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This is the best Hank podcast featuring Max Kerman, Shane Cunningham, and I am Mike Bierman. Welcome to the best Hank podcast. I'm Mike Bierman, and unlike our last couple of pods, we are back to the Zoom setup, which is nice. It's good.
I mean, Shane's at home. I see Max. He's at home. I'm actually in the office, but guys, how's it going?
How you feeling? What's up? It's going great. Just before I start rolling, I cut you off, Mike, because it's something I actually want to talk to you about.
Oh, because you started this story. And before I get into the Shane, are you okay? I didn't even let you say anything. How you doing?
Good. Yes. Thank you. And then you'll bring Shane in.
He does this always as a good bit, where instead of elaborating on it, he just goes, I'm good. And then, you know what I mean? Which is always very funny. Well, everyone else does the pefungtery.
How are you? And it's kind of a nice city to start. I don't think it's when the questions ask that always needs an elaboration. If I had something, I would, but since I don't, I can't.
Actually, you know what I will say is one of my favorite things about some podcasts is they don't even do the pefungtery. Hey, how's it going? Everyone doing okay? Yeah, everyone has it as if they're shaking hands on the podcast.
Because they have an agenda, Max. Oh, they're going. I'm trying to get something going. I'm like rubbing sticks together here to start a fire.
You know, you gotta start somewhere. Yeah, that's true. There's a good podcast called like Bad Takes or something like that with Matt Iglesias. And literally it's like, I'm so and so I'm so and so.
And then they say, boom, right into it. And I'm so grateful for it. So listeners, if we daily dialy too much off the top, you let us know and we'll get right to the good stuff faster and I'll get right to the good stuff right now. Mike, you were talking about this Paul McCartney story with John Lennon.
Don't describe it. I cut you off because I want to save it for the bottom. What is it? I'm just one of my great joys in life is something random will happen.
Maybe I'll hear like a song on the radio, like something some random ban from the 80s or something. And then the wiki deep dive just brings me so much joy. I love reading these things, you know, it's like you kind of get into what it was like then anyway, long story long, say, say, say, is this on the Palm of Courtney and Michael Jackson from the early 80s and sort of Michael Jackson famously, if anyone doesn't know the story, him and Paul were hanging out. I don't know if it's on set a music video or whatever.
And Michael had asked Paul for some like business advice and possible all the money and music is in publishing. That's the way to do it. And then Paul explained how he had bought a bunch of publishing and he made millions of dollars every year off of all these other people's songs. So Michael Jackson laughed.
He goes, I'm going to buy your songs like the Beatles songs and McCartney goes, oh, you're a good one. And then, you know, one thing led to another and the sale of this thing, this company called Northern Songs came up and Michael Jackson actually outbid McCartney and bought the Beatles songs. It's a very famous, infamous story. You can read about it.
But I was more interested in the actual company that Lennon and McCartney started in 1962, which was Northern Songs, which their manager Brian Epstein started and basically they sort of forever had simmered at signing the shitty deal when they were 21 years old in the back alleyway of somewhere in Liverpool. And there's so many twists and turns where other parts of the company get bought. There's this guy to James at like Paul and John like to spies. And then I guess at some point they almost got back because they didn't even have the number one.
They don't have the most shares in their own companies. Lennon and McCartney, the greatest pop songwriting duo in history of music and they didn't even own most of their own music from a percentage standpoint. But I laughed at this one comment because essentially they were trying to pull this move where some people owned little bits of the company. So they were trying to at some point like late 60s to 70s buy those little bits back.
Like, hey, were the Beatles, these business guys might want to sell me like a 4% here, 3% there, whatever. But then Lennon, I guess, said in the paper, he goes, I'm tired of getting fucked about by these fat businessmen sitting in their arses in the city. And then all those guys are basically like, yeah, we don't want to sell you back our small percentages. They gave Ringo and George, they both had like 1% each in Northern songs, but then Ringo and George both started their own companies.
Anyway, I just deep dove the business side of it and it let a lot of acrometry for these. This is like one of my great pleasures, just sitting on a train and reading this thing. This is why I bring it up because I find great comfort in the Beatles. It's like, and I think a lot of people probably do.
It's like, you know, if you stress out, you put on a Beatles thing. And also there's like the discovery of the Beatles history and reading the books or watching the documentaries or the movies. There's just like so much fun stuff there. And a lot of times it's like retreading things that I already know, but you just kind of remind yourself of like, oh yeah, 1966, or 1997 or this is what happens.
Anyway, what I love about you, Mike, is that like, I think I'm sort of Beatles obsessive. This dude will send me a text message in the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday or like, you know, Sunday at 10 p.m. Like, hey, came across this really interesting and it's a group chat with me, you and your brother. And I'm just thinking, and it's like, you do it so often.
It is, it's just like, you're on a never ending quest for more Beatles factoids. And I just, and I just laugh and I just think about what it is about it for you that makes you just endlessly curious about it because it is fucking hilarious that it just like, you're it never ends with you. Like, what is it about how you describe it? What is it about the Beatles?
