Ira and Louis discuss the life and filmography of David Lynch, Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk’s seig heil, and awful product placement on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Graham Norton returns to discuss his new novel Frankie.

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TRANSCRIPT

 

Ira Madison III [AD]

 

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

 

Louis Virtel I’m Louis Virtel. And it’s that moment when four days before the Oscar nominations, which will be announced by our friend Bowen Yang, frequent carpet guest and Rachel Sennett, who I called the Angeline of Silverlake. You could just run into her on the streets. She’s like driving a car. She sells autographs out of her trunk. The Oscar nominations are coming and I’m thinking about my last ditch hopes and I’m realizing it is very up in the air for the best actress category, which almost never happens to us. So I’m more excited than usual, even though if I don’t need Demi Moore to win this Oscar, that’s just something I think we can get into that a little bit later. Are you excited for the Oscars.

 

Ira Madison III Now did Ashton Kutcher pay you to say that?

 

Louis Virtel I’m in the Kunis camp. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel I feel like she and Demi got along. They have a long, straight hair camaraderie.

 

Ira Madison III I am, first of all, floored that the nominations are coming up in a few days. You know, I don’t have my calendar marked for it like you.

 

Louis Virtel I this is the only reason I have a calendar.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, but I don’t know. I’m just. I’m still pulling for Marianne Jean-Baptiste.

 

Louis Virtel Me too. And I’m really worried she’s not going to make it. At this point. It sort of feels like maybe Fernando Torres will get in and she won’t. But I don’t know. Again, Hardcourts is one of those movies where I can’t tell it. People ended up seeing it. It was heralded a lot, but I don’t know that I’ve heard a lot of scuttlebutt about the actual movie itself, so I also got into a fight about that movie recently with somebody on my text chain who said there wasn’t enough of a character arc. And I’m like, Well, the character arc of our friendship is ending, so how about that?

 

Ira Madison III I also think that it really needed a big Golden Globes sort of moment, whereas I think that Sebastian Stan is going to get in and maybe some stuff for a different man because now people have heard of it. Every time I told people, Go and see this movie, I love it. It’s one of my Like That and a Nora are my two favorite films of the year, you know, And it’s finally on Max. I open up the app and I saw that it was there to watch, but otherwise I was like, Where the hell is this movie.

 

Louis Virtel I love In a Different man, Renata Rines, who is then the worst person in the world. She gives a bonkers performance and yet not like a zany. It’s not like you’re watching her be. It’s just it’s very funny and always unexpected. So look out for her too, because she will have an Academy moment sometime in the future.

 

Ira Madison III And it’s such a heartbreaking movie.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, it’s right. And also the performances by everybody, including Sebastian, Stan and are so good. But you got to see a movie that is not in Oscar’s contention yet. I doubt it’s going to get there. It’s a January release, but we’re talking about one of them days with Cesar and Keke Palmer. Now, Keke Palmer, as we know, is among the funniest people alive, and she has the energy of like Rip Taylor or something. I feel like she’s going to, like, throw confetti around the room whenever she enters. But what did you think of it? I’m really curious about this movie.

 

Ira Madison III I thought that this movie was fucking hysterical. Great. Yeah. I went with three friends to see it on a Friday night at AMC, and I can’t think of the last time I felt compelled to really go and see a movie opening night. Yeah, with some friends. Like we had a text chain about it in the morning. It was like, Yeah, let’s all get tickets and go see this movie. And first of all, the theater was also completely diverse in just who was coming to see this movie. You know, there were older people, younger people, different races. I was like, there were like old white men there to see this movie. I’m like, Everybody must love Keke Palmer, I guess.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. They’re watching her new password with Jimmy Fallon or something. I wonder what they’re in is.

 

Ira Madison III I cracked up in every single fucking scene. It’s just. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a comedy that is just consistently funny. Kiki’s great in it. Scissor and her first real acting role is also hilarious.

 

Louis Virtel Okay, I almost have a problem with this. I want the comedies to be good. But again, when people who are just funny and that’s not their job at all, it’s like, again, this is all some of us have. Like, I can’t go and, you know, release R&B hits like that. No, that’s what you do. You see there were two different people.

 

Ira Madison III I think you could do that. Louis, let’s get you in the studio. Let’s get you in the studio with the face.

 

Louis Virtel And Babyface. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Do you know what I learned? He was called the face. It was during an old Whitney interview or someone asked her, How do you feel about Madonna scoring a top ten hit with bedtime stories with Babyface? And she was like, Let me tell you something. Before Madonna and the Face there was I.

 

Louis Virtel Sometimes Whitney Houston is just the Bible. That’s how she speaks. Babyface. I believe, did take a bow, not bedtime stories.

 

Ira Madison III Sorry.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III You’re right. As usual.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you. Yeah. It’s weird that I would know the thing about Madonna. I know, but. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But the movie is. There’s a lot of great cameos in it, too. It’s just like a really funny movie. It’s also very heartfelt and also credited with being a film that doesn’t spend too much time on familiar beats that, you know have to happen in a comedy like this. It’s about two best friends who basically find out that their rent money has gone missing and they have nine hours to pay their landlord or they’re going to be evicted. And obviously, a movie like that where it’s two best friends, there’s going to be a scene at a point towards the end of the movie where, you know, they have a fight. Yeah. But it doesn’t linger on it and it makes it funny. And it’s not one of those things where you’re like, okay, like we’re going to spend the whole movie on something like this. I really, really love the movie, so.

 

Louis Virtel I’m glad to here.

 

Ira Madison III I’m excited to see it again.

 

Louis Virtel No, it’s good. It sounds like it’s got some broad city high jinks in it.

 

Ira Madison III I think it’s going to be probably like a word of mouth kind of film, too, because let me tell you something, I can jump to my keep it early and tell people. If you don’t know who Keke Palmer is, what’s going on here? There were several guys that I interacted with over this weekend at parties who a couple of them didn’t know Keke Palmer was, and some of them also did not know this movie was even out.

 

Louis Virtel What do they know? Do they have a computer phone? Anything that is upsetting, especially since Keke Palmer herself is famous for not knowing who somebody is and that’s her thing. So stop stepping on her game. No. Every time she appears, my God, she did some interview for this movie where she talked about the song Defying Gravity. And she goes, Do you hear that? That’s a slave hymn. And who is she with? Issa Rae. Just like fell over laughing at just the things she says you couldn’t write. We don’t have writers who write what Keke Palmer does.

 

Ira Madison III You know what my favorite thing about that interview is? You know, Cynthia Erivo did not like that.

 

Louis Virtel And she was briefed immediately. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III You know, she read it to her and was like, slave him there. Really?

 

Louis Virtel I wonder if she’ll get a nomination this week. I think she’s the most kind of on the bubble. I think how wicked will perform now that it sort of peaked early in the awards season and we’re seeing that like now we’re seeing like Pamela Anderson come to the fore and other movies like like the Sebastian Stan movie happen. It’s interesting to see what Where Wicked will end up.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I’m excited to see that movie Last Showgirls. Still, I saw it to see that The Brutalist. But everything I’ve heard about the Last Showgirl has been a lot of ho hum from people.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. And it feels like it just doesn’t really need Oscar nominations. But I haven’t seen it yet, so I can confirm that soon. Also regarding the Brutalist. I’m still getting over that. Brady Kirby is the kid from Mysterious Skin that that movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corby it’s like, wow And you turned out this movie that has that reminds me nothing of the Greg Araki movie from the mid 2000. It’s not that I would ever think it would, but this is it’s like Todd Field, you know, the guy who once had a small part in Eyes Wide Shot who gave us the movies in the bedroom and little children suddenly turning out to a movie that has nothing to do with anything.

 

Ira Madison III Well, you know, that is the power of acting.

 

Louis Virtel Thank you. Lee Strasberg, who to Hogg on. What the hell is happening on the show today? What are we doing?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, well, I don’t know if you heard this, but yesterday. A new president was sworn in.

 

Louis Virtel Oh her. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And it was not Dana Delaney.

 

Louis Virtel They had met or Geena Davis on commander in Chief.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, one of the brunets. Yeah. I feel like I feel like ten different women had a TV show or movie where they were president between 1997 and 2004.

 

Louis Virtel Remember when Meryl Streep was our president? And don’t look up a movie I refuse to bring up again. I’m sorry to even do it now.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. The inauguration happened yesterday on MLK Day, by the way. And if you think I spent any time thinking about that, you’d be wrong. Okay. We’re going to discuss it today.

 

Louis Virtel A lot went down. Carrie Underwood, a performer who once defeated our beloved Vance L Solomon on the television series American Idol. Got to perform. And I would describe myself as crestfallen at that news. So we’ll get into that.

 

Ira Madison III Also this week, there was the shocking news that David Lynch passed away.

