Talkward w/ guest Carlos Greaves

This episode of Talkward chats with comedy writer Carlos Greaves! His writing has been featured in The New Yorker, NPR, and he is a frequent contributor to the humor site McSweeney’s. His debut book, 'Spoilers: Essays That Might Ruin Your Favorite Hollywood Movies' is available to order now! https://carlosgreaves.com/books/

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
It's time for Talk Word, CringeworthyTails and now your host, Weekly Humorous
editor in Chief Marty Dundex. Hi, everybody, welcome to Talk Word.
I am Marty Dunne's editor in chiefof Weekly Humorous magazine, and this is
Talkford to Funlow podcast where professionally funnypeople come to tell awkward and cringeworthy stories.
I'm very excited about today's guest.We have Carlow's Graves on. He

(00:25):
has been featured in The New YorkerNPR and he's a frequent contributor to McSweeney's
Some of the Funniest Things I've readthere. He's had the top Things of
the Year. They're three years ina row. He has a new book
out called Spoilers Essays that might ruinyour favorite Hollywood movies. Please welcome to
Talk Word Harlow's Graves Everybody. Hey, thanks so much for having me.

(00:47):
It's just so exciting. I'm sohappy to have you on. We've been
online connected in the comedy world friendsfor such a long time, as many
of us are always just on theemails or just reading people's work, and
then to actually see people face toface, it is always so wonderful and
you know, such a happy,smiling face. You have their Carlos and

(01:08):
you're such a fascinating guy because youare a former mechanical engineer. The whole
different world that you lived in.And I want to talk a bit your
early career. I mean, nowyou're a big time comedy writer. You've
got stuff all over the place,and you have this book coming out that
is focused on kind of movie basedhumor, which is I think so much

(01:30):
fun. I love movies, Ilove, you know, talking about movies,
and the book is so much fun. And I read through it and
it's hilarious. And just the thingsthat you were able to pull out of
such popular films and then kind ofzoom in on them, you know,
and and create such hilarious humor articlesbased around it is wonderful. So I

(01:52):
want to talk about all kinds ofstuff. So first, what made you?
Well, how did you start offstart as a electrical or mechanical engineer
and then going into comedy writing.Yeah, so I was actually electrical engineering,
but yeah, I so I wentto college for that study electrical engineering

(02:14):
And in what kind of a schoolis that? Like? An MT thing?
You interned at MIT, you havea funny, embarrassing MT story.
I do, yes. So Iwent to school at MIT, worked the
several summers at MIT. M Icome on, this is like one of
the top smarty pants colleges in theworld, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
My grandfather went to MIT and hedid at arty Pants. Well, I

(02:37):
have I have a photo in myden and it's from it's probably from like
the forties or maybe the thirties,and it's his graduation day at MT and
it's him with one of his chumsand they have the cap and gown on
at MIT. So that's so exsetting. So you're at MIT and what's that
happening and what happens there? Yeah? So I was at MIT and then

(03:00):
senior year. I mean, honestly, I've kind of had like several existential
crisises within studying electical engineering and notbeing sure like what is is this what
I actually want to be doing?And several years, you know, after
graduating, the same kind of thing. It's just been always this recurring thing,
and I think it good. Itspeaks to the fact that I'm not

(03:23):
working as an electrical engineer anymore,that there was just something about it that's
never quite It's just never was mything. And there's a lot I love
about engineering, I think just I'vealways enjoyed math and science. I think
it's fascinating. But basically I gotto this point where senior year I was
taking I took a class on filmmakingjust as an elective, purely for fun,

(03:45):
and that it just like I hadlike a lightning bowl moment of like,
wow, I actually I love filmmaking. I never thought this is something
I would enjoy, just the processof writing and then editing and putting together
films. And after college I justmet other people in the Boston area who
were into film also, and wewould just shoot like a little short films,

(04:06):
short video sketches, all kinds ofthings, and that kind of slowly
transitioned into me doing sketch comedy atImprov Boston, wanting to actually get on
stage and just get a little bitmore of like a faster feedback loop,
because like, you film something andhe spent six months like writing, you

(04:28):
know, casting, filming, editingall of that and then you put it
out there. But yeah, startedto get like some stage time and met
a lot of great people through that, including Lucy Huber, who's now an
assistant editor at McSweeney's, and LynnSue, who's cartoonist at The New Yorker.
So that was also a fantastic wayto just meet a lot of other
really funny people. And that alsokind of slowly transitioned into me trying to

(04:54):
write for McSweeney's New Yorker, tryingto do some short humor, and especially
then in twenty twenty, when likeall of you know, live live comedy
kind of went away, writing justbecame like this outlet for me to keep
doing comedic work. And with everythingthat was going on too, I've always
been drawn to like politics and justpop culture in the news cycle and everything,

(05:18):
so I've just kind of gravitated totopical satire for that reason. And
twenty twenty was just a year withno shortage of things to write about.
So that's kind of where I gotmy start. And that's eventually led to
teaching some classes at at Second Cityand having a few other freelancing gigs,
and then suddenly I was able toleave my engineering job and give the shot.

