June 10, 2025 • 44 mins
Social media influencer Coach Jackie J and multi-hyphenate entertainer and improv teacher Shannon O’Neill join Sarah to talk about creating content, the intersections between women in comedy and women in sports, and how Jackie came up with her famous social media series “Are you gay or do you just coach women’s basketball?” Plus, an awesome new initiative from the WNBA, the Nutmeg Queen returns to Gotham City, and a high schooler’s athleticism puts us all to shame.
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Follow Coach Jackie on TikTok here
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Follow Shannon O’Neill on Instagram here
- Order Sarah’s book here
- Watch hurdler's Brooklyn Anderson winning somersault here
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Tell the WNBA about a park that needs a WNBA 3-point line and learn about the league’s Line ‘Em Up initiative here
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Get your Good Game merch here
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Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com
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Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323
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Follow producer Misha Jones! Bluesky: @mishthejrnalist.bsky.social Instagram: @mishthej
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we are
yet again offering to donate an ACL to a player
in need.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Slute, just hit me up. What's mine is yours? It's Tuesday,
June tenth, and on today's show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's time for another group chat with two very funny folks,
social media influencer coach Jackie, an actor improviser, and New
York liberty diehard Shannon O'Neill. Coach Jackie was recently a
guest monologist at Shannon's weekly rat.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Scraps show in NYC.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
They joined me to talk about creating content, the intersections
between women in comedy and women in sports, and the
leagues that provide the most laughs. Plus a welcome return,
painting lines to grow the game, and somersaulting your way
to victory. It's all coming up right after this welcome
(00:51):
Max Slices. Here's what you need to know today. Let's
start with the WNBA. On Monday, the league announced a
new initiative dubbed Line Them Up, which connects local communities
to women's professional hoops by painting WNBA three point lines
at parks around the country. Quote designed to foster more
inclusive spaces and inspire girls and women to bring their
(01:11):
games to the park. The campaign highlights the league's deep
commitment to building community, visibility.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And representation in public spaces. End quote.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I also just love that if you think you can
hit a WNBA three, not to mention a logo three
like some of the players Sabrina, Caitlin, etc. You'll actually
be able to test that out. I get the feeling
some of y'all are going to realize it's a lot
farther away than you'd think. In addition to painting the lines,
the league will also be donating money to participating park courts.
(01:41):
The initiative is starting with six parks in New York,
but is going to expand to others across the country,
and they're taking suggestions. So if you know or represent
a park that would be interested in adding a WNBA
three point line, check out the link in the show
notes more WNBA. We got two games tonight. First up,
the Atlanta Dream hosts the Indiana Fever at seven thirty
pm Eastern. Ahead of that contest, Fever coach Stephanie White
(02:03):
gave an update on Caitlin Clark, who's been out for
two weeks with a quad strain. Per White, Clark will
miss this game too, but is quote ready to start
ramping back up. Then at eight pm, the Chicago Sky
are traveling to the New York Liberties, So get out
that second screen you can watch both. It's the Sky's
first contest since losing Courtney Vanderslute to a season ending
(02:23):
ACL injury to the NWSL, where Gotham and US National
team midfielder Rose Levell played her first match in six
months over the weekend, subbing into Gotham's two to one
loss to the Kansas City Current in the seventy fourth
minute on Saturday. Lavell had been forced to sit out
the start of the season after ankle surgery last December.
Lavell said that the break from playing helped her find
some silver linings, saying, quote, learning how to be a
(02:46):
good teammate when I can't be on the field with them,
staying present, still having a voice, and helping people where
I can. Being out for so long really forced me
to do that tenfold end quote. Gotham currently sits in
tenth in the NWSL standing. I'm sure they're hoping Roses
return lights a spark for the.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Team to tennis.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
We told you last week about French tennis player Los
Boison's Cinderella run at Roland Garros, while on Monday, the
Breakthrough Star saw that run payoff. Ranked three hundred and
sixty first in the world entering the tournament, Boisson received
a wildcard entry and made it all the way to
the semi finals, helping her climb two hundred and ninety
six spots. The twenty two year old now sits at
(03:26):
a career high sixty fifth on the WTA rankings list. Meantime,
world number two Coco Goff is gaining on number one
Arena Sablenka, whose lead diminished slightly after golf won the
French Open. Finally, an amateur to pro turnaround the likes
of which we usually see in hoops when players go
from March Madness to Draft night in the blink of
(03:46):
an eye. This time it's happening in softball. On Monday,
Athletes Unlimited Softball announced that former Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry
was set to make her debut with the Volts, just
one week after Landry's Sooners lost to Texas Tech in
the semi finals of the Women's College World Series. In fact,
by the time you slices. Hear this, Landry likely will
have pitched in her first game. We'll link to the
(04:08):
AUSL website in the show notes so you can see
how she fared if she did indeed make her pro debut.
Landry was selected by the Voltsa as the number one
overall pick in the AUSL College Draft, but wasn't able
to officially sign her pro contract until concluding her college
career last week. There's also more AUSL tonight with the
Talons and Bandits playing in Rosemont, Illinois again. That game
(04:28):
is at eight pm Eastern on ESPN two. All Right, slices,
we got an important Pride Month times Hoops and Gay
Shit discovery. We just learned that Indiana Fever head coach
Stephanie White and ESPN NBA sideline reporter Lisa Salters are
a hoops power couple.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Where were we on this story? How come none of
y'all clute us in? What a duo? Unbelievable?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We are always happy to add to our hoops and
gayshit dossier. And a top coach and a longtime sideline
reporter chef's kiss so good. It's worth noting that the
reason their relationship caught our attention is not great. It's
because both had to miss work this week. White was
away from the fever for Saturdays, went over the Chicago
Sky at the United Center, and Salters missed Game two
(05:14):
of the NBA Finals on Sunday. According to Sunday Night's
ABC broadcast, Salter's mother is dealing with the health issue,
so we're sending both women and their families our best.
We also got to take a moment to remind you
Slices that I'll be in Minnesota this Thursday to support
our show side the Minnesota Aurora FC in person. They're
(05:35):
taken on the Chicago City Dutch Lines Thursday night at
their home stadium, Tco Stadium in Egan, Minnesota. So I
hope to see a bunch of you out there. Please
come up and say hi. I think I'm gonna stick
a bunch of Good Game stickers in my back pocket,
so if you find me, it's yours. Some of you
might have caught another piece of merch, the Aurora Times
Good Game Times Breaking tea collab that was at the
(05:56):
last Aurora game. It was a custom ask Me about
women's sports tea featuring the Aurora logo and colors it
was pretty sweet, but you can't have it because it's
sold out.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, you can't get that tee.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can show your support for Good Game with one
of our other fine t shirts, So go to Breaking
Tea dot com slash Spain to check them out. I
actually spotted a good Game, Good Game fuck you shirt
in the wild at the AUSL opening day game, and
then the next day super Slice amy list was rocking her.
I'm a Slice tea for AUSL Day two. So always
at thrill to see them. Keep buying them, keep rocking them,
(06:30):
keep sending us picks, wearing them. Speaking of keep sending
in those selfies reading or listening to my book too.
Shout out to Slice Marsha, who sent in a photo
of her and the audiobook on her tablet, telling us
she's listening to it while walking her dog Luna, after
she finishes that day's episode of Good Game.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Of course. Now that's a winning combo.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Good Game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com is where you
can email them. The collage of slices reading is looking good,
but it still needs your face. We got to take
a quick break, y'ut when we come back, we ask
the age old question is she gay or does she
just coach women's basketball? Jackie and Shannon upnext, stick around.
(07:14):
It's time for another group chat where we take the
tea from the text and bring it to the airwaves.
We got two funny ladies with us joining us now.
She's a social media superstar with over six hundred thousand
followers on TikTok alone, creator of content centered around women's sports.
She was recently named one of Adweek's most Powerful Women
in Sports. She's an Aquarius who celebrates birthday weeks, not days,
(07:35):
loves Broadway shows almost as much as women's sports. And
we'll tell you if someone's gay or just a women's
basketball coach, it's coach Jackie High coach.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Hello. The Aquarius is a deep cut. I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Research love that somebody's got a substack that I dove
into joining her. She's an American comedian, actor, writer and director,
a longtime improv teacher, and former artistic director at the
Upright Citizens Brigade. She has a long list of TV
appearances including Broad City, Difficul People, High Maintenance, and My
Favorite The Other Two. Her website bio concludes with quote,
if you are reading this and we meet one day.
(08:07):
I think that will be cool unless you are my murderer.
It's Shannon O'Neill.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Hi, Shannon, I'm an American comedian. I've never heard.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I guess the American comedian.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
American is very funny to put at the front of that.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I guess, well, you know what, I don't want any
people who are you afraid of foreigners to leave immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's true, true, Jackie. Most important question. First, are you
actually a coach?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I am not. I'm not. I work with children and
I was doing a I was a coach for a
day and they were all calling me coach, and I
was like, this makes me feel like my gender envy
of like being a coach is my gender. It feels
right because usually kids call you miss Jackie, and miss
Jackie is not me. So I was like, coach perfect.
I made a video about how it's a gender hack.
(08:52):
It's like captain or chef coach, and then everyone was like,
we're gonna call you coach. I like to make it clear,
I didn't name it myself, and then people sort of
call me. I love a brand. I changed it so
now I'm a life coach, folks.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm obsessed with that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I've never really thought about that, but yeah, it's sort
of like, I mean, people may assume that a coach
is a dude a lot of the time, but it's
not inherent. We aren't quite at the stage where we're
making jokes like the doctor was a woman, right right,
We're not quite there with coaching.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I love that. What's your sports background, Jackie.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So Im a soccer person. I grew up playing soccer.
I was a military kid, so I lived in Germany.
