Ira and Louis discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s expensive box office flop Megalopolis, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, Ellen’s Netflix special, and the deaths of Maggie Smith, Gavin Creel, Kris Kristofferson, and Drake Hogestyn. Michael Jaé Rodriguez joins to discuss her new album 33, her love of Mortal Kombat and X-Men, and more.

Subscribe to Keep It on YouTube to catch full episodes, exclusive content, and other community events. Find us there at YouTube.com/@KeepItPodcast

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

 

[AD].

 

Ira Madison III And we are back for an all new episode of Keep It. I’m IRA. Baby Girl Madison the third.

 

Louis Virtel Oh. Somebody has seen the new Nicole Kidman trailer with Harris Dickinson. And I better be the son. I’m Louis Virtel. And this is another episode of Keep It where the theme is. Guess who died? Because, by the way, they all fucking died this week, including an all timer, somebody I’ve touted a thousand times on the show. And you’d be crazy not to be at least somewhat comprehensive about her career if you’re a pop culture fan. The great Maggie Smith died over the weekend. And you know what I’ll say, IRA? This is not a general in situation where if people reference the one movie they’ve heard of regarding her recently, it does not undercut her career. Because if you only know her from Harry Potter or only know her from Hook or Downton Abbey, she still is giving an A-plus prestige performance in those things. So it’s fair to say you understand the greatness of Maggie Smith, even if those are your few references. But by the way, if those are your few references, you suck. Don’t listen to the podcast. You’re not. I’m sorry. It’s not for you.

 

Ira Madison III If you only know honestly, if you only know her from her Graham Norton performance. So that and then you are you’re miles ahead.

 

Louis Virtel That’s true. Well, also, she is one of those people like Cate Blanchett or Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn, where in addition to being phenomenal actors, they were also, for some reason, unbelievably funny. Like, this is not a writer. Why is Maggie Smith so funny? Just casually?

 

Ira Madison III But yeah, so we will talk about Maggie Smith this episode. We will also talk about some other people who died. Unfortunately, it’s been a sad week.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, we get these weeks occasionally here on Cape where we have to do some memorializing and we will. So fear not.

 

Ira Madison III And then we will talk also about the death of Francis Ford Coppola’s career.

 

Louis Virtel You know what, girl? He already made the movie, Jack, in like 1995. It’s not like we were like, please come back now. But anyway.

 

Ira Madison III We are going to talk about megalopolis. Is it a flop? Well, it’s a box office flop, but is it a. Critical flaw. Is it a artistic flop? We will get into that as well. And also our guest this week is the divine, Micaela Jay Rodriguez. You know her from Pose. She played Blanca. She is on the current Apple Tv+ series Loot, starring Maya Rudolph. And she has just released this fantastic new album, 33.

 

Louis Virtel And I just want to say, and we will get into it during the interview. We come on and we hear some noise and she is literally playing Mortal Kombat. So this is somebody who belongs here.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. We will be right back with more Keep It.

 

[AD].

 

Ira Madison III After I learned that Maggie Smith passed away, first of all, I woke up from a nap and found out that Maggie Smith passed away. And there was some sort of weird dream sort of scape. And I was like, What is going on? People were just sort of sharing things about Harry Potter in a group text and also Downton Abbey. And I was like, What is going on here? And then I discovered that Maggie Smith had passed away, and then someone was in my DMS saying, I hope you and Louis share some projects that she’s been in, you know, to give us a comprehensive guide to Maggie Smith films that aren’t just Down Abby in the Harry Potter films. And I was like, Well, first of all, this bitch brings up the prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Every other week.

 

Louis Virtel I would say, Have you been paying attention? I have a problem where I can’t stop writing. I think she’s my actual teacher at this point.

 

Ira Madison III So that, first of all, is one of the main keep It films that is in the canon along with Eve’s Bayou and whatever else we always talk about. But Maggie Smith is she’s everywhere. I feel like in the sense that she truly has been in popular culture for such a long time. And I what I’ve had the joy of discovering, I guess, is how many things she was in prior to her American career renaissance.

 

Louis Virtel Jesus. I mean, like, first of all, let’s talk about the two Oscars. Okay. Private Miss Jean Brodie during the pandemic, this is a movie I watched, rewatched, and among all the movies I watched over the pandemic. And I watched everything and everything. It is the single most addicting film I had seen. I have now seen it probably 15 times. It’s the basically it’s the inspiration for Dead Poets Society, if you’ve ever seen that with Robin Williams. But it’s nothing like that. This is a movie where you start off and you think it’s going to be a mr. Holland’s Opus type film, or this teacher has a certain air about them and they’re going to be inspirational. And, you know, there’s something kind of crazy about them, but we love it and it’s addicting and the kids come out enriched. It is a much darker film than that. And it’s about this woman who is, in fact, a wild, extreme narcissist with fascist tendencies. But she also, in her own way, is motherfucking fabulous. And delivering these one liners where you think, well, shit, maybe I’m a fascist too, if it’s going to be this fucking fun. I mean, like it’s just so it’s a bewildering and complex characterization and it gets darker and the students become sort of on to her and they turn on her. But it was a celebrated stage role before that. Vanessa Redgrave played it in London first and then it became a Tony winning performance for Zoe Caldwell here. And then Maggie Smith played the theatrical version. I can honestly say after Vivien Leigh’s two best actress, Oscar wins. This is my third favorite best actress performance of all time. And she beat Jane Fonda in my favorite Jane Fonda performance. And they should horses, don’t they? So for me to say that I have to, like, go up a bit to admit it, but the one the one liners in this movie are just unbelievable. It could be played by nobody else. People don’t understand that when RuPaul on RuPaul’s Drag Race says Bring back my girls the way she’s he says Girls is taken from Maggie Smith in the prime of Miss Jean Brodie, who has this Scottish sort of verve with everything she says, Please just watch it and come back and I swear you’ll be obsessed with this movie. Even though every time a man comes on screen, I am so fucking pissed. They are there. They are the most loathsome characters.

 

Ira Madison III The second Oscar. Yeah. We have to talk about.

 

Louis Virtel California Sweet.

 

Ira Madison III One of them. One of my favorite, Neil Simon’s. And I know that you’re not a big Neil Simon aficionado. You don’t love him that much, but California’s Sweet is, to me, a fantastic film that thrives because the actors in it are fucking phenomenal. I mean, you have Jane Fonda in it, Alan Alda, Michael Caine, his scenes with Maggie Smith in this film. They’re so fucking funny.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Oh God.