(05:41):
So it's, yeah, it's beena blast, but that's incredible.
It's such an interesting thing. Becausethere are obviously two such such different you
know, professions, but you youknow, you you could be proficient both
of them. They're just like twodifferent parts of your brain that you're using.
You know, they're both both they'reprobably you know, their problem solving.
When you boil everything down like that, it's creative problem solving. And

(06:04):
you know, the engineering you're creyou know, you're you're you're you're figuring
something out. And with comedy you'refiguring out what the joke is and what
the story is and how to makeit you know, how to make it
funny and how to find that perfecttone. But I would say the comedy
is a little bit more fun thanthe engineering. Probably it's definitely more fun

(06:25):
and you know, it's it's funnybecause I still, I mean, I
enjoy engineering, but it was notlike the thing that gets me out of
bed, you know. Yeah,so it's and yeah, and it is
very much like the same kind ofproblem solving skills. And I think the
engineering background kind of helps in thatway of just like being able to think
about things kind of the process oryou can be logical, you know,

(06:45):
you can be that kind of likeyou know that very black and white computer
type like analytical. You know,you know, sometimes people get too emotional
about things and they don't see itbecause they get all bogged down by other
things. But I think with yourpeople that are like engineers or you know,
architects, like they're they're dealing withnumbers and space and things, and

(07:08):
it's just a different way of thinkingand those organizational habits can be used elsewhere
better. So it's like you mightbe a more effective comedy writer because of
the engineer, you know. Ithink so there stuff is like because because
your writing is so good, Likeyour writing is so it's so tight,
and it's so direct, and youget to the point you're not like meandering,

(07:30):
like you you hit that so fast. And your book is so good
and the collection and the articles thatare in this book, I mean,
people are going to love this book, Carlos. This book is so I
mean, it's fantastic. It hasa great niche direction of movies, like
it's things are movies specific, andyou do such a good job of writing
in a way that's not repetitive,and you find new ways to look at

(07:56):
movies or fun ways to pull outarticle ideas from you know, known characters
and I'm gonna throw up the let'ssee, let's have the cover up.
People are watching this, if you'relistening to this, the cover's fantastic.
Sorry you can't see it invest inYouTube people, but that's okay. But
if you're looking at it's a greatcover for the book called Spoilers Essays that

(08:18):
might ruin your favorite Hollywood movies.And there's a great illustration on the cover
of some famous Hollywood personality terminator,We've little Murder made, but it's a
Forrest Gump and they're all in ina movie theater and looking bored, actually
looking pretty bored. Superman sleeping inthe back, but it looks great.
Who did the cover art for yourfor your book? Yeah, so Alana

(08:39):
McCarthy did the cover. She's anillustrator and she's done the number of books,
and yeah, she's absolutely fantastic,And yeah, we kind of worked
together on this idea. It's actuallythey're actually at the DMV, so they're
waiting to get their number called.Yeah, they're the DMV. Yeah,
he's behind the desk there, Germinatoris the DMV person. Yeah, exactly.

(09:05):
So yeah, yeah, she shewas absolutely fantastic, And yeah,
I just I mean, I soI self published the book and I just
found a number of fantastic people towork with. So Alana was was fantastic
on illustrating the cover, and JennyHogan was my editor because I know,

(09:28):
yeah, she's she's a wonderful writer. Yeah, she's fabulous, She's hilarious,
and you know, we were kindof friends similar situations to like a
lot of people in this online humorworld. You just kind of like slowly
meet each other and get to knoweach other's work. And then when I
was, you know, self publishingthis book, I was like, Okay,
you know who who might be agreat editor like Jenny you know sharp,

(09:48):
she has such a great mind forcomedy. She was perfect for it.
So yeah, it was just likefinding all these other great people to
the stuff is so good. AndI know I published books. I an
imprint called Humorous Books. I've beenin the publishing world for a long time,
so I know how much of apine traditional publishing is and how slow

(10:11):
things move, and you know,you have to make a lot of compromises
when you're working with a big groupof people sometimes and sometimes you know there's
advances or maybe there's not advances.Maybe it's based on all kinds of stuff,
and what you did is so interestingbecause you're you're very casually downplaying how

(10:33):
you publish this book because you're like, I still publish it, but like,
still, publishing a book can beso simple. You push a button
and you're done. But that's notwhat you did. You did something that's
so much smarter because of this engineeringbrain of yours. You did a Kickstarter
crowdfunding, but you'd made it sowonderful and interesting that you raise like ten

(10:54):
grand to write a book that youwanted to write, and you wanted to
write it your way. So you'rebasically give yourself an advance from from just
people who want to read the book. So it's like you're almost kind of
pre selling the book. But withall these fun things you could offer people
extras and things that you could helpwith with maybe teaching classes or maybe they
get their name with like all thesereally smart ways to get people to give

(11:18):
you funding for the book that youwant to make. It was I went
through it, I'm like, thiswas genius. What a genius way to
write a book. This was sowonderful. I wish my name was in
this book. Damn it. ButI'm definitely going to buy a hard copy.
I have the PDF, you saidme, and it's so funny.
But this book was so funny.I want to hold it and read it
like on the beach or like ina place that I can be. I

(11:39):
like reading in a in a physicalyou know, flipping the page and giggling
along. And that's easier when youhave like a physical copy. And I
just read on you know, ascreen to prepare for this. But it
was so good that I wanted to, like, I want to like reread
it. The stuff that you werewriting using Jurassic Park as a comparison for

(12:01):
the Trump administration and the twenty twentypandemic was just genius, like all of
it, and you wrote many articlesabout it, and it was like it
was it was like a cascading delightand I lived, we all lived through
it, so we knew what washappening in reality. And then you get
to read it from the idea ofif the pandemic is the Jurassic Park disaster,

(12:22):
and how would they deal with itthe same way, And it's exactly
right, like the way you andthe way that you have, like Ian
Malcolm is what's his name, Yeah, Fauci. Yeah, there was like
all the malcolmality and all that youmade. You made them the perfect parallels,
Like all these things fit so wellwithin the disaster of Jurassic Bark and