I was on an all boys German soccer team, and
that was like really fundamental to who I am. I
was a very good twelve year old because of that,
and then came back to the States kind of plateaued
as like a very good twelve year old up until
high school tore me ACL classic whatever. I wasn't gonna
play in college anyway, but because of that, I couldn't
(09:49):
do any like lateral movements. So I joined the club
rowing team at LSU and I wrote in a swamp
for four years. Three years. Actually, yeah, and that's my
background sports. I also played volleyball. I did one basketball
try out. Too much going back and forth for me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So I did not come back. Okay, multiple follow ups.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
One your video about what you learned from being on
that boys youth team.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That you originally wanted to quit because they were mean
to you.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's great and I highly recommend everybody watch it on
your TikTok. And secondarily, any creatures in the swamp. It
feels like you'd be rowing with like gators and shit.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Gators for sure. Yep, absolutely, and it's scary. I that
was the part that was hard for me. It was
I went to school Pete Covid, so the rowing team
was like one of the only would have joined the
soccer team. Rawing team was just the only one that
was still going. And I was like, this is what
I'm doing to make friends. I'm rowing in a swamp
where there are actually caters and there we would see
them and you just don't want to. I mean, you
don't crash often when you're growing, but when you're a
(10:49):
novice and you're learning, it's not a thing that doesn't happen.
So I was definitely very marrid afraid.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
But you know, you power through and you had a weapon.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
The or it's more the bacteria in the LSU campus
lake that we were more afraid.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Of so fair Fair Shannon, you got any sports ties
other than your heavy liberty fandom.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I was a three sport athlete growing up. I did soccer, basketball,
and lacrosse, but basketball is always my main main love.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Lacrosse.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Actually, interestingly enough, we had a freshman lacrosse team that
the boys got to join, not the other way around,
because it was there was no boys lacrosse team yet
and it was coming maybe like the next year.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
So we had, yeah, a couple of.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Freshmen boys and I had to were more than more
than a couple, and I had to I was a
goalie and I had to give up playing goalie sometimes
the boys could play.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
That's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I've heard that mostly for field hockey in the States
because it tends to be a women's sport, but especially Yeah,
foreign born guys who come over and have and had
played in their previous country that want to play end
up getting on the women's teams.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
How was that for you?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And I'm so glad to hear that you survived playing
alongside boys and uh, you made it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
You made it out what it's hair, I know.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I mean, they barely it was.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It was interesting because some teams would say like, no,
we don't want to play against them, and I feel
like maybe we made.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Them wear the kilts.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Okay, I have to match because we did have kilts,
and I think we were like, you have to wear
the same uniform. So I remember that actually being pretty
cool and pretty chill. There wasn't like like we were
all we all rolled with it, and I just was like, Oh,
I guess that's what you do.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And then you know, things were a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You know, that's interesting for both of you.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Some of your formative sports experiences as youths were on
co ed teams and just like getting past that initial
sort of awkwardness and then just being like, oh, yeah,
it's just sports. And we do this all the time
in gym class and we do this all the time
post collegiately and innermurals and like literally almost everywhere and
it works out great.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, she had.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And you're still performing regularly in improv shows. And I
wonder if you've found it easier of late to include
women's sports references and content, knowing that hopefully more of
the audience gets those references.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Oh yeah, absolutely, it's and it's very fun to put
people on the spot. And be like, I mean sometimes
I'd be just like Actually one time I was like
name five I think I said, like, name five WNBA
players and they're like uh And I was like, okay,
name five women and they're like, So it is very
it's very fun, and some are like yeah, the audiences
(13:32):
are hipped to it. They know what we're talking about,
and it's fun to catch some of the people on stage,
mostly the male identifying folks that I get to. You know,
they do their Star Wars references. I do my WNB references.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Do you ever get taken to task by fellow improvisers
for those references? Do they ever after the show say, hey,
cut it out the Liberty roster making every single sketch.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
No, no, no, that's good. That's nevern where it's.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
A very playful and improvs breaks. It's like team sport,
which is why I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, when I was there, they did a whole thing
about rugby scrums that was very funny and like no
one really knew what it was, Like Shannon just started
it and no one really got it. Yeah, and so
it just became this ridiculous thing of people chanting scrum, scrum, scrum.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, it was so funny.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, you guys have met, because producer Alex was actually
there and watched Coach Jackie serve as the monologist for
an improv show at one of Shannon's shows a few
weeks ago. A monologue that Alex said did have a
great recap of the opening weekend of Women's Elite Rugby
was that Coach Jackie's intentional part, and then later the
scrum ensued from the improv that it inspired.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's a show. Yeah, it's
called Rat Scraps. It's on Sundays.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
But yeah, I was like, I gotta get Coach Jackie.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
And my producer reached out and Jackie was just like
hell yeah, and I was like this is gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
And as soon as Jackie was talking about rugby and
stuff and I know a little bit of it, not
like a whole up, but you know, from like Alona
mar and like that kind of like learning about that way,
so I was able to say it and I knew
what a scrum was, and I knew nobody else did,
and it's just like and you just you just yes, yeah,
just go with it. So I'm not going to call
them out. It was just like, yeah, it was very fun.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
That was the best for me because I was like
a huge theater kid growing up, and I was familiar
with Shannon of course, and like also with the show,
and so I never get emails that are about any
of like the like theater kid improv side of me.
So I was like, oh my god, this is perfect,
Like I was so stoked to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I got a call from Gilda's Club here in Chicago,
which is a cancer based org obviously inspired by Gilda Radner.
And this was years ago, and I'll I miss my
improv days all the time. I did the whole Second
City Conservatory out in LA and that's originally what I
moved to LA for was comedy stuff. And they called
and they were like, we know this is a big ass,
but would you be willing to come for like our
(15:55):
big charity event and be on stage to set up
some of that. I'm like, you're gonna have to tell
me to shut the frow, like you're going to have
other people up there that are like barely involved and
that I'm just gonna insert myself into your troop, which
I didn't do. But it was very hard not to
because same with you. Jackie was like, this is the
best email ever. I wish everyone was just asking me
to do this all the time. Jackie, you want to
talk about your content because you clearly you know most
(16:17):
of the people clicking and watching your stuff are in
for women's sports content. They want to follow you, and
they want to learn about it. Have you changed the
course of your content over the couple years of being
a creator based on knowing that there's more knowledge out
there or do you still sort of trying to figure
out how to cater to folks that are still learning
at the same time.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I always say that if I'm making a video, I
want to have one fact for the super fan and
one fact for the person who knows nothing. So I
do I try and add something in there for somebody
who's like I think about if I was watching a
soccer video, what I would want someone to drop that
I would know that they really knew what they were
talking about. So I'll reach out to athletes or other
people to try and find that insider piece. And then
(16:57):
I always explain because yes, they want women's sports content,
but also people aren't really following anymore. They're just being
served up with the algorithm thinks they want, And so
I have to always assume that the person watching knows nothing,
but also hate to watch those videos where it's like,
here's the like I have to do, like the history
of women's sports starting, and like you know, where do
(17:17):
you again with some of this stuff? So it's a
balance for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
That's how we feel on this show. It's like we
want to make sure we're bringing everyone along, and the
easiest way to do that is to use full names,
full team names. Occasionally put the league in because it
doesn't really take away from the experience for the expert,
the same way that like.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Let's start with what's a basketball? Right? Like that you're out.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
But if you just include enough context clues, you could
usually help new people along in ways that they just
aren't served. If you're like so D D and TT
and number two and why why and you're like, I'm
already I have no idea what.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You're talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Also, that's like a like a peacocking thing for men,
Like in men's sports, they love to not include any information,
sort of as like a good seeping thing, and they're like,
we don't get it. It's not for you, and it's like,
that's not women's sports if you don't get it, it
is for you, and we want you to get it,
and we don't care if you don't. And I always
have to stop myself. I'm like PTERWHL ANDWSL and I'm like,
(18:11):
wait a second, people don't know what that means. And
I think it's important to make it as inclusive as possible.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I actually gave a podcast presentation a couple months ago,
and that was one of my big points, was like,
you're not really impressing anybody if you talk about stuff
that other people don't understand or act like you're all insidery.
What you're doing is just limiting the amount of people
that can listen and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
What you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
If you want to tell them something insidery, then bring
them along with you and give them the context to
understand how you got that unique report or that exclusive
but just talking about things in a way that reveals
that you don't have to use full names because you're
so tight with everybody, you're really not doing what you
think you're doing for the people that you're trying to
get to listen. Jackie, do you make enough money as
(18:53):
a content creator to just focus on your social media
work or do you have other mysterious jobs.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I have a mysterious job, but I do make enough money.
You know, I think I'm not necessarily one hundred percent
secure where it's consistent in that, like I would stop
having my job job. I also love my job job,
but I yeah, it's it's become a full time job
within itself for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Do you ever talk about your job job or is
it a mystery?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It's a mystery. We'll keep it a mystery.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Now, are you smart, Jackie?
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Are you putting that money away in an ira A
four oh one k?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Because now's the time.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'm it's it's invested. It's invested.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Okay, you gotta start start young.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
In what doge coin?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's invested as like Aaron Rodgers saying I'm immunized.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, we need more specifics than that.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
It's in whatever, the general, Like I truly don't know
how it all works. It's in whatever is the most general, specific,
diversified question mark kind of great.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
So you have some sort of financial advisor or expert
that's helping you put your money where it should be
to grow.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I'm finding that person. I'm finding that person. I didn't
know how taxes would be terrible. So that was really
a that was a big one. And now we're really
trying to find a planner. I'm not a planner.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, okay, I should. I should. I would recommend you
do that. Yeah, get somebody else. Yeah, yeah, you're.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So, you're so ahead of the game if you do
start doing it. Now.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
I have friends that are forty and do not have
a savings and I'm like, what are you doing? And
so you got it. Anyway, this is a sports podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You have balanced that social media brings you fame and fortune,
but also everything else that brings. Do you have tips
for surviving online? Because you are it is a job,
which means you can't just decide I'm over this and leave.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Wait no, yeah, I mean it's I think for me,
when I started posting, I was posting ten videos a day,
like I was really really into it, and then I
kind of plateaued and I just posted one video a day,
and you never know, like I went viral a lot,
but I wouldn't retain followers a lot. And so for me,
I always think like like series like my Isshik series
is like a way that people want to come back
(21:01):
for more. And it's always about people coming back for more,
and that's how you, I guess, survive online. And if
the questions more about like how do you deal with
hate and stuff, I don't know, it's hard. It's just
you just got to have your own support system.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, I mean it was more about that, But I
want to talk about the issue. Gegu it's so good
but really quick. I just I think, I mean, is
it natural then? Because I find for me personally when
people ask me about like clapping back on social media,
which I used to do a lot more and now
I just kind of block and don't even worry about
it because half the time it's like bots or people
being paid to get engagement. But back in the day,
I felt like, as a straight cis like physically able
(21:37):
person who has a real tough, thick skin. I wanted
to get out in front and take the slings and
arrows and show other people that I was getting it
and that you can clap back or you can be
kind back, which sometimes I was. I would just say, hey,
seems like you might be going through something, like I
hope it gets better.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
This is kind of a weird thing to send a stranger.
