Latest / How To Talk To Humans / Thinking Differently About Life, Creativity & Communication with Elisha Shapiro | Part 2
Transcript
- 1:05Larry Wilson: Hi, thanks for joining me again for part two of last week's show.
- 1:13Larry Wilson: There was so much I wanted to share with you.
- 1:16Larry Wilson: I didn't want to take up too much of your time.
- 1:19Larry Wilson: So here's all the good stuff that follows up the good stuff from part one.
- 1:26Larry Wilson: I wonder, did you have the same uh response to Jonathan Swift?
- 1:32Larry Wilson: I I think of Jonathan Swift's modest proposal.
- 1:36Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 1:38Larry Wilson: I don't know.
- 1:38Larry Wilson: I wish I knew the actual period in time.
- 1:40Larry Wilson: It must be a hundred years ago.
- 1:42Larry Wilson: And it's probably more, maybe 125 or 150 years, that uh Swift's uh modest proposal to solve the overpopulation, I think it was Irish immigrants, was that a solution would be if uh they ate their babies, then they wouldn't be, yeah, they wouldn't be suffering from you know malnutrition, and it would reduce this overpopulation.
- 2:13Elisha Shapiro: Clearly satirical.
- 2:16Elisha Shapiro: I remember I remember that now that you remind me, modest proposal being something that he proposed that he was not serious about.
- 2:29Larry Wilson: Right.
- 2:29Larry Wilson: Now, now, I mean, um this whole road that you've been on, doing all the various different things you've done, but obviously your writing kept getting better and better and better.
- 2:42Larry Wilson: And tell me how you wound up at Santa Monica College.
- 2:50Elisha Shapiro: Um well, um I was uh working at the newspaper.
- 3:00Elisha Shapiro: I first worked at the New Art, the movie theater, and then I worked at funny little newspaper the uh Paramount Journal in the city of Paramount.
- 3:13Elisha Shapiro: Um and then I was taking a class at Santa Monica College and I can't remember what it was in.
- 3:23Elisha Shapiro: It might have been speech, might have been repairing auto automobiles.
- 3:27Elisha Shapiro: Uh anyway, I took it, I did take a speech class there.
- 3:32Elisha Shapiro: Uh, and I remember seeing uh job listings on a bulletin board, and I thought, gee, if I w and there was a job for a tutor for a at Santa Monica College, like 30 hours a week or 20 hours a week.
- 3:51Elisha Shapiro: And I thought, oh, if I took that job, I'd have more time to write and uh let I wouldn't have to be in work some, I mean, drive down to Paramount and work 40 hours a week, and I could work less, write more, that would be fun.
- 4:11Elisha Shapiro: Um so I applied for the job, got the tutoring job, and like several years, then slowly, I mean, after I I was working and being the assistant to to full-time teachers, and then uh kind of working in the same class of teaching reading, teaching writing, uh, the teachers started giving me more uh more challenging stuff to do.
- 4:39Elisha Shapiro: I w went to grad school and got a master's in what's the first one?
- 4:45Elisha Shapiro: I think I went to USC to get a master's in um writing some kind of writing thing.
- 4:53Elisha Shapiro: So I thought that'd be fun.
- 4:55Elisha Shapiro: I want to write, I went to USC has a writing program, I get a master's in writing, and after I got that like two years in USC, they said, Oh, you have a master's.
- 5:06Elisha Shapiro: Here, you can teach some classes now.
- 5:08Elisha Shapiro: And then I did, it was not the plan, but it happened.
- 5:13Larry Wilson: Well, as so often happens to all of us, not the plan.
- 5:20Elisha Shapiro: And after that, I was teaching part-time, being a tutor, uh, an assistant part-time.
- 5:26Elisha Shapiro: That went on for a few years.
- 5:28Elisha Shapiro: And then I thought, oh, well, I, you know, I'm kind of curious about this teaching thing.
- 5:33Elisha Shapiro: Um, and there was uh uh, what was the other school I went to?
- 5:38Elisha Shapiro: Um uh Cal State LA, I think, uh, or Cal State Northridge.
- 5:45Elisha Shapiro: They had a program in education, and I could get a master's in education.
- 5:51Elisha Shapiro: So I went and did that while I was also working.
