Ira and Louis discuss SNL’s 50th anniversary, The White Lotus, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Variety’s 100 Best Performances, and America’s airplane crisis. Sabrina Brier joins to discuss her new audiobook That Friend, holding hands with Drew Barrymore, and more.

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TRANSCRIPT

 

Louis Virtel [AD].

 

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

 

Louis Virtel I’m Louis Virtel. I’m always a bit jarred to the bone when we wear the exact same color palette. We both did a little navy and then a little sprinkle of red on it. You’re wearing a Hayley Williams shirt. I understand she is the vocalist for Paramore. I’m wearing a shirt that looks like one of the Peanuts characters.

 

Ira Madison III Wear it. This is her new merch as as Hayley Williams is turning your children gay.

 

Louis Virtel That’s cute. And probably true. At least I own up to it.

 

Ira Madison III You want a WGA award?

 

Louis Virtel Can you believe it? I am befuddled. I mean, I’m thrilled. And also, the show is great. But yeah, over the weekend, I was nominated for a WGA award. For what? The writers of Pop Culture Jeopardy! For a quiz and audience participation show. We were up against one other show, which is called Jeopardy. And if you know anything about these two shows, they’re similar. And then also most of the writers of pop culture Jeopardy! Save Me and a couple of others are also writers for Jeopardy! So they were mostly double nominees, and yet we defeated Jeopardy. So in a way, it was an insult to Jeopardy, another Jeopardy one. And regular Jeopardy has not won this award in ten years. And I want to be clear, it is definitely the most, like prestigious game show of all time.

 

Ira Madison III What’s been up against it in the past ten years?

 

Louis Virtel Like the Chase was up last year, a show I enjoy, but just like I think they always kind of picked the newer thing, like they just assumed Jeopardy will always be there. So anyway, I feel a little bit bad defeating my favorite TV show of all time, but at the same time, I can’t help my, you know, masculine power and rage.

 

Ira Madison III It’s the power of Colin Jost.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Imprecisely. He might win the game show. I mean, this year I sort of the game show host at me. I’m predicting that.

 

Ira Madison III I want to see those teeth shining on stage.

 

Louis Virtel He’s really got that mentor, that look.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. You know, I’m a national best seller now.

 

Louis Virtel Of what? Drugs?

 

Ira Madison III Yes, I’m selling sex. Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Go get your life, girl. Congratulations.

 

Ira Madison III Thank you. It was nice seeing that in USA Today.

 

Louis Virtel Which is a newspaper. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I did not know it still existed. Actually, you know.

 

Louis Virtel They’re very, like, real news. But also the front page might be. You know, Miley Cyrus was great at the VMAs last night. Like, they’re like kind of Entertainment Tonight.

 

Ira Madison III Sometimes I just feel like saying the words USA Today currently like, would send a chill down your spine.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Yeah. No, congrats to you. Has now. Here’s the thing. I feel like writing a book is nothing but an arduous process. An ongoing, endless process. Does getting on the bestseller list soften the memory of that and make you want to write more?

 

Ira Madison III I do want to write more. I think the process of like, writing it for four fucking years is the process of Now I need something else to do because it’s over. I think listeners now, I think, you know, I think all my friends now. Four years of being white, working on this book, and then the books coming out. And now what else am I supposed to talk about?

 

Louis Virtel No. Right. I got I hope you have other thoughts. I think I would deplete all of mine in a book. I would write my little, you know, poem, Sestina, about Cate Blanchett. And then I would be that would be the end of me. There’s nothing left to know about me.

 

Ira Madison III Baby. She’s going to file that restraining order.

 

Louis Virtel Really? Any actress is not safe. I feel.

 

Ira Madison III That. Letters to Kate. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel You’re referencing. You were at a Minneapolis stop of your book tour, and a bunch of University of Iowa alums were there, including one of my friends who was one of the pop culture numbers of all time, Marion Fluker. When I started at the Daily Iowan, the newspaper at the University of Iowa, she was there. And I remember she knew I was a Madonna fan and she quoted Madonna to me. She goes, everybody’s entitled to my opinion. And I at that moment realized, my God, there are people who know as much as I do in this world. So that you got to meet her is pretty rad.

 

Ira Madison III I want to say the best part of the tour and Louis got to experience this when we did a live show in Boston, which by the way, is uploaded to the podcast feed. Now, you can listen to it or watch it on YouTube. Just meeting all of our Keep It fans who’ve been listening for far too long.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, since the beginning, which is, by the way, you know, Cretaceous era.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. But Minneapolis really brought out the people who are connected to Luis Alberto. There are people who went to college with him. One girl said she works with your dad.

 

Louis Virtel That’s what Wiles say. My dad lives in Illinois. The whole Midwest doesn’t know each other. It’s not like the gay community.

 

Ira Madison III You know what I mean? But I have even better news for you of someone who came in line in Minneapolis. Josh Hartnett’s sister.

 

Louis Virtel Why didn’t I guess that?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, she said she always loves what we’re talking about. The heart and reticence on the show.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Well, he was amazing in that Night Shyamalan movie.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Travis So zany trap that we also put Hayley Mills in. And I assume we did that because she was once on The Parent Trap and we thought, why not trap her again?

 

Ira Madison III You know, that’s probably exactly how M night’s brain works.

 

Louis Virtel I feel like it must be because, I mean, I’m not saying you I’m not saying Hayley Mills isn’t a good actress. But why would she come to mind? It’s just seems very crazy.

 

Ira Madison III I feel like we still have not gotten the heart and data science that we deserve.

 

Louis Virtel And he was on that show. I haven’t seen Peaky Blinders, right?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, right. He did that. He was in the Chris Dolan movie, Oppenheimer.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, of course. Yes, yes, yes. Remember, we put Brendan Fraser in that? We’re like, well, you’ll follow up the Oscar win with this. And then we sat him down and he just said, I have to scream this whole movie.

 

Ira Madison III I don’t know. It also feels like it is going in the opposite direction of a heart. Netizens in the fact that we’re getting a reboot of the faculty being produced by Robert Rodriguez still. But.

 

Louis Virtel okay. Was the faculty not also a Kevin Williamson joint?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, he wrote it right.

 

Louis Virtel Well, other say Mark, Kevin Williamson in the world is nothing but a good thing. Is he involved with the next Scream chapter?

 

Ira Madison III I’m actually in Scream seven, Louis.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. They cast you. It’s like one of those. It’s like knives out. For what? They just cast an entire hemisphere.

 

Ira Madison III I’m in Scream seven, and I am also in euphoria. Season three.

 

Louis Virtel Lucky you. My God.

 

Ira Madison III The only things happening in Hollywood right now.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no kidding. But speaking of ensembles, today, we’re going to get to the new season of White Lotus, which just premiered. And I have to say, I guess if we’re talking about series, I anticipate on television, this is probably my top ranked one because, you know, he’s going to bring something to the ball make way, you know, And I mean, he’s what we call a troublesome meddling fagot.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I’m excited to talk about White Lotus, which I feel like I was not anticipating that much. But as soon as I started watching it, I was like, I love this show.

 

Louis Virtel Because nothing else is like paced like this show. You know, it’s just it’s the one show be allowed to be its own thing. It’s not like pressuring itself into little tic tac corners or like jamming in guest stars or anything like that. He just, like, precisely casts it, well, varying stardom, levels of everybody involved, but they all get something to do. So it’s sort of this like acting marathon or decathlon or whatever.

 

Ira Madison III And because Mike White is gay, there is always going to be an ass shot of a very hot man.

 

Louis Virtel And that man will undoubtedly be the horniest character on the show.

 

Ira Madison III We’re also discussing and this is Louis culture, everyone.

 

Louis Virtel You seem pissed. SNL 50, which was like an entire weekend of content. It was. I mean, it was it was a jubilee.

 

Ira Madison III I want to say that I had friends in town for SNL 50 and I have no idea what it was. It seemed like there was a different SNL thing happening every single night this week.

 

Louis Virtel I also feel very boomer ish about this. I’m so sorry to denigrate the whole generation. I thought the thing airing on Friday was the whole SNL 50th thing. Like they did a concert and I said, This is how we’re celebrating the 50th. Weird. Like, I mean, like I remember Lauryn Hill on SNL, but I don’t know that she’s crucial to my memory of SNL. But that was just night one. And then we had actual SNL, and then we had the 50th, which was a, I believe, 13 hour festival of SNL characters.

 

Ira Madison III Well, it was very important to see Lauryn Hill performing because that was her finally making it for her scheduled appearance.

 

Louis Virtel You’re right. She was supposed to be there in 1998.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. The show itself was long as hell. But we will get into the highlights and the lowlights and everything in between. And also, we have a lovely guest with us tonight who is speaking of characters. She’s several.

 

Louis Virtel Quite.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. She has either borderline personality disorder or she’s just very funny. Is Sabrina Bryer.

 

Louis Virtel Can’t wait to chat with her just about anything. She seems up for whatever topics we throw out. So let’s get going.

 

Ira Madison III We’ll be right back with more. Keep it.

 

[AD]

 

Ira Madison III On Sunday, SNL aired its 50th anniversary extravaganza. It was three hours full of everyone who’s anyone in entertainment. And now we’re going to dive into the best and worst moments of the show. Plus, the 17 other projects they’ve squeezed out of this anniversary.

 

Louis Virtel Quite. Yes. Let’s start with Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean. I am just shocked to have seen that. I can’t believe they can. I mean, like that’s if you think like Simon and Garfunkel have had feuds over the years, like Wyclef and Lauryn. I was nervous for everybody involved.

