The heat, People!
First, you can now get my special, More Later, as a digital download. It's available exclusively at wtfpod.com until September 1 for $7.99. Get it now before the price goes up when it goes on iTunes. There's a link on the homepage as well as in the merch section. I know a lot of you didn’t see it so here it is!
Phoenix. I drove out to Phoenix with Ryan Singer to do two shows at Standup Live. We needed to drive. Sometimes you need to drive through the desert. It’s a reset. It’s nice to get into the zone of flying through the desert in vehicle. Focused. The mind just spreads out to the horizon. Standup Live is a beautiful big venue and I wasn’t even sure I had the fans in Phoenix to fill up both shows. The place seats like 550. Well, we sold them both out, clean. It was beautiful and the shows were really good. If you came out, thank you. You saw some one-of-a-kind shows. If you got shut out for whatever reason, I’m sorry. I will be back to that club in the future and I’ll make it up to you.
We drove back Sunday and I’m kind of punchy. I got angry at technology in a very specific and beautifully timed way as we drove home. Ryan and I decided we hadn’t listened to The Beatles in a while and we needed to listen to Sgt. Pepper's all the way through. We did. It was actually exciting and great. Well, of course it is. It prompted me to shout, “I don’t care what anyone thinks or says... Sgt. Pepper's is way better than Pet Sounds!" I yelled it. Then we moved on to Abbey Road, which I love. Especially that B-side. That run of songs that all fit together. My dad used to play the 8-Track in the car when I was kid. It is ploughed into my brain and always gets me high. Especially the transition from Mean Mister Mustard into Polythene Pam. Kills me.
So there we were. Singing. Air drumming. Air strumming. Mean Mister Mustard comes to an end and… we lose coverage. We are suspended waiting to air jam the opening chords of Polythene Pam and we are frozen. Nothing. Musical blue balls. No resolution. It was awful. We had to sit in desert silence for an hour just to recover.
Amazing talks this week. Today I share a conversation I had with Alan Alda in a New York City hotel room. Great guy. Thoughtful. Awesome. On Thursday French comedian Gad Elmaleh talks about trying to do his act entirely in English and the challenges of straddling both worlds.
Enjoy!
Boomer lives!
Love,
Maron