 

Ira Madison III This and just watching them go back and forth in the hotel room with each other, there’s a moment where she was she throws something at him and where he’s sort of like jumps up and there’s a reflection, like in the mirror of her. It’s their back and forth is almost theatrical. Like you could be watching it on stage and their comedic timing is just so perfect. And it’s. Truly one of my favorite performances of hers. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel So California Sweet is a lot like Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, where it’s different stories centered around one location. And it starts with Alan Alda and Jane Fonda.

 

Ira Madison III It’s also better.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Yes. Yep. Debatable. But there’s a whole section with Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby, which is definitely the worst part of the movie. And then you get this segment with Michael Caine and Maggie Smith, where she is an Oscar nominee and she’s waiting for the ceremony. And she’s with her bisexual ish companion, Michael Caine. And they have this like knowing relationship, a relationship of convenience. And, you know, Neil Simon on occasion is funny for real. But truly, it takes these. Unbelievable talents to make it uproariously funny and just the degree of difficulty of getting this performance in the Oscars conversation, let alone to a win, should tell you how talented she is. Obviously, around that time she’s in other movies like Evil Under the Sun, which is one of the great Cure Paltrow movies starring the great Peter Ustinov. She’s in this movie called Travels With My Aunt in the early 70s, where she she’s this kind of wild Auntie Mame figure who takes this her nephew out on this journey. And this is the first time she’s messing with our perceptions of her age because she is 37 in this movie. And it was supposed to be Katharine Hepburn, who is in her 60s by that point. But Maggie Smith plays older and you simply believe it. Like in Hook, she plays Robert Robin Williams mother and she’s like ten years older than he is. And as she said herself, she could no longer keep doing Downton Abbey because by the time they left that character off, she would have been 110. So she was all ages at all times. And it’s actually a very sort of telling that her signature role, Jean Brodie, is somebody who is insisting on being in her prime the entire time. She’s on screen and she’s in her mid-thirties in that movie because there was never a time in Maggie Smith’s career. She was not in her prime. She was always this sharp talent. You watch Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. That role could be nobody else.

 

Ira Madison III By the way, I had somehow missed these films. Yeah. I had never seen a Single Marigold Hotel film until this weekend. And so I watched them. And I was it was a pleasure to know that they were directed by the iconic director of Mamma mia. Here we go again. So I knew. Was it for treat? Yes. Let me tell you, when I discovered that this woman was playing the most racist.

 

Louis Virtel Racist.

 

Ira Madison III You’ve ever seen on camera, I was like, this is where we’re going here. Yeah. She starts out just so fantastic in this film, but she’s marvelous and so great to watch. And I had made a funny reference. Honestly, the day she died, I had made a reference to the day before she died. I made a reference to Death on the Nile for some reason. And so it was surprising then to find out that she died the next day. But I loved that film. And I also love Othello. My God. If you want to see Laurence Olivier in blackface, go ahead. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel I’m sorry. Does that even count as blackface, given what they put him in? What material to be? Yes. It’s like not close to correct. I like it’s so strange looking. But yes, that’s a very kind of stodgy Shakespearean adaptation, That 1965 Othello. That was her first Oscar nomination of six. Definitely see her in Gosford Park, which is a murder mystery, maybe the best Altman movie to me and the most entertaining one, the one I come back the most times to watch. And that’s where you get signature Maggie Smith where just ruining someone’s day with a single one liner, you know, just leaning in and like, cocking my head and did you just speak? Well, I’m going to say one thing. And your ended like just ending up in that Downton Abbey thing. And basically Downton Abbey is a TV series adaptation of Gosford Park. Julian Fellowes originated I mean Place she’s just one of the greatest actresses of of all time. And and you know what I’ll say if you haven’t seen Tea With the Dames, which is a documentary about her and friends, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright, they’re sitting around this kind of rambling estates ward that they’ve had for years. Funny. Yeah, it’s just 80 minutes. It’s just them kind of recalling things like knowing Laurence Olivier and how Judi Dench gets all the parts first and they have to wait and get her scraps. So amusing. And Maggie is just uproarious again. Why is she so funny? How did this happen?

 

Ira Madison III I will lastly say about Maggie Smith that I was pleasantly surprised, actually, that more so than Harry Potter. I actually saw a lot of people bringing up her role in the Sister Act films.

 

Louis Virtel Of course. Yes. Which again, as I said before, there’s no such thing as only knowing basic knowledge of Maggie Smith because she brings the prestige to whatever it is Sister Act, you know, a lovely three star comedy. She is just aces in it. I’ve learned that Mother Superior could be nobody else.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And so we’ve also got Kris Kristofferson, who passed more recently.

 

Louis Virtel A wonderful songwriter. Not as good an actor, but that is not what we’re memorializing today.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You know, actor, singer, good singer, performer.

 

Louis Virtel Also wrote one of the great songs, Me and Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, which is just a fabulously written song.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, you do not need to run out and see A Star is Born with him and Barbara Starr.

 

Louis Virtel Streisand because you’ll never leave. It’s still going on. Yeah, please. It’s like an hour six and. She’s finally getting to the part where he might die. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And he’s maybe one of the goofiest parts of Alice doesn’t live here anymore.

 

Louis Virtel Ellen Burstyn, 74. Martin Scorsese one time made a movie about a woman. I know it sounds like I’m telling tall tales.

 

Ira Madison III It’s also a really good film. I really want to know. I really need a documentary on that film, to be honest. Just like a back story. I did a full interview on that film. And if there is one that exists, someone please directly to it. Because I just want to know what was going on in Marty’s life at the time where he made this film and then was like, You know what? No more.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, because it’s a very crazy character for Ellen Burstyn, too. Diane Ladd also fabulous in it. We have to bring up Gavin Creel. The.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Unbelievable Tonys. Tony winning performer. He won for a feature role for Hello Dolly a couple of years ago. But this is he died very young, 48, a rare nerve cancer, I think I had heard he had figured out something was wrong like two months ago and since just passed away. It’s very, very shocking. Gavin Creel, whatever role you know him from, I think there are people that would argue it’s his signature role. He just everything was like thoroughly modern Millie. I mean, we’ll start with that, which is Iris favorite musical, My Hair So Into the Woods. So this is somebody who was beloved. I loved hearing Bette Midler’s tribute to him after he died. Obviously, they were costars in Hello, Dolly. And that might be the the definitive theatrical event of the past ten years at this point. You know, Vince Hamilton’s iconic. Now, more than ten years ago.