 

Ira Madison III The concert aired on Friday and I feel like I thought you already said that you thought that that was the entire SNL 50 because. Yeah. I don’t know why it aired on Sunday.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Think of the title. Where does it belong? The clues are there.

 

Ira Madison III But getting it to the actual show itself, I found it to be kind of like a regular episode of SNL in the sense that there’s some stuff that I really loved. And then there were some sketches that I. Did some stuff in the kitchen during.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Well, also, they were jam packing all these celebrities into all these gotchas, which are mostly familiar old sketches they were bringing back for for the occasion. But because it was such a big episode, though, it’s like they didn’t feel particularly obligated to play it. Play it hard for laughs, like the celebrities involved could kind of opt out midst scotch and sort of wink or, you know, break character or just just not commit fully. And so things that should have been like soaring triumphs for me, like Meryl Streep finally appearing for the first time ever on SNL, playing the Kate McKinnon alien abductee character’s mother. That was amusing. And she had some line deliveries that were fun. And also, Meryl is snatched. But it felt like still could have been funnier and better rehearsed.

 

Ira Madison III Well, the only shortcake she’s been eating lately is Martin. Eating it.

 

Louis Virtel I don’t need to be thinking about that. Canadian cakes collapsing all over her.

 

Ira Madison III Maple sirup everywhere.

 

Louis Virtel Geez. Gargle it out as three amigos. My God.

 

Ira Madison III She’s really never been on SNL.

 

Louis Virtel No. And, of course, she’s probably been asked 25,000 times over the years and turns it down for whatever reason. But yes, she was finally there because that pesky boyfriend of hers, Martin Short, was a cast member. And, by the way, a cast member for one season on SNL.

 

Ira Madison III I guess once you become actually famous after the fact, they start to reclaim you.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, precisely.

 

Ira Madison III But going back to what you were saying about celebrities who are just sort of there and like their moment sort of fell flat. Tom Hanks was hilarious at his first appearance on Black Jeopardy. And then for this one, he was just sort of there.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Well, it started out really strong because they had Eddie Murphy playing Troy. Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy committed, if you remember him, on the SNL 40. He seemed sort of aloof and not particularly thrilled to be there. Here he played Tracy Morgan alongside Tracy Morgan, playing a regular Black Jeopardy contestant, and they were cracking each other up. That was fun to see. And then midway through the sketch, Eddie was traded out for Tom Hanks as this character. And it was just a very bizarre coda for that sketch, like it did not belong there.

 

Ira Madison III It was sort of remember the time that he played in this sketch? And it was funny.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III You can laugh about it. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel We’re bringing it back. And it’s it’s going to be worse. How about that? Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III One of the bits in that, too, was the fact that black people don’t really know SNL. And I did love that because it’s very true.

 

Louis Virtel They they brought up in living Color in the sketch. And I was thrilled to hear it because I don’t remember the last time that came up on SNL.

 

Ira Madison III What were some of your other favorites on the show?

 

Louis Virtel Well, during the actual concert on Friday, the aforementioned concert, do you know who did not miss a beat the entire time? And this includes her appearances on Sunday, too. Ana Gasteyer, when she and Will Ferrell were doing that old Marty Culp and Bobby Moynihan Colbert thing, where they they are like church entertainers who incorporate new songs and just sing them straight. It’s like there is something so true about those characters where it’s like they just want to connect with the kids and like be on their level. And if they and they have no sense of being embarrassed by what they are doing, literally what Ana Gasteyer is just doing with her hands singing these songs by Like Dokie. So funny. It’s so suburban and sincere and kind of loving in a way, and oblivious to the stupidity of what she is doing as she really I mean, like, this is somebody who has obviously been on Broadway, has a phenomenal singing voice, and as a child was a violin prodigy. She’s lived like 20 lives. It was just amazing to see her. And I have to say something I thought about all during this special is we routinely the scuttlebutt about SNL is your favorite era is the one that happened when you were in high school, right? Or the era when you were obsessed with that, when you were coming into learning comedy or whatever? I’m sorry, baby. It’s not true. I think I spent the entire time being like the generation I grew up with are the funniest people who ever did this show. Talking about her and Molly Shannon and Will Ferrell and all those guys having won such good energy around each other until it was never just about boys being around the boys, which I’m sorry is sort of the lingering stench from the Chris Farley Adam Sandler era for me.

 

Ira Madison III I absolutely love Ana Gasteyer, who I will point out is my first Elphaba.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Which is why you’re such a refined cultural critic now.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. She was also great on Watch What Happens Live. Andy Cohen did a episode that was just sort of the women of SNL. It was her Rachel Dratch, Cecily Strong, Cheri Oteri and Laraine Newman. And they were hilarious. And they were game for doing like a reading of a scene from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. That was perfect.

 

Louis Virtel Excuse me. I saw that scene. And first of all, you know that Housewives shit isn’t for me. I think it’s for. I think it’s for people who, like, live like Oscar the Grouch, you know?

 

Ira Madison III You know.

 

Louis Virtel And they were unbelievable. Cheri Oteri played it like and Madeline Kahn High pitched the entire time. Full shriek. Hilarious. It’s hard to pick a favorite in that scene. Everybody was so connected and going so hard. That also format is very perfect for Rachel Dratch, who loves just being a fucking freak.

 

Ira Madison III I want to say actually that that highlighted a thing that I feel like SNL could probably do a bit better. I mean, they were literally just reading a scene from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. But yeah, it’s a scene that went viral. It’s a scene that feels in the zeitgeist, you know, and it feels young, skewered, like gay people watch it, women watch it. And I feel like whenever SNL does do gay jokes, it’s always some variation of isn’t it funny that gay people say slay the house down boots sometime? You know.

 

Louis Virtel I am laughing. I am laughing. It is funny that they say that, but I know you’re I always feel like again, that’s like the difficulty of writing for SNL is because the definition of pop culture is so changing of things that are actually unavoidable that they would have to make a sketch about, you know, like like what we consume is so fragmented now. Like there probably there’s an entire generation below us that kind of barely knows who Tom Hanks is, for example. And. Things that like like gay things that get into the zeitgeist. It’s sort of like. But your parents in the Midwest still don’t know what that is. You know, it’s like it’s like it’s never really fully mainstream. And when they incorporate those things, it’s just such a high barrier to clear, like explaining gay niche things to an audience that would otherwise never run into it and has no idea what you’re talking about.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, in a way, Black Jeffrey is very funny at times, but even that is still sort of explaining black lingo.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. I thought it was really funny, though, when they were saying this episode is sponsored by a play and they. Yeah. Like, like with the visual and, like, the kind of explanation. I mean, it literally is sort of almost like an urban dictionary definition of something you’re reading on the screen. But they when they find conduits to just fully explain something and it’s still funny, that really is, I think, where they shine.

 

Ira Madison III Now, I will say they’re brought to you by the who are going to be the app. That is one of my favorite things about part of all.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Please.

 

Ira Madison III Check the guest list.

 

Louis Virtel I don’t want to say the word part of all, but the calming appearance in the app. I do enjoy that.

 

Ira Madison III So speaking of the celebrity guests, one of my actual favorite sketches was the Audience Q&A, hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Even though it was a little exotic, like every time a celebrity stood up. And then we had to listen to, like, a minute of applause.

 

Louis Virtel Right? No. I’m one of my pet peeves in all the television, especially game shows. Is too much applauding. I don’t want to be hearing that. It’s okay. Wheel of Fortune, because we need something to do while Vanna gets to the letters. But otherwise, it’s time wasting.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Funny. Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds joke.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. She’s. What did Tina Fey say? How’s it going with you? And she goes and he says, Why? What have you heard?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Note that he was the one who made the joke and he was the only one who stood.

 

Louis Virtel No. Blake Lively was just there. She was doing the Kate Middleton wave and walk away. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III She was silent.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Not silenced.

 

Louis Virtel I will say about the celebrities who were there, some of them also, I understand that they maybe have hosted SNL at one point, but they also a lot of people there had didn’t spiritually feel like they belong there. There was a sketch where Kristen Wiig did that Lawrence Welk character with the tiny hands who’s disgusting, and other people in the sketch were on Agastya Grates. Scarlett Johansson, who’s hosted the show a lot of times and obviously is married to Colin Jost. Kim Kardashian was in that sketch girl. Who wants her there? I don’t need her comedy chops on the screen. I know you didn’t stop at a Groundlings before this.

 

Ira Madison III Can you imagine how.

 

Louis Virtel She would do it? I think she’s very game for whatever.

 

Ira Madison III That was shocking seeing her there, too. But it really just was sort of a parade of celebrities.

 

Louis Virtel Right. I really enjoy during that Q&A, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the audience who fucking hilarious.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. And Adam Driver.

 

Louis Virtel What a corny as stupid. But she’s like, this, this dog is blind. I’m here to explain everything to the dog.

 

Ira Madison III But Adam Driver committing to that just glower the whole time. I mean, I, I love him and I actually feel like we don’t see enough of his funny side.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Also, I do I think ultimately love actors who take shit too seriously. You know, I mean, I would prefer it to the alternative where you’re just our best friend all the time. Like people who seem kind of prickly, maybe. I think maybe even women are probably going to get more harshly graded for being self-serious actors all the time. But I’m sorry. Like, we need more Isabella pears, you know, just people who are like, actually, like, did you see what she was just asked over the weekend? All right. It’s going viral now. She was asked, Do you think French cinema is good? Her response? It exists. It is better than nothing. Maybe she’s like, remember, we got to interview her. What planet was that.

