Year 19, Episode 13

Original Release Date: Monday 4 August 2025      

Description:  Dean Haglund turned 60 this week and on the occasion, Phil Leirness and (friend of show and composer of numerous themes songs) Jon Lawlor met up with Dean via Zoom to discuss the importance of celebrating birthdays. They also celebrated the incredible life and hilarious artistry of the great Tom Lehrer. This leads into a discussion of the gents' all time biggest comedy influences. Finally, they discuss the fact that two of the films hailed as the best of 2025 both deal with recovery from sexual trauma and why that might make sense for where we are as a culture right now. Afterwards, Lily Holleman joins the festivities to go in-depth with Phil about one of those two films.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everybody, your friend in podcasting, Phil Lairness here, coming
at you from Montecito, California. This week, Dean Haglan turned
sixty years of age, and on the occasion of this
milestone birthday, friend of show and composer of numerous theme songs,

(00:22):
John Lawler and I joined Dean via zoom. We discussed
the importance of celebrating birthdays, and then we celebrated the
incredible life and hilarious artistry of the great Tom Larer.
This led into a discussion of our all time biggest

(00:43):
comedy influences. Finally, we discuss the fact that two of
the films hailed as the best of twenty twenty five
thus far both deal with recovery from sexual trauma, and
we wonder why that might make sense for where we
are as a culture right now. So you will be

(01:06):
hearing all of that, and afterwards, Lily Holloman will be
joining the festivities to go in depth with me about
one of those two films. It's a big, hilarious, ultimately
thoughtful show and it gets started right now.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
And now your chill pack Hollywood Hour with Dean Hagland
and Phil Lareness.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
As I've been saying we celebrate things to express why
something matters, not to express that it matters, to express
why it matters. So, Dean Haglan, the floor is yours
on this landmark milestone birthday.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Well, I've suggested to you that just because I was
stayed on the planet as it went around the sun
once not necessarily the day to celebrate. We celebrate the
year that we made it around the sun once, do
we not.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
One of the best bits of advice I ever got
in terms of mental and emotional health was the older
you get if you don't learn how to celebrate your birthdays,
the more judgmental and retrenched and angry. And you know why,
because that which you are made of does not feel

(03:16):
seen and appreciated.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Oh why you so?

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Because I used to always hate birthdays. I hated them, Yes,
And the reason beyond the idea of age or anything
like this, because it was when I was young. It
was that I always felt that either too big a
deal was made of them, right, or not enough, not
enough of a deal was made of them. And so

(03:42):
so the question was asked, well, how are you celebrating you?
And I went, well, it's not my job. It's my birthday.
I'm the one that should be celebrated, and lo and behold. Yes,
every year it's if I dropped the ball and did
not feel that I celebrated myself. It was a drag

(04:07):
of energy. As as we propel, as you say, into
a new year, because it is your personal new year. Yes,
And if you're saying another trip around the sun, you
are being propelled. It's it's you're you're pushing that boulder
starting tomorrow, right back up another hill. If you should
be so lucky, unless you don't have enough energy in

(04:28):
the boulder rushes you under its weight.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Well, but here's the thing you celebrate. I celebrate the
fact that I woke up above the ground another day.
So every morning's this celebration.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
That's what you're celebrating. You still haven't told me why
that matters. Well, why is being above ground worthy of celebration?

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Because when you're under, no one celebrates. Well somebody, no.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
One celebrating now, No one celebrating. Now all anybody's doing.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
No No Columbus, Columbus, Ohio newspaper has my birthday printed
in it. They're celebrating all of Columbus. Just read it
in the newspaper. They're delighted. I'm sure you go on
my Facebook you can say thank you to hundreds of
hundreds of fans.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Interesting, and I grew up on Columbus Avenue. So the
whole point is, this is a whole new world for you,
the idea of celebrating yourself. So, you know, don't think, John,
you're going to be out of this. I see you, John,
just sitting on the sidelines. You know, somebody, somebody by
the name of Johnlawler has a milestone birthday coming up.

(05:36):
And don't kid yourself. Some of this lecture is for
your benefit. I'm taking notes. Yeah, but welcome, welcome, by
the way to John. Thank you for joining us anyway.
Uh indeed, so let's where yes and why? What is
your reluctance to express why life matters? What about life matters?

(05:59):
Why does life matters? Let's say that it's not because
a newspaper in Columbus, Ohio says that it does. Let's
not say that it's because it's not death. Right, you
don't know, I mean, we celebrate death at this moment.
I would greet it with open arms.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Wait, are you saying we're all dead in this? This
is a reality.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
If it was, If it was, I it's hell. We're
in hell right now. It's a whole thing about Dean deflecting.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
You answer, why does it matter?

Speaker 1 (06:32):
I can't. Now. That's the point is that people can
celebrate your birthday and they are hopefully expressing why you matter,
that you matter, and why you matter. Sure, but getting
back to the point. When I heard the overwhelming birthday
celebration you have planned for yourself, the light bulb went off,

(06:56):
Dean Hagland, Why does your life matter to you? And
what is it that you would celebrate if you took
any of this as serious as you should?

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Okay, what in my life have I ever taken seriously?
For crying out aloud?

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Holy smokes, not taking things seriously? You take that way
too serious.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
So therefore that it's the self. It's a hamster wheel.
I'm I'm chasing the carrot across the stick on the
hamster wheel, and therefore it's hilarious. So that's why it matters.
It's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
We're gonna come We're going to come back to you
in because you're it's you're the birthday boy, and uh,
and we're gonna go down swinging on this one.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
But I am going to fight you not to celebrate
my birthday.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
John Lawler, A big, a big milestone birthday coming on
and uh one that you share with your lovely wife,
and I know you not same day they're celebrating. On
the same day they're throwing a big and of course

(08:11):
perhaps this will make you think of like more quiet
celebrations for yourself on the actual day. But what is it?
What are the things you know, where we put our energy,
That's what grows. So is it a shock that Dean
Haglan becomes more and more just a screen of deflection.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
I'm inviting everything in.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
No, No, you're doing exactly the opposite. I'm inviting everything out.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, I'm inviting it.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yes, Oh my god, there's no there's no surer sign.
You're inviting everything in than by living with seven dogs,
six cats and your wife in a one room garage. Hey,
shut up, I'm back of the house, apartment.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
The last guy's coming in half an hour. I gotta thank.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
God, thank god. Will he have something more interesting to say?