 

Louis Virtel I was literally on a call with IRA about a completely different matter when I announced it to the group. Like, I was like Walter Cronkite with a brief just somebody who expected to be around for ten more years, like the feeling of David Lynch’s Always in the air. Everybody’s always craving more lynchian content. So the fact that he just up and died and has like and turned out to be mortal feels very shocking.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, It has obviously been a blow to the film community and you can really sort of feel it in New York. I live around the corner from the IFC and the marquee changed to it within like an hour, right? I passed by it, said David Lynch, the best to ever do it. So, yeah, we’ll get into that and we’ll talk a bit about his films and about Twin Peaks, obviously. And our guest this week is a returnee. Yes, Graham Norton.

 

Louis Virtel Let’s talk about the best to ever do it. If there’s an interview with a celebrity, I’m always praying he’s the one to do it. Gets a lot of guests and is hilarious himself and hosts just the best show. England just gets it. I am upset with how rad they get to be over there. We just don’t do Redniss here.

 

Ira Madison III And he upped the ante by also apparently being a really fucking great fiction writer.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. yeah. He’s here to talk about his new book, which we’ll get into. And by the way, before we get into the show, I just want to say R.I.P. also to Dame Joan Plowright, whom I think modern audiences probably know most from bringing Down the House. But she is a grand dame of the theater, wife of Laurence Olivier. And if you have not seen the movie Enchanted April, which she was nominated for an Oscar for, where she is sort of this dowager vibe, she walks in and is immediately, unbelievably hilarious. This is the year that Marisa Tomei won for My Cousin Vinny, but all five nominees, that’s one of my favorite lineups in the history of the Oscars. Those five women, she is just hysterical. And she’s also, of course, in the movie Tea with the Dames, which is called Nothing Like a Dame over in England, which is those four actresses, Judi Dench, the late Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins and Joan Plowright, just sitting around in this cottage they share talking about old stories, which is unbelievably funny. So r.i.p to Joan Plowright, who just died at 95.

 

Ira Madison III Now, I know you didn’t leave off one of her best credits, which is. 101 Dalmatians.

 

Louis Virtel I feel bad. I should have. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like that. You probably wouldn’t even know her from that movie, but it’s also a classic.

 

Louis Virtel So this is the Glenn Close.

 

Ira Madison III 101 degrees and close 101 Dalmatians. Yes. She’s not that old, right?

 

Louis Virtel Betty Lou Gerson in that movie, one of the great video performances of all time.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like that movie originally, it feels like it came out like 1942.

 

Louis Virtel The white man made it. Yes. And it’s the early 60s because it’s sort of it’s like sort of swinging 60s London, like the droll, like the silhouettes everywhere and stuff. Yeah. Anyway, we’ll be right back with more people. If it is brought to you by armor colostrum, I’m always on the lookout for ways to strengthen immunity and gut health, improve my fitness and metabolism, and enhance my skin and hair radiance, which, as you can see right now, is poppin. Well, luckily, I found a product that does all that and more. You know how I like starting out my day with a boost? I’ll take anything caffeine, a compliment, whatever. But armor colostrum is the actual boost that will get me going through my day.

 

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Ira Madison III On Monday. Tick tock savior. Donald Trump was inaugurated as president for the second time despite the spirit of MLK weekend. And while the parts Abrams will be talking about all the serious repercussions of that on their little podcast are probably Stephen Colbert. For the eighth time this week. Louis and I are going to talk about something equally important. Carrie Underwood.

 

Louis Virtel Again. I can’t it’s hard to say that you’re disappointed by Carrie Underwood, because I don’t know that I’ve ever had a bar that she, like, ran and jumped over, you know what I mean? I mean, I don’t expect much from her. That said, again, we talked about last week how she’s on a bill with the Village People. And I just want to say what’s left of the Village People, which is one original member who is straight and apparently befuddled that anybody would interpret that Village people as a gay troop when they have songs literally called Fire Island and Key West and Hot Cop. So he’s just confused. And also, do you know who he used to be married to? So Phylicia Rashad, which another bad decision Phylicia Rashad made? I don’t know what to tell you about that. But we love Phylicia Rashad. She’s lovely in the Creed movies anyway. But um.

 

Ira Madison III The Creed movies.

 

Louis Virtel Carrie Underwood performed America the Beautiful. And I don’t know if you saw this actual footage. When it’s clipped on YouTube, you won’t see this whole thing. She walked in, was announced, and promptly stood there for over a minute while they didn’t have the music ready. So she is literally standing there and, in my opinion, forced to think about what she has chosen to do. She is standing there in silence. Everybody is standing there in silence. Kamala is behind her, wishing lightning would actually hit her in that moment. And you’re waiting for her to start singing and she just decides she has to do it a cappella eventually. Which leads to a D-minus performance of America the Beautiful. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Carrie Underwood sound worse. I will say about the girl, if she’s singing at an event, you can count on her to hit the notes twice. Now we have hired this woman to toast Linda Ronstadt during two of the biggest accolades she ever got. She was there singing Linda Ronstadt songs for Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center Honors and at her induction at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So I just want to say thank you, Carrie Underwood. It should have been anybody but you. You’re telling me Kelly Clarkson couldn’t have done that?

 

Ira Madison III Imagine Kelly Clarkson there.

 

Louis Virtel I know. I know. I mean, Linda Ronstadt would sooner be dead than be at this inauguration. It’s just it’s so insulting that we had Carrie Underwood, in retrospect, perform for her.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I guess Jesus took the notes.

 

Louis Virtel I’m not giving it back.

 

Ira Madison III Thank God that Kamala Harris has some dignity or also, I guess this punishment kink for her to actually show up to the inauguration and be there. But, God, I am so happy that we have her facial reaction to Carrie Underwood singing.

 

Louis Virtel No, she was it was that kind of a Nicole Kidman trying that food on that one show one time. She’s like, not sure about that. Something keeps jolting through her neck.

 

Ira Madison III Also, I’m sorry. These people are losers. Okay? Like, there is really no other way to describe Trump and his cronies than to call them losers when the village people are performing and that man is doing his dad’s behind them. It’s it’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever seen in your life.

 

Louis Virtel It’s so embarrassing. But like, I guess his superpower is never seeming embarrassed, at least to, you know, his superfans or whatever. But he is. First of all, let’s just talk about the blocking on this. The village people are whatever they are and their outfits that I’m guessing are procured from consignment bins. I have no idea how they function or view themselves, but they’re there. And Trump is sort of just angled behind them doing his marionette dance, which, you know, when Conan does moves like that, I love it. But coming from Trump, it feels dictatorial. And standing there to this one song, it’s like, do people want to watch this? Like it’s like his It’s like this act. He does that. It’s supposed to be endearing, but everybody I don’t think anybody loves the song YMCA that much.

 

Ira Madison III No. And it’s also this weird conservative thing where the only celebrities and musicians they can get are, you know, the bottom of the barrel. Right. And so they have to, by nature, pretend to love these things. You know, when you have Scott Baio showing up, you know, you have to pretend like this is a celebrity you’re really excited to meet.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. But, you know, it did baffle me. Apparently, Jewel was there at some health based inaugural ball and she performed to these hands. They are my own and they’re covering my eyes. I’m embarrassed for you, bitch. Why are you there.

 

Ira Madison III While she loves RFK Jr? Apparently. And I mean, when you’ve been inhaling all those carburetor fumes.

 

Louis Virtel In your band all those years. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III You know, it’s. It’s done something to her brain.

 

Louis Virtel So she’s got what we. What we call Scherzinger syndrome where something about RFK Jr you think is like magical and should be supported publicly on Instagram. And then you just torch you’re standing with every gay person you’ve ever met.

 

Ira Madison III You had Billy Ray Cyrus there. And I mean, you can text the president, but you can’t talk to your daughter back. No.

 

Louis Virtel I love all his hits. And I was like, though I guess he is technically also a co artist. I’m one of the biggest billboard songs of the past ten years. Old Town Road.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Kid Rock was there as usual. When there’s Kid Rock, not there.

 

Louis Virtel I would love for him to have something to do. Dreams. Anything else?

 

Ira Madison III Once upon a time. I really did love that song about the bar.

 

Louis Virtel Please. When they performed it with the opera at the Met for the 1999 VMAs. Another reason that that may be the definitive best award show of all time.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Nelly was there. Was he in reason? Yeah. Nelly. And this really upset me because my text chain and I went through all of the Nelly songs that we love, too, and we were like, Fuck you, Nelly.

 

Louis Virtel My God. What a dilemma. Featuring Kelly Rowland and also Rick Ross.

 

Ira Madison III Soulja Boy, this is mostly upsetting because I tend to remember when Chris Chris that Michelle performed at Trump’s first inauguration, she was basically blacklisted and slandered by black people writ large, and I do not think that any of that is going to happen to these four men who performed for Trump.