 

Ira Madison III Order of Zack Galifianakis? And that was jarring because where the hell has he been?

 

Louis Virtel I would love to know. I mean, Between Two Ferns is like one of the few things 20 tens Internet provided in a great way.

 

Ira Madison III And I feel like it would still be funny today, too.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. He must have just gotten sick of it. And they did the movie and stuff.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Some old cast members that I really love seeing Tim Meadows.

 

Louis Virtel Up look sensational, by the way, in the new Mean Girls, the one from last year where he played his part. I thought all of his lines were way better than the first mean girls and he was still hilarious. That’s somebody where he he should be in more high profile stuff.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I mean, I feel like he’s probably just enjoying his. Money and not needing to work. Otherwise we’d probably see him more.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. And he also seems very beloved among those cast members too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. I should revisit the ladies man.

 

Louis Virtel I enjoyed it at the time. I believe in the ladies man. As one of the main sketches written by Harper from the Will and Harper documentary, that’s one of her specialties on the show.

 

Ira Madison III And Fred Armisen in that sketch.

 

Louis Virtel The Fred Armisen is constantly funny. I’m so sorry. That Prince impersonation is an A-plus.

 

Ira Madison III I know we say that Gwen Stefani is the queen of cultural appropriation, but Fred Armisen can be my cane because I have honestly never minded him playing any race on SNL.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, you’re right. He sort of just weaves into whatever he wants. I never really thought about it.

 

Ira Madison III You buy it every time?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. But I mean, also, he would be somebody who I think would play Adam Driver. Very funny.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. No, I really was just a reminder that that specific era of SNL is so funny. And I think it’s also. It was the commitment to character work.

 

Louis Virtel You know, right now he is always he’s like a Yale level sketch actor. And it’s about a sketch silliness. It’s very silly.

 

Ira Madison III I think that current SNL, the sketches that tend to go viral more end up being the one where someone is actually playing like a character. Like what ego plays that woman who is always like trying to cut the hard steak or whatever at the table.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Is something like that. You know, when someone is committed to a character, I really feel like you said, our era of SNL that we grew up with was funny. And I feel like that was these people playing characters, like when I was watching Watch What Happens Live. And Andy Cohen is asking the women, like, what was the favorite character that the woman next to you played? You know, like they were able to name so many different people. And I would be hard pressed to name a single character that most of the current cast has.

 

Louis Virtel I also don’t generally like how they set up their characters nowadays, whereas there’s one, there’s always one crazy person and then somebody, and it’s usually Kenan, but it can be anybody is just like, What about that character? I feel like they need other new ways to set up the characters.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I mean, we used to have the cheerleaders with Cheri Oteri and Will Ferrell and they were both fucking nuts.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Also, by the way, again, something I love about Cheri Oteri. She was willing to be hard, annoying, like was that It was not cute. It was not winking. It was not. I’m half stepping this. She was truthfully portraying somebody who had no, like, social read and utterly earnest.

 

Ira Madison III Honestly, I feel like the change in. Cinema has really sort of affected SNL in some way because we’ve lost that SNL character to movie pipeline. So there’s really not a need to continue to hammer home and SNL character in the hopes that they become popular enough that you can make like a mango movie. You know, you can make its part. You can make us bear. Kathryn Gallagher, a superstar. Now I feel like they’re always looking for different or sort of original movies for cast members to star in. And so maybe that’s why we’ve lost the art of a good character that you see all the time.

 

Louis Virtel But speaking of Molly Shannon, when she did the Sally O’Malley with Emma Stone, just what is it about lounging in place and wearing a red shirt that is so funny?

 

Ira Madison III And 55.

 

Louis Virtel A book? I’m datto.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, that was also I mean, first of all, do kids watch SNL now? But do people quote SNL anymore?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, I don’t know. I do think, quote and culture is something we grew up with. Like did you know, think of the kid in school who is constantly quoting The Simpsons, for example. Are people doing the loser?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel It wasn’t me, but.

 

Ira Madison III I mean, people quote Real housewives.

 

Louis Virtel True. That’s what gay people quote, I will say. And I always feel like it’s kind of a flop because you need the entire circumstance of what’s happening in the scene to understand why they said the things they said. So same losers, different clothes.

 

Ira Madison III You know what? Not everyone has the art of using a meme or pop culture reference and still having it make sense in the conversation without other people knowing the context. You know, when I make a reference, you know? Yes. Children love it. Graduations, Weddings. Funerals.

 

Louis Virtel What are children doing at graduations?

 

Ira Madison III For us, probably thinking. I believe I can fly. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Right. No. My eighth grade graduation song was Hero, which was like six years old at the time. Why did we pick Hero? Who is the hero?

 

Ira Madison III Don’t ask me about 911. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. What else? The weekend update special. I enjoyed seeing Bill Murray appear. But I have to say so. He listed the ten greatest anchors of all time. And the funniest part was when he said, We’ll start with the greatest black anchor of all time, and it was just Michael Che. And then they moved on.

 

Ira Madison III Right.

 

Louis Virtel But it made me long for more of Jane Curtin, who attended the SNL 50 special but then didn’t perform at all. She was in the closing credits holding up a picture of Gilda Radner with Laraine Newman in the back. By the way, Laraine Newman is cool as hell. I was on a podcast with her. Fucking love her. She was in a sketch with Pete Davidson where he’s that dimwitted OC guy and she’s waxing poetic about her time backstage at SNL. That was sort of a thankless character, and she played it really well.

 

Ira Madison III Was there anyone you felt like you, you know, as an SNL aficionado that you missed?

 

Louis Virtel I missed Nora Dunn from the 80s. I felt like the 80s could have been a little bit better represented at SNL because I saw on the red carpet and I saw Bowen Yang talking about this with Matt Rodgers, who was doing a lot of the pre-show interviews on Peacock. They had like, quote unquote obscure cast members there like Gail Mathias and Danny Dylan, people who were there during the five year period where Lorne had left in the early 80s. And like, that’s really cool. I wish we had seen some more of those people, even though, you know, they’re not as famous as Kim Kardashian, my favorite comedy star. Cleghorn You cannot even bring up Ellen Cleghorn without me jumping out of my seat.

 

Ira Madison III I fucking love her.

 

Louis Virtel One of my favorite stand up jokes. My friend bought a dog. I said, You give me $500, I’ll shit on your carpet.

 

Ira Madison III I need to find out if the old episodes of Cleghorn, her sitcom, are.

 

Louis Virtel On Exclamation Point. Yeah. Was that a WB show?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Now, also, she’s so gorgeous, too.

 

Ira Madison III I also feel like there were some other, like, celebrities who I feel like were more SNL and could have really been there, but also maybe they just weren’t available.

 

Louis Virtel Well, also, I’m sure a lot of these people were at the 40th and then didn’t really want to come to the 50th. I will say, anybody who cares about SNL has been in this game for like so, so long now. And I feel like something this special struggled with was we all remember the last few reunion reunions really well. You know, there’s not much you can do beyond what they’ve already done.

 

Ira Madison III Well, I mean, that was especially highlighted probably in I don’t know if you’ve read this in New York magazine over the weekend, the reply all thread to the Lorne Michaels book. No. So on Thursday, New Yorker editor Susan Morrison sent out a mass email invitation to an event that she was having about the biography of Lorne Michaels. She was going to be chatting with Emily Nussbaum and McNally Jackson and asked people what they like to reserve just a seat or a book along with it. You know, typical book tour shit. Some people started replying all to it, saying that they were sorry to have missed the event. And then you had people like Tina Fey and stuff like jumping in, like making fun of people replying all when she was telling them not to reply. But people like Graydon Carter said he would try to make the two parties he’d been invited to for this book, along with SNL’s 50th anniversary celebration on Sunday night and wrote, Honestly, I have my own life. I cannot devote any more time to Lorne.

 

Louis Virtel This just became like a bonanza of people replying all.

 

Ira Madison III I think really with the 40th. That was one thing. And the 50th, like we said, there was so much shit going on. And then also Lorne Michaels, his memoir is out, you know, and you’re doing events and parties for that, too. And, you know, like, people get tired of parties.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right.

 

Ira Madison III Even me, you know, like, I like it sometimes. It’s just like I’m a stay at home.

 

Louis Virtel That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes about awards season, which was from Rooney Mara. And she said the year she was up for Carol and lost every award to Alicia Vikander and the Danish girl. She says it feels like you’re spending three months celebrating somebody else’s birthday. And that’s what that sounds like to me.

 

Ira Madison III Actually, that is a lovely interview I would like to have with several people who are sort of like when you’re in an awards season and there’s one person winning every fucking award is sort of, Why am I nominated?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, no, we had Anna Kendrick here talking about the year she was up against Mo’Nique, and it was like. I love you, girl. You do not have a prayer.

 

Ira Madison III And you know, for a minute she was probably like, well, you know, she’s not doing any of the press, you know, not playing the game. Maybe they’re not going to give it to her. Yeah, right.

 

Louis Virtel Tom Hanks also introduced the In Memoriam segment, which sounded like it was going to be the paid tribute to people like John Belushi and Gilda Radner. But instead, it was about inappropriate or cancelable sketches that would no longer play now and in memoriam for those kinds of things. I’ll be honest, I thought the setup for that bit was funny, like the pivot away from the sincerity of an in memoriam. But then I don’t know that I really needed to see all that this year.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I think that also most of those things you could probably still do now anyway.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s a little it was a little bit celebrating the idea that like cancel culture, people are kind of on to something to which I can’t abide by that in any way.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel The best joke of the night, however, was John Mulaney at the beginning. You named how many people have hosted SNL together? Something like 894 people or something. And he said, and it’s weird that only two of them are murderers.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Notice he didn’t bring up manslaughter.

