EP. 363.5 — Last Looks: Passion Play

 

[00:00:00] Paul Scheer: A wedding invite, a physicist calls, and I do a take two on someone’s tagline. That’s right. All this and more coming up on How Did This Get Made Last Looks. Hit the theme!

[00:00:15] Music: [Intro song] [00:00:30] Paul Scheer: Hello, all my little circus freaks with wings don’t fly away. It’s me, your host, Paul Scheer, and I want to welcome you to How Did This Get Made Last Looks where you, the listener get to voice your issues on Passion Play, a movie that discord user, The Awesome Tier with an assist by Frosted Nebula, both think the movie’s tagline should be,

[00:00:52] “Passion Play: When a Jacob’s Ladder scenario has a Red Bull, it gives you wings.”

[00:01:01] I like that. Complicated, but I like it. Maybe I should have read it like this. Passion Play, when a Jacob’s Ladder scenario has Red Bull, It gives you wings. Ooh, yeah, that’s a little bit better. I like that. Thank you, Awesome Tier and Frosted Nebula for that alt tagline. Remember if you have an alt movie tagline or title submitted to us on our discord, and we might just read it on the show. And the first time I read it, I might not do it good. Second time? Yeah, I might do it better, and there might even be a third time if it’s very complicated, but not today.

[00:01:34] Coming up on today’s show, we will be hearing all your corrections and omissions on Passion Play. I’ll even share an exclusive deleted scene from that episode where June recommends a TV show that she is loving. Jason and I are gonna talk a little bit about Taskmaster. That’s right. Jason’s gonna be on Taskmaster, and we get the first inside scoop of what to expect. Plus, as always, I will reveal the movie for next week’s episode. Before we get too far into things, I got to give a big shout out to Andy Jacob for that amazing theme song. Andy, you knocked it out of the park. If you want to be like Andy. Not the gambling side of Andy. Andy, you got a problem.

[00:02:13] Anyway, if you want to be like Andy, send us your songs HowDidThisGetMade@Earwolf.Com. Keep them short. You know the drill. 15 to 20 seconds is best. Brevity. Soul of wit. All right, people. Here’s the deal. Rob Huebel and I have started a brand new show. It is called The Dark Web. You can find it on YouTube. If YouTube is too hard, just enter “watch the dark web” on your web browser.

[00:02:38] That’s right. That’s our web address. Watch WatchTheDarkWeb.Com and you can watch all the episodes right there. Uh, we’re talking about everything from old men teaching other old men how to fight with their cane to. Trying to figure out what Liam Neeson movie is that poster from. We go deep into the dark web.

[00:03:00] It is totally free. It’s 20 minutes. It’s a bite size episode. I think you’ll love it. WatchTheDarkWeb.Com. Get on it. It is a blast. Um, all right, people, what else do I want to tell you? Oh, yeah. Happy Valentine’s day. That’s right. If, for those of you who celebrate Valentine’s day, have a great one. And if you want a little Valentine’s day listening, I urge you to check out Unspooled, where we are talking about 10 Things I hate About You, which I finally watched for the first time.

[00:03:31] I gotta tell you. I liked it. Oh, and how could I forget our, How Did This Get Made spring tour? That’s right. We’re going to be in Austin. We’re going to be in Idaho. We’re going to be in San Fran, Denver, uh, Portland, Seattle. Get your tickets at Hdtgm. com. Make us proud. And by the way, if you’re going to the tree Fort music festival, we’ll be there.

[00:03:50] But if you’re not going, you could just buy a ticket for us. Win win. All right. That is all the plugs that I got. So let’s get into it. Last week, we talked at length about Passion Play. Well, we had some questions and we might’ve even missed a few things. Here’s your chance to set us straight. Fact check us if you will.

[00:04:06] It’s now time for Corrections and Omissions.

[00:04:09] Music: [Corrections and Omissions song] [00:04:11] Paul Scheer: Thank you, Dornheim for that theme song. Let’s go right into it. Ashwin gives you wings. Wow. A lot of Red Bull this week. Um.

[00:04:18] “In the podcast episode, Paul mentions that the bottle of Gordon Shumway is a bottle of gin. My pointless correction is it is actually a bottle of scotch whiskey.”

[00:04:31] Okay, so, I appreciate it. Basically, he asks for gin, she grabs that. Or, is it scotch? They make a very big deal out of only drinking gin. Anyway, uh, let’s see. Bolognobac? Bolognomatic? Oh, that’s it. Bolognomatic. Okay, um.

[00:04:51] “I know June did mention this.”

[00:04:53] Bolo, why are you doing it?

[00:04:55] “Uh, but I think it is worth emphasizing that the guy is supposed to be on a redemption arc and he immediately gets into human trafficking. Why is he going to heaven?”

[00:05:05] Yeah, uh, Bolo Nomadic, I think we all mentioned that. There is no arc. He’s a piece of shit. GT75 writes,

[00:05:14] “It’s a good thing for the carnival that this is a Jacob’s Ladder scenario because otherwise, they seemed doomed for failure. For starters, the entire carnival is just a freak show and one tiny, sad ferris wheel. More importantly, the Carnival Barker seems really upset that someone might know that the bird girl is legit. Wouldn’t it be better for business if people knew the freak show wasn’t a scam?”