 

Ira Madison III I had the pleasure of seeing him on stage so many times. I think the first time I saw him on stage was in Hair Revival when I first moved to New York. And I think that. He’s I mean, he’s has such this singular, beautiful voice. And I was obviously. Yes, thoroughly Modern Millie is my favorite musical. So it is not eerie to me that I was listening to the musical earlier in the day. Yeah. When I found out that he passed because I listened to it all the time. And what I think has been maybe sort of comforting in his passing was just knowing so many people in the theater community and just seeing how beloved he was.

 

Louis Virtel It keeps coming. The remembrances are so touching. Everybody loved him.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. Just so seeing people, sharing photos, sharing stories. And I think there is a beautiful sort of text message that Benj Pasek shared from him that he had gotten recently that just said, sort of like, I’m proud of you for living. Not living is one thing I have learned so far during this time that is no longer an option ever again. Live if you are alive, live. And obviously he learned about this two months prior, sort of. So to sort of know that you have a time stamp on your life sort of changes your outlook and how you reach out to your friends and family. And yeah, I know that sort of the theater community is hurting right now and. What is a great person?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, At least we have the numerous recordings from him to know him. But also he did whatever that Broadway thing is, mismatched or whatever that’s called. I’m sorry. I can’t think of it right now.

 

Ira Madison III I was literally about to say his miscast miscarried to have it where he did take me or leave me from rent is one of my favorite performances. Hands down.

 

Louis Virtel It’s instantly rewatchable, too. It’s the kind of like performance you want to live inside. You don’t want it to end.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel What a loss.

 

Ira Madison III And I also want to just bring up another passing that was sort of like really hit me. But Drake Hogestyn, who played John Black on Days of Our Lives, passed away.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, you live with these people when you watch soap operas. It’s like they are in your life every day. It’s like they were the original podcast people, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. If you are a person who even grew up with your parents or grandparents or aunts or babysitter watching Days of Our Lives, you knew who John Black was. John Black was married to Marlena Evans, played by Deirdre Hall. He’d been on the show since the 80s. He first debuted as Robin Brady on the show as a recast Roman Brady. Then it turned out that Roman Brady had gotten facial surgery by Stefano de Mera, and his name was really John Black. And then there was years of John Black learning about who he really was and his history and everything. And most recently, we got to learn his past and we found out his real father and his father was played by Dick Van Dyke on the show recently. Been an arc. Yeah. And so that was a lovely way to sort of end years of sort of change storylines over different head writers over decades of like sort of retconning his backstory. So it’s sort of beautiful that his story got to come to a nice, lovely conclusion before Drake died. Not that he knew he was dying at that point. It’s sort of he died at 70, just a day before his 71st birthday, actually. And this is sort of similar to a Gavin thing, actually. He learned about his cancer recently and the writers had to sort of scramble and write him out of the show very quickly. The show tapes so far in advance. So John Black will be dying on the show.

 

Louis Virtel I assume this is what Dick Van Dyke won his most recent daytime Emmy for. It is this man I mean, like he and he’ll show up at an awards show and like do one handed pushups. He’s like Jack Palance times three by two, still in his 90s pounding out this entertainment. So shocking.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But anyway, if you’ve ever seen an episode of Days of Our Lives, you know who John Black is. So this was a really big sort of like hit in the gut when I found out that he died.

 

Louis Virtel And that concludes our episode of Can You Believe All These People have Passed away? Every once in a while and keep it. You know, I feel like every once in a while on key. But we need to restate our mission statement, which is reminding you who is around and then who isn’t. So just be aware that this is us doing our really academic work.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But like we said earlier in this episode, you know who’s still around the white Samuel L Jackson. Nicole Kidman. Because she is in everything, baby. She is working.

 

Louis Virtel No kidding. I cannot wait for Baby Girl. Cannot wait for the trailer.

 

Ira Madison III Looks great. And honestly, I might have to revisit Beach rats, which I did not love initially just because I love Harris Dickinson and everything else that he’s done. Yeah, it might make me love Beach rats all over again.

 

Louis Virtel I’m a fan of that movie. I thought it was excellent. So as we know, you’ve been wrong before, so. Well, I guess hopefully you’ll be correct this time.

 

Ira Madison III All right. When we are back, we are joined by Mikayla J. Rodriguez.

 

[AD}.

 

Ira Madison III Though most of you will know this week’s guests from her groundbreaking turn in the effects series Pose, and more recently on Apple TV. Plus, comedy looped. She’s been a queer legend in the making ever since she snatched the 2011 Clive Barnes Award for her off Broadway role in Rent as Angel and as a running shit both on the stage and on screen wasn’t enough. Today, she’s here to talk about her audacious, addictive debut album, 33. Please welcome to Keep It. Mikayla J. Rodriguez.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Hello. Hello.

 

Ira Madison III Hello.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Hey

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Addictive is right. I put this album on and I didn’t turn it off. And also it’s a short album, so you can just play it in a loop, like you can just live in this album.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez I love that you said that because that’s exactly what I envisioned it to be. I was like, okay, how do I like balance the two? Because we’re in a world where so many people are like, you know, it’s pancakes, you know, flip it over. They want another one. And I was like, okay, well, how can I, like, get enough time? And I was like, I want my three minute songs. And they’re like, There are people who want those three minute songs. They don’t want two minutes long. So I was like let’s mix these up together.

 

Louis Virtel And, you know, it’s so thrilling. But at the same time, I’ve also heard this album is a long time coming. Can you talk about the process of putting this together and talk about how I assume arduous it is. It feels like putting an album together is like the world’s most like difficult task and entertainment.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Yes, it will. One, the reason why that is, is because it has so much of you incorporated. And it’s so it’s like you are putting kind of yourself on the line on the front lines. So, you know, I think the six years I didn’t know, but subconsciously I think it was a preparation for this moment. Now, I was very, very scared, very nervous, but I knew that I had to get it out. I knew that there was at some point I had to let people hear me on a grander stage and with a bigger and grander scheme. And that was this album, and it’s a minute, but it was so beautiful, the journey. I mean, I got to meet so many people. I found out one of my family members is in the music industry, which is crazy, who I worked with and is amazing and he’s a producer on a good amount of these attacks. And your Pope and then Virgin White from Earth, Wind and Fire, like through all of the years, I met so many great people. And now it’s finally like here. And I get to say that I got to work with these people. I get to say that I got to, like, really express the pieces of me that I’ve always wanted to share and tell this story of this model that was I feel like she’s the entity, honey, but like, I’m trying to paint her out as this my character. But I feel like the entity telling me like, you just don’t understand that something bigger like.

 

Ira Madison III Okay, I want you to run that back from before. It’s like second, just like, how do you discover a family member is in the music industry that you did previously know that they were edit and then end up collaborating with them on your album?