 

Louis Virtel Well, it weirdly feels a bit not under wraps, but not as publicized as you would think, like Carrie Underwood. I’ve heard several reports about. But like Soulja Boy was there. That’s really weird. Also, I actually, I’m a little bit getting over Nelly, too. Isn’t Nelly dating somebody we care about? Ashanti.

 

Ira Madison III Ashanti.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Ashante, Bitch, Get the fuck out of here.

 

Ira Madison III But I did have to think about Donald Trump this weekend, though, when the whole TikTok fiasco happened.

 

Louis Virtel And you knew exactly what was going to happen with that. That stunt was set up. It was Evel Knievel baby. Like, you’re like he’s going to jump through that hoop and everyone’s going to clap.

 

Ira Madison III And yet there are a lot of people mad at Gen Z for quote unquote, celebrating the return of Tik Tok and thanking Donald Trump. I have not seen a single gen-z person praising Donald Trump for this. I think that it is completely transparent that Donald Trump let TikTok be “banned” so that he could bring it back on the day of his inauguration. And then also TikTok, take the dick out of your mouth.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel That guy at the inauguration.

 

Ira Madison III The notification that came out when Tik Tok was ending was, you know, President Trump is working hard to bring TikTok back to you. And then when it was back up, thank you, President Trump, for doing this. It’s like you sound fucking stupid.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, it’s incredibly sad. I mean, it’s just and also, it’s like the head of TikTok being at the inauguration. It’s like, do you guys know what cronyism is? Like, this is disgusting.

 

Ira Madison III Mark Zuckerberg there.

 

Louis Virtel And her perm is fly. I mean, like don’t say that the girl didn’t get a blowout. We don’t love I mean.

 

Ira Madison III Jeff Bezos looking like his best. Lex Luthor was there. Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, his fiancee, showed up in a blazer, but with like a lingerie top underneath.

 

Louis Virtel Nasty. I mean, I kind of approve otherwise. Yeah, but with the white suit it’s it’s giving one of my favorite references. Joan London for Claritin. But but her vibe is very much Gina Gershon character. And I think I would have if you had told me Gina Gershon were there, I’d have believed you. So I actually have to apologize to Gina Gershon because, you know, she’ll do a Woody Allen movie, you know what I’m saying?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I think the main issue with all of these, you know, billionaires collected behind Trump is that it is just so. It’s I have to use the word transparent again. It is so it’s so unbelievable that people could champion this man as the voice of the people, as someone who cares about the working class in this country. And then you have literally all of these tech billionaires behind him as he’s being inaugurated and they’re all behind him, you know, bending the knee because they don’t want him to fuck up their companies.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Also, by the way, it was weird watching him try to talk about Tic TAC, where he said something like, somebody showed me a couple of Tic Tacs, the things I’ll do for a campaign, and it’s like, so you also have contempt for Tick Tock and you also want to be considered the savior of tick tock. I mean, I understand that coherence is not what people crave from Donald Trump, but it is one of those things where if you listen to what he says, like one paragraph by one paragraph at a time, it takes no time at all before he has contradicted himself or made some shit up. And it’s just I don’t know how to reiterate that. It’s it’s just so insane. And you just have to dissociate the way. I’m sorry. I know I work for Crooked Media and it’s like, well, we can do this, this and this to help out and you can do those things to help out. But instead I also need to just not think about it. It’s so horrible.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Listening to anything he says, it’s like those stories you used to do where it was one person write a sentence, how you pass it on.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, that is exactly what it’s like. And like it there’s ten different types of handwriting and you pass it around in your class and like you, your story that you were really proud of at first turns into something really stupid because you handed it to the person who is, you know, the kid who eats all the candy in class all day, and you’re like, Where did you get that candy?

 

Ira Madison III And that is just the thing that he generally has contempt for everyone who’s around him. And yet he has to pretend that he does not, because first of all, Donald Trump doesn’t give a fuck about tick tock.

 

Louis Virtel No, never thinks about it. It is literally just I want to be around a crowd that is loudly chanting my name. It is all about adulation.

 

Ira Madison III And if you love political theater, the theater of the absurd, I guess some of it was fun, but otherwise I just didn’t want to think about it.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, even Melania’s, whatever she was doing, I was talking about this, but when I walked in the door today at Kimmel yesterday, Melania’s outfit in which she’s wearing this kind of Fauci esque hat and this really tight peacoat kind of looking like actually, she kind of reminds me of Bob Fossey in The Little Prince playing the Snake when he has all the Michael Jackson movies that Michael Jackson stole on those movies. Look that up if you haven’t seen those gifs. But anyway, I was really just like I couldn’t land on a satisfying reference for what Melania Trump actually looked like. Like the hamburger came up and I’m like, not really. It’s also not really Carmen Sandiego. She’s sort of.

 

Ira Madison III Like a gadget.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s like. It’s like a little bit. You’re a spy or something. Flight attendant from the future. Just nothing really landed for me. So if you have the definitive reference for what she actually looked like, please send it in, because I was not able to write it yesterday.

 

Ira Madison III But I also do not have any intention of repeating the same shit that we did for that first four years. Like, I just I don’t have any interest in finding Melania amusing.

 

Louis Virtel I know you’re right. And also pretending like, she hates them and she’s hiding away or whatever. It’s like, girl, she’s clearly complicit in this. And a big dumb animal, like they all are. Like, there’s nothing different.

 

Ira Madison III She thought that fucking book. Yeah. Now she has a meme coin. I don’t even know what the fuck that is. Right. So sent me a headline that said something about a man launching a meme coin. And I said my brain broke.

 

Louis Virtel And also she pretend she in the book had talked about being pro-choice. And it’s sort of like, Yeah, but he’s doing all these horrible things. So what you’re doing is like trying to pull Paul voters who are pro-choice into believing Donald Trump could conceivably, conceivably be pro-choice. And that’s a lie, too. So.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, and also being decked out in Oscar de la Renta for all those people, it’s just like I feel like everyone has just decided, well, he’s back. So and this is what a majority of the country seems to want. So all bets are off. No, I really do not anticipate the kind of backlash or boycotts of people who decide to throw in their lot with Trump this time around. I mean, it happened to Carrie Underwood. But I think what was so shocking is that I should have expected it. But when our video of your Keep It from last week was posted, right, of Carrie Underwood, I was shocked at the amount of people hopping in to defend her and saying, you know, you liberals attack everybody, etc.. And I was like. People really do not want the backlash against people for supporting Trump anymore.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Also, Carrie Underwood again will be making $10 million a year on American Idol. So it’s like, stop pretending. Yeah. Stop pretending like there’s any repercussions whatsoever.

 

Ira Madison III Anyway, thanks, President Trump, for tick tock.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, well, I can’t wait to get back on it. I do have to say I feel a little guilty as a quote unquote pop cultural person. That tick tock is such a blind spot for me. Like, we have writers at Kimmel who are younger than I am who say the word tick tock, every other word. And a part of me is like, I should really be tapped into this. But at the same time, it’s not our baby. I’m sorry. I’m going to stick with the movies.

 

Ira Madison III I love Tick Tock and I love scrolling through it at night. You know, I will lose like a couple of hours to it, but when I’m really supposed to be going to bed. But the thing about Tick Tock and I think Jordan was saying this recently is that. For comedians who’ve gotten big on tech Talk, you have to sort of even get bigger to become a real successful comedian. You know, I think that tick tock is a thing where a couple of people got some shine off it immediately, but Tick Tock has not really done a thing like Instagram or, you know, Twitter or something where it has launched creative careers. It’s launched a lot of influencer careers.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, No. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Addison Rae is the only person.

 

Louis Virtel Addison Rae, who is now on the cover of Rolling Stone and and I do like a couple of her singles, but I still think she’s not sort of like a we’re not craving her artistry like on mass yet, you know, other than she is a huge star.

 

Ira Madison III But she was a TikTok star, too, who I guess that launched her Being in some dismal movie is like his All that for Netflix. Right? But it really wasn’t until she linked up with Charlie acts and was making music and becoming part of a cool scene that we started to care about her. It wasn’t TikTok.

 

Louis Virtel It does feel like she got a blessing from Charli execs, and I do like their little remix together and the video of them making it together. That was very endearing too.

 

Ira Madison III I think we said enough about Donald Trump.

 

Louis Virtel I hope we don’t do this again until he is dead. And then we talk exclusively about Home Alone, too. And I can give you a little Limerick about Brenda Fricker. A FrickerRick if you will.

 

Ira Madison III Well, well, yeah, we’ll do that next week.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. All right. Looking forward.

 

Ira Madison III So that was the FBI at my door. All right. When we are back, we will be joined by Graham Norton, where he and I are going to talk to one another as authors.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III This week’s guest is one of the best broadcasters to ever do it. And hosting one of TV’s best chat shows isn’t even his only job. He’s also the author of several books, including Home, Stretch and Holding. Today, he’s here to talk about his latest novel, Frankie. Welcome back to Keep It. It’s Graham Norton.