It's kind of mean.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And when people ask me about it, I would say,
it's sort of just natural for me. So is it
of natural for you to be able to balance whatever
hatred or threats or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Maybe you don't.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Get that the way that a woman in like traditional
sports media does.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
No I get it. I I think that it's not natural.
It's unnatural just as a as a general thing that happens.
No one should be taking in that much of good
or bad. I think that that's why it becomes unhealthy.
Is you really thrive on the good stuff, and if
you devalue all of it, then none of it matters,
and then what's you know, what's driving you? But for me,
(22:29):
I was actually just talking to some middle schoolers about
making videos and they were asking me how do you
deal with feedback? And one of the teachers said, and
I actually I didn't have a good answer. I was like,
it's really hard and I'm struggling. And one of the
teachers said, sometimes when you you really have to say something,
it doesn't matter what anyone says, because you know that
you have to say it. And that I was like, oh,
(22:49):
that's me. Like, I believe everything I say when I
post it online, especially now with having a bigger following.
I think really hard about what I say, and I
say it and I mean it. I mean everything I say,
and so that is how I'm able to deal with it.
I think to myself, well, I didn't misspeak, and that
person disagrees with me, and you, like you said, like,
I am so privileged. And so if I'm dealing with
(23:12):
a week of people saying really awful things, that's okay
because the people I was sticking up for and whatever.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I said deal with it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Just they can't press that's their whole life.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, And that's how I felt, especially when most of
my hatred would usually come when I was talking about
domestic violence, sexual assault, male female dynamic stories and sports,
and so I'd always be like, they're just mad that
I'm bringing something to light that they would rather we
pretend didn't exist. And I'm okay with being attacked for
that if it means that I'm doing the stories that
need to be heard. Shannon, I feel like it's adjacent
to what we just talked about. With your career, you're
(23:43):
going to have these like big ups where suddenly you're like,
oh my god, I'm on Broad City, Like, I guess
this is it. I'm real famous now and forever and ever.
I'm going to be just doing the best things. And
then the next week it's like, Okay, didn't get that
audition or didn't get that callback. How do you handle
the sort of ups and downs and the fact that
you're job is entirely subjective. You could crush it and
(24:04):
the person could be like, ap, she reminds me of
my ex girlfriend, and now I'm out.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Mm hmm. It took a lot of learning that.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I mean when you when I was first going on auditions,
I would be waiting by the phone, you know, checking
my email that I get it.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I get it, And then you finally get to a point.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Where it's like you just learn, like I auditioned and
now I'm moving on with my day. I just like,
it's just like a bunch of job interviews and if
I get chosen, I get you know, then I get chosen,
and I'm but I'm very lucky in that I get
to perform a lot. So I might go on audition
and like maybe not get something that I really wanted,
(24:42):
But then you know, on a Sunday, on a Friday,
I get to walk into a theater and perform pre.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Pandemic consistent sold out shows.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
We're still working on the post pandemic comeback, but I
would you know, but still audiences that you know, paid
for a ticket and I get to make them laugh.
And that's like then I get like, I really like,
that's how I dopamine. You have a little validation that like,
oh no, okay, you are You're funny, you're talented, you
got this, And that's just and that's why I feel
so so lucky that I get to do that. There's
(25:12):
like a lot of actors that are going out and
auditioning and they don't get to like still perform that week.
I get to perform every week, and I know that
that is like, I'm so lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
There's no wood in this room, but I'll not I'd.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Not uh for those who might be nearby where you
are and can help out with that. Not selling out
every single week, where are they going to get tickets
and see you?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Oh you?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
So Every Sunday is at a theater called Caveat.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
It's on the Lower East Side. The show is called
Rat four A's Scraps. That's the one that Jackie did.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
You can also stream it online, so if you can't
make it into the city, you can watch it. So
if you just go to ratscraps dot com or Caveat
which is spelled as Caveat just look up Caveat Theater
in New York City.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Yeah, we got a.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Lot of awesome performing that you have probably seen on
your your TV.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Is the are the four a's in rat a nod
to the multiple s's in Askat?
Speaker 5 (26:09):
They are because UCB shut down in New York from
the pandemic and it was like completely gone, and I
was like, it's never coming back. So I started I
used to run Askat and produce and run and host Askat.
So I started a new show as an homage to
Rat Scraps.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Rat Scraps. I love it and it has a like
similar sound to it. Askat, for those who don't know,
is ucb's sort of signature flag show show, which.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Is which is back now. So UCB is back.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
So now there's like this.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Now there's an ASCAT and a rat Scraps.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
An ass Cat on Fridays and Saturdays, and a rat
Scraps on SuDS and I.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Do them all, so.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I love it. Jackie.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I want to talk about your most famous series that
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Are you gay or do you just coach women's basketball?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
For viewers that haven't seen this series, can you summarize it?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah? I can try. I can try. Basically, it's I
always say, like how it started was I was watching
I was mentioned I went to LSU. So it was
twenty twenty three, pretty good year for us. I was
watching March Badness with my roommate and we were I
think it was an Iowa game. We were looking at
Lisa Bluter. We were like, what do you think what's
going on there? Like do we think that she's gay
(27:19):
or not? We really did what the videos are now,
which is when I go through and I kind of say,
all the hair is kind of in between gay and
what a most the mom cut that everyone has, and
oh the shoes those are gay, and the pants they
would be gay if they didn't if they had belt loops.
They don't know belt loops, so they're straight. And we
were having that conversation and so I made a video
and the video didn't really go all that viral. When
(27:40):
I made the first one and I just kind of
kept doing it, and I think probably the Kim Wulky
one was you know, you can't give her any credit
for anything, but the Kim Wulky one was the first
one that went like really really.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Viral and the Mulky effect.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
It's unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I remember seeing the blued one that might have been
the first one. I said, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I saw one years ago and sent it to a
big group chat of lesbians. I have a fair amount
of lesbian friends where I'm just like the straight lady
who hangs out with them, and they were dying laughing
about it, and it made me realize that there are
so many women, particularly women's basketball, but women coaching in
(28:20):
general and women's sports in general where they really are
it's hard to tell. There's a fine line between a
sporty straight gal and a lesbian.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
It's incredibly fine, and it's that's what makes it fun.
It's like, it's the thing that I always say. It's
people say, oh, you're stereotyping this or that, Like no,
it's like, I don't know. It's very clear that I'll say, oh,
this is gay, or I a'll say like the way
she's holding her phone is gay. That's ridiculous. I just
made it.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Up just being cunny.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
It's funny. And also that's like it also is like
a kind of a point to like how I go
about the world as a lesbian, because it is how
I see the world. Kind of I just don't think
about it, but I that is what I do write
Like I'm looking around, I'm like, oh, I want that
ring up keys.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's fair too, because if you're trying to find people
to hit on, you're trying to get the cues from
various things. And I remember my sister played women's professional
tackle football and it was years ago, and she was
asking her teammates when they would go out to the
gay bars, like is everyone gonna know I'm straight?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Or are they going to hit on me? Like how
are they?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
And they're like, don't worry, shoes, purse, And that was
like they're two rules, as you could tell. And then
my friend Ali always says, just check the fingernails, but
of course you could be a pillow princess and you
just never know. But that's, you know, one good indicator,
but there's all those different things when you're making your videos.
How did you decide how many of them you wanted
to be something you actually might look at to decide
(29:40):
if someone's gay, and how many you wanted to be ridiculous,
like oh, holding her phone straight.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
I think it's about half. There's a lot of it
where I will just get all the pictures to start
and when I look at the picture, if I genuinely
look at it and think, oh, that's something that I
think is something lesbians do, or like I love to
be like that's something that a twenty sixteen lesbian would
do and not necessarily lesbian, or like the little details, Wow, okay,
best is gay, belt is gay. Hands here feel straight,
(30:06):
that watch is gay, the hair is straight for now.
But if it's consistently just like that, that's gay.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And then in my head I'm like, ooh, okay, let
me think about it. And then I'm like, she's just
making a joke.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Sarah, like you don't have to try to analyze weather.
Twenty sixteen had like a peak moment for that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Right exactly. But it's about half. And it's more so
that if I look at a picture and I can't
find anything, then I'll be like, Okay, her eyebrows raised
in a gay way, like it's it's just to make it,
you know, I have to add that in there. So
it's not like people will message me and they'll say, Jackie,
you have to find out if this person's gay, please
do a video on her. And I'm like, I don't
decipher it. I'm not actually investigating. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
You're not like that geolocator guy who like looks at
a photo when he's like, oh, this is in Maine,
you know what I'm talking about, Like, Yeah, that's an
entire career and gets paid a lot to do that.
You're like, I'm not like using my like spidy sense.
I'm just gonna google it.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
It could be a good cameo thing you could do,
have have people submit a photo their friends I've done.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Are you on a cameo?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I was, well, I don't do it anymore because it
was just so difficult because you can't send photos via
cameo cameo so they would like instant to me, and
it was like I felt bad charging a lot, but
it was a lot of work. It was just a
whole kind of a mess. But that's something I have
done before, and I mean after the series went viral.
I went out on the street with a let me
guess your sexuality sign and I just did it on it.
(31:30):
They all campus.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
I feel like there are some progressive leagues that would
be wise to have you come to training camp and
do a series of.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
The team because we did just see the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Have you know some conversations with teammates about like how
they knew they were straight and things like that, so
we could we could do a coach Jackie.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Version of that.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Have you heard feedback from anyone that didn't like being
a part of your little game and or were offended
that you thought anything about them was gay or straight?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I made a video on Sabrina Enescua and she she
did respond in the comments and she said, I think
something along the lines of like I'm not gay, bro,
like what makes my shoes gay?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And interesting?