- 5:56Elisha Shapiro: And then when I had a master's in writing and a master's in education, um, they said, Oh, well, you should we should consider you for the full-time teaching job now.
- 6:09Larry Wilson: And and then i eventually it became uh highly specialized what you were teaching, yes?
- 6:16Elisha Shapiro: Yeah, yeah.
- 6:17Elisha Shapiro: Well it was what I mean, I was the assistant for the uh, you know, people teaching where where the students needed extra attention.
- 6:25Elisha Shapiro: And um and because and so that was kind of the reading and writing skills thing that I ended up doing.
- 6:33Elisha Shapiro: Um because that's what I was the assistant for the teacher doing.
- 6:37Elisha Shapiro: I guess the ones who were teaching literature didn't need assistance.
- 6:41Elisha Shapiro: Ones who were teaching writing skills and reading skills did need people to like pay more attention to the individual students.
- 6:51Elisha Shapiro: So I mean I I was trained by really good teachers who specialized in that and and by getting several years of experience doing it.
- 7:01Elisha Shapiro: And then the degrees just helped.
- 7:05Elisha Shapiro: I mean, uh I'm not sure.
- 7:06Elisha Shapiro: I it's funny, like in the middle of that I was putting on the nihilist Olympics and then running for president of the United States.
- 7:15Larry Wilson: Well, that's what I forgot.
- 7:16Larry Wilson: I forgot you ran for president, that's right.
- 7:18Elisha Shapiro: So I I there was uh the Olympics were only four years, but then I had several other little nihilist art conceptual art uh things that I would follow it up with.
- 7:30Elisha Shapiro: Um, and in spite of that, they they the teachers liked me and the head of the department like encouraged me to apply for the full-time job.
- 7:40Elisha Shapiro: And uh so uh they were very nice to me there, in spite of all the newspaper articles about me doing wacky art.
- 7:51Larry Wilson: What a fantastic American success story.
- 7:54Larry Wilson: I mean, it's crazy, it's crazy, you know, but like you say, not what the plan was.
- 8:02Elisha Shapiro: Um well I mean I started that just because I wanted more time to write.
- 8:07Elisha Shapiro: And then I went to USC because they had stuff about writing and teaching you how to write.
- 8:13Elisha Shapiro: And the the USC program was really you write this, and here is what you have to do to get it published.
- 8:19Elisha Shapiro: And I said, Oh, this is really great.
- 8:21Elisha Shapiro: I have to learn how to do that.
- 8:24Larry Wilson: That's great.
- 8:24Larry Wilson: Well, I mean, it's it's particularly helpful, I think, to people who may uh what you're saying may really resonate with them.
- 8:34Larry Wilson: Uh, people who uh feel a need to want to connect with people, but do not feel comfortable uh speaking to them, but have ideas and have thoughts and have all kinds of things they'd like to present in a way that other people can actually understand what they're saying.
- 8:55Larry Wilson: Um, as you know, I could go on with you here indefinitely because I mean this is like my bread and butter, you know, uh what you're talking about here.
- 9:11Larry Wilson: But unfortunately, we've we've gone on much longer, actually, than episodes of How to Talk to Humans Usually Go.
- 9:20Larry Wilson: But I was not going to interrupt you because I thought it was so interesting.
- 9:25Larry Wilson: I mean, and to me, I think the most interesting part of it was that uh what you said just in passing, oh, the school administrators encouraged you to apply for the full-time job.
- 9:41Larry Wilson: I mean how great that they did.
- 9:48Larry Wilson: Uh I have to believe there's still people like that around.
- 9:54Larry Wilson: You know.
- 9:55Elisha Shapiro: Um there were people who were really mad that I got the full-time job and they didn't.
- 10:02Larry Wilson: Oh, I definitely would have been if I was one of those people and uh knew how goofy you were, I would have said, hey man, what happened there?
- 10:11Larry Wilson: But uh all's well that ends well, right?
- 10:16Larry Wilson: Uh it's fantastic.
- 10:18Larry Wilson: I I I I suppose I'll have to have you on again where we can go into more of this stuff because we've barely scratched the surface.
- 10:27Larry Wilson: But the thing that I thought maybe was pertinent to Wilson Method, you've really shown a spotlight on, I think, that your sincere desire, which I think is uh great, um, was not altruistic or because you know you're a great philosopher or something like that.