 

Graham Norton Thank you very much. Thanks for having me back. It’s a pleasure.

 

Louis Virtel Why are you like Danielle Steel? How can you have, like, a TV career and then write all the fucking time? It makes no sense to me. But productivity is strange.

 

Graham Norton It’s. Well, it’s what it is. It’s because it’s. It’s a hobby. That’s what it is. It’s a hobby. So it’s my. It’s. It’s fun to do so when I’m not working, you know? And let’s face it, all of my work is fun. But if I’m not doing the TV show, I like to write. So it’s like. It’s like I have to find the time. I want to find the time.

 

Louis Virtel Well, it’s interesting that you say that because I think of you hosting these. Your show is like you’re like kind of the ultimate extrovert. You know, like you can bring anything out of anybody else. And they’re like, thrilled to have a conversation with you. But then do you have to, like, shut that off after a while? Like, is writing like you’re a way to literally get away from that?

 

Graham Norton It’s kind of getting away from it. But it’s also and I don’t know what but you guys, it’s the only thing in my life that doesn’t require meetings. You know, everything else, everything else just sat in a room talking to fuckers and like, you know, it’s like, you know, even the show, like, my name is above the door, but it’s not really my show. It belongs to all the people who work on it, which is good because it saves me from myself, but also annoying. So this is the the writing is kind of one thing that I own entirely. It’s all on me. If it’s good, if it’s bad, it’s all me.

 

Ira Madison III Well, Louis can’t really relate to that, but my book comes out in three weeks.

 

Graham Norton So I heard. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Congratulations.

 

Ira Madison III Thank you. You know, it’s a first one. And so I guess my question, you know, as you get that time to yourself, you know, and then you go on a you go on a tour or you go on these shows and you’re, you know, being interviewed and. Do you enjoy that aspect of it when you’re now on the other side of the couch?

 

Graham Norton Well, to give you an idea, this book tour that I just did in the U.K., I got rid of the interviewer. Wow. I just did it by myself. It wasn’t like a specific person. I just got rid of the idea of the interviewer, so it just turned into a comedy. And I just talked. I just talked and I, you know, and also I, I don’t know about you, but I find this that people want to talk to you about TV shows you’ve worked on. And I want to talk about this podcast. You know, it’s very hard to talk about a book that no one’s read. And so actually, in the end, you just want to give them your best stories. So that’s kind of what I did. And they all had to buy a book. So I sold lots of books. But also they had they had a much nicer time when listening.

 

Ira Madison III To me.

 

Graham Norton Talk about a book they didn’t know anything about.

 

Ira Madison III Now, I did read Francie, though, and I really enjoyed it.

 

Graham Norton Thank you very much. Thank you.

 

Ira Madison III And I guess my question, too, about this book is, one, how do you come to your ideas about what you want to write about, and particularly for Francie, what was it that interested you in wanting to, I guess, tell this story? Louis made a joke about how, you know, it stars a caretaker and you’re sort of a caretaker of older British actresses on your show. But then it hops into New York in the 60s and then it touches on Aids. So what was it that sparked it first?

 

Graham Norton I mean, it’s interesting, that thing that you said, you said about the parallels with me. I honestly did not notice that there was a young gay Irish guy interviewing and so on. But 300 pages. Let’s see, when I finished. Yeah, I see what you’ve done here. And I’m like, What? But yes, I do see I do see the parallels. And this book came about because I basically I had a couple of ideas. I had the early part where Francie or Frances said she’s when she’s a little girl, when she’s living in rural Ireland back in the 50s, I had that idea. And then I also wanted to do something about the art scene in New York in the 1960s. And they seemed like really disparate ideas. But then I realized, if I write the story of a place that one person can be in both of those stories because you know, that’s how lives are lived. You know, you do your lives are kind of different chapters in different, different, you know, scenes and times and characters. So that that I kind of and also I remembered how much I enjoy novels, the tell the story of a life. So. That’s what I did. And this one I was a followed in a way that the others haven’t. I really enjoyed writing this one.

 

Louis Virtel What is it about New York in the 60s, this book deal, we were just talking about it as it pertained to a complete unknown, the Bob Dylan movie, which takes place largely in Greenwich Village.

 

Graham Norton Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve seen it. It was just such a fascinating time. Like the explosion in the art scene in the 60s. It’s kind of on parallel. I mean, there was a tiny bit maybe like it in the 90s in London with Charles Saatchi kind of creating all these, you know, Brit pop art people. But I think, you know, people became so famous so quickly and the amounts of money became astronomical. Like overnight exhibitions would sell out before they’d even opened. And that would be by a kind of unknown artist. And there were these, you know, gallery owners. The one I feature in the book is Leo Castelli, and he had the power. If he anointed you, then you were collectible. And there were some people who there was a taxicab impresario back then called, I think was Robert School Skull. SC Ulla. And he and his wife, they collected lots of this kind of pop art, and they were the ones who kind of created the market. They decided at some point in, I think the 70s to auction off all their art and they created the art market that we all kind of know now where, you know, things go for huge sums of money and there’s lots and lots of money to be made.

 

Ira Madison III You talk in the acknowledgments about how you did quite a bit of research for this? And was this one the first novel of yours where you felt like you had to do a lot of research and to. You know, it it does get to New York, you know, sort of in like the 80s or whatever. I mean, do you have memories of being in New York maybe from that period, or did you not get to New York until later in life?

 

Graham Norton I got to New York really briefly in 1983, and I was very young, very green, just off the plane from Ireland. And they bust as in and they put us in a YMCA that’s now gone. It was right by Madison Square Garden. And I remember we got in late at night and we were all so excited. And in the morning they took us into a room. And I don’t know what the talk was in titles, but it basically should have been entitled How Not to Get Killed in New York. They scared the bejesus out of us. They actually terrified us all. So I couldn’t get out of New York fast enough. I just thought, this is I’m, you know, I’m just a sitting duck here. And so I did. And I now, you know, when I was researching this book and I was discovering all the things that were happening in New York in 1983, I was like, you moron. I mean, what why didn’t you read a magazine, read a book, find out what was going on? No, I just got on a bus to Philadelphia.

 

Louis Virtel Now, you say that like, writing provides an opportunity where you don’t have to meet with people. But do you still find yourself, like, answering to people? Like, is there, like, any sort of, like, dramaturgical person being like, this should be changed or you should. Are you verifying any of the information in this book with other people?

 

Graham Norton Now, it’s interesting the research. I feel like they just kind of left me alone. Yeah. They’re like, what have I got if I got the research really wrong? And also, what’s good about this book is, you know, it is a blend of fact and fiction. And there are certain facts that I have changed just because they didn’t suit the story. So I guess I have a kind of opt out. It’s not like I’m writing a history book. Yeah, it is a it is a novel. But when it comes to the writing. Yeah. I mean, IRA, you know this there’s editors and there’s proofreaders, all these people who kind of, you know, once you finish the book, sit there and all have opinions.

 

Ira Madison III I read well, even speaking of the proofreading of it all, I feel like this was my first major lesson of writing a book for the first time. I just finished my audio book yesterday. And.

 

Graham Norton And you spotted lots of mistakes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. You know, like you’re reading it. But my book is the book is done literally. The hardcover has arrived yesterday in boxes to my apartment. And I’m finishing the audio book. And I’m noticing, you know, like in like one chapter, like a word is written twice or, you know, I would have changed like the syntax on something and like, you just sort of have to let it go.

 

Graham Norton Yeah. And no one will care as much as you, you know, your friends will. Your friends will read the book and find every mistake and tell you in a caring way. Yeah. They don’t want you to relive the agony and make sure, you know, people did notice. But the audio book is an awful experience because that is you’re absolutely right. You go through it and then you realize, God, you know, I’ve said exactly that. You’ve used the same word really close to it, and you kind of think, how many people have read this? Why is no one noticed? Yeah, there you go.

 

Ira Madison III And then I wonder, you know, when you are turning in a book then or when you’re responding with your editors or the proofreaders or something, how do you reread it? You know, are you rereading it closely? Do you read things aloud? I feel like after this experience, I want to read my next book aloud completely.

 

Graham Norton I do read everything aloud because not just because if you’re going to do the audiobook, but also because if you read it, when you hear it, the rhythm of sentences, you know, as you go. When you start talking, you haven’t read it aloud. You realize, this sentence is way too long. Or I should have put I should have put the verb here or all that sort of stuff. Whereas if you read it aloud, it’s a pretty good way you got it. So you can smooth out the text, I think, if you read it aloud. And also because, you know, in the novel they’re voices. So I have to go out and come up with voices for these all these people. And this one is like apologies to American people who get the audio book because there are America, there are Americans in it. You won’t know it when you listen to me do it. But there are you.

 

Louis Virtel Know, when you’re reading like your own work aloud and you’ve written. A memoir. Is that like a very vulnerable making process to, like read kind of confessional things out loud for the first time?