(12:43):
it's great instead of masking, it'slike their masking their sense from the velociraptor
attacks. It's so good. Soit's just there's so much quality work in
this book, and there's a lotof pieces from mc sweenies, but then
there's a lot of pieces that werenot that you wrote for this book.
Specificalist, tell me about how youhad to fill the book out, because
I know that must have been kindof a pain because you have all these

(13:03):
things that you do slowly. Iknow how you write things and they accumulate
slowly. And the process of writingone piece for a mc sweeney's or a
New Yorker is you write one piece, you have a great idea you submitted,
that's how. But then for thebook you probably said, I need
to come up with like how manypieces to fill out the rest? And
then how do you organize to planahead to write literally a bunch of short

(13:26):
humor pieces that fit with the onesthat you did individually. Yeah. So
yeah, the Jurassic Park piece waskind of the first. That was like
the first moment where I was like, okay, this, I have this
piece about, you know, amovie using that as like a way and
to talk about satire. And Ithought like, okay, well, maybe

(13:52):
what if I like built that outand just did a bunch of these four
different movies. And there was likesome other pieces that i'd for mc sweeney's,
Like I wrote a piece comparing theTerminator to like police brutality and like
why it basically saying, like,you know, I can't believe just because
they've like turned against humanity doesn't meanwe should defund the Terminator program. Yeah

(14:16):
exactly. And so you know,I slowly like had a few of these
ideas that I just kept coming backto movies because I just love I've always
loved movies. It's this thing thatwe all kind of can relate to.
We've seen all of these classic movies, and so it's just like a very
natural way to make these comparisons tolike what's going on in the world because

(14:37):
we have this like shared frame ofreference. So once I had a few
of those ideas, I thought,Okay, well, I think this could
actually be you know, more thanjust a you know, a couple one
off pieces of mc sweeney's. Maybeit could be a whole book. And
I started just with like just kindof coming up with a big list of
movies in general, like what iswhat's the stuff I like have to hit

(15:01):
right? Star Wars and you know, some of the classic movies Forrest gum
Shawshank Redemption. I was just tryingto think think of as many movies as
I could that like, you know, the average person would have seen like
eighty percent of them. Yeah,and there's some you know, more obscure
stuff in there, but yeah,So I just kind of started with that

(15:22):
huge list. And then as Ihad this list, like I would just
you know, kind of try tobrainstorm throughout, you know, just every
once in a while think about like, okay, well what could I do
for Footloose or like what could Ido for you know, the Harry Potter
movies? And yeah, I wouldjust kind of like every once in a

(15:45):
while I would just have an ideaof like, oh, Footloose, Like
what if I did something about likethe town is super racist because there's in
Footloose, there's literally no people ofcolor in the entire movie. And yeah,
I was like, so what ifit's somebody who's like it's great that
we could do it's foot like this, how super racist. It's you know,
imagining like what the backstory is ofall these characters who are kind of

(16:07):
behind the scenes in these different universes. So yeah, it just kind of
gradually, you know, took shapeas I like found different ways in for
all of these kind of popular movies. And you know, one of the
things that like when I was firstpitching the book, so I did kind

(16:29):
of initially start, you know,going through the kind of traditional publishing process.
I had spoken to a few literaryagents and and after talking to a
few, I kind of saw thewriting on the wall. A lot of
people said like, well, youknow, I think it's a tough sell
to a publisher. And the oneof the things that kept coming up was
like, you need to figure out, like why does this have to be

(16:52):
a book and not just like aseries of individual essays for Mctweenie's because it
is you know, it's a lotof short pieces. So that was another
thing that kind of played into it, as like, well, there's a
lot we can do with this thatisn't just short humor like what if I
you know, wrote like a wholelengthy series of letters of you know,

(17:14):
jayedger Hoover opening this investigation into ForrestGump because you know, in the movie
Forrest Gump ends up at these likepivotal moments in US history, like you
know that in the sixties when jaedgerHoover was doing you know, cointelpro and
all these like investigations in the MLKand the Black Panthers, like of course
Forrestcope would have been on his ryou know, like this guy's everywhere?

(17:38):
What why is this guy everywhere?What did he do? He's met the
President of the United States twice?Like how you know, So it became
this idea to like do this verylong form, you know, series of
memos between him and other people inthe FBI, and so that expanded into
like that's the longest essay. Yeah. Book. That looks great too,
And also like the way that youpresent all these pieces, they're designed perfectly

(18:03):
so for the letters and also forthe superman seeking asylum with his papers,
like his immigration visa type application.It looks great, like it looks like
a government form and it looks official, and it just adds to the book
the humor value. Like it,it's not just a bunch of words.

