Latest / Movie Meltdown / 194: Dealing with Cho Dependency
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Movie meltdown movie oh man.
- 0:13Speaker 2: Get out the dvd player this is michael winslow from
- 0:15Speaker 2: police academy one through infinity and space posit now brooks
- 0:19Speaker 2: movie meltdown The following feature has been rated R by
- 0:33Speaker 2: the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for
- 0:36Speaker 2: mature audiences and parental discretion is advised.
- 0:50Speaker 3: It's showtime, folks. Enjoy the show.
- 0:55Speaker 4: Our nuclear reactor, pumping out one million kilowatts of power.
- 1:25Speaker 5: What's up and welcome to Movie Meltdown.
- 1:27Speaker 3: I'm Brian and this week we have.
- 1:29Speaker 6: A special guest.
- 1:31Speaker 5: I'll be talking with comedian, actress, writer, producer, Margaret Cho.
- 1:54Speaker 7: Now Margaret's had quite a career and is still growing
- 1:56Speaker 7: strong as she's here in the middle of another successful
- 1:58Speaker 7: stand-up tour. But this week we're going to talk to
- 2:01Speaker 7: her about getting started in comedy and then about crossing
- 2:04Speaker 7: over into the movies. So first we'll take a break
- 2:07Speaker 7: and along the way we'll hear some clips from one
- 2:09Speaker 7: of Margaret's other endeavors. She's also moved into music. So
- 2:14Speaker 7: we'll hear some of Margaret's songs and we'll be back
- 2:16Speaker 7: to talk with Margaret herself.
- 2:19Speaker 5: If I had superpowers, I'd make love to you for hours.
- 2:24Speaker 4: Never need a bathroom break.
- 2:27Speaker 8: My lower back would never ache.
- 2:29Speaker 9: And if someone treated you.
- 2:31Speaker 4: Bad or mean, my whole body would turn green.
- 2:35Speaker 5: I'd bust out of all my clothes.
- 2:37Speaker 4: Turn into Lou Ferrigno, and obviously win the fight. Cause
- 2:45Speaker 4: I'm a friggin' rockstar superhero bitch.
- 2:47Speaker 10: Take off my glasses and start to switch.
- 2:50Speaker 5: I'll start to spin the lights with strobe.
- 2:53Speaker 4: I am Captain Camel Toe. Wanna be your superman, put
- 3:03Speaker 4: you in my super plans. You could be my lowest lane,
- 3:08Speaker 4: fly in my invisible plane.
- 3:11Speaker 5: That's a squatting at 30,000 feet!
- 3:15Speaker 9: Oh yeah, you might take me.
- 3:17Speaker 5: Out for a bite at a place that serves kryptonite. Then,
- 3:21Speaker 5: of course, we'd have a fight.
- 3:24Speaker 4: But it always turns out I am.
- 3:28Speaker 2: Right.
- 3:28Speaker 7: Oh, the time is now, the time is here.
- 3:33Speaker 6: Now's the time to work by the cheer.
- 3:35Speaker 10: The place you like where the.
- 3:36Speaker 2: Price is right. Well, look in here, you'll dig this site.
- 3:39Speaker 10: The moment's handy for a piece of candy. Just name
- 3:41Speaker 10: your brand, they're all so grand.
- 3:43Speaker 9: Hey, what do you think of a night to rent?
- 3:49Speaker 10: This is Carola Dew.
- 3:50Speaker 6: Young, beautiful, desirable.
- 3:52Speaker 10: Men found her irresistible.
- 3:53Speaker 8: But something is happening to her.
- 3:55Speaker 6: Something that she doesn't quite understand.
- 4:20Speaker 8: And soon she will be swept up in a frantic
- 4:22Speaker 8: fury of repulsion. Repulsion, a frightening film that takes the
- 4:33Speaker 8: everyday world and distorts it. Repulsion, a terrifying look at
- 4:46Speaker 8: the dark side of innocence losing control. Repulsion, a shocking
- 4:53Speaker 8: plunge into the nightmare world of a young woman's sensual fantasies.
- 5:10Speaker 3: Tweet Audio, your source for high-performance, noise-reducing earbuds. Available in
- 5:15Speaker 3: three styles and seven colors. Dave, I do not get superheroes.
- 5:18Speaker 3: Oh my God, I don't get you. What don't you get?
- 5:46Speaker 1: Towerbot here. Well, the meatbags were going to say that
- 5:51Speaker 1: if you're a geek and like podcasts, then you could
- 5:53Speaker 1: try Tower of Technobabble at www.toweroftechnobabble.com. Then this started.
- 6:02Speaker 8: Well, it's up to you.
- 6:03Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my taser and put a stop to this.
- 6:06Speaker 1: Towerbot out. Okay, monkeys. It's nap time.
- 6:22Speaker 5: Hi, this is Lily Tomlin, and I'm on Movie Meltdown
- 6:27Speaker 5: with Brian.
- 6:28Speaker 6: Tumble out of bed and I stumble to the kitchen,
- 6:30Speaker 6: pour myself a cup of ambition, and yawn.
- 6:33Speaker 4: And stretch and try to come to life.
- 6:37Speaker 9: Jump in the shower and the.
- 6:39Speaker 6: Blood starts pumping, out on the streets the traffic starts jumping,
- 6:42Speaker 6: and folks like me on the job.
- 6:44Speaker 10: From nine to five. It's part of your problem, you know.
- 6:50Speaker 3: You haven't seen enough movies.
- 6:55Speaker 5: All of life's.
- 6:56Speaker 6: Riddles are answered in the movies. And now, on with
- 7:13Speaker 6: the show.
- 7:15Speaker 5: Hey, big dog.
- 7:17Speaker 7: Why are you afraid of the wind?
- 7:21Speaker 9: They will always blow the doors.
- 7:25Speaker 7: And windows in.
- 7:29Speaker 9: Wind is real.
- 7:32Speaker 10: It's always there.
- 7:36Speaker 5: Baby, big dog.
- 7:39Speaker 9: It's only moving.
