HiT 158: Cancel Culture Won't Stop Comic Steve McGrew

Your humble host fights back against 2022's nastiest free speech scandal ... we talk to Matthew Taylor, the director of a movie every big-city mayor should watch - "Gotham: The Fall and Rise of New York" ... and Steve McGrew dares to be a conservative stand-up comic (and he has the professional scars to prove it).

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to the Hollywood and Total podcast, entertainment news and reviews without the book.
Hollywood Narrative, free speech, freeexpression. Now that's entertainment, and
here's your host, award winning filmcritic Persian Total. This week on a

(00:28):
supersized Hollywood and Total podcast, weshare a crazy note from a podcast group
eager to move past It's very shamefultwenty twenty two and I won't let them.
We talked with the director of amussy documentary about how the Big Apple
came roaring back from the absolute abyssof the nineteen eighties, and we break
down comedy and free speech with atrue rebel, a very funny Steve McGrew.

(00:51):
You know, it's hard to keepall the attacks in free speech straight
these days, but last year's podcastmovement scandal, Man, you can't forget
it. The group's annual meeting bringspodcasters from across the country together. They
network, they bond, they sharestories, they boost their respective shows.
It's a great idea and there's nothingwrong with that except last year's event had

(01:11):
the Daily Wires Ben Shapiro oh sobriefly dropping by, and that's when all
heck broke loose. Someone and wenever know how many people caused the kerfuffle
in the first place. Complained aboutShapiro's presence. He's a conservative and it's
made them feel unsafe. To befair, he's a very threatening presence.

(01:34):
He's like five nine five ten slideof build an intellectual look out. Ben's
got some words and he knows howto use them naturally. Podcast Movement rallied
to Shapira's defense just kidding. Hereis their sickening response they shared on the
Twitter. Hi, folks, weowe you an apology. Before sessions kick
off of the day yesterday afternoon,men Shapiro briefly visited the PM twenty two

(01:57):
expo area near the Day Wire booth, though he was not registered or expected.
We take full responsibility for the harmdone by his presence. The pain
caused by this one will always stickwith us. We promised that sponsors will
be more carefully considered moving forward.This really happened, They really shared that.

(02:19):
Of course, it caused a lotof headlines and obviously so. And
the group waited, and they waitedto apologize for their terrible response. They
eventually did, but only after talkingwith the Daily Wires brain Trust and Also,
after a major podcasting company, Cumulus, cut ties with the organization.

(02:40):
You think that has something to dowith it? I think so. In
sure, you know when your kidapologizes for taking candy, it's about as
genuine as that. Now the incidentcame rushing back to me recently because Podcast
Movement reached out to me. Turnsout the group's annual event will be in
Denver this year. That's where I'mbased, and they wanted to invite me.

(03:01):
Now, on paper, I understandthat I'm based in Denver, I'm
a podcaster. Maybe I can bringsome my podcasting buddies. Makes perfect sense,
except I'm not willing to forgive andforget what happened last year. Sorry,
So this is how I responded.Thank you for the note and invitation.
Normally I'd love to meet fellow podcastersand bond of the exciting medium and

(03:23):
a podcast movement gathering. Except lastyear your organization apologized for embracing free speech
and they bowed to the censorious mob. Free speech means everything to me,
and it should to you and yourorganization. Sadly it doesn't, so I'll
respectfully pass. I hope I'm notthe only one to respond. To the
group's invitation like that, because Ithink then they'd realize what a tremendous error

(03:46):
they made. You're listening to mydad's podcast. He cried like a baby
watching Snoopy Come Home. I grewup on Long Island, so the Big
Apple's spectacular comeback and then nineties meanta lot to me. It still does.
Mayor Rudy Giuliani oversaw a radical returnto law and order during the nineteen

(04:08):
nineties, the broken windows theory.Yeah, it really worked. Now many
may load the Giuliani today because ofhis Trump ties. I get that he
doesn't seem like cast the same spinon the fastball that he once did,
But there's no doubt he rescued Manhattanback then, just under an absolute crushing
wave of crime and disorder. Hemade a difference, and to be clear

(04:30):
and fair, so did Mayor Bloombergthat was his successor, and he kept
a lot of those policies intact.It made New York a place to go
to again, an amazing transformation.And now there's a documentary that's capturing all
that. It's called Gotham, TheFallen Rise of New York, and it
chronicles just how far New York hadfallen during the seventies and eighties. It

(04:53):
was ugly, and Team Giuliani camein and made them real differences. Except
it wasn't just rudy. People werecrossing the aisle back and forth. They
were innovations, brainstorming sessions that provedto be really helpful. They changed lives,
and they saved lives. Matthew Tayloris the director of Gotham and and

(05:14):
this is important. He's a nativeNew Yorker who worked on the film during
the pandemic. It was brutal,and he's got some amazing stories about what
he had to go through during thatprocess. Not easy at all. You
can imagine the struggles and just makinghim moving New York just sounds insane to
me. All the headaches and heartachesthat is going on there. He's got
a remarkable story to tell with Gotham, and it's one that every big city

(05:36):
mayor should really pay attention to.Crime is going up, chaos is going
up. If they just took alittle page out of history and realized how
Juliani changed things for the better,they might do the same in their own
cities. But don't hold your breath. Change is possible, but you've got
to want to change. Here's mychat with the director who chronicled amazing transformation.

(06:00):
His name is Matthew Taylor. Matthew, thanks for joining the show.
Now, obviously there's a great storyhere that got them captures. But how
did you first get connected to thematerial? I know you're a New Yorker
at heart, but how did thisall happen? Where you were kind of
thinking, Okay, this is somethingI can do, this is great material.
Just kind of put some of thepiece together real briefly, because I'm
always curious how these things come tobe. You know, I was in

(06:26):
I guess, working on developing aRobert Moses project. I'm a big fan
of Power Broker and I had beenkind of developing something along those lines.
So there was a lot of researchthat went into leading up to a project
like that. And in late twentynineteen, Larry Moane, the former president
of the Manhattan Institute, came tous and said, hey, you know,

(06:46):
we should do a project on thenineties. And I was fifteen when
the city started to turn around,and I thought that's great. I'll just
move, you know, out ofthe research I've been doing just forward a
couple of decades, and so itwas more just a project to say,
hey, how did it happen?Everyone knows New York City got nicer,
but what how did it turn?And then a number of months later,

(07:11):
COVID hit the city and hit thecountry, hit the world, and the
city shut down. And so inthat period of time, you know,
the city had had kind of falleninto disrepair, and so the project then
took on a different dimension because youknow, the city kind of went into
a state of decline, and wedecided that it's not good enough just to