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah, And I at the time, I was just kind
of like, oh, that's a little bit strange. I would
have thought that she would be chill with it. I
to be fair at the end, obviously, I always say
the answer. So like she was like, I'm not gay.
I'm like, I didn't say you were. I said that
you're I mean I called like her signature shoes gay,
which I think that's hilarious because if someone's wearing those recreationally, yeah,
(32:40):
my gods, come on. I ended the video with her
proposal like a picture of her then fiance, and I
called it like a fire hazard proposal because there were
lots of candles. So maybe she was offended at my
uh a romantic occasion. But that was a little bit disappointing.
But I was surprising, a little bit surprising. Yeah, but
I understand that, Like, if you've not seen any of
(33:02):
the videos, you're kind of like, why is this person
randomly analyzing fair sex?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Fair?
Speaker 4 (33:07):
What ELSEO do you like that? Her response was I'm
not gay.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Bro, bro bro, the most gay response ever, you know, Shannon.
Some of the like stereotyping can be hard to do
in the comedy world because if you're speaking to a
certain audience, they're like, yeah, hilarious, stereotype of way, And
then if you get in front of a different audience,
they want to try to weaponize the idea that you're
(33:30):
willing to say those things about marginalized groups in order
to allow themselves to make what ultimately come across as
harmful or in bad faith jokes or commentary.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
So how do you handle sort of like the.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I'm allowed to say it versus the like, here's the
context and here's why this is clever and funny as
opposed to just taking shots at marginalized people.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Well, you don't take shots. It's like you never want
to punch down. Don't punch down, so we're always punching up.
I'll be a butch lesbian. I'll say, dyke all I want,
I'll say, I guess, believe whatever you need to.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
I'll say all I want.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
So the things that I feel like I have ownership over,
i'll say, but no end, you know, And sometimes I
will I could maybe set someone up in a scene,
not to give them permission to say it to me,
but to let them know like I got you, you know,
like I don't. I'm not here to make you feel
uncomfortable or you know, if the cast is you know,
(34:29):
we might be it might be like half queer people.
And sometimes it's fun to bait a straight person in
and like be like, hey, why you being homophobic, like
in a scene.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Just to have fun with that, and they.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Know, like, we don't believe that the audience knows that
they're not really that, but it's like we're having fun
in a way that we are always like we're never
making fun of people. It's always like there's never a
victim in the scenes, which is just also what I
teach my students. I'm like, any subject is up for grabs,
but they can't be a victim. The bad person can't win.
It has to be like we're we're making fun of
(35:03):
that and comment all that.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
So yeah, so we don't.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Stereotypes are like in my improv and I'll you know,
and even like you know, what we teach here, what
I teach and what we're performing is like a no go.
And if you sense the audience is like uh, then yeah,
you can like kind of figure a way to to
deal with it.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Like I actually did a show. It was very funny.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I did a show in I was in Germany earlier
this year and I was over there for an improv festival,
very nerdy thing, and I made a joke about like
about them not being cool with like like like lesbians
or something, and the audience was like what And a
German who was I was doing the show with was like,
what do you think of US in Europe.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
And I was like, sorry, in the US, this works. Yeah.
I just had to be like, I won't do that again.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I was like, my bad in the US plays in
the shitty place I'm from.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Yeah, we can make fun of ourselves in the US.
Totally my bad. I get sorry, you love lesbians, You're right?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think like being German is gay.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, so gay European. That's that legally blonde?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, yeah, one thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Do you know Shannon In the comedy world, I remember,
like years ago, I wrote a very strongly worded response
to Christopher Hitchen's article that women aren't funny. This back
in the day when I would have the free time
to sit and write paragraph after paragraph disputing bullshit like that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Do you ever feel like you're there's a.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Connection or a similarity between that shitty line of thinking
in comedy and then the assumptions about women in sports
and women in the sports world.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Oh yeah, I mean yeah, just I think people just
thinking that women are just not as athletic or something. Definitely,
that's that's all there, and it's and I think it's
you just like we needed women in comedy to trail
blaze and show that they are funnier not just as funny.
(36:56):
You know, women in sports have had to trail blaze
and be like you know, hey, here I am, and
you know the Now you see young boys. I love
seeing young boys at Liberty games with their Unesco jerseys,
their Tea Cloud jerseys.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Now it's like this is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
All right, I've kept you off for too long.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So I have one very last important question, Jackie. What
women's sports league or sport is most ripe for content?
Which ones are consistently the funniest or offering up the
things that you can make funny.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Oh that's that's such an interesting question. It's like I
want to go with like what's taking up popularity and
like what's like actually giving us something good. I think
that rugby is. So I'm so ready for the Rugby
World Cup. Like I just think that rugby is one
of I think the gayest sport ever one yeah for me,
and that's where my content comes from. So I am
(37:54):
currently in like deep in my researching rugby era preparing
for the World Cup. It's not a league, so it's
not answer your question exactly right, But I think for
WBR is.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
The league all that, but that league in particular, we
don't know the teams and players well enough for that
to be the focus.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
But the sport itself works.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
The sport itself is ready for some really fun gay stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I think we also invented a word here on the show.
My friend Kara actually invented it, but I use it
now called scruttle. She thought she was saying scrum and huddle,
I guess, and invented the combination term scruddle, which is
now my favorite term and should be accepted in rugby lexicon.
In my opinion, it should potentially replace scrum.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Uh Shannon. Funniest sport or league?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Oh fun?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I mean funniest sport? Are those kids that ride those
horses on sticks? That's correct, that's like the that's the
funniest sport.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Are we calling that a sport?
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I don't know, And I did a.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Deep dive competitive hobby horse riding, hobby horse riding or
I also think very funny.
Speaker 5 (38:57):
A very fun one is people that run like that
learned how to run like horses, like horse girl, you
know the horse girl that runs and just horse jumping.
I think that's really that's it's got to be a sport.
I think there's so many sports, but I will say
I love I guess it's you know, I'm a little biased,
but I just love that. I love the personalities that
(39:19):
are being allowed to shine in the w n b A.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I love my Marina.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
Maybe crash seconds, I love I love watching I tried
to get a video of it. But Natasha Cloud, well,
she's on the bench is so fun to watch and
my seats are like diagonal, and I was the I
forget which game it was, but the starters were sitting
(39:44):
a lot and the bench got to play a lot,
and I was recording her and she is just entertaining.
She was holding like a liberty mutual sign at one
boy and was like like because that's like one of
the sponsors. There was a time where like sab fell
on the ground and she just like was spinning sab around.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
I believe this might have been the same game where
sabria Esque was celebrated wildly about a review call that
went their way.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
Yes, but before that, which it didn't show I guess
even see on TV was she was caught on the
jumbo tron. She was sitting there and she was saying
to somebody else that she just was like, she hit
me on the head, and she like made like a
silly like face, and then entire everyone's laughing and then
she looks up and she's like, oh, like she felt
so she like so it was kind of like this, like.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
She was vindicated, she was caught being goofy, and so
then she just kept her goofiness going. Yes, that celebration
out of context.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
I think some people were like, whoa, that's you're up
fifty you did that, but it was no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
She just was like but also was vindicated in her
claims of the of the blow of the head.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Well, I mean, I could talk to you all all day.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I'm fascinated by the intersection of sports and comedy and
you both do it so well. And I am attempting.
I've made like three TikTok videos. I'm attempting to make more.
So I'm just gonna start following more of Jackie and
just basically trying to be you coach Jackie perfect, not
(41:12):
literally rip you off, but just figure out how you
do what you do so I could do it better.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Oh good, You guys are the best.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Thank you for Thank you for taking the time coach Jackie,
if you're willing sometime we might call you up and
request a specific Is she gay or is she just
fill in the blank.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Well, we'll have to hit you up when that becomes necessary.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Perfect love it.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Thanks so much to Jackie and Shannon for taking the
time to hang out with us. We got to take
another break when we come back on your marks, Get set, tumble,
welcome back slices. We love that you're listening, but we
want you to get in the game every day too,
So here's our good game play of the day. Follow
(41:55):
Jackie and Shannon on social media. We'll link to their
handles in the show notes, and like I said before,
keep sending those picks in good game merch, and keep
sending those pics of you reading or listening to my book.
And if you haven't ordered it yet, the hell are
you doing TinyURL dot com slash urf book will put
the link in the show notes. Again, we always love
(42:16):
to hear from you, so hit us up on email
Good game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com or leave us
a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty
seventy and don't forget to subscribe rate and review slices,
come on, it's easy, like this some ressaulting your way
to the finish line, rating one hundred out of one
hundred meters of fun review. While competing at the Oregon
(42:37):
High School Track and Field Championships, Brooklyn Anderson won the
one hundred meter hurdles by pulling out a skill from
her gymnastics days. By the last few hurdles of the race,
Anderson had built a strong lead, distancing herself from the
field a little bit, so when she clipped the final hurdle,
it didn't spell immediate disaster. Instead, she tumbled and tumbled again,
(42:58):
performing two summer assaults to cross the finish line still
in the lead. That's right, She's summer assaulted twice while
staying in her lane and maintaining her lead to win
the race. After the win, Andersen told the Oregonian quote,
all I remember is resorting back to my gymnastics career
and just summer assaulting over that line. I wasn't sure
how far back everybody else was behind me, so I
(43:19):
knew to just keep rolling, to keep going because I
really wanted to get first end quote. We'll link to
Anderson's viral hurdle and tumble in the show notes, and
of course we'll be taking that life advice into the
rest of our day. Just keep rolling, Just keep going.
Now it's your turn. Y'all, rate and review five stars,
please say something nice about us. Thanks for listening. See
(43:40):
you tomorrow. Good game, Coach, Jackie, Good game, Shannon. You
having to be an adult and get a financial advisor, but.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Like for real kids, do it. It's really important.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer.
