Last night I stayed up and watched the “at home” version of Saturday Night Live. That is, I opened a Bota Box at 7 PM ET and found myself still awake, and enjoying said box of wine, at 11:30 PM ET. The combination of inebriation and nostalgia for my messy, early days in New York City inspired me to tweet something nice about Michael Che:
Yeah, everything in that tweet is true. The dude might love dragging critics and making politically incorrect jokes. He might have even declared war on all pop culture writers named Meg, Megan or Meghan, but back when I was still doing stand up comedy, he was one of the few folks I trusted implicitly. The last time I saw him in person was right before he got Weekend Update. It was at a Lower East Side comedy show — I believe Kabin — and he was chilling before his set. The minute he saw me he gave me a big bear hug and I told him I was so psyched for his gig on The Daily Show. Ah, memories…
One of the biggest things I learned from my years in the comedy trenches is that there’s a huge difference between how a person presents themselves publicly and who they are privately. I’ve lost count of how many comics I’ve seen dragged by media critics for their problematic acts who are, in fact, the folks who I’d trust with my life. Likewise, I can’t tell you how wild it is to see someone truly sociopathic and cruel be hailed as a great artist, and moreover, an aspirational hero. (I would love to drop that name here, but I need to save something for my memoir.)
I think that I’ve always loved entertainment gossip because it digs into this dichotomy. I’m less interested in dragging folks than I am in understanding who we are when the mask drops. Right now, I feel like we are all dropping the pretenses in our lives and feeling the dreadful pull to face ourselves as we are. As for me? I’m someone who drinks way too much wine out of a box and apparently tweets nice things about unpopular public figures. I’m ashamed of my softness.
(Photo: Joan Marcus)
Happy Phoebe Waller-Bridge Weekend
First she came for the priests, and I said nothing because honestly it was nice to see a Catholic priest in pop culture who wasn’t a pedophile or country murder mystery detective. Now Phoebe Waller-Bridge has taken Easter weekend from us slovenly lapsed Catholics, and quite frankly, I’m okay with it.
Yes, tonight marks the debut of her new project with DryWrite collaborator Vicky Jones on HBO – the delightful Run — and the return of Killing Eve. Both are very good and enjoyable, even if she’s not writing either. Both projects are also horny, which speaks to me in my isolation.
What you may or may not know, though, is that Waller-Bridge put the NT Live recording of her original Fleabag stage show up on Amazon for charity. For $5 you can see Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s genius in all its glory! That is way cheaper than the $100 I spent on two tickets last year. (It was worth it, though, because I got to cry in the front row, which means Phoebe Waller-Bridge made eye contact with me while I was crying. No one can take that power away from me!)
Other Charities Worth Your Time
My working class mom raised me with the ethos of “If you’ve got it, give it,” meaning that if you have anything you can spare for someone else in their time of need, fork it over. Last weekend, I donated money to three New York City-based food banks doing saint’s work bringing food to the needy:
If you can spare anything, please do! Otherwise, I hope that you and yours are keeping safe in this wild time. Also, I’m going to experiment with the format of this newsletter and attempt smaller, more frequent editions. However my priorities right now are to just stay alive, honestly, and then tackle the work I’m paid to do. Everything else is a huge accomplishment.
No matter where you are and what you’re doing, I have faith that you are doing the best you can. And that’s amazing.