 

Graham Norton And it is slightly in that there’s, you know, there’s always this thing and when you’re writing, you forget that someone’s going to read it. And if that sounds so moronic, how could you possibly you know, you’re reading you’re writing it for someone to read. But you genuinely kind of forget you get lost in the act of telling the story. And and with a memoir, like I put everything in the memoir that was there, I kept a couple of stories out to protect other people. But I did nothing to protect myself in that memoir. And and previously, when I was interviewing someone who’d read a memoir and I’ve written a memoir, and I was asking them to tell stories in the memoir, and they’d often get kind of weird and they wouldn’t want to tell stories. I’m like, It’s in a book. So, you know. But but once I’d written a memoir, I understood it because actually some stories you’ve gone to such trouble to make sure it’s perfect, you know, it’s in the right context. You’ve qualified things. You’ve made sure you’ve said things in a certain way. And so I don’t want to turn it into a chat show anecdote because then it won’t be the way I wanted to be it in the book. So I do understand that. But oddly, I find novels. I feel more vulnerable. I think reading out a novel than I do the memoir. Because in a memoir, I’ve decided to tell you this about myself. This has been my decision with a novel. I’m not sure what I’m telling you about myself. You know, I don’t I don’t know what insight you get into my messed up brain when you hear this story or read this story that I’ve written. And it’s it’s yeah, it’s a weird one because it’s. Yeah, you’re kind of out of control, in a way.

 

Ira Madison III I wonder about that, too. Even when you’re interviewing people, you know, when you hear them tell a story like insight, you start to pick up from them. I mean, just for example, I interviewed Robbie Williams last week, and I listened to his you know, it’s fantastic and wild episode of your show that he had just done talking about Better Men.

 

Graham Norton Yeah. He has no filter at all. I feel like the people who love him must be in the wings going, No, no, no. And actually, what’s great is that film is like that. That’s the old.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Graham Norton Is like the smell of burning bridges comes strong off that screen. You know, there are friendships that will not recover from that film. And that’s, I must say, did you enjoy. I love that. So I.

 

Ira Madison III Did.

 

Graham Norton I did. And I. I feel like I should have done much better in America than it has. I feel like maybe they marketed it wrong or something.

 

Ira Madison III Well, the thing is, and I’ve told the friends about the movie and that they should go see it. The thing is, we really don’t know Robbie Williams here. And we know because we’re fagots and we listen to his music. But even his biggest song for us, Millennium, you know, isn’t in the movie. So yeah, I think there’s just that barrier.

 

Graham Norton Yeah, that’s what I mean about the market. I felt like when I saw the TV ads in this country, in America, because I’m in America that where the ads kind of suppose that you did know who Robbie Williams was. And I thought they should. They should’ve just ignored Robin Williams and told you and told you at the movie that it’s, you know, it’s about a young chimp becoming a superstar. I just I don’t know. Have you seen it, Louis?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. No, I was really entertained. I was just saying I love the big rock deejay scene in the middle of London. Yeah.

 

Graham Norton Isn’t that great? And yeah, and apparently, they really did it, which is it kind of looks.

 

Louis Virtel It looks a little like A.I.. That scene, too. So it’s crazy that it’s that real? Yeah.

 

Graham Norton Yeah. They closed down Regent Street in London, and it had never been closed for filming before. And the original night, they were closing it. The queen died. Thank you very much. So they couldn’t. They couldn’t dance and sing in Regent Street. I think they might have thought it was a little off. So they had to pack everything, go home. And then that closed another night. So, I mean, the expense of that enormous.

 

Louis Virtel No, I was just thinking about one of my favorite guests on your show, Judi Dench, because she recently turned 90 years old.

 

Graham Norton Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Obviously an institution. I’m very much lamenting the loss of Maggie Smith over here, Prime Minister, mystery, sort of my all time favorite performances. But we’ve got Judi Dench at 90. Do you have a particular favorite moment with Judi Dench, either on or off the air?

 

Graham Norton I mean, my favorite one was I feel Bad because it’s something about, she said she’d never been at a nightclub. And I said, no, you have been in a nightclub. And she went. And how do you know? I said, I bumped into you and I was in heaven in intake. And it was it was after they’d been filming Tea with Mussolini. And Cher was doing her first ever performance of Believe in It, Have a nightclub. And she brought her good friend to dance with her. And then Ben Kingsley, Sir Ben Kingsley introduced Cher on the stage of heaven. Why? What a lot of very confused gay people going like, we’re here to see Cher.

 

Louis Virtel House of Sand and Fag. Well, I do.

 

Graham Norton Know that I loved Judy remembering that she had been in heaven. I’ve forgotten it. But she’s she’s just a lovely guest. She’s just gorgeous. And that there was one recently where she she was sitting next to Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I don’t know if we’re talking about Shakespeare. And she just from memory, unprompted, did a Shakespearean sonnet. Yes. And it was so gorgeous. And the whole audience stilled. And it became this amazing moment. And that Dame Judi does the sonnet and it’s absolutely beautiful. And when she finishes, Arnold Schwarzenegger just said, that’s more words than I’ve said in any movie.

 

Ira Madison III I always love those, you know, envious of the words, like whatever. Like when Denzel did that on your show, you know, like the ones who could always just, like, remember a Shakespearean monologue. I guess I want to ask, too, though, Judy, obviously we know that the British people on your show, like are always naturally funny. You know, there’s just something about them. It’s just like you’re very funny in person and on talk shows. But who but who’s been like one of your favorite Americans who’s come over and sort of like, really impressed everybody and was really funny on the couch.

 

Graham Norton And off the top of my head. I remember Chris Pratt’s I well, you know, I didn’t have a high hopes for Chris Pratt. He was very funny. He’s got some great stories, really, really good stories. And he does a very good Essex accent as well. There’s a reality show here called The Only way is that I.

 

Ira Madison III I watch it.

 

Graham Norton Okay. Well, so does Chris Pratt. I think he can do the voices really, really well. And? And he told he told a very long, weird story about getting his headshots done for free to Google it. It’s so gay. It’s clearly like it’s so obviously some some predator in West Hollywood offered him free headshots. And I don’t quite know how Chris Pratt walked away kind of unscathed, but he did. I’m not sure we got the headshots, but nothing bad happens.

 

Louis Virtel My gosh. Well, thank you so much for being here. Graham, as always. I mean, like, we will be watching your fucking show forever because, one, you’re obviously amazing at what you do. Literally, celebrities need you to tap into that. Literally, we are at a dearth of people who find the core of celebrities and make them not just entertaining, but like, enriching. I mean, who else is going to give you a fucking Shakespeare monologue elsewhere these days?

 

Graham Norton But also, it’s that thing, I think, like all shows need other shows. Like when people are coming on our show, we listen to all the podcast, we watch all the all the talk shows. You’re just trying to find the moment that they told the good story. What was the good thing they said? So, yeah, so we all need each other. I feel it’s a great big feeding frenzy about its matter.

 

Louis Virtel And the book is amazing, by the way. Thank you so much for writing it.

 

Graham Norton Listen, that’s very, very kind of you. Very, very kind of you. And sending love to you in L.A. as well.

 

Louis Virtel Much appreciate it. Thank you.

 

Ira Madison III [AD].

 

Ira Madison III Last week, David Lynch, the surrealist filmmaker behind Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, the list goes on, died at the age of 78. He was an incomparable director with a famed catalog. So Louis and I are going to dive into his works and his legacy.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I mean, it’s it’s not enough to say that his movies don’t remind me of anybody else’s movies. I mean, a few auteurs, Quentin Tarantino movies don’t remind me of any other filmmakers, even though plenty of what he does is an homage to earlier material. But I will start by saying about David Lynch that his actors, who are routinely in tons of other stuff I’m talking about Laura Dern or Patricia Arquette or Kyle McLaughlin, whomever. Everything they have ever done in a David Lynch movie can’t be compared to anything else they’ve ever done. I think that is a huge testament to the talent and vision of David Lynch that like, basically if you go on an actor’s Wikipedia and you go to the filmography section, there should be the non David Lynch section and then the David Lynch section, because it’s basically not just its own genre, it’s like its own form of I can’t even call it expression. His movies go to places and bring levels of discomfort and mystery. I think he’s really just redefined what the word mystery can mean in a movie. You know, Mulholland Drive is a mysterious movie and also a mystery, but not in any traditional Agatha Christie like way. You are really hunting through a bunch of images, transitions that aren’t intuitive, Characters that sometimes make sense, sometimes are poignant scenes that sometimes feel very real and then turn out not to be real. There’s just so much to suss out when you get into a David Lynch movie. And so even if you aren’t like a huge personal fan of his, like, I personally can’t dial into a lot of David Lynch movies. I have to say that he is among the most staggering filmmakers of the past 50 years.