- 7:44Speaker 1: Air.
- 7:45Speaker 7: Hey, big dog.
- 7:47Speaker 5: Why you always wait by the phone.
- 7:51Speaker 9: Don't you know that Batman Will always leave you alone
- 7:58Speaker 9: He likes to say well But he never says when.
- 8:06Speaker 8: And I will fight him If.
- 8:09Speaker 4: He comes around again.
- 8:14Speaker 9: We're silly creatures who need teachers.
- 8:22Speaker 7: We've got problems.
- 8:26Speaker 9: Can we solve them together?
- 8:28Speaker 6: Together.
- 8:35Speaker 4: Together.
- 8:43Speaker 9: Hey, big dog, why do you howl at the moon?
- 8:50Speaker 9: I never heard such a sad and mournful tune. All right.
- 8:58Speaker 7: Well, we're here with Margaret. I usually like to get
- 9:01Speaker 7: into it kind of early with people and sort of
- 9:04Speaker 7: see where everything started. So I guess, first off, how
- 9:07Speaker 7: would you describe yourself as a kid?
- 9:12Speaker 5: I guess pretty shy and quiet. I mean, I don't know.
- 9:18Speaker 5: I'm a pretty shy, quiet person, so that would probably
- 9:22Speaker 5: sum it up. I think that's what I've always been like.
- 9:25Speaker 7: So not one of those kids that was trying to
- 9:28Speaker 7: steal the attention from everybody else in the family and
- 9:30Speaker 7: be in the spotlight?
- 9:31Speaker 8: No.
- 9:32Speaker 5: No.
- 9:32Speaker 10: Wow. Well, I guess, you know, a lot of your.
- 9:38Speaker 7: Stand-up, especially early on, was sort of based out of,
- 9:41Speaker 7: you know, your home life and your family growing up.
- 9:44Speaker 7: I guess, how early was it you started to realize, like,
- 9:47Speaker 7: what was going on at home was funny, or at
- 9:50Speaker 7: least funny to you.
- 9:51Speaker 10: At the time?
- 9:52Speaker 5: I just liked, well, I liked the art form. I
- 9:54Speaker 5: didn't even realize what was happening to me was funny.
- 9:57Speaker 5: I liked the art form of whatever comic. was and
- 10:00Speaker 5: what it represented, which was kind of freedom. And, you know,
- 10:05Speaker 5: I just thought that was really interesting. And it just
- 10:08Speaker 5: seemed like what I was going to do. And I
- 10:09Speaker 5: started comedy so early that it was more just a
- 10:14Speaker 5: wish to just, like, stop being a child.
- 10:17Speaker 7: Yeah. I guess sometimes that stuff that you're interested in
- 10:22Speaker 7: at the time influences you. What were you watching when
- 10:24Speaker 7: you were still relatively young as far as, I guess
- 10:27Speaker 7: in general, but was it some of the comedy.
- 10:30Speaker 10: Or specific people that sort of tapped into what you got?
- 10:32Speaker 5: I think a lot of Carol Burnett and SCTV certainly
- 10:38Speaker 5: was a big deal. All of that was really important.
- 10:43Speaker 7: Was it something that you sought out that early on,
- 10:46Speaker 7: looking for stuff on TV or comedy albums or.
- 10:49Speaker 10: Stuff like that?
- 10:50Speaker 5: Yeah, and it was all really popular then, and San
- 10:53Speaker 5: Francisco itself was a very popular comedy town also. So
- 10:58Speaker 5: it was a big deal where I'm from.
- 11:01Speaker 10: At that point, what were your other interests?
- 11:04Speaker 7: If you didn't end up going into entertainment, was there
- 11:07Speaker 7: something else you probably would have.
- 11:08Speaker 3: Ended up in?
- 11:10Speaker 5: I don't think so. I was so young. I didn't
- 11:12Speaker 5: really have any other choices or options, really. I mean,
- 11:15Speaker 5: it was not anything that I had really thought out well.
- 11:21Speaker 5: You know, I just knew that I wanted to be
- 11:22Speaker 5: a comedian and I knew that I was going to
- 11:24Speaker 5: do it. And so it was just very clear to
- 11:29Speaker 5: me that that was the right thing.
- 11:31Speaker 10: Did you start to, again, you were kind of like
- 11:33Speaker 10: a teenager at that point. Were you, like, pursuing it?
- 11:37Speaker 7: In school, like taking classes or something that way, or
- 11:40Speaker 7: did you just sort of go find it yourself?
- 11:41Speaker 5: No, no, they didn't have anything like that. No, no, no. No,
- 11:46Speaker 5: it was really not like you could study it in school.
- 11:51Speaker 5: And I was far younger than anybody doing it at
- 11:54Speaker 5: the time.
- 11:54Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 11:55Speaker 7: And you didn't know, like, performing or acting and stuff
- 11:58Speaker 7: like that in school, or was it just.
- 12:00Speaker 10: No, not really.
- 12:01Speaker 5: A little bit, but not really.
- 12:03Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 12:03Speaker 5: You know, not... really seriously. I mean, I went to
- 12:10Speaker 5: a performing arts high school, but that was not the
- 12:13Speaker 5: same thing.
- 12:14Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah. Well, and then you sort of took it
- 12:17Speaker 10: upon yourself to get into stand-up. Where did you start finding,
- 12:21Speaker 10: you know, places that would let you perform that young?
- 12:25Speaker 5: There were places. There was the Holy City Zoo, which
- 12:29Speaker 5: was really great, and.
- 12:33Speaker 5: And then there was, like, I mean, the comedy club,
- 12:34Speaker 5: you could still perform and get into it, you know,
- 12:38Speaker 5: and do shows, but you couldn't really hang out. So
- 12:42Speaker 5: I was still able to do shows, like, every day. Yeah.
- 12:47Speaker 10: And at that point, you know, being that young, your
- 12:49Speaker 10: parents were okay with that?