(44:12):
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm
your host Sarah Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we are
yet again offering to donate an ACL to a player
in need.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Slute, just hit me up. What's mine is yours? It's Tuesday,
June tenth, and on today's show.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
It's time for another group chat with two very funny folks,
social media influencer coach Jackie, an actor improviser, and New
York liberty diehard Shannon O'Neill. Coach Jackie was recently a
guest monologist at Shannon's weekly rat.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Scraps show in NYC.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
They joined me to talk about creating content, the intersections
between women in comedy and women in sports, and the
leagues that provide the most laughs. Plus a welcome return,
painting lines to grow the game, and somersaulting your way
to victory. It's all coming up right after this welcome
(00:51):
Max Slices. Here's what you need to know today. Let's
start with the WNBA. On Monday, the league announced a
new initiative dubbed Line Them Up, which connects local communities
to women's professional hoops by painting WNBA three point lines
at parks around the country. Quote designed to foster more
inclusive spaces and inspire girls and women to bring their
(01:11):
games to the park. The campaign highlights the league's deep
commitment to building community, visibility.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And representation in public spaces. End quote.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I also just love that if you think you can
hit a WNBA three, not to mention a logo three
like some of the players Sabrina, Caitlin, etc. You'll actually
be able to test that out. I get the feeling
some of y'all are going to realize it's a lot
farther away than you'd think. In addition to painting the lines,
the league will also be donating money to participating park courts.
(01:41):
The initiative is starting with six parks in New York,
but is going to expand to others across the country,
and they're taking suggestions. So if you know or represent
a park that would be interested in adding a WNBA
three point line, check out the link in the show
notes more WNBA. We got two games tonight. First up,
the Atlanta Dream hosts the Indiana Fever at seven thirty
pm Eastern. Ahead of that contest, Fever coach Stephanie White
(02:03):
gave an update on Caitlin Clark, who's been out for
two weeks with a quad strain. Per White, Clark will
miss this game too, but is quote ready to start
ramping back up. Then at eight pm, the Chicago Sky
are traveling to the New York Liberties, So get out
that second screen you can watch both. It's the Sky's
first contest since losing Courtney Vanderslute to a season ending
(02:23):
ACL injury to the NWSL, where Gotham and US National
team midfielder Rose Levell played her first match in six
months over the weekend, subbing into Gotham's two to one
loss to the Kansas City Current in the seventy fourth
minute on Saturday. Lavell had been forced to sit out
the start of the season after ankle surgery last December.
Lavell said that the break from playing helped her find
some silver linings, saying, quote, learning how to be a
(02:46):
good teammate when I can't be on the field with them,
staying present, still having a voice, and helping people where
I can. Being out for so long really forced me
to do that tenfold end quote. Gotham currently sits in
tenth in the NWSL standing. I'm sure they're hoping Roses
return lights a spark for the.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Team to tennis.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
We told you last week about French tennis player Los
Boison's Cinderella run at Roland Garros, while on Monday, the
Breakthrough Star saw that run payoff. Ranked three hundred and
sixty first in the world entering the tournament, Boisson received
a wildcard entry and made it all the way to
the semi finals, helping her climb two hundred and ninety
six spots. The twenty two year old now sits at
(03:26):
a career high sixty fifth on the WTA rankings list. Meantime,
world number two Coco Goff is gaining on number one
Arena Sablenka, whose lead diminished slightly after golf won the
French Open. Finally, an amateur to pro turnaround the likes
of which we usually see in hoops when players go
from March Madness to Draft night in the blink of
(03:46):
an eye. This time it's happening in softball. On Monday,
Athletes Unlimited Softball announced that former Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry
was set to make her debut with the Volts, just
one week after Landry's Sooners lost to Texas Tech in
the semi finals of the Women's College World Series. In fact,
by the time you slices. Hear this, Landry likely will
have pitched in her first game. We'll link to the
(04:08):
AUSL website in the show notes so you can see
how she fared if she did indeed make her pro debut.
Landry was selected by the Voltsa as the number one
overall pick in the AUSL College Draft, but wasn't able
to officially sign her pro contract until concluding her college
career last week. There's also more AUSL tonight with the
Talons and Bandits playing in Rosemont, Illinois again. That game
(04:28):
is at eight pm Eastern on ESPN two. All Right, slices,
we got an important Pride Month times Hoops and Gay
Shit discovery. We just learned that Indiana Fever head coach
Stephanie White and ESPN NBA sideline reporter Lisa Salters are
a hoops power couple.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Where were we on this story? How come none of
y'all clute us in? What a duo? Unbelievable?
Speaker 1 (04:53):
We are always happy to add to our hoops and
gayshit dossier. And a top coach and a longtime sideline
reporter chef's kiss so good. It's worth noting that the
reason their relationship caught our attention is not great. It's
because both had to miss work this week. White was
away from the fever for Saturdays, went over the Chicago
Sky at the United Center, and Salters missed Game two
(05:14):
of the NBA Finals on Sunday. According to Sunday Night's
ABC broadcast, Salter's mother is dealing with the health issue,
so we're sending both women and their families our best.
We also got to take a moment to remind you
Slices that I'll be in Minnesota this Thursday to support
our show side the Minnesota Aurora FC in person. They're
(05:35):
taken on the Chicago City Dutch Lines Thursday night at
their home stadium, Tco Stadium in Egan, Minnesota. So I
hope to see a bunch of you out there. Please
come up and say hi. I think I'm gonna stick
a bunch of Good Game stickers in my back pocket,
so if you find me, it's yours. Some of you
might have caught another piece of merch, the Aurora Times
Good Game Times Breaking tea collab that was at the
(05:56):
last Aurora game. It was a custom ask Me about
women's sports tea featuring the Aurora logo and colors it
was pretty sweet, but you can't have it because it's
sold out.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
Well, you can't get that tee.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can show your support for Good Game with one
of our other fine t shirts, So go to Breaking
Tea dot com slash Spain to check them out. I
actually spotted a good Game, Good Game fuck you shirt
in the wild at the AUSL opening day game, and
then the next day super Slice amy list was rocking her.
I'm a Slice tea for AUSL Day two. So always
at thrill to see them. Keep buying them, keep rocking them,
(06:30):
keep sending us picks, wearing them. Speaking of keep sending
in those selfies reading or listening to my book too.
Shout out to Slice Marsha, who sent in a photo
of her and the audiobook on her tablet, telling us
she's listening to it while walking her dog Luna, after
she finishes that day's episode of Good Game.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Of course. Now that's a winning combo.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Good Game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com is where you
can email them. The collage of slices reading is looking good,
but it still needs your face. We got to take
a quick break, y'ut when we come back, we ask
the age old question is she gay or does she
just coach women's basketball? Jackie and Shannon upnext, stick around.
(07:14):
It's time for another group chat where we take the
tea from the text and bring it to the airwaves.
We got two funny ladies with us joining us now.
She's a social media superstar with over six hundred thousand
followers on TikTok alone, creator of content centered around women's sports.
She was recently named one of Adweek's most Powerful Women
in Sports. She's an Aquarius who celebrates birthday weeks, not days,
(07:35):
loves Broadway shows almost as much as women's sports. And
we'll tell you if someone's gay or just a women's
basketball coach, it's coach Jackie High coach.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Hello. The Aquarius is a deep cut. I'm like, okay.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Research love that somebody's got a substack that I dove
into joining her. She's an American comedian, actor, writer and director,
a longtime improv teacher, and former artistic director at the
Upright Citizens Brigade. She has a long list of TV
appearances including Broad City, Difficul People, High Maintenance, and My
Favorite The Other Two. Her website bio concludes with quote,
if you are reading this and we meet one day.
(08:07):
I think that will be cool unless you are my murderer.
It's Shannon O'Neill.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Hi, Shannon, I'm an American comedian. I've never heard.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I guess the American comedian.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
American is very funny to put at the front of that.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I guess, well, you know what, I don't want any
people who are you afraid of foreigners to leave immediately.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
That's true, true, Jackie. Most important question. First, are you
actually a coach?
Speaker 3 (08:31):
I am not. I'm not. I work with children and
I was doing a I was a coach for a
day and they were all calling me coach, and I
was like, this makes me feel like my gender envy
of like being a coach is my gender. It feels
right because usually kids call you miss Jackie, and miss
Jackie is not me. So I was like, coach perfect.
I made a video about how it's a gender hack.
(08:52):
It's like captain or chef coach, and then everyone was like,
we're gonna call you coach. I like to make it clear,
I didn't name it myself, and then people sort of
call me. I love a brand. I changed it so
now I'm a life coach, folks.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
I'm obsessed with that.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I've never really thought about that, but yeah, it's sort
of like, I mean, people may assume that a coach
is a dude a lot of the time, but it's
not inherent. We aren't quite at the stage where we're
making jokes like the doctor was a woman, right right,
We're not quite there with coaching.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
So I love that. What's your sports background, Jackie.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So Im a soccer person. I grew up playing soccer.
I was a military kid, so I lived in Germany.
I was on an all boys German soccer team, and
that was like really fundamental to who I am. I
was a very good twelve year old because of that,
and then came back to the States kind of plateaued
as like a very good twelve year old up until
high school tore me ACL classic whatever. I wasn't gonna
play in college anyway, but because of that, I couldn't
(09:49):
do any like lateral movements. So I joined the club
rowing team at LSU and I wrote in a swamp
for four years. Three years. Actually, yeah, and that's my
background sports. I also played volleyball. I did one basketball
try out. Too much going back and forth for me.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
So I did not come back. Okay, multiple follow ups.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
One your video about what you learned from being on
that boys youth team.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
That you originally wanted to quit because they were mean
to you.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's great and I highly recommend everybody watch it on
your TikTok. And secondarily, any creatures in the swamp. It
feels like you'd be rowing with like gators and shit.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Gators for sure. Yep, absolutely, and it's scary. I that
was the part that was hard for me. It was
I went to school Pete Covid, so the rowing team
was like one of the only would have joined the
soccer team. Rawing team was just the only one that
was still going. And I was like, this is what
I'm doing to make friends. I'm rowing in a swamp
where there are actually caters and there we would see
them and you just don't want to. I mean, you
don't crash often when you're growing, but when you're a
(10:49):
novice and you're learning, it's not a thing that doesn't happen.
So I was definitely very marrid afraid.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
But you know, you power through and you had a weapon.