 

Ira Madison III I think one of the things that just pinpoints David Lynch’s singular vision is the series Twin Peaks. Those first eight episodes are fantastic. You’re introduced to this dreamlike world, you know, starring Kyle MacLachlan, and he’s trying to uncover Laura Palmer’s murder. And it ends on this cliffhanger he’s shot. He’s lying in a hotel room. There’s a lot of mysteries happening. And then you open up season two and you find out throughout the season who killed Laura Palmer. But then David Lynch leaves directing the series, and you have a bunch of episodes that are frankly just embarrassing to watch. They’re bad. And he comes back for the finale of the series, and the series immediately feels like David Lynch again, and he returns to it in Fire. Walk With Me, the movie. And then, of course, he had the return on Showtime. And I think that just really shows that no one gets into David Lynch’s head like David Lynch does. Like it was a facsimile of what he was attempting to do. And you see that with a lot of people when they try to replicate autores. You brought up Quentin Tarantino, right? I think that we’ve had a shit ton of Tarantino esque movies, Smoking Aces, right? Since we’ve had a shit ton of people try to replicate John Woo movies. Charlie’s Angels is the only one that did it.

 

Louis Virtel Well, of course. And we’re talking original recipe.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, yes, yes. Sorry. Elizabeth Banks.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. And she has got on Press your luck. I’ll say that about her. Okay.

 

Ira Madison III But man, a lot of people have tried to do David Lynch, but, you know, couldn’t get David Lynch if he was fucking David Lynch. Okay. That’s a pregnancy.

 

Louis Virtel I think something that’s also just awesome about him. And the following he has is that his fans really consider his work extremely personal. And I have to say, if you watch his movies, so much bizarre stuff is going on. Like if you watch Eraserhead and for a moment think, this is my life. I mean, I truly don’t understand you at all. It’s it’s like he has he does crazy things in movies. But I think and I watched Roger Ebert talk about this one time and it it took him a long time to come around to the films of David Lynch, even though he always acknowledged that he was a brilliant director. He said that people kind of like feeling creeped out, like there’s something that’s different than a horror movie and different than a thriller that he did, where it just put you in this constantly alert, thoughtful, enigmatic place. And I think people just like to be there. And I think, again, even though I’m not a huge fan of David Lynch myself, something in this space that I really admire and I think is maybe even the best thing about him is that there are never any obligated. Tory scenes in David Lynch movies because he’s not guided by things like narrative choices, because he’s not really guided by, you know, logical solutions to problems that are posed early in a movie. You never watch a scene where it’s like, that’s just setting up something we’re going to get to later that’s going to set up a thrilling scene we get to later. The minute Mulholland Drive turns on ever You are in the heat of that movie. Every single image of that movie is meant to be provocative and engrossing, and maybe some scenes are a little bit more coherent, for lack of a better word, than others. But you’re never not entranced with what he is doing. And I think it’s fair to say that nobody has wasted your time less as a director than David Lynch.

 

Ira Madison III To speak about his films feeling personal. I think what happens, too is. He just sort of writes from a fear, you know, or sort of some question that’s nagging him. And it is very lyrical, his writing. It is very dreamlike and it’s not easy to interpret. But I think that, you know, Eraserhead, for instance, is about the fear of parenthood, you know. And I think that when, you know, these kernels of things, you sort of watch it and it feels like the characters in the films are always either coming to some conclusion by the end or they’re waking up or, you know, they’re leaving this earthly plane but still sort of existing. I think that one of the beautiful things about David Lynch that happened after he died was not just people celebrating his films, but they were celebrating him as a person and his sort of interest in philosophy and his interest in filmmaking and living your life. It was almost like he was a self-help guru to this idea where he discussed how life doesn’t have to be miserable. I think a lot of people were sharing that. You know, he brought up Van Gogh, for instance, and how people used to associate living a hard life with being a great artist, you know? And I think that he really used to remind people that the hard life prevents you from being an artist. To be honest, the people who have gone through hard lives as artists, people who’ve suffered traumas, they don’t get to create as much as you wish they had. You know, they probably would have created much more if they had better lives. And I think that when he writes about death and despair and all this darkness in his work, it’s not he doesn’t have that in his real life.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Yeah. He talked about specifically how people associate. You just brought up Van Gogh, associate his pain with his productivity. And it was the opposite, that his painting was, in fact a respite from the despair in his life. Obviously also he was a transcendental meditation guru. I mean, you find countless people who have been helped guided by that. Did you see specifically the R&B legend who posted about this?

 

Ira Madison III I don’t know.

 

Louis Virtel Who it would be. Chaka Khan and Chaka Khan wrote a big thank you to David Lynch. And it was a lovely little tribute. And then afterwards, there were two hashtags, and the hashtags on that post were hashtag David Lynch, hashtag Chaka Khan.

 

Louis Virtel Slay. Why don’t I just hashtag things with that? Why don’t I just add that to my little tweets every time?

 

Ira Madison III So he helped her unlock her shock record.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, if you could. If you can. Yes, that’s right. Yes. Tell me something good. A mantra. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III The way that older celebrities sort of tag things is so funny to me.

 

Louis Virtel Never not funny. It’s like they got, like, a primer in 2009 about how to do it and never advanced. Yeah. I want to say also my favorite David Lynch movie, the one I stay on the most, which I think well. What did you just say?

 

Ira Madison III Wild at heart.

 

Louis Virtel Wild at heart. I like the romance in. But there’s too much like people getting the shipping out of them. I also don’t respond to Gross. There’s so much gross in David Lynch that I have to just kind of reject that wholesale for me, Louis. But The Straight Story, which is a movie starring Richard Farnsworth, a great underrated actor, was nominated for best actor very shortly before he died, based on a real story about how this guy heard his brother had a stroke he probably wouldn’t recover from, played by Harry Dean Stanton and this guy who doesn’t have a driver’s license or a car drives his lawnmower from, I believe, Wisconsin to Iowa, Iowa to Wisconsin. Anyway, Sissy Spacek also plays this daughter. And it is this very straightforward story, no pun intended, about this wise guy meeting people. And and there’s a slightly surrealist touch lately, poetic touch to the journey he goes on in the visuals that we see. But it’s a lightly lynchian movie if we’re talking about the standards of a Lynch David Lynch movie. But it is so warm and smart and edifying, I really think more people should watch this movie. And also, Roger Ebert loved it.

 

Ira Madison III I would say that my favorite and we talked about this with Patricia Arquette when she was on the show, is Lost Highway.

 

Louis Virtel I also love watching her talk about David Lynch like she had questions about her character. She goes, so is there two versions of me as the One A Dream? And he was like, I don’t know, Patricia. You know, it’s just like you let the answers figure, but the actors figure it out themselves.

 

Ira Madison III And I think that movie, too, is one of his that is mysterious, but it’s not inaccessible in the way that you’re like trying to figure out a mystery. You know, I think that you just sort of watch Lost Highway and you just sort of a set to what’s happening.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. It’s always so weird to me that, like, Justin Thoreau has a very marked history with David Lynch. You know, he had Mulholland Drive and then he had Inland Empire playing actors both times. You just forget to associate him with that. It’s like it’s like he’s ended up accidentally shutting that part of his past. Whereas I continue to associate, for example, Laura Dern with David Lynch. If you haven’t seen Inland Empire. I don’t blame you because it’s three hours long and if you watch two and then like count out at the last hour, wouldn’t blame you. But there’s a lot that’s interesting in that movie. I love Laura Dern in that movie specifically and all the weird cameos in it, like Mary Steenburgen is in it, for example. But something people forget about is that was right around the time that things like YouTube were kicking up and David Lynch decided he would promote Laura Dern as a best actress, potential nominee for the Oscars by sitting on Sunset Boulevard with a cow and a sign with Laura Dern on it. And he had he just told his actors. Laura Dern recounts this really beautifully. She said, Someone will just come up to me and take a video or something and then post it online. Then people will know about it. And then it did. It became one of the first sort of viral film moments via YouTube or whatever conduit it ended up on. And I think he always was in that progressively visionary space being like, The future is coming and I know how I’m going to meet it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I mean, he’s also utilized YouTube recently as of the pandemic where he was uploading his web series Rabbits online.