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez So crazy enough, right? My mom. So when I first started working with Neil Pogue, I didn’t even know that we were we just had met, I think through a mutual friend. Ever write songs ever on us as my brother and a. I remember. My mom said it’s crazy enough because my Aunt Patricia is actually over in L.A. with her right now. My mom was saying, you know, that is Patricia Tasman’s cousin. And I was like, wait, what? So he’s in the family and she’s like, Yeah, that’s your cousin. And then I asked him and he was like, Yeah. And I was like.

 

Ira Madison III What? So I love that. I love that the album is like Louis said, it is so like, fun is addictive and I’m loving, you know, you talked about some of the influence you have for the album, but for me, it’s very, very harkening back to earlier. Janelle Monae You know that Art Android feel, you know, it’s very futuristic. You know, you are you sort of like a sci fi fan, you know, giving a little bit of like X-Men. It’s giving comic book space. Like, what are your influences beyond just the music industry?

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez I mean, there’s so many things. I mean, I’ve watched them all my life, like when it was coming out in 1994, you know, those are reruns, too, by the way, because I didn’t know the X-Men was older, like much older than me. You know, I mean, I’m but I didn’t know X-Men was. But yeah, that was like always a show that really resonated with me because as I grew up, I found out that it had something to do with the civil rights movement and like it had to do with LGBTQ people and people who were like just different in general that weren’t a part of the LGBTQ community and how they wanted to fight for the rights of just humans. And I was just like, my God, I love this. And I as a kid I just resonated with mutants. So like, I was like, okay. What else? How can I tie all of these and incorporate all of these, you know, imaginative, like, fantasies within the music? And I told myself, okay, I’m just going to look at the blueprint. You know, Stanley did a really good job with creating this whole story around, like just people who are different. And that is true. Mikayla J. 33 and seven is she is like a superhero. She’s definitely a superhero. She doesn’t know that yet. You know, she really hasn’t figured that out yet. But through the journey of the album, you realize at the end she finds her superpower.

 

Louis Virtel Now, speaking of mutants, did I hear this right before you came on? Did you say you were playing Mortal Kombat, which appears to be the first.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Is that. I was getting that thing and these kids would be in my bed. I get so mad at the little 12 or 14 year old. They just are so good.

 

Louis Virtel Who is your Mortal Kombat character of choice? Because I feel like this is a telling litmus test.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Know for sure. I remember telling you when I remember when Mortal Kombat four came out and I was playing Mortal Kombat trilogy for a long time on the Nintendo 64.

 

Ira Madison III Absolutely.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez You know what I mean? Because I remember when Mortal Kombat four came out, it was on the PlayStation one, and Tony was the first, like, honest aside from Jade, the second excuse me, like woman of color that I really resonate with. And she was bombed. Her body was sick and that yellow bodysuit was everything. So therefore, I was playing time today and I was given.

 

Ira Madison III The.

 

Louis Virtel Years that have led to this moment of you playing Mortal Kombat today. I’m thrilled to be a part of it.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Thank you.

 

Ira Madison III I think I was always more of like a you know, I love Scorpion. You know, I really love I look I love the shrouded figures. You know, they always find some.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Mystery, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Sonya Blade here played brilliantly by Bridgette Wilson Sampras in the film. Yeah, of course.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. Yes. We love the film. We love the film. The film is campy, but the film is has a beautiful place in our hearts.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez I just love that I know these things. It just makes me so happy. Are you guys talking about Mortal Kombat one?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. I’m a couple of years older than you. J So just be aware that I guess I actually it was more of a street fighter person for Mortal Kombat that was at my friend’s house and my parents weren’t watching that I would be able to play Mortal Kombat because there was more bloodshed in that. And my parents, quite Christian at the time, were afraid.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Yes, this listen, I’m not going to my mom used to think it was my mom. Let me play games. But the gore of it all, she never liked Gore, so she would be worried about me watching it. And I’m like, this ain’t nothing.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, that’s also why I think I missed the whole flavor of the arcade lifestyle that we grew up with, right? You know, when you couldn’t play it at home, you could be at the mall and you could play Mortal Kombat there. There’s a bar here in New York City, and I think it’s called Out outer Out Habit. And and they have a Mortal Kombat arcade game inside of it by the bathrooms. And I always play it when I go to the bathroom.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez See, that’s the thing. I mean, also, I feel like it has this, like, kind of social aspect where everyone can just, like, be around people and just have fun. Like, it’s just that arcade life was so good. I still kind of, like, bustling. But you’re right. I was just there.

 

Louis Virtel So we’ve talked now about how X-Men is an inspiration for you. Would you talk about do you have other unexpected influences who you know, you’re always thinking about when you’re singing or performing or acting or anything.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Well, I mean, there’s a lot of influences when it comes to acting. I mean, you know, Angela Bassett, she was very prominent in my house on the television screen, you know? Who else? There are some other great people I get. I always get, like, stuck even thinking about it because there were so many. But, you know, Viola Davis was also a huge, huge inspiration. Holly Berry. I remember watching her as Storm and I was just like, wow. Finally, they like, create a storm like. And then seeing her trajectory after that, even being on swordfish and then winning an Oscar, it was just those women were very inspirational to me. And I was just like, okay, it’s possible. It’s tangible. Even as a trans kid, like I get that. Like, it’s possible. It’s tangible. So aside from acting, I would say like music was kind of the list for Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, You know, I could go on and on and on and on. Phyllis Hyman, if anyone knows who Phyllis Hyman is out there.

 

Louis Virtel Absolutely.

 

Ira Madison III Absolutely. Yes.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez But like, you know, like these were inspirations with these women who were talented and been looking at the girls now like I’m and I feel like I’m ever, like, evolving. I don’t ever get stuck. Like, I’m not trying to get stuck like and like looking at Chloe and how me and Dolce and Doja and, you know, all of these new girls that are coming. Meghan And like all the reason why, though, I keep growing, like I’m watching all of these girls and they are inspiration. They are really rocking out here and like, turning it. And I’m like, okay, these like, true artists, creators.

 

Ira Madison III It’s exciting to hear you talk about sort of, you know, always evolving in your artistry. And when you mention, you know, like Chaka and Aretha, because I remember your first single that you dropped was something to say. And that was giving, you know, sort of that sort of Chaka Khan 90s 80s flavor something for the club. And I got to see you perform that live like a couple of times at events and you were fantastic. Thank you. And sort of what what were you thinking when that song came out and sort of what happened between, I guess, the release of that song and then the creation of this album?