(07:33):
kind of look at the nineties.We had to look at the entire scope
of how the city got to whereit was in the nineties and then how
I got out of where it wasin the nineties, for the sake of
the city going forward as opposed tojust looking back. So it was a
massive project. It took almost threeyears to do because of course, you
know, COVID was happening and everybodyleft in New York City. But it

(07:56):
also gave some interesting ways to makea film when you're in when you're in
a situation like that and cost thisis not a normal situation, but you
know, the world's been recovering andthings have changed since then. Yeah,
you know, I think one ofthe things I didn't know I'm from New
York, the whole Lindsay years,how things got to where they were by
the time the eighties and nineties rolledaround. So that was the most maybe

(08:18):
the most interesting part for me becauseI just was complete unaware that I was
just a little boy at the time, so I couldn't couldn't follow politics like
I should. No, obviously,you've got the New York roots, you
know the story in certain ways,you can feel it, you live through
it. But when you start todo the research, the deep dives to
finding out really important information that ledto all these different changes. What jumped
out at you? What? Whatwere you were not aware of at all

(08:41):
before really kind of getting involved withthe project. Well it's interesting because,
like you know, I had beenstudying New York history for a really long
time, I mean, going allthe way back to the Dutch, you
know, and to me the cityis extremely fascinating the importance of New York
to America is that really that itrepresents every phase of America. America's kind

(09:03):
of like birth into the world andkind of it's growing. You know,
it's George Washington fought on Brooklyn andbeen well to his troops at Francis Tavern,
which is still standing down here.You have first electrified city. There's
there's a lot of things that happenedin New York that like kind of represent
the history of America. And so, you know, when I kind of

(09:24):
got into you know, Robert Mosesand doing all these projects, I think
that I was really kind of intothis policy side of things, right,
the policy of Albany, the policiesof New York. Um what ended up
really jumping out to me. Andit was a point that a lot of
people, when I was thinking thefilm, are kind of like, oh,
why were you talking about? Thiswas the Board of Estimate Change.

(09:46):
It's a it's a strange thing totalk about because everyone goes, oh,
you know, you put more policeout of crime goes down, blah blah
blah. But none of this happenswithout this fairly obscure part of like New
York history that happened just in nineteeneighty nine, and it was pushed forward
by Peter Blom and so as Iwas doing my research and going through everything,

(10:07):
I suddenly realized that this board ofestimate change in New York political infrastructure
was really the most important part ofthe story in a lot of ways,
because without this one change, whichyou know, a lot of people just
they'd never heard of it, theydon't know about it. But without this
one single change, there is nochanges going forward after that. And so

(10:30):
I ended up really kind of focusingon that in the film. You know,
I could do a whole movie juston that that change, but that
was a thing that jumped out themost. And it's recent history. It's
nineteen eighty nine. It change,And so I mean as the city Council's
only been around since nineteen eighty nine, you know, and everyone thinks,
oh, this stuff has always beenaround, but it wasn't. It was

(10:52):
all new. Everything that happened fromnineteen eighty nine forward was brand new.
We were both alive at that pointin time, and we benefited from those
changes. Yeah, And that's whydocumentaries are so helpful, because they really
pinpoint things. We know, thebasic flow of history, but when you
really drilled down, other things popup that you didn't no matter, but
they clearly did. Obviously, MayorGiuliani is a part of the film,

(11:13):
he's on camera, he's describing hisrecollections. He's very frank, as he
always is. Can you share alittle bit about talking to him about this
period of New York? I mean, obviously it's it's so important to him.
He was such a vital figure.But what did he share behind the
scenes or just the way his moodwas anything you can to you know,
he's such a public figure, butwe don't really know him, know him,
but you've got a chance that canconnect with him in a way.

(11:33):
What was he like? You know, it's interesting. I've done hundreds of
interviews with all sorts of people,I mean presidents and politicians and scientists and
all sorts of people artists. He'sone of the most interesting that I had
ever done. Um, it's interestingbecause, like you know, when you
go into an interview, you haveto prep yourself. You prep you know,

(11:54):
you get ready for things, youask you all your questions lined up,
you know, and there's some pointin the interview where like what you
hope is that the interview says somethingthat you've never heard and then you can
go off in some interesting direction andit changes the context of the story.
You know, and so usually whatyou do is you start these interviews off
with like some kind of super easyquestions, these softball to like kind of

(12:16):
get people into it. And soyou know, I was sitting there in
his in his home, Um,and uh, I said, hey,
you know, mister mayor, like, why in the world would you ever
want to run for mayor of NewYork City? Right, super easy question.
Yeah, because you know they saythe mayor of New York City the
second hardest political job in the countrybesides the president, right, Um,

(12:37):
And it could be true. Andso an hour later, an hour later,
he finished the answer. Um.And and I mean it was it
was. It was wild. Andthey only finished the answer because he had
to do a phone call and thenwe took a break, and I came
to realize, like, well,um, this is not going to be

(12:58):
a normal And so when he cameback, then my second question, because
I only got to ask two questionsout of multiple hours, was you know,
um, please tell me like aboutall your accomplishments and you know why
they matter? It was. Andthen he went on for another hour,
and I think the whole interview waslike maybe two hours and fifteen minutes of
content. And he's in the filmfor eight minutes total, um, like

(13:22):
actually on screen. And so what'scrazy is when I went back to the
interview, you know, people willsay, like that was a rambling.
Was No, it was every point, every point was clear. It was
it was it was chronological, itwas entertaining. Um. You know,
the man is a great storyteller,and he is a he's a he's he's

(13:45):
very he's a lot of fun.And so like, it was crazy because
all the questions that I would haveasked were already answered within the two questions
that I asked, um, Andso it was it was a I think
he's one of the best interviews inthe film, you know, and he's
you know, there's an articulation tohis division. Um, you know,
whether people like it or not,that is very clear. Yeah. And

(14:09):
and he was able to just kindof tell me all of it all at
once. That's so interesting. Andyou know some of his comments who were
intriguing to me, little revelations aboutwhen he walked into a certain person's office
it was the first time a mayordid that to you know, regardless of
what the party affiliation was. Thingslike that, Those are the nuggets that
really do matter. It also bringhistory to life. Now each just before

(14:30):
we hit record, you mentioned therewere some interesting developments or as you were
shooting the film and preparing it,doing so in New York was less than
the less than common place. Canyou share a little bit of what what
was happening behind the scenes, Andagain, New York stories are a dime
A doesn't but they're all wonderful.Absolutely. It's interesting because you know,