 

Louis Virtel That’s true. Then you get a whole swath, right?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. A lot of reckless drivers. Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Hold on. Are the two murderers O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake?

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Good trivia.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. What, are they going to team up in hell? Yeah, right, Right. Or.

 

Louis Virtel I don’t know how it works. You don’t know how it works?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, They’re both dead, right?

 

Louis Virtel Yes, they are both dead. Much beloved. Not forgotten.

 

Ira Madison III Honestly. Great. And lost highway, though. Shout out to David Leitch.

 

Louis Virtel May he rest? Yes.

 

Ira Madison III He should be rolling over in his grave. If you saw that David Lynch on Snatch Game this week.

 

Louis Virtel My God. No, we’ll get into that with this week’s television because I remain so befuddled. Almost impressed, but befuddled. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III All right. We will be right back with Sabrina Bryer. But before that, we have some announcements. This month, Vote Save America is making donations as part of their anxiety relief program to black led organizations and candidates of color, helping us gain ground at the state and local level. So if you love DIY like me, get involved. Like Power to the Polls and the Black Mirror Initiative, which are working to change the way we organize black, brown and working class communities to drive voter turnout. Or like Kimberly Pope Adams, who’s running for a Virginia State House seat this year, a prime opportunity to expand the Democrats one seat majority. I have to say over the weekends. I was high and forgot that there is a Virginia.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, Virginia. There is a Virginia.

 

Ira Madison III I almost like West Virginia. Virginia. And I was like, start East Virginia.

 

Louis Virtel Then you went to the hospital? Yeah. There was a woman on Jeopardy named Margaret Shelton who? Somebody buzzed in on a question and said, What is West Virginia? And they were wrong. And she buzzed and she’s like, from the South. She goes, What is regular Virginia?

 

Ira Madison III So funny. With the anxiety relief program, you could set up a recurring donation at any amount that feels right for you. And Vote Save America will use it to build progressive power in 2025 and beyond. Go to Vote Save America dot com slash donate to donate now. Paid for by Vote Save America. Vote Save America. Dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. All right. When we’re back, it’s Sabrina Brier.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Ira Madison III This week’s guest is that friend and also one of mine. She’s a TikTok sensation, a comedian and a newly minted author. Here to talk about her new audio book. That friend out Wherever you get your audio books, please welcome to Keep It, Sabrina Brier.

 

Sabrina Brier Yeah. I’m so happy to be here. I’m honored.

 

Louis Virtel God, we love you so much. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III I was happy to be at your, like, launch of that friend, which was amazingly lucky.

 

Sabrina Brier I feel so lucky getting twice of you in, like, less than a month’s time. Like what? Why me? What do you mean?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Tell us a bit about, I guess, how it’s been launching the audiobook and the response to it and just how you feel overall now that it’s out there in the world.

 

Sabrina Brier Totally. I mean, I’m IRA obviously, like Noah’s like is going to rely on that to say author of Bother I you’re an icon and congratulations to you as well. I was and I want to I want the book to buy arm but I was just going to say that it’s always a funny thing when you’re talking about something or thinking about something for so long and then it’s finally out in the world. It’s a little bit surreal and a little bit like weird, Agree? That’s the thing. I was going to say that maybe you really do, but I just feel so grateful. I think I feel like I think I meet so many friends and great sort of communities of people connections along the way with this whole Internet journey. And this launch has really felt like the opportunity to put everything together in one place. I think especially like the party, which I’m so happy you were there. And, you know, just that room in itself was just so many walks of life from, you know, the time I was back when I was an assistant and those kinds of colleagues into like the new tick tock friends and then and podcast friends and beyond. So just to like have something that my I mean, my biggest thing in life is like, how do I get everyone in a room together and make everyone in my life meet each other and be obsessed with each other? So I was really into that part of the launch party and just, yeah, feeling really lucky that this journey online has led to such an incredible opportunity to get even deeper with the creative world. And then now, of course, be out there for for hopefully new people as well to be able to sink their teeth in to.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I just want to say, you’re such a brilliant talker, period. But I was wondering, is the audiobook process draining to you or was it mostly fun and organic?

 

Sabrina Brier It was definitely like not easy to do. And I mean, I feel like with my friends and Thank you. That’s so sweet. Like, I feel like with my friends, I have like, I like looking back over the four over year process of from offer to launch. You know, I would always be like, well, yeah, like once I got through like my first round of like episodes that I have handed to my editor, then I’m going to be more chill, then I’m going to be more chill. Then I would be like, okay, once I hand in my final draft, right? It was like I, I literally felt like for a really long period of time, like went like a college student who has an essay you do at midnight, which means I was the one who started the essay at 7 p.m. when it was due at midnight. And I definitely felt like triggered. Like I felt that for such a long period of time. And you know, I would say so that was a huge challenge of it was just like the just the enormous, enormous city of like of that the task itself. I also think just yeah, emotionally it’s it is a little funny and weird, but also exciting when you’re sort of doing this thing where people are like, What are you doing? Like, what is that and why? So definitely like explained to people like, so it’s actually more of a radio play. And like my whole spiel of explaining to people what’s different about it. I feel like I’ve said a million times and like if there’s a ghost following me around and listening to everything I say, they think I’m so annoying at this point anyways. So it was not easy and it it was very rewarding. And you know, it definitely took a village. I mean, my team has been so helpful and incredible. My editor, every person they’ve set me up with like my producer, right? Because at first it was writing it. But then once we got into the studio, that was a whole other really important team member I hadn’t met yet. Bringing, you know, bringing them into the fold. It was just such a process that I’m just so lucky to have been able to be a part of from the beginning to the end, you know?

 

Ira Madison III And you’re obviously such a successful person on Tik Tok and I. I have a question, too, about just the process of producing those because. I’m an older millennial, young, old millennial, and I’m like, was grateful that, you know, I was using like Twitter was my thing, you know, that launched me into my writing career, you know, And when I try to make a Tik tok, I love being on it. But when I try to make one like I made one for an unboxing video from my book. Right? I feel like it took me three hours. And that’s reshooting it, being like no one was horrible. Like, how did you come to, I guess master it? And now how long is the process when you’re like, I’m going to shoot one and get it out there?

 

Sabrina Brier Totally. Also, by the way, I’m sure that like, it’s amazing your video and I’m going to pass. But you know, I definitely it took time and a lot of throwing spaghetti at the wall and a lot of, you know, I think to the level of exposure I have now is so different from 2020 to summer 2022 when I first went viral. And so I really had a lot of time to really fail and feel like that awkwardness you’re talking about. Like, I’m an actor writer, like I love cameras and getting myself on camera and editing and I love all of those things and I’ve always done them since I was little, but I still felt that awkwardness you’re talking about at the beginning of this process, because it’s just a really specific thing, you know, putting yourself in the little screen with the little, you know, figuring out the soundbites and the little small moments and how to make them impactful. But I would say at first I would say the number one thing that got me figuring it out was that when I first was like, I want to be virally did it, I would try like the trends and I’m a millennial, you know, I’m like, it made no sense to me. It made clear to me and I was like trying to do things that were more so like, this is what people do on Tik Tok. And it wasn’t until I actually let me pretend I’m like back in college in like a theater class and let me like, make something the way you would make something where you’re not thinking a bunch of people are going to watch it, right? Because I think that’s part of what makes the process so awkward, too, is you almost feel the audience before you’ve posted it. And and so I think part of it is like a mental thing of like artistically, like getting in touch with the things you actually are trying to make outside of like what you should be doing. I think like that’s a way to eventually get rid of that awkwardness. And they also say to it’s like, you know, you do the same thing over, you know, make it stick kind of thing. So for me, like I went viral, like I was outside and I made a kind of little joke like, this is this is Soho. It stands for South of Houston. And, you know, I just made little like transplant jokes like that. And I was outside and, like in a cute outfit and, like, being kind of dumb. And I put that online and people were grasping to it. So I went, okay, let me do that again and let me do that again. So it’s like when you do also, it’s like a muscle, you know, there’s a specific way I make a TikTok, whether it be like, okay, I want to make sure when I first do it that it’s it’s bringing people in within the first second. Right. And then I want to make sure like how long you want to be like all the technical things that, like you’re saying felt so awkward, like if you had done it but if you had done like a hundred unboxing videos, you eventually would get to a point of like, you know, I like to first have my phone here and I like to shoot it all is one thing and then cut it up later. That’s how I’m going to be more natural. You would, I mean, like I think it’s just yeah, it did.

 

Ira Madison III In the front of it, the gym, you know she’s got 200 books literally now that.

 

Sabrina Brier Literally that’s, that’s my like, unsolicited opinion, you know what I mean? Like, I’m like, that’s, I think, Yeah, totally. Like with anything like, you know, probably you guys are probably also so much more comfortable doing what you’re doing right now. Right from compared to the beginning maybe.

 

Louis Virtel You know, it’s also just so shocking that talking is a job. You know what I mean? Like, if I talk to somebody on the street, I’m like, this is no different than podcasting. Like, you’re just doing my job in a way right now.

 

Sabrina Brier You’re like, Well, I’m actually simply so good at this, so let me get paid for it. And as you know, right now.

 

Louis Virtel I get up every morning and scream that, Yes.