Speaker 3 (10:59):
The or it's more the bacteria in the LSU campus
lake that we were more afraid.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Of so fair Fair Shannon, you got any sports ties
other than your heavy liberty fandom.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I was a three sport athlete growing up. I did soccer, basketball,
and lacrosse, but basketball is always my main main love.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
Lacrosse.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Actually, interestingly enough, we had a freshman lacrosse team that
the boys got to join, not the other way around,
because it was there was no boys lacrosse team yet
and it was coming maybe like the next year.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
So we had, yeah, a couple of.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Freshmen boys and I had to were more than more
than a couple, and I had to I was a
goalie and I had to give up playing goalie sometimes
the boys could play.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
That's so interesting.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
I've heard that mostly for field hockey in the States
because it tends to be a women's sport, but especially Yeah,
foreign born guys who come over and have and had
played in their previous country that want to play end
up getting on the women's teams.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
How was that for you?
Speaker 1 (12:03):
And I'm so glad to hear that you survived playing
alongside boys and uh, you made it.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
You made it out what it's hair, I know.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
I mean, they barely it was.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
It was interesting because some teams would say like, no,
we don't want to play against them, and I feel
like maybe we made.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
Them wear the kilts.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Okay, I have to match because we did have kilts,
and I think we were like, you have to wear
the same uniform. So I remember that actually being pretty
cool and pretty chill. There wasn't like like we were
all we all rolled with it, and I just was like, Oh,
I guess that's what you do.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
And then you know, things were a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
You know, that's interesting for both of you.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Some of your formative sports experiences as youths were on
co ed teams and just like getting past that initial
sort of awkwardness and then just being like, oh, yeah,
it's just sports. And we do this all the time
in gym class and we do this all the time
post collegiately and innermurals and like literally almost everywhere and
it works out great.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, she had.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And you're still performing regularly in improv shows. And I
wonder if you've found it easier of late to include
women's sports references and content, knowing that hopefully more of
the audience gets those references.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Oh yeah, absolutely, it's and it's very fun to put
people on the spot. And be like, I mean sometimes
I'd be just like Actually one time I was like
name five I think I said, like, name five WNBA
players and they're like uh And I was like, okay,
name five women and they're like, So it is very
it's very fun, and some are like yeah, the audiences
(13:32):
are hipped to it. They know what we're talking about,
and it's fun to catch some of the people on stage,
mostly the male identifying folks that I get to. You know,
they do their Star Wars references. I do my WNB references.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Do you ever get taken to task by fellow improvisers
for those references? Do they ever after the show say, hey,
cut it out the Liberty roster making every single sketch.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
No, no, no, that's good. That's nevern where it's.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
A very playful and improvs breaks. It's like team sport,
which is why I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, when I was there, they did a whole thing
about rugby scrums that was very funny and like no
one really knew what it was, Like Shannon just started
it and no one really got it. Yeah, and so
it just became this ridiculous thing of people chanting scrum, scrum, scrum.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, it was so funny.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, you guys have met, because producer Alex was actually
there and watched Coach Jackie serve as the monologist for
an improv show at one of Shannon's shows a few
weeks ago. A monologue that Alex said did have a
great recap of the opening weekend of Women's Elite Rugby
was that Coach Jackie's intentional part, and then later the
scrum ensued from the improv that it inspired.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's a show. Yeah, it's
called Rat Scraps. It's on Sundays.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
But yeah, I was like, I gotta get Coach Jackie.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
And my producer reached out and Jackie was just like
hell yeah, and I was like this is gonna be great.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:56):
And as soon as Jackie was talking about rugby and
stuff and I know a little bit of it, not
like a whole up, but you know, from like Alona
mar and like that kind of like learning about that way,
so I was able to say it and I knew
what a scrum was, and I knew nobody else did,
and it's just like and you just you just yes, yeah,
just go with it. So I'm not going to call
them out. It was just like, yeah, it was very fun.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
That was the best for me because I was like
a huge theater kid growing up, and I was familiar
with Shannon of course, and like also with the show,
and so I never get emails that are about any
of like the like theater kid improv side of me.
So I was like, oh my god, this is perfect,
Like I was so stoked to be part of it.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
I got a call from Gilda's Club here in Chicago,
which is a cancer based org obviously inspired by Gilda Radner.
And this was years ago, and I'll I miss my
improv days all the time. I did the whole Second
City Conservatory out in LA and that's originally what I
moved to LA for was comedy stuff. And they called
and they were like, we know this is a big ass,
but would you be willing to come for like our
(15:55):
big charity event and be on stage to set up
some of that. I'm like, you're gonna have to tell
me to shut the frow, like you're going to have
other people up there that are like barely involved and
that I'm just gonna insert myself into your troop, which
I didn't do. But it was very hard not to
because same with you. Jackie was like, this is the
best email ever. I wish everyone was just asking me
to do this all the time. Jackie, you want to
talk about your content because you clearly you know most
(16:17):
of the people clicking and watching your stuff are in
for women's sports content. They want to follow you, and
they want to learn about it. Have you changed the
course of your content over the couple years of being
a creator based on knowing that there's more knowledge out
there or do you still sort of trying to figure
out how to cater to folks that are still learning
at the same time.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
I always say that if I'm making a video, I
want to have one fact for the super fan and
one fact for the person who knows nothing. So I
do I try and add something in there for somebody
who's like I think about if I was watching a
soccer video, what I would want someone to drop that
I would know that they really knew what they were
talking about. So I'll reach out to athletes or other
people to try and find that insider piece. And then
(16:57):
I always explain because yes, they want women's sports content,
but also people aren't really following anymore. They're just being
served up with the algorithm thinks they want, And so
I have to always assume that the person watching knows nothing,
but also hate to watch those videos where it's like,
here's the like I have to do, like the history
of women's sports starting, and like you know, where do
(17:17):
you again with some of this stuff? So it's a
balance for sure.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
That's how we feel on this show. It's like we
want to make sure we're bringing everyone along, and the
easiest way to do that is to use full names,
full team names. Occasionally put the league in because it
doesn't really take away from the experience for the expert,
the same way that like.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Let's start with what's a basketball? Right? Like that you're out.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
But if you just include enough context clues, you could
usually help new people along in ways that they just
aren't served. If you're like so D D and TT
and number two and why why and you're like, I'm
already I have no idea what.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
You're talking about.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Also, that's like a like a peacocking thing for men,
Like in men's sports, they love to not include any information,
sort of as like a good seeping thing, and they're like,
we don't get it. It's not for you, and it's like,
that's not women's sports if you don't get it, it
is for you, and we want you to get it,
and we don't care if you don't. And I always
have to stop myself. I'm like PTERWHL ANDWSL and I'm like,
(18:11):
wait a second, people don't know what that means. And
I think it's important to make it as inclusive as possible.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I actually gave a podcast presentation a couple months ago,
and that was one of my big points, was like,
you're not really impressing anybody if you talk about stuff
that other people don't understand or act like you're all insidery.
What you're doing is just limiting the amount of people
that can listen and enjoy.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
What you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
If you want to tell them something insidery, then bring
them along with you and give them the context to
understand how you got that unique report or that exclusive
but just talking about things in a way that reveals
that you don't have to use full names because you're
so tight with everybody, you're really not doing what you
think you're doing for the people that you're trying to
get to listen. Jackie, do you make enough money as
(18:53):
a content creator to just focus on your social media
work or do you have other mysterious jobs.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I have a mysterious job, but I do make enough money.
You know, I think I'm not necessarily one hundred percent
secure where it's consistent in that, like I would stop
having my job job. I also love my job job,
but I yeah, it's it's become a full time job
within itself for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Do you ever talk about your job job or is
it a mystery?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
It's a mystery. We'll keep it a mystery.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Now, are you smart, Jackie?
Speaker 5 (19:23):
Are you putting that money away in an ira A
four oh one k?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Because now's the time.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I'm it's it's invested. It's invested.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Okay, you gotta start start young.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
In what doge coin?
Speaker 1 (19:35):
It's invested as like Aaron Rodgers saying I'm immunized.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, we need more specifics than that.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
It's in whatever, the general, Like I truly don't know
how it all works. It's in whatever is the most general, specific,
diversified question mark kind of great.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
So you have some sort of financial advisor or expert
that's helping you put your money where it should be
to grow.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
I'm finding that person. I'm finding that person. I didn't
know how taxes would be terrible. So that was really
a that was a big one. And now we're really
trying to find a planner. I'm not a planner.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah, okay, I should. I should. I would recommend you
do that. Yeah, get somebody else. Yeah, yeah, you're.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
So, you're so ahead of the game if you do
start doing it. Now.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
I have friends that are forty and do not have
a savings and I'm like, what are you doing? And
so you got it. Anyway, this is a sports podcast.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
You have balanced that social media brings you fame and fortune,
but also everything else that brings. Do you have tips
for surviving online? Because you are it is a job,
which means you can't just decide I'm over this and leave.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Wait no, yeah, I mean it's I think for me,
when I started posting, I was posting ten videos a day,
like I was really really into it, and then I
kind of plateaued and I just posted one video a day,
and you never know, like I went viral a lot,
but I wouldn't retain followers a lot. And so for me,
I always think like like series like my Isshik series
is like a way that people want to come back
(21:01):
for more. And it's always about people coming back for more,
and that's how you, I guess, survive online. And if
the questions more about like how do you deal with
hate and stuff, I don't know, it's hard. It's just
you just got to have your own support system.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yeah, I mean it was more about that, But I
want to talk about the issue. Gegu it's so good
but really quick. I just I think, I mean, is
it natural then? Because I find for me personally when
people ask me about like clapping back on social media,
which I used to do a lot more and now
I just kind of block and don't even worry about
it because half the time it's like bots or people
being paid to get engagement. But back in the day,
I felt like, as a straight cis like physically able
(21:37):
person who has a real tough, thick skin. I wanted
to get out in front and take the slings and
arrows and show other people that I was getting it
and that you can clap back or you can be
kind back, which sometimes I was. I would just say, hey,
seems like you might be going through something, like I
hope it gets better.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
This is kind of a weird thing to send a stranger.
It's kind of mean.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
And when people ask me about it, I would say,
it's sort of just natural for me. So is it
of natural for you to be able to balance whatever
hatred or threats or whatever.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Maybe you don't.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Get that the way that a woman in like traditional
sports media does.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
No I get it. I I think that it's not natural.
