As hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild say, they “break bread with the gluten-free yet entirely delightful Matt Goldich while he was in Los Angeles for The Emmy Awards because Matt and the other writers for Late Night with Seth Meyers were nominated for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. Okay, they did not win that night, but this ‘Lunch’ remains a very winning conversation about life, food, podcasting and Matt's new stand up special, No Questions Asked, that was released February 13 on YouTube.
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Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild are joined by one of Phil’s best friends and one of the original "Everybody Loves Raymond" writers, Lew Schneider. As they write, the writer, producer, director, comedian and actor “joins Phil and David for a freewheeling conversation about food, comedy, television writers rooms, great music, terrible vacations, Rick Springfied, Don Rickles, good times and even terrible timeshares.
On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is John Stamos. I thought I had posted this recently, but when searching through my records, that doesn’t appear to be the case. If it turns out that I did, well…here’s your chance to hear it again. But if not, his conversation with host Peter Sagal is breezy and fun, including stories about his surprising music career.
This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 18:15 mark. For the finale, we have one more of the better “Strike Force Five” podcasts. They were all wonderful, but a handful stood-out, and this is one of them. It's a fine way to go out. For those new to Strike Force Five, the five hosts of talk shows – Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver – teamed up during the recent Writers Guild strike to do a weekly podcast. The point was to raise money for each of their staffs. As I’ve mentioned with the others I’ve posted, what stands out from the podcasts is how much the hosts seem to truly like and respect the others – though being comedians have no trouble ridiculing the others, at times mercilessly, including relentlessly bringing up past derision from previous weeks, not letting foolish misdeeds be forgotten. And that’s precisely where this fits it. The first of the podcasts I posted was when Jimmy Fallon hosted and decided to try to turn it into a sort of Newlywed Game-type episode, having asked question of the host’s wives, and seeing how their husbands’ answered matched up. The problem was that he kept repeatedly screwing up the questions and games so horribly, that the show went far off the rails. And he was so mercilessly ridiculed by the other hosts that he never had a chance to finish all the questions. This is the long-awaited sequel to that. (And I mean that literally. As they discuss at the beginning of the episode, the most email that the show received – and personal comments the hosts each got from others – the most-asked question…by far…was when would they be doing the Fallon follow-up. This is Episode 11, what they call “The Return of Strike Force Wives.” The WGA strike is over at this point, but the hosts felt they still had some unfished business to clear up, and so did three final ones. This is the penultimate. And if it isn’t as screwed up as the first Fallon attempt at a Newlywed-type game, that’s only because the bar was set so impossibly high – and it’s still great fun. I can’t embed the podcast – it was done for Spotify – but here's a link to the episode on the Strike Force Five website. If you didn't hear the original "Strike Force Five Wives" episode that preceded this and sets it up, I heartily recommend listening to it first. It's just too funny. You can find it here. This Episode 11 follow-up stands fine on its own, but the two together are a special joy. Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild are joined by internationally-touring comedian Alex Edelman whose one man show, Just For Us opened off-Broadway in 2022 before premiering on Broadway in 2023; it was named New York Times Critic’s Pick both times and has already won an Obie. As Phile and David write, “While performing the wildly timely Just For Us before sold out crowds at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Alex broke bread -- okay, Courage Bagels -- at Phil's house. Please note: this free-flowing and fun conversation -- in which Norman Lear is discussed -- was recorded shortly before Lear's recent death.”
One oddity. Throughout the conversation, almost whenever Phil or David refer to Alex as being Jewish, he keeps replying that he’s not Jewish. Apparently, he finds this hilarious – since his one-man show is specifically about being Jewish (he grew up Orthodox) and attending a White Nationalist meeting. For me, it was funny the first few times, but eventually just became strange. This week, recorded live from Maine, the ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is Stephen Smith, CEO of L.L. Bean. It’s a fun, light-hearted conversation with host Peter Sagal about him getting hired for the job, as well as a funny exchange with the panel about the store’s open return policy. A personal side note. Back in 1989, I worked on the movie Pet Sematary, that filmed in Ellsworth, Maine, and one of my go-to spots was Freeport, Maine, a town that is literally made up of outlet stores sprouting everywhere. And the centerpiece of Freeport is the corporate store of L.L. Bean which is open 24-hours a day, 365 days a year, with an outlet store connected to it. The main Bean store is huge, and my favorite thing there was that they actually had a cobbler working on shoes out in the open for people to watch. I still have a great bathrobe and cashmere vest sweater that I bought at the Bean Outlet for peanuts that are both in great condition. (In fairness, I don’t wear them regularly, because I want to keep them in great condition…) Even though the drive was about 2-1/4 hours each way, and I don’t like driving, I nonetheless made the drive several times – and once stayed at Bean’s browsing around until probably 11 PM, just because the store was so wonderful and fun, and it was a treat being in a store so late without worrying about hearing an announcement that it would be closing so. All the while knowing that I had a 2-1/4 hour drive back. This is the full Wait, Wait… broadcast, but you can jump directly to the “Not My Job” segment, it starts around the 19:30 mark. |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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