Well, why? Obviously I have to say that everyone had you love them when you're a kid, but I think the thing I love about them is I see so many like, they're four guys that are like legitimately friends, you know, they started this thing when they were like teenagers like John Paul and George, and then it like it grew and it became like a business thing, but they're still making creative stuff, but there's like love there. And then obviously they accomplished more music than anybody sort of in the history of popular music, but I just I'm so fascinated by the interpersonal dynamics, you know, like, I was just listening to this thing called like a hooten sniff, which is like this, this bootleg where Paul McCartney visits John Lennon in 1976 at his house he's living at or 75 with Stevie Wonder on keys, Paul on drums, John on guitar and it's 25 minutes of jamming, everybody's on drugs, but it's such a fascinating historical relic to listen to. And it's like, there's moments anyway, shit, like there's just so much stuff.
It's such a rich sort of like archive if you're into it, but at its core, I just love that it's like these guys that grew up together and made creative stuff together and sort of the how they fell apart and how they came back together in the story of how people do grow apart. And I guess I see parallels with like our friends and I've always been interested in doing stuff in groups, you know, like the three of us are doing something like it would have been in bands. It's always wanted to be like in a band. I always want to do stuff in groups and I love the camaraderie and friendship of creating together.
And I think that's a very interesting example of that and the most fascinating to me. That's my shit. Shane, do you have a comfort blankie? Seinfeld.
Watching Seinfeld makes me feel cozy. Interesting. I think that's it's like that for a lot of people. Yeah.
I think the Seinfeld's the Beatles of comedy. That's an interesting quote. I like that. Do you know what I want?
Yeah, ensemble nature. That's interesting. When you say it, yeah, like that, there is something I guess because it's like, even though it's silly to say it feels modern to me, like comedy has like this sort of deep history, right? If you go back to like stand ups from the 60s and like people like prior like predate it, but like and like stuff like cheers, there's always big sitcoms.
But yeah, I guess I'm just trying to figure out if it's our generation, you know, like because Seinfeld's very nineties thing and there's so much sort of like comedy before that. But yeah, maybe they are the Beatles of comedy. I think for the most part, yeah, remarkably well. And it's our generation.
It's also our parents generation. I think Larry David and Jerry are Lennon and McCartney. Ah, I like this. We think it's better curb or stifled.
It's tough. Seinfeld is more comforting. I think curb might have higher highs. Seinfeld's just consistent.
Well, here's the other question. You could argue that Larry's been better on his own than Jerry has. You know, like who had it? Who had it?
It's almost like, yeah, there's a fascinating sort of rewriting of history there because it's like obviously Jerry's like this sort of beloved epic sort of legendary stand up. But as like a guy that creates movies or shows and stuff like that, what's his real track record? You know, what is it? Comedian cars?
Where's Larry sort of created this show that might be on par with Seinfeld, but it is in its own right, this massive, massive sort of cultural success. Who is better on their own? Lennon and McCartney? That's where I was kind of going.
I mean, McCartney did more. He sold more wings was like, wings was one of the biggest bands of the seventies. There's like an old joke that it's like, oh did you know Paul McCartney was in a band before wings? Like that was actually like a thing, you know?
I don't know. Like I think commercially huge and then obviously John Lennon being murdered changed people's perceptions that happened before any of us were born. So it's hard for us to view John Lennon in any sort of contemporary way. Like was he considered the least like George Harrison, I think had the biggest selling record, single record with all things was passed.
So it's just fascinating. We can't view Lennon as anything other than a martyr in like a saint, but I think people in the moment maybe didn't see him like that. So and you know, you can tell Paul always has like a little bit of weirdness about that where he's like, oh, of course, like John's fucking saying, but he's still just like the asshole and he songs with when I was 20, you know, but I can never say that. What do you think?
He said in that 1986 interview, I sent you Maxi. That's right. That is cool. It's like a podcast chat.
I like it. I get all free of like, I could never say he's an asshole because he's like, like you're saying it. Totally. You know, in music, obviously, I think most people just like put the Beatles at the top and there's not even really a question about it.
Even people who don't even like the Beatles like, yeah, yeah, I get it. They're number one in comedy. I was having this conversation because Chris Rock and Chappelle tore together and I was like, oh, who closes that? Because in my mind, Chris Rock is like sort of the elder statesman of the two and I don't even know if that actually is actually correct.
I don't know who's actually older, but like in my mind, he seems to be would he'd be the one closing? That was a superstar as a stand up before Chappelle was like, Chris had what was the big bring the big special. It's a big one of them. In the 90s, like like like 90 like six or something that made Rock a superstar stand up.
Chappelle was, you know, it took a bit for Chappelle, but now Chappelle is probably a bigger stand up. What's your closest? This is what I was supposed to surprise me. Yeah.
And I was wondering like, yeah, in terms of like the comedy rankings because it's like, yeah, as you say, who's who's more successful or more popular Seinfeld or Larry David and I probably the average Joe would know who Seinfeld isn't necessarily Larry David, but I would Larry and who'd be considered. I don't know how much Comanche TV matters anymore, but that Seinfeld runs everywhere somewhere in the world all the time. So you're seeing Seinfeld, like if you're in a hotel and you throw on the TV, like there's a good change, you can maybe find Seinfeld if you sit there for long enough. So it's like, there's that fame element, you know, the name is probably more famous too than Larry David's.