[00:05:42] Absolutely. And this just goes to show you that Mickey Rourke’s character was dumb because even in his hallucination, he didn’t make any choices that made sense.

[00:05:53] Let’s go to the phones. Alright, LJ in Rancho, Cucamonga, what do you got?

[00:05:58] Listener: Hey, calling about Passion Play. I believe the reason why she had wings and they were like bird wings is because he saw that bird right before he died.

[00:06:07] Paul Scheer: Oh. My. God. LJ! It was there all along? That is Wow. Every now and then. Y’all blow my mind. And LJ, you just did it. All right. Well, now everything’s going to pale in comparison. Am I right? Let’s see. Oh, next caller from New Mexico. What do you got?

[00:06:30] Listener: Hello, Tall John Shear. This is My name’s Tano. T A N O, uh, long time listener first time caller, I have a tiny bit of insight on the location shooting for, uh, for this ridiculous movie, Passion Play. So I recognized the, the place in the scene where they sort of, they sort of set up a reveal for Happy to see that the angel actually has wings. And they’re in this, like, theater, and they open up these doors, and he can see through the binoculars. That is the Santa Fe Opera. I recognize it. It’s an outdoor opera theater that only performs in the summer. So, that explains why you could see, when they look through, there’s snow on the ground everywhere. Clearly it was the off season and that’s how they got, you know, this rinky dink production must have gotten hold of the opera house. So, the opening of the door, that is a thing at the opera house. It’s, it’s an outdoor theater and they can open up the back of the theater so during a performance, you can sometimes see through all the way into the, the, the distance. Love the show. See you later.

[00:07:34] Paul Scheer: You know what? When I said I shouldn’t even play another call because, you know, LJ kind of knocked out of the park, that was actually a perfect call because it was good information. It wasn’t mind blowing, nor is it trying to be. It was just information, and I give it an A plus for info.

[00:07:54] And finally, let’s go to Liz.

[00:07:56] Listener: Hey, Paul, June, and Jason. My name’s Liz. I was listening to the recent episode about Passion Play. About eight minutes in, you mentioned If someone is a physics professor, they could examine what you were talking about in that particular scene, and I thought, my time has come, uh, because I teach physics in Wisconsin, and you were talking about the unlikeliness of Megan Fox flying around with Mickey Rourke held in her arms, you mentioned the force of gravity along with her weight. Or his weight. So the force of gravity actually is weight. That’s what we when we talk about an object’s weight or a person’s weight, we could say force of gravity interchangeably. Our weight is how hard the Earth is pulling down on us. So those aren’t really two separate things. So what we’d have to look at is if she is flying at a constant height or like not accelerating, her wings would need to support both her weight and Mickey Rourke’s weight.

[00:08:48] I’m not, I’m a physicist. I’m not a bird expert, but I did some quick bird wing research. The wing strength, it doesn’t actually seem impossible. I was looking up like some birds of prey, like certain types of eagles apparently have been seen carrying prey that’s up to like. 30 or 40 pounds and those birds themselves are no more than 15 pounds.

[00:09:08] So wing strength’s actually okay there. Now she had to accelerate to get into the air. That is going to mean she does need more force because she needs the wings need to not just keep her at a constant height or keep her going at a constant velocity, but, uh, but change her velocity to speed her up. So yeah, so she’s going to need more force there from her wings still. So with the Eagle, if it’s picking something up, so that actually. What gets brought up about the eagles and why they’re able to carry so much is their talon strength. Really, it’s her arm strength and her hand strength in holding Mickey Rourke that is the most ridiculous part. I did also briefly look up, like, women’s records for curls, uh, in, like, lifting competitions, and I couldn’t get anything definitive really quickly, but it still seems pretty ridiculous. Pretty unrealistic and unlikely there. Uh, so I just thought I would share that if you ever need any physics assistance, I am always here to help. I thanks so much for all you do. Your podcast is fantastic. Makes my day to listen to new ones and I’ll see you in Denver.

[00:10:09] Paul Scheer: Thank you, Liz, for taking the call.

[00:10:13] Yes. Physicists, we need you. Um, thank you for doing the research on the bird wings and the talon strength and female bodybuilding arm strength. Uh, okay. Wow. Uh, basically, so we’re right, but man, oh man, I guess what you’re saying is possible, but not likely. And you know what? I like absolutely not better than anything, but I love our physicists.

[00:10:38] So thank you, Liz, for giving us a call. All right, let’s go back to the Discord. Pete the S man, Skadoosh writes,

[00:10:44] “I have a friend who worked on this movie and craft services. She said every day, Mickey Rourke would ask for a canteen filled with milk. He would drink the milk through the day without refrigerating it. And they were worried it was spoiled by like hour eight when he was still drinking it. My friend assumed Mickey was off the wagon and secretly hiding liquor in it. But at the end of the day, when she inspected the canteen by smelling the inside, it reeked of spoiled milk, not alcohol. Not sure how he kept it down.”

