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S01E02 Interview: Zach Shade

Our first Interview episode couldn’t be better with our guest Zach Shade! We start in right away enjoying how not unlike Shaft Zach’s name is. Of course, that highlights how incredibly white and nerdy he is (not unlike the song by “Weird Al” Yankovic), which happens to be a brilliant segue into his Jewish based comedy.

We try to understand Zach’s influences, the things that inform his comedy. Not only is it his Jewish disposition, but also relate-able things from his life, but not hilarious moments at his uncle’s funeral.

We get right into Hitler, Eva Braun and holocaust jokes which aren’t offensive or racist because he’s a Jew. We talk about Germans and Nazis. This somehow leads organically to discussions involving Robin Williams, Family Guy, Lou Ferrigno, King of Queens, Patton Oswalt, Kevin James and a review of Paul Blart Mall Cop‘s movie poster.

The conversation deepens as we ask “where do jokes come from?” We talk about some pretty hilarious word pictures which might work in such movies as Eddie Murphy‘s “the Klumpsfranchise.zach shade

Hilarity ensues as our dear guest illustrates how important that 37% of delivery is as he regales us with a story complete with an in-depth description of its physicality. We get a little peek into a potential romance that could have blossomed in that controversial, but albeit hilarious, moment.

Kevin also mentions Sandra Bullock again because he’s obsessed.

Even though the previous story had happened in Montreal with French people, we talk about Greeks, Scandinavians, Chinese people, Ethiopians, Australians and Americans. You can barely mention America without saying a few words about President Barack Obama. So, we mention him too.

We discuss how Jerry Seinfeld ripped the Chinese a new one by mocking their eating utensils.

Here is that video:

Talking about influences, process and inspiration, we touch on Jim Carrey, Assassin’s Creed and mashups on Glee.

Then we take time to discuss Zach’s pre-show rituals. It’s important to know what to eat, drink and what to sit on. Funny is often found in food. We discuss the dressing of his burger and fry options. Does he or doesn’t he add salt to his fries? We get that answer! We mention Gefilte fish and Mike Birbiglia’sSleepwalk with Me” is mentioned as a cornerstone of “knowing thyself”.

As this goes on, we happen onto How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, Ashton Kutcher, Charlie Sheen and Alan Harper. We remind people about Punk’d.

zach frankenfurterWe talk about how it felt being on stage and when Zach went on dressed as Frankenfurter from Rocky Horror Picture Show. This naturally develops to more discussion about Hitler and his cheeky nature whilst performing his speeches. We discuss the issues of your body starting to work against you when you’re on stage.

Then we have our first segment of COMEDY SOUP! And yes, Zach gives us some soup!

And another segment called “Mike Birbiglia’s Tweets“. We have a laugh over a very Immanuel Kant tweet.

The episode takes a strange turn when we start to discuss Zach’s paranormal investigations! There are some spooky stories, so be careful when you listen. You could be freaked out. Joel suggests a Ghostbusters type film for Zach to write. He’d prefer to write a film for director Martin Scorsese.

We learn all about ghosts, poltergeists, demons, Paranormal Activity films, ghost boxes and the general thousands of planes of existence. Zach misquotes the Bible to illustrate something about ghosts. (“Misquotes” looks like “mosquitoes”). He tells us some scary stories about interactions with a Kool-Aid glass and a poltergeist in his grandparents’ haunted home. Kevin brings up Occam’s Razor and it’s naturally compared to Murphy’s Law in regards to trying to get some Oreos and a glass of milk. He also compares one of the three spirits to a short-haired Wookiee from Star Wars.

As a comedy podcast should do, we bring around this ghost hunting talk to the world of stand-up. What would happen if there was a ghost? Joel brings up Jews having sex through a sheet. Here are some Google results about that.

Kevin wins this podcast 2 nothing!

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Have a great week!

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