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Oh? Thank Lily for the text too, John?

Speaker 1 (09:10):
What what would you celebrate? What are the things that
in your life that you would want to celebrate about
being alive.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
Well, it's you saying that kind of made me think
about like, I think, I think you've tapped into what
may pull me down depression wise. The most, which is
at times the times I feel the worst is when
I don't know what. I don't know why, you know, like,

(09:46):
I don't know why to celebrate. And it's funny because
you mentioned other people would celebrate you for reasons that
they would have for you, but it's almost like for me,
I would think my reasons would be not for me.
They would be for me to be able to do
something else, for me to be something good to someone else,

(10:10):
something good to something else, to be helpful or useful
or yeah, well helpful and useful.

Speaker 5 (10:18):
And I in a way.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
I guess that makes sense to me and perhaps something
that's unique about me that I'm capable of bringing that
maybe someone else couldn't and that's why I'm here. So yeah,
that it's hard to think about what exactly because it
basically says, hey, you you should do something with the

(10:48):
life that you're celebrating in the coming year, not just hey,
celebrate what you did, because because yeah, right, Like doesn't
it sometimes feel like birthdays are are that sense of like,
I mean, it's sad, but like you when you wish
happy birthday to a child of the age of one,

(11:11):
and you're really wishing happy birthday to the parent, and
you're saying, look, you survived, made it through that year.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
That's why a bottle of wine to a one year
old's birthday party.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
I have a I have a photo of me presenting
my gift to my one year old goddaughter on her
eighteenth birthday. No, no, on her first birthday, and look,
it was an eye opener when she one year olds

(11:43):
understand the concept of birthday cakes. They really do, and
they know it's for them. They get it. That is
the talk about light bulbs going off, but the the
trying to unwrap the gift and then you know, being helped.
And she unwrapped the gift and she was very impressed
by herself, but the sheer joy in seeing the little

(12:06):
stuffed giraffe. They get it energetically. You know, if someone
is with the child and expressing energetic admiration towards the child,
they understand, oh, this is a powerful moment. The same
way Fuzz understands that it's her birthday. For crying out loud.

(12:28):
By the way, fourteenth birthday, I think coming up on
August seventh.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
Oh, let's celebrate that one.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
She would be so much more eloquent in answering the
question of why her life matters or what she wants
to celebrate. But I John, I would say, you know,
like why throw a party? Well, sometimes throw a party
because what we want to celebrate is the fact that
having community is fun. Yeah, Like I celebrate community. But again,

(12:58):
this concept of you know, the looking back and looking forward,
the idea of where again, where we put our energy,
that's what will grow. So there's power in ritual light.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
In my eyes. Yeah, the glass guy's here, that's as
Winch blinding me at the moment.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
So that's good. That's that's good podcasting.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
I just say, doesn't the lighting look great on me?
I bet it looks really good on me right now.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Obviously, I think it's important because I'm sticking to my
guns on this. I really do think that a lot
of the world old seemingly insoluble problems would, if not
go away, seems certainly more soluble if more people felt

(14:14):
genuinely celebrated.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Well, and I think that's something that's nice about a
birthday party. And Kelly will often say like, John, you
never have, like you never want a birthday party or whatever,
and I can't disagree with that statement. I'm very I'm
always very. It's I don't have a problem with being

(14:37):
a center of attention with a reason. Like if someone's like,
all right, it's your birthday, of course you're going to
be the center of attention. It's like great, yeah, hey,
you're in a show. Of course you're going to be
the center of attention. We're going to see your show.
Whatever it is.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
I can, I can get on that, but that's not
the problem.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
I think for me, it's just sort of the the
potential for my God, I don't know if I'm lazy
or if I'm just broken, but it's like the potential
for cleanup. I just don't want to have to clean up.
I don't want to have to take care of the
thing that is left over. Yea, whatever that is, you know,

(15:14):
whether that's plates or food or whatever, I don't know
what it is, and I just get really concerned that
it's going to be something. But I'm always looking for
ways to mitigate that disaster, and then I end up
just saying, oh, fuck it, I don't want to do
it at all, and I think that's terrible, and yet
I still can't help but feel it, and that feeling

(15:35):
can ruin even a good time I had.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
When I was turning fifty, I knew, all right, I
got to do something big, and so I put on
a stage show right where it was New Year's Eve
nineteen forty nine, turning nineteen fifty, Goodbye forties, Hello fifties,
and everything was set in that era, and I had
timed it so that the time I was born fifty

(16:01):
years earlier would actually occur while I was on stage,
and that would be the ball drop, that would be
Happy New Year.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
And Steve Jobs organization right there, well that's nine.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Jobs did not get stuck with the cleanup afterwards. So
this stage show afterwards, oh yeah, everybody splits. I've been
enjoying some champagne and cake, not realizing, well, the stage
hasn't been broken down, nothing's been done. People just engage
in a party and then left. So Lily and I

(16:36):
had to strike everything and then load up into the car,
and the gates have actually been locked and there's no
one on duty anymore. So now we're locked in the
venue at the end of my birthday, like this is fantastic.

(16:57):
What ended up being fun, though, was I just said
screw it and I went off road and drove through
a park and then onto a main street. And that
actually was a pretty great paper into a birthday. But
so I totally, I totally get it, and you know,
and that was just a year where that felt right,

(17:19):
where I wanted to celebrate so many things in a
big way that would be totally so all encompassing that
I didn't have any energy left over for the the
psychological and emotional sterman draying that Dean Hagland has in abundance.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
All the time.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
I'm so glad that twenty something years ago this was
whispered into my ear about the importance of birthdays and
celebrating ourselves, because if it hadn't been, I got to
tell you, the year that my mother my birthday began
by my mother died on my birthday, would have proved

(18:04):
to be a little bit of a challenge. Yeah, and
sure enough, you know, even I thought like, oh my god,
I'm gonna be thinking about this every birthday and not really,
as it turns out, and I think it's because I
honored this idea of I have to still express what
matters and why it matters, and so the you know,