[00:11:17] Pete. I don’t get, I don’t get it. I need more. Oh, maybe that’s why he had such a sour face. Oh boy. I. Q. Winehut writes

[00:11:26] “In Charles Bukowski’s book, Hollywood, about his experience during the filming of, uh, Barbette Schroeder’s 1987 Barfly starring Mickey Rourke as Bukowski’s alter ego, uh, Hank. He writes that the lead actor, Jack Bledsoe, aka Mickey Rourke, was insistent that he wear novelty palm tree sunglasses in a particular scene, against the wishes of both Bukowski and Schroeder, Rourke can be seen in the film wearing the exact pair of novelty palm tree sunglasses mentioned in the novel. So, it looks like he got away with it at least once.”

[00:12:03] Well, there it is. I mean, we know he’s a, he’s a eyeglass fiend, where they, The Wrestler, they prevented it, but not this movie.

[00:12:12] Um, wow, so many great corrections and omissions this week. And I gotta say, you know, look, Liz, the physicist calling us, I, I wanted to give it to her, but LJ, I think this week you are the winner, cause you blew my damn mind, and you get nothing. But, you do get this amazing song from Hominin. Hit it!

[00:12:31] Music: [Winner’s Song] [00:12:40] Paul Scheer: If you want me to judge how smart you are, that’s not what we’re doing. If you want to chime in with your own thoughts about the latest episode, hit up the discord at Discord.gg/HDTGM or call me at 619-PAULASK. All right. Coming up after the break, Jason will stop by to chat about Jason’s upcoming season of Taskmaster.

[00:13:01] Also, if you’re not watching Invincible on Amazon prime, you’re missing out really good season. Uh, we’re going to also talk about our new favorite improv podcast. I can’t get enough of it. Oh man, it’s so good. Uh, but first take a listen to this bonus deleted scene from our Passion play episode, where we talk about June’s interest in the tattooed woman from passion play and her new love of Ink Master.

[00:13:29] June Diane Raphael: What I want to look up is that woman with the tattoos. I’m so taken with those tattoos.

[00:13:34] Paul Scheer: They look really beautiful. And all I could think of is after we’ve been watching Ink Master. Wow. That must have hurt.

[00:13:38] June Diane Raphael: If they’re real, like the nipple tattoos.

[00:13:40] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, okay. Now that we’ve been watching.

[00:13:43] Paul Scheer: Oh.

[00:13:43] Jason Mantzoukas: What do you mean now that we’ve been watching Ink Master?

[00:13:45] Paul Scheer: June, go ahead.

[00:13:46] Jason Mantzoukas: Wait, don’t. You can’t drop that at the very. Now that we’ve been watching Ink Master.

[00:13:50] Paul Scheer: Oh, yeah. Ink Master is.

[00:13:52] June Diane Raphael: It’s big in our house.

[00:13:53] Paul Scheer: It’s on a lot in our house. Like, and I, first, I didn’t start watching it, but now I can’t avoid watching it. June and our son is like, in this.

[00:14:02] June Diane Raphael: It’s our favorite show.

[00:14:03] Paul Scheer: Deep.

[00:14:03] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh.

[00:14:03] Paul Scheer: Deep seasons. And they’re talking about, like, I, I walk in on them talking about David Navarro and, and what’s going on with this team?

[00:14:11] Jason Mantzoukas: Is this Cat Von D? No, it’s not.

[00:14:14] June Diane Raphael: It’s, but we’re not, we’re we’re later on, we’re exploring the later work.

[00:14:18] Jason Mantzoukas: Okay. Is it still on? Is it, does it exist now?

[00:14:21] June Diane Raphael: I actually don’t know, I think so. I think there are, yeah, I think so.

[00:14:24] Jason Mantzoukas: Okay, okay.

[00:14:25] Paul Scheer: I mean, it just popped up on Paramount Plus and these two, they are like

[00:14:29] Jason Mantzoukas: What, what, I’m curious what precipitated it. Like, what led it to be, like, chosen? Or was it just on in the background and you guys got into it?

[00:14:38] June Diane Raphael: I think that, I actually don’t know. I think Gus just asked what’s Ink Master and I was like, Oh, I think it’s a show about tattoo artists. And, and then there, there you have it. I mean, there’s some language that’s simply inappropriate for children, but, um, that hasn’t stopped us.

[00:14:54] Paul Scheer: Uh, it’s been on for 16, 16 seasons and currently the host is, uh, is

[00:15:00] June Diane Raphael: Joel Madden. Yes. Yes. I love that you called him David Navarro.

[00:15:05] Paul Scheer: Thank you. I give proper respect to his name.

[00:15:08] Jason Mantzoukas: Mr. David Navarro.

[00:15:10] Paul Scheer: David Navarro. Uh, well, yes.

[00:15:12] June Diane Raphael: Yeah. So I couldn’t, yes, obviously I’ve like, I love tattoos and I really want to understand that woman’s tattoos.

[00:15:23] Paul Scheer: Welcome back, everybody. I’m sure you’ve noticed that every week we have re released old How Did This Get Made episodes back into our feed. We love it. It’s a matinee ep. This week’s matinee was Tammy and the T Rex. Next week’s will be Velocipastor. Ugh, I hated that one. So keep on checking out all the replays of classic episodes every Tuesday.

[00:15:41] Okay, without further ado, it is now time to welcome Jason to Last Looks for a little Just Chat. John Cohen, play me in.

[00:15:53] Music: [Just Chat Song] [00:16:07] Paul Scheer: Jason, welcome back. We talked about a bunch of great stuff last time. Uh, how you doing?