- 12:52Speaker 5: Well, they were working. They didn't really know what I
- 12:54Speaker 5: was doing, and they didn't have that kind of a
- 12:58Speaker 5: hold on me or control over me that... you know,
- 13:03Speaker 5: other kids would have had. You know, I didn't have
- 13:07Speaker 5: that same kind of relationship with them and relationship with
- 13:11Speaker 5: their ideas of what I should do.
- 13:14Speaker 7: I guess at what point did it feel like you
- 13:17Speaker 7: were moving into it professionally, that it really did sort
- 13:20Speaker 7: of click, that, you know, it was going to be
- 13:22Speaker 7: able to be something you.
- 13:22Speaker 10: Could do as a career?
- 13:25Speaker 5: I think it just didn't really... I mean, it didn't
- 13:30Speaker 5: really take that long. You know, I started off... pretty
- 13:34Speaker 5: much able to make a living, you know, in my
- 13:36Speaker 5: late teens and early 20s, and then really was settling
- 13:41Speaker 5: into that life of doing comedy.
- 13:43Speaker 7: And it was, I guess, by the time you hit,
- 13:46Speaker 7: you know, in the stand-up world, it was also right
- 13:49Speaker 7: in that window of time when they were trying to
- 13:51Speaker 7: take every stand-up comedian and give them a sitcom.
- 13:55Speaker 10: So was that something, I mean, I guess.
- 13:58Speaker 7: certainly career-wise, it was something you wanted, but was it
- 14:01Speaker 7: something you feel like you were prepared for when they
- 14:03Speaker 7: sort of threw this sitcom at you?
- 14:06Speaker 5: Oh, no, but I didn't, you know, know anything. I mean,
- 14:09Speaker 5: I was so young, I didn't really understand what all
- 14:12Speaker 5: that meant or what it was, and, you know, I
- 14:16Speaker 5: didn't really figure it out until later.
- 14:18Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 14:19Speaker 7: Well, it is sort of an adjustment as far as
- 14:21Speaker 7: performing on stage and then getting into acting, especially a
- 14:25Speaker 7: very stage sitcom kind of scenario.
- 14:27Speaker 10: What What kind of adjustment was that for you?
- 14:29Speaker 5: It was a different thing. It was really hard. I mean,
- 14:32Speaker 5: and it was really exciting, but it was also super, like,
- 14:37Speaker 5: I didn't know what I was doing, and I was
- 14:39Speaker 5: really scared, and I just didn't get it, you know?
- 14:43Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 14:44Speaker 7: And then you pretty quickly also started kind of venturing
- 14:47Speaker 7: into movies. That's a totally different environment, too, I guess.
- 14:52Speaker 7: What was it like as you sort of entered into
- 14:54Speaker 7: a different scenario in working in movies?
- 14:58Speaker 5: Well, I didn't do it as much as I did
- 15:01Speaker 5: stand-up comedy. That was more, I mean, every once in
- 15:06Speaker 5: a while I would get to do a movie, but
- 15:08Speaker 5: in general, oh, and then I was making my own
- 15:12Speaker 5: stand-up movies, which is a different thing, too. That's just
- 15:14Speaker 5: like doing stand-up, but, you know, you film it. So
- 15:17Speaker 5: that sort of, like, changed a lot for me, too.
- 15:22Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 15:22Speaker 7: I mean, was that when you were taking a pretty
- 15:25Speaker 7: hands-on role as far as creating the product itself as
- 15:29Speaker 7: well as the stand-up.
- 15:31Speaker 5: Yeah and being more in charge of everything and being
- 15:34Speaker 5: more active in it all yeah would you.
- 15:37Speaker 7: Kind of go into some of the movies i didn't
- 15:39Speaker 7: know if you had any any uh i guess you
- 15:41Speaker 7: know you being on the set of some of these
- 15:44Speaker 7: you know if you had any like what what's sort
- 15:46Speaker 7: of the strangest thing that happened in the middle of
- 15:48Speaker 7: like a movie shoot along the way.
- 15:50Speaker 5: Um nothing so strange i mean i i worked on
- 15:53Speaker 5: some big movies i worked on a movie called face
- 15:56Speaker 5: off which was uh Really a big one with John
- 15:59Speaker 5: Travolta and Nicolas Cage. And I guess what was weird
- 16:03Speaker 5: is we all had stunt doubles for that film. So
- 16:06Speaker 5: we had, like, this weird bodybuilder version of ourselves kind
- 16:11Speaker 5: of walking around. So that's a trip.
- 16:15Speaker 10: Yeah, that's kind of a huge ordeal, that movie. I mean,
- 16:19Speaker 10: I guess we're working with John.
- 16:20Speaker 3: What was that like?
- 16:22Speaker 5: He's great. He was a great, great, great person to.
- 16:27Speaker 5: Just get, you know, get direction by and hang out with,
- 16:31Speaker 5: and I really love John Woo. I love his movies,
- 16:34Speaker 5: and I love him as a guy. He's a great guy.
- 16:36Speaker 10: And just being with that cast, I guess, what was
- 16:39Speaker 10: the vibe?
- 16:40Speaker 5: Pretty spectacular. I mean, you know, as far as, like,
- 16:43Speaker 5: movies go, it's a pretty funny one to say that
- 16:47Speaker 5: you were in, and it's very, it's really pretty exciting.
- 16:51Speaker 10: And kind of different than everything you've done up to
- 16:54Speaker 10: that point.
- 16:55Speaker 5: Yes, very.
- 16:57Speaker 10: Definitely. Some of the other stuff.
- 16:59Speaker 7: You ventured more into serious stuff with It's My Party.
- 17:04Speaker 10: Was that a conscious decision to move into something more serious?
- 17:09Speaker 5: Well, that movie was really special. I really fought to
- 17:12Speaker 5: get that part. I really loved the movie. I just
- 17:16Speaker 5: thought it was a beautiful story, and it was really
- 17:20Speaker 5: about things that I understood, which, you know, people dying
- 17:22Speaker 5: from AIDS, which I had seen and experienced. It was
- 17:29Speaker 5: a good project to be involved in, and it let
- 17:32Speaker 5: me kind of do something that was totally different for
- 17:36Speaker 5: me at the time, be a super serious actress.