(18:27):
early in the wee small hours, my mother dies. A
couple hours later, Lil and I are getting on a
plane to Memphis because I want to spend my birthday
at the Civil Rights Museum. Yeah, connecting with the painful
stories of people who lived through these chapters of history

(18:56):
and doing so, Like, really, he saved me because it
connected me with the fact that it's been a long,
arduous journey just to become human. Yeah, and that journey
is still being written. And so no matter the fact

(19:23):
that hours ago I felt like I may never feel
anything ever again when my mom died. Here I was now,
and these stories of these people are moving me so profoundly,
and I went, okay, yeah, like this too shall pass.
But thank God that I had been indoctrinated into the

(19:47):
idea that celebrating one's own birthday matters.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, I think it does, and I think I mean,
I will say, to the point of will every year
on a birthday you remember that one thing? I mean,
what is odd is that, at least for me, birthdays
are never tied to a day or date. They were
just something I did and it could have been on
the weekend nearest that.

Speaker 5 (20:12):
Date, you know.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
So like I've always grown up doing the thing for
your birthday on the day that worked for everyone essentially
because it was close or whatever. But but it it
so it never really like I think back to things
where I was like, oh, yeah, that was my birthday party.
That was when that thing happened. Was when we went

(20:36):
to that thing, and that was for my birthday. I
forget that that's why we did it.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
You know. Last year, I was in New Orleans, the
Big Easy Since City.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
I've heard any to go, City of brotherlay Loves, City
of Brothers City, City by the Bay.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Is it known as a party town? I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
Atlanta. Yeah, it was perfect because I was. I was ill.
My sister died a couple weeks earlier, and I was
like grieving that. But I also because I have now
so much of a track record of Look, what matters
is celebrating myself by doing something that connects me with
why being alive matters, and so exploring really matters, just

(21:20):
going and seeing stuff I haven't seen before, the fact
that this world offers no end of opportunities to do
that in our own neighborhoods in other cities. Sometimes I
want to connect with nature because I'm celebrating connecting with
my nature. But it was just as easy as you know,
like going through different neighborhoods in New Orleans and going,

(21:42):
my god, I'm in New Orleans. This is cool. I'm
seeing stuff I've never seen before, and just celebrating that
sense of new discovery which doesn't get old even if
I do. And then ending the night by going to
see jazz at Snug Harbor, you know, celebrating again, not

(22:07):
only a musical form that I love so much, but
as John and I were talking about earlier, a musical
form that really does connect with this idea of the
long arduous journey of what it means to be human
is an often painful one, but it's a one that does,
from time to time reap really fun rewards.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
Okay, yeah, well that's the joy of arduousness, isn't it.
We only know we're on a road because there's two
ditches on either side. So if you concentrate on the ditches,
it all looks like just dirt water. But if you
realize the middle part is the lovely road with a
horizon and clouds of blue sky. Then hey, everything's cherries.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Okay, you know how.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
I'm going to celebrate my alarm's going off my steam
room that it's leaking. I'm celebrating my resourcefulness. I'm not
calling the glass guy. I'm gonna go and regrout my
steam room. And I bought five hundred degree cocking goo
that I'm going to put after every grout line so

(23:18):
that the steam will never burn to the grout again,
and that thing will be waterproof for five hundred years.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Celebration absolutely, if you think so, if you're if your
resourcefulness matters. Absolutely, It explains, by the way, why you've
been steaming about this topic the whole.

Speaker 6 (23:38):
Time, celebrity deaths.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
I am gonna shift gears here to something else that
matters to Dean Haglin, though you wouldn't know it based
on how he's behaved in the show. And that's and
that's comedy.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Comedy. Let's shift to comedy.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Hagland used to care about comedy before, before it became
all about venting anger.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
No, that was always my comedy Don't kid yourself.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
Shows where uh no, we we have to do a
future chill pack that is literally just a chill pack
Morgue visit. But one of the people that died this
week I thought warranted in art life conversation, and that's
Tom Larrr.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yes, shocking eight.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
What was shocking Dane Well that at ninety seven that
was still alive. Yeah, yeah, I mean, here's a man
who's work musically comedically, we're talking about being seventy years
old at least his first album.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Right was fifty three fifty three.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
I was realized that despite all his recordings being so
long ago fifties or sixties, and of course he had
influence in other avenues, but even in terms of entertainment,
you know, shows were Broadway shows were made from his work.
He taught a musical theater at UC Santa Cruz when

(25:23):
I was in high school, and I got to meet him.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
But I was thinking about the fact that this is
one of a short list of artists who influenced me
the most. Comedically.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
I didn't know it either until until I just until
he died, and I thought, my god, there's still turns
of phrase of his that are in my regular lexicon.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
I can hear that actually coming through eleven? Now you
say it?

Speaker 1 (26:01):
His lyrics were works of a genius. He has actually
been referred to as perhaps our best lyricist, America's best lyricist.
But again, his delivery and his turns of phrase, in
his pattern and in his routines were profound influences. So

(26:22):
it started me thinking about who are the other biggest,
most enduring comedic influences on me. That doesn't mean the
people whose work I'm gravitating towards to watch regularly, but
it means that, at least to me through some formative stages,

(26:44):
these were voices that really influenced me. And in addition
to Larror, I would probably have Woody Allen on the
top of that list. And before it was his movies,
it was his essays, it was his.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Short story and his plays, and he didn't have his
two album two vinyl stand up album thing.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
I think I fell in love with him because of
his writing, yeah, like without Feathers, and then I went
to the stand up. Of course, I'd seen some of
his movies like Bananas and Take the Money and Run.
Annie Hall didn't actually hold a lot of appeal for
me at that time. And you know I was a kid.

(27:27):
But but Woody Allen, Uh, George Carlin, I memorized all
those albums, right, mel brooks Uh, you know I was
seeing Blazing Saddles every week and I was it was.
It was playing every week four years, and my sister

(27:48):
would take me every Friday night to see it. And
then of course David Letterman and I would say, those
five white guys are the five are my my rushmore,
my my of comedic influences during my formative years. And

(28:10):
so I say all that to buy you time. Dean Haglan,
Who were your biggest formative comedic influences?

Speaker 3 (28:22):
Okay, you know what number one is?