 

Louis Virtel Speaking of an Empire, which has a big rabbit story. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And I think he was just always a director, a creator who was curious about the world. Yes. You know, curious about people, too. I think that his characters are always interesting and they’re weird. But there’s there’s always something like fun and interesting about them. And I don’t know. Twin Peaks obviously, is a series that I love because it is modeled after his love of sort of like the soap opera form. And I think that it plays with the tropes of soap operas, but it’s not one that’s going to be immediately familiar to you. If you love, say, melodrama and you grew up around soap operas of like the 90s, you know, if you were watching Days of Our Lives All My Children with your Parents and. You a sort of millennial age, you might not get those references. Your parents would probably get those because these Twin Peaks is mostly based on, I guess, the tropes of soap operas of the 70s of the 80s when they were filmed with theater actors, when they were filmed in New York on these, you know, big standing sets. And there were a lot of there was a lot of silence. There were a lot of slow pauses. There were a lot of people walking to telephones. And, you know, the opening credits of Twin Peaks are so fucking long. And it’s I love watching it when it comes on because it’s so it feels like you’re meditating, to be honest. And yeah, I think that he really plays with those older tropes of television, with the slow pauses, the slow pans, the focusing on a character’s face for so long.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. He will not pull away from somebody looking terrified for minutes and minutes. They trust me. Like that’s why Laura Dern, the definitive image of her. I think people think of that scene in Enlightened where she’s like screaming, no, I think of her an inland empire looking crazed as she’s suddenly in a room with a group of prostitutes. His visions about sex. Very interesting. Somebody I need to read, like the Freudian essay on whatever he’s doing there. I also love about David Lynch’s obsession with and this is exhibited in Twin Peaks, the Pacific Northwest. And he really evokes, like all of his movies do this thing where there’s an eeriness mixed with the mundane. And I feel like that. And I feel like the Pacific Northwest has a lot of imagery that adds to that kind of vibe. But I think specifically, I think something people really love about David Lynch is like the way his movies linger on you after you leave them to like, even if, let’s say you’re completely frustrated with the theatrical experience of his. There’s something about walking away from the movie where I’m not saying you’re quote unquote, thinking about the movie, but you feel different about reality. You feel different about like the people around you or the things around you. There’s just something there’s a layer of intrigue about everything that just his his casual way with making a movie. I guess it’s not casual at all. It’s extremely formal and strange, but it’s hard to shake. And I do want to say in general that I it is a pet peeve of mine when people say like they equate. I’m still thinking about this movie weeks later with It’s good. I think about plenty of stupid things all the time. You won’t believe what stupid things I’m thinking about and I don’t like. I’m still thinking about Jim Perry as the host of Card Sharks. Was card sharks. Does that deserve a Peabody Award? Probably not. But there is a quality about him where it’s like it makes you just feel like he knows something you don’t when you leave a movie of his. And I feel like that’s a very mysterious thing people are attached to.

 

Ira Madison III Now. What do you think about June?

 

Louis Virtel I appreciate Virginia madsen giving it her all and Sting giving his all, but I could only give so much. And I don’t believe I’ve even seen the whole thing.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I think Dune is really a mother’s love kind of film. You know, if you are a lynch Stan, you love Dune. And even if you were a lynch Stan, you might not love to. You know, I am a much bigger fan of the more recent Dune films. I feel like I actually know what the story is about, for instance.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, that makes sense. I do love The Elephant Man, which was produced by Mel Brooks and why his wife, Anne Bancroft, is in it. John Hurt, fabulous actor, gives a great performance as John Merrick, the Elephant Man. I think still the definitive Elephant Man performance. Take that. Bradley Cooper, Didn’t he do it on stage somewhat recently or Jake Gyllenhaal? It was somebody like that. Anyway, that is a movie worth seeing, too. And that was another one of the David Lynch movies to get an Oscar nominated performance, I believe The other one is Diane Ladd in Wild at Heart, where she gives a that has to be one of the craziest nominations, that entire category. I also love her, an Inland Empire as a complete bitch talk show host. And by the way, Diane Ladd still with us, mother of Laura Dern.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I guess lastly, I want to ask Lynchian obviously became an adjective to describe a lot of films, you know, and a lot of people have tried to straight up jack his swagger, or there are some people who I feel like have been able to evoke that quality but sort of do their own thing with it. What are some films that you would say feel like lynchian but manage to accomplish it? I mean, I feel like Donnie Darko comes to mind for me.

 

Louis Virtel That’s interesting. I would say I would actually pick a movie that predates David Lynch, which is the trial, which is directed by Orson Welles, stars Anthony Perkins. It’s based off the Kafka story. And David Lynch himself said the only artist he ever really related to or the only artist that could be his brother in history is Franz Kafka. And I think it’s that feeling of there of both paranoia mixed with just epic imagery that I associate with David Lynch. I think he almost certainly had to have been inspired by that movie. In fact, I thought about Kafka because in an Empire, Jeremy Irons gives a really great performance as a kind of scuzzy film director guy. And he played Kafka once in the movie, the movie Kafka. But so I think I would have to say that I would actually you would actually have to go to old expressionist movies like German expressionist movies of the 1920s to really get a lynchian vibe elsewhere, I think.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of older films, I would say maybe something like Persona.

 

Louis Virtel Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean Liv Ullmann, one of the great actors of all time, By the way, do you know what I thought of David Lynch? This is we grew up in a time in the 90s when I feel like maybe people like David Lynch influenced even children’s programing a little bit. The television show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, things on that show, it happened that were so like one gross and then two completely weird. Like, there’s a segment where, like Kate Pierson from the B-52’s just appears and she’s wearing sunglasses and it’s a completely darkened room. She starts ranting about a guy named Leonard who has nothing to do with the TV show. Things like that remind me of David Lynch.

 

Ira Madison III Well, then, Louis, it will not shock you to find that it is a common sort of like Reddit theory that the Adventures of Pete and Pete and Twin Peaks take place in the same universe.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Well, I don’t know what else would belong in that universe. They really do, like, remind me of each other. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I think that that was a show that maybe primed me for getting into Twin Peaks when I was older. I think that if if you’re able to find old episodes of Pete and Pete online, please do it. And I think they’re mostly on YouTube right now, but man, imagine being a kid and tuning into Nickelodeon and you see this weird ass show set in this small town, and it was only that. And you remember Eerie, Indiana.

 

Louis Virtel A little bit, yes. Right.

 

Ira Madison III We had those shows were just very much weird, absurdist shit for kids. And yeah, I think that if you’re looking for influences from David Lynch specifically around that time, it kids shows always tend to be just sort of a free for all for artists where they can sort of replicate the films and the artists that inspire them and you’re able to get away with it a bit more because you’re just making like a disposable kid’s TV, you know?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, right, right. I also I mean, Pete and Pete, too, was very like, not gritty underside of suburbia, but definitely there’s something eerie about the suburbs. So there was like, if you took if you did a G rated version of Blue Velvet is kind of the vibe, you know?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And of course, the the strongest man in the world, Artie and Artie. It’s totally a David Lynch character.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. And yet funny and strange and, like, touching. Touching? Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Maybe my last film might throw out that sort of like him, and it feels like this director, but it also feels like this particular movie was a departure for him where he was probably inspired a bit by maybe Lynch’s work is Peter Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love.

 

Louis Virtel yeah. Which, of course, stars the still somehow underrated Emily Watson. I’m so glad that she has tangled with Paul Thomas Anderson, and I’m so glad she got a juicy part on Chernobyl not too long ago. But if you haven’t seen Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson, I’ve talked about that in our Oscars videos several times, but one of the definitive actress performances ever, she is she’s one of these like Andrea Riseborough talent freaks, like something is wrong with Emily Watson.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And also Punch-Drunk Love, if you have not seen it, is a film from the very weird era where I guess Adam Sandler was bored and he decided he wanted to be a real actor, right?

 

Louis Virtel No, he only did that like three times. You know, we got your uncut gems. You’ve got your I think Reign Over Me was a flop, but that kind of thing. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Last words on David Lynch. If you’re in New York, make sure to visit the marquee at IFC in the West Village, also on West Fourth. His name is out there. Every time I pass by, I see people either posing or taking photos of it.

 

Louis Virtel So and I just want to add, by the way, that David Lynch movies are definitely best experienced in a theater by all means to be around people feeling the eerie thing you’re feeling as you watch this movie, like it shouldn’t be something you turn off while you’re eating cereal. It’s just it shouldn’t be.

 

Ira Madison III Although he would enjoy that.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And then something would come out of the cereal in Burr and bubble up and you.

 

Ira Madison III Places in New York like Film Forum or the IFC or the Metrograph. And then, of course, like theaters like the New Beverly in Los Angeles. I’m sure that they are all working on programing later this year to honor David Lynch. So look for his films so that you can watch them in a theater.

 

Louis Virtel And I will look forward to the inevitable tribute at the Oscars. I’m sure we will get a big segment out of that. Looking forward to that.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, well, depends on who’s involved.

 

Louis Virtel Who are you worried about?

 

Ira Madison III Do you just a badge or do something like Ryan Reynolds in it?

 

Louis Virtel I see. I mean, like, I think there’s too many, like, living actors from his movies. You’ll get a Laura Dern or a Patty Arquette or something like that. Naomi Watts, for example.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. We’ll find out. He actually directed the art scores and advanced one year.

 

Louis Virtel He did it on a Sony camcorder, knowing that that would be the future. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III All right. When we are back, keep it there. And we’re back with our favorite segment of the episode. It is Keep It, Louis.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III What are you mad about this week?