- 17:40Speaker 7: Yeah. Again, usually taking things so light, was it a
- 17:44Speaker 7: lot more adjustment to get into that mode as far
- 17:46Speaker 7: as performing?
- 17:48Speaker 5: I think so. I think it was, you know, it was...
- 17:53Speaker 5: But a lot of it was improvised, too, and a
- 17:55Speaker 5: lot of it was... just very loose, and it was
- 18:02Speaker 5: based on a true story, so we were all allowed
- 18:04Speaker 5: to meet the people that we were portraying as well,
- 18:08Speaker 5: and that was cool.
- 18:09Speaker 7: Looking ahead, you'd also, as you get into Bam Bam
- 18:12Speaker 7: and Celeste, you wrote that and moved into producing it.
- 18:15Speaker 7: Is it something that you wanted to move into as
- 18:19Speaker 7: far as having more control over those kind of projects?
- 18:23Speaker 5: Well, yeah, and it was kind of like a quintessential 90s,
- 18:27Speaker 5: like early 2000s things to, you like, you know, you
- 18:31Speaker 5: go and you do like a road film. And there's
- 18:34Speaker 5: so many of these independent films that are like, you know,
- 18:38Speaker 5: they're kind of, there's like different, they're all sort of,
- 18:41Speaker 5: I guess, they've got that feeling of like a California
- 18:45Speaker 5: or like Thelma and Louise or, you know, there are
- 18:49Speaker 5: so many films from that era and like early in
- 18:53Speaker 5: the 90s that it's almost like 90s noir and so
- 18:56Speaker 5: that's what we wanted to do is to do like
- 18:58Speaker 5: something that was a bit like Dumb and Dumber too
- 19:00Speaker 5: but more of a queer bent on it and so
- 19:05Speaker 5: that's really what that was that was in tribute to
- 19:08Speaker 5: because I love I love movies and I love you
- 19:12Speaker 5: know it's a whole different thing to write them and
- 19:15Speaker 5: to produce them as opposed to just being in them
- 19:18Speaker 5: it's quite a lot yeah is.
- 19:21Speaker 10: It something you've become more interested in?
- 19:23Speaker 7: Is it something you want to move into as far as,
- 19:26Speaker 7: you know, creating more and more stuff as far as
- 19:28Speaker 7: writing and producing?
- 19:31Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd love to do that. I mean, it's more
- 19:33Speaker 5: that my, um, work now tends to be like more
- 19:38Speaker 5: about television and live performance. Um, and so those two
- 19:42Speaker 5: things are really, uh, kind of more where I'm very
- 19:47Speaker 5: active and, um, I love, but I'd love to write
- 19:52Speaker 5: and produce more films and to do more acting in them.
- 19:55Speaker 5: I think it's really important too.
- 19:57Speaker 10: And you kind of ventured into directing a little bit.
- 20:00Speaker 10: Is that something you're interested in somewhere down the line?
- 20:03Speaker 5: Somewhere down the line. I mean, it's definitely... something I'd
- 20:07Speaker 5: love to do. It's something also that I think is
- 20:09Speaker 5: very tough. I think it's really, um, hard for me
- 20:14Speaker 5: to do, um, to focus myself in that, in that
- 20:18Speaker 5: way or tell stories visually, um, in that way as
- 20:22Speaker 5: a director should. Like, I don't have that, um, you know, I, I,
- 20:27Speaker 5: I don't, I, I, I don't have that, like, techie
- 20:31Speaker 5: eye that will always, like, understand that I'm looking at
- 20:33Speaker 5: from a camera's point of view. Like, I don't, always
- 20:36Speaker 5: think into these two dimensions. It's too hard for me.
- 20:40Speaker 5: So I think it's an unnatural thing for a director
- 20:43Speaker 5: to not have that understanding of the camera. I just don't.
- 20:47Speaker 5: So it's something that I probably have to acquire.
- 20:51Speaker 7: There was another one that I just wanted to see
- 20:53Speaker 7: what your thoughts were that seemed a little out of
- 20:56Speaker 7: the ordinary.
- 20:56Speaker 10: One Missed Call that was on there, was that?
- 20:59Speaker 5: Oh, that was cool. Well, that was like a remake
- 21:01Speaker 5: of a J-horror movie. film and I made that um
- 21:08Speaker 5: that was when for the first time I worked in
- 21:09Speaker 5: Atlanta where it's like I'm opened up as a film
- 21:12Speaker 5: market you know and they were like a place where
- 21:14Speaker 5: they would have locations like that's a big location now
- 21:18Speaker 5: for filming they have a lot of movies there and
- 21:20Speaker 5: my TV show films out of there now too so
- 21:23Speaker 5: it was the first time I'd gone there and it
- 21:25Speaker 5: was like I think when you do horror and when
- 21:27Speaker 5: I was even doing Face Off you end up doing
- 21:29Speaker 5: a lot of night shoots which is really tough um
- 21:33Speaker 5: you know, where you don't even... Like, the workday starts
- 21:35Speaker 5: when the sun goes down, and then, you know, it's just...
- 21:38Speaker 5: To me, horror films are the toughest to do, because
- 21:45Speaker 5: you do have to actually, like, really focus on the light, and,
- 21:49Speaker 5: you know, there's such an emphasis on trying to make shadow,
- 21:54Speaker 5: and you can't be battling daylight with that. It's really hard.
- 21:58Speaker 5: So I find... that's probably why I've not done as
- 22:04Speaker 5: much horror I've done some really notable things I was
- 22:08Speaker 5: in a Gregor Rocky film with Doom Generation which is
- 22:11Speaker 5: like a totally.
- 22:12Speaker 7: Totally great classic in its own way.