[00:16:12] Jason Mantzoukas: Great I’ve got a bunch of other stuff to talk about this time.

[00:16:16] Paul Scheer: Jason, let’s start off with the biggest piece of pop culture news on this show. You.

[00:16:22] Jason Mantzoukas: Shorzy, season four, coming in March.

[00:16:24] Paul Scheer: Ha ha ha ha! Jason, you are on Taskmaster. People are freaking out. You don’t have an air date yet.

[00:16:32] Jason Mantzoukas: I don’t have an air date, I don’t know. But it’ll be either late March or early April, I believe.

[00:16:37] Paul Scheer: Give us some just, we’ll talk about it as it comes up, but maybe even we may have to turn this into like a watch along and get your take.

[00:16:45] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, that would be hilarious.

[00:16:47] Paul Scheer: I would love to do that.

[00:16:48] Jason Mantzoukas: And it’s, it’s interesting because this is something that I have been just genuinely keeping a secret at their request until a week ago or not even a week ago.

[00:16:58] Paul Scheer: And it’s tricky because they do in front of a live studio audience. So people know.

[00:17:02] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes. Hundreds of people knew because they came to the live shows that we recorded in London, uh, at the studio, at the Taskmaster studio.

[00:17:11] Uh, when was I there in Aug October? Was that the last time I was there? August?

[00:17:16] Paul Scheer: Oh yeah, it might have been, right.

[00:17:18] Jason Mantzoukas: So the craziest part of this has been, I’ve had to go to London three different trips, uh, one of which thankfully coincided with our UK tour.

[00:17:28] Paul Scheer: Well, that was so interesting. Cause I remember you’re like, Oh, I’m away.

[00:17:31] And I’m like, What are you working on? Then, you know, it’s like this.

[00:17:34] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah.

[00:17:35] Paul Scheer: Because it was, it was very scattershot when you were going and when you were here in a way.

[00:17:41] Jason Mantzoukas: I also couldn’t tell people what I was doing. I could just say I was working on a job and that was weird. Um, But yeah, so I, I, I, and the way they do that show is in distinct chunks, you know, it’s a week of tasks here.

[00:17:56] It’s a week of tasks there that you’re doing alone. And then, you know, many months later, it’s a week of the studio show. Um, and so it is these distinct pieces of the show that all get kind of cobbled together. Paul and I talk about how much we love this show. It was. Every bit as absolutely stupidly fun as I thought it was going to be, it was, and it’s absolutely dynamite.

[00:18:22] Paul Scheer: Okay, just before we move on, because I want to ask one more question, just tell me who you’re on with, because we saw the promo. And again, these might be people that we may or may not know, but just give us a, again, a little bit more taste. Cause people do want to hear you talking about it.

[00:18:35] Jason Mantzoukas: And you know, I’ll give you, I’ll, you know, and I’ll also like, because this is an opportunity, cause I feel like people, there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people who are listening to this, who have no idea what Taskmaster is, who have no idea what we’re even talking about and may have even not even noticed it when we mentioned it

[00:18:50] in episodes past. So Taskmaster is a British panel show, kind of like a game show type of a show, except that all the contestants are comedians, the hosts are comedians. And so really it feels a lot more like a bits show, like a comedic, a show where people are funny and teasing each other. But there is like a,

[00:19:08] an overarching kind of, uh, everybody gets given the same tasks they need to accomplish and how they accomplish them are usually very funny, very stupid, very silly, and sometimes very embarrassing. And then everybody gets to make fun of each other for that. Um, and that’s kind of, it’s, it’s every season is 10 episodes.

[00:19:28] It’s the same five comedians for those 10 episodes. And so my cast is, um, Myself. Um, uh, and then, uh, a tremendous British, a couple of great British standups, Stevie Martin and Fatiha El Ghori, uh, who are absolutely hilarious. I can’t recommend enough. People should check them out. Look their stuff up on YouTube.

[00:19:49] Very, very funny standups. Um, a, a podcaster, uh, Rosie Ramsey, who’s super funny. Um, and she’s also a, like, she has a live show that she does then and tours. And then Matt Bangton, who people might know as the creator and one of the stars of the British version of the show Ghosts. Uh, he was also in Wonka.

[00:20:11] He’s been in a bunch of stuff. Uh, he’s in, um, he’s in Horrible Histories, which is a big show there that people have seen that I wasn’t aware of. Uh, anyway, that’s the five of us.

[00:20:21] Paul Scheer: Uh, by the way, I want, I just want, I know they have Britbox, I get it, but I want, I want like, I know you can get it and I’m not asking for people to tell me where I can get it. I can get it, but there should just be an app to just streams British television. Like give me what you got.

[00:20:37] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, well there’s the, the thing is there’s multiple apps that do it. Acorn TV does it, Britbox does it, IT, I, what is it, I4 TV player, all.

[00:20:47] Paul Scheer: These, but a lot of these. Oh. A lot of these, these shows Taskmaster has its own app, which is great. You can subscribe a monthly, yearly, whatever you want to do. Um.

[00:20:56] Jason Mantzoukas: Taskmaster also the entirety of Taskmaster, every season, every clip show, everything they’ve done is on YouTube for free. So if you want to watch Taskmaster Junior, if you want to watch Taskmaster last season, or the first season, it’s all on YouTube.