What do you think, Chay? Jerry is more known for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
What would you say the top? Who's like the king of comedy right now? Because our friend Bruce Hills at just for laughing like gave Dave an award at the show at the concert or the stand up show in Toronto in January 1st and he was like, you're the king? You're the king?
I was like, oh, is Dave the king right now? Are you always the king? Like, where's like Burr? Where's Malaney?
Like, I know we can't talk about Lucy anymore, but like, like, how's your health on his way out though, don't you? It kind of feels like the last days of Rome with him a bit, but who the hell knows? It's a long life. What's more, what's kind of interesting to me is it's like, you know, there was like a stretch there where like there was kind of like young superstar comedians would sort of show up on this.
Like everyone Dane Cook was a thing, you know, and obviously like, I don't know other comedians didn't really respect stuff, but whatever. The point is he kind of came out and was in doing like Madison Square Garden, all this stuff. Who's like the 26 year old comedian superstar right now? It's like it's all guys like Burr and Malaney, like he's like, lifers, you know, and it's like, I wonder who then maybe I'm not thinking of someone right now, but is there like, I want Amy Schumer sort of came out of the canon.
It's like, oh, she's the young new sort of exciting. Is there anyone waiting in the wings right now or sort of percolating? It's like, sure, Michael had a moment where he came, he was on the scene for a minute there, but I don't hear many people talking about him anymore. Well, when you say it's a long life, anything can happen.
Yeah. If they're an incident of someone like Dane Cook having a moment, then going away and then coming back in comedy because I can't think of any really else top my head. I know that it hasn't happened. Yeah, I was going to make a joke about seeing Paulie Short at the chocolate.
But I think, you know, it's a good question. I don't know. Yeah. Well, and it's kind of weird that Dane didn't like, maybe it speaks to his comedy.
I don't necessarily have like a pain on the quality of his comedy that it's like, he's not like, you think his fans would agree with him, right? He was such a college. Like, I just remember like, I was going like the Madison and the young guy like drinking Toronto, like every girl I ran was like, Dane Cook, Dane Cook, did you see me? Dane Cook special.
I was like, all right. I'm excited for Malaney's return because not that he went away. He's actually kind of only gone more popular. I love Malaney, but the shift in his sort of like public persona, you know, with all the rehab and the kid and the marriage and all that stuff.
So this kind of speaks to what I think what I gravitate toward in like my entertainment stories. Like I kind of love what him and crawl had, you know, they made this like sort of like Broadway show. Like I love like reading about John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and that group and then Bill Murray kind of trying to get in there and them all hitting Chevy Chase. Like I just love the human elements of these super talented people.
That's almost fascinating part to me. Where some people are like, I just want to hear the song, I just want to hear the comedy that I just want the work. I'm like, tell me the story because like, I don't know, which is maybe more universal, right? But anyway, no, totally.
You hear about like two really famous people or successful people are like, do you know that they know each other in college? It's like, you don't even associate the two with each other, but they've actually been friends for a very long time. I think that's really cool. But hey, boys.
Oh, I mean, I don't know if you got somewhere to go for just, you know, daily dallying as you call it. That could have been an alternative name for this pod. But we, so we talk about the workaholics podcast sometimes, especially those guys. So those dudes have a podcast called This is Important.
Yeah. And there's like a sort of group chat and a lot of you guys listen to it a lot more than me. I sort of read something fucking amazing. But they recently, they were doing a movie at Paramount Plus.
It was like a workaholicsing movie. And I think everybody that's sort of a fan of them was very excited. It was announced last week that it got shelved. That cancel.
There's a ton of stuff that's in development or was about to go that is getting shelved by streamers just for financial reasons. But this thing was like a month away from shooting, which is crazy because just if people are listening, just like if you're prepping a show like that, like people are hired, like sets are being built, departments are moving, money's been spent. It is, people's time is booked. They're probably the next two months booked.
So you can move all that goes away. So they, you know, you're very keen to listen to their pod and their response to it. And anyway, that's super fascinating. Listen to it.
But anyway, I listened to that pod and I forgot completely, I listened to the pod and they were talking about Dick's show on camera. And they were talking about Adam Devine's dick being on this movie they did for Netflix, who they all love Netflix now because they're probably trying to sell for all of this. Being shown in this movie they have called Game Overman. And I was like, oh my God, I forgot this movie even came out five years.
What if I came home? It is the perfect train movie to watch. I've been watching on the train, which is how I'm doing. I've been watching this movie too.
I've been watching this movie. Is that pod? Yeah, of course. Oh my God.
Yes. Because I didn't know Adam Devine had pulled out his wiener. But there's a gag in the show. Have you seen Game Overman?
I have. I can't exactly remember it. I've seen the scene involving someone hiding in a closet or something that I laughed so hard at. I think it might be the funniest scene in movie history.
That is Adam Devine's penises out in the closet. Anyway, there's another scene in this. This is my type of comedy. I laughed on the train and I'm in the quiet zone.
I'm trying to slide from my laugh. But it's so stupid. So the three waiters are in the elevator and they're going down to the first floor where there's a henchman with a machine gun ready to blow them away when the elevator door is open. So they're like, holy shit, we gotta get up into the shaft.