(18:26):
The presentation of the humor is.It's really elevated by the way that you
have formatted these things to look soso funny and so real, and it
really makes it, it makes ithit home so much better. The Superman
the Clark Kent one is so this. I pulled out a quote from the
Clark Kent him him applying for theasylum where a visa. The third and

(18:48):
final factor this is for where thisis Superman getting denied. The third and
final factor is whether the United Statesgovernment feels you will be potentially a financial
burden. As impressive as your heroicdeeds are. Based on your last several
years of tax returns, your deedsdon't seem to be generating much income.
I think that was I mean,that is so funny. Like if you
the way that you're able to pickapart and find just really specific funny things

(19:14):
that I mean, people don't thinkof it. You're like, oh God,
that's so true. How funny isthat He's not worth it? Yeah?
A lot of Like what I keptcoming back to was this idea of
bureaucracy and how it would interplay withthese characters. And yeah, so like
Superman is applying for a green cardor he's applying for a visa, but
of course, like he doesn't haveany of the documentation from Krypton. It's

(19:34):
I've been destroyed. And so oncethe government finds out that he is,
you know, not a natural borncitizen, he's got to go through the
process. And so like what Ijust tried to find like all the different
ways that you know, Superman's lifestory could could kind of interact with with
that whole process. And yeah,he applies for a visa that's a real

(19:56):
visa, that's for an alien ofextraordinary abilities, and I was like,
that's there, you know that thereit is right there, So oh yeah,
it's all real. Like it's sofunny because you're using all the real
stuff and it's so true, andyou know the humor is there and you
just have to you're using the realformat and you're using the real parameters so

(20:21):
to find the humor in the Supermanstuff. And I think that's like so
clever, and I think that thatthat's reflected in so many of your pieces,
like this, you know, goingback to the velociraptor stuff for the
for the Durrassic Park. And it'sjust like your attention to detail in the
for the real stuff into making thesatire is so good that it plays so
well and so consistently throughout the book. And I mean, it's it's it's

(20:45):
an impressive feat Carlos to have abook and having so many of these essays
that work so well, but they'reall so unique, you know, and
so funny. I have something areyou just are you a big Jurassic Park
fan? I mean I yes,I did, especially like the first movies.
I thought, you know, Ihaven't gotten into the new reboots as

(21:07):
much. Yeah, me there,I started watching them way like, yeah,
I got I got this dumb thingthat actually broken in the mail.
They're sending me a new one.But it's a barber's old camp and it
opens up and there's the it's theembryos go inside the Barberson camp. So
it actually turns, and but there'sno DNA in it. I have to

(21:32):
put I have to put like paulmall of dishwasher liquid in it to make
it look like they're the they're thedinosaur DNA. Yeah, there you go.
I like all my movie junk.I have a proton pack in the
back here too. I have allkinds of silly stuff. It's fun.
The movies, it's fun. Ilove movies, like I mean, obviously

(21:52):
you're a movie person, so Imean, because I mean you would have
like the amount of stuff that isin this book. You are a movie
person. And what are what?What? What? What was your first
movie that you saw that you lovedin the theater that kind of made you
have this love of movies? Andwhat kind of movies are your favorite movies?
That's a great question. I thinkI do very distinctly. Remember at

(22:15):
some point in the nineties they likere released all of the Star Wars movies
in theaters, and I remember goingwith my dad to to those, and
yeah, I loved I loved thoseas a kid. And I think I've
always been drawn more to comedy,so yeah, and it's funny, Like

(22:42):
my my favorite movies are all verylike kind of weird, obscure comedies,
like I love Repo Man, LikeRepo Man's good. Yeah, it's yeah,
and satirical. And I've always justkind of been drawn to to satire.
Yeah, that's such a like beautifultakedown of just eighties you know,

(23:03):
Reagan Race in America, Like youknow, he's eating like the cam that
says food. And Yeah, there'sjust like so many great, great moments.
So I like a lot of likekind of weird, obscure comedies.
Another great one is in the Loop, which is like, yeah, Armando
Yuanucci. It's the same team thatdid Veep, Yep. This is kind

(23:25):
of like bridging the gap between theirBritish television show The Thick of It and
what ended up becoming Veep. Sothere's a lot of the same characters,
and it's like this parody of thelead up into the Iraq War. It's
just I mean, and that movie, just like the joke density is just
insane. It's just like it's packedwith so many great lines and a fantastic
cast. So there's like a lotof you know, satirical comedies, which

(23:48):
which sort of makes sense given that'slike what I've been drawn to in terms
of writing. But what was funabout this book was like I got to
go back and rewatch all of thesemovies. So like I you know,
went back and watched Shawshank Redemption andwas like, oh my god, like
this movie is perfect. It's sogood. And there was a lot of
movies too where I was like Iwould watch it and be like, oh

(24:11):
God, like, how can Icriticize like such a perfect film. Like
one of the one of the onesthat didn't just I could not think of
anything for the book was Princess Bride. I'm like, there's nothing to make
fun of here. This this movieis absolutely flawless, like you know.
So yeah, it was kind oflike a challenge sometimes when when it's like

(24:32):
a beloved movie that you just yeais, it's hard to find a way
in. So that was that wasan interesting It would have to only be
something with like an offshoot, likea Miracle Max type article, you know,
something about what he had been upto before. I don't know,
maybe because they kind of caught himat the at the end he had retired
and he got fired by the stinkingKing or something. Right, Ah,

(24:53):
that is diff good exactly, thatthat would be fun. Ah, I
need to go watch that again.I'm now having a flashback Princess cry Ah.
I know it was good. Itwas like the best job I could
ever envision is just like going backand watching a bunch of great movies and
then writing about them, like Iwish I could just keep through lifts of

(25:14):
insanity. Yeah, that movie hadeverything. Yeah, that movie had everything.
Yeah, yeah, what didn't Iwant to ask you more about,
Well, we can talk about yourembarrassing embarrassing mit uh moment, your talkword
moment. I guess we could talkto well, are there any Kurbwood.
Did you see the New Indiana Jones? I haven't. I missed that in

(25:34):
theaters. I need to see iton them. I think I should have
seen it in theaters because I feellike they made that movie to see in
theaters. Now I'm gonna see it, Like this could have been better and
it would have been like great inthe theater, but I didn't see in
the theater. I know. Yeah, it's not the same. You see
that Barbie? Is that did?Yeah? Loved Barbie. Yeah. If
you have anything in your mind,yeah, parlating now that you would want