(14:50):
New York is one of those placeswhere people will film all over the all
over the place. They you know, it's it's a it's kind of a
free wheeling place to do creative things. There's why a lot of creative people
come here. Of course, youknow. Um, but during in the
COVID era, there was no wayto get permits, there was no you
know, things were shut down.You couldn't do anything. Um and of

(15:15):
course there had been you know alot of crime has gone up and things
like that. And so what wasinteresting in filming, you know, when
you can't do certain things, youknow, people in New York, New
York just do them anyway, youknow. So so there's a startings that
were like, you know, wewere able to shoot things that we probably
couldn't shoot had had it not happenedthat way. No. But the thing

(15:37):
is is that the police presence hadbeen greatly reduced, um in a lot
of places and so on the subwaysand places like that, where in back
in the day you would bring acamera in the subway and they throw you
out immediately. Um. It justit just wasn't um And it was very
It was very like I I inone way, it's like kind of cool
to take a camera on the subwayand I get thrown out immediately. But

(15:58):
on the other hand, what itindicated to me is that if we were
allowed to bring a camera on thesubway and no one was interceding, they're
not interceding on a lot of things. So you're actually more unsafe than you
realize, right, And we wereable to do a lot of interesting shots
and things that I don't think wewould be able to do uh previously,

(16:19):
you know, And I think NewYorkers should be aware that, you know,
the police presidence had been greatly reducedand all over the city, I
mean everywhere, we were able toput people in handcuffs and walk them right
up to one of the police plazaUh, and just nobody. Nobody interfered
or interceding or asked us what wewere doing. Um, so it was

(16:41):
it was I think it's it showedme that people should be more concerned and
more alert with their surroundings and withwhat's going on, because the city doesn't
have its typical safeguards up for youknow, keeping people out of the parks,
keeping people a lot of the subways, or keeping people safe right now.

(17:02):
And so that was really I thinkthe big indicator that I've walked away,
you know, because look, Ishot everywhere. I shot everywhere from
Brownsville to you know, Deep Bronxto Nights Housing. I went everywhere.
I went to every place, everycorner of the city, you know,
every borough. You know, nothing, nobody was left out, and I
felt it was very important for meto go to the furthest parts of every

(17:23):
borough to get footage, to geteverybody. You know, this is not
just Manhattan, it's not just Midtown. It's New York City. It's a
vast place with lots of different culturesand things like that, you know.
But I do think people need tobe aware though, like the city is
not in the state it was beforeCOVID it is not safe anymore, which
turns out that our film, youknow, addresses these things clearly, you

(17:47):
know. But yeah, it wasa different filming environment than that anything I
had ever seen or experience in thecity before. It sounds like you went
from broken windows theory to the livecamera theory just to show how things are
changing. You know. One ofthe things that jumped right out the film
is that a lot of documentaries todayare very one sided, superliberal, super
conservative, or they just focus ona target and angle a perspective and it's

(18:08):
off to the races but got them. Your movie is not that way.
It reaches across the aisle a lot. It gives a lot of love to
President Bill Clinton for starters, andI think there's a lot of other examples
where you see reaching across the aisle, accepting flaws, accepting victories along the
way. Talk about that part ofit because I to me, maybe it's
sad that it jumps out of me, but it did jump out of me

(18:30):
absolutely. I mean, this isone of those stories where everybody should watch
it for that alone. Um,you know, of course, you like
we you mention Bill Clinton gets agreat deal of praise in this documentary,
you know, and it's funny becauselike we joked that, like, you
know, all of Republicans will hateit because we pray the Democrats will hate
it because he praised Suliani, andyou know, and then libertarians will hate

(18:52):
it because we praise please, right, like you know what, We'll like
the movie. But it's one ofthose things where like that is that was
the era. It had come tothe point in nineteen ninety twenty two hundred
and twenty three hundred murders was unacceptable. The city was in a state of
disrepair, and you just had thisnew group of people that were like,
look like the political lines you know, uh, muggers don't ask you how

(19:15):
you vote, you know, youjust don't. And so, um,
we gotta we gotta fix this,and we gotta realign incentives, um,
so that the city can function.And so these were this this was a
bipartisan era. You know, youwould think by the late nineties with impeachments
and all these kinds of things,it wasn't. But but in context of
New York City, um, youknow, there weren't a lot of Republicans

(19:38):
in this city. So so youknow, the mayor had to work with
Democrats anyway, but everybody agreed that, like you know, everybody has to
ride in the subway here, nomatter how you vote, no matter what
you do, everyone's got to doit. And like you know, it
had to be fixed and it hadto be cleaned up, and it had
to have new ideas and be innovative. Uh and and parties aside, you
know. And so I think Ithink it's that's something I really actually was

(20:00):
was pushing for in the film tobe like, look, Peter blown the
Democrat, Rudy Giuliani's Republican, youknow, and and by by like you
know, national standards, you know, a Republican in New York to the
Democrat in Texas, so like youhave that difference as well, you know.
So so you had you had thisamazing kind of kind of dovetailing of

(20:22):
all these personalities that really wanted toget something done and they just put it
aside. And you know, thefilm, we talk about the crime Bill
in the nineteen ninety four and howGiuliani actually went on the road to promote
Bill Clinton's crime bill, you know, and and they they worked together in
a lot of ways. Um.And so that is a that is a

(20:42):
story that needs to be told definitelynow, I mean now more than ever,
you know. So, yeah,it's it's it's an important point.
It is not really it's not apartisan film. It's a film showing that,
like, you know, all thesepeople got together said enough was enough,
let's save lives, let's let's let'sbring normality to the people in New

(21:03):
York City. You know, Ithink the fact that the conditions had grown
so intolerable made these things happen,or allow the atmosphere for people to kind
of reach across the aisle to kindof try new things, new voices,
new leadership. You could argue there'sa good case today that things are going
so badly in New York that asimilar solution could be offered. You get

(21:25):
the sense that that's approaching or doyou think that's sort of pretty far in
the distance still. I think thecity is not nearly in as bad as
shape as it was in nineteen ninety. But that being said, you know,
because I've been asked this a lot, you know, oh, well,
we just go back and do thethings they did before. Just it

(21:45):
rewind the time. Yeah, thatthe time is different now, right,
Um, we have a more globaleconomy we have, you know, it's
not it's not New York versus Chicago, it's New York versus Shakheai. You
need to innovate constantly, need toinnovate your policies when you're dealing with something
as comp an ecosystem as complex asNew York. And so, you know,

(22:07):
I think the conditions are different now, the different you know, for
my whole life, everybody was like, Dickens is the worst mayor ever.
But looking back now, looking atthe situation currently, Dickens inherited essentially a
continuum of bad New York. Right. It was just everyone had just assumed
it was just going to be thisway, and that's how it was.