Speaker 1 (28:25):
I remember what did you say? John A.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
Buster Keaton?

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, Charlie first off CBC television
every day.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
No, no, I'm sorry, you cut out, you said, Charles
Nelson Riley.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
No, Charles, Sir, Charles Chaplin, ob Winner and the comedian
the Canadian Broadcasting H Channel had it in their wisdom
that every afternoon at four o'clock when I got home
from school, they did a half hour of his comedy

(29:10):
shorts with Chaplain narrating. I don't know where they got
this but chaplain or no Chaplin narrated, and then another guy,
the ones that they didn't have, would explain sort of
plot points or silent film, things going on under the
silent film. And this thing mesmerized me. And how much

(29:32):
in grade eight did I walk down the stairs one
step at a time, using both feet to hit every
step with my feet at a complete heel to heel, Yes,
laid out yeah first position walking down the stairs and
made the girls laugh, and then I go hey ladies,

(29:53):
and how boy.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
So then.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Somebody bought me Woo two record set. And I had
never seen Woody ellm. I only heard him first so
in that the way the audio is produced in that
on headphones, it sounded like a cool, smoky club. And
his photo is just him in profile on the album

(30:20):
with like a cool hat on. And I thought this
guy was the coolest, not nevish, not full of jitters
and purchasing things. I thought he was this cool, almost
Tom Lair like delivery of just brilliant writing material. You know,
I shot a moose in upstate New York. That whole bit, right,

(30:45):
It's a ten minute ridiculous bit that he had a
moose tied to his Fender. He's going through the Holland
Tunnel and the moose gets alive. So he knows that
the Murkowitzes are having a costume party at Halloween, and
he brings the moose because Hi, it's me Woody Ellen,
you know, the Berkowitzes, And the moose comes in, he

(31:07):
mingles and he scores. You know, like just the writing
went on and on. The moose is shot, stuffed and
put in the club, and the jokes on them because
the club's restricted is the punchline at the end. But
it is such a masterpiece in just being confident in
this more completely surreal story of moose hunting. And I

(31:29):
know I sat there jaw dropped, and I replayed that
track two hundred times, three hundred times about learn to commit,
learn that you know, no matter how surreal your bid
is there, if you think you got to pay off,
that's all you need, right, You don't have to go, oh,

(31:50):
I'm so sorry I told that joke or anything like that.
He was so confident in the whole thing. And it's
just an amazing track that I listened to again and again.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
You reference almost like Tom Larr you said, and it
makes me wonder given the years, Like, how could Tom
Laarrr not have been an influence on him?

Speaker 3 (32:11):
He totally was. But his to me, his piano playing
was so spectacular that I thought, well, you know, I'll
never learn to play an instrument like that, Like this
guy seemed to just be so loose, so talented. The
Vatican Rag holy smokes.

Speaker 7 (32:28):
Another big news story of the year concerned the Ecumenical
Council in Rome known as Vatican Two. Among the things
they did in an attempt to make the church more
commercial was to introduce the Vernacular into portions of the Mass,
to replace Latin, and to widen somewhat the range of

(32:49):
music permissible in the liturgy. But I feel that if
they really want to sell the product in this secular age,
what they ought to do is to redo some of
the liturgical music in popular song forms. I have a
modest example here. It's called the Vatican Rag. First, you

(33:16):
get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries, bow
your head with great respect, and TENI flex.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
Teiflex, tenniflex.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
To whatever steps you want, if you have cleared them
with the pont. If everybody says on kiriola us on
doing the vatican ry, get in line in that processional

(33:52):
step into that small confessional. They're the guy who's got religion.
I'll tell you if your sin's original. If it is,
try playing it safer. Drink the wine and chew the wafer.
Two or four six, eight, Time to transubstantiates.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
So get down.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Upon your knees, but.

Speaker 7 (34:10):
All and your rosaries power your head with great respect.
Then chen you flak you flak j ing a cross
on your abdomen. When in Rome to like a Roman
ive a maria jee's good to see you again, next
time again, son and dramatic kind of doing.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
The bat I'm gonna rin.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
The math song in base eight's like okay, you divide
the eight tended like all of that was like so fast,
it was white knuckling it. Listening to him and to
find out he was a mathematician totally makes sense that
the way he played, the way he divvied up his lyrics,

(34:55):
all of it was from the point of a mathematician
and not somebody trying to feel their way through a bit.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I want to get back to Tom Laira, but who else?
So you've you got Woody Allen, you got Charlie Chaplin.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
H okay, so George Carlin for sure. I bought that
class clown at a garage sale in Canada and I
played it. And then the following year, my cousin came
from Sweden and he knew I was into comedy, so
he bought a comedy album of a very famous duo
from Sweden, and it was called and it was all

(35:29):
in Swedish Barnes Warning children playing right, and it's these
two guys in the album covers. They're crazy and there's
a food fight going on, and it's a hilarious looking album.
And I turned it on and I listened to it
all in Swedish, not knowing a word of it. But
what they did is they actually credited George Carlin because

(35:51):
they did the farting in the movie theater bilbial fricative.
They did that bit almost word for word, but in
completely different language. And when you hear that, boy do
you learn timing because you hear both how Carlin and
these two Swedish comedians have it timed out exactly, with
the same pauses, the same setups, and the same party

(36:16):
sounds and getting the same laughs in two different languages.
And that then made me go, oh yeah, this is
about timing, and then Milton Berle joke books and I
was off to the racist from there on in.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
But this is what about the influence that makes you
think if there was.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Improv boy, yeah, who would be well, this is the
revelation I learned about how they filmed silent films right
because there is no microphone, the director could catch a
little moment and then go, okay, give a triple pat call,
give you the one eighty flat, give me the you know,
and he call out shorthand of what physical comedy could do.