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez So I felt like when I so I’m so glad I can tell this story to because Neil Bourdain, all of them were there for the like, the metamorphosis of and the growth of Mikayla J. Like, even when we dropped something to say at first it was under MJ and then we changed it to Michael J. Or yeah, when something St came out, I felt like that was my fat, my first introduction and my first. It’s like the sweet girl opening up, like the girl next door just coming out and saying, Come here. You know what I mean? And I was so proud of it. And all of those inspirations that you mentioned, like the Chaka Khan. That was all encompassed in that. I wanted people to know where I came from, who taught me at my mama and my family and, you know, the music inspiration that I had, the people that were behind me like Bourdain and a guy named Sergio and Jimmy Pogue, and the list goes on. Smith You know, when we first did that, we wanted it to be funky and we wanted people to hear the funk and hear the R&B. We wanted them to hear, like, real music. And I saying that this music now is not real because it is real, but like instrumentation, you know what I mean? And then, I mean, after that, we did a really good, like, campaign of it, if you will, and it was really good. And in the time while that was happening, there was just like me thinking of so many things that I wanted to be and how I wanted to change and who and how I wanted to grow. The sweet girl was no longer there was like a grown sensual, but very, like, you know, sophisticated. Being that wanted to express herself and being a new Verdean understood it through the music and when. Me and Nick Smith first met. I remember. And forgive me if I’m talking a lot. Let me know if I’m talking too much because we don’t have much time to. And I want to take up now time you feel me.

 

Ira Madison III Please. No. Take your time, girl.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Thank you. But I remember when I. I went in the studio with Nick Smith. He said, What is on your mind? And I was like, I just want to write something. Can I listen to some of your beats? And he was like, Yeah, sure. And then we just started creating things and in the process and I remember just words come into my head. And after we were done, I could go on with the story. That would be for another time. But after we were done, I went to Neil. And I was nervous. Nick wasn’t nervous at all. I was nervous because I was like, my God, no, this is new. This is not like something to say. This is this is technological. This is not the girl next or the girl next door is in the past now. And this is the future. Like. In the how I hope. I hope he understands it. And when I played it for him, he loved it. He also obviously gave notes on it because it was still a skeleton. At first it was not like what it is now. There were so many components that had to go in agreements. And. When he gave the rite of passage. At that moment, I was like, okay, it’s time to like. It’s time to let the world know who McCain was raised and. Her inspirations like Janet Jackson and. You know, the Michael Jackson’s and the Britney Spears and. You know that those girls you felt me like. That’s what I want to bring back in a 2.0 form, because you can’t recreate it. So you have to be it yourself. And I feel like that entity of McKayla 33 and seven, she was like, you have to do this. Like you have to. If you don’t, you would be letting a lot of people down and you can’t do it. So here we are today, and I consider myself, this is like my artist self talking, like I consider myself present day Mikayla J. And whenever the past Mikayla days I was even sometimes do I get down on my Instagram for people to know that it’s in the past and that there is the future that’s ahead of us. And that makes sense. You know, I hope people understand that. But I wanted that whole arc of even the album to see what it looks like to be in the present. And knowing that you can recollect your past to get to the future, you can go to do that.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it all adds up. I’m actually not surprised to hear you mention Janet Jackson. I think of a song she did maybe like feedback or something and that feel with that sort of slick robotic energy, like something like that would have also fit right on this album. What particular inspiration do you take from her? I still feel like we’re at the beginning of describing how influential Janet Jackson is, as you know, an entertainer, a dancer, a pop performer. How does she resonate with you?

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez My God. Yeah. I don’t even think words can express how much that one resonates with me. I mean, the Jackson five were always played in my house all the time. I mean, I grew up with them. My uncles, like, they grew up with that music they were in that time. So like, Janet was always playing in the house when she was the kid. Like I was watching her and I saw her growth And so. She’s an inspiration and which is a huge, huge influence on this album, along with a lot of artists. Like being Beyonce is definitely an influence on some of this, too. But Janet. Her sharpness. Her edge. Yet her sophistication and her grace, you know. Through her artistry when she’s performing. I just I really loved watching it. I love seeing it. I loved. I love. Even pulling from it, you know, because we all buy a little. Let’s be real. Like I’m a part of this. We are by everyone doing like so.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez You know, that’s what inspiration is. And you twerk it, you do it your own way. And then people like, okay, that’s her. But yeah, it she was that girl, too. Like she was. She is that girl. She still is. You know what I mean? Aside from everything else.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I would have lastly ask you, you know, you are stepping into, you know, Mikayla J you know, 3307I like your persona and this character. When you were acting, do you find that, you know, when you are, you know, playing angel, when you are playing blank, when you are playing any other role, do you also feel like you take on a persona when you are acting, or do you feel like this is just your truest self when you are, you know, playing a character?

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez No, I think I have to. When it comes to acting, I have to take on a I have to take on that character. Like that is the most important thing I have. I can’t I mean, I can bring aspects of myself into it, but it’s for me. What I’ve learned when I was. Going to New Jersey Performing arts. The most important thing is you have to separate yourself so that you don’t get enthralled and get lost. And in order for you to do that, you have to learn the character and create a character for yourself. So I do definitely disassociate so that I can still be me and I can still be Mikayla. But when it comes to music, that’s the thing. Like it’s different, and I can see why a lot of artists can get caught up. You know what I mean? In the persona? Because that’s a total different ballgame. But yeah, when it comes to acting, no, that’s it’s actually safer. It feels much more safer to me, like. And that’s what I love. I know I sound crazy, but that’s why I love both. Because I can live on edge in music and I can be comfortable in acting and know that I can come home to myself and leave that character at the stage of the studio.

 

Louis Virtel Well, that sounds lovely. Acting seems so stressful to me. The way you just described it made it seem like it’s kind of therapeutic.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Well, it can be. You know, when I was doing the crying, a lot of emotion. I was a lot.