(22:29):
The Blasio, on the other hand, inherited it really good New York,
you know. And so so thedecline has different reasons than it was before.
It has different motives as different functions, which means it needs new solutions.
So I don't think it's as easyas just going back to the specifics
of what they did in the nineties. But I think principally speaking, again,

(22:53):
realigning incentives so that the government functionsmore efficiently is appsolutely critical you know,
and that seems to be what hasbeen lost to the blasios. Because
look, if you're thirty years old, you were basically one when this started
happening. So you have a hugepopulation of New York City that's never seen

(23:15):
bad New York. It's a myth. It's like, you know, Scorsese's
After Hours is is like a it'slike a fantasy movie, right, Like
that's not real. It's totally real. Like it's like he can't get out
of soho of all places, youknow, So like it's one of those
things where you have a huge populationthat it just assumes that this is just
how, you know, the twentythirteen, fifteen sixteen New York City was

(23:40):
just how it is. And ifyou look at the entire history of New
York, this last twenty twenty fivealmost thirty years um is an exception to
the rule to how this city hasbeen, you know. And so in
order to keep the city that way, you know, everybody has to be
aware of like dangers of poor youknow, management and and you know,

(24:00):
incentive incentives being non aligned. SoI think it's going to require new ideas
matched with the principles of some ofthese previous ideas, you know, and
that's really why we've made the moviebecause it doesn't just apply to New York.
It applies to every major urban youknow, center in this country right
now, because they're all going throughsimilar things. You know, New York

(24:22):
gets all depressed, you know.Chicago's murder rate is like out of control.
I mean, you know, byby modern standards, it's insane,
you know, and people are like, what's going on? And so again,
this film shows that if you coulddo it here, you can pretty
much do it anywhere. I livein Denver, and I've seen a pretty
radical change in last maybe three fouryears as far as the downtown area crime

(24:45):
and also ten cities. I've neverexperienced that when I was living here earlier,
and now it's happening. You know. I've spoken to and heard of
others who are lifelong died in theworld. New Yorkers. Carol Markowitz comes
to mind. She's a New YorkPost columnist and she moved to Florida.
I know several other major players havemoved away from New York and you think

(25:06):
they would never ever move, andthey have. You've moved to you were
in New Yorker you're elsewhere, butI understand you are still in contact with
a lot of New Yorkers. Youyou you, you know, check in
with them. You get a senseyou've been traveling a little bit in the
city for the film. What's going? What are the what are people saying
about the city right now? Whatare the sort of the real world reactions,
frustrations, hopes, What's what areyou hearing? You know? I

(25:30):
went to lunch yesterday in the financialdistricts where I used to live, and
the waiter said, you know,because we said, oh, you used
to live right there, and shesaid, don't come back. And I
was, I was surprised, youknow, because like, yeah, she
said, She's like it's terrible here, like don't come back, Oh,
okay, yeah, the city right, She's like, don't come back to

(25:53):
New York, you know, Andand I was like, I was,
I was, I don't know thisperson, you know, but this is
not this is not uncommon. Ikeep hearing this, you know, from
a number of people, and youknow, the city is different. I
think, definitely think Midtown is different. I took a six train the other
day to switch forward to the sixfive empty. I mean, the train

(26:15):
was completely empty. Is the onlyperson on the train, which is you
know, frightening in my opinion,you know. So, I mean,
and there's the change should be fullof people because it was rush hour,
you know. Now of course,you know, there's COVID recovery. The
buildings are still largely empty, um, you know, and the city,
the city got hit very hard,you know. But the thing is is

(26:37):
that when you the thing that causesthe escalation of what we're talking about is
not actually entirely crime, but it'salso just fear, right, that's really
what's heightened. And so as thecity starts to feel more fearsome and more
dangerous, people don't go out.And if people don't go out, there's

(27:00):
no eyes on the street, andthere's no eyes in the street, then
like people could do whatever they want. And you know, I think the
thing is is that there's a there'sa feeling of lawlessness that's kind of going
around and so you know, andit's interesting when if you're older like myself,
you know, and you've lived inbecause I've lived you know, from
DC, in Boston and Saint Louis, um, these are all cities that

(27:23):
have had their own crime spikes andyou know, DC is a very dangerous
city. You know, um,you're you're always kinding heads on the swivel
and you're always looking around. Butagain, you have a whole group of
people that they didn't live like thatin a city you know, three three
four years ago before the pandemic,and so they're not prepared for what what's
happening. So I think there's alot of you know, oh, the

(27:45):
city's coming back, in hope,it's coming back. But when you walk
around in the streets, like thingsare off. You know, there's more
garbage on the street, there's moregraffiti everywhere, you know, and these
are the things that when you seethese things and you haven't seen them before,
you know, either A you've seenthem before and they indicate well,
this is there's something off, orB you've never seen them before and it

(28:06):
also indicates something is off. Itheightens that fear, It heightens that danger,
which drives people indoors or not torestaurants or not on the street,
which heads just makes the problem worseand worse and worse. In addition to
that, you know, crime isup. You know, the murders are
up, rapes are up, assaultsand things like that you think they don't

(28:26):
report on are up exponentially. Youknow, they report on big crimes,
but they don't report on, youknow, the smaller crimes just being mugged,
being being punched in the face,being you know, pushed downstairs.
Like those kinds of crimes are justthrough the root. You know. I
have a number of friends who areemt frontline workers, um, you know,

(28:47):
and their job is to respond tothese these calls, and they're just
like the numbers are just are justmassive, and no one's reporting on it.
So the thing is going back tokind of what we're talking about earlier,
and are behind the scenes and filminglike you're in danger, like you
actually are endangered. Now whether anythingwill happen or not, you know,
it probably won't, but I can'tguarantee that, you know. And whereas

(29:12):
of twenty fifteen, like I wasnot afraid, I was not afraid of
any of it. So, UM, I think that that, you know,
people need to be alert and aware, and a lot of people,
like you know, a lot ofpeople have left the city, you know,
but again it's New York, soa lot of people have come back
into the city, or a lotof people have moved to the city,

(29:34):
you know, and they're walking aroundlike, oh, it's fine. It's
not fine. You know, beinglugged or being robbed will change your life
forever, you know, and soyou have to be alert now. And
I think I think New Yorkers needto know that, they need to they
need to like really kind of startthrowing, you know, throwing a fit
about the state of the city,because here's the thing. One thing they
know is that it was not likethis three years ago, like it like