It's unnatural just as a as a general thing that happens.
No one should be taking in that much of good
or bad. I think that that's why it becomes unhealthy.
Is you really thrive on the good stuff, and if
you devalue all of it, then none of it matters,
and then what's you know, what's driving you? But for me,
(22:29):
I was actually just talking to some middle schoolers about
making videos and they were asking me how do you
deal with feedback? And one of the teachers said, and
I actually I didn't have a good answer. I was like,
it's really hard and I'm struggling. And one of the
teachers said, sometimes when you you really have to say something,
it doesn't matter what anyone says, because you know that
you have to say it. And that I was like, oh,
(22:49):
that's me. Like, I believe everything I say when I
post it online, especially now with having a bigger following.
I think really hard about what I say, and I
say it and I mean it. I mean everything I say,
and so that is how I'm able to deal with it.
I think to myself, well, I didn't misspeak, and that
person disagrees with me, and you, like you said, like,
I am so privileged. And so if I'm dealing with
(23:12):
a week of people saying really awful things, that's okay
because the people I was sticking up for and whatever.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I said deal with it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Just they can't press that's their whole life.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yeah, And that's how I felt, especially when most of
my hatred would usually come when I was talking about
domestic violence, sexual assault, male female dynamic stories and sports,
and so I'd always be like, they're just mad that
I'm bringing something to light that they would rather we
pretend didn't exist. And I'm okay with being attacked for
that if it means that I'm doing the stories that
need to be heard. Shannon, I feel like it's adjacent
to what we just talked about. With your career, you're
(23:43):
going to have these like big ups where suddenly you're like,
oh my god, I'm on Broad City, Like, I guess
this is it. I'm real famous now and forever and ever.
I'm going to be just doing the best things. And
then the next week it's like, Okay, didn't get that
audition or didn't get that callback. How do you handle
the sort of ups and downs and the fact that
you're job is entirely subjective. You could crush it and
(24:04):
the person could be like, ap, she reminds me of
my ex girlfriend, and now I'm out.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Mm hmm. It took a lot of learning that.
Speaker 5 (24:12):
I mean when you when I was first going on auditions,
I would be waiting by the phone, you know, checking
my email that I get it.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
I get it, And then you finally get to a point.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Where it's like you just learn, like I auditioned and
now I'm moving on with my day. I just like,
it's just like a bunch of job interviews and if
I get chosen, I get you know, then I get chosen,
and I'm but I'm very lucky in that I get
to perform a lot. So I might go on audition
and like maybe not get something that I really wanted,
(24:42):
But then you know, on a Sunday, on a Friday,
I get to walk into a theater and perform pre.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Pandemic consistent sold out shows.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
We're still working on the post pandemic comeback, but I
would you know, but still audiences that you know, paid
for a ticket and I get to make them laugh.
And that's like then I get like, I really like,
that's how I dopamine. You have a little validation that like,
oh no, okay, you are You're funny, you're talented, you
got this, And that's just and that's why I feel
so so lucky that I get to do that. There's
(25:12):
like a lot of actors that are going out and
auditioning and they don't get to like still perform that week.
I get to perform every week, and I know that
that is like, I'm so lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
There's no wood in this room, but I'll not I'd.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Not uh for those who might be nearby where you
are and can help out with that. Not selling out
every single week, where are they going to get tickets
and see you?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Oh you?
Speaker 5 (25:35):
So Every Sunday is at a theater called Caveat.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
It's on the Lower East Side. The show is called
Rat four A's Scraps. That's the one that Jackie did.
Speaker 5 (25:45):
You can also stream it online, so if you can't
make it into the city, you can watch it. So
if you just go to ratscraps dot com or Caveat
which is spelled as Caveat just look up Caveat Theater
in New York City.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
Yeah, we got a.
Speaker 5 (25:58):
Lot of awesome performing that you have probably seen on
your your TV.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Is the are the four a's in rat a nod
to the multiple s's in Askat?
Speaker 5 (26:09):
They are because UCB shut down in New York from
the pandemic and it was like completely gone, and I
was like, it's never coming back. So I started I
used to run Askat and produce and run and host Askat.
So I started a new show as an homage to
Rat Scraps.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Rat Scraps. I love it and it has a like
similar sound to it. Askat, for those who don't know,
is ucb's sort of signature flag show show, which.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Is which is back now. So UCB is back.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
So now there's like this.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Now there's an ASCAT and a rat Scraps.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
An ass Cat on Fridays and Saturdays, and a rat
Scraps on SuDS and I.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Do them all, so.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
I love it. Jackie.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I want to talk about your most famous series that
you mentioned.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Are you gay or do you just coach women's basketball?
Speaker 1 (26:53):
For viewers that haven't seen this series, can you summarize it?
Speaker 3 (26:59):
Yeah? I can try. I can try. Basically, it's I
always say, like how it started was I was watching
I was mentioned I went to LSU. So it was
twenty twenty three, pretty good year for us. I was
watching March Badness with my roommate and we were I
think it was an Iowa game. We were looking at
Lisa Bluter. We were like, what do you think what's
going on there? Like do we think that she's gay
(27:19):
or not? We really did what the videos are now,
which is when I go through and I kind of say,
all the hair is kind of in between gay and
what a most the mom cut that everyone has, and
oh the shoes those are gay, and the pants they
would be gay if they didn't if they had belt loops.
They don't know belt loops, so they're straight. And we
were having that conversation and so I made a video
and the video didn't really go all that viral. When
(27:40):
I made the first one and I just kind of
kept doing it, and I think probably the Kim Wulky
one was you know, you can't give her any credit
for anything, but the Kim Wulky one was the first
one that went like really really.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Viral and the Mulky effect.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
It's unfortunate.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
I remember seeing the blued one that might have been
the first one. I said, I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
I saw one years ago and sent it to a
big group chat of lesbians. I have a fair amount
of lesbian friends where I'm just like the straight lady
who hangs out with them, and they were dying laughing
about it, and it made me realize that there are
so many women, particularly women's basketball, but women coaching in
(28:20):
general and women's sports in general where they really are
it's hard to tell. There's a fine line between a
sporty straight gal and a lesbian.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
It's incredibly fine, and it's that's what makes it fun.
It's like, it's the thing that I always say. It's
people say, oh, you're stereotyping this or that, Like no,
it's like, I don't know. It's very clear that I'll say, oh,
this is gay, or I a'll say like the way
she's holding her phone is gay. That's ridiculous. I just
made it.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
Up just being cunny.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
It's funny. And also that's like it also is like
a kind of a point to like how I go
about the world as a lesbian, because it is how
I see the world. Kind of I just don't think
about it, but I that is what I do write
Like I'm looking around, I'm like, oh, I want that
ring up keys.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's fair too, because if you're trying to find people
to hit on, you're trying to get the cues from
various things. And I remember my sister played women's professional
tackle football and it was years ago, and she was
asking her teammates when they would go out to the
gay bars, like is everyone gonna know I'm straight?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Or are they going to hit on me? Like how
are they?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
And they're like, don't worry, shoes, purse, And that was
like they're two rules, as you could tell. And then
my friend Ali always says, just check the fingernails, but
of course you could be a pillow princess and you
just never know. But that's, you know, one good indicator,
but there's all those different things when you're making your videos.
How did you decide how many of them you wanted
to be something you actually might look at to decide
(29:40):
if someone's gay, and how many you wanted to be ridiculous,
like oh, holding her phone straight.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
I think it's about half. There's a lot of it
where I will just get all the pictures to start
and when I look at the picture, if I genuinely
look at it and think, oh, that's something that I
think is something lesbians do, or like I love to
be like that's something that a twenty sixteen lesbian would
do and not necessarily lesbian, or like the little details, Wow, okay,
best is gay, belt is gay. Hands here feel straight,
(30:06):
that watch is gay, the hair is straight for now.
But if it's consistently just like that, that's gay.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
And then in my head I'm like, ooh, okay, let
me think about it. And then I'm like, she's just
making a joke.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Sarah, like you don't have to try to analyze weather.
Twenty sixteen had like a peak moment for that.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Right exactly. But it's about half. And it's more so
that if I look at a picture and I can't
find anything, then I'll be like, Okay, her eyebrows raised
in a gay way, like it's it's just to make it,
you know, I have to add that in there. So
it's not like people will message me and they'll say, Jackie,
you have to find out if this person's gay, please
do a video on her. And I'm like, I don't
decipher it. I'm not actually investigating. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
You're not like that geolocator guy who like looks at
a photo when he's like, oh, this is in Maine,
you know what I'm talking about, Like, Yeah, that's an
entire career and gets paid a lot to do that.
You're like, I'm not like using my like spidy sense.
I'm just gonna google it.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
It could be a good cameo thing you could do,
have have people submit a photo their friends I've done.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Are you on a cameo?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
I was, well, I don't do it anymore because it
was just so difficult because you can't send photos via
cameo cameo so they would like instant to me, and
it was like I felt bad charging a lot, but
it was a lot of work. It was just a
whole kind of a mess. But that's something I have
done before, and I mean after the series went viral.
I went out on the street with a let me
guess your sexuality sign and I just did it on it.
(31:30):
They all campus.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
I feel like there are some progressive leagues that would
be wise to have you come to training camp and
do a series of.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
The team because we did just see the stud buds.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Have you know some conversations with teammates about like how
they knew they were straight and things like that, so
we could we could do a coach Jackie.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Version of that.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Have you heard feedback from anyone that didn't like being
a part of your little game and or were offended
that you thought anything about them was gay or straight?
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (32:04):
I made a video on Sabrina Enescua and she she
did respond in the comments and she said, I think
something along the lines of like I'm not gay, bro,
like what makes my shoes gay?
Speaker 2 (32:16):
And interesting?
Speaker 3 (32:18):
Yeah, And I at the time, I was just kind
of like, oh, that's a little bit strange. I would
have thought that she would be chill with it. I
to be fair at the end, obviously, I always say
the answer. So like she was like, I'm not gay.