 

Sabrina Brier Exactly. And we need it. And it’s important for the culture.

 

Ira Madison III If you have any funny stories or interactions of like because you film your stuff out in the street in New York, like do you have any like both of people like recognizing you or trying to get into your tic tac?

 

Sabrina Brier I mean, it’s especially like in the summer I’m always in a little bit of a dry spell and like jam through merch. I’m always kind of like, This isn’t my time, but I really got my life.

 

Ira Madison III So.

 

Louis Virtel Christian girl, Heart of shit.

 

Sabrina Brier Exactly. Exactly.

 

Louis Virtel Back to my base.

 

Sabrina Brier Bring me back. I need sun. I need leaves falling. And I’m really, like, in touch with the earth, like. But so when I’m, like, feel like I would. Especially in the summer. I used to live in the West Village, like for most of the time of me, like building my platform. And it was like, I mean, to the point where. But although people can be really like people are conscious of it were if they want to say hi to you they’ll we usually like obviously there have been those moments but for the most part it’s people will wait until I’m done filming and then like, hi. And I’m like, I’m filming one right now. And then I’ll be like, Go like. And then, you know, so a lot of interactions like that, definitely. Like, I remember one time I like went to a screening of The Color Purple, which is such a good movie, and I just work for Daniel Brooks and I’m obsessed with her and.

 

Louis Virtel She’s amazing.

 

Sabrina Brier She’s the best. And so I went to support and I and I like how this and I was like, all feeling myself, like, have this really cute outfit on. And I went home and like, cool makeup and I had no opportunity to get someone to, like, take content of me. Like I had this plan that didn’t follow, like, you know, follow through. And then I was like outside of my apartment and I, like, had my phone and I was like, let me I’ll just take like a video of myself, just like a fit chalk being ironic, like at least something to get this outfit out into the world. And I like my photo op. And I was like being annoying, like, whatever. And I saw this girl kind of looking at me, and then she kind of, like, disappear and then came back and came up to me and she was like, Hey, so I’m actually a fan and I work for this company and I just ran up to my apartment to get this product. Like, Can I give you this product? Like I’m interning and like I’m a student at NYU and like and I was like, Girl, it was I’m little. I’m pretty sure it was like some sort of, like, vaginal wash. I was like. I was like, give it to me. I was like, Give it to me. And then I was like, But also my clean will you take a TikTok of me like like this? So this girl, just like on my block, like I like it was like this little, you know, barter exchange. I took the product and we exchange info, and I was like, You’re such an entrepreneur girl. Like, keep at it. She was like this undergrad. And then we made this video where it was very like antagonistic between us in the video, which is so funny because like, we just met and then we made it and it was freezing and she was such a trooper. And then I was like, Thank you so much. I’ll never forget this. So like, definitely leads you to some funny interactions with strangers, which I love.

 

Louis Virtel Well, that’s also like a progressive moment for the culture, I think, because I’ve never heard of like somebody coming up to a luminary or whatever, and then that person actually being valuable to them, like. Like it’s just like your time is being interrupted and that’s that. Like we always complain about how like, I think celebrities are generally treated like shit by people on the street, like as objects or whatever. But you are saying, no way I can objectify you. Wait, Just so exciting.

 

Sabrina Brier That’s so interesting. And I also think too, like in terms of what you’re saying, I think there there’s so much about my content that’s like for the people by the people like and that’s not lost on me in those interactions. Like for example, just if I’m with a group of girls and I might and I have so many videos like this where like maybe it’s like my good friends, but like, I’m just thinking of this one random video, like where it’s like boyfriend who sucks and I’m like bringing my boyfriend around a party and he doesn’t speak to anyone. And there are definitely some girls like in the background of that where I was like, Sorry, we’re making a TikTok in there. I was like, I’m always inclusive. I’m always like, Anyone want to jump in? You know? And people really will like volunteer more than you think. And all have these videos where it’s like people I don’t remember their names or who I barely really met who are like, Pop in or maybe I’m out to dinner with like three really good friends, but one of them has two friends there. I don’t really know that well. And now all of a sudden they’re my writers room and I’m going like, Well, what do you guys think of this? Well, can you? And then I’ll like direct someone and I’ll be like, You can do that. Like you got this girl. So I think I just feel so like the material itself comes out of that natural, those natural interactions. It’s really the energy is really fueled by like the realism underneath it that when your like a fan comes up or something like that, it’s just not lost on me that in so many ways, like they’re already a part of the world, if that makes sense.

 

Louis Virtel Well, also has kind of a game night vibe. You’re like, let’s just like all do this thing together. And then like, if you say something, I say something, whatever. It’s it’s like unpretentious.

 

Sabrina Brier Totally. And I think. I think that’s why too, like, sometimes you see the comments of like, we I feel like I thought this was real. It’s like you’re maybe it’s coming from something. Totally.

 

Ira Madison III Now, What was it like sitting on the couch with Drew Barrymore? Like, what was that energy match up like with you?

 

Sabrina Brier It was amazing. It’s so funny. I was saying to my friend because like at one point we were like, my sister had taken like, this beats video. And before it came out, like my friend and I were sitting on a couch and we were like, look, like looking at it. And at one point she was like, Wait, pause. And then she, like, zoomed in on our hands. And she was like, that clutch, not clutch. It was like, you know, because obviously that’s what everyone talks about. And then and we were like, she was like, she’s weird. She’s like, you guys are clutching for dear life. And we were laughing about it. But I was also saying to her, I was like, I got to say, though, like, obviously I was really mentally, emotionally prepared for the closeness because that is the brand of the show.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Sabrina Brier But I swear to God it didn’t even like when you’re in the moment, feel like she’s that close. Because I was like, This is just how I talk to my friends. Like, this is what we do. Like, we are sitting this close to each other. We’re holding it like we’re this intimate. So I was like, I’m just like me and you’re hanging. And it was so funny, too, because, like, she did this thing where, like, they had my mom, like, pop up on the screen and give, like, a surprise. Hello? Which you’re already like, This is so surreal. It’s Drew Barrymore. I, I told her on it, I was like, I grew up watching you. My sister and I were obsessed with, like, riding cars with boys and, like, Charlie’s Angels and just never been kissed weddings. They were like, you know, she was such a huge part of my childhood. And so it was art. And then my sister, who, like styled me that day, was like waiting in the wings for me, like taking the beats. That was already all so surreal. And then my mom is like on the screen. I was like, What is going on? And then it ends. And then you’re like, Bye. And then you, like, walk outside and there’s like, paparazzi. And I’m like, Hi. Like, it was just so surreal and funny and insane.

 

Louis Virtel And now she I use this term a lot, but there’s no second one of Drew Barrymore. Like, the energy is just like she’s not 1% like anybody else. The way she talks to people is like only her. Even like the corner of her mouth she does The speaking out of I think is specific to hers 200%.

 

Sabrina Brier I was even thinking sort of about that, like just watching some clips of the SNL 50 and her part in it. And I was like, first of all, she still got it. Like, when is she going to act again? I’m waiting. Yeah. And great. And to your point, it’s like there’s something about her that just jumps off the screen, like she really is an icon and for a reason.

 

Ira Madison III Do you get, like, ever approached, like, obviously, like. Like, like other celebrities and things who want to be like, I want to be in your I go to talk with you and do you feel like that just like doesn’t fit the like that friend brands.

 

Sabrina Brier Like with the TikTok it’s like anyone is Wonka like the only thing is it’s it’s not about the brand with who’s welcome in the tick tock it’s does it does it serve the concept. Yeah you know that’s the only rule. That’s the only rule like but I don’t, I guess I haven’t really. Well Ariana and I did, we did a sketch when we at launch and it felt like so natural. She’s such a great actress. It was so perfect. It’s funny, like, this is just like a random story, as you’re saying. Like, I just remember like I was at this party once, like last summer. And like Leslie Odom, Junior, who obviously was such a huge fan of Hamill fan here on the set, obviously, I like he walked into this like party was like or shared agency. And he immediately was like, hey. And I realized I was like, I guess he just must know me from it because, you know, he’s on ABBA as well. But I just it was so crazy to me that he knew me and he was like, Are you going to make a video tonight? And looking back, I was like, I really screwed that one. Like, I should. I should have had a concept ready for me. And Leslie, like, if you’re listening, rematch. I’m going to think of something for us. Okay? Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel Sounds pretty on board.

 

Sabrina Brier Yeah. I know. He was like, You’re going to make one today. And I was just still grappling with the fact that he knew who I was in any capacity whatsoever. And I was like, I don’t know. Leslie. Like, yeah, but you are so nice. But I think that, yeah, all are welcome in the videos. I think too. It’s like the way I imagine it too, is like as my life changes and like as I’m in different spaces, I want to continue to make the videos, just have them just continue to pull the different resources, you know, as I as I move, you know.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Give yourself different stuff to work with. I mean, I think that’s like when you’re writing comedy, it’s like cutting things up. Coming up with things off the top of your head is not always productive, You know what I mean? Like, just like adding batting new things is the way to keep it fresh.

 

Sabrina Brier Totally. And I love doing stuff with other people. I think that’s why actually, I think that’s part of why I get such a dry spell about it in the winter because it’s so cold and I don’t feel but like in the summer I’m like, I’m I make my friends be in a video. Like, you know, they mean it’s like I’m more obnoxious than the summer. I’m more like, we’re out, let’s go out. Can you guys do a video with me? Like I’m more, you know. But anyways, yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Well, Sabrina, thank you so much for being here and congrats.