(25:56):
to write more McSweeney stuff based inthe movie world, Like are you kind
of in this theme where you're like, this is kind of my thing.
I kind of want to keep doingit. Yeah, I mean, I
it's definitely something that's kind of alwaysin my wheelhouse. And as I was
like thinking about movies that I feltlike the one thing where I didn't do

(26:17):
as much of for the book washorror movies because that's also just not something
that like it's it's it's not myfavorite genre, but I do like a
good horror movie, and there wassome ones that like I would I would
still love to write about, likeRosemary's Baby was one of the one of

(26:37):
the ones that I I like,I watched thinking I would write about something
for the book, kind of hadsome ideas and didn't didn't get to them,
but I would definitely circle back tothat one because it's just such a
like you realize, like the partthat's creepy about that movie isn't so much
like the Satanism or think that allthe Satanism is real. It's the fact
that the Satanism stuff isn't real.But these cult people like have all this

(27:00):
power and influence in New York andlike trap these people in this cult and
it's just like this it's you're youknow, you just sit there like gripping
the TV being like get out ofthere, you know, be a fair
old rod. I feel like I'mI've only started watching some horror movies and
they have to be like slasher overthe top. And then I'm okay with

(27:26):
it because I'm like, dah,that's just ridiculous, you know, like
they you know, they they saidthat guy so much so this is all
not it's it's so graphic that it'snot realistic. And I feel like that.
And they have been making a genreof that type of slasher that's like
a slasher comedy movie, which Ido enjoy, and I do think that's
kind of funny. Like did yousee the They made a movie called Freaky

(27:48):
and it was it was kind oflike a body switching movie with uh with
the tall guy who was in uhlike wedding cratchers, who am I thinking
of? Uh? Oh, VinceVaughn. So Vince Vaughn and then Vince
Vaughn switches bodies with like a highschool girl. But Vince Vaughn is like

(28:10):
a is like a crazy maniac murderer, like slasher crazy person, and there's
like this magic and they body switchso that the homicidal crazy maniac is now
a high school girl having to likego through high school girl stuff and it's
really fine. So the high schoolgirl is inside Vince Vaughn's body and he
is like he looks like Vince Vahn, but he's actingly like this like sixteen

(28:33):
year old girl trying to tell everyonethat this body switching thing happened. And
the girl that looks like like sheused to look is actually this psycho killer.
And always people keep you like allthese like jerky jocks and stuff.
All these bad people keep getting murderedand it's it's really funny. It's like
very violent, but it's kind ofhilarious. And those are the kind of
horror movies I do like because you'rekind of like, that's fun. You
know, that's a fun, crazyhorror movie. Yeah, I do love

(28:56):
that. Like just yeah, theover the top name Trivian just the like
if you can put a comedic spinon it. Like there's there's this movie
that I can't remember the name,but it's like these two it's basically like
these two kind of redneck guys whoare they just bought this dilapidated cabin in
the woods, and they're just theyjust want to go fix it up and

(29:17):
fish and hang out. And thenthese teenagers this like group of teenagers comes
and sees the like creepy murder cabinand sees the rednecks and it's like,
oh my god, they're gonna killus. And it ends up being this
almost like flipping the tropes on itshead of like teenagers getting slashed versus like,
you know, crazy people in thewoods killing them, and it's just
yeah, it's it's brilliant and likeyou just slowly watched like all of the

(29:40):
characters. Oh, that's runs right. I would see that movie. I
know, we're second think of thename on Google. Then because Cabin in
the Woods, I thought Cabin inthe Woods was a fantastic movie, and
that was one of the first kindof like horror movies modern comedy interesting that
I've seen like a real And thenbecause I saw that, because that was
so good, then I started beingmore open to what I think seems to
be more of a mainstream genre ofcomedy horror, that is, it is

(30:06):
being more accepted in the like mainstreamlike people going to the theaters to see
some of this over the top stuff. But Cavin in the Woods was such
a clever you know turning it on. It's you know, the idea on
the Ted too. It's not typical. It is the typical tropes, but
it's in this weird environment that youfigure out later that's so much weirder and
deeper. And I thought that wasso interesting and so yeah, I love
that one too. Yeah. Didanything not make it in the book that

(30:30):
you have stored for maybe another one? Yeah, there was. There was
a lot of different movies that therewas a trend. Let's see, there
was Speed of a Keanu Well.I just that was just on television and
I got sucked into it. Itwas on like network television. It was

(30:52):
on like one of the you know, AMC or something on a weekend and
it was on, you know withcommerce shoals and it was it was like
so annoyed. Now. I wasjust like I got glued. That movie
glues you to the screen. It'sso simple, and Keanu Raves is so
good. Yeah, it's like noemotion. He's like, oh, okay,

(31:12):
this is what we have to do. We're gonna we're gonna we're out
of the highways, not finished.We're gonna have to jump it. What's
the gap? It's like a sixtyfoot gap, all right. I wanted
to floor it and it's just likeeveryone get to the other side of them's
like what but the way that hedelivers these lines, you just go with
it. You're just like, okay, right, I know. I feel

(31:33):
like they don't make movies like thatanymore. They are just the like simple,
ridiculous premise action drama and just youknow, yeah, and now everything
is really complicated and it's always soconvoluted, or there's aliens or there's monsters,
there's something that's really a lot ofdetails. But with speed, no
details. It was just there's abomb on the bus. If it drops
under fifty five, it's gonna explode. And they have the girl that lost