- 22:16Speaker 5: Very cool it's a total cult classic and it you
- 22:19Speaker 5: know it was really a spectacular movie and with the
- 22:23Speaker 5: amount of like dried like fake blood and I had
- 22:28Speaker 5: to have be covered in pig intestines so that's It's
- 22:31Speaker 5: not pleasant. I mean, that's the nature of horror. But
- 22:35Speaker 5: the person that I work with, Selena Luna, she's a
- 22:38Speaker 5: comedian that I throw with. She does a lot of horror.
- 22:41Speaker 5: She's gotten killed over and over in these films. And
- 22:45Speaker 5: I just think it's so cool. But it is totally
- 22:48Speaker 5: a lot of work.
- 22:49Speaker 7: Well, you mentioned liking that and just kind of liking
- 22:52Speaker 7: movies in general. What's stuff that you personally are just
- 22:56Speaker 7: into as far as watching and enjoying yourself?
- 23:01Speaker 5: Well, my favorite film is Belle du Jour, which is
- 23:06Speaker 5: Catherine Deneuve's Louis Bunuel film. It's really great. It's when
- 23:12Speaker 5: she's really in her prime. You know, another one of
- 23:14Speaker 5: my favorite films is Repulsion, which was maybe a couple
- 23:17Speaker 5: of years before that. It's a Polanski movie. And I
- 23:20Speaker 5: love the 60s and early 70s for film. It's a
- 23:24Speaker 5: great time. I love.
- 23:28Speaker 5: And I love any, like, French New Wave and Truffaut,
- 23:30Speaker 5: and I love Bergman. Like, to me, that's sort of, like,
- 23:35Speaker 5: the golden age of movies is, like, the 70s and 60s. And, like, so,
- 23:41Speaker 5: you know, in general, I do, I do, like, British
- 23:45Speaker 5: 60s comedies, like, The Knack and How to Get It.
- 23:47Speaker 5: I mean, my film knowledge is very extensive over, like,
- 23:51Speaker 5: probably between, like, 1958 and 1975. and then I don't
- 23:56Speaker 5: know anything after that, and there's nothing current at all either.
- 24:00Speaker 10: That's a good window, though, you know.
- 24:02Speaker 5: Well, it's a good window, and it's sort of like
- 24:05Speaker 5: where I would guess. I do adopt a lot of
- 24:08Speaker 5: my personal style and whatever influenced me as, you know,
- 24:14Speaker 5: an adult, like becoming an adult. That's the kind of, like,
- 24:17Speaker 5: hair I want and the kind of makeup I want,
- 24:19Speaker 5: the clothes I want, and it is, I guess, a
- 24:22Speaker 5: little bit like a Mad Men thing, but it's also,
- 24:24Speaker 5: you know, going into the 70s, it's not as, much
- 24:27Speaker 5: of a period. You know, you sort of get looser
- 24:29Speaker 5: and get wilder, but.
- 24:31Speaker 8: A little gritty.
- 24:32Speaker 5: I really, if I... Yeah, all my favorite films are, like,
- 24:35Speaker 5: you know, these, like, French films or British films.
- 24:38Speaker 3: Interesting.
- 24:39Speaker 10: I guess, you know, any of the weirder... Well, you
- 24:42Speaker 10: say you have not much now, but, yeah, you like
- 24:44Speaker 10: the horror? Was there horror from that time period.
- 24:46Speaker 8: That you liked?
- 24:47Speaker 5: Horror from that time period? I guess it was a
- 24:49Speaker 5: little bit later on would be, like, The Exorcist.
- 24:51Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah.
- 24:52Speaker 5: Or The Omen. Those are great movies.
- 24:54Speaker 3: Um.
- 24:55Speaker 5: You know, anything that sort of, like, was about the
- 24:58Speaker 5: fear of children, like Children of the Corn is a
- 25:00Speaker 5: really good one. That goes into the 80s, or, like, Perry.
- 25:03Speaker 7: Oh, yeah.
- 25:03Speaker 5: It's really phenomenal. You know, that's a great one, and
- 25:07Speaker 5: that has sort of everything. It's not just horror, but it's, like,
- 25:11Speaker 5: teenage stuff. It's crazy, like, a religious mom. It's weird, like,
- 25:15Speaker 5: Sissy Sissick, who is so beautiful and strange. But that's
- 25:22Speaker 5: a really exceptional movie. And I like all of the, like, Halloween,
- 25:26Speaker 5: first Halloween, Friday the 13th. First one is great. The
- 25:30Speaker 5: greatest is Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
- 25:32Speaker 8: Yeah.
- 25:32Speaker 5: Because it manages to be hilarious and also really scary.
- 25:36Speaker 10: It was, yeah, something people hadn't seen at that point
- 25:39Speaker 10: in time. It was pretty strange for them.
- 25:42Speaker 5: It was a really good hybrid and a really messed
- 25:46Speaker 5: up movie. But, yeah, I spent a lot of time
- 25:49Speaker 5: in the 90s, in the early 90s, with Clinton Tarantino,
- 25:52Speaker 5: and we would just watch.
- 25:54Speaker 5: Heavy metal parking lot, and these really weird independent videos
- 26:00Speaker 5: that people made, or people that made movies in their homes.
- 26:03Speaker 5: There's another one called Black Devil Doll from Hell, which
- 26:07Speaker 5: a guy had made pretty much entirely on video, I
- 26:11Speaker 5: think sometime in the 80s. That's a pretty great horror film.
- 26:15Speaker 5: But he made it with just a weird video camera
- 26:20Speaker 5: that he had. And he utilized a ventriloquist dummy and
- 26:25Speaker 5: a child and made a film, you know, made a
- 26:28Speaker 5: pretty legitimate horror film. So that's pretty great. Nice. We'd
- 26:33Speaker 5: also watch, like, Karen Black's Trilogy of Terror.
- 26:37Speaker 6: Oh, yeah.
- 26:37Speaker 5: Which is like a TV movie from the 70s. The
- 26:39Speaker 5: little doll. The little doll.
- 26:40Speaker 10: Yeah.
- 26:41Speaker 5: I think movies with little dolls are really scary.