 

Sabrina Brier Thank you for having me. I’m so honored. And you like, I just I feel like you guys are the icons and I’m just very honored. Thank you for having me.

 

Louis Virtel Wrong again.

 

Sabrina Brier Ding, ding, ding. Ding. Thank you guys so much. Sending love. Yeah. Thank you, guys.

 

Ira Madison III That friend is available wherever you get your audio books. When we are back, Louis and I talk about White Lotus and what’s going on on Drag Race this season.

 

Louis Virtel [AD]

 

Ira Madison III Louis and I have been locked in on award season, so we thought it was time to catch up on one of our other loves, the tube.

 

Louis Virtel Tube? Remember the boob tube? Yes. I love the whole era of television is going to be the end of civilization. And like, it’s going to turn us all to mush and zombies. Maybe it was right, but it’s just so fucking paranoid and like, you know, Tipper Gore ask.

 

Ira Madison III We survived the man show.

 

Louis Virtel Not everybody dead.

 

Ira Madison III Honestly, I love when people make jokes about that. But to be honest, I watched every episode.

 

Louis Virtel Also, it was a very cheeky show. I mean, like, it’s weird when people are like, You are the host of the Man show and it’s like, Well, the point was, it was like in-joke. It was meant to be ridiculous. Anyway, moving on. My boss is Jimmy Kimmel. Sorry.

 

Ira Madison III I want to bring back maximum culture, to be honest.

 

Louis Virtel My God. Are they still ranking things by the hundreds? That’s my whole thing.

 

Ira Madison III I’m just like when Eliza Cuthbert was, like, the hottest bitch in the game.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right. And then she would be, like, in a flame red bikini on a motorcycle or whatever. They do it.

 

Ira Madison III That magazine unironically loved Maxim magazine. It was.

 

Louis Virtel Sure. That’s that’s a legend of. Of the Barnes and Noble Periodical Shelf.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. All right. The first show we got to get into is White Lotus, season three. Thailand is the setting of this season. And honestly, it’s kind of a gag the show.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, not to nobody’s surprise looks gorgeous. I love the look of the show. And also this first episode, they were not although they established that there’s gunshots at the beginning of the episode and somebody turns up dead. It really is like Clue, you’re wondering who died and where and with what and by whom. It’s pretty funny. Anyway, they did this episode quite slowly. Nothing about it was like meant to kind of over excite you. Whatever. It’s like writing a reading a good beach read or something. Like it’s just putting the plans in place now. And I love that nothing seemed rushed.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I thought the opening was actually a lot more interesting than the previous seasons. I didn’t. I was sort of back and forth on season two of White Lotus, but season three is starting off well to me.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Well, also again, it’s one of those things where, as you know, I always say casting is the gay superpower. When you see all these actors that, you know in these weird roles, you’re wondering, why did they take this and what will they get to do with these roles? So as you’re watching Parker Posey play a loopy Southerner with kids who seems very narcissistic, or you see Carrie Coon as a member of this trio of of girlfriends hanging out and she gets one moment to be really emotional. You’re wondering what’s going to happen to them and what they’re going to surprise us with. Because the whole point of this show is the actors surprise you in some way?

 

Ira Madison III Patrick Schwarzenegger I was surprised.

 

Louis Virtel I would kind of say he gives the least good performance so far of the show. That said, it was fine. It was fine. And I mean, it’s just a honestly, his character seems like it’s from the show Undressed.

 

Ira Madison III That actually is very undressed culture. The what kind of part do you like to watch?

 

Louis Virtel Right. And I’m laying back and I’m shirtless for some reason. And, you know, it’s like meant to be sexy and the lighting is real tan.

 

Ira Madison III Right? And that would be like be the closeted gay roommate hooking up with his straight roommate who’s not gay and a lot of sex happen and undressed. I think I’ve I’ve made a joke about it in my book that Undressed taught me that college was a lot about being in the laundry room.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, most of. Right. But you know, meant like they had one set in Van Nuys and they’re like, we can put we can put a dryer in a yes. I mean, literally the way it is. So he and his younger brother in the show, who are Parker Posey’s kids, they have this exchange. And literally even the way the younger brother looks back at him, there’s this pseudo incestuous thing occurring right now, which I think is a motif in the works of Mike White at this point. But the way he looks back at him reminds me of the nervous freshman and undressed.

 

Ira Madison III I hate that the scene was hot.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, he’s. He’s Patrick Schwarzenegger. I mean, when you got those Schwarzenegger and Shriver jeans, you know, Yeah, it’s going to work.

 

Ira Madison III But listen, we we grew up on flowers in the attic, okay? Like, incest is nothing new to us.

 

Louis Virtel We’ve been there. Or Chinatown for for listeners.

 

Ira Madison III I want to say that the divas in this episode were killing it. Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey. Like shout out to all of them.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I have to say, I’m looking forward, I think, most to Michelle Monaghan having the big moment here because she’s somebody who always really good in everything she does, but she’s in this Rebecca Ferguson community of somehow the project you’re in isn’t about you and we forget to focus on you after the fact, even though you killed it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, no, I absolutely love her as an actress. And I love that White Lotus is sort of like this place where an actress or actor could sort of get. Like a highlight of them, like they get something really fun and interesting and meaty to do. But the dialog is good. Unlike American Horror Story. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. No. This is a show that’s specifically designed to add a great moment to your reel, you know, because it’s it’s actually that reminds me of some of my favorite movies like The Last Picture Show or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Or where it seems like the camera just zooms in on a character and we just give them the moment entirely and then we remember what we remember from that character and then move on. You know, like, every character is a highlight. It’s less about plot and more about characters revealing themselves.

 

Ira Madison III Speaking of a classic zoom in, it was Valentine’s Day this past weekend. And you know what? You can guess what romantic comedy I watched with a classic zoom and a long monologue scene.

 

Louis Virtel Not love, actually.

 

Ira Madison III No, none.

 

Louis Virtel A zoom. Is this a is it pre 1990?

 

Ira Madison III No. But it is a throwback movie.

 

Louis Virtel You’ve got mail.

 

Ira Madison III Now, she also has a new movie out this weekend.

 

Louis Virtel Bridget Jones.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. So what movie am I talking about?

 

Louis Virtel Are a throwback movie with Jerry Maguire.

 

Ira Madison III Down with Love?

 

Louis Virtel Of course. But you love done with love. I mean, you just watch that anyway.

 

Ira Madison III But you loved out with Love was so loaded.

 

Louis Virtel Also, I’m so thrilled to hear that this new Bridget Jones movie, which I haven’t seen yet, is getting great reviews. And now people are being very finger wagging about the fact that it wasn’t released in theaters first.

 

Ira Madison III Can I confess something?

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I have never seen a single Bridget Jones movie.

 

Louis Virtel That is very off brand for you. What is going on here? Also, by the way, and you know, Hugh Grant is like my king of kings.

 

Ira Madison III Okay. Should I get some bonbons and watch them all this week?

 

Louis Virtel Yes. What are you, stupid? Okay, well, yeah.

 

Ira Madison III I also still haven’t seen the brutal so far, so. All right, we’ll do that first.

 

Louis Virtel Well, I have to say, though, I mean, we’re getting back into TV in a second. It feels like the brutalist is fading from the Oscars conversation in a way I did not expect. Maybe it’ll still get director, but it’s I don’t know what happened. It’s like everyone agreed. Maybe it was an hour too long for the ending we got. I can’t really decide what happened because it’s now heading in Nora’s direction. And I’m I enjoyed that movie and I really loved Mikey Madison. And let me just add your every stop with us. But it’s it’s weird how it’s swung back to that movie.

 

Ira Madison III Well, that’s my second favorite of the year. So and my favorite that’s nominated for best picture. So I’m perfectly fine with Nora.

 

Louis Virtel What was your number one?

 

Ira Madison III Nicole was a different man.

 

Louis Virtel Different man was great. Yes. Another movie that is deserved more. Though Sebastian Stan is still in the conversation for The Apprentice. I love.

 

Ira Madison III There’s a great piece from Angelica. Jade Bastian, by the way.

 

Louis Virtel I haven’t read her in a minute. Okay.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. There’s a great piece comparing a different man to the substance.

 

Louis Virtel I’m glad somebody wrote that. Okay, back to the White Lotus. Who do you think has given the best performance in the history of the White Lotus?

 

Ira Madison III Ah, honestly. Our diva who’s back. Natasha Rothwell I really thought that that first season she was, she had such great rapport with Jennifer Coolidge and I kind of really enjoyed it. Jennifer Coolidge a bit more in season one, even though she was great in season two. She was just sort of like running around being dumb in season two until the ending. But Natasha Rothwell, I think that what really made that first season hit, you know, like there was the theme of. The cruelty of white people, the cruelty of rich people. You know that final moment when you realize that she’s not giving her the money for her spa is like so devastating. I think Natasha plays that so well.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, it’s also a little bit thankless how like, like the crux of that performance is how she plays in dignity. And it’s so well realized in that scene. And it’s also just like very novel that she’s back to because that that’s a that’s a complete arc for a character really, you know. So that’s it’s exciting that she’s back in the mix. I think if I had to pick a favorite character overall, though, performance, I’m going. Meghan Fahy I think she when she when she turned in that season, you did not know that character had that in her, like the way she were figuring out what’s up with her marriage and what other people, whether she cares what people know about her marriage. Just super well done.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah she was turning it out, actually. I love Meghan Fahy and I am. I’m excited for Natasha Rothwell being back by the way. And also. Spoiler, but we’re already talking about the premiere. Tanya’s husband is back.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And I knew it. People were like, that’s storylines over. And I’m like, No, baby. Mike White Loves Soaps And we are going to get justice for Tanya this season.

