you've got better stuff to do. Yeah, I can't, I can't imagine he's as emotionally. But then again, maybe he is.

I mean, the way he's reacting shows that he care. I just don't. This is all. also the only time Carmelo really gets to celebrate. Let him, let him celebrate that. Yeah. Nobody, nobody, nobody enjoyed the original dream team because they were playing fundamental basketball and, and winning down the stretch. Like, beating people up is, is what, that's great about. Vince Carter jumping over that dude. Of course. Like, can you imagine Vince Carter

jumping over that guy and then the coach being like, everybody calmed down, everybody, he could have finished with a layup. That could have been more fundamentally sound. We should, you, we're USA. We should dominate and have fun and we're not this isn't like john wooden running a clinic here like we should flex our muscles that's what i'm saying that's what i'm saying coach k if you're listening right now take that that chest pass bounce past lay up line bullshit and get it out of here all right i i want 360 dunks well i'm sure he's listening so all right well here's what's bothering me cleveland wins the championship right and uh starting to get starting to get some beer muscles over there They're starting to puff their chest out a little too much.

Cleveland fans were upset that Jonathan LaCroixer for the Brewers waved his no trade clause. He was supposed to get sent there. He vetoed the deal. He was on their note. The Cleveland Indians were one of the teams that were on his list that he could void the trade. And Cleveland fans were irate. Now some of the players are saying that they hope they make the World Series so they can laugh at LaCroo. when they win.

Wow. Cleveland, that was quick. Really? When you guys win and break another curse? He had every right to veto the trade

as he did. And Cleveland, you got Andrew Miller. Be happy. You actually could have gotten LaCroi, had your management. Here's what LaCroi

wanted. He either wanted them to void his 2017 club option so he could be a free agent or promise him this starting catcher job next year.

Both things Cleveland wouldn't let him do. he would have come. Maybe you should be angry at your team management. Or just say, you know what? We're better with our prospects we got to keep. And sometimes these things work out. They work out for the best.

Cleveland, you're in first place without him. Keep marching. But no, we got to get Cleveland championship all of a sudden beer muscles that we're, we're the city of champions. Yeah, relax. Relax. Relax with that poor man's Boston routine. You know, you're not entitled.

to anything. You got a great team. You got a great team. People veto trades all the time. You know, you could take it. I get the fans taking it personally, but do you say the players want to laugh at them? Yeah, they're one of their catchers who said today that.

One of their catchers. Yeah. So a guy who gets to keep a job because he should be sending Jonathan Luchroy like a fruit basket. Chris Jimenez. Like an edible arrangement or something. I'm with you. Christian Mendes. He kept his job.

Oh. God. And this is coming from a Philadelphia fan. You know what I mean? Like I, there are guys that I wish had vetoed their trade. Andrew Bynum. Andrew Bynum didn't veto it. We traded for him and then he played zero games for us and injured himself bowling.

So that could be the alternative. At least you don't have to pay for a guy who injured himself bowling, Cleveland. Well, Cleveland, you should be happy. You got Andrew Miller. You just won the championship, which you should be happy about forever, relax that you didn't get Jonathan LaCroix. Yeah. All right, retirement sendoffs. We've been through a lot of these in the past couple years.

There was Jeter, Mariana Rivera, Chipper Jones. We just had Kobe. Now we have David Ortiz. And they're nice. I like that these guys deserve a retirement sendoff. But a whole season long of them is a little, this is getting a little redundant and a little repetitive. And now, wasn't it nice when Tim Duncan, you really got to enjoy his last stretch? Is this his last stretch?

Is he coming back? And like one of the greats just goes off into the sunset. Same with Ichiro and Dirk Nowitzky. I don't know if they're going to retire. I kind of like the suspense of just enjoying their career for what it is. And maybe they'll retire. Maybe they won't. Who knows? But I know with Jeter, I know with Ortiz that now every at bat, every city they go to, it's a farewell tour. Oh, and you know what? It's a lot of marketing dollars in their pockets. And it's great for TV and my God, they collect things like bowling balls and rocking chairs and horseshoes, which I'm sure are going to end up in a closet somewhere. These retirement sendoffs have to stop, Pat. I'm totally with you. I'm totally with you. It's, uh, you know, it's just not my thing. Like to each their

own, but yeah, I, I don't like the, the idea of drumming up interest because it's like, this is the last time we're going to get to see David Ortiz or, you know, whatever. Just the gifts are the worst part, you go to Anaheim and they give you a surfboard. When the fuck is David Ortiz going surfing? Never. He will use it maybe as a cutting board, but never as a surfboard. That's what I'm saying? Like give him like a P.F. Chang's gift card or something he might actually use.