(29:57):
it was just wasn't it was fine? You know, So what changed?
And it wasn't just COVID. Yeah, it's a it's a it's sobering informations,
especially from people who are like youand I who are from there and
have such an affection for the city. I mean, I'm always rooting for
New York where there's the Yankees orjust the city itself. But Matthew,
thank you for joining the Hollywood andTotal podcast. Of course. The new

(30:18):
movie is Gotham Fall and Rise ofNew York. It's available right now on
video on demand platforms everywhere, andas a former New York I gotta say
you must give it a look andYou don't have to be in New York
or you don't have to be obsessedwith all things New York City to appreciate
it, to understand it, andjust to see a great story in action.
It's something with hope and gosh.If we can learn a lesson or
two about the reaching across to aisleand just putting aside the smaller things to

(30:41):
get get big stuff done, it'sin this film. So thank you,
Matthew, and I look forward toyour next projects. Thank you for having
me, and so do I.Our next guest made me cry. A

(31:03):
few years ago. Steve McGrew isteaming up with comic storyteller Chad Pray.
There at the time they were doinga two men tour, visited Denver and
I caught the show. Steve's rata tatte delivery had me laughing so hard,
so long. Yeah, the tearsstarted a full and I'm guaranteeing I'm
not the only person who's had thatexperience watching Steve McGrew in concert. Now,
Steve's obviously a funny guy, buthe's also a rock rib conservative and

(31:26):
that shouldn't matter. That should bea minor point, but it does.
This is twenty twenty three, andit does impact your career. And it's
been that way for a while withSteve. He's been put in Facebook jail
so many times. Every other dayI'm talking to him. Oh, back
in jail again. He's been canceledby Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond Fame
for daring to support Donald Trump,and he's had some other roadblocks along the

(31:48):
way just based on his ideology.So naturally we talked about free speech,
cancel culture, and so much morein this upcoming conversation. I hope you'll
enjoy my time talking with very funnySteve McGrew. Steve, thanks for coming
back on the show. Now.You've been on the front lines of comedy,
the comedy wars that is, forquite a while. I remember you
were telling me at how the HBOdidn't didn't take kindly to you making fun

(32:10):
of Clinton back in the day,and that actually hurt your career to a
certain extent back then. Are thingsgetting better right now? Where do we
stand? I mean, you're you'reout there telling jokes, meeting different comedians,
touring the country. I feel likethere are signs that things are getting
better than there's a sign that it'sgetting much worse. What's you're just general
take on the culture right now whenit comes to free speech. I think

(32:32):
it's it's getting slightly better, butI think people are still afraid. You
know, comics are are starting tocome out. But but I think comics
now are jumping on the bandwagon ofgoing, yeah, yeah, I'm I'm
all forced free speech. Well,hey, you weren't like six months ago,
you know, you were. Youwere are the ones badmouth and me

(32:53):
on Twitter and Facebook? But now, oh yeah, Louise, should all
be able to say what we wantto say, and and and I do
see more of that. Yeah,and imagine that's frustrating. Though part of
me just thinks we need everyone onboard, to everyone who kind of,
you know, even if they're kindof a bandwagon jumper. We got to

(33:14):
We've got to rally the troops atthis point. So I understand your frustration.
But you know, even when ifthere are hardcore liberals out there who
are pro pre speech, pro freespeech, you know, great, you
know, sign on. We needyou. So it's a it's a difficult
conversation. You know. One thingI've spoken to different comedians about in the
past is that you know, obviouslycancel culture is an issue. They get

(33:34):
some heat, but they often getfriction from their fellow comedians and that always
shocks me, and I wonder haveyou felt that at all? Have you
been is been more of a camaraderiesensibility with your fellow comics or have you
found out that others are looking totake you down as well? Oh?
I think there there is some somecamaraderie, but I do think there's people
still out there trying to take youdown because they don't want to be proven

(33:57):
wrong. That's something that some ofhas been talking about, like you know
with the hundred laptop coming out andbeing like, yeah, it's real,
and now you know it's real becausehe's suing the guy at the store,
So now you definitely know it's real. So I think people are like they're
they're having to either face their ownlives or and you know that never sets

(34:21):
well with anybody. So I thinknow some of these people are getting harder
and striking out more like like corneredanimals. Now, when how does that?
How do you see that? Doyou get angry tweets from people?
You kind of hear murmurs that peopleare trying to get a particular gig of
yours cancer, Like, what whatshape does it take when when people are

(34:42):
trying to attack you. Well,it's typically just just angry, angry tweets
or just blatantly out and I'm sureyou've seen this too, just blatantly uh
lies. The tweet responses are justan absolute lie, like they're trying to
keep it, you know, petuallyout there interesting, you know, in

(35:02):
recent But I do think you weretalking earlier about about people sort of waking
up. I do have a coupleof Denver comic friends. One of them
you may know Jody Champion. Jodycom I think she's good bye is one
that got red pilled, and theycome on stronger and harder. It's like,
I can't believe I've been this stupidthis long. Yeah, it's very

(35:25):
frustrating. As she saw her afew weeks ago, she opened four I
think it was Dave Landau and nowshe was very funny. Yes, in
recent months we've seen something which isI think encouraging but also interesting. Louis
k canceled by most standards. Iunderstand he did something really terrible, but
he's an independent comic comedian now andhe's booking Madison Square Garden. Andrew Schultz

(35:47):
bought back his comedy special from aplatform. He wouldn't say which one it
was because he wanted to tell hisjokes his way, and it seems like
he's successful. And I think RussellBrand's new new special is un Rumble,
which is obviously the speech alternative toYouTube. Is is this the future where
comedians who don't get mainstream love haveto go in these different directions? Or
will do you think the mainstream willfinally realize, Hey, we're leaving a

(36:10):
lot of money on the table.Maybe we should hire a mgrou, a
brand, a Louis c K becausethat might might bring some people to round
to see us. I well,I think you're You're right about them sort
of realizing, But again that goesback to them having to go I was
wrong, and I'm just not surethey're going to do that. But I
do see comics going more and morebooking their own shows, like in theaters

(36:34):
or you know, smaller rooms,or taking a comedy club on an off
night. There's more, definitely moreof that. And and like you said,
like Rosanne just did that that specialfor Fox, that that's a massive
hit, so people are actually seeingYes, people want conservative comedy absolutely.
So how how have things changed you? I mean, do you have a

(36:57):
more traditional touring gig at this pointor do you kind of mix it up
between maybe getting a little bit moreunconventional and then also dealing with people you've
been dealing with for years well toa little of both. I'm doing a
lot of you still did a lotof cruise ships work, and I'm doing
some clubs. But I would definitelylike to get in with like touring,

(37:20):
possibly opening for Rosanne or one ofthose kind of kind of things. I
think there's a I think there couldbe another big conservative tour, you know,
kind of a blue like a bluecollar tour of the old days,
but only maybe a group of ofyou know, funny conservative comics. Yeah,
I think it's a great idea.I think that could feel big rooms.