[00:21:12] Paul Scheer: I’ve been watching it on the app. The app goes right to Apple, right to the app, the Apple TV.

[00:21:17] Jason Mantzoukas: The app is great.

[00:21:18] Paul Scheer: And the kids version is great.

[00:21:19] Jason Mantzoukas: And both are, you’re gonna pay for a commercial free version of this thing.

[00:21:23] Paul Scheer: Right.

[00:21:23] Jason Mantzoukas: You know what I mean, so.

[00:21:24] Paul Scheer: I guess what I’m saying is a lot of these like, not chat shows, but these like game shows, those are the ones that are harder to find. Like I can find a, Uh, British comedy. I could find a British drama trying to find these, like.

[00:21:36] Jason Mantzoukas: It’s very hard to find what I lie to you or celebrity mastermind or any of, so there is, and this is, and forgive me if this is boring for some people, but there’s a category of show that exists in the UK called a panel show that we simply don’t have here.

[00:21:51] The closest you can come here is a little bit with Dropout TV is doing, or maybe After Midnight sort of, there’s a whole category of shows in the UK that are comedians, late night comedic talk shows in which everybody’s on stage together. There’s ostensibly some sort of game element, but really it’s an opportunity for comedians to riff, be funny and showcase themselves.

[00:22:15] And so like for a lot of younger comedians in the UK, the way that they come up, there isn’t, you know, like, uh, whereas here, I feel like we had like, um, Adult Swim and Comedy Central, these, these networks and these people that were fostering younger voices or up and coming voices rather in the UK, that’s panel shows.

[00:22:35] Paul Scheer: What I think is so crazy is it’s podcasts, right? These are podcasts. These are podcasts on television in a great way. And it seems like America is holding off from engaging that, which is clearly what we want. We love podcasts. We love all this sort of stuff. We want funny people that you may or may not know in a format that you like.

[00:22:53] Jason Mantzoukas: That’s the vibe. You’re absolutely right. The vibe of Taskmaster, especially, and all these other shows, a lot of them that are so comedy forward. The vibe is the same vibe you get from listening to our show, listening to Comedy, Bang, Bang, listening to comedy podcasts, which is, this is a group of funny people riffing off of each other, playing off of each other.

[00:23:13] These shows are, are not scripted. They’re shaggy. They’re funny. They’re outrageous. They’re crazy. And what you are watching is the same sense of surprise and discovery that you get from podcasting or from unscripted shows.

[00:23:26] Paul Scheer: Right. Because it kind of, it can exist in a, you know, or anytime. This is what people don’t know. But a lot of times when you do these shows in America, uh, it’s very tightly scripted as far as here’s how long your segment’s going to be. We’re going to talk about this. We’re going to do this. And one of the best things, and we were talking about this the other day. Like Taskmaster is an hour when they brought it to America, they shrunk it down to 30 minutes. And I do think that that was one of the biggest factors that made the show less enjoyable. Yeah. Cause it really didn’t allow it to breathe. It’s not about like, just get, I think always here. We’re like, what’s the next thing? What’s the next thing? What’s the next thing?

[00:23:59] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, I think here we are more interested in the competition. Who’s going to win? Who’s got the most points, blah, blah, blah. And it’s like competition is so paramount here and there. Again, the points don’t matter. The winner doesn’t matter. Like, it’s all arbitrary. The point system is dictated by Greg Davis, the host of the show, the Taskmaster himself, who is, it’s arbitrary.

[00:24:23] It’s just, it’s just, it’s fucking around. And that’s what’s fun about it. The show that I would compare it to, that you and I have talked about a million times that you and I were in, or a couple of shows, the best version I can say for What it is to be on a British panel show that our audience might’ve seen is your, uh, and mine episode of, uh, Chris Gethard show.

[00:24:43] Paul Scheer: Yes.

[00:24:43] Jason Mantzoukas: The, the, what’s the, what’s in the dumpster episode. Another man’s trash is what it’s called.

[00:24:48] Paul Scheer: Um, yeah. And it’s such a, again, that show was so fun because they would do a live version that would stream. So you could actually watch like a fat version of the show and then they would cut it down. But it was just like little inner jokes, people having fun.

[00:25:02] There was a relaxed nature to it that I think I always really, um, respond to because I love Howard Stern and Howard Stern would have.

[00:25:10] Jason Mantzoukas: Yes.

[00:25:10] Paul Scheer: Long conversations, long bits, interrupting a bit to talk about something and then go back into the bit.

[00:25:16] Jason Mantzoukas: Well, what’s, it’s not prescribed. It’s not like the show is going to unfold like this beat, beat, beat, beat, beat. You really don’t know like that Gethard show. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Like the other thing that I will say is an example for people is because you and I have also done this is like, uh, doing those episodes of Nicole Byers Nailed It.

[00:25:36] Paul Scheer: Oh. So much fun.

[00:25:37] Jason Mantzoukas: A baking show that looks like a competitive baking show for amateurs, but is really all about celebrating the failures and the discoveries and the surprises of how poorly or how well it can go.