Or when you, and it's pressures on the city. That brings up a good point. Now they, everyone feels like they have to give a gift. Give a gift if you want. And also wouldn't be more powerful than the next season. David Ortiz comes back, Derek Jeter comes back to the stadium when they really have retired

and the fans can do the standing ovation then, now we're giving standing ovation at every a bat. You know, you know, is Jeter's best send-off? Winning that game in the bottom of the night. That's your send-off. That's how it should have been. Michael Jordan never,

his send-off should have been making a final shot and we get all the accolades later. Now, you know, like we were talking about yesterday with Chipper Jones in the playoffs, it all became about not the Atlanta Braves winning, but oh, could this be his final at bat? No, it is. We know. He's retiring because we've talked about it all fucking season. And the thing is the players don't care. Maybe Kobe, because like the Lakers were a lost cause and Kobe seems like an egomaniac. So I'm sure he enjoyed getting all those gifts and being showered with adulation. But like Jeter was trying to make the playoffs. Ortees

is trying to make the playoffs. Like you said, the last thing memory for Jeter is that game winning hit. If they ask him about his last season, he's going to say, I remember the game winning hit. It was a great moment. He's not going to be like, I really enjoyed the cowboy boots I got in Houston. Unbelievable. All right. Give me one more. So far, I believe we're agreeing today, which is rare. This is rare for us. So let's see what is next. My final thing, again, I'm coming from Philadelphia. I listen to a lot of sports talk radio. And I get it. You got to fill 24 hours a day with content. And that's tough. But, predicting the game by game results for your team when the schedule comes out, it has to stop.

You mean in July? Like, the schedule's fresh off and people are already looking at, oh, we're going 10 and 6. I'm not even, that's fine. If you want to say we're going 10 and 6, like, I get that. Like, you have a prediction. But to sit there before camp breaks and be like, well, week 14, we're going to be at Cincinnati. That's probably a loss. It's like, nobody knows. if Cincinnati's going to be good. Nobody knows what your team's going to look like. Unless it's Cleveland. That you can put a W.

Half of your players could be sidelined with traumatic brain injury at that point. Like, how are you going to predict what's going to happen? Like, half your team's going to get injured in training camp. You know, there's going to be a guy suspended for smoking weed. Like, by the time week 14 rolls around, nobody knows what your team is going to look like. And it's just, it's not a fun activity to me.

It's stupid. It's a waste of time to just sit there and predict what your team is going to look like in four months. To the degree where you're like, I think we're going to lose on a last second field goal against the Colts in week 13. Like, nobody knows that. Just stop it. It does seem pretty irrelevant and a waste of time. I always wanted to call into sports talk radio when the baseball schedule was released and just start breaking down all 162 games until they hung up on me. See, now that would be exciting.

That, that I like. That takes real thought. You're pretty much basing it on last season. You're just looking at, well, that seems a winnable game. That's a winnable game. Meanwhile, no one knows. No one. It's, you have no idea.

No. And people, people might think it's, I don't like when people have fun. If you're enjoying yourself doing this thing, not, please stop. Stop. Go do something that's, that's actually fun. Don't, don't, don't predict four months down the line. Well, even, even more meaningless than doing that are NFL preseason games. NFL preseason games are the worst.

You're not even getting regular players there. They don't care about it where you're getting starters for one possession. And we have four of them. We have four of these fucking games that fans have to pay regular price for. And if you're the Packers and the Colts this year playing in the Hall of Fame game, you have to play five preseason games. And the funny thing about that Hall of Fame game, last year, it had a 6.9 rating, which out drew a Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, and World Series.