(37:43):
Now, you've done that to anextent in the past year with the
Deplorables, You've been with Terrence Williams. What did you take away from those
experiences. I mean it sounds likethat would lead you to think this could
be done again, maybe done ina bigger fashion, A splasher of fashion.
But what else did you take awayfrom that experience? Well, what
I'm seeing is those those kind ofshows bring in a bigger mixed audience.

(38:07):
Um Like a lot of comedy clubsthese days, and you may have noticed
this, they pulled in the youngeraudiences. They it's a club. So
when you do these theater shows,you might get twenty somethings all the way
up to older people because they're justthere to laugh and have a good time.
And I think theater shows are reallygood because people want to go out.

(38:29):
It's not just hey, you wantto go to a club tonight,
Let's make this an event. Let'sdress up, let's go out. So
I think conservative, big conservative showscould make big money. If so,
when I out there was listening,let's get this done. You know,
there's you, There's Chrissy Mayer,cavan is very funny, there's a there's
a really big group of comedians whojust don't play by the rules. And

(38:51):
I mean that in the best senseof the word. Just just make it
happen, because I think that'd bea huge success. You know, obviously,
you know you do political stuff oftenon social media, but when I
go see you, it's a lotof how are men and women different?
It's about dating, it's about relationships, and obviously you give it a very
fresh spin. It's always very funny. Is that getting harder? But just
what the cultural changes happening now?I mean you came and ask it as

(39:12):
a woman without getting the stink guy. So does that make what you do
just more of a challenge. Yes, it's funny you say that because yes,
I actually, uh, I've beenheckled late and I've typically in my
entire career, I've never really beenheckled because I don't have that kind of
delivery. Yeah. Yeah, butbut somebody will just shout out that's pretty
missogy. Now gosh, you knowwhat I mean. It's like where that

(39:37):
I think people, Now, thisis something else that I think people in
this society have been rewarded so manytimes for like wanting to point out something's
wrong, right, you know,they want to take something down. Like
I just saw the other day,like just on Facebook earlier, was somebody
complaining about somebody's dress at the atthe Oscars. What was Oscars? Yeah,

(40:00):
Oscars? And they were like,you know what a what a misogynic
misogynistic attitude from an old man,you know, like that kind of thing.
I think they want to be theone that somebody grasp on and kind
of makes some famous for being.You know, yes, they said it
first. I couldn't agree more.And I think for the person who's heckling
you, first of all, youract is very sweet and it's very kind,

(40:23):
and it's not cold and cruel andnothing wrong with cold, dark humor.
But that's not what I've seen fromyou when I've seen you multiple times.
But I think they want to saythe next day. You know,
I was at Stephen Grouse show andI told him exactly what I thought about
that joke. It empowers them,It gives us some sort of sense of
righteousness. It's it's terrible, butI really do think that those are some

(40:45):
of the impulses there because I can'timagine what you said on stage that would
be so outrageous. And you're ata comedy club. You don't like it,
you don't like a joke, justjust roll with the punches. The
next one's going to be funny.It's it's really that's what I always thought.
If I went to see a comic, even one that I like,
you know, I'll go yeah,oh, now that one's good. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Justbut I'm not gonna go ah that

(41:07):
I can't believe you said that,or but I do think. I do
think there's an attitude though that peopleI don't know how to get it back
to a type of civility, likeyou were saying about my comedy. I've
always tried to be funny. Ithink that's what comedy should be. Yes,
and you can make people think whenthey laugh. But you know,

(41:30):
if you go to a comedy club, I don't want to divide half the
audience, you know, unless unlessthey're in a situation that you know that
think I can get away with sayingthis about you know, Okay, I
made an obvious Biden joke, youknow. Yeah. And also there are
differences between men and women. Wedo react in different ways, We appreciate

(41:52):
different things, and that that shouldn'tbe illegal, immoral or unfounded. And
to kind of get upset about thatis really is really you know, I
think we're kind of creating generation aftergeneration of people with thinner and thinner skins,
and if something impacts them in away that they don't find comforting,
they lash out it's it's a terribleimpulse. And you know, obviously,

(42:13):
I think the violence we've seen againstcomedians has been very rare, thank goodness.
But I think that impulse is whatdrives it. I think that's you
know, oh my god, Ican't believe you told that joke. I'm
going to do something and for someonewho maybe has had a few too many
drinks or it just doesn't have theright anger management situation in hand. Problem.
We stopped. We stopped teaching ourkids. I didn't, Lisa,

(42:34):
but my son was. You know, the sticks and stones may break my
bones, but words will never hurtme. I think that is something that
we have ceased to teach our kidsbecause now words words are violets. Yeah,
we know. It's funny you mentionedthat phrase, because that's a phrase.
When I was growing up, Iheard a lot. It was almost
I heard it too much, andI don't think i've heard that phrase muttered.

(42:54):
But twenty years it has gone outof vogue, and it should be
right back in mainstream because it doesmatter. It is important, and you
know, we're the sticks and stonesare the ones that the Antifa throw,
not with the comedians though, that'sfor sure. Exactly. Good, great
point. And you know, asa writer yourself, you know that you're
always told a good writer you writewhat you know. You write from your

(43:17):
experiences. And that's one of thethings that when people get upset, was
like, I can't believe you saidthat about a woman. Well, no,
I didn't say that about a woman. I said it about a relationship
that I was in. Yeah,you know what I mean. That's it's
not like you're picking on somebody.It's an observation of your own life.
And also, I think when you'redealing with the differences between you men and

(43:38):
women, if you tell a joke, if you make a reference and people
lapp it's because they on some levelthey absorb it, they've seen it,
they've experienced it. There's a truththere. And if you're telling something that's
misogynistic, probably there's no truth there. You're just being mean. So and
the fact that you've been working forso long I think speaks to the fact
that you get to those truths,You get to those honest moments, and