(37:06):
The Keystone Cops is a perfect example of that, where
they're all piled on a car, they hit a bump,
they'll go flying. Then the director would yell, Doug Jerry
grabbed the bumper, you know. And basically that's what the
silent film comedy director Max Sennett in particular did, and
they showed it in that Chaplin movie that Robert Downey

(37:31):
did where he played Chaplain. They showed has showed Dan
Ackroy playing Max Sennett. As an example of how that
worked is that, oh, oh my god, this is a moment.
Let's capitalize it. Let's improvise on that. And then we'll
just put in the sound and edit it afterwards. And
so once I realized that's how silent films were made,

(37:52):
I watched all of them, everything, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton.
But basically you could see then everybody improvising to a
degree where it wasn't life threatening. Allah the hurricane seeing
Buster Keaton had to nail his shoes to the floor

(38:13):
when the front of the house came down so that
the window frame would just go around him because otherwise
he'd be dead. So I mean, like those kind of
set pieces were quite well rehearsed. But other points that
Buster Keaton improvised, including the bachelor right the one where

(38:34):
all the brides are chasing around and it ends with
the giant avalanche thing that only came about because he
tripped on the final frames and it wasn't getting any laughs,
so then they filmed it where he's tripping and then
more rocks come and then he's avoiding rocks, and then
he sees all the women dressed in their wedding dresses
and he runs back into the avalanche, and that's the
killer ender of the movie. In the test screening, that

(38:55):
wasn't there, and that got no laughs. And the only
thing that got a giggle was him trip being in
a few rocks falling, and so they reshot the thing
with this giant avalanche sequence, and then from then on
the whole movie got last from the beginning. You couldn't
figure that out, nor can I actually, other than commitment
to a bed.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
John, I don't want to leave you out, not that
you work professionally in comedy, but but you enjoy humor?
Do you enjoy hum and no, so you know again
the five that I listed, I just realized, Look, these
aren't even necessarily who I would consider the five funniest.

(39:37):
They aren't necessarily the five that I enjoy the most
these days. It was that I'm looking at who I am,
and I'm realizing these are the five that had the
biggest influence on maybe what I find funny, but also
on like how I think about these things and how
I express these things. And so, so if you can

(40:01):
think back to your formative years, are there any like
comedic influences that you think, oh, yeah, boy, that person
really had an influence on me. Certainly the uh filmlareness
and Dean Haglund.

Speaker 5 (40:14):
Yes, of course, number one and two. I won't tell
you which is which.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Yeah, right, because by the way, when we met John,
he was in these formative years we're talking about Yeah right,
this is true sixteene.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
Yeah, wow, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:29):
I think the two biggest ones were Monty Python and
uh and mel Brooks. Like everyone in Monty Python. When
it came to stand up, I was introduced to stand
up also someone who doesn't age well by Bill Cosby. Right,
so Bill Cosby's like the Bill Cosby himself. Stand up

(40:53):
was a tape I guess we owned. And I saw
that and I was like, this is very funny. And
the way he's told stories certainly captured me. And it's
not something I'm necessarily great at, but certainly something that
stuck with me. And so yeah, but I'd say as

(41:13):
far as like the kind of humor that to this
day gets me is absurd humor. The first time I read,
first time I even heard of absurdist like writing like
plays and like Ian Esco and I saw Slash was
I got to be a part of the bald soprano.

(41:35):
I was like, this is fantastic because it basically doesn't
make any sense, but that's sort of the point.

Speaker 5 (41:44):
And I love that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
But we've talked about before the idea that if absurdism
isn't having a moment, boy could it that Like there's
genuine power right now in absurdism, not surrealism, but absurdism,
because so much of the world does seem surreal.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Yes, yeah, I mean still to this day Ghostbusters. Two
of my favorite things in Ghostbusters is listen, do you
smell something? That one is one of my favorite moments,
Like listen, do you smell something? And then also at

(42:27):
the part where he's like, I've always wanted to do this,
the flowers are still standing that part, and then also
in that same scene, he's like on my go signal,
like little things that happen that are just they are
complete throwaways, but they're throwaways because they're so ridiculous that

(42:49):
you can't call attention to them. And and I just
I love those types of things, those types of things.
That's why like I fell in love with like an
Austin Powers moment. Like I think Austin Powers was funny
because I don't think anyone knew how much they wanted
something so absurd at that time, which is why I
didn't do well in the theater.

Speaker 5 (43:10):
No one really knew what they were.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right, and then when someone saw it on.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
Tape, they were like, wait, this movie's amazing. It takes
it takes every stupid thing and keeps going.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
But this is why those people I picked are the influences.
You hit the nail on the head because these weren't
so I don't know how they found me. Yeah, like
why was I eight years old or nine years old
reading a Woody Allen book. They were the ones that
gave me something I didn't know I was looking for.

(43:47):
And you know, that's voyage of discovery. On the day
that we celebrate Dean in Columbus, Ohio and on Columbus Avenue,
I don't have to tell you, Dean that the acclaimed
modern master of absurdism is a Canadian filmmaker by the

(44:09):
name of Matthew Rankin, whose film Universal Language won the
Audience Award It Can last year. Come on for his
absurdist comedy. Yes, I don't have to tell you that.
I mean a comedy that takes place in Winnipeg. What, Okay,

(44:32):
it's out in theaters man now. I think actually you
can rent it at Prime Video. You can rent it
on Prime Video.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Dean.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
That's my birthday gift for you is letting you know
that you can rent it. Yes, it's one of the
I was reading an article about from Metacritic about the
twenty best films released thus far this year, and it's
right there in the top ten. And it's again a
comedy that takes place in a Winnipeg where Farsi is

(45:06):
the dominant language.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Dominant language. Wow, I like it.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
It's a love letter to Iranian culture and Iranian cinema.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
Oh this movie.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
And it follows multiple characters as they cross paths in
surprising ways in this reimagined version of the director's home city.
Why that's your home city, that's my home city.

Speaker 5 (45:30):
That's where you're from.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
I'm familar with the thing. And there was Iranians where
I grew.

Speaker 8 (45:34):
Up, and snow and snow and Vietnamese, both people and
we want a Sarama, which was the celebration of every
culture because we were not a melting pot.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
We were a mosaic.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
Yeah, Matthew Rankin the name of the movie, the movie
set in Winnipeg, reimagining Winnipeg is called Universal Language, and
it's available to rent on Prime Video. Maybe you avail
yourself with that. That could be a fun little birthday.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Viewing all these spokes. Guess what I'm doing in twelve minutes,
see you.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
So, before we switch gears or stay in movies, I
want to switch back to Tom Learr just for a minute,
because John, you may not have known this about this
musical genius, but he was a genius genius. I mean,
he had advanced degrees in so many fields. He was
a professional mathematician. After becoming a very successful humorist and

(46:35):
lyricist and musician, he went to work for the NSA.
Right while there at the National Security Agency, apparently he
invented what is it jello shots?