We get it. It is about money, NFL. God bless you guys for getting as much as possible. But we got to stop this preseason stuff. You know you've been in training camp for a month. You know what players are going to make the team? That's ridiculous. Unless you were the worst talent evaluator

and you really need to see these guys in live action. That's ridiculous. Have you ever been to a preseason game? A preseason football game, maybe one or two. And we left. I've never actually left a football game early except for preseason. Well, yeah, because the starters are done after eight minutes. It's so pointless.

You're only risking injuries. And really, the only thing good that comes out of it is for hard knocks. Hard knocks, training camp, great show, that I appreciate. Other than that, it is pointless for the preseason. For the Packers and Colts to have to play five games. And unless like we need this for Madden ratings, I don't see the point. Please make it stop. Yeah, I agree.

And if you're the coach of a team, I guess the thought process is like you got to get your guys used to game speed so that they don't die once the regular season starts. But it's like when I look at all these injuries, there were like six major injuries yesterday. And they're doing like non-contact drills. You know, it's just I almost feel like I would hold back. I would pull a Popovich. Okay. And just I wouldn't even let my good players on the, especially like a quarterback. like Aaron Rogers isn't going to forget how to throw a football.

I wouldn't give him a single snap in the preseason. I wouldn't. I would ruin the Hall of Fame game by holding out Aaron Rogers. These guys are not, they're not going to forget how to do their job. If you're an offensive line and you're going to forget how to like stand there and hold your arms out. How would you fix it? They should get to play like,

well, the way you fix. Amateurs or celebrities or tell me how you would fix the fucking preseason. Well, I don't know. A celebrity game fixes it. I think that's just reinventing it is something completely different and better. frankly. No, I mean, the way you fix it is to cut it down to two games.

But like you said, you know, it's all about money. So they're not going to do that. If anything, they're going to expand it to, you know, a 16 game preseason and a 32 game regular season and just will never stop playing football ever again. I think if you pay for a personal seat license, you should get to play in a preseason game. I mean, we have to end on that note because that wins that you paid for it. That's, you're in big trouble. like a rewards card. It's like a punch card. You go to 10 games and then you get to play a preseason

snap. You get to kick. That should be fair. You get to try at least attempt to kick. Yeah, that would, that would be more interesting to me. Well, all right, we've solved it. So Roger Goodell, you're welcome. All right. This has been, this has been Pat Barker and Joel Solomon with Get Off My Lawn. Shout out to our sponsor. We're not sure yet, but Lawn Care. Scott's Lawn Care. You're sponsoring us. You didn't know that. Guys, thanks for listening to our segment. Up next is the moment you've all been waiting for Brendan Lynch's deep dives. So we're going to throw over to Brendan Lynch and Kathy Liu. And now for the third segment of the Writers' Room podcast.

I'm with fellow Any Given Wednesday writer Brendan Lynch, who's going to take us through some of his deep dives. Hello, Kathy. First off, I think we just wanted to kind of hear more about what exactly is a deep dive. Because to be honest, Brendan, like a lot of people think a deep dive is just like, a long sort of like Wikipedia session. And from kind of observing your process, it feels like it's way more involved than that.

Yeah, that's completely off. It's a lifestyle. Deep diving is something. It's a state that you want to get to where you let the internet almost take over your body and you go wherever the wind is. The knowledge is not. the point of a deep dive. Okay. The deep dive is the point. It's a process, not an end point.

Exactly. If you're there trying to find information, like that's not the point. The point is also to look everywhere. Every source is good. Every source is, you know, it's like you're not looking for evidence. You're just looking at, you know, what is the internet saying about this? So message boards, there is no primary and secondary source. You know, what someone says on a message board, is valid. A YouTube video is valid. An ad is valid. Everything is valid. And you just, you deep dive, you submerge yourself, and you come out a better person. Okay. Well, I mean, that, that honestly moved me. And so now I feel like I need to know what your most recent deep dive has been. Well, I last weekend went to Montreal for the Just for Lafts Comedy Festival. And it,

It was a, I'm not a festival person. Parties and networking and hobnobbing are not my thing. So I was at this, you know, this bar and there's all these Hollywood types and stuff. And I got a mini panic attack and I went back to my room and did a deep dive just to center me. So that, so really when you say a deep dive, you know, Deep dive is a lifestyle. You really mean that in terms of like that is something that you do to allay anxiety, it's social anxiety.