So they're trying to boost each other up into it. We've seen this in a million action movies. So they're trying to get up and then it cuts down to the henchman waiting with the gun. And then the elevator opens.
It's like ding and it opens and henchman looks and the elevator gets on the walk and talk goes, shh, he's like, they climbed in the shaft. They could be anywhere now. We gotta find him. And henchman runs to try and go somewhere else.
And then the camera just, the door's on the elevator shut and then the camera pans over to the elevator beside it and the door's open and it's them still trying to get into the fucking room for the elevator to be. It's like the perfect side gag and they're like, no one's even down here. And it's just like a simple, stupid comedic gag that if I had written that in the writer's room, I would just be so proud of it because I just love a stupid classic type gag. It's just so good.
Yeah. It was interesting because they all have movies with Paramount+. And so what I like about that podcast too much so much is that they don't seem to care about offending people. Like peers.
It's kind of talking shit about other celebrities, especially Durs. Like, I'm sure they could say a lot more about the entertainment industry and other actors and stuff. But I'm just always kind of surprised. Like, you know, they're going to be like critical of like a comedian or something.
They'll be like, they'll do it. Or they'll be like, yeah, that goes okay. Like, there's just like a level of honesty that they have, which always kind of blows me away because they're also just like kind of working actors. It's not like they're on like the top of the mountain and have to, you know, not worry about ever getting another gig again.
And I feel like on this spot, like we're always, I shouldn't say that because I might be doing it. But they're just constant. And so them going after Paramount Plus and the public way, given that they all have shows and movies with Paramount Plus, I thought was just incredible. Would you, Shane, would you do that if Bell canceled the show?
I don't know. I might be relieved in a way. Yeah, it's very scary. It's scarier than I thought it would be to have the prospect of something you've created come out.
Like, I don't know. I thought there'd be more looking forward to it. It's an odd snapping really. Yeah.
It's like when I used to play basketball and I was at a triple A level and it was so serious and before every game, I would just say, I don't want to play basketball. I hate this. I don't like this anymore. I hate the nerves and all the stuff that I don't like feeling.
So I don't know. Maybe I'm different than most or maybe you can relate. Like every show, I would be dreading if I was you, Max. If I heard the crowd, I wouldn't want to go out there.
You know what? I do sometimes feel like I've had versions of this, what you're going through right now. First of all, the first thing that comes to mind is writing a song or working on an album. I'm just like, because you have this initial burst of excitement with the song, but then when you have to get the weeds on it, I'm just like, I don't care.
I was like, I was really excited about the first part. And now that we're in the editing and the mixing and the, I'm just like, just tell me when it's done. It's like, I'm excited about the initial idea. I believe in that.
Now I don't even know if I like it anymore because it's so fucking convoluted. You know what I mean? Okay. That's not really what I was even trying to do in the first place.
Like when the fuck, so I relate to that a lot. But the second part is when it comes to shows and this happens kind of all the time on tour, you know, it's like, it'll be like seven o'clock or six or 30 the night before we go on stage. We play at nine o'clock. And I'm always, there's a lot going on in my mind, but like what am I going to say?
The crowd, how am I'm going to make it special? How is this moment going to work? You're just trying to like, this is a lot to take on. And I've just woken up from a nap, like my pregame nap and before I'm sort of like caffeinated and like a little like two drinks in ready to go, but there's that window of getting it from a nap when I'm just feeling like rested but tired at the same time.
And I go to myself, I don't want to play tonight. God damn, this sounds fucking annoying. I hate this. Why did I sign up for this shit?
Fuck me. Fuck. What am I doing in this profession? Oh God, what a lot of work.
And then of course, you know, the momentum picks up and you get pumped. But there, like honestly, every night before the show, there's like a 30 minute window at some point in the afternoon. I'm like, well the fuck are we here again? Good, Laura.
I like what I like, comedically, but I'm aware that I'm ashamed of it also and I'm embarrassed of what I like. So the other day I showed my in-laws episode six, just like it's like a rough cut, but it's far enough along and just halfway through, I realized I made a terrible mistake. Like it's, it wasn't something that they could enjoy. I realized this is a polarizing episode.
Yeah. But before I hit play in my mind, it was like a Britney Spears pop song. It was very digestible and everyone could enjoy it. And this was before you had told me how much you disliked episode six too.
So all I had heard was just everyone likes episode six, episode six is the one that like, you know, even if you don't like one through five, episode six, that's the one to show. And the silence in the room was so deafening. And I just wanted like, I don't know where to cancel the show or something. But like, you know, we're working with Bruce and, and Bruce really likes episode six.
So I was like, that's maybe a glimmer of hope, but my tummy's so in knots about the whole ordeal. Like ones that I thought I liked, people are telling me they hate ones that I thought weren't good. People are telling me they're their favorite. It's this roller coaster.
Nobody has ever, nobody's ever said they hate any of them. Oh, like that word is so, you know what I mean? No, hate is strong, but I know you got kicked out of the zoom, but I was just telling a story of being on a bit of a high on our episode six, which is kind of our superhero epic film. Yes.