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Yes, yes, he's the inventor of jello shot. Because they
couldn't take it in Booze was banned from something, and
so he thought, oh, we'll pour vodka into jail and
just say we're bringing jello into this party or into
this event, and everybody can still get hammered. And that
was what he brought to the table. Pretty inventive.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
But I read a long series of posts by someone
who worked for the NSA over these past ten years.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Yes, and I think I know where you're.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Going discovering discover a gag that he that Tom Larr
had buried in the footnotes of a paper that he
had written sixty years ago that remained undiscovered in those footnotes.
When this person who worked for the NSA contacted the

(47:47):
historian there and said, hey, I just saw this. What
was the reaction when you found this? Did he get
in trouble? And the historian said, when I found out
about this was thirty seconds ago when you showed it
to me. It had never been discovered. And this was
not a like a high classified document, but it wasn't

(48:11):
publicly available either.

Speaker 4 (48:13):
So classified not top secret RIGHTSAI spin.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
But when they saw this, because of the historic importance
of Tom Larr, they declassified it and they published it
on their website. But there was in the footnotes a
reference to one of his early songs. And after it
went after it got published to the website, this individual

(48:43):
felt comfortable reaching out to Tom Larr and asking about it,
and he said, yeah, nobody saw it. There was no reaction, nobody,
you know, it was just delightful that only I knew
about this. And so the idea was, yeah, he was
a brilliant mathematician, and he was a brilliant teacher and

(49:04):
a great lyricist and performer, but he also really was
a stand up comic in that he wrote this joke
and delivered it and waited sixty years the day for
the payoff and was utterly delighted to do so. And

(49:27):
like this person said, if that, if that doesn't alone
make him an icon, I got nothing for you.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
Well, And there's a testament to a commitment to a bit.
I mean, you're gonna question yourself or a you're gonna
nudge your friend going ha ha, look what I did
in this paper, or you're just gonna commit going this
is a reference and a footnote. It's got a hilarious
connotation to it. Somebody will find it or somebody won't.

(49:55):
But I'm committed to putting that in there just because
that's funny. And I'm committed to funny. I'm not committed
to ego or pride or going, hey, look what I did.
You know is it's literally I did a funny thing
sixty years ago, and maybe it will be found and
maybe it won't be found. But I'm committed to the

(50:17):
comedy bid of putting that in there.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Talk to me about the power of because I don't
I know that this is supposed to be a big
deal and a great thing. But a few years back,
he put all of his works into the public domain. Right,
he was never married and he has no children, no heirs. Right,

(50:41):
and he put all his works into the public domain.
And people really like, we're excited and surprised that someone
had done this, especially someone of his ilk, and they
celebrated it. Pretend for a minute that I don't understand
how any of this works. Pretend why is that a

(51:03):
big deal that he did that?

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Well? Because well, two things. One is well, John, you
would know as a musician you hope to make money
on your creative work. To put it in public domain
means you will never see another residual. You'll never see
a stick of cash. Again, that's a double ed sword
because now it's going to be played a lot because

(51:26):
it's free. So a lot of these stations or whatever
YouTube channel can access this as their background music and
actually give them more exposure, believe it or not. So
it's a big deal that we may know that we're
Tom Leer' is on everybody's lips and his stuff is
in public domain. Be hearing a lot of Tom Lear

(51:48):
music in the next I don't know, three months, six
months a year, and you know we can put it.
We can play in an entirety. We can do the
Vatican rag as or their out music on this show,
and we don't have to worry about a lawyer giving
us a cease and desist letter.

Speaker 7 (52:05):
With the rise of the motion picture title song, we
have such hits of the past few years as the
Ten Commandments, Mambo Brothers, Karamazov, Cha Cha, Incredible Shrinking Man,
I Love you. I'm sure you're all familiar with these.

(52:30):
But a few years ago a motion picture version appeared
of Sophocle's immortal tragedy Oedipus Rex. This picture played only
in the so called art theaters, and it was not
a financial success. And I maintain that the reason it
was not a financial success, You're way ahead of me.

(52:54):
It was that it did not have a title tune
which the people could huh and which would make them
actually eager to attend to this particular flick. So I've
I've attempted to supply this, And here then is the

(53:15):
prospective title song from Opus Rex. From the Bible to
the popular song. There's one theme that we find right
along of all ideals. They hail as good. The most
sublime is motherhood. There was a man, though, who it sings,

(53:36):
once carried this ideal to extremes. He loved his mother,
and she loved him, And yet his story is rather grim.
There once lived a man named Opus Rex. You may
have heard about his odd complex. His name appears in

(53:58):
Freud's index Cuz he loved his mother. His rivals used
to say quite a bit that as a monarch he
was most unfit. But still in all they had to
admit that.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
He loved his mother. Yes, he loved.

Speaker 7 (54:14):
His mother like no whether his daughter was his sister
and his son was his brother. One thing on which
you can depend is he sure knew who a boy's
best friend is. When he found what he had done,
he tore his eyes out, one by one, a tragican
to a loyal son who loved his mother. So be
sweet and kind to mother now, and then have a chat.

(54:36):
Buy her candy or some flowers, or a brand new hat.
But maybe you had better let it go at that.
You may find yourself with a quite complex complex, and
you may end a black orabus. I'd rather marry a duck,
build a platypus.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Then, and lack all oabus.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
This is one of the great stories about well, I mean,
just about anyone. In twenty twelve, the rapper two Chains
sampled Tom Larror in the track Dope Pedler and it
and the sample used was from Tom Larr's song The

(55:22):
Old Dope Peddler And so when they requested the rights
to it, because this is before he put it in
public domain, Tom Larror wrote the lawyers who issued the
request that they be allowed to sample Old Dope Peddler.

(55:46):
He wrote them the following, as sole copyright owner of
the Old Dope Peddler, I grant you monthfucker's permission to
do this. And you know two Chains is the rapper's name,
and it's chain with a Z at the end.