It's a medicine. Okay. It's a medicine. It's a lifestyle. I mean, it's, and another thing I really want to say is deep diving is not, I will never fake a deep dive. If I don't have one, I, like, this is not, we're not talking snorkeling. We're not talking about like submerging your body, becoming the internet.

Hit me with the, I guess, the deep dive that really made you kind of meditate the most. What was the most soothing deep dive you've done recently? This was a really hot thing on YouTube about four years ago, but the videos are still up and I still go back to them. And it's about these guys who buy, they go to the bank and buy boxes of pennies, looking for pennies from before 1982 because the copper content for like pre-1982 pennies is 95 percent after 1982 it's it's 2.5 percent so these copper pennies are actually worth more than a penny they're worth 1.6 cents so um they buy them because and they hoard them because of hyperinflation like it's it's related to doomsday prepping but these guys will get

rolls of pennies break them open and then look for the 1982 pennies and I've I've never done this sure I don't believe in you know doomsday prepping or whatever but I've watched so many of these videos I can now spot the 1982 pennies wait what how can you spot it just based off the tarnish or yeah the patina the patina the it's it's the color it's the the you know the luster the shine Exactly. The taste of copper. In 2012, it really does weird me out that that is specifically when it became very popular. Do you have any other deep dives from other eras that are not 2012?

It seems like you also have a good sense of when these things were popular on YouTube. 2008. I'm fascinated by Kanye West. I don't like music. Right. I don't listen to a lot of music. I prefer ambient noise. Ambient noise.

Totally. I like to hear people talk. I like speech patterns. So I don't pretend to know a ton about Kanye West music, but his TV projects, he had two TV projects in 2008 around there. One called Alligator Boots. Branded as a hip-hop Muppet show.

He did it with Rime Fest, I believe. and there's some clips of alligator boots on YouTube. This pilot, I will one day watch it. I need to see this. So so far the only thing available are short Muppet clips that give you a taste of what that pilot would have looked like, or does the pilot exist? The pilot exists.

On YouTube, they have a behind-the-scenes video where people are talking about the project. and it didn't end up being picked up, but it's absolutely fascinating. Kim Kardashian's in it. I don't know, you know, this is an ongoing deep dive. I need to know more about this. I don't know if that's where they met, but there's clips of it online. It was Jimmy Kimmel was a producer of it.

The puppets is a very crank-yanker-esque sort of puppets. The lead puppet is a guy named, it's a pig named Pork Troy. That's the main puppet character, Pork Troy. So why do you think there's a behind the scenes video about it and not the actual, like, final product? Do you think that there could still be a potential, like, pilot in the midst? No, I think it's, I think Kanye West is one of the, you know, not that I know that much about him, but I think, You know, the true grates move on from things that don't work quickly. They don't dwell.

That's why it's deep dive after deep dive. Yeah, I get that. Exactly. If I'm in the middle, not that I'm one of the greats, but like if I'm in the middle of a deep dive and it's not working, I'm pulling, I'm pulling that rip cord. We're gone. Like, you know, we're this, you don't want to just, you know, throw good money after bad. And what was interesting is that Kanye had two of these, like around the same time. He also had a HBO pilot.

Kanye West HBO pilot. You can find a little segment of this, too. It's a scene where Kanye is going to visit a Make a Wish kid. And it's Kirby Enthusiasm-esque. I guess they just wrote an outline. And then it was a lot of improv. One interesting thing that I picked up reading about it is that the very hilarious and talented Matt Besser from UCB actually went. to Kanye's house and gave him improv lessons.

That feels like it would be a real challenging project, just a constant yes and. From Kanye, yeah. I want to see the video of the improv lessons. Like, that's, I would pay money to see Kanye take. Because improv is so vulnerable. Not that I have ever done it, but like you're out there without a net, you know, whatever.

Del Close. All the grades. All the grades. Yeah. That's an inside joke between me and Kathy. But this clip is really, you got to check it out. They keep taking it down and putting it back up, but it's Kanye West HBO pilot. Wyatt Sinek was in it, J.B. Smooth, I believe, also.