 

Louis Virtel I hate having to say keep it to this thing because I enjoy this thing and we all do. It’s basically a church for the Queens community on both coasts, as far as I’m concerned. RuPaul’s Drag Race. The new season is perfectly entertaining. I haven’t memorize any of the Queen’s names yet because I have a real problem with that. It takes me like eight weeks to remember any of these names and it feels like all my friends always have them on. Like right away. This past episode they did a challenge called Manipulations, where it was based on the game monopoly, allegedly. And what that meant was everybody drew property names like Kentucky Avenue, all the ones from the games, Boardwalk, whatever. And based on the color they drew, they just had to dress in that color on the runway. Bitch. What? That’s like not a monopoly themed challenge at all. This is like the worst, most corporate thing I’ve ever seen on RuPaul’s Drag Race, a show I otherwise again am obsessed with. I think it was especially disappointing as one. They could have worked with a whole bunch of board games, right? Like if it was as if Monopoly is Hasbro or Parker Brothers or whatever it is, there are certainly a whole category of games they could have gotten into. I don’t know about Clue, I don’t know. But whatever, anything Jenga, etc. they could have worked with lots of different ideas, but instead they only used five basic colors from this game. It may as well have been a Crayola challenge or something, and there’s so much in the game of Monopoly that I think is funny or could have been like pulled into funny or drag something in Monopoly that I always think is funny. The idea of just visiting jail. Who is doing that? Why are you Sister Helen on? Are you Johnny Cash, who was just walking into a prison and. But I’m not staying. I have to get out of here. You know, like things. Like waterworks. So like dressing like a railroad or just a or one of the community chess cards is like, you win $10 in a beauty contest or something. There’s lots of ways to have or have to have made a dress completely out of chance. And community chess cards, for example. I just there were so many opportunities for real drag and it’s. Had. We just got the bland as possible version of that. I can’t believe there wasn’t a rethink on this challenge.

 

Ira Madison III Well, first of all, you’ve never had an Uncle Joe in prison.

 

Louis Virtel Was he. He wasn’t just visiting.

 

Ira Madison III We were visiting every other week.

 

Louis Virtel You were visiting? I see yes. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Who who else is going to bring muffins?

 

Louis Virtel Right. Oh I see. And you just let them through like that. Oh okay.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You know, they always caught the file, though.

 

Louis Virtel You’re doing it. You’re doing stand up these days. What’s happening with you?

 

Ira Madison III I also think my main problem with that monopoly, quote unquote challenge was the fact that it didn’t even really incorporate some of the pitfalls of monopoly into the challenge. I mean, what if you had gotten Baltic or Mediterranean Avenue? You’re right. Like the purple properties.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. And Right. Atlantic City was not incorporated in any way. There are just plenty of opportunities to bring the world of monopoly, which is a whole world, aren’t we? Are we getting a fucking movie monopoly at some point? Is Margot Robbie involved?

 

Ira Madison III I want the Miss Monopoly movie. Do you remember that game? That was your Keep it Once Upon a Time.

 

Louis Virtel As in, like, there’s. It’s like there’s a lady monopolist.

 

Ira Madison III Yes, and remember she had a, like a a coffee with her. She had the glasses.

 

Louis Virtel Should we hang out with her. She sounds great.

 

Ira Madison III I’m fully believe this was your. Keep it in like 2020.

 

Louis Virtel okay. Yeah I would hang out in like, you know, do drugs on free parking with her or whatever. I don’t know. Ira, what is your Keep It this week?

 

Ira Madison III Well. Sieg heil. The ghetto.

 

Louis Virtel Oh no. I wonder to whom you could be referring.

 

Ira Madison III This is. Exhausted. And we are we are like a day ends a full day into Donald Trump’s presidency. And we are already doing the same nonsense bullshit that we did for four years and the next four years throughout the Biden presidency to just try to pretend that things didn’t happen. I hate using the word gaslight. Yeah, because also this isn’t gaslighting. This is people just being willfully stupid and lying about the fact that Elon Musk is on stage and you know, he’s out stretching his hand, doing the hail. You know, like we’ve all seen the producers, we’ve gone ugh Hitler has had a springtime for me.

 

Louis Virtel Right.

 

Ira Madison III I listen, I listen in the summer. In winter. I love that song.

 

Louis Virtel It’s a lovely song. Yes. Tony winning musical, right?

 

Ira Madison III Yes. But it’s pretty obvious what he is doing. It’s pretty obvious that he has supported far right individuals in Germany. It’s pretty obvious when you look at all the Nazis that have been on Twitter. It’s who he supports. And all of these people online with the takes, especially from like the Anti-Defamation League.

 

Louis Virtel I was blown away to read that. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III But the excuse that because he is autistic, he was out stretching his hands to express love to the audience. First of all, he’s not Wally ok, right? It’s like you make him sound like a child who’s like, reaching out his hands and be like, I love you audience. It’s like, what the fuck are we doing here?

 

Louis Virtel No, I don’t remember the scene in Rainman where he did the seig heil. Yeah, I’m not I’m not recalling that, you know, once upon a time when I was an entertainment man, if you will, once upon a time when I was an entertainment journalist, I think I’ve brought this up before with certain interviewees. I would say, Who’s your fave? Who’s your least favorite celebrity? If I was aware that they could go there and be a little bit bitchy. And at the time, this is like 2010, 2011, Donald Trump was my answer to that question, because not only was he like this, you know, obvious capitalist pig who treated himself like King Midas, he was so obsessed with the fact that you thought he was cool. He couldn’t just be the money guy. He had to also be the cool guy and that annoying. I think maybe as a celebrity, Elon Musk might have topped him as the worst celebrity. Who the fuck is this asshole who has this car brand that I guess people love? I was almost sideswiped by a fucking cybertruck yesterday, and it’s like a big butter tin is coming right at you. I thought it was going to be knocked off the road anyway. He talk about somebody who is obsessed with you, thinking he’s cool, obsessed with you, thinking he is funny. And by the way, I mean, I’ll say this like I don’t personally find Donald Trump funny. He has his finger closer to the pulse of funny than Elon Musk ever will. So the delusion level here is particularly insane. And then.

 

Ira Madison III It feels like you’re at school, too, because also the fact that this man routinely has his mother going on television shows to say he’s.

 

Louis Virtel Awesome. Right. Which is, as you know how I know somebody is awesome. Yeah, he is unbelievably vile. I mean, that moment and the obviously the ADL’s its own insanity, just a pro-Israel situation we don’t need to get into. But yeah, Elon Musk sucks and in a new way today, it’s nice that he’s diversifying the way he sucks.

 

Ira Madison III I think a lot of people should take heed from Azealia Banks before America ends up locked in Elon Musk’s basement with nothing to eat.

 

Louis Virtel She herself said she was voting for Kamala Harris because she didn’t think Elon Musk should be close to the presidency. And I really do hate when she is right.

 

Ira Madison III Remember she lied, though. After the election, she said, I actually voted for Donald Trump.

 

Louis Virtel I never put your eggs in one basket again. Again, you know, she is a Rumplestiltskin curse. She says one funny thing and then she has to say eight horrible things. That’s the rule.

 

Ira Madison III I think when you look at Superman like Lex Luthor, etc., villains like that, you’re always wondering how these people get to power. How is Superman still fighting him for 20, 30 years, etc.? And it’s. People really do support this man who is a palpable loser.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. People have no quotient over recognizing a loser.

 

Ira Madison III They don’t use to bully losers.

 

Louis Virtel Like if somebody just believes them. Yeah. If somebody has, like, unreasonable self-belief, they just believe it, too. It’s comfortable for them.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, bring back you. I mean, make America great again. America used to bully people. You know, like a person like that would have been bullied in school. Yeah. And now when they do obvious things that kids would make fun of with Donald Trump is dancing like that like a weirdo behind the Village People. There’s just this cognitive dissidence now where all of a sudden he becomes cool because it’s on your side.

 

Louis Virtel Right? No. What happens is celebrities like Jeanine Garofalo, people with the sardonic remove who would just make you feel like shit for acting like a loser. That is what we are missing.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I love that You’re like, You know what celebrities really get mean garafolo.

 

Louis Virtel You come here for hot takes and I have the hottest ones and the most important ones. And she was great in Romeo, Michele.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, Well, we’re back to we’re back to how we started.

 

Louis Virtel Right. It really is painful that, like, Trump has been going since 2016, like now that it’s just and it feels like we still had four years of him with Biden and now we’re going to get this full 12 sequence when it feels like he could have been eliminated, you know, in the conversation by now. But anyway, the Oscar nominations are coming up. We’ll be back to a cheerier, rather more traditional. Keep it, make keep it great again, if you will. Thank you to the fabulous Graham Norton for joining us. And we will see you next week.

 

Ira Madison III 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 Sheng 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.