- 10:50Larry Wilson: It's because you really enjoyed writing.
- 10:53Larry Wilson: And you wanted to do more of it.
- 10:56Larry Wilson: You wanted to be successful at using it to connect with people, and obviously you did.
- 11:03Larry Wilson: So incredible.
- 11:07Larry Wilson: Incredible.
- 11:09Larry Wilson: Now, whenever I see you, I'm gonna have to refer to you as the American success story.
- 11:14Larry Wilson: Uh I like it.
- 11:17Larry Wilson: I like it.
- 11:17Larry Wilson: Well ironically.
- 11:19Larry Wilson: I'm sorry?
- 11:20Larry Wilson: Ironically.
- 11:22Larry Wilson: Well, maybe, maybe not.
- 11:24Larry Wilson: Maybe I won't say whether it's ironic or not.
- 11:29Larry Wilson: You'll have to decide on your own.
- 11:31Larry Wilson: Um well, I I'm so pleased you were able to join me here for this.
- 11:37Elisha Shapiro: Good to see you.
- 11:38Larry Wilson: It's great to see you.
- 11:40Larry Wilson: You know, uh we used to live in the same city, but now we're, you know, hundreds and hundreds of miles apart.
- 11:48Larry Wilson: So I don't get a chance to see you, but uh I'm hoping to be back in that city sometime soon.
- 11:54Larry Wilson: So we'll get a chance to uh connect in real life.
- 11:58Larry Wilson: And we we actually got through this whole interview with very, very dignified presence.
- 12:06Larry Wilson: There was very little uncontrollable laughter.
- 12:09Larry Wilson: So I think that was uh, you know.
- 12:13Elisha Shapiro: You recognize who this is?
- 12:16Larry Wilson: Uh no.
- 12:18Speaker: Nancy Silverton.
- 12:20Larry Wilson: Oh, is it?
- 12:21Elisha Shapiro: Yeah, she has a little, you know, I guess for her restaurant, she uh had a little carry-on bag or something with her face on it.
- 12:32Larry Wilson: Oh, Nancy Silverton, you know, Uber chef.
- 12:36Larry Wilson: And uh I mean, uh that's not really doing her justice.
- 12:41Larry Wilson: She's much more than that.
- 12:42Larry Wilson: She kind of defined the whole uh movement and generation of chefs and cooking and cuisine in Los Angeles, and uh she's the sister of a woman who we knew uh yeah.
- 13:02Larry Wilson: Um fantastic.
- 13:05Larry Wilson: Well thank you again, Elisha Shapiro, and thank all of you for joining us for another episode of How to Talk to Humans.
- 13:15Larry Wilson: I hope we'll see you next week as we slog towards the next milestone of 50,000 downloads.
- 13:23Larry Wilson: Uh be sure to tell your friends, and I guess we'll get there sooner.
- 13:29Larry Wilson: Thanks again.
- 13:31Speaker: See you later.
- 13:32Speaker: Bye-bye.
- 13:36Larry Wilson: Well done, Alicia.
- 13:39Speaker: Okay, good.
- 13:40Speaker: I'm glad that worked okay.
- 13:42Larry Wilson: Oh, yeah.
- 13:43Larry Wilson: Wait, let me here.
- 13:44Larry Wilson: Stop recording.
- 13:46Larry Wilson: There we go.
- 13:46Larry Wilson: Uh, I think it went really well.
- 13:48Larry Wilson: You know, the thing I'm always terrified of is the technology somehow letting me down.
- 13:54Larry Wilson: But uh assuming that it recorded.
- 13:58Speaker: We will see.
- 14:00Larry Wilson: God almighty.
- 14:01Larry Wilson: But um, you know, it's funny.
- 14:03Larry Wilson: I did not know that you had two master's degrees.
- 14:10Speaker: Yeah.
- 14:11Speaker: And I guess I just got them for fun.
- 14:15Larry Wilson: Well, can't think of a better reason, quite frankly.
- 14:18Larry Wilson: But uh it's funny.
- 14:22Larry Wilson: It's funny.
- 14:23Larry Wilson: And so what what made you think of that bag of Nancy Silverton?