And showing my in-laws. Oh, sorry. Yeah. So for our listeners, I don't know how to use my fucking AirPods.
So I just want to push it back in my ear and I got disconnected from the zoom. So you show the in-laws. I've they seen all six at this point. No, they haven't.
So I avoid showing them five because that is an episode that I thought, uh, this one's just for me, whereas episode six, which is our superhero epic. I thought this is for the world to see. This is one that's very digestible. This is before Max told me his disdain for it or anyone else had voice any opinions on truth.
So I was on high. So anyway, I showed it to my in-laws and Mike, like the silence and the embarrassment I felt. It made me rethink everything. Just not that I disliked it, but just you should be ashamed of yourself, Shane, for even having the sense of humor and how dare you sit people down and present it to the world.
Was my prevailing thought of that? Oh, I thought you were like questioning marrying into that family. No, no. Alex was questioning me doing that and like they were like, Oh, this is my son.
People are going to see this. And there's a scene. I'll call it a lovemaking scene with me and another woman in it. And it just to say that I wanted to call it a one of my that I want to jump out of my skin.
It's like it's like pornographic. Like, well, come on. I'm trying to word it softly. But I wanted to crawl out of my skin and just not be in the room, but I also I couldn't grab the iPad away from them and like petulantly take it away and go home because it would show that I was upset.
It's painful. This process is painful at times. And luckily, there is, you know, there's people like Bruce who appreciate that. And then an episode five, which I thought was more of a swing.
You really liked it, Max and other people liked it because I went into that thinking episode five was solely for me. But you said it might be your favorite episode yesterday. I think it's a very good episode. It's so funny too.
It's like when you're working in a creative field, it's like you have your instincts, you have your like baseline, like an acumen and skill, but and you you have a good idea. You think of what people will respond to. But sometimes it's like the song that I think that is so obvious and so great and transcendent. People go, huh?
Okay. And then the song that is, you know, maybe full of a couple kind of cliche lyrics or maybe a little on the nose or something to go, Oh, that's the one. I'm like, what the hell? Like you like that?
And you don't like this other thing? So I've been wrong many times just to like what I think will land. I remember I sent you a song. I won't name the artist, but it's a very famous artist.
They just come up with a record in the last like year or two and I sent you a song and I was like, Oh, I like this one. I'm like this one. You know, this one hits me right in the old heart and Max, you just wrote back this is the most boring, schlocky bullshit I've ever heard in my life. It made me laugh because I was like, I was like, interesting, where's it coming from?
I'm like, is he like, does he just not like this down in music? Is it like anyway? It was a very fat, you know, I'm talking about your mind. It was the it was the it was the okay.
We'll leave that Nathan because they could be a guest on the pod. You know, I've been wrong, but another friend of mine who was like helping a younger act with kind of getting their career going, sent me a song and he sent the thing and I was like, thinking myself, I was like, this shit is so fucking bad. I was like, I hate everything about the song. I hate the way it like looks and feels and everything about it.
I was like, I don't get it. This is like a number one trending TikTok song globally. Man, I was so, so just wrong about it. You know, it's funny.
Yeah. It's subjective, man. The arts are subjective being creative is sometimes being creative, especially putting stuff out into the world, whether it's Shane and a sketch show or Max music. It really can be like for as good as we talked about this lot of change, but as much as like praise and people saying, Oh, I enjoy what you do.
I like what you do. It really can be just like an exercise and humility. It's just like, it's just like putting yourself out there and anyway, because it's never the, it also you never remember all of the good things. Just remember like the silence or if somebody does have a negative comment.
It's such a weird sort of dance that we do by choice. And yeah, I don't know how healthy it is. So I will say, I think that's one thing that's maybe successful though, is that I do actually remember the good things. I don't really, that's one of my like just my nature is that I hold onto the good stuff and just talk about that a lot.
But if someone comes up to you, Max and says, I love leather jacket, or you just like, shout out, that's obviously a hit. Don't tell me that. Tell me the one that's not the obvious hit. Yeah, I do agree.
I am impressed when somebody like gives me a deep cut and like from an older record that they really like, I'm like sick. But the deep cut that really makes you feel good when someone says they like it. Well, it's the ones that like have not gotten much fanfare. So it's like, there's a song all round and round, which I think is like our best song ever.
No, I like that song. Oh, you know, yeah, it's very beataly. And there's some beataly changes. Mike, I want you to listen around around.
Okay. We got this podcast because it's straight Beatles. And just, you know, no one really cares about the choir. It's another song that I really like for lots of reasons and nobody really cares about that one.
I know people don't like, Hey, kids, I think it's cool. It has like this Elton John thing to it. Yeah, I guess like that's wrong. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Like no, Hey kids. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Hold on hurtful. We get you know, something about it isn't nostalgic for me in a weird, like this annoying cartoon I watch when I was a kid or something, it elicits memories or that I don't like that song.
Yeah. See, it's so funny because in my mind, I'm like, this is so obviously just Elton John and everyone likes Elton John. Like what are we even talking about? What's confusing about this?
But you're totally right now that you said that Shane. I'm like, Oh yeah, I guess that piano part could sound like a kid's piano part in an annoying show. So totally. Yeah.