(44:00):
that's why they're funny, and that'swhy they resonate. Well, it's it
goes back to the sort of thething where I've had people, you know,
when you do a joke and you'relike, oh, wait, you're
that's your stereotyping. Well, youknow you have stereotypes, so the most
part are are basically true. Youknow, that's it's something you've seen before.
Like the word stereo means too kindof like this is this, you've

(44:23):
seen this before. It's not it'snot an absolute, there are no absolutes,
but but yes, you've seen this, and that's why it's funny.
Yeah, I imagine there are veryfew jokes about your sweet, lovable,
kind mother in law. They justdon't fly. They're just not well accepted
because it's it's a little bit abnormal. My my mother in law's a sweetheart,

(44:44):
but she's the exception to the rule. But you know, I know
that you often are punished on socialmedia Facebook, I don't. I mean,
you spend more time in Facebook jailthan out of jail. And of
course Twitter is better. Now you'rethere now thriving. What's what's the latest
with with you and Facebook? Andhave there been any sort of absurd things
you've been punished for? Old late, um, not typically absurd, but

(45:08):
but they have me walking on eggshellsI've talked with several people about this.
You know, you you spend somuch time in jail. Obviously for me
is that you go, you knowwhat, I'm just not gonna say this
here, and then they're not reallycensoring you, but they are. They
they've they've smacked you so many timesyou go, I'm just not gonna say

(45:29):
it. Yeah, but but Iwill go say it because I have people
follow me both on Facebook and Twitter, you know, and other platforms,
and they're like, yeah, Isee why you didn't say this on Facebook
that well, because and I thinkpeople are aware of that. Like I
posted something today about the Biden laptopand it got one one response on Facebook,

(45:52):
and it's gotten hundreds on Twitter,and somebody posted underneath it, I
bet your cat pictures get thousands ofand it's true. It's true. Well,
I don't know what Facebook is doing, but they're obviously somehow blocking things.
Absolutely. You know, it's nota coincidence. It's happening too too
often, and we need someone abenevolent billionaire to buy the darned service,

(46:15):
crack open the books and find outwhat's going on. But you know,
in a way, we don't evenneed that because we know what's going on.
We've seen what happened with Twitter,that's obviously happening across the big tech
platform and what you're digging at tois the real truth that they're making a
self censor. And right now,thankfully, there are other places where you
can go. You're on YouTube,you're on Twitter, you're on all these

(46:36):
different platforms. But what if thatshrinks. What if now you can't say
it on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube, and then you go to rumbold,
then they kind of pressure rumbled thatkind of get in line as well.
It sounds conspiratorial and it sounds likethe slippery slope. But if you're not,
if you're living in today's culture andyou don't see that possibility, I
got nothing for you. So it'svery frustrating. You know, you know
we're not really we're not even beingconspiratorial anymore. You know, we're actually

(47:00):
just going Have you noticed this,Yeah, because everything we were saying,
you know, from six years backis now becoming more and more true.
Yeah. And do you I knowthe bulk of your routine is more conventional,
and we've talked about it just afew minutes ago, but are you
introducing some of these themes into youract now and maybe kind of getting a

(47:22):
different kind of audience or even justpeople resonating with it. Well, yes,
I have gotten this attitude over thepast just a few months that I
really need to go back and startbeing honest with myself and not just like
I'm working some stuff in different material. I've started to say things like I

(47:45):
really don't care if you don't likebecause I have to do it. I
have to say it, and Ihave found out that that's caused more fans
for me. It's just like Ihave gotten more standing ovations recently than I
have in the in the in thepast few years. Like people are I'm

(48:06):
getting new fan a new fan baseis balled like You're the funniest guy I've
ever seen, And I appreciate that, but it's it's kind of weird.
But at the same time, it'sfrustrating because you go, hey, how
come, how come these people inthe main business aren't reaching out these newer
comics, you know, like yousee a lot of the same guys over

(48:29):
and over and over on the Netflixand the specials, and they're not really
looking for anybody. They're just kindof rehashing or giving somebody another one or
does that make sense to you?No, it does. But I think
there's a there's a conservative and don'tI mean in the traditional sense politically,
but they're thinking, is okay,this worked before, we're gonna do it
again. We're gonna do it again. They don't have the the the forward

(48:52):
thinking sense to say, Okay,this person's really collecting stuff on the road,
they're really getting an audience, they'vegot something different and special, And
I think I think there's just asafe thinking that goes on that maybe prevents
some of them from from being outrageousand groundbreaking and different. It's just it's
a conformity of thought. I mean, look at late night TV. My
gosh, I can't remember the lasttime that any of those comedians. They

(49:14):
maybe laugh, but they're they're paidhandsomely. They get more money than me.
So well, you know there's something'sgoing on. But doesn't that kind
of seem like that's that's part ofthe big machine. Propaganda will pay you
to say, well, keep keepour narrative going, keep the people's minds
on these these subjects. It's notreally like Johnny Carson days, where you
tuned in for entertainment. Yeah,you know, you're right, And I

(49:37):
would love to sit in on likea Colbert writing session just to see what
the guys and gals in that roomtalk about, how they form their jokes.
It would be very interesting because there'szero diversity of thought, you know
it is. There's no one pipingup and saying, hey, how about
this joke. You know that Bidendid something kind of silly, Maybe we
should make a chuckle out of that, And they wouldn't even they wouldn't even

(49:58):
raise their hands. So that's justAnd don't you think there's probably somebody that
comes into one of those writing meetingsalmost every day and goes, hey,
here's the talking points we got fromthe network. They want us to push
this tonight. Yeah, you know, I don't even think they have to
say that. I think it's justso ingrained to what they do and what
they say. You know, Iknow in the past, you've you've been
with Terrence Williams, Chad Pray there, you've been other right lending comedians.
I was kind of curious if youwere doing that tour that we kind of

(50:20):
talked about a little earlier. Arethere performers out there you would kind of
want to, you know, joinwith or or think that you and he
or she could be like a greatteam. Yes. I actually I tweeted
this the other day because rose Anneand I are you know, we're friends
from way back, and I actuallytalked to her before she did her special,
you know, kind of a cheerleadingsession, and I said that I

(50:45):
thought her, her and Rob Schneiderand myself would make a good tour.
That would be a great tour.And Rob has been really really strong on
free speech. Boy, he's youknow, he I think he's a traditional
Democrat who just doesn't really align withthe current party. But he's been strong

(51:05):
on the First Amendment, on onyou know what we're seeing sensorship across the
board. He's been wonderful on that. In the arena, of course,
he's always been very funny. Butthat that would be a great take.
That's why I thought it'd be agood mix. Yeah. Absolutely. You
know, one of the things Iwas thinking about before we started talk.
You've been on the road for awhile, You've been a comedian for a
while, and it's it's a goodcareer. You do it well, how

(51:27):
do you stay consistently funny over thattime. That seems like one of the
hardest things. And I know comedianswho like I used to like their stuff,
and I saw them recently and itjust it just wasn't the same.
They had the skills, they hadthe chops, but the material isn't as
as vibrant as it once was.And I I've seen you over the years,
and you know you're the opposite.You're You're the same as you ever
was in the best of ways.How do you how do you stay consistent?