 

Louis Virtel Right, Right, right, right. Also, just such a nefarious character. And it’s nice to have the nefarious ness locked and loaded, ready to go for season three. Also, we had Leslie Bibb on our podcast not long ago. I’m looking for she was great on Palm Royal.

 

Ira Madison III I adore.

 

Louis Virtel Her. I think that’s one of Mike White’s more sophisticated casting choices.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. Leslie Bibb, obviously, we talked about popular with her. But you know what? I have to tell you, some friends were just telling me that they were watching Nip Tuck over the weekend. Sure. And they were these two friends were shocked when I told them there was a Ryan Murphy show.

 

Louis Virtel I mean, that show was extremely funny, I thought at times.

 

Ira Madison III Extremely funny, extremely dark. The satire is good. And it and I think it’s just I was telling them like, no, that was Ryan Murphy pre Glee. Like that’s what like really made. Ryan Murphy Nip Tuck. Right. And that show seems to have like sort of fallen from the cultural conversation or at least the people who do remember the show. It wasn’t labeled so much as this is Ryan Murphy, you know, So I feel like people forget that that was him.

 

Louis Virtel That was facts, correct?

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. I feel like a lot of things from around that time, just like the mid to late 2000s, is just not a super well memorialize time and part TV. Maybe it’s just like it’s sort of before streaming so it’s before it like you would just see those things around all the time. But there’s one show in particular from that time I’m going to bring up in my Keep it today, so get ready for that.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, but The Shield, someone even told me they were rewatching the league recently.

 

Louis Virtel Great show. Great show. Now, White Lotus is a new television institution, but we have to talk about another one this week, which is RuPaul’s Drag Race, because the new season is entertaining. But I will say we’re now at this point with Drag Race, where the show doesn’t even have to be good because for me, it’s just it’s it’s an agent for us to all hang out together and you can kind of scream at it, walk away from it, participate in it anyway. But they just had the Snatch Game episode, which was largely flop. I adapt to do.

 

Ira Madison III I was especially mad that hormones went home last week because she would have killed Snatch Game.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. If you don’t know, Snatch Game is a send up of the 70s match game where celebrities are panelist and they answer goofy questions that have blanks in them and they do it in the style of an old of a celebrity. And then afterwards they’re judged based on how funny they were as the celebrity. Now, even on Good Snatch Game episodes, only like three people will be great. You know, like, it’s a strange it’s weird that it’s a beloved sketch on RuPaul’s Drag Race because it is routinely so tough to sift through. That said, I think it should be this tough because I think it is one of the few things on Drag Race that is an actual litmus test for how good you are as a drag queen.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I love that. It is the one other thing besides because the acting challenges are sort of here nor there.

 

Louis Virtel And it’s also those are all about the script they get, you know, they just, you know, it’s like, is it funny? I don’t know. Like, I don’t know who wrote this or what they contributed to it, really, other than what we see on the screen.

 

Ira Madison III Also, you are not going to get a script. Have to run it in five minutes and then you’re shooting unless you’re on a Tyler Perry show. Right.

 

Louis Virtel In which case he’s the writer’s room and he has a gun. So get on the screen.

 

Ira Madison III But wow, this Snatch game was extra devastating because it really I really was thinking about the fact that this show’s been on so fucking long and, you know, you’re going to be doing Snatch Game.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III And some things like. Baby Cupid. Are you at home knowing you’ve been cast on this show, rehearsing this character?

 

Louis Virtel A character of Baby Cupid? What could that mean? No idea.

 

Ira Madison III Ad thinking. Sure. This will work.

 

Louis Virtel Right. And again, it’s like you’re appealing to RuPaul, who is doing this because he loves throwback TV’s celebrity stuff. So it really should be someone in the vein of like Loni Anderson you’re picking, you know.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel But instead, you’re inventing this character. Okay. Now, I do like a couple of absurd choices that somebody playing Bigfoot. That was funny.

 

Ira Madison III Jewel Sparkles. Yes. Jewels sparkle. And on Your nerve. Who played Eddie Murphy? These are the clear two frontrunners. Like they’re going to be in the finale.

 

Louis Virtel Yes. Now, nothing is more saddening about Snatch Game than when someone has a brilliant idea for a character. And that still doesn’t happen. Rosa Parks is exactly what you should pick to be on this show. And literally so they introduced Rosa Parks and then Ruth says, Is the bus still running? And that sort of deflated the literal one joke she had planned and she flopped the rest of the time. Excuse me. This should be a perfect character. There should be constant bus references. You should have lots of lines lined up. And then also you should be able to embrace just the stupidity of being Rosa Parks on a game show.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Like the amount of Rosa Parks jokes that you could just like you should be able to say on the fly. Like, I’m sorry. It’s easy.

 

Louis Virtel Right? Talk about how she likes to Uber now. You know what I mean?

 

Ira Madison III When she fucked up and said I got a car.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Right? Yes. Which is always a funny meme online when people are like, Did you know Rosa Parks on the car is like, yes, she was protesting. Yeah. You know, people at the sit ins, they had food at home. They didn’t eat the diner food, but the burgers were really good. That’s why the white person didn’t spit in it. Never.

 

Louis Virtel Well, it depends who spent, you know.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Are Alexander Skarsgard and Prada, The OC. I brought him up because on the book tour I was constantly reminded and either Q and A’s or by people waiting in line how I guess my favorite interview that I’ve ever done is Alexander Skarsgard, because that was a very haunting interview.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. Well, I want to apologize to Mr. Skarsgard great actor and Emmy winner.

 

Ira Madison III It was him being horny.

 

Louis Virtel Weird. I mean, I remember the interview. Yeah, I guess that’s true.

 

Ira Madison III He was flirting with me. People also bring up the Karamo interview.

 

Louis Virtel That’s very early edition. Keep it. Yes. These are also both of your solo interviews. I’m also on the show.

 

Ira Madison III How about that? I do want to point out someone and allied told me that on the show we had a whole debate about, you know, his shirt with the N-word crossed out and then it said neither on the bottom, Right. Because he was like, he doesn’t use that word as a black person. Someone told me he uses it now.

 

Louis Virtel Threateningly. Bring me the tapes.

 

Ira Madison III Sometimes you just got to say nigga. You know that, Louis.

 

Louis Virtel No. I don’t actually know that.

 

Ira Madison III But, yeah, I know. You stay at home listening to Raw.

 

Louis Virtel Moving on.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Also getting back to Rosa Parks. She’s the one who sent hormonal home last week, and I feel like she was a waste of a save.

 

Louis Virtel That is just too bad. All I’m saying is I think eventually people are going to get mad enough that they’re going to cancel the original recipe Snatch game. And I really don’t think they should because I think you’re supposed to suffer through it because you’re supposed to see exactly what these queens are made of.

 

Ira Madison III I do want to lastly point out that Lexy as Gilbert Gottfried was hair raising. The bizarre this whole Larry, is scary thing ever. And just the fact that she was going through inner turmoil and just mumbling out loud and somehow it ended up being funny and fit the character of Gilbert Gottfried right now.

 

Louis Virtel She was seemingly having a meltdown early on, and it’s like, no, you are inhabiting Gilbert Gottfried pretty well, just like pretend like nothing is going wrong. Before we go, we have to remember somebody played David Lynch and the look was so extreme it should have been funny. And then everything they did had nothing to do with David Lynch. There was no reference to anything he had ever done.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And the fucking little shop thing from Suzy Totes.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, that was whack. Which reminds me, and the SNL 50th thing, the musical tribute didn’t make a note of that either.

 

Ira Madison III I think also that was a thing of a clear sort of front runner in the season who sort of like some of those girls get lost in their own head where they’re like, Here’s this weird reference for the 50s and it’s like, you’re not jinx monsoon.

 

Louis Virtel No. Right. As the seasons go on, it becomes clearer and clearer how rare and perfect jinks Monsoon was for Drag Race.

 

Ira Madison III Last note I want to tell you, yesterday I was at a party at Public Records that my friend Murkowski threw is a deejay, and it was called Nicole Kidman. Okay. Name of the party. One of the more famous actresses.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. Hilarious. Because like tech bro’s on Reddit. Thought that Nicole Kidman was actually about to do a DJ set at Public Records, and they were pissed.

 

Louis Virtel I would love to see it. She herself says she loves a rave.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Carson Kressley showed up.

 

Louis Virtel Who I enjoy. I think he’s very funny all the time.

 

Ira Madison III And she was a key OC. She was dropping it low on the dance floor like she was Alicia Silverstone in Beauty Shop.

 

Louis Virtel My favorite dancer and taking it up slow.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. That is a perfect movie scene if you have not seen it, by the way.

 

Louis Virtel I saw Beauty Shop in theaters. I have to refresh myself.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Bring back the Barber Shop franchise or just bring back the beauty shop. Where’s Beauty Shop?

 

Louis Virtel To a right. Also, we should rank one day the greatest when there’s only one white person and an all black pasta movie. I’m talking about you, Julie Bowen and Tropic The Brown.

 

Ira Madison III I’m talking about Jenna Von or the Supreme. Yeah, that’s the real deal. We need to bring back.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah, right, Exactly. The one white girl visibility who’s in the hate you give. Is it Sabrina Carpenter? It is, yes. That’s a good performance, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And if you remember that movie, if you remember that movie, Havoc, that is always going viral online. The Anne Hathaway movie, right? She like rats, the N-word. Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Not a documentary. That was part of a film. Shoot that.