- 14:28Speaker: Oh, I don't know, just just because I'm looking in the uh the of the messy background behind me.
- 14:33Speaker: Oh yes, yes.
- 14:35Larry Wilson: Well, you know, it looks artistic, is what it looks like, you know.
- 14:39Elisha Shapiro: Uh and this is the uh the little background for my TV show, Neil is Neil's corner.
- 14:46Elisha Shapiro: And this is, I guess I think uh uh what's the name?
- 14:51Elisha Shapiro: Um anyway, one of my girlfriends made that to be in the background of our my TV show.
- 14:58Elisha Shapiro: Oh, oh, I didn't realize.
- 15:00Elisha Shapiro: There's a poster for me running for sheriff.
- 15:03Elisha Shapiro: And oh, that's right.
- 15:06Elisha Shapiro: So I see you get this mess behind me.
- 15:10Larry Wilson: I remembered that you ran for president, but I did not remember until you said it just now, you ran for sheriff also.
- 15:16Larry Wilson: Boy, the uh the LA Times just ate you up, didn't they?
- 15:24Elisha Shapiro: Somehow giving the the the the I mean I guess that was part of the the my art is kind of just how media kind of controls the way we think and and getting ironic stuff about about cultural stuff on the media is uh just the perfect way for me to get my art out there.
- 15:50Larry Wilson: Yeah, well, God knows.
- 15:53Larry Wilson: Sort of like um they tried to play you and you played them.
- 16:00Elisha Shapiro: But the the media people liked it though.
- 16:03Elisha Shapiro: They said, okay, I'm retired of the serious stuff, let's have a little bit of the funny stuff.
- 16:08Larry Wilson: Yeah, oh I'm sure they did, I'm sure they did.
- 16:11Larry Wilson: My God.
- 16:12Larry Wilson: But I remember you had like a lot of it, wasn't just like a column, you got columns and columns and columns of print.
- 16:23Larry Wilson: I mean, pages of articles uh about all that stuff.
- 16:30Larry Wilson: Oh yeah, there's a I remember there's a funny picture of you running for sheriff uh holding a gun, right?
- 16:38Speaker: Yeah, in front of the uh the big donut stone.
- 16:41Speaker: That's right, that's right.
- 16:43Larry Wilson: Is that Randy's donuts?
- 16:45Speaker: Yeah.
- 16:46Speaker: I just thought cops and donuts go together.
- 16:50Larry Wilson: Yeah, yeah.
- 16:51Larry Wilson: Oh no, it's great.
- 16:53Larry Wilson: God, God, I forgot that.
- 16:56Larry Wilson: Oh god.
- 16:59Speaker: Anyway, yes.
- 17:01Larry Wilson: And I remember a specific line of dialogue from the Rantic epic.
- 17:08Speaker: Oh, okay.
- 17:08Speaker: I don't go ahead.
- 17:10Larry Wilson: We must learn to mutually triangulate our respective positions in the void of quiddity.
- 17:17Larry Wilson: Now, why I should remember that?
- 17:22Larry Wilson: I have no idea.
- 17:23Larry Wilson: I have no idea.
- 17:28Speaker: I don't know where I get stuff like that.
- 17:31Speaker: I don't know.
- 17:32Larry Wilson: I don't know.
- 17:33Larry Wilson: I have no idea.
- 17:37Larry Wilson: Well, aside from this, what else is going on, Leash?
- 17:44Speaker: Oh, I am still dealing with medical shit.
- 17:48Speaker: And that's not very fun.
- 17:51Speaker: No, I'll bet.
- 17:53Speaker: So aches and pains, getting old.
- 17:57Larry Wilson: Um but it sounded like you're sort of on the road to recovery.
- 18:02Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I was I better than I was six months ago.
- 18:06Speaker: Um, I'm taking all sorts of different medications and talking to doctors, um, but just trying to get back to normal and I'm not quite there yet.
- 18:18Speaker: So it is just tiring to do the stuff I normally do.
- 18:22Speaker: I used to go see three comedy shows a week, and now I go see one.
- 18:27Speaker: Oh god.
- 18:29Speaker: And anyway, but I guess it could be worse.
- 18:35Speaker: Anyway, so medical stuff.
