Maximum Fun Forum

If you missed our live show at The Second City this month -- check out Jesse's interviews with Peter Sagal and Colt Cabana, music from Robbie Fulks (and Nora O'Connor), and stand up from Cameron Esposito. Thanks again to everyone who came out!

Yeesh. This is sinking like a stone.

COMMENTS!

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The bums will always lose.

Really enjoyed Colt Cabana. Unlike any previous TSOYA guest and that was a good thing. Colt's apparently one of us.

Sagal was amazing. Well worth the wait. I loved the behind the scenes stories about the genesis of the show.

Cameron Esposito was very funny. I've never heard her before, but for some reason my brain heard the actress Alanna Ubach as she spoke. Not helpful feedback, just a quirk of my brain.

Really good episode, Jesse.

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http://www.twitter.com/inturnaround

-Cameron Esposito - hilars.
-Colt Cabana: charmer! Wrestling is a world I know nothing about, and can't claim to have much interest in, but it was cool to hear an insider talk about it, particularly from a performance standpoint. The babyface vs. heel stuff is fascinating; I would have loved to hear even more discussion of what it means to make a story in the ring.
-Peter Sagal: duh, the best. I liked the Ira riffing.
-Robbie Fulks: one of my all-time favorite performers! Thanks for having him on the show. It was great to hear his voice (and Nora O'Connor's) on one of my favorite radio shows, I only wish there had been time for more.

I love the variety show format of these live shows. Hope to be living in Chicago again the next time TSOYA is in town!

I was hoping that the Peter Sagal portion would primarily be about Faith Salie and how delightful she is.

In related news, i was prepared for the next High Five Contest that hasn't happened:



Kasell Five!

I never listened to a Wait, Wait before they went all-live. I can't even imagine what that would be like. Was there a phony laugh track? Was it like morning zoo with sound effects and call-ins? I couldn't really find old episodes anywhere to listen to, but I'm super fascinated by it.

I think the point about sitcoms, similarity, radio, and intimacy was really insightful. It's one of the things I really love about the podcasts I listen to, too.

Jesse: I love it when you name-drop Ira Glass. Every. single. time.

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"Prince is a fucking superhero. Do you also covet Batman's cape?" - gladhands on styleforum, discussing Prince's jacket.

Finally caught up with this one, great all around. Cameron Esposito was especially great, a real home run.

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The Best Podcast Recorded in Rancho Cucamonga, California - FriendHat

Robbie Fulks just wrote a pretty eloquent and heartfelt blog post about the positive and negative aspects of doing creative work in Chicago. He brought up this TSOYA episode in particular, and I absolutely totally relate to what he is saying.

Doing creative work (comedy, music, performing) in Chicago is a mixed bag, though it's one of the reasons that I love living here. I know Jesse was (mostly) joking that "no famous people live here," but I cringed every time he made that pronouncement, especially since he was doing it at Second City. I know it wasn't said maliciously, but he was speaking in front of a sizable group of struggling comedians and actors. As much as I love this show, and everything MaxFun, I thought it was in bad form. That's just my opinion, but seeing how it obviously bugged Robbie Fulks, I guess I'm not alone in that perspective as well.

Anyways, just thought it was worth sharing. Still love Jesse, still love the show. Just hit a raw nerve. That said, read the essay, as it's very worthwhile.

That Robbie Fulks post is awesome. Thanks MR_SUIT!

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dantelfer.com

Look: I'm from San Francisco. I'd rather live there, but I can't. The entertainment industry is in Los Angeles and (to a lesser extent) New York. We book entertainment industry guests for a national audience - we're not on the radio in Chicago at all. The list of national figures in the entertainment industry who live in Chicago is very short, particularly when you consider that we typically don't interview musicians on our live shows.

Here was our list:

Steve Albini (was on last time)
Oprah (too famous)
Harold Ramis (out of town working)
Peter Sagal (had been saving him for about 18 months since he offered to come on the show)
Ozzie Guillen (doesn't do interviews on off days)
That chef whose name I can't remember right now
Charming professional wrestler Colt Cabana
??? A few people I don't even remember

That's a list of like six or seven people, and maybe half of them are stretches that we probably wouldn't book in LA.

The comics we had on were and are great (including Dan), but were well below the level of career success we'd normally book to perform on the show in NY or LA.

Musicians was a different story. Chicago can't quite match New York in that department, but it's always been a great music town, and there were plenty of great choices, like, for example, Robbie Fulks.

The reality is that we probably spend 10 times as much staff time booking a show outside of New York or LA. It's much, much more difficult. This is because when we're in Portland or San Francisco or Austin or Philadelphia or whatever, the list of prospective guests for our show's format is very short. I think Tom Ammiano, who was a guest on one of our recent SF shows, is a good example. Ammiano is great, but we wouldn't have booked him - he's a very local figure, and we don't do politics - if we hadn't needed a guest badly.

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The bums will always lose.

I really can't wait for Jesse to book a show where I live. That should be an excellent interview with The Bridges of Madison County.

I want to say that I'm honestly grateful that you guys did come to Chicago, and you put on two really great, very entertaining shows. Seriously, thank you for those shows. I also think many of the people in the audience could totally sympathize with your predicament. Chicago audiences (especially at Second City) are keenly aware that our city is a training ground for talent that will eventually migrate to the coasts. Case in point - listen to Amy Poehler's WTF interview this week, where she wonders aloud why Del Close never left Chicago.

That said, when you complain to your live audience and your guests about the dearth of famous people in Chicago, it has the potential to really sting. The guests and the sizable audience were jazzed to be there, but statements like that just remind us that this would be a "better" show if it was in LA. I'd imagine it would suck as a guest to hear that before you go on too.

It's not my intention to chastise here, honestly. I sincerely love TSOYA and all things MaxFun. I'm also very proud of my city and my talented friends who live and work here, and this is the sort of thing we hear constantly. In fact, Dan Telfer spoke very eloquently about it to the AVClub last year.

It was only when Robbie Fulks wrote his blog post that I thought it would be worth sharing this opinion. He stated the trials and benefits of doing creative work in this city more succinctly and intelligently than I possibly could have.

Again, thanks for coming to Chicago, and I hope you guys come back again in the near future. I'll be the first to buy a ticket. I'm just defensive when it comes to my hometown and the mind-bogglingly talented people who live here.

P.S. Maybe next time, you could get Oscar nominee Michael Shannon? He still lives here and commutes to the coasts / wherever he's filming. He's one of the leads in "Boardwalk Empire" and General Zod in the new Superman movie. He just performed for my friend's podcast, and I think you could land him.