 

Ira Madison III Of thinking about leaving that character behind is just reminds me of an interview to just start with Nicole Kidman, where she discusses how she is such an empathetic person and her mother told her she was from such a young age that she has the problem where she cannot separate herself from characters. So when she she’s at the end of a role, it drains her so much and she doesn’t leave it behind. And some actors don’t do that.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez You know, it’s funny. I mean, I will say, when I was playing Blanca, being that she was very close to me. Sofia Not close to me. Carolyn. Not close to me from tick. Tick. Boom. No, even a transformer. Not close to me, you know? I mean, I can. I can just. But, Blanca, it was very hard for me in the beginning to disassociate from her because our struggle was very similar. You know what I mean? So, like, if there were a lot of things, even though I didn’t grow up in the 1993, I still went through the same exact struggle. Is that woman, did you not? I mean. And as a lot of the girls in the ballroom scene did, so I understand the I understand one, I love Nicole Kidman. My God. Element of that.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez I think that’s that’s a true actress like she that that shows you that she gets engulfed and looked in the character so much that she can’t separate herself. And yet it can be dangerous. I mean, you know, got you know got. Bless you. You know, like that’s what sometimes it can do. But look at the work as well. Like it’s. You know what I mean? So it’s it’s yes, it can be stressful sometimes, but if you do know how to have a balance, then you will live. And I remember a woman named Freddie Walker Brown from Rent, the original.

 

Ira Madison III Mmmhmm

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez She gave me very, very I say this in every interview and I’m not going to let it down. I hope she hears it every time. She always told me to make sure you go home. Go to sleep and don’t stay out. And always make sure you separate yourself from the character that you are living in. And I made sure I mean Blanca you know that was my lil L because I got caught up and I got real caught up in her. But after that I was like, I have to take, I have to really separate because you have to have a life to you can’t get involved and take months off. Also, there’s work out there. You not I mean, you can’t get so caught up in the character that it’s stunting. Stunting your work.

 

Louis Virtel My God. Well, thank you so much for being here. The album is fabulous. And again, just put it on four times in a row while you’re doing anything. And my favorite song on the album is Started From. So that’s the one I’m playing most.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Yes, that’s the that’s the funk. That’s you on to Something for a Dame. Yeah, they were all on that one, so.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean that is, that’s a great song and I listen, I love the album, I love love the album. But I’m going to still be running back. Something to say too. I love that song. I love that funk. Right. So whatever you want to get funky again, I’ll find you.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Trust and believe it shall be coming back. She’s not leaving too far behind.

 

Ira Madison III All right. Thank you so much for being here.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Of course, y’all are of vibe. Thank you.

 

Louis Virtel Also. No, I was just thinking that we get so few artists who like referenced, like the feel of Chaka Khan. And I did like on Cowboy Carter. The song Desert Eagle reminds me of Chaka Khan a little bit. Like other people need to be listening to old Chaka Khan. I’m missing it.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez They do.

 

Ira Madison III We need funk back.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez I think we’ve funk R&B. We need true country. You know, we can talk about that for days. Like we need that back. But.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

That’s gonna come.

 

Ira Madison III We do. I don’t know if, you know, there’s in New York, there’s this of Ellie Escobar just opened this new club in Brooklyn called Gabriela’s, and it’s like his kind of music is just very like the 80s, 90s, just sort of like, like the funk, the pop, the R&B. And it’s that’s the best music to dance to. Yeah. You know, and when you hear that I haven’t done that that’s so someone’s got to bring that back. Yeah you have an improved on it that is that’s truly the best music to dance to so.

 

Mikayla J. Rodriguez Well we shall see. We shall, we shall see what it brings. You know, I am a pop girl. She’s born, you know, around the 2006 and the Britney Spears came out and the pinks and all those things came out. So, you know, she’s got those aspirations and the Beyonce is in the A-list. You know, that was a huge, huge, crucial inspiration for me when I saw those kind of girls come out. So, I mean, I hope we get some some funk out there soon. But like this, this future. Gross That’s our story first. You know what I mean.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III This past weekend, megalopolis Francis Ford Coppola’s $130 million passion project finally hit theaters. We’ve only heard bad things about it since it tanked at Cannes this year. And now we’re going to say some more because this made me want to leave the cannoli, take the gun and shoot myself with it.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, it is truly a dreadful experience. I will say it is kind of bad in an old fashioned way, which is to say, every actor in it is like making wild accusations about what kind of movie they think they’re in. And everybody is incorrect.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. What feel sort of classic bad about the film is the fact that this is a project that Coppola has been working on for about 40 years. To be honest, he started developing the idea for it in the 70s. He has been trying to get funding for it, has been writing the script for since like about the 80s. There’s been different sort of versions of this. He had a string of box office failures in the 80s which sort of torpedoed this film happening. And then apparently 911 happened and this film was too similar to the events of 911, I guess. So that torpedoed it. Again, I fail to see how.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. I don’t understand at all.

 

Ira Madison III By the way. And then he was just running out of money, I guess, and then cooked up a scheme to sell wine to the masses so he could make enough money for this film. And you know what? I feel like I helped to make this movie. You know, it feels like an old school Kickstarter because I love Coppola wine.

 

Louis Virtel So you’re an enabler is what you’re saying? Because this movie is so effing dreadful. You sit down. I have to say, I had been prepared for it being bad because you keep hearing that people are leaving the theater. And that intrigued me because I didn’t know if that meant it was like a vulgar drink. Yes. Yes. One of those movies are over. But no, truly, what’s happening here is the movie is very senseless. You have the story of Adam Driver, who, by the way, is on thin ice with me. First of all, his performance in Ferrari Boots, his performance in House of Gucci Boot. He gave me that movie, Silence. I had to sit through that once upon a time. Absolutely not. I’m holding on to the films of merit.

 

Ira Madison III 65 was a gag.

 

Louis Virtel Okay? Yes, yes, yes, yes. But anyway, he plays this guy who develops this building material that he wants to come up with this dream megalopolis with. And that’s the beginning of it. But honestly, I can barely even explain what like Aubrey Plaza, who’s playing somebody named Bo Platinum. Great name.

 

Ira Madison III Antsy While Platinum.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Right. Shia LaBeouf is in this. Jon Voight, I am sorry to say, gives one of the best performances in the movie, even though it’s like it’s like comic and disoriented. Talia Shire, Francis Ford Coppola’s sister, and Jason Schwartzman, who’s also in this movie. His mother is in this giving a kook a real performance. None of them go together. I can’t really honestly say I knew what I was watching at any given moment. It’s a lot of like phantasmagoric images. And then also the thing that is craziest to me about this movie is, as you said, it costs like $120 million, baby. Where did the money go? Because the look of this movie is supposed to be like futuristic and impressive, when to me it looks like. And here’s what came to mind. Do you remember the 2001 Aerosmith video with Tara Reid? Fly Away from Here. It’s just a futuristic city, like just short of the flying cars. It’s exactly the boilerplate looking, you know, utopian looking place you would expect from any CGI, AI generated environment.

 

Ira Madison III It was giving sky captive in the world of tomorrow. Let’s be real here. But cheaper?