- 26:45Speaker 10: Everybody's frightened of that doll to this day. Yeah. Or like.
- 26:49Speaker 5: The magic with Anthony Hopkins, that's really scary, too.
- 26:54Speaker 10: So dolls that come alive freak you out.
- 26:56Speaker 5: Yeah, and so with the simmies and dolls, it's like really,
- 26:59Speaker 5: that's real horror.
- 27:01Speaker 3: Definitely.
- 27:03Speaker 10: Well, yeah, that's true. You were kind of hanging out
- 27:05Speaker 10: with Quentin at that time.
- 27:06Speaker 7: He'd built up such a knowledge of movies from that
- 27:10Speaker 7: time period anyway.
- 27:12Speaker 10: I guess was it just... him showing you all this
- 27:15Speaker 10: stuff that he was excited about. He was showing.
- 27:18Speaker 5: Me and then also gathering knowledge from me because the
- 27:20Speaker 5: period of cinema that I'm an expert on, he knows
- 27:23Speaker 5: relatively little about. Because he's really about these genre films
- 27:29Speaker 5: and noir and very much into action, like Rio Bravo
- 27:38Speaker 5: and all those kinds of huge movies and samurai films.
- 27:41Speaker 5: I don't know anything about about that but I knew
- 27:43Speaker 5: everything that happened in London and Paris and New York
- 27:49Speaker 5: from like 1978 to 1974 so that's a lot so
- 27:53Speaker 5: he didn't know anything about that but he did know
- 27:55Speaker 5: about his other stuff so it balanced out we taught
- 27:58Speaker 5: each other I think a lot of stuff about film.
- 28:02Speaker 7: That's interesting and yeah kind of a pivotal point for
- 28:06Speaker 7: both of you really at that point he just was
- 28:09Speaker 7: kind of breaking through at that point and so were
- 28:11Speaker 7: you Well, yeah, and I'm so.
- 28:13Speaker 5: You know, it's beautiful to go see his movies now.
- 28:15Speaker 5: And I see him every once in a while. And
- 28:19Speaker 5: he's so... He's so the same. And his movies... And
- 28:23Speaker 5: it's like, you know, when I.
- 28:27Speaker 5: I haven't seen the last one, the newest one, which
- 28:30Speaker 5: I'm really excited about. But it's like.
- 28:34Speaker 5: You know, all of his movies, I watch them and
- 28:37Speaker 5: I'm like, I know where this comes from, like from
- 28:39Speaker 5: where he.
- 28:41Speaker 5: Thought, like, oh, I see, it's going to be like this,
- 28:44Speaker 5: and I understand so much of the film language that
- 28:48Speaker 5: he uses in a very, very deep way, so I think,
- 28:51Speaker 5: you know, when you have these friendships in your younger years,
- 28:55Speaker 5: it does make sort of clear what your plans are
- 28:57Speaker 5: for the future. You can kind of, when you know
- 28:59Speaker 5: somebody when they're younger, you can kind of feel, they'll
- 29:01Speaker 5: become as an adult, a real adult, you know, it's cool.
- 29:05Speaker 7: Yeah, it is interesting, because he, I mean, as a filmmaker, yeah,
- 29:08Speaker 7: you can kind of look at his work now, and
- 29:11Speaker 7: look backward and see where he was sort of piecing
- 29:13Speaker 7: this from this movie and this style from this movie.
- 29:16Speaker 7: And so it's, it's kind of fun to think of
- 29:18Speaker 7: you sitting on the couch next to him as he's discovering.
- 29:22Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 29:22Speaker 5: He had this huge, like he had bought this TV
- 29:25Speaker 5: that had letterbox everything. And this is like the, you know, very,
- 29:28Speaker 5: very different in, um, the early nineties. So you didn't
- 29:32Speaker 5: have like TVs, like flat screens and stuff. And this
- 29:34Speaker 5: is so, he had like a huge, like new thing,
- 29:37Speaker 5: TV that he had gotten like, cause, um, he made
- 29:40Speaker 5: a bunch of money from Reservoir Dogs. And so that
- 29:43Speaker 5: was like one thing he bought was like a TV.
- 29:45Speaker 5: And then he had like gotten all of the, uh,
- 29:47Speaker 5: he'd bought the whole stock of, um, videos, the VHS
- 29:52Speaker 5: tapes from his old work video archive. So it was
- 29:55Speaker 5: like 8,000 movies.
- 29:55Speaker 8: Good.
- 29:57Speaker 5: That he hadn't seen yet. So we were really going
- 30:01Speaker 5: through a lot of them.
- 30:04Speaker 10: That's crazy. Yeah, nobody had any idea what Letterboxd was
- 30:08Speaker 10: at that point.
- 30:10Speaker 5: No, but we would laugh because we could watch Family
- 30:13Speaker 5: Ties on Letterboxd.
- 30:15Speaker 10: Well, that's the only way to see Alex P.
- 30:16Speaker 3: Keaton.
- 30:18Speaker 5: Well, I was excited because on Sunday, Alex P. Keaton,
- 30:21Speaker 5: I got to meet him. I got to meet Michael J.
- 30:23Speaker 10: Fox.
- 30:23Speaker 5: Wow. And he was an icon.
- 30:27Speaker 10: That's kind of amazing.
- 30:30Speaker 7: Is there still, like, you know, big people like that
- 30:32Speaker 7: that you run into that still kind of.
- 30:35Speaker 10: Catch you off guard?
- 30:37Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know, there's people who really throw
- 30:40Speaker 5: me in, like David Bowie, who is so kind and
- 30:45Speaker 5: lovely and warm and a beautiful man. It's so, you know,
- 30:53Speaker 5: you get really intimidated by it. These people I do,
- 30:55Speaker 5: you know, people like that. Certainly Bowie. And he's somebody
- 30:59Speaker 5: that is great in so many different ways. And I'm
- 31:03Speaker 5: quite a recluse now. I haven't seen him in a while,
- 31:05Speaker 5: but he's really fantastic.