Yeah. There's a few of your tracks though. And this is how everybody sort of like relates to music or shows. Like, Hey kids or like private school that I don't really like, I can't even consume as their own individual pieces of music because they're so of that time when you were living on at 80 and I was like, we were just all together all the time and those sounds were big and it was like maybe the first time you played cops, call see him.
Anyway, so those songs just remind me of a time and more than I can consume them as individual pieces of music. Do you know what I'm saying? Well, that's why it's so important to kind of keep at it and hope that like young people continue to listen to your stuff because literally yesterday I was at coffee shop and this guy goes, Oh my God, he's so excited to meet me. And he was like, I listened to you to Michigan left.
That was my, that was my record when I was a university. I went to McGill, me and my friends played that record all the time. Book Club is my favorite song, you know, like, it was because he was in university and it was a pivotal time in his life and he was with his pals all the time. And that's why he liked the song.
But like, I don't know, is it better than what we wrote last year? Like, I don't think so. It just hit the person the right time. Yeah.
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We do have an agenda. And I don't know if you guys heard about this contest to name the snow plow in Hamilton. The thing you won't shut up about, you don't know if we've heard it. It's the gift that keeps on giving, you know?
The first I heard about this. You said it up. You said up. You're better than it.
But for our listeners in Hamilton, Ontario, where Shane and I currently live, they were rolling out a bunch of new snow plows. And so I guess just, I don't know whose idea this was, the marketing for the city or whatever. It was pretty great. They basically said we want to name the snow plow.
Let's do a vote. They did this for a vote actually in London, I think England a couple years ago. But anyway, they did a vote. The first I heard about was Danica.
My wife sent me the thing. She's like, did you see this? This is where it ties into us. A bunch of names, like Control, Salt, Delete.
Right? Was that one of them? But obviously, you know, Hamilton's favorite son, singer of Arkels, Max Kerman, they decided to get him into the voting. The name that they suggested that you could vote on was Max Kermanator.
Is that correct? Yeah. Max Kermanator was one you could vote on. So Danica sends this to me.
I'm like, oh my God. And then what was one plowie McPleough face or something? Which was kind of alluded back to the vote. Anyway, so I was like, oh, this is hilarious.
Well, maybe it was in the pod group. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Long story long is I was wondering how you were going to sort of perceive this thing. You weren't aware of it until the vote.
So tell us from your perspective what you're thinking when you see this thing. Well, I thought it was all very silly. But I know, of course I was honored. I thought my nickname was probably the worst of the 20 nicknames, like on a creative level.
But it's like, all of them were better than Max Kermanator. But I was like, whatever. And you know, it's the thing I've learned over the years is that like when it comes to any sort of like celebrity fun, it's like, it's like this thing got more promotion than us putting on an album. It's like so fucking stupid.
I like the thing that you really deeply care about and that is like your life's work. It's like, you and you're trying to think of what interesting ways to talk about it. So it gets shared. And then, you know, you might get like five retweets or something.
And then for this thing, it was being shared by every radio station across the country. E-Talk is doing segments about it. Like CTV is asking for a quote. So it's like, okay.
And like, again, I then begin to enjoy it. That's the other thing which I like is that my dad was especially excited about it. He thought it was the funniest thing. And I like it too.
It kind of speaks to his character because you know, there's like some families just like when you're a Cunningham, you're a Cunningham and that means you wear the badge of honor or like when you're, whatever. It's like, you know, some people like talk about their family more like that. My dad does not do that. My dad would roll his eyes at that kind of thing.
So the fact that he was like Kermanator. Like this is so great and this is so funny. I mean, he was encouraging his name is on the plough. No, I know, but it's a snow plough.
It's great, but it's so stupid. It's not like, you know, we're naming it like a hospital wing after our family name where it's like, you discount the value of snow plows in our society, Max, and we're attacking this before. Come on, it's all part of the same machine. Well, anyway, clearly very silly and goofy, but my dad was really encouraging me to hold a campaign party at odds.
He's like, he's more invested in this project than literally anything else. He's like, Max, what I think you should do is you should like, you know, give a speech to your supporters. Like, as if you're like, Barack Obama on election night, like, you know, wear a tie, roll up your sleeves. Thank everybody, all the volunteers who are knocking on doors, like make it into like a big, stupid thing.
And we actually contemplated doing that, but we couldn't get around to it. But anyway, you know, I assume we do well, but I didn't think that we do as well. By the way, I'm doing the proverbial really. Yeah.
When you look at the vote, Tali, it was outrageous. You guys, it was a landslide. Yeah, I mean, the third place was like 11 almost 1200 votes. Second place was like 2,200 votes, 2,800 votes.
And then I was 18,000 votes. So you did really demolish the competition. Ask your fans and you have hundreds of thousands of fans and follow. Yeah, you ask them.
I guess other names don't have fans either. So that makes sense. True. Yeah.
So I wonder, would you have won had you not reached out to your fans? I still feel so. Yeah, probably. But probably a little tighter.
And it might have felt better. I did. I voted for Max. Even though I didn't think it was the best name, I just really somehow I thought it was going to be close.