(31:56):
your driver's license for speeding will drivethis bus. And it's just so simple.
You know, it's so simple.It's great and it's just like this,
it's very simple. The like suspensionof disbelief, like who cares how
ridiculous the premise is like we immediatelybelieve it. We're like, yeah,
that bus is going to flow upand it goes yeah about are like Kyoto
rives needs to do something so andwhen it makes the jump, I'm like,

(32:20):
is it gonna make the jump?And it makes it up. You're
like, okay, I mean maybeit could make the jump. I don't
know, right, Yeah, I'mnot a physicist. I don't I don't
even to understand. Maybe there wasat maybe there was a small lift,
Maybe there was a bit of aramp between the two pieces of highway.
I don't know. Lanes can fly, can't they They're very heavy? Why
can't this bus jump this sixty feetexactly? So what was the article that

(32:42):
you were going to write about speedabout? Yeah? So I was.
I was trying to do something aboutlike LA public transit activists being like,
this is what happens when you don'tput dedicated bus. When he's that,
you know, traffic isn't a standstill because you know, uh if yeah,
if we just had better public transportation, the bus would be zipping through
the city. It wouldn't even bea problem. So it's great. It

(33:06):
wouldn't have been any of this problem. They wouldn't be looking for a place
to drive in circles for hours.Very true, that's great. It's a
great idea. There's so many moremovies for you to write about, Carlos.
I'm excited I find out what thenext ones are gonna be. You
definitely have to do some Indiana Jones, definitely. I'm I'm expecting some Barbie,

(33:27):
I'm expecting some Oppenheimer. I mean, there's a lot of good movies
out now. Mission of Pop Ifyou did you do any Mission Impossible stuff
in the book? I didn't,And there's yeah, definitely a possibility for
that one, especially now there's beenso many movies. You know, isn't
it crazy? Because I feel likeI blinked on, like you know,
maybe I'll watched the first two,and then I just didn't see them for
a while, and now they're backand they're like Mission fourteen. I'm like,

(33:49):
how many movies, if these havethey been and when do they make
them? I don't remember them allcoming out. Yeah, that's how I
felt about The Fast and the Furious, which I wrote about for the book,
and was like, oh my god, there's I have to watch nine
of these, Like, you know, but do people count Tokyo Drift.
I don't know if they do.Yeah, you know, I guess not.
But then the characters from Tokyo Driftend up in like Fast eight and

(34:10):
you're like, wait, who werethese people in? Oh? Right,
yeah they were in this one andyeah, so you know, it's it's
that that's a whole I mean,yeah, if we thought Marble was an
impressive cinematic universe, the like fastestfurious grin, Yeah, it's incredible that
they've made an entire fast universe ofjust these people who just keep on driving
these cars really fast and jumping overthings. Now, that would be a

(34:34):
fun crossover if there was the speedbus for some reason, just like showed
up in a Fast movie like thatold like Santa Monica Buzz where you're just
like, why is this bus soold in this movie? Don't think more
modern busses than that bus that they'redriving. That's so true. Yeah,
yeah, I need to go watcha Fast movie. I think I only
saw the first one, and nowthey've made like a thousand of them and

(34:58):
there's a whole world. I mean, I think they could have their own
channel at this point. There's there'slike a Fast and Furious network that this
shows these movies constantly. Seriously,it's wonderful. What do you have up
coming up next yet? Anything inthe pipeline you're waiting to get published?
Yeah, so, I mean justworking, continue to do some short humor

(35:19):
pieces, and I have a shortstory that I've been working on, trying
to do like more getting into likeshort stories and personal essays and just kind
of trying to do like other othertypes of writing and submitting to like literary
magazines. And that's so like longerkind of longer stuff. Yeah, some
longer stuff. And then yeah,honestly, if like I have enough ideas

(35:43):
for a sequel, I would probablydo a sequel to this book because I
you know, like I said,it was just the most fun a good
movie. He needs a sequel,Carl exactly. So a good book needs
a sequel to So what are yourare you? Are you thinking about maybe
writing a book, like a novel, like a story, like a completely
like a fictional book. Yeah,I definitely I have. I have a

(36:06):
few very loose ideas that hasn't youknow, turned into anything, but that
would also be super fun. Ithink a novel would be. It's just
such a daunting task. I'm likethat was one thing about this book is
it like it's very digestible, Andfor me it was like, okay,
I can I can break this downone at a time, and I can,
you know, just do you know, a thousand words at a time,
and the novel is another that's that'sanother leap. But so many of

(36:30):
these movies, especially the Jurassic Parks, were incredibly popular books. Michael Crichton
just churned out these books, andso many of his books were turned into
other things, right, So youknow that's kind of where it all starts,
is just making a book and thenit can become any I mean,

(36:50):
like I think I think Michael Crichtonwrote a book that turned into er I
think that's true, and then andthen Dressed Park obviously, but there were
so many of so many of thebooks became movies, and then so many
of the books, you know itbecame popular movies, Like I mean,
all those damn brown books, right, Like people just ate those up.