 

Louis Virtel Sure. Right. A sky captain in the world of Kickstarter. Yes, exactly.

 

Ira Madison III The first thing I want to say about this film is that there is a version of this film that is maybe not good, but at least. More at guess comprehensible. Yeah, because there is allegedly sort of like a four hour cut of this film. And this film clocks in at about two hours and 18 minutes. And Coppola is infamous for that director’s cut of a film. You know, he always has to chop it down for a theatrical release. But I feel like at this point, when you’re doing a 130 million vanity film that you fund it yourself. Just release the whole fuck it for our film, you know, because two hours and 18 minutes for me. It felt so disjointed.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I agree.

 

Ira Madison III Watching it.

 

Louis Virtel It’s like things are missing. Yes. Well, it’s still trying to impress you with all these surrealistic images.

 

Ira Madison III Aubrey Plaza and Shiela buff are ostensibly the villains of this film, but I don’t even realize that until an hour into the film, because none of their motivations are readily apparent until an hour into the movie. And then especially the motivations of Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Natalie Emmanuel’s father, and he is the D.A. who keeps trying to prosecute Adam Driver. You keep jumping back and forth from scenes where he’s friendly with Adam Driver and trying to lock him up and then he’s friendly with him again. And then Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel are maybe together and maybe having a kid together and it’s just so disjointed and I have no idea what is happening in the movie sometimes from scene to scene. And I think actually the four hour cut was needed.

 

Louis Virtel I agree. And also, you just brought up Nathalie Emmanuel. So it cannot be understated how often these people are just spouting lines. And I can tell they don’t know if they’re even saying them. Right. Because a key part of my screening was people laughing out loud at bad dialog, which is something I do not. That’s not something I ever thought would happen in a Francis Ford Coppola movie. I mean, if you watch like The Godfather, I mean, like that crisp dialog or the conversation or Rumble Fish, you just don’t think of it as being like, amateurish. Lee Self-serious or confusing, just like all the dialog in this movie does not does not feel like you’re interacting with real characters. In fact, you know what this movie reminded me of? You ever meet like a precocious 11 year old somewhere who says, I just wrote a book? It’s 612 pages, and you’re like, It’s one of those excitable pre-teens.

 

Ira Madison III This is.

 

Louis Virtel Me. Yes, you. This is what I feel like that kid wrote where it’s like everything is like outsize and like everything feels like a big serious moment and it’s just confusing. Like, there’s lots of worldbuilding that you can tell they’re really invested in. But it’s completely the mythology of it makes no sense until like a casual onlooker.

 

Ira Madison III Here’s the thing. Coppola has like a unique visionary mind. And I love just like I love him as a director. But I also think that he needs to work with a co-writer. Yeah, or needs to work from source material. You know, you have the Godfather films, obviously came from the Mario Puzo books and Apocalypse Now as well. And then, you know, One From the Heart and Outsiders was a book. And then Cotton Club was also had a co-writer at which also Cotton Club was better with the full director’s cut. Yeah. By the way, you know, but he didn’t write. Peggy Sue got married. One of my favorite films of his, you know, And he didn’t write Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but. This was giving twixt.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right.

 

Ira Madison III Which he did, right?

 

Louis Virtel Correct. Correct. No, I mean, obviously he’s an Oscar winning screenwriter. He wrote the script for Patton Once Upon a time. Godfather films again. If you haven’t seen the conversation, I think that is a movie that is under-discussed. Because if you if you hear anything about it, it’s a spoiler. So you’ve just got to see it now. Trust me, it’s like the best of what our favorite genre Irony. Paranoid thrillers. The key 70s. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Patent Also a right.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Yeah. Precisely. Precisely. So anyway, go ahead and be baffled by the movie if you need to be, but it feels like it’s already fallen out of the conversation, people. There’s nothing to say about a movie that is so senseless. You can hardly have an opinion about it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I will absolutely say go see it, though. Sure. I do think you need to see it. I give it a thumbs up.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. I’m going to go live here. And in reality.

 

Ira Madison III I think it’s an awful mess. But it is a thumbs up for me because I am like, wow, what the fuck did I watch? I’m sitting there watching it during the movie and I’m like, I want to give a shout out, though, to my favorite sequence, which was the slumping justice statues as he’s going through the hood of megalopolis.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And so I want to give a shout out to Aubrey Plaza, who once upon a time I would have maybe dismissed as like a one note type of talent, and I would be wrong because now with Ingrid Goes West, that role in the White Lotus and her fabulous work in Emily the Criminal. I hope people see Emily the criminal. She really is a dependable and grounding force in in whatever she does. And I’m really psyched to be a big fan of hers now.

 

Ira Madison III This is honestly, it feels weird to say this is one of my favorite performances of hers because I don’t know what movie she was in. Like you said, they’re all in different films. But I loved this performance of hers right from the first scene that she’s there and she’s played this reporter, and she’s giving you more gusto in the opening of the film than anybody else.

 

Louis Virtel No. You want her to be back on screen when she’s not on screen, so we’ll just leave it there. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III And also, I want to point out her amazing turn in the effects series Legion. Yeah. Based on the X-Men comics, she’s just a killer. And I think that. I think that there is. There’s definitely Oscar.

 

Louis Virtel Totally. And I haven’t seen my old ass yet, which I hear she’s great. And so I’m excited to see.

 

Ira Madison III What she I mean, the film is amazing when she’s on camera, so. And I actually like the film too. I think that Maisy Stella is amazing too, but the film is sort of really elevated when Aubrey Plaza is on screen because it sort of rises above the material, which is a little bit to sort of something we’ve seen before and maybe something that’s a little bit way for me in general. It adds a bit more gravitas to it. I want to say lastly though, syllabus character in this film, what the fuck was going on?

 

Louis Virtel We did not need to resuscitate him for this.

 

Ira Madison III I I’m for this now. Okay. American honey. Sure. Andrea Arnold got something out of Skyler Buffet, and I was like, okay, you know what? She did that, right?

 

Louis Virtel He was going to be Crispin Glover weird here and just came off as, What are you doing? And where are we?

 

Ira Madison III At some point, he’s running around cross-dressing, but maybe it’s also Halloween.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Is it Halloween? That’s a good question. Whenever you’re watching.

 

Ira Madison III It, there’s a sequence in the film where I. I do not know if it’s Halloween or not. So. And also, we’re in a Roman Colosseum.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. So just go and see this movie. We’ll be right back with our segment of the episode. Keep it there.

 

Ira Madison III And we are back with our favorite segment of the episode. It is Keep it. Louis. Yes. What are you keeping this week?