I'm like, I didn't say you were. I said that
you're I mean I called like her signature shoes gay,
which I think that's hilarious because if someone's wearing those recreationally, yeah,
(32:40):
my gods, come on. I ended the video with her
proposal like a picture of her then fiance, and I
called it like a fire hazard proposal because there were
lots of candles. So maybe she was offended at my
uh a romantic occasion. But that was a little bit disappointing.
But I was surprising, a little bit surprising. Yeah, but
I understand that, Like, if you've not seen any of
(33:02):
the videos, you're kind of like, why is this person
randomly analyzing fair sex?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
Fair?
Speaker 4 (33:07):
What ELSEO do you like that? Her response was I'm
not gay.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Bro, bro bro, the most gay response ever, you know, Shannon.
Some of the like stereotyping can be hard to do
in the comedy world because if you're speaking to a
certain audience, they're like, yeah, hilarious, stereotype of way, And
then if you get in front of a different audience,
they want to try to weaponize the idea that you're
(33:30):
willing to say those things about marginalized groups in order
to allow themselves to make what ultimately come across as
harmful or in bad faith jokes or commentary.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
So how do you handle sort of like the.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
I'm allowed to say it versus the like, here's the
context and here's why this is clever and funny as
opposed to just taking shots at marginalized people.
Speaker 5 (33:54):
Well, you don't take shots. It's like you never want
to punch down. Don't punch down, so we're always punching up.
I'll be a butch lesbian. I'll say, dyke all I want,
I'll say, I guess, believe whatever you need to.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
I'll say all I want.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
So the things that I feel like I have ownership over,
i'll say, but no end, you know, And sometimes I
will I could maybe set someone up in a scene,
not to give them permission to say it to me,
but to let them know like I got you, you know,
like I don't. I'm not here to make you feel
uncomfortable or you know, if the cast is you know,
(34:29):
we might be it might be like half queer people.
And sometimes it's fun to bait a straight person in
and like be like, hey, why you being homophobic, like
in a scene.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Just to have fun with that, and they.
Speaker 5 (34:41):
Know, like, we don't believe that the audience knows that
they're not really that, but it's like we're having fun
in a way that we are always like we're never
making fun of people. It's always like there's never a
victim in the scenes, which is just also what I
teach my students. I'm like, any subject is up for grabs,
but they can't be a victim. The bad person can't win.
It has to be like we're we're making fun of
(35:03):
that and comment all that.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
So yeah, so we don't.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
Stereotypes are like in my improv and I'll you know,
and even like you know, what we teach here, what
I teach and what we're performing is like a no go.
And if you sense the audience is like uh, then yeah,
you can like kind of figure a way to to
deal with it.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Like I actually did a show. It was very funny.
Speaker 5 (35:25):
I did a show in I was in Germany earlier
this year and I was over there for an improv festival,
very nerdy thing, and I made a joke about like
about them not being cool with like like like lesbians
or something, and the audience was like what And a
German who was I was doing the show with was like,
what do you think of US in Europe.
Speaker 4 (35:44):
And I was like, sorry, in the US, this works. Yeah.
I just had to be like, I won't do that again.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I was like, my bad in the US plays in
the shitty place I'm from.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Yeah, we can make fun of ourselves in the US.
Totally my bad. I get sorry, you love lesbians, You're right?
Speaker 2 (35:59):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think like being German is gay.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Yeah, so gay European. That's that legally blonde?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Yeah, yeah, one thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Do you know Shannon In the comedy world, I remember,
like years ago, I wrote a very strongly worded response
to Christopher Hitchen's article that women aren't funny. This back
in the day when I would have the free time
to sit and write paragraph after paragraph disputing bullshit like that.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
Do you ever feel like you're there's a.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Connection or a similarity between that shitty line of thinking
in comedy and then the assumptions about women in sports
and women in the sports world.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
Oh yeah, I mean yeah, just I think people just
thinking that women are just not as athletic or something. Definitely,
that's that's all there, and it's and I think it's
you just like we needed women in comedy to trail
blaze and show that they are funnier not just as funny.
(36:56):
You know, women in sports have had to trail blaze
and be like you know, hey, here I am, and
you know the Now you see young boys. I love
seeing young boys at Liberty games with their Unesco jerseys,
their Tea Cloud jerseys.
Speaker 4 (37:12):
Now it's like this is so awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
All right, I've kept you off for too long.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
So I have one very last important question, Jackie. What
women's sports league or sport is most ripe for content?
Which ones are consistently the funniest or offering up the
things that you can make funny.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
Oh that's that's such an interesting question. It's like I
want to go with like what's taking up popularity and
like what's like actually giving us something good. I think
that rugby is. So I'm so ready for the Rugby
World Cup. Like I just think that rugby is one
of I think the gayest sport ever one yeah for me,
and that's where my content comes from. So I am
(37:54):
currently in like deep in my researching rugby era preparing
for the World Cup. It's not a league, so it's
not answer your question exactly right, But I think for
WBR is.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
The league all that, but that league in particular, we
don't know the teams and players well enough for that
to be the focus.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
But the sport itself works.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
The sport itself is ready for some really fun gay stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
I think we also invented a word here on the show.
My friend Kara actually invented it, but I use it
now called scruttle. She thought she was saying scrum and huddle,
I guess, and invented the combination term scruddle, which is
now my favorite term and should be accepted in rugby lexicon.
In my opinion, it should potentially replace scrum.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Uh Shannon. Funniest sport or league?
Speaker 4 (38:35):
Oh fun?
Speaker 5 (38:36):
I mean funniest sport? Are those kids that ride those
horses on sticks? That's correct, that's like the that's the
funniest sport.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Are we calling that a sport?
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I don't know, And I did a.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Deep dive competitive hobby horse riding, hobby horse riding or
I also think very funny.
Speaker 5 (38:57):
A very fun one is people that run like that
learned how to run like horses, like horse girl, you
know the horse girl that runs and just horse jumping.
I think that's really that's it's got to be a sport.
I think there's so many sports, but I will say
I love I guess it's you know, I'm a little biased,
but I just love that. I love the personalities that
(39:19):
are being allowed to shine in the w n b A.
Speaker 4 (39:23):
I love my Marina.
Speaker 5 (39:24):
Maybe crash seconds, I love I love watching I tried
to get a video of it. But Natasha Cloud, well,
she's on the bench is so fun to watch and
my seats are like diagonal, and I was the I
forget which game it was, but the starters were sitting
(39:44):
a lot and the bench got to play a lot,
and I was recording her and she is just entertaining.
She was holding like a liberty mutual sign at one
boy and was like like because that's like one of
the sponsors. There was a time where like sab fell
on the ground and she just like was spinning sab around.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
I believe this might have been the same game where
sabria Esque was celebrated wildly about a review call that
went their way.
Speaker 5 (40:11):
Yes, but before that, which it didn't show I guess
even see on TV was she was caught on the
jumbo tron. She was sitting there and she was saying
to somebody else that she just was like, she hit
me on the head, and she like made like a
silly like face, and then entire everyone's laughing and then
she looks up and she's like, oh, like she felt
so she like so it was kind of like this, like.
Speaker 4 (40:33):
She was vindicated, she was caught being goofy, and so
then she just kept her goofiness going. Yes, that celebration
out of context.
Speaker 5 (40:40):
I think some people were like, whoa, that's you're up
fifty you did that, but it was no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
She just was like but also was vindicated in her
claims of the of the blow of the head.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Well, I mean, I could talk to you all all day.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I'm fascinated by the intersection of sports and comedy and
you both do it so well. And I am attempting.
I've made like three TikTok videos. I'm attempting to make more.
So I'm just gonna start following more of Jackie and
just basically trying to be you coach Jackie perfect, not
(41:12):
literally rip you off, but just figure out how you
do what you do so I could do it better.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Oh good, You guys are the best.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Thank you for Thank you for taking the time coach Jackie,
if you're willing sometime we might call you up and
request a specific Is she gay or is she just
fill in the blank.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Well, we'll have to hit you up when that becomes necessary.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Perfect love it.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Thanks so much to Jackie and Shannon for taking the
time to hang out with us. We got to take
another break when we come back on your marks, Get set, tumble,
welcome back slices. We love that you're listening, but we
want you to get in the game every day too,
So here's our good game play of the day. Follow
(41:55):
Jackie and Shannon on social media. We'll link to their
handles in the show notes, and like I said before,
keep sending those picks in good game merch, and keep
sending those pics of you reading or listening to my book.
And if you haven't ordered it yet, the hell are
you doing TinyURL dot com slash urf book will put
the link in the show notes. Again, we always love
(42:16):
to hear from you, so hit us up on email
Good game at Wondermedia neetwork dot com or leave us
a voicemail at eight seven two two o four fifty
seventy and don't forget to subscribe rate and review slices,
come on, it's easy, like this some ressaulting your way
to the finish line, rating one hundred out of one
hundred meters of fun review. While competing at the Oregon
(42:37):
High School Track and Field Championships, Brooklyn Anderson won the
one hundred meter hurdles by pulling out a skill from
her gymnastics days. By the last few hurdles of the race,
Anderson had built a strong lead, distancing herself from the
field a little bit, so when she clipped the final hurdle,
it didn't spell immediate disaster. Instead, she tumbled and tumbled again,
(42:58):
performing two summer assaults to cross the finish line still
in the lead. That's right, She's summer assaulted twice while
staying in her lane and maintaining her lead to win
the race. After the win, Andersen told the Oregonian quote,
all I remember is resorting back to my gymnastics career
and just summer assaulting over that line. I wasn't sure
how far back everybody else was behind me, so I
(43:19):
knew to just keep rolling, to keep going because I
really wanted to get first end quote. We'll link to
Anderson's viral hurdle and tumble in the show notes, and
of course we'll be taking that life advice into the
rest of our day. Just keep rolling, Just keep going.
Now it's your turn. Y'all, rate and review five stars,
please say something nice about us. Thanks for listening. See
(43:40):
you tomorrow. Good game, Coach, Jackie, Good game, Shannon. You
having to be an adult and get a financial advisor, but.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Like for real kids, do it. It's really important.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports
production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You
could find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network,
our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive
producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rutterer.
(44:12):
Our editors are Emily Rutterer, Brittany Martinez, Grace Lynch, and
Gianna Palmer. Our associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm
your host Sarah Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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