[00:25:51] Paul Scheer: I don’t want to pat myself on the back, but I’m gonna do it twice because Well, the same reason why I went on Nailed It, I was like, I want to be a contestant on Nailed It, which they had never done before. Now, imagine four comedians, or, you know, cooking on Nailed It. It’s a way funnier show, in my opinion, right? I mean, I love Nailed It, too.

[00:26:11] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, and a bunch of comedians just roasting them the whole time.

[00:26:14] Paul Scheer: Right. Which is kind of like the, uh, great, uh, British bake off. They’ll do like a red nose day special. Uh, Casey, uh, June is going to be on a great American Bake Off, which is great.

[00:26:25] Rob Riggle was on one.

[00:26:26] Jason Mantzoukas: And then you want to see past guests, James A caster, uh, past, past taskmaster guests, past, How Did This Get Made Guests. He has one of the most incredible breakdowns on an episode of celebrity Great British Bake Off.

[00:26:37] Paul Scheer: And by the way, that was very hard to find, but it did find it. It’s a lot of Googling.

[00:26:41] Um, the other thing. Is, uh, when I went on Family Feud, that was the other thing they wanted my family on there. And I was like, no, I want to bring my friends who loved the Family Feud on. And then it became way more fun. Now, granted, I’ve talked to those producers like, oh, we didn’t even know what to, we. It was hard for us to run the actual game through it because it was so full of bits.

[00:27:05] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh yeah.

[00:27:05] Paul Scheer: And dumb shit.

[00:27:06] Jason Mantzoukas: No. When, like, when you see the episodes of Taskmaster that we did, you know, you are going to watch a, I can’t remember 45 to 50 minute version of a show, like a, a network one hour TV show, but we shot those episodes for over three hours and in some cases longer still, because they were, our, our cast was absolutely delighting in finding tangents and going sideways and pursuing conversations that Greg Davis would consistently say to the audience and to us, there’s absolutely no way this will make the cut, but we’re going to keep going.

[00:27:43] Paul Scheer: I love it. I love it. I mean, so We have a lot to talk about when that comes back up in March and April, we will dig into it more, but I just wanted to make sure that people got their, their taste of you talking about it because it has been, I felt like people were coming to me and their excitement for you.

[00:28:01] Jason Mantzoukas: You said, you said when people were like, you were getting.

[00:28:04] Paul Scheer: 8 am in the morning, my phone was blowing up as if that’s the only way to get to you.

[00:28:10] Jason Mantzoukas: I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.

[00:28:12] Paul Scheer: By the way, I, I took it, uh, in, in pride. I was like, it’s like, you’re like an Olympian. You got to go do the, you know, you’re representing all of us.

[00:28:20] Jason Mantzoukas: It was, it was crazy. I will say it was an absolute blast and to do it all in secrecy was hilarious.

[00:28:27] Paul Scheer: Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. I wanted to talk about something else because I realized you need to talk to Jason about this podcast.

[00:28:37] Jason Mantzoukas: The this is for the comedy nerds This is for the improv nerds Susie Barrett’s podcast called.

[00:28:43] “Yes. Also”, I cannot shut up about this I forgive me if you have talked to me in person in the last few weeks because all I have done is talk your ear off about Susie Barrett’s fantastic podcast. “Yes. Also”, it is an interview podcast with improvisers about improv, about their journey and improv, how they started, what, what, what schools and teachers they came up in.

[00:29:06] And then it’s really just about the impactful, uh, lessons that you learned while, uh, coming up in improv. And then also how that, how those lessons impact your life, but then also just on a, this is where it gets really nerdy on a very process level. To be given access to very smart, thoughtful discussions between incredible improvisers, Susie Barrett talking to, you know, Will Hines, or Mary Holland, or Lauren Lapkus, or Craig Krakowski, Carl Tartt, Phil Jackson.

[00:29:40] They just released an episode with our friend Chris Gethard, who we just mentioned.

[00:29:43] Paul Scheer: Part one.

[00:29:44] Jason Mantzoukas: Part one, which is incredible, which is a great discussion. So, you know, it’s a, it’s a deep dive podcast. It’s very niche in its, um, in what it’s talking about. What I love about it is it is a very inside baseball.

[00:29:58] And I mean that in the best way, conversation. It is, it is, it is incredible conversations about a thing that I feel very much has been how I’ve, what I’ve almost dedicated my life in pursuit of, you know?

[00:30:12] Paul Scheer: Yeah, well, I think that people, like, it’s such an interesting thing because I always feel like there are improv books and I’ve, I read them actually. I’ve read Will Hines’s book. I think the trick is, reading an improv book is interesting. I’m doing it already. I I’ve gone through things and it, but there’s nothing that I’ve ever found that speaks to me as a performer who does it, it’s not about, and I think it, it, it’s a conversation that we don’t often have, we just do. And yeah, since you recommended it to me. It’s a fast, it’s just like, oh yeah, this is what I want.

[00:30:43] Jason Mantzoukas: It’s interesting, I think of it the way that it’s when I hear really good or watch really good interviews with musicians. You know, yes, you know, yes, we all are doing the same thing, improvising, we’re all making comedy out of nothing. Right. And on a, on a, uh, uh, from the audience’s point of view, they are receiving just a, a performing, you know, uh, uh, comedians, performing characters and making clever jokes or whatever, uh, eliciting different emotional responses from the audience, whatever. But the how we do it is all different. And that’s what this show gives us access to.