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Mine is going to be monsters. The Lyle and Erik Menendez story. Here’s the thing. Not that it’s not entertaining. I think everybody watches this show the entire way through, in fact. But at the same time, Ryan Murphy, I think we have to be conscious of making movies that remind me of what they’re making at the end of the movie May, December. There is not a single second where I’m watching this movie or I’m like, This is not even close to the reality of what happened with the Menendez brothers, down to the looks and down to their dynamic. There’s implications in this show that they had an incestuous relationship. Nothing about that ever occurred in real life. There’s no record of that. And you just it feels like. This was such a lurid tabloid story at the time. And I feel like Ryan Murphy always like tasked himself with the with the challenge of making it even more lurid, like making it even less close to reality than your perception already is. And watching it, I, I guess there’s entertainment value from it, but it’s just another show of his where after you watch it, you know you’re not getting anything. It’s like a it’s like bad true crime, which is to say, I’m like, okay, now I’m aware of this crime. And that’s all I’ve gotten out of this. It’s just something that maybe I think would be more palatable as a movie, but as like a eight episode show where like now we learn about this character and then this person and this crazy motivation that’s also not true to life, just a big waste of time.

 

Ira Madison III Ryan Murphy.

 

Louis Virtel Ryan Nasty Again. There are projects of his I like and I will stick my neck out and say when the Madonna biopic comes, I actually hope he does it. I think he will do justice to her life.

 

Ira Madison III But yeah. Icons like that. People he reveres? Sure. I think that Ryan Murphy should also just investigate true crime stories from the past. I think that this sort of need to excavate the recent past the 90s is I mean, you want something that’s still in recent pop culture is still fresh in people’s minds. Right. But these people are still alive, you know, and it just feels. Gross This feels just as gross as the Dahmer shed when you were sort of, you know, abusing those victims stories, you know, and I feel like tell some story from the fucking 1800s, you know, do the fucking Lizzie Borden story. That’s right. A story about, okay, write about Lizzie Borden and her sister fucking. I don’t know. Okay. Who cares? Yeah, who cares if. Who cares if you write that? You know, it’s.

 

Louis Virtel It’s weird to hear, like, one of the Menendez brothers speak out and be and think to myself. Finally, someone’s making some sense. Like I can’t be thinking about. Okay, It’s. It’s disorienting for me.

 

Ira Madison III I will say that. I will say that the worst thing I experienced all weekend was just entering any room and someone either saying, have you seen the Menendez or do you want to talk about chaperon? So that’s what Ryan Murphy has done to me.

 

Louis Virtel The two topics in popular culture. IRA, what is your keep it this week?

 

Ira Madison III So my keeper this week goes to Ellen DeGeneres comedy special.

 

Louis Virtel I saw that myself. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Comedy special is a stretch.

 

Louis Virtel Both in comedy and special.

 

Ira Madison III Both words that, listen, I want to give my good sis a shout out. I did laugh a few times.

 

Louis Virtel When she gets into that Bob Newhart timing where she’s talking about whatever, not the sweatpants part. That part made me groan, but like the other of the like how she’s disappointed in pigeons like that kind of old fashioned dry humor. It’s amusing.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And listen, when she’s doing some of her acerbic wit in the beginning, talking about scaring people at work and some of that stuff, I think it’s funny. She has great comedic timing, but. I just don’t get the impetus to have a comeback special after all of the brouhaha and one. Come back and pretend I was kicked out of Hollywood. Girl, you’re rich. You have an estate, and you got a Netflix special, right? You weren’t kicked anywhere. You’re fine. And I’m sure all of your celeb friends were still kicking it with you.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Right. A Porsche comes out on stage at the end, right?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. You were kicked out of anywhere. Girl, you just retreated. You could have just turned off the noise, you know? To. To have your comeback special be the first few jokes. Me hearing you talk about parallel parking. Girl, what are we doing here? Are you. You are like. You look like a bad comic in marvelous Mrs. Basil or something.

 

Louis Virtel I thought that’s what was confusing about that special. There were. It was, like, extremely quaint at times where it was talk. It was like jokes that could have been from 1977 or something.

 

Ira Madison III It was a suburban mom doing. It felt like a suburban mom doing her first stand up set right at the local comedy club. And it was just like, Why are you making jokes about parallel parking? Why are you making jokes about what’s dry cleaning? This is not new fresh comedy in 2024.

 

Louis Virtel Especially if it’s going to be a comeback special. Feels like there should have been some more urgency there. But then also, when she gets into the quote unquote, being kicked out of showbusiness, and then there’s this raucous moment where she just says, well, I’m a strong woman. It’s like, if you’re not going to like, even begin to explain what happened or like why you’re perceived the way you are. Like, what is what are we doing here at this special? It felt like she was using the rhetoric of like a strong woman to like cover a multitude of sins, kind of. And so that made it extremely uncomfortable, even as the audience gave her a standing ovation for literally over a minute. Talk about something that feels like it was out of megalopolis, what it was like. The amount of applause breaks in this show is actually well-documented online. But the this particular standing ovation made no sense. It was it was weird. It felt like it had been chopped together to that part to make us root for her again or something. Anyway, So it’s a very weird special. It’s weird.

 

Ira Madison III White women clap to us for Oprah handing out cars. Okay, like but like, the standing ovations were insane in this special. And just this is the hour. Shucks, This of it all. Yeah. I don’t know. I wasn’t expecting her to be edgy. I wasn’t expecting her to come out and really sort of dike it up, give us pussy licking jokes, you know, some really sort of racy. But I don’t know. There has to be something more to say about being a lesbian in 2024 who’s gone through what she went through in the industry then. Hey, let’s talk about parallel parking.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, truly, if you just ended this special by saying, like she used to say on her show. Be kind to each other and also go fuck yourselves. That would have been great. Give me some moment of of of nastiness to offset this, like, namby pamby thing you do. Yes, that would have been lovely.

 

Ira Madison III All right. Thank you to Mikayla J for joining us this week. That’s our show. To read more. Don’t forget to follow Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

 

Louis Virtel You can also subscribe to keep it on YouTube for access to full episodes and other exclusive content. And if you’re as opinionated as we are, consider dropping us a review.

 

Ira Madison III Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our producers are Chris Lord and Kennedy Hill. Our executive producers are Ira Madison, the third, Louis Virtel and Kendra James.

 

Louis Virtel Our digital team is Megan Patsel, Claudia Shang and Rachel Gaieski. This episode was recorded and mixed by Evan Sutton. Thank you to Matt DeGroot, David Toles Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landes for production support every week.

 

[AD]