 

Ira Madison III Yes. And always just reminds me of that thing you said about Anne Hathaway, that is. She might be in some bad movies, but she’s never bad in them.

 

Louis Virtel She’s not the problem. Right? That’s how I feel about Barbra Streisand, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. All right. When we’re back. Keep it. And we are back for our favorite segment of the episode. It’s Keep it. Louis.

 

Louis Virtel Yes.

 

Ira Madison III What’s up?

 

Louis Virtel One of my favorite activities is happening in this caper, and it is yelling out a list. I love you all. I’ve got a list. Variety did a list of the 100 greatest TV performances of the 21st century. Now, that’s exactly the kind of thing I want to participate in. Again, I believe the Internet should just be a series of lists that we are screaming about. So this is exactly where I belong. Thank you to Variety for creating the list. Whatever. Two problems. One, they limited the choices to one performance for a TV show. Baby, No. Make some hard choices. You cannot have a list where it’s just. Elisabeth Moss from Mad Men is the only Mad Man cast member on the list. You cannot have just Alec Baldwin on 30 Rock. This list is incomplete without Jane Krakowski, and this list is incomplete without John Slattery or Jon Hamm on it, too. If this were a good list, it would just include like a ton of people from various different shows, and that makes it definitive and makes it feel like you actually thought to get everybody on the list as such. This is just 100 good performances from 100 TV shows, and I want it to be way more edifying than that. And also, in terms of who got snubbed from this fucking list, how many times do I have to bring up Glenn Close on Damages? How many times?

 

Ira Madison III Patty Hewes.

 

Louis Virtel Yes, I’m alive one time and I have other things to do. Glenn Close on Damages is her best performance in anything. It’s better than anything. It’s better than Dangerous Liaisons. Fatal Attraction World According to Garp. Whatever. That is Where she nailed that is where she is the most. Glenn Close. She wasn’t the wife. She was the Patty Hewes. Okay? That is the best thing she ever. I can’t believe it’s not on this list. The number one on this list was Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep, which all allow great performance, etc.. But just this is, I feel, very stymied by the conditions of this list because there just should be way more performance like succession only has one performance on this list. I’m not even a stand of that show and that’s crazy to me.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, Damages is another one of those shows.

 

Louis Virtel By Man.

 

Ira Madison III By the Wayside.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. And also the people that created damages. Another show that people forget about, Bloodline. That was also really good.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, Yeah. I just want to give a shout out to Marcia Crosses, Bree Van de Camp.

 

Louis Virtel She is the best performance on that show. Yeah, Yeah, she pops off the screen.

 

Ira Madison III But there are some bright inspired choices on here that I really loved. I mean, I know Rivera are a Santana on Glee. Like she was electric.

 

Louis Virtel It’s one of those things where I have to think about them like, was she better than Jane Lynch? And I have to say, no shade to Jane Lynch. I think she could do that. Partners like.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, I think Santana like I think Naya like did a beautiful thing of making Santana like a bitch, but also vulnerable, which is a teen show standard. But she was really good at it.

 

Louis Virtel And also just that razzmatazz talent, like she was just a musical star who popped off the screen, too.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah, And I loved Michael Emerson from Lost being on there. I loved Claire Danes and Homeland. I mean, because that that was we don’t really talk about Homeland that much anymore. But she was giving shows.

 

Louis Virtel Please. I also loved her on Fleishman is in trouble.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Yeah. And obviously became a close up there as number 11. But, you know, there was no Westworld on that list, and I’m happy about that. No.

 

Louis Virtel Okay. A victory? Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III Yes.

 

Louis Virtel Tandy Ways. Best days are yet to come.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah.

 

Louis Virtel IRA, what is your. Keep it this week?

 

Ira Madison III Okay, my keep it goes to. The airplane industry not to be Jerry Seinfeld.

 

Louis Virtel They’re in trouble. Yes.

 

Ira Madison III That’s me, Jerry Seinfeld. But what’s the deal with airplanes?

 

Louis Virtel I just saw one on the news. It was upside down, girl.

 

Ira Madison III And I’m not afraid of things.

 

Louis Virtel No, but you’re right. It’s just a treacherous time. And it’s one of those things where Trump makes the cuts. He does. And then you’re wondering, does that directly impact, say things in the air full of people?

 

Ira Madison III Someone was asking me last night at a party if it was sort of a like a coincidence that all this is sort of happening now, timed with Trump because it can’t be happening that quickly just because he took office. You know, and I don’t know, baby like this. It’s just a different plane. This is different thing with a plane every week.

 

Louis Virtel I know I can’t be thinking about Amelia Earhart this much. The busiest bench who ever lives Amelia Earhart to me now. I’m sorry. Somebody should do the Animated Adventures of Amelia Earhart. And she just keeps getting into crashes.

 

Ira Madison III She’s Penelope Pitstop.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. No, she’s. She’s like the 1930s equivalent of, like, the kid skateboarding at the mall. Manning Hezbollah’s on the rail. That’s like, the equivalent of her.

 

Ira Madison III I love old timey mysteries.

 

Louis Virtel Right. Because that’s when we had mysteries, right? You know, we don’t have anything like that anymore. You know.

 

Ira Madison III She was never seen again or like, there’s the water.

 

Louis Virtel Right? She couldn’t she’s surely on an island. So, you know, like the Black Dahlia are like old unsolved Hollywood murders, things like that. We’ll never have stuff like remember, you just have a good disemboweled person and we wouldn’t know what the fuck happened. Yeah.

 

Ira Madison III D.B. Cooper.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Ooh. Slate. Now, that was. Now, that’s a legend. Talk about a legend of the sky.

 

Ira Madison III My favorite is Roanoke.

 

Louis Virtel And not the American Horror Story season.

 

Ira Madison III Absolutely not. No.

 

Louis Virtel Bermuda Triangle is another fun one.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. That would always confused me because people go to Bermuda.

 

Louis Virtel Right. We love it.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. And they don’t vanish now.

 

Louis Virtel Also old timey plane crashes like Glenn Miller. What the fuck happened there, girls?

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. Anyway, I was very stressed out about this because obviously I was going from city to city, getting on more planes, just like in a week than I ever had in my life. Right. I knew the country was going to be going to shit for the next four years. I knew our rights would be stripped away. I did not think. I wouldn’t be able to fly right now.

 

Louis Virtel You didn’t think you would be the titular spirit of Spirit Airlines sort of soaring to heaven, if you will.

 

Ira Madison III Maybe Spirit and Crasher?

 

Louis Virtel No, they’re doing just fine. They there’s like no seats inside. And I think the pilot is like a chipmunk who’s drinking a scotch. But you’ll get you’ll get to Fresno.

 

Ira Madison III A friend told me that they watched Airplane for the first time this weekend. I was like and I couldn’t think of a more horrifying film to watch currently, but still great movie.

 

Louis Virtel It’s painful how funny that movie is. I mean, like it’s impossible to pick a favorite. Jim Abrams, one of the writers of that movie directors, passed away recently. Genius, Naked Gun, etc.. I will say my favorite line from Airplane.

 

Ira Madison III Okay.

 

Louis Virtel Which is there’s the woman who’s fretting. She knows how God like she’s complaining all these things. She goes and and I and I haven’t met a husband and she’s going through all these things. And another woman comes up and she says, I’m so I’m so terrified. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but at least I have a husband passed away.

 

Ira Madison III The meanness is a mean film. Yes. Bring back meanness in comedy.

 

Louis Virtel My gosh. At the beginning, when the people on the intercom are talking about the red zone and the white zone and the fighting, and then one of them goes, Do you want me to have an abortion?

 

Ira Madison III So what?

 

Louis Virtel God, they were in their bag.

 

Ira Madison III Really? Nothing just gets nothing makes me laugh more than I speak. Jive.

 

Louis Virtel Barbara Billingsley came up with the pearls. She’s the one is still a scene. Excuse me. If Isabella Rossellini can get a nomination for conclave. Where was Barbara B that year?

 

Ira Madison III That is why people need you to write an Oscar book, Louis.

 

Louis Virtel God.

 

Ira Madison III They want to know who should have been nominated, who shouldn’t have won. For every ceremony. Just actresses, though.

 

Louis Virtel I Exactly. The minute you say, you don’t have to write about actors, it’s like God is in the room. I’m like, thank.

 

Ira Madison III You so much. You could write like an addendum at the end, like a little companion. The ten actors who’ve won Oscars that I care about.

 

Louis Virtel Yeah. Right. To put it in airline parlance. There could be a little leaflet at the end. You know, famous Jewish sports legends, actors I care about.

 

Ira Madison III Yeah. All right. Thank you to Sabrina Bryan for joining us this week.

 

Louis Virtel And we’ll be back next week with more. Keep it.

 

Ira Madison III To read more. Don’t forget to follow Crooked Media on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. 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 for a review or leaving comments on the YouTube page.

 

Louis Virtel Keep It is a Crooked Media production. Our producer is Bill McGrath. Our associate producer is Kennedy Howell and our executive producers are Ira Madison, the third, Louis Virtel and Kendra James. Our digital team is Megan Patsel, Claudia Sheng and Rachel Gaieski.

 

Ira Madison III This episode was recorded and mixed by Vasilis Fotopouos. Thank you to Matt DeGroot, David Toles, Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landes for production support. Every week our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East and as always, Keep It is filmed in front of a live studio audience.