Speaker 5 (56:06):
Right.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
So he finished the letter by writing, please give my
regards to mister Chains, or may I call him too.
We talked about how like it we have before, how
it sort of makes sense that absurdism is having a

(56:28):
moment and certainly could have a moment and has a
power to it. I was struck I in going through
this metacritical list of the best films thus far, I
had just seen the top two and they're both a
twenty four films, and they both deal with the aftermath

(56:52):
of sexual trauma, and they both do so in ways
that are kindred to each other, but in which I've
never seen depicted before. Oh one is called On Becoming
a Guinea Foul. It's available on HBO Max. I have
only seen it once, though I wanted to sit down

(57:13):
and watch it immediately thereafter. But it's been a long
time since I've watched a film the first time, and
I said, okay, this is on the shortlist of greatest
films ever made. It is the woman who made I
Am Not a Witch years about six seven years prior,
and I was talking about this On Becoming a Guinea Fowl.

(57:36):
This is actually a movie that I was saying I
was desperate to track down when it played it can
last year, and this is the first chance I had
to see it because we were in Europe when it
was out in theaters, and it was not in theaters
anymore by the time we got back, and so this

(57:58):
was my first chance. It's certainly one of the best
films of the year the metacriticalist, but it will prove
to be certainly one of the best of the decade
and maybe beyond the premise alone just lets you know,
like it's so fantastic. On an empty road in the
middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of

(58:20):
her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them. She and
her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their
middle class Zambian family. Oh, there is surrealism, there is absurdism. Again.
It's all born out of this idea of sexual trauma,
but it deals with it in a collective, kind of communal,

(58:42):
sort of tribal way, much like her earlier film I
Am Not a Witch. The main character in this film,
written from writer director Rongono Noni, is named Shula, but
they're not sequels. Shula is a word that means uprooted.
So these are themes that she's interested in, is the

(59:06):
uprooted existence of people. And anyway, and the other film,
which is out in theaters now doing very very well,
is called Sorry Baby, and it's the first feature from
a victor and it deals with again sexual trauma in
a different way, but in kind of a kindred way.
And both films very healing and have really surprising rewards

(59:31):
to them. Anyway, why I bring this up, and maybe
we can discuss in future meetings is why does it
make sense right now that both of the top films
are about the healing of past trauma.

Speaker 3 (59:55):
M that's fascinate because I can't imagine a film expressing
healing without showing the trauma first.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
Oh my god. In one of the films it's sort
of shown. But in both these films one thing they
have in common. The only word I can use is architectural.
The revelation of what happened to the main characters is
revealed purely architecturally. What through shots of buildings from great

(01:00:31):
distance and in these huge frames you might get to
see them for moments, but you see nothing of quote
unquote what happened, right, But the nature of how the
architecture is photographed leaves no doubt in your mind of

(01:00:54):
what has happened or is happening. When I saw this,
it made sense to me on some level of Yes,
this is where we're at. John described Austin Powers as
it was the comedy we didn't know we were hungry for, right,
which is why it took people a little while to
catch up on it. I get a strong feeling that

(01:01:15):
these stories of healing this trauma is exactly what we
didn't know we needed.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
Hmmm, because we don't know where wounded I mean, or
or that we don't know where traumatized. It seems that
living here in suburbia, people seem don't to have any
clue of the trauma of water in your grass every day,
or you know whatever. I mean. How many houses have

(01:01:45):
gas lights that are actually burning natural get a finite
resort for decoration. It just is like, how mental are you?
The house just went up three doors down and they
put two freaking gas lights on the stills by their
front sidewalk, And I'm like, are you insane? Have you
not read one environmental report whatsoever? And the gas is

(01:02:09):
coming from Canada, so it's going to be tariffed up
the Yingang in about two weeks. And yet there they
are burning twenty four hours a day. It's not that
they turn it on at night. I can walk right
down the middle of the afternoon and walk by two
burning gas lamps that are just decorative features, doing nothing,
not heating the house. And by the way, when it

(01:02:31):
drops to minus thirty around here and you have that
gas life going, the glass shatters because the differential between
the cold and the heat from the gas will break
all the glass. And I've seen that like six different
houses in my neighborhood. This is insane. People are insane.
We're you traumatized and we don't know it for crying
out loud.

Speaker 5 (01:02:51):
Look what you did?

Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
Bill's no. But but I would point out to bring
it back to like, what are we celebrating? What matters?
How about commitment to a bit?

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
Oh yeah, let's celebrate that Winnipeg.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Winnipeg has come up.

Speaker 4 (01:03:13):
Yeah, the Jets did fantastic this season.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
They really did.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
That was good.

Speaker 3 (01:03:19):
Actually how far.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
They got absurdism?

Speaker 9 (01:03:22):
Oh come on, but but that's fine, it's okay to
That's the The idea that always is odd to me
is the idea that at a birthday you have to
celebrate something different.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Yeah, like special, Yeah, what's special? What about celebrating my
mundane asservice existence from day to day.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Yay, celebrated. Yeah. It doesn't mean that it has to
be a new thing. It just has to be your
your a special moment to do.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
I will say that the best compliment I've ever gotten,
or ever get is anytime someone tells me a story
of something that I did a long time ago and
I go, So, I guess I've always been this way,
and it takes me by surprise that, like I thought
that that was something that I thought now or I

(01:04:15):
certainly don't remember thinking then. But I'm really glad that
you enjoyed that moment of whatever I did, usually something silly,
usually something yes committed to, a bit that I wouldn't
let go and was completely unnecessary, but they found very
interesting or entertaining, and that's usually like, that's better than

(01:04:38):
anything that I did in the moment, at least.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
I think.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
I have a story where I had already moved to
Los Angeles and I went back to Vancouver to shoot
the lone Gum and spin off, and I go to
a restaurant and have a lovely meal and the waiter
comes and normally they go thanks but the smiley face
or something, but he wrote thanks for the time of

(01:05:03):
my life and with a smiley face, and I'm like,
how about to pay the bill to the credit card,
thanks for the time. We didn't have that great a
meal with the hell I mean made no sense. So
when he came to get the credit card to goo, uh,
what's this comment? Oh you saw that? How could I not?
Because He probably don't remember, but about twelve years ago

(01:05:24):
we came to a theater sports show and they asked,
who's here on a first date? And then you re
enacted the first date. You, because you had long hair,
played my girlfriend and a tall, skinny guy to go,
oh yeah Lyle, Yeah yeah, Lile. He played me and
it was hilarious. And we're still together. We got married
and we still bring that scene up. Oh my god,

(01:05:48):
it's like, oh, that's so sweet. He brought a relationship together.
You made the first date special.