- 18:36Speaker: Anything else in my life?
- 18:38Speaker: Um not anyway, yeah.
- 18:42Speaker: House burned down in the palisades.
- 18:44Speaker: My sister is out trying to sell the vacant lot for us now.
- 18:50Larry Wilson: Oh my god, uh, I'm sure you told me, but I forgot about it.
- 18:54Larry Wilson: So many people we know houses burned down the Palisades.
- 19:00Larry Wilson: God, you remember Paul Tacoction?
- 19:06Speaker: Um I remember that name.
- 19:07Speaker: Right.
- 19:08Speaker: Oakwood person.
- 19:10Larry Wilson: No, not Oakwood, public school from but uh from Paul Revere and from Pal.
- 19:15Larry Wilson: His house burnt to the ground.
- 19:17Larry Wilson: Remember Sam Gaster, my friend?
- 19:19Larry Wilson: Sam Gaster?
- 19:20Larry Wilson: Well, he had a stroke of good fortune.
- 19:24Larry Wilson: He and his wife were going to uh do some remodeling in their house.
- 19:29Larry Wilson: Oh, so they moved everything out of the house the day before the fire.
- 19:38Larry Wilson: And then it all burnt to the ground.
- 19:43Speaker: Similar in my family, my mother died like uh three months before the fire.
- 19:50Speaker: And so we were we were moving bunches of stuff out.
- 19:54Larry Wilson: Oh wow.
- 19:55Speaker: And taking stuff and getting ready to sell the house.
- 19:58Speaker: I don't know if you can see this behind me.
- 20:00Speaker: Over here is a couch that was in my mother's living room that used to be my grandma's couch.
- 20:08Speaker: Uh that I, when my parents in sixth grade sent me to LA to go to uh the weird, uh weird special school at UCLA uh for weird kids.
- 20:22Speaker: Um I would go to my mu grandma's house, stay at my grandma's house for like six months, sleeping on that couch.
- 20:31Larry Wilson: And was that uh wait, I used I used to know what that school was.
- 20:37Larry Wilson: Uh was it Montessori?
- 20:43Speaker: No, it was like a special, it was called UCLA, some kind of academic lab or something, I don't know.
- 20:52Speaker: But it was like where they were teachers train that they were training sit behind this mirror and like we're watching the uh professional teachers work on us.
- 21:05Speaker: Oh, oh, well that's uh I remember remember doing fun stuff with these and like seeing a big mirror over there, and then I kind of know that there are a bunch of people sitting behind the mirror watching.
- 21:18Speaker: That I'd have to explain why did my parents send me to that school because in the fifth grade I was not getting good grades.
- 21:34Speaker: My parents sent me to a psychologist, he gave me an IQ test, he said my IT was too high, and I was getting bored sitting in that public school and they had to send me to some place where I'd get more at and more more active stuff in my brain.
- 21:55Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure that's true.
- 21:57Speaker 1: I'm sure it's true, you know.
- 22:00Speaker: That's it wasn't because I was it wasn't because I was getting bad raids.
- 22:04Speaker: But my parents wanted to know why.
- 22:06Speaker: Sure.
- 22:08Larry Wilson: No, it makes sense.
- 22:09Larry Wilson: It makes perfect sense.
- 22:11Larry Wilson: You know.
- 22:13Speaker: And I guess that's how come I could convince them to send me to Oakwood later.
- 22:22Larry Wilson: Oakwood.
- 22:23Larry Wilson: And have you have you been back to Oakwood at any time in the last 20 years?
- 22:29Speaker: Yeah, they were you you weren't at the last reunion?
- 22:33Speaker: The 50-year reunion?
- 22:35Speaker: Anyway, I was there.
- 22:37Speaker: Um I don't know whether I can find the picture to show you of that.
- 22:42Speaker: But it was anyway, not that many uh people in our grade.
- 22:47Speaker: It was like fifty year, but it was like uh twenty people from each grade from five year units or something.
- 22:56Speaker: I don't know.
- 22:56Larry Wilson: Oh, I see, I see.
- 22:58Speaker: Somehow they they broke it down.
- 22:59Speaker: But there was a cute picture, and I'm not even sure I can share it with you, but or find it.
- 23:05Speaker: But it was I did so a couple reunions I went to.