- 31:07Speaker 10: Yeah, he's done a lot in his time, too. So
- 31:10Speaker 10: it would be interesting to see. Yeah, you've kind of
- 31:13Speaker 10: done different stuff as far as acting. Is there a
- 31:16Speaker 10: type of role or a type of movie that you
- 31:19Speaker 10: haven't done yet that you would be interested in doing?
- 31:22Speaker 5: I would kind of sort of... I mean, I just
- 31:24Speaker 5: want to do everything. Like, I'm really open to whatever
- 31:28Speaker 5: I can do, and I want to work, like, no
- 31:31Speaker 5: matter what. I want to work, and so I try
- 31:34Speaker 5: to just be the best that I can and try
- 31:37Speaker 5: to do as much as I can. You know, I'm
- 31:42Speaker 5: very driven to just do stuff, and, you know, a
- 31:46Speaker 5: lot of that is really draining, but it's really fulfilling, too, so... Yeah,
- 31:52Speaker 5: I need to do stuff.
- 31:55Speaker 7: Find a way to sort of bring about that 60s French.
- 32:00Speaker 10: Movie and find a way to make it work in
- 32:02Speaker 10: the modern day.
- 32:03Speaker 5: That would be cool. I mean, you know, it's like
- 32:05Speaker 5: obviously we have a real appeal for the aesthetics and
- 32:08Speaker 5: the kind of storytelling because, like, everything on Mad Men
- 32:11Speaker 5: really mirrors that. Like, it is a kind of a
- 32:14Speaker 5: slow-moving drama, like human drama. And that's what all the
- 32:19Speaker 5: 60s stuff was. You know, like Joji Girl or, you know,
- 32:24Speaker 5: any of those, like, you know, Taste of Honey, any
- 32:28Speaker 5: of those, like, Rita Cushingham, like, movies. They're really these
- 32:33Speaker 5: human dramas that are told in very, like, stylish clothes,
- 32:36Speaker 5: and that's really what Mad Men is. They unfold in
- 32:39Speaker 5: the same kind of drawing room way and Saturday night,
- 32:42Speaker 5: Sunday morning way and kind of writing, and I really
- 32:46Speaker 5: appreciate that. So I think it could be popular.
- 32:49Speaker 7: Yeah, we definitely love the aesthetic of it, and, you know,
- 32:53Speaker 7: we can get on board with certain types of stories.
- 32:55Speaker 7: I think, yeah, it's just finding the one that'll break through.
- 32:57Speaker 3: And find the audience.
- 32:59Speaker 5: Right, yeah. I mean, you know, there's things like, I
- 33:01Speaker 5: don't know if I fall, like, so in love with
- 33:04Speaker 5: film that's so stylized. But then, you know, there's stuff
- 33:08Speaker 5: that I, like, I guess you can get into that's
- 33:13Speaker 5: pretty affected by, like, sort of period, you know, things
- 33:17Speaker 5: like that whole, like, This is England series, and that
- 33:20Speaker 5: stuff to me is very much, it's sort of a
- 33:22Speaker 5: 60s thing too, even though it is set in the 80s.
- 33:24Speaker 5: It is a period piece. Now the 80s is almost
- 33:27Speaker 5: like the 60s that we were thinking about the 60s.
- 33:30Speaker 5: The way that we thought about the 80s now, we
- 33:32Speaker 5: thought about the 60s in the 80s.
- 33:34Speaker 10: Yeah, it's weird how it all comes back around.
- 33:38Speaker 5: Yeah, very weird.
- 33:40Speaker 3: Definitely.
- 33:41Speaker 7: Do you have any new projects you want to tell
- 33:43Speaker 7: people about that are?
- 33:45Speaker 10: Working on?
- 33:45Speaker 5: I am, um, on tour now, um, I'm really just
- 33:51Speaker 5: working constantly, I'm doing two shows a night, and I'm
- 33:54Speaker 5: on the road, and, um, this is what I love,
- 33:57Speaker 5: you know, I wrote a new show, and I'm out
- 33:59Speaker 5: with it, and so that's what's going on, um, with me.
- 34:04Speaker 7: Uh, any new other, you know, you've kind of ventured
- 34:08Speaker 7: into so many areas now, I mean, you've done writing
- 34:11Speaker 7: and acting and fashion and music?
- 34:13Speaker 10: Is there other stuff going on that you're overwhelmed with
- 34:17Speaker 10: all these projects?
- 34:19Speaker 5: Well, I love doing stand-up comedy, and I really love
- 34:25Speaker 5: that most, and that's what I do, and then everything
- 34:29Speaker 5: else is stuff that I get to do. Stand-up is
- 34:33Speaker 5: my real job, and everything else is sort of like
- 34:37Speaker 5: it just gets to be things that I get to do,
- 34:40Speaker 5: like 30 Rock or or any of these great shows
- 34:45Speaker 5: that I'm able to work on. For me, it's a
- 34:48Speaker 5: welcome and exciting thing, but I love stand-up, and that's
- 34:52Speaker 5: what I'm always going to do when I don't have
- 34:53Speaker 5: another gig. Right now, it's all about stand-up. I'll be
- 34:59Speaker 5: doing stand-up shows for the rest of the year and
- 35:02Speaker 5: throughout the next year, so it's pretty busy.
- 35:08Speaker 10: But since you mentioned it, yeah, your Kim Jong-il is
- 35:10Speaker 10: pretty impressive.
- 35:11Speaker 5: Oh, thank you. Thank you. I'm very proud of it.
- 35:14Speaker 10: Nominated for an Emmy, so that's, yeah.
- 35:17Speaker 5: Not bad.
- 35:17Speaker 10: Good to be recognized, yeah. Yeah.
- 35:20Speaker 7: But, yeah, you mentioned stand-up being your real job. I
- 35:25Speaker 7: know a lot of comedians that are working now, it
- 35:27Speaker 7: is sort of like it's still so hard to find
- 35:30Speaker 7: an audience that they do have to take on these
- 35:33Speaker 7: other projects and sort of use those to find.