Speaker 5 (01:05:53):
Oh that is really nice.

Speaker 3 (01:05:56):
Isn't that nice?

Speaker 5 (01:05:57):
That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
Haglan celebrating his diamond jubilee.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
Oh Christ, yes, hurry.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
In the Chinese tradition, the start of the Golden.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
Years sunset ge wiz no.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Basically, this is what we love about the ancient philosophies
and wisdom, and which i'm reading about now in a
book called How Not to Die. But anyway, the idea
is that you're basically halfway. Your second half is starting
right because you've completed five full cycles of the zodiac,

(01:06:41):
so it's bringing you symbolically back to your birth zodiac,
beginning beginning a new life cycle and and and it's
going to be golden. You don't need to do anything different,
You just need to maybe take a moment to look
at it, appreciate yourself for doing It's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
Really, why would I be fixing this stuff if I
didn't have the ideal that this could one day not
be a lemon.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Or at least provide hours of funny material, Because we
celebrate things to say why they matter, and comedy matters.

Speaker 3 (01:07:28):
Not taking it seriously matters.

Speaker 7 (01:07:31):
One problem that recurs more and more frequently these days
in books and plays and movies is the inability of
people to communicate with the people they love. Husbands and
wives who can't communicate, children who can't communicate with their parents,
and so on, and the characters in these books and
plays and so on, and in real life, I might
add spend hours bemoaning the fact that they can't communicate.

(01:07:51):
I feel that if a person can't communicate, the very
least he can do is to shut up.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
Lily Holloman, welcome back to your chill pack Hollywood Hour.

Speaker 10 (01:08:04):
Thank you very much, glad to be back.

Speaker 1 (01:08:07):
Is there anything you want to say about how you're doing?

Speaker 10 (01:08:09):
How I'm doing? Yeah, I'm doing great, feel good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
H I.

Speaker 10 (01:08:17):
Yeah, I feel good.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
Hey you and I went to see a movie called
Sorry Baby at the Los Phelis three. Yes, as I
was referencing earlier, it's a top the Metacritic list of
the best films released thus far in twenty twenty five.
We're more than halfway through the year. So, as the
kids might say, that's not nothing, it isn't. Writer director

(01:08:43):
star Eva Victor based the story on a dark chapter
in her own life, especially her own experience with sexual assault,
their own experience with their own experience with sexual assault. Yes,
you are correct, because Eva Victor identifies as non binary.

(01:09:03):
And I guess I'll just start with a Victor, a
compelling screen presence and a diversely gifted performer. I thought
of not only great depth, but of a really refined
comedic instincts as well.

Speaker 10 (01:09:25):
They are really interesting to watch. I've never seen a
performer like Eva Victor before. Very unique and unlike any
performance I've ever seen, and very true to real life.
So quite refreshing and yet a bit of a bit

(01:09:47):
of a magic as well. It's true to real life
and connected to a certain kind of magic.

Speaker 1 (01:09:55):
Well, this is what I was thinking about. I was
speaking earlier about how it strikes me that the two
best films of the year thus far both deal with
recovering from sexual trauma, and how do you get people
to go see those movies? Because if that's the case
that the best movie is coming out deal with this issue,

(01:10:18):
then clearly it's something in the zeitgeist, something that maybe
we ought best pay attention to. But how do you
get people to want to see something like that because
it can seem so dark, so heavy, right, And truly
this movie is a painful exploration of the trauma experienced

(01:10:40):
and survived, but in this case it's the trauma experienced
and survived by someone who refuses to lose her sense
of humor.

Speaker 10 (01:10:54):
Yes, And also what I like about it is what's
universal about the topic truly is PTSD. And I think
at this point post COVID, everyone has their degree of
PTSD that they are confronting in their lives, and so

(01:11:20):
I think this movie of that self is for everyone
because it's such a beautiful validation for people who have
experienced specifically what they experienced and also anything similar in feel,

(01:11:45):
anything similar in feel, and so it says, yes, you've
been through something, I see you. The ramifications are real.
The quality of getting stuck is very real, and here's
a beautiful portrait of how to find your way out

(01:12:07):
of it.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
This is one of the reasons that I wanted to
talk to you about this, because you spend a great
deal of your time as an actor working with doctors
and medical students, encouraging empathic skills, yes, which can be learned.
And I hope a lot of people see this film

(01:12:34):
because it seemed to me it's the sort of work
that could improve an audience member's empathy towards their fellow
human beings. And it also reveals a dissatisfaction with what

(01:12:55):
passes all too often for emotional support.

Speaker 5 (01:13:00):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
That emotional support absent empathy is just that it's absent,
it's hollow.

Speaker 10 (01:13:09):
There are a lot of instances in the film about
kind of the absurdity that occurs quite often in the
face of of someone's experience from other people, the absurdity
of a bureaucratic school system with a lot of red

(01:13:34):
tape and rules, the absurdity of the medical field that
can occur. And it was all all of these scenes
were rendered with such a light touch. Was such a
a jois de vive even though it was such such
a dark topic and shining a light on very reactions

(01:14:00):
that are hurtful. But there was always a sense of
humor behind all of those scenes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
It's a funny, fun lovely, touching, vulnerable little movie and
I can't champion it enough.

Speaker 10 (01:14:14):
Yeah, And I would say those scenes have empathy for
the people who are failing at empathy. That's the distinction.
That's very refreshing and humorous.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Wow, that's a good point. It literally walks the walk
because it does not judge. It has empathy for those
people for whom empathy is difficult. Yes, lil thanks for
stopping by, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Yests if your chillpack Hollywood hours stay at the Baldwin
Hills motor end Promotional consideration paid for by Empire State
Gas from Farm to Punk, We've.

Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
Got great gas. Belated spoiler alert