- 23:11Larry Wilson: Oh wow.
- 23:13Speaker: And it's changed what the school is like.
- 23:16Speaker: They've changed a few things here and there.
- 23:19Larry Wilson: Oh yeah.
- 23:20Larry Wilson: Well, it's like I I think if I'm not mistaken, it's the most expensive private school in Los Angeles now.
- 23:28Speaker: Maybe.
- 23:30Larry Wilson: And I mean, like it's something outrageous, like I want to say a hundred thousand a year.
- 23:38Speaker: Oh, I did not know that.
- 23:41Larry Wilson: Maybe I'm exaggerating that, but whatever was.
- 23:46Larry Wilson: I mean, I I think crossroads, isn't that Paul Cummins School?
- 23:52Larry Wilson: Crossroads.
- 23:53Speaker: My sister went there.
- 23:55Larry Wilson: Yeah, I want to say that was like 30,000 or something, you know.
- 24:01Speaker: But um Yeah, well, awkward it wasn't that much when we went there, so I guess my parents can afford pay out of out of their pocket.
- 24:10Larry Wilson: Right.
- 24:11Larry Wilson: For some reason, I th I want to say it was 15,000 a year when we went there.
- 24:17Larry Wilson: You know.
- 24:19Speaker: Sounds reasonable.
- 24:21Larry Wilson: But you know, it was that whole ramshackle kind of, you know, hippie.
- 24:28Larry Wilson: Hippie thrown together.
- 24:30Larry Wilson: We were in that space that was it originally a church or something.
- 24:37Speaker: There was a church across the street.
- 24:38Speaker: I think it was like apartment hour apartment building.
- 24:41Speaker: Oh no, the uh the one part I think might have been a church.
- 24:45Larry Wilson: And then because there was that big there was the big chapel sort of room, you know.
- 24:50Speaker: And the big uh kind of patio in the middle.
- 24:54Larry Wilson: Right.
- 24:55Larry Wilson: But my understanding is that's all gone.
- 24:59Larry Wilson: It's all super ultra luxe now and high tech, and you know, I guess they've had some megastars uh parents who donated millions to rebuild buildings and buy adjacent property and expand.
- 25:21Larry Wilson: And I I even want to say, I think they bought the church across the street.
- 25:26Speaker: Yeah, I think I think that when happened that was across the street became part of Oakwood, too.
- 25:33Speaker: Right, right.
- 25:34Speaker: I think that's true.
- 25:35Larry Wilson: I thank you again.
- 25:37Speaker: Yes, thank you.
- 25:38Speaker: It was nice, nice chatting.
- 25:40Speaker: Yeah, it was a friend of mine who wanted to listen to it.
- 25:45Speaker: So send me the whatever the link is.
- 25:48Speaker: Where do people listen to this?
- 25:50Larry Wilson: Well, it's wherever podcasts are harvested, um which pretty much anywhere.
- 25:56Larry Wilson: Uh this one is hosted, I think, on Buzz Sprout, but I know that it's on Apple Podcasts, and and of course it's called How to Talk to Humans.
- 26:10Speaker: All right.
- 26:10Speaker: It was fun.
- 26:12Larry Wilson: It was great, good job.
- 26:14Larry Wilson: And hopefully I'll be there sometime in LA at the castle or something.
- 26:18Speaker: Yeah.
- 26:19Larry Wilson: I would hope in the next six months.
- 26:21Larry Wilson: We'll see, you know.
- 26:23Speaker: Let me know when you're in town.
- 26:25Larry Wilson: I definitely will.
- 26:26Speaker: Okay, I'll talk to you later, but all right.
- 26:29Larry Wilson: See you, baby.
- 26:30Larry Wilson: This has been Larry Wilson.
- 26:32Larry Wilson: I want to thank you for spending this time with me, and I hope you found this information useful.
- 26:39Larry Wilson: If you're looking for more, you can find it at the WilsonMethods.com.
- 26:44Larry Wilson: And if you want, you can speak to me because I'm going to send me an email at info at WilsonMethods.com because I read everything.
- 27:00Larry Wilson: I hope that you will join us next week in this continuous journey.
- 27:07Larry Wilson: And you'll be with me for the next episode of August of Twitter.