[00:31:22] It’s not just that we do these things, it’s not, remember this show, remember that show? It’s like. Are you, and this is where it gets really where you drill down when someone like Will Hines or somebody will say, do you trust, do you trust a, um, a premise based initiation?

[00:31:38] Paul Scheer: Right, right.

[00:31:39] Jason Mantzoukas: And I’m like, okay, let’s go because that’s a great question, you know, uh, and stuff like that.

[00:31:45] Paul Scheer: And so I don’t even know how I would answer that. How would you answer that?

[00:31:48] Jason Mantzoukas: I would trust it, but not inherently. Like I feel like, I feel like premise based initiations are more often than not, uh, thin, it’s, I have a clever premise, okay, we can play that for a minute, but without an emotional point of view on that premise, without knowing how I feel about that, um, or how you feel about it, if you just gave me a premise, boy would I wish you would tell me how you felt about that premise, unless that’s baked in, you know, like.

[00:32:15] Paul Scheer: I’m, yeah, that’s an interesting point.

[00:32:16] Jason Mantzoukas: For me, I can always play against somebody that I know how they feel, but I can’t always play against somebody that I, I mean, I can’t always know how to play the next move. If someone’s giving me like, like, uh, uh, like an equation, uh, like a, like an idea that I can tell they’ve got something. I’m like, well, how do you, if I don’t know yet how you feel about it? Like, how do I come in, you know?

[00:32:38] Paul Scheer: Well, I always think it’s an interesting idea when you, like I was taught so strongly at UCB to be like to come in with something. And I think that like, you know, we often were, I think where improv can sometimes go really bad is when it is like, I like an initiation. I like a, a premise based initiation as a kickstart to a scene that then can be kind of jettisoned, like it’s just sort of like it gives us a place. It kind of sets, uh, some tones because, because a lot of the times you’re working so quickly. Like I love a slower, a slower improv, but that’s so rare. Nowadays where you can find it like McBrayer and I used to do slower where you just like find it But it’s hard to find.

[00:33:20] Jason Mantzoukas: You still I do a monthly show called Mantzoukas And That’s just me and one other person do one scene for over an hour.

[00:33:26] Paul Scheer: See that’s that’s exciting.

[00:33:28] Jason Mantzoukas: Very slow, you know, very slow very quiet at times You know, there’s nobody gonna come in and tag you out. There’s no rush and you know, so the scenes become oftentimes slow and quiet at times, like real moments of silence and emotional investigation. I think that’s what it is. There’s nothing wrong with a premise based initiation and the premise can oftentimes be like the substructure or the foundational elements of a good scene.

[00:33:54] But I’m saying, I just want to know, how do you feel about it. Because a lot of times, a lot of times what people won’t quite grasp is that it’s not just to have, it’s not just enough to have a clever thought or idea that could be funny, but it’s, it would, it would help a lot more.

[00:34:08] Paul Scheer: A view on it too, right?

[00:34:09] Jason Mantzoukas: It would help a lot more if you had a point of view. Yes. It’s interesting. And while we’re, while we’re talking so nerdily about, um, improv and Susie Barrett’s wonderful podcast. Yes. Also. I will also shout out, uh, our friend, Will Hines is sub stack, uh, that is also a, I think once a week, deep dive article about improv and improvisation and the, the theater that he’s started here in Los Angeles called WGIS. Thanks. Thanks, Matt. Um, yeah, uh, Will Hines, he, you know, we mentioned his book. You mentioned his book earlier.

[00:34:43] Paul Scheer: How To Be the Greatest Improviser on Earth.

[00:34:46] Jason Mantzoukas: He’s got, he’s, I think, one of the first, if not the first episode of Susie Barrett’s podcast, uh, and his sub stack is fantastic. And if you are interested in comedy, if you’re interested in improv, if you’re interested in what we do, uh, how we came up and all that kind of stuff, and the stuff we talk about, his, uh, sub stack would be something that I think would be great to check out.

[00:35:05] Paul Scheer: Yeah, it’s called Improv Nonsense, is what his sub stack is called, yes.

[00:35:08] Jason Mantzoukas: If you’re an improviser out there, if you’re a young person who wants to be getting into comedy, these are all resources, these are all things that, boy, do I wish they existed when I was, you know, in the nineties when I was a, uh, up and coming improv kid.

[00:35:21] Paul Scheer: Yeah. I mean, it really is. It is a important, I don’t know. It like, I think what I found when I came up at doing improv was there were two texts that were pretty much it. It was like, you got like an impro, which is a very old text. It was not capturing much of anything in the.

[00:35:37] Jason Mantzoukas: Johnstone. Right.

[00:35:38] Paul Scheer: And then Truth and Comedy, which was a lot more, uh, alive, you know, in modern, but That was really it.

[00:35:45] Jason Mantzoukas: Oh, and they were like, I don’t know about you, but for me, they were not, not Impro necessarily, but Truth and Comedy, Rodney Rothman, who I went to college with, um, brought Truth and Comedy back to college from a summer after a summer break, he had found it and he’d been given it and he brought it back to us and we devoured it.