That's like a murderer's row of people in one pilot. Like, that's something I wish actually existed in its real form. And I would say the most satisfying deep dives I've done have also been Kanye-related. One of my favorite videos was him at a concert. And it's fan footage. And I know that we always are like, why do people take videos during concerts? It's so annoying. But this is from, I don't know how many years back, but it's him doing take on me by aha

and dancing to it. And it's the weirdest thing to see someone who's so kind of has, has this very different image today just totally let loose to what I would classify as the cheesiest song that actually exists. And he just goes totally crazy. And so it's interesting to me that Kanye specifically has all of these very sort of different segments of time that are all just kind of out there, whether it's comedy, 80s, or like his current status of just, you know, ball main ads. Yeah, I mean, I think he is a very deep diveable person.

And like I said, I don't know him, but it seems like he's the, he, from reading interviews, he has the type of personality of someone who does get super into stuff. I mean, it's not really like deep diving, but he has so many interests. And so it's, you can like, you know, he's very good on the internet like that because you can look up just his fashion stuff. his music stuff, his music producer stuff, his pilots from 2008, his relationship stuff, his, you know, being on the reality show that he's on. So, yeah, he's... But I have a question for you.

Like, if you're Kanye, would you try and get all of those videos scrubbed from the internet? Like, if you're in his shoes and you have a pilot from 2008 that doesn't necessarily represent, like, who you currently are. or what your humor is like now, do you try and keep that up, or are you, like, get rid of that? I hope, here's, okay, I hope he does because I'm up for the challenge of finding them.

It's a game, not that it's a game between me and kind, but it's the internet versus him. Right. So if it's, if the pilot alligator boots was just out there, it wouldn't be as fun as, you know, I'm looking on French YouTube for it. I'm looking on, you know, I'm looking everywhere. I'm looking at the, you know, all the weird YouTube knockoffs for this.

And I check every couple months to see that one person who has the alligator boots or the HBO pilot, have they put the whole thing up? And I want to find it. And when I find it, I'm going to be so excited because all that time, you know, got, you know, paid off. And, you know, if he's, I hope he's not embarrassed by it because I think what I respect about anyone who, you know, is taking chances and going outside your lane. I don't like this mentality, stay in your lane. Right. Like, which has become this weird mantra.

What lane? Do whatever you want. Like, let's have fun. If it, some of the best entertainment is flops, you know, I mean. What are, what are other? examples of flops that you have either done deep dive on or think basically are better than whatever that person is currently famous for. Nick Cannon's stand-up comedy is so bad. It's great. He actually is a genius. Like I, you know, I love Nick Cannon and it like I also do stand-up comedy.

So it's, sometimes people think I'm being, you know, trying to be weird or whatever. But like, I watch his stand up more than anyone else because it is, it's so not relatable. Like, he's doing bits about being married to Mariah Carey. Like, who relates to that? But he's like talking about it. I mean, please, please do a deep dive on Nick Cannon's standup comedy canon. Wait, could you spell it? No, what year are we talking?

I don't know what the years are, but there's one called Mr. Showbiz that I love. Oh, wow. He takes his clothes off throughout the stand-up special. He gets like, so he comes out in a suit, and then he removes articles of clothing. And you can only see little teeny sections of it on YouTube. You can't, I haven't found, a couple times I found the whole thing, but then it gets taken down. But I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy the DVD one day, you know, because, I have to hide it from my wife because she's like,

please stop watching. Are you watching Nick Cannon doing stand-up again? It sounds like a combination like Magic Mike audition tape and just, you know, like last comic standing. And that Venn diagram intersection is very important to me. Yeah. I mean,

and Nick Cannon is a talent. I mean, the guy is a great host. He's wrapped. He's, you know, he does. comedy he acts he does all these different things i look up to this man but his stand-up is not good at all

but it's so not good it's great and i don't watch it being like ha-ha like look isn't this i'm thinking like what did was he thinking about before what did he think about after was he like i just crushed that i crushed that special um did you see how i took off my clothes and did a 10-minute long bit about maria taking a bath you know where literally nobody else ever comes home to a talented diva. Also, like, if I'm Mariah Carey, I'm super pissed about that. Like, that benefits no one. And I feel like she's such a diva that she would be like,