I didn't know you were going to blow it out of the water. I thought maybe 100 people will vote on this. I didn't know it was in the thousands voting. So I wouldn't have voted if I'd known that it was inconsequential.
But yeah, control, salt, delete probably the best name. Max, it's probably the worst name, but it means the most to the people. You represent a lot and hamlet. Totally.
Yeah. And it was cool. They're out on the streets the other day. Someone sent a photo from like their second floor window of the Terminator.
Owned about the Terminator. Owned about. We're going to start saying that for when you party in the city. Ooh, the Terminator is out of the bed.
Don't it's funny because the new mayor of Hamilton, Andrew, she, she tweeted by like, Oh, congrats to Max Kerman or whatever. And then of course, anytime a politician tweets about you, you're just going to get idiots in the replies being like, how much did this cost our tax player? But this is the way we want to be spending our money. I was like, this is a free contest.
Like this, this contest cost literally no money. And also the decals were probably like $500 apiece, like to put on the back of a thing and something that actually kind of sparked some fun and joy in the city. But anyway, you tried to get a little bit of politics. Yeah.
That's right. The R. Kelser doing some writing this week. So we can't see too long here, but I want to do you guys see any of this marketing for skin of a rink, this horror movie that I don't think I could watch.
And yeah, you see what's the other one called Megan. Megan is the one that's kind of like a computer animated horror film. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's like horror AI. Remember the movie AI with Haley Joel Osman by Steven Spielberg based on the Kubrick project?
Anyway, this is kind of like, anyway, it's the Blumhouse guys, but in Allison, Williams is in it. The Megan I'm talking about like the doll like dancers, not the doll like the AI robot. She does like a crazy. Anyway, yes, I've heard of it.
And then the skin of a rink I've only heard of because Ash put it in the group. That was the first I'd heard of it. Yeah, but we should probably come back to that and like interview that guy because the short story is that, you know, he made a movie for $15,000 and it's already made a bunch of money. Like back it's a horror movie that he filmed in his house, basically entirely by himself.
But I've got me thinking about like just movies and like return on art with Megan. You know, it's like they made that be for like $12 million. And now it's, you know, it's that's $70 million. That's probably wrong.
But like it. And then there's big movies. I think that movie will probably make a hundred million bucks. I mean, if like it feels like a word of mouth or whatever is any indication, like I all I heard about was that fucking movie for two weeks.
So I wonder if that will be, you know, reflected in the box office, but I think it's a lot of money. So the biggest question is the only movies that can make money these days is like Top Gun and like Super movies or horror movies because I saw Babylon and we used to only just see him and talk about it. I thought it was awesome and really fun and add huge star power Brad Pitt, Margarabi and it does like $4 million at the box office when we can like is more at with movies. Have you guys thought about this at all?
When it comes to like how you market anything these days? Tarantino can open a weekend. Yeah. Still?
Oh, yeah. Like once upon a time in Hollywood made a ton of money. The only people who can just do that where the director's name is so huge. I think the big question tends to be like can a movie like The Whale with Brendan Frazier, which is like, you know, big Oscar movie, like in these sort of mid these indies, these smaller indies make any money at the box because in the past you'd have like companies like Miramax or whatever and they'd release these sort of smaller or like a film like three billboards in Mississippi, like three pandemics.
Like those movies, I guess the question going forward, which is like whenever you hear these sort of quotes from like Martin Scorsese or any of these guys saying like all the movies anymore are just what you just said Max super hair movies or whatever. He's sort of like these little budget horror films. Yeah, I don't know. I like I don't know.
Like what's considered success? If you make a movie for three million bucks and it makes its money back, is that worthwhile sort of venture or are you saying like, how can we turn three million bucks into 60 million bucks? You know, and I don't know if that trick is excused anymore, just because everything's so fragmented, like not everyone's gonna be talking about one indie movie and go see it unless it is literally like a lottery type. It's hard to recreate that.
You know what I mean? Like even something that we've all been hearing about like The Whale, you know, is like it's building. I don't know what it's gonna make. And then something like Babylon, which like you said is stacked with starper or Amsterdam, you know, and like that's David Russell.
The Babylon is Damon Chisel, who's like the Oscar winner and Lala was a huge hit, but it's just like, I don't know if people aren't interested, they aren't interested. Like, like, could you even tell me what Babylon is about? Like the transition, I guess, from from silent films to talkies. Like, is that interesting to like a fucking 19 year old right now?
They don't give a shit if Brad Pitts in it. You know what I'm saying? And the reviews being bad don't help. Right now the reviews get out before the movie does too.
So if it stinks, people don't want to watch it. Reviews will keep guys like us away. Like if this movie was stellar or it was getting like we all went and saw it or not all but you know, we saw Triangle of Sadness, you know, because that seemed like an interesting, that's a good example of like this mid-level sort of movie that built through Word of mouth or whatever. But yeah, I don't know the answer.
What do you think, Max? Yeah, I know it kind of bumps me out a little bit is that because I like people go to the movies, but don't go to the movies anymore. And I like movies as an art form. I like TV shows, of course, but I don't know.
And I don't like watching movies at home as much. I don't think the experience is nearly as good. So I just want to just wonder how you get people to go to the attention span to watch a movie at home. Like, can you not look at your phone?