- 35:37Speaker 10: A new audience and bring in their audience.
- 35:39Speaker 7: And, you know, even though stand-up is their real job,
- 35:41Speaker 7: they almost have to go into these other side projects
- 35:44Speaker 7: to reel in these people that may not have known
- 35:47Speaker 7: about them before.
- 35:48Speaker 10: I guess you have been doing that since the beginning, really.
- 35:52Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's great. But definitely you want to introduce
- 35:55Speaker 5: yourself to new people, and there's so much out there
- 35:58Speaker 5: to get to be a part of. And I'm fortunate
- 36:02Speaker 5: in that I have a lot of great, great friends
- 36:05Speaker 5: and great people who I've collaborated with in all the
- 36:08Speaker 5: different industries, all the different disciplines in comedy and music
- 36:12Speaker 5: and in television. And so it's beautiful to be able
- 36:17Speaker 5: to do that and collaborate with other people who are
- 36:19Speaker 5: so talented.
- 36:21Speaker 7: I think that was about it, unless you had anything
- 36:23Speaker 7: else to pass along to people.
- 36:26Speaker 5: No, I think I'm good.
- 36:28Speaker 8: All right.
- 36:28Speaker 5: I'm excited to be out there, so come see me.
- 36:31Speaker 10: Definitely.
- 36:32Speaker 7: Is MargaretTroll.com the best place to keep up with you
- 36:34Speaker 7: as far as where your next dates are?
- 36:36Speaker 5: Yes, that's perfect.
- 36:38Speaker 10: Track you down. All right.
- 36:39Speaker 7: We'll tell everybody to go hit your website and, yeah,
- 36:42Speaker 7: come find you.
- 36:42Speaker 10: Out on the road.
- 36:44Speaker 5: Okay, great. Thank you.
- 36:46Speaker 3: Thank you.
- 36:47Speaker 9: We're silly creatures. We'll need teachers. We've got problems.
- 37:02Speaker 7: So yes, thank you to Margaret for talking with us
- 37:03Speaker 7: this week. And go to margaretcho.com and check out her
- 37:07Speaker 7: tour dates and go see her live while she's out
- 37:09Speaker 7: on the road. Alright, so to round things out here,
- 37:12Speaker 7: we're going to play another song. What may be my
- 37:15Speaker 7: favorite song on the album. The track entitled, I'm Sorry.
- 37:19Speaker 7: And yeah, this being my choice, probably says a lot
- 37:21Speaker 7: about me. But the song also features Andrew Bird, and
- 37:25Speaker 7: that's something else you should go check out, is that
- 37:27Speaker 7: the list of guest musicians she's got on this album
- 37:30Speaker 7: is pretty impressive. So the album is called Show Dependent,
- 37:34Speaker 7: and I'm sure you can get it on Amazon and iTunes,
- 37:36Speaker 7: and you can definitely get it directly from Margaret's website.
- 37:39Speaker 7: So go there and check it out if you're interested. Again,
- 37:42Speaker 7: this track is called I'm Sorry. Otherwise, that about does it.
- 37:46Speaker 10: We will return next week.
- 37:47Speaker 7: Same geek time, same geek feed.
- 37:48Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.
- 37:51Speaker 4: Well I'm sorry I set your house on fire I
- 37:57Speaker 4: am a victim of my own desire And I'm sorry
- 38:01Speaker 4: I sent you that suicide letter I was gonna die
- 38:07Speaker 4: but then I felt better And I'm sorry I shot
- 38:12Speaker 4: you in the face.
- 38:15Speaker 7: I got this.
- 38:16Speaker 4: Feeling I was way off base And I'm sorry I
- 38:21Speaker 4: killed a deer Only wanted you to be near.
- 38:29Speaker 9: And I sincerely apologize. My actions were unwise.
- 38:38Speaker 6: And now I realize that it.
- 38:43Speaker 9: Killed me when you died.
- 38:47Speaker 4: Well, I'm sorry I hit you with that brick.
- 38:53Speaker 9: At least your death was fairly quick.
- 38:57Speaker 4: And I thought you'd take it on the chin But
- 39:02Speaker 4: it looks like rigor mortis is setting in And I hope.
- 39:07Speaker 9: You weren't in too much pain I.
- 39:12Speaker 4: Guess I'm criminally.
- 39:13Speaker 9: Insane And I sincerely apologize. My actions were unwise.
- 39:25Speaker 6: And now I realize.
- 39:29Speaker 9: They killed me when you died.
- 39:35Speaker 5: Well, I shouldn't have hidden you in the attic.
- 39:40Speaker 4: I guess I got a flair for the dramatic And
- 39:44Speaker 4: I know your family is so bereaved I just couldn't
- 39:50Speaker 4: let you leave.
- 39:53Speaker 6: And yes, I made.
- 39:55Speaker 2: A big mistake.
- 39:57Speaker 9: But my love for you was not fake And I
- 40:03Speaker 9: just had all I could.
- 40:06Speaker 4: Take So I drowned you in the lake And now
- 40:13Speaker 4: they're calling for an autopsy I just wanted you to
- 40:19Speaker 4: notice me.
- 40:22Speaker 9: You just wouldn't love me and this.
- 40:24Speaker 4: I can't forgive. My pride was stronger.
- 40:31Speaker 5: Than your will to live.
- 40:33Speaker 6: Your will to live. And in food news, you've had
- 40:46Speaker 6: enough to eat today.
- 40:48Speaker 10: Now here with the weather is Johnny Mountain.
- 40:50Speaker 4: North Korea, everything's sunny all the time, always.
- 40:53Speaker 3: Good time, beach party.
- 40:55Speaker 10: Back to you, eh, Lorib?
- 40:56Speaker 3: This episode is a production of Movie Meltdown, produced and
- 40:59Speaker 3: edited by The Oddity Studios, with the opening music performed
- 41:02Speaker 3: by The Empires. For more on how to sponsor or
- 41:05Speaker 3: support the show, email producer at moviemeltdown.com.
- 41:08Speaker 8: Talk hard!