(37:13):
So I'm thinking that you've done theresearch in writing this book. You had
to watch so many movies that youknow how a great movie goes, so
you should know exactly, like Ihave the knowledge now to create a book
that then can be turned into ablockbuster movie because you kind of have you
have that at your disposal at thispoint, your engineering brain has absorbed the

(37:37):
perfect formula for a blockbuster movie atthis point. That's a great point and
yeah, I mean I wrote abook about movies. So a movie that's
yeah, based on the book,that's yeah, that's the next we could
make them. Yeah, there couldbe a maybe a movie based on the
because you know, it's almost likedoing a uhf right where it's almost like

(37:58):
a parody or a parody movie abouta whole bunch of movies. That would
be interesting too, like almost likea Zucker Brother, you know, like
a Naked Gun parody. But you'rejust making a parody movie based on all
of the popular films jokes that you'remaking fun of in this you're almost almost
scary movie basically like a scary movie. It's like a movie spoof. So

(38:21):
you're like spoofing a bajillion movies inone book. So basically you've you've plucked
the jokes out of all of thesepopular movies in this book, and now
all you have to do is createa framework of a narrative outline to insert
all of the jokes that you've alreadywritten, and then we're done. I'm

(38:43):
so glad that we've created the nextblotbuster comedy for you today, Carlos right
here. I'd watch that movie.That would be wonderful the jokes that you
have in this book. If youwere able to adapt it into a situation
where you were making a big parodyspoof of all these popular movies, that
would be so funny. And Ithink that could be the next step.
That's the next step. I'm soglad that we Brainstorm Workshop this live on

(39:07):
the air of the podcast. Yeah, and we have to say we have
two live of viewers right now.I don't know if anybody is paying attention.
Who has this on the maybe thishave it on in the background.
And oh, someone someone wrote followfor follow in the chat. I can't
follow you right now we're talking onthe podcast. But if anyone I actually
had any questions for Carlos, youcould ask him questions and he could get

(39:28):
back to you immediately with the powerof the of the internet. I'm here
for the next however long exactly whatelse do you have going on? What's
what's what's next? In the oh, I didn't have a question about writers.
Do you have any favorite comedy writerswho inspired you when you were becoming
a comedy writer? Like who doyou look at as like the top?

(39:51):
Yeah? So for me, Ithink like the shows I always watched growing
up were its like thirty Rock wasa huge one for me arrest development.
So Tina Fey has always been like, you know, just yeah, up
there, just in terms of justincredible writing ability and just going also like

(40:12):
going from just doing having done everythingimprov and then sketch and then shows and
movies, Like does she does shehave a copy of this book? I
need a copy of this book.If I could get a copy of this
book into her hands, that wouldbe amazing. She would love this book.
Just the Jurassic Park thing alone isenough to convince someone that this book

(40:36):
is worth reading. I think,I mean, so funny about the velociraptors
are are you know, they're activelyeating people. But we're going to reopen
Jurassic Park, you guys, andyou guys can come on back. It's
so perfect. And and also readingstuff like that where we have a share
experience, like everybody was going throughthe pandemic at the same time. And

(40:57):
then you have a piece of comedythat's like that, the satire like that.
Everybody gets that so fast, youknow. I think some of the
problem with almost all comedy writing,it's like who's your audience? Will they
get it. What's the niche isthis too specific? But with so much
of the stuff in this book,because it's movie based, like what you
said before, it's just like sharedknowledge, and that kind of shared knowledge

(41:21):
makes something like so broadly enjoyable.And I think that's that's why this book.
I think people never really likes thisbook. Yeah, I tried to
write it so there'd be something foreveryone. You know, definitely, so
and I forgot we didn't mention butyou're occasional Bruno mars impersonator. So when

(41:42):
did that ever happen? Oh?Yeah, so so that's well that's always
been like you know, my mycelebrity doppelganger. Right, people do you
have have people legit like ask forautographs and stuff to seeing you out,
because I mean you definitely like you. I mean you're you know, he's
a handsome guy. You're a handsomeguy. You have very similar features,
very similar eyes. Well, thankyou. I mean I think with with

(42:05):
the right sunglasses and had I thinkI could could pull it off. And
it. Yeah, it's funny becauseit like when I was like younger,
like a teenager, it was likeLenny Kravitz was like the you know,
the go to reference and then nowlike it's it's Bruno Mars and the like
you've it's aged you down a bit. Then also like yeah, you know

(42:27):
it, it's a better demographic tobe to be in. Yeah, I'd
rather go in that direction than theother. Action enough that STI Lenny Kravitz,
but uh you know so yeah,but yeah, I so I did
like a a couple of years ago, I did a parody of master Class
where it was like all of thesedifferent kind of celebrity characters and I did

(42:50):
Bruno Mars and like my friend was, you know, Yoyoma doing a master
Class and other another friend of minewas doing Jody Foster, and it was
like just kind of making fun oflike the like all of the Masterclass commercials,
at least like the YouTube ads forthem. It's like it's always so
broad. It's like, you know, to write, you must you know,

(43:13):
you must learn to tell the truth. And it's like okay, like
yeah, and I'm not to disparagemaster Class. I'm I haven't taken a
Masterclass, like you know, Idon't want to like shoot all over them,
but at least their ads like donot inspire me to think that,
like We're gonna really dive deep here. So it was just kind of that.
It was like, yeah, Ithink I think the Bruno mais characters

(43:35):
like to make music, you haveto want to make music, you know,
so suck. So are you actuallygonna get a lesson or you just
you're excited to see a celebrity onvideo talk about something. You know,
like it's basically what you're paying for. And if that's what you want,
you can just go to cameo andget like a dealist celebrity to say,
you know, happy birthday to you. That's same, the same effect for

(43:55):
like same yeah, a third ofthe price, yeah exactly. And you've
been doing some writing for The OnionYeah, yeah, so I've been contributing
as or yeah just over a yearand yeah, that's it's been a blast.
And that was always like one ofthose like you know, high high
echelon goals that I was like,you know, pipe dream goals that yeah,
yeah, Now it's just awesome tobe to write for them. So