(51:49):
It seems like an incredibly hard job. Well, I it's something that
I love to do. A comedyis what I knew I always wanted to
do. I'm you know, Istarted off as a cartoonist for the used
to newspaper, so humor was somethingI knew that I always wanted to do.
And and somebody asked me not longago about about how I got my

(52:09):
skill as a comic, and partof what I don't write down anything.
I write down notes and stuff,and I write jokes on paper, but
I don't I don't write out aset. So every night when I go
on stage, I basically have toscramble my brain to go, what do
I want to say? Do Iwant to say that here? So it
keeps it fresh. It's almost likeimprov because I go, oh, oh,

(52:30):
here's the perfect time, just tellthis story. That's interesting. It's
almost like a jazz musician who's riffingas they go. That's yeah, that's
a great way to put it.I hadn't thought about that. That's it's
sort of like I know what Iwant to open with because you want to
grab them, and I know whatI want to close with. But in
the middle, we're just gonna havefun and I'm just gonna talk about stuff

(52:52):
and in a you know, evenif I wrote something that was ten years
ago, if I go, oh, right now, I should tell you
this, it looks like I justthought of it nice before. Let you
go. I want to get circleback to the heckler, as you mentioned
before, Is it worth it asa comedian to go back and forth with
them, or if it's that kindof person who looks like they may have

(53:14):
a stick up there, certain certainorifice that maybe that no matter how clever
or funny or biting you could be, maybe you don't go there. I'm
just kind of curious as a professionalcomedian. Are there some hecklers where you
can kind of lean into it andmake a great bit better or are there
others? You know, I justgot to ignore them because it's not going
to work well. I I fortypically ignore hecklers. I've always in my

(53:36):
entire career. I find out ifif you start going with a heckler,
you don't know where it could go. Sure, that's you're you're handling nitro
at this point. You know,if you have a woman heckler, it's
the worst because if you slam heror the audience doesn't think she deserves it,
right, Um, you know,like, oh that was she was
just having fun. You don't haveto be that. I mean, you

(53:58):
know that kind of so you gotto that. But I think, um,
I don't know if you've been payingattention to Facebook reels, the a
lot of comics post on Facebook reelsthese days. They're all audience interaction.
There's so much out and I thinkpeople are thinking they want to be part

(54:19):
of the show when they're not.Those clips aren't even that good. It's
just somebody talking to somebody in theaudience. Well that's interesting because I think
that's in a way kind of subconsciouslytraining them. Hey, if you go
to a comedy show and you makea comment, you're gonna be part of
the routine and the comedian's gonna loveyou, and then you're gonna go home
and think, oh my gosh,I was part of the show. Did
you see me? I was amazing, And then you're gonna have more comedians

(54:40):
getting hackled. Yes, and that'sI think that's maybe what's going on.
Like, you know, that takesus back to the somebody is shouting out,
Yeah, that's pretty mathagynetic, youknow, just like just think it
in your head. You know,I think that person wanted to They wanted
a little bit of confrontation. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing. But I
don't think I think if you're gonnaas a comic, I would never post

(55:02):
anything that I didn't want somebody togo. That was great. Yeah,
but it seemed like a lot ofthe newer comics just wan't think I gotta
get something up every day. Hmm. Interesting. Well, there's a quality
over a quantity issue for sure.But Steve, before let you go,
anything else you want to share aboutyour twenty twenty three, anything you've got
coming up that's special, or different, or just hitting the road making people

(55:22):
laugh again and again, just hittingthe I'm just hitting the road. I'm
trying to write more stuff. I'mgonna be at the Denver Improv for the
first time in a year. I'mexcited about that tenth but but I'm just
trying to get back out there andget back. As you know, I
was sort of blackball from the business, from the comedy club business several years

(55:45):
ago. That's what pushed me moreinto the cruise work. But a lot
of the clubs now are kind oflike, hey, you want to do
a weekend. Hey you want todo it? You know, so maybe
they are opening up a little bitmore too. Let's just be funny again,
exactly, And that's exactly what you'vebeen for such a long time.
Thank you Steve for joining the Hollywoodand Total podcast. Of course, you

(56:06):
could visit Steve McGrew dot com forall the latest info. You get links
to his YouTube channel where Liberal Lowryis freaking out about the latest Trump revelation.
You've got lots of fun videos,lots of clips. Of course,
your podcasts re emasculate tons of materialthere, comedy albums, tour dates,
you name, it at Steve McGrewdot com. Steve, I love your
stuff and I will be there inJune, no doubt about it. Thanks,

(56:28):
I appreciate thanks for having me on. I always love doing this with
you. Oh my pleasure. Ihope you enjoyed the supersized edition of the
Hollywood and Total podcast. The showis technically over, but I have two
resources I want to share with youbefore we say goodbye. The first is
to Be. You know, I'mpretty new to this platform, but it's
got oodles of content TV shows andfilms, a lot of obscure stuff,

(56:52):
a lot of rare stuff, alot of a low budget stuff, and
then huge blockbusters. It's got everything, and it's free. Seriously. Now,
it's got commercials for sure, butthe commercial note is not bad.
You know, if you're watching amovie or a TV show, you know
how annoying it could be. Commercialafter commercial after commercial, you forgot to
forget what you're watching. Well,it's not the case with to Be,

(57:14):
and I think that's one of manyreasons why you'll enjoy it. Another resource,
justwatch dot com. It's a websitethat will tell you if a titling
question is available for streaming. Andwhere will you pay for it? Is
it free? Is it available atall? I know one of my favorite
films from my childhood, The sureThing, Great Rob Briner movie with John

(57:36):
Cusack. I can't find it anywhereand I punched it in and nope,
it's not available right now. It'sa great resource for movie lovers and it's
going to give you plenty of timenow to b and Justswatch dot com are
not sponsors. They just offer agood product and I want to share it
with you. That's it. That'sthe show, and I hope, by
the way, you'll check out Hollywoodintoto dot com between episodes of this show

(58:00):
for all the latest news on thefree speech in front and so much more.
Have a great week.