It's hard. It's really hard. So that's why I like when the movies I'm not allowed to look at my phone. Have you seen the internet?
The internet's really expensive. You know what? I did watch that at home, actually, and I really liked it. Yeah, that's a good one.
We've all seen it then. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Let's finish with our thoughts on the menu here.
So we've all seen it. It just released on Disney Plus a bit ago. Canada, why don't we start with you Shane? What were your thoughts?
So spoiler alert, I suppose. Yeah. He's well, I was in the theater and I was kind of annoyed for the first 10 minutes because an older woman came in, sat down, and she leaves immediately. Then the volume goes drastically down.
I'm like, oh, I'm thinking, did she didn't tell one of the people that turned the volume down? And then I go out and I complain. So I have to leave. I'm missing part of the movie and I go, I can barely hear the movie.
This is a movie about dialogue. So this older woman decided to turn the volume to the theater down because the trailers were too loud. Wow. Those are always going to be louder.
Wait, if you're ever going to do that, wait to see what type of movie you're in for. Dialogue heavy movies, you got to have the Jack Boi. So we were in a bit of a war with the volume. So I didn't turn it up.
I did. And it was a real great volume. And I noticed she gets up. No, she didn't because she knew because she's older, too.
She probably has a little bit of hearing problems, even though she might have more sensitivity or aggravation to loud noises. I think she was thankful I did that because once the movie started, she saw, oh, this is dialogue heavy film. I need to hear what they're saying because nobody could fucking hear. Anyway, once I got over that and I settled in, yeah, I thought it was, it was like the movie, um, Glass Onion a little bit.
It was a bit of a mystery, like almost like that you had to solve. And I didn't know it was going to be like that. Whereas Glass Onion was kind of purposefully cheesy. This one was like deadly serious and suspenseful and all the suspense worked.
Sometimes you try to do that. You feel nothing. It doesn't ring true. It was one of the few times I've actually forgot I was watching a movie and I was immersed in it and enjoying it on that level.
Wow. But yeah, I don't know how to say a lot about the movie without giving too much way because I don't want to know. We already said spoilers. So you can say it like, yeah, it's like an, it's like an experiential thing for rich people where they go to this island.
They pay this large amount of money. They go to an island that the menu is designed specifically for those people. It's been curated. It's a one time only offering.
So it's kind of like a look into that world and the sort of people that maybe are interested in that. They do that thing like with all of these movies where you have a sort of a wide spectrum of characters, you have like these sort of Wall Street Bros, you have like a former sort of like famous actor, maybe like an Adam Sandler type or, you know, somebody maybe a little less successful. And then you have this sort of Nicholas Holt character who's brought this girl on the date who is the, um, uh, what's her name? Oh, and I, and I tell her joy.
Yeah. Joy, yeah, yeah. Who's fan? It's like she's fucking awesome and everything.
She has to be honest. But anyway, so there's sort of, she's our entry point, you know, she's sort of the common person because she's there on a date with Nicholas Holt, who's the guy with the money you can afford experience. You have a food critic that is like one of the best food critics in the world there. So you kind of get to know all of the players.
The shins point like Glass Onion does this, right? It's like clue you give everybody a pain with broad strokes and settle in. And what will the mystery be as it's revealed? But before that's revealed, meaning like what all this tension is, what, what do you know, something's going to happen?
You're kind of in this foodie experience. So if you're somebody that's like a foodie or you like those cooking shows, they're bringing out dishes and they're sort of explaining the ingredients and they're kind of doing, so you're kind of having like, some mercy experience. You're like, Oh, I'm kind of enjoying the food experience, but there's also this fucking tension. And I know there's a mystery that I don't know what it is.
So you're just trying to figure out what the fucking turn is going to be. And then the turn comes, which I don't know if we'll talk about it. Yeah. So when we can't reveal the that turn, I'm going to go back to Ash because Ash is listening to this or anything.
Yeah. So, yeah, that's true. That's true. Yeah.
Whatever you like about it is the social commentary on like pretentious food culture was really funny. Like I was consistently great. And the other thing is that I find movies lately have a hard time like wrapping up like what is sort of the punchline? What is the way to sort of make sense of the entire story?
And usually that's where movies fall apart. I feel like certainly was I seen lately, I'm just like, I love the first 90 minutes and then the last 45 really just kind of like go nowhere and you can just tell the director didn't know what to do. This movie's like an hour and 45 minutes, first of all, and I've seen so many fucking movies that are like two and a half hours, like three hours, you know, tar was three hours, everything's just way too long. This is an hour and 45 minutes.
And all the sort of like observations that the director and the film is trying to make when it comes to like the pretentiousness of food and the way people and the seriousness of chefs, but also the assholery of people that go to those kind of close places, like was so perfectly summed up and told when it gets the punchline at the end delivered by Anya. And I was like, man, and you can say it was maybe like a little bit on the nose, but I'd rather a movie be a little bit more on the nose and simple than it being messy and abstract or just like kind of ending on a nothing. You know, and so it was just like one of the few movies. I'm like, oh, that was actually a really simple satisfying end to this movie.