(44:19):
it seems like you have climbed likeall the mountains that that you need to
be actively climbing, Carlos, andyou just have to keep going at it.
Like, you know, just thebook looks amazing and it's coming out
October second. People can pre orderit now and then they can start buying
hard copies and ebook versions all overthe place. People can follow you at

(44:44):
Shades of Graves, g R EA v Es on TikTok, Instagram and
Twitter. Do you do a lotof stuff on the TikTok. I've been
trying to, Honestly, it's it'sbeen fun getting back to doing video sketches
because it was something like I didvery early on when I was starting out,
and now like I did it backwhen you would put like a low

(45:06):
budget sketch on YouTube when it wouldget five views, and now like you
could do that same low budget sketchon TikTok and get millions of views,
and so I love that crazy,it's amazing. It's I'm like, I
wish that was like around ten yearsago. But yeah, that like low
budget aesthetic. It's it's so fun. So I've been I've been enjoying getting
back into that. But do thepeople that want, like you can get

(45:27):
a million views, but do theyclick on stuff you tell them too?
That's the that's the big problem.Yeah, See I I don't know,
and I guess it remains to beseen every Yeah, see if they click
on that book on that book link, so we need to figure out ways
to get them to click on thatbook link from the TikTok, and then
you put a link led up thebook. There's the link the links in
the bottom of the description. Peoplecan cank click on it. So I

(45:50):
don't know if it. I don'tthink it hyperlinks. And I think also
like you have to have a certainnumber of followers to be able to even
have like a link tree or anythinglike that in your bio. So you
know, I mean, all thesesocial media platforms are designed to keep you
on the platform and not so navigateto whatever super awesome thing the person is
also working on. You have tohold up. You have to hold up
like a QR code on the screenof the TikTok. I feel like like

(46:14):
they make I don't know if theyblur that out automatically or something like it
wouldn't be surprised. There's some likeChinese government thing that's like no, and
they're like, all of a sudden, it blurs and you're like, get
around it. I can't get aroundit. Yeah, exactly if you just
hold up or you casually have likea QR code like on your T shirt
and you're just like like, maybeno one sees it. I don't know.

(46:36):
Ray still and just like yeah,or there's like a tattoo. Maybe
it's like a temporary tattooed is onyour forehead. Yeah, and he's like,
click the link, it's right onmy forehead. That would be a
fun that would probably get a lotof us if some crazy person put like
a QR code on their forehead.I'm writing that down to do that later.
Weekly humorous link on my forehead.Oh, that's a good idea.
You heard it here first lunatic goescrazy on TikTok Yep. That'll be tomorrow's

(47:00):
headlines. This has been great,Carlos. I'm excited and I do you
do any performing in person? Haveyou been to New York City to do
any of the in person events andthere's so much you know, short humor
stuff that it has happened here.Have you been able to get in on
any of that stuff? I have. I've been down a couple of times.

(47:21):
I've done the Greener Pastures Variety hour, very cool, super fun,
and then I did a show atCaveat. I Love Caveat Grand Chandler Dean
and Sarah Gruin host Speakeasy, whichis yeah, super fun. Did so
did that show. And I'll beback in New York on October twenty three
for a book launch. Oh awesome. Yeah, it's gonna have some great
yeah, great short humor. Abunch of other humor writers are performing October

(47:45):
twenty three in New York City.Where's that going to be? They'll be
at Caveat so perfect. I'm gonnaI'm going awesome. Yeah, and if
anyone's listening, you gotta, ifyou're in New York, come to Caveat
on October twenty three for a booklaunch party and buy a book. You
gotta have some books there, yes, yeah, planets have some books and
yeah, combination of just short humor, some stand up and then yeah reading

(48:08):
from the book in a short Qand A and all that good stuff.
And yeah, it should be shouldbe a really fun time. So I'm
looking forward to being back in NewYork. That's amazing, that's incredible.
Well, thank you so much forbeing on Talk Word. People need to
go follow you at Shaves of GrayGraves. But spelled with an E A
v S. Follow him on TikTokand Instagram and Twitter and see if he

(48:31):
does the QR code on on TikTok, and buy the book October second.
You can preorder it now. It'scalled Spoiler Essays that might ruin your favorite
Hollywood movies and you got to yougotta read it because it's really funny because
I got to read it already.And then check out the book launch party
October twenty three at Caveat in NewYork City. Thank you so much,

(48:52):
Carlos Graves. Congratulations on the book. And I will read some more of
your humor very soon. And yougotta send me some stuff for Weekly Humor.
I gotta get some Carlos Graves onWeekly Humorous. You're you're, You're,
You're so popular, you're in theNew York or give me some rejects.
I'm gonna run a moment on Humworth. I've been slacking, Yeah,
I think I think I've been inonce with yeah Bobbie Armstrong. But yeah,

(49:13):
right, that's right. That wasa fun one. But then I
get you back in. I'll sendsome stuff your way. Excellent, So
nice talking to you, so niceto meet you video to video face.
Same. Yeah, I know.It's like interacted a bit online and it's
nice to actually like connecting a well, a more personal way and more personal
way. Okay, I will seeyou October twenty third. Thanks so much
for being on talkwords. Follow Carlos, and you can follow Talkford at Pufford

(49:35):
podcast and subscribe to Week to theHumorist at Weekly Humorous dot com. Thank
you so much for listening to Talkord. We'll see you next time. Hye
Vibe. Thanks for listening to talkWork. Please subscribe, follow us,
and visit Weekly Humorous dot com