[00:36:04] We’d never seen them for improv. We were just a short for him form improv team doing short form games. And we read that book and we started doing the Harold in the coffee shop and it was terrible, but like, I’ve never been, I’ve never felt more excited and more alive, you know.

[00:36:19] Paul Scheer: And now you’re getting people like McNapier, Billy Merritt, all these people who actually, uh, have a lot of performing experience to write these books. And honestly, I, well, I mean, this is my own opinion. I, UCBs improvisation manual was a little bit more user friendly. It’s very much a, it is a test.

[00:36:39] Jason Mantzoukas: It is a, yes, it’s, it’s dense. It’s dense. I also wish it had a little, I wish it was a little more playful.

[00:36:46] Paul Scheer: Yes. And I think it’s like, and maybe in that sense that you were saying. It’s good to, if you are nowhere near improv and you can’t see improv, although now you can watch a lot of these shows streaming online, uh, it’s a great way to be like, okay, this is something, it’s going to be a lot of examples is really, but it’s not a fun read. Whereas like Truth and Comedy, like I felt like I was alive in these scenes and I was there and I remember all those details to this day.

[00:37:10] Jason Mantzoukas: Yeah, it Truth and Comedy feels like it’s for hobbyists and the UCB’s book feels like it is from a college course. And I mean that in a good way. It is thorough.

[00:37:20] Paul Scheer: Yes.

[00:37:20] Jason Mantzoukas: But it doesn’t have the lightness or the, it doesn’t, it’s not as, I don’t know. It just isn’t as, yeah, I guess just that there’s, it could use a little more like the joyful discovery of improv.

[00:37:33] Paul Scheer: I would argue it lacks a voice, because it isn’t really, it’s more of theory than a point of view. Uh, you know, in many respects, it’s, it, it shares the similarities with the premise based improv. It’s very much like, here are the, the, this is structure.

[00:37:50] Jason Mantzoukas: It’s institutional. It’s an institution’s point of view. It is not a person’s point of view. So, you know.

[00:37:56] Paul Scheer: And again, it’s good to have.

[00:37:59] Jason Mantzoukas: And Will Hines is one of the authors of it. I think Chris Gethard contributed to that. Uh, to the curriculum. You know.

[00:38:05] Paul Scheer: Yeah, there’s, there’s so much. I mean, all right, that’s all for this time. We’ll see you next time on, uh, Just Chat.

[00:38:12] All right, everybody. Thank you, Jason. Remember Invincibles on Amazon prime right now. Uh, I have since that conversation devoured, uh, yes, also. Love it. Can’t get enough of it. It’s really, really good. Um, and make sure you’re checking out The Dark Web, uh, which is on YouTube every single Thursday. All right, enough of my fumpferin It is time for me to announce our next movie.

[00:38:38] We’re going from a winged woman to an invisible man. No rhyme. It worked. Anyway, that’s right. Next week, we are watching a movie voted on by you. The How Did This Get Made listener slash discord listener. It’s The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen starring Sean Connery. I’m not gonna even attempt that again.

[00:38:59] Here’s a short breakdown of the plot.

[00:39:01] “A team of extraordinary figures culled from great American adventure fiction including Alan Quatermain, Vampyrus, Mina Harker from Dracula, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Captain Nemo, and Dorian Gray are culled in to stop a villain intent on turning the nations of the world against one another.”

[00:39:19] Um Rotten Tomatoes gives this film a 16 percent on Tomatometer and Jamie Russell from the BBC says,

[00:39:25] “The movie is destined to go down in the history books as the Heaven’s Gate of superhero flicks. This is nothing more and nothing less than an extraordinary waste of time and money.”

[00:39:34] And honestly, I can’t agree more. This is a how did this get made, don’t watch, just listen. But. Also, listen to the trailer.

[00:39:43] Trailer Audio: Their powers are legendary.

[00:39:46] Their origins are unknown. Their methods are extreme.

[00:39:53] But when our future’s at stake.

[00:40:00] They’ll be the world’s last hope.

[00:40:04] And the game is on.

[00:40:08] The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

[00:40:11] Paul Scheer: You can watch this on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango Home, and uh, here’s the thing, people, check out Hoopla Canopy and Libby. Those are digital media services provided by your local public library that allow you to access movies, TV, music, audiobooks, ebooks, and comics for Free.

[00:40:29] And before we wrap up today’s episode, we have a brief return to mailbag. That’s right. Codi is back in the producer’s chair and she is bringing us mailbag to listeners. Brianna and Reed, who sent us an invitation to their wedding, Jason, June, and I cannot attend. No, we will be recovering from our spring tour, but we wish you all the best.

[00:40:50] That’s it, everybody. Thank you for listening to Last Looks. Make sure you buy our tickets to see How Did This Get Made on the road. That’s right. We’re going to be on the road and coming to towns, maybe near you. I don’t know. Go to HDTGM for tickets. If you listen to us on Apple podcasts or Spotify, please rate and review us and make sure you are following us and have automatic downloads turned on. It helps the show and we really appreciate it. Visit us on social media at @HDTGM and the conversation on our Discord continues at Discord.gg/HDTGM. A big thank you to our producers, Codi Fisher, Molly Reynolds, and our movie picking producer, Avaryll Halley, and our associate producer, Jess Cisneros and our engineer Casey Holford.

[00:41:28] We’ll see you next week for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.