why would you ever talk about my, like, sacred bath time to all of these strangers? And now it exists in DVD form. Exactly. And there's a more recent one that I'm just sort of. of like, you know when you have something that's like a, you get a birthday card and you don't open it until like 5 p.m. You just sit it on your desk. Sure. Because you look forward to it. Anticipation. Yeah. It's, I'm just sort of nibbling on his latest special, just nibbling on it. Because I don't want to, I want to have this go on for years. I don't want to just eat it all in one meal. Of course. I mean,

that's that's like a gift that could continue to give exactly so i guess what we're trying to say is if you could send brendon the nick cannon DVD we would all really appreciate it oh my yeah i mean i i would love it i would absolutely and and i'll probably end up buying it and and he's great can i do can i do one other one this is a weird one zapos the website i'm fascinated by zapos because do you ever watch the videos on Zappos? I can confidently say that no, I do not watch the videos on Zappos. Everyone needs to go on Zappos and look at the type of shoe that you like and click on the videos and like I will never be cool enough to work at Zappos. Zappos seems like it's the coolest people and there's these little short, minute long videos and it's, you know, a person who like they, I'm sure they have a lot of friends and they, you know, they, you know, they,

kill it at cocktail parties and stuff. And they're holding up this shoe and it's like, here's the new balance, you know. It's always a new balance for you, Brendan. That is true. I am a new balance head, which is just like embarrassing. You're a stand-up comedian. It's fine. We get it.

I'm dabbling in A6. I'm maturing. So, but they hold up the shoe and then they like do a little bit about it. And they're always talking about like. and they do the little hand motion, like the Vana White hand motion. Right, the like QVC videos and stuff. And it's, but there's this weird, like, ironic distance to it. They know what they're doing is sort of cheesy, but they still have them on there.

And, you know, they're wearing, like, cool clothes. And they were talking about, like, the foam footbed and the breathable mesh. And, like, it's an awesome shoe with a plush tongue in soul. And just they have this, all of them have this. There's a lot of people that do them, but they have this weird pattern of speech. And so I'll put these on. I wish Zappos just had like a long sizzle reel of just like a hundred of them. And I could just watch them in order.

Well, are you in it for watching it or more for the like audio quality and the cadence? It's the cadence. Something about the Zappos cadence hypnotizes me. And also just like cool people doing. uncool things. Like, you know, like, hawking Nike's on the internet is not cool, and they know

it's not a cool thing. And so there's sort of, there's an embarrassment to it where they're, you can tell they're not into it. And even the way that they have the shoe, like, they'll like pull the tongue out really hard and sort of throw it over their shoulder. And this one guy's always flipping them around,

you know, flipping them around. And please watch these Zappos videos. I am a huge fan. don't stop doing them. That's one of the things I'm worried about is that Zappos will go public and they'll stop doing the Zappos videos. I can confirm that this is an earnest endorsement of Zappos videos. Yeah. And so did you get there though because you were buying shoes or because you were deep diving efficient shoe companies? I watch a lot of shoe runner shoe reviews online because runners are so type A and I'm not type A.

So when you hear people talk about like shoes, every detail, I'm fascinated. There's a guy named Ginger Runner on YouTube. You can attest. I haven't run in 15 years. I'm not a runner. I do have planar fasciitis. So I am into running shoes for just sloth purposes. But this guy, Ginger Runner, he goes through, you know, the,

Lacing and the every and and you know people that run marathon type things are Like fascinating to me because like I would get no pleasure out of that so to hear them do a 20-minute-long video on you know the latest Mazzuno running shoe. It's like whoa. Why are you? And the in the view counts are gigantic. Wow. I feel like I've learned a lot and I feel like I have to go back and reconsider all my life choices and my purchases. I want to hear, like, next time we do this, I want to hear some of your deep dives, because I'm also, the deep dive lifestyle

is being open to just dives. Let's dive. Yeah, I agree. And on that, I think, you know, see you next time. And thanks so much for sharing all of your deep dives with us. Thanks for listening to The Riders Room on Channel 33. We really appreciate it.

Make sure to watch any given Wednesday, Wednesday nights. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye.