The David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you.  Lewis Friedman joins us, hopefully for the first of many sessions on the David Feldman show. Lewis is a hysterical comedy writer. He works with Robert De Niro, he works with Jeff Ross, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, the Kennedy Center, James Carville, you've been nominated for a count. I'm just going to keep, I can see your lips.  It actually sounds like a list of people that I no longer speak to. I haven't spoken to Matt Stone or Trey Parker since, I don't know, since they became successful. James Carville, that was just two ships passing in the night. De Niro, people known for comedy. You're close to Robert De Niro. Well, he finds me useful from time to time. Yeah. I mean, that dry cleaning isn't going to pick up itself, so. You wrote on basketball and there's a new movie that you're here to talk about that you wrote called The Comedian. The Comedian had a series of writers and Jeff Ross, yes, Jeff Ross. This is another name that that you keep putting in.  So Jeff, I work for him. Yeah. This, this, the idea first came from Art Linson, who's a major producer of films. He works a lot with David Mamet, Brian De Palma, you know, he's done his, his list of films is, fills a very impressive Wikipedia page. Well, let's talk about The Comedian. It's opening in select theaters right now. Well, that's a nice way of saying that it's limited release. It's stars Robert De Niro. Hang on. Let me. Okay. It's, it's because I have a joke. I'm very excited about, let me just take a sip of coffee. Yeah. Let's stop everything. Can she hear? She's, I have a joke in the intro to your father. You ready? This is very funny. Ready? The Comedian stars Bobby De Niro. I call him Bobby. Daniel DeVito. I'm not allowed to call him Danny. Funny. No. I'm, wait. That was the joke. That was the joke. Because that sounded like a great setup for a joke. Well, I thought it would be funny if I call him Bobby De Niro, but Danny DeVito makes me call him Daniel DeVito. Yeah. No. And once you explained it, I didn't see how hysterical it is. It has De Niro DeVito and. Yeah. Stick to last names. That's good. Yeah. Denise. The daughter. Okay.  I'm not sure if that was cut, the scene, not the penis, I assume the latter. He's Jewish, Harvey Keitel. He is. Yes. Yeah. Which is, of course, we needed to have a representation of all sex, and that's how we got in. Right. The Jews were taking credit for Robert De Niro at one time. Did you know that? The Jews were. They took credit for, there was a rumor, that's what Jews do. You know, I still like to think that it was the Romans, but if you're Mel Gibson, it was the Jews. No, at the height of Robert De Niro, Raging Bull, he's part Jewish, and it turned out not to be true. Right? Yeah. It was just, it was a smear campaign. So the comedian is about an aging comedian whose career is up against the ropes, right? That's right. De Niro plays the comedian who's kind of on the last legs of his career, but trying to still make it. He still has his chops, his personality makes it hard on himself, and the industry itself seems to be more welcoming of younger comedians. I haven't noticed that. As a certain point, well, you know, as you passed into your dotage, it didn't exactly work for you, but has it. So if you make the transition to TV and to film, then you go on with a comedy or late night talk show, as you go on to a comedy career, if you're still doing stand up, it seems to be kind of a young man's game. What do you think? I'm listening. I've discovered this to be true. Yeah. And in this case, he had a hit sitcom, the character De Niro plays had a hit sitcom, which has followed him. And he's trying to break down that wall to go back to the stand up that he is kind of passionate about, that he loves doing, and that he's really good at doing. The sense I cannot wait to see it. It's I get the screenings and I have not had time to go to one of them, but I'm looking forward to not paying to see this movie. Well, we welcome you on that basis and please bring along all of your non-pity friends. So he was being trained around town by several like Ms. Kersen, right? There were comedians who were, I understand, shepherding. Well, he wasn't being shepherded. We went to see a lot of stand up and we went to different clubs to see stand up. And he likes it. In his career as an actor, he's always done comedy, but comic parts and comic movies from... Well, the king of comedy. King of comedy, which was a drama about a comedian. And that was the original intention of this film as well. It was a drama about a comedian. But there were comic parts in the movies he did with Billy Crystal and with the Focker's movies and Midnight Run, which was early in his career with Chuck Groten, who's also in this. Charles Groten also is in the comedian. So he has a long association with it. He has friends who are comedians and he likes hanging out with them and being funny. So he's comfortable in the world of comedy. Yeah. Well, you know, two things. One is the king of comedy came out the year I started doing comedy. And this is, I'm not saying this just to have you engage in this conversation. This is the God's honest truth. That movie made me physically ill. I was just starting out as a hungry comedian who thought, well, maybe if I could charm people behind the scenes, then I can get better spots. Having no idea that, no, you just have to be funny and good. And it's going to be 10 years before you even get considered for anything. That movie made me physically ill. And that's, I swear to you, it may be so uncomfortable because it is a side of anybody who wants to be a comedian, that neediness and the lack of patience. Well, fortunately for you, David, Charm doesn't get you that far in business. That was, that movie was brilliant. And it was, there were a lot of personality deficits of the character that he played in that movie. And you as a comic would go toward the ones that were about him wanting and needing that career, but there's so much else going on there. I saw it recently, again, at film forum in a new print. And it's, I would see that movie every week and still find new stuff in it. Well, what, I guess there's a comment on the culture at the end because he kidnaps Jerry Lewis and then he ends up, doesn't he succeed at the end? Well, he, yes, he kidnaps Jerry Lewis, which would be considered a mitzvah to the comedy business in almost, almost any generation. He unfortunately doesn't kill him. He, he lets him go and but the ransom is that he gets to do a set on the show. He's very successful doing this set. And when he gets out of prison, there are book deals and TV deals. And it's a real confirmation of the, of how important it is to commit felonies when you want to be a successful person. I don't think you have to go much past what's going on in our country right now to confirm that. Yeah, I don't pay attention to what's going on. Oh, I know that's not the case. I remember this. I remember the movie came out and Scorsese. Do I get credit for that for pronouncing his name right? Yeah, yes, you do. Thank you. Went on Letterman and had these mannerisms that he is never used before. They were comedic mannerisms. He was talking. He was using his hands touching parts of his body to emphasize certain points. And I remember thinking, oh, and this must have been 82, right? Oh, he's been studying comics. Scorsese has been studying the movements of comedians. And it was very mannered in just promoting his movie. How much of the studying for this movie did De Niro do of the physicality? How important were his hands? Did he ask about what do I do with my hands? But he knows he's a very meticulous preparer of all of his parts. And for this, he watched a lot of comedians, watched how they handled the mic. Jessica Kersen, whose comedy he we admired a great deal. She does a podcast out of this studio. Oh, does she? Yes, about food. Oh, so that's why those crumbs are all over the place. She says and she was very helpful in giving him hints about what what a comedian might do under these circumstances or those circumstances. And so that that was very helpful. It was all part of his research and she was a key part of that. And it's all about anger comedy. A good comedian is seething underneath and you don't get to see it. You're not supposed to see the anger underneath. I always and I won't move on. I want to talk about writing and movies and stuff like that. But the fact that De Niro has a fascination with stand up and he's known for raging bull and playing gangsters, it to me speaks volumes to what really great stand up comedy is because it's boxing to me. I've always viewed it as boxing, but it's a young man's game. It's aggression, but there's elegance to it. Never go up against an African American. They're better at it than than you are. And the Jews are better off. I don't know. I was just trying to. But I do find it like I just letting you hang yourself.  But it sounded good.  That's the closest analog I can find.  Right. I don't know much about boxing or sex. For me, it's involves fists. So yeah, well, one for me, one of them does.  But I should mention that you your daughter is in the studio in the control room. I want to ask you a question about your parenting skills. Are you a real I'm I can I peel back the curtain? Yes, please. How old is your daughter? Fei Fei is with me today is 15 15 years old. I think you and I have the same parenting skills. Ah, well, that's in that you're not afraid to expose them to the real world. Well, they live in the real world and it's it's really not for me to. I don't have that control over them. The real world is all around them and you like to would like to protect the people you love, especially the younger ones from the real world. But that's pretty hard to do.  They just it's all over you and language, for example, you just use the F word. I did. Fei Fei, I say that word. Yeah, I try. I try not to say that word. But the truth is, I kind of picked it up from her. Why do they grow up without our permission? I'm completely against it. Well, I mean, they really do. They're what I have found because I have a daughter and she continues to age in front of me without my consent. They they grow up and they have opinions and attitudes and they learn things. And they I didn't say that was OK. They're such guns. The my my thank you for that. My now I feel like when you said that I my whole body just relaxed. It was like I had just had a good maybe it'll be easier for us to go on with this. Fei Fei's older sister, Anshi, is is 21 and she'll graduate, we think, from university this year or after in the spring.  That's I I. Yeah, Fei Fei is one of the most interesting people I know. And she's the most compassionate and empathic. And Anshi is a lovely young lady. And I would like to have them around me as much as possible. They managed to be all these things without humanizing me in any way. Which is nice that they don't intrude in that way. Well, the immigrants, the way immigrant parents work is you have one child who goes off into the world and becomes successful and then you you demoralize one child and keep them home. You may you turn them into a cripple so that they'll always be with you. Well, I'm going to try to keep them both demoralized. I've done everything I can so far. And right, I don't know how well it's working. Only time will tell. What did she say? Fei Fei says it's working good. Is there a basketball? You work with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I remember not wanting my kids to watch South Park at the age of six. I didn't think it was appropriate to for, you know, but I have no I had no say. And I hear this maniacal laughing coming from the living room. I don't know, 10 years ago. And I mean, uncontrollable laughing. And it was the nagger episode, the Wheel of Fortune. I don't know if you ever saw the. Yeah, the one the guy says the N word on Wheel of Fortune.  And they said, mommy says it's OK. And my my son had has all these African American friends and they're watching us and laughing hysterically. I just sat down and OK, yeah, this is pretty funny. Well, it's it's the last thing you want to protect them from is humor. And that show South Park is just it's amazing that it keeps those guys are brilliant. That he's delivering over all these years.  But where it was in their own best interest, they did very well. What was baseball? Baseball was a movie. It was kind of a a passionless project of David Zuckers. It was a game that he and his pals invented in their driveway. And as sports fans, they had this idea. What if what if someone invented a game in their driveway and became a national sport? So I was hired hired. He did an airplane. Correct. Right. David with his brother and Jim Abrams did airplane. David did the naked gun movies. It was quite a consortium of really good writer, performers and directors. David directed baseball. He hired me to write it to do the first draft. And then with his writing, producing partners, we finished it together. They brought in Matt and Trey to star in it as as actors, not as writers, although they contributed to it as an onset. We were all on set together and and people make contributions all the way through. So it was really kind of of the mind and spirit of David Zucker with all of us contributing in our own ways. Me as writing, Matt and Trey as performers, actors. The movie industry does not appeal to me. I just wanted you to know that. Yeah. Well, I mean, it doesn't appeal to people who can't make it in the movie industry. I'm sure that's not the case here. The movie industry is very different from what you do. And I have to say, I'm a great admirer of what you do. As soon as we figure out what it is. Well, you know, I we can we can say this. We worked on a show together this year. It was I was producer and head writer for a a roast of James Carval at Kennedy Center and looking around at people who do political humor as writers and performers. There's not a lot. I mean, they can be found mostly on your podcast, but elsewhere. It's it's pretty difficult. And I just seen you perform not just a while, not long before that, at Carolines, and you were still doing it, which is amazingly brave because then you're doing jokes based on something that happened that day where the next comedian is doing jokes based on something that happened during the Civil War, and they've been doing the same joke since. And it's wonderful and it's polished and it's funny, but it doesn't mean anything to me.  And that has the media going on back to stay on that line. But no, you go there's an immediacy to stand up or there in the best stand up, there's an immediacy to it. And there's that in television because it's just shorter. The Art Linson and Bob De Niro had the idea of doing the comedian eight years ago and it's coming out next month. So it's not these things take a lot of time. And and there is a lot of negotiation and building and taking steps back and steps forward along the way. So it tends to it's not necessarily conducive to the instant gratification. Yeah. And and and the kind of dangerous, funny stuff that happens of the moment. Right. There are scenes in in the comedian that I wrote at once sitting and in pretty much stayed the way they were. And I think those you know, those have for me watching it. Those have more of an appeal than some of the others that we worked a lot harder on and sweated over. And all in De Niro's mouth, it all works, which is, you know, a great safety net for any writer, drama or comedy. But I like that. I don't work and film a lot, but I would. There's a spontaneity to writing. And then it has to be that spontaneity can be sitting there for eight years, but it has to be protected. I think so. When you're writing by yourself, there's a there's a spark. It's magic. And the trick is to make sure that nobody touches that later on. Well, I have this theory and writing. I call it the the tyranny of the first draft. And it happens whatever any kind of writing could be a contract that whatever is put on paper first forms the the form of of what you're going to be developing. So I my own writing, which is my own way of excusing procrastination is to keep it in my head long enough because my own first draft has the same has the same tyranny. And I'll be looking at it trying to make that draft better. But until it's on paper, it's still formless. So in the best of my writing, I think that it doesn't change much from the first thing I put on paper. The hardest I've laughed in the year 1997. The hardest I laughed in 1997 was a friend of mine got a job writing on Hollywood Squares.  And Henry Winkler somehow became the exact. This is this. Already. Yeah, this is this is the hardest I laughed in 1997. Somehow Henry Winkler became the executive producer of Hollywood Squares, and he gathered all the guys who wrote for Hollywood Squares into a room. And his first line in the meeting was it all starts with the word. And I started laughing. That was like the most pretentious thing you could say to a bunch of guys who are writing on a game. I mean, it all starts with and one of my friends who was writing at the time, his name was John Ross, the good friend of mine. He did not appreciate my my laughing at that. It just seemed so funny that you would say that to guys when John was writing his gospel. And that was the same thing he started with. And in the beginning was the word. And I think I've got a lot of laughs in the room at that point, too. But it does start with it does start with the word. And is that why they hate us? And by us, I mean writers or Jews are interchangeable. It does start with the word and you cannot change something until somebody's foolish enough to put it down on paper. Well, writers are in different areas. Have have different sets of problems.  So for me, it never gets better than when I first write it. But in fact, when you look at it, some of it does get better. And some of it is terrible when not in the comedian, but in other other projects I've done, some of which you've seen. But sometimes it the performer or whoever the actor or whoever's saying the lines makes it so much better. The director can add a vision when you see it with lights and sets and costumes. It can get a lot better. It still can be excruciating for the writer. But in fact, that's part of the process. Yeah. I've been, you know, I, I cannot believe I have to say this, but there are some people who don't appreciate Woody Allen because of what he's been accused of. They can't get past that stuff. And that's for a whole other conversation. That's a I'm able to get past that story. You know, it's another conversation, though, unless you want to respect. I was going to make another point about Woody Allen. Well, I just, you've met my daughter Fei Fei. She's from China and adopted and my daughter Anshi is too. And Anshi and I went trick-or-treating one year as Woody and Sun Yi. So I'm. Did you really? Yeah. And so it, for that, I'm grateful for him for being a monster in most other places. I'm not, I mean, I, I, I can't, I can't separate that if someone is a monster. I can't. Is that, is that, I didn't even want to go down this path. But now that we're there, I was going to make a point about screenwriting and being able to write your own movies without a committee. But talk to me about Woody Allen first.  And there was a time when. Well, go back to the Sun Yi first. Yeah.  Yes, I do. Okay. Because, uh, so the other stuff that has not been, they haven't been able to prove, take that off the table. You know, what happened in the attic and the suntan lotion and all that stuff. That, that is, has not been proven. It's going to take me a while to get past suntan lotion, but in the attic, I didn't know about that one. I thought I invented that. Actually, Anne Frank's father did. Back to the Jews again. If you just say, okay, he, he fell in love with Mia Farrow's adopted child at the age of what? At the age of creepy. Yeah. I watched a couple of old Woody Allen movies. Yeah. In the last couple of weeks and was really, it saw a Broadway Danny Rose. There's some hints. And, uh, Hannah Anderson, no, was that, wasn't it the, um, the Lottie Dow, Lottie Dow movie? Oh, Annie Hall. Annie Hall. You know, there were parts of those that were brilliant. I wouldn't write that stuff now because a lot of it is really over the top jokes that, that you couldn't get away with now. But for the time, it was just, it was, they were wonderful and the characters were great. And it was character driven and funny and weird. And, and, um, you know, I still love those movies, but I, I can't think of Woody Allen, the person without thinking of not just his diminishing skills as a director and writer, but also about that kind of personal behavior. Okay. Uh, I, you know, Ralph, I do a radio show with Ralph Nader and yes, I'm bragging. Ralph Nader to me is the greatest American in the world that includes people who aren't even Americans. He's a better American than anybody ever was. And something happened in the year 2000 where they blame him for George W. Bush. Right. And I say, you're going to hold that against Ralph Nader. First of all, it's not even true. I can't help but think there's professional jealousy at play here, that there are liberals and lawyers who actually think they're better than Ralph Nader and they're not, and they needed something to cut him down. And it was the election of 2000. And the same thing with Woody Allen. I know, I'm, I mean, there, he is the gold standard of comedy writing. He's the best. There's never been a filmmaker like Woody Allen. And there's this part of me, I know I'm turning a blind eye to something. I'm guilty of, I know I'm guilty of something here. But how much of this is our jealousy? You know, I was watching, I'm from San Frans, I started doing comedy in San Francisco and Robin Williams. You know, I love Robin Williams. I mean, he was, when I was starting out, he was, he, you know, and I'm from San Francisco. You know, a year after he died, I stumbled on some YouTube video of him.  Why do you have all this talent? Like he's gone and I'm still envious of what Robin has. Right. How much of this Woody Allen stuff is, is envy that he's the most prolific film director in the history of film. Nobody comes close. Well, to me, it's all jealousy. And anybody else who's successful, I would be just as jealous for.  So it's a pretty clear cut case. I think we're on the same page here with Ralph Nader. It's different. Woody Allen made movies and his, his laps is as a, as a, his human lapses had an effect on a very small circle for Ralph Nader. It's different.  But the, when you do something for his running for president that year, it had consequences. I don't want to go down that road. Okay. Because it's like blaming the election on Jim Comey. We, we like to have, there's a narrative. We like a villain. We like an explanation for. Well, I don't think, I don't think Nader is a villain and it's okay. You can cut this all from. No, no, this is, I love this. I don't think of him as a villain, but in his narcissism, he made a step that had consequences. And I don't think it's comparable to Comey.  You know, maybe that had an effect, but mostly Trump is the president-elect because people like Trump. I have a question for Fei-Fei. Fei-Fei, you're, you're from China. Jim Comey, the FBI director. If I say Jim Comey three times fast, is that an expression? I always think Jim Comey, Jim Comey, Jim Comey, is that a word? No. Okay. I thought it might be, it sounds like a word that you would hear in China. It's a, it's, they just know it is number 67 on the menu under from the sky. That's my favorite joke, by the way. You know that joke. Yeah, but, but, but tell it anyway. You want to add some little bit of humor to your podcast. I'd like 69. She goes, you want beef and broccoli? It was the hardest. It's one of the great jokes, the Asian couple in bed. It's a great joke. Honey, I want 69. You want beef and broccoli? Somebody came, somebody wrote that and will never know. We will never know who wrote that joke because it just got spread. You know, by the way, I think there's something, when I worked for David Zucker, it was an old friend of mine and I worked for him when he and his brother, Jerry and Jim Abrams did those movies together, starting with Kentucky Fried movie. They had a Kentucky Fried theater where they did live performance. It did airplane, as you mentioned. They decided that there would, no one would ever claim that they wrote a joke. It would all come from all of them. Right. And as a writer and sometimes head writer, I've always done the same thing. Sure, sure. But boy, is that changed. I have to see people right and left taking credit for what I've done. And I used to be sort of philosophical about it. And now I'm a little less generous and going, Oh, really? You wrote that? Right. Yeah. Well, the, well, I had, I think that that is still in play. I think the writing teams that I've worked on, it's considered really day class, say that's French, by the way, to take credit for something.  Nobody will correct you, but nobody will want to work with you if you start taking credit for, you know, there's just something you can't, you were a team, you know, and it's a beach ball that gets bad, you're bouncing a beach ball and somebody arrives at the punchline, but they wouldn't have gotten there if somebody didn't bat the ball to them if it's a good team. Right. And that happens a lot. Someone has an idea for a joke. Someone develops it. Someone changes, changes it a little to get right to where it is. And then whoever is delivering the line has the, has the final say about how it works. And if it's a success, then there should be high fives. You didn't make it to that, the, the carl roast. You, you wrote from New York because you were busy on another show. But there was a lot of that in the wings as writers that you've worked with Ray James and Mike Ferrucci and others would turn to each other and high five when a joke worked. And I wasn't sure whose joke it was. Well, that's when it's fantastic. That's when the team is one. I mean, that's a, that I don't mean to be pretentious, but I can't help myself. The, the secret to comedy writing is trying to get to that spiritual place where you're part of one, you're part of something. You know, we all have egos. We all want to see our words spoken. But if you can have your ego mowed down properly.  It's one of the most thrilling things. It's spiritual, but it invite, you have to have a guy running the room who, who knows how to do that. And the way you do that is you mow down the writers. You just mow down their ego to the point where it's a cult. Well, it is. And I, and I'm not the best head writer and I prefer not to be. I'd rather just write and I admire. I've been in a room where I've been the head writer and there'd be other people that I want to just say to them, here you be head writer. Okay. Cause you're better at it and, and can do what you're talking about. And that works in mostly in television and, and in sketch comedy. When you get to movies, it's, it's different. Um, with the comedian, Art Linson had this idea. He came to me to help write it with him eight years ago and we, it didn't work out. Then he eventually, it was a movie about a comedian and there wasn't anything funny in it. So he brought Jeff Ross and, and they did a draft together. Then, um, it went through different directors and the directors had some input. Then, uh, I was brought in because the character changed a little bit and it was no longer exactly right for Jeff Ross's brand of, uh, of comedy. And a lot of what he did was replaced. And then they brought in another writer because they wanted to, they brought in another star who wanted a different writer. And then the director, Taylor Hackford had his ideas. So there are jokes there that, um, maybe Art Linson thought of, we needed a joke here, Jeff Ross said, maybe it should be a joke about that. I came in, you know, rewrote the whole thing. Taylor came in and put it in a different place. So there's a joke out there that gets a laugh, but you know, it's all of us in a way. And, and some of us were never in the same room together. You know, I know Jeff from writing for him or writing on, on shows that he was on, roasts and so on. We were never in the same room about this, about the show. And he was out of it for, you know, several years before. And, um, but it kind of happened. And we all had contributions to it. You know, going back to Woody Allen, his movies are fascinating to me. And I just saw the, uh, Cafe Society, which I loved. I loved it. Have you seen it? No, it's about a, a comedy writer gets away with banging a little girl. And it's really delightful. It's just, you're torn from today's headlines. No, it's a great movie. It really is. Uh, the person I went to see it with did not like it, had a problem with the, the backstory of the director could not get past, uh, that. And, uh, but, and I, you know, I watched it. I said, well, this is a Woody Allen movie. It's usually a first draft that he punches up on the set. I assume. Mm hmm. I don't know. Yeah. Either way, but I would assume that nobody, nobody is touching Woody's work. You know, I don't know that he works with some really smart actors and, and, uh, um, there is improv. You can't help from happening sometimes. But, but I think his, yeah, I understand that he's not wedded to his lines. Like he said, this is a blueprint. Get it off the page. Say it any way you want without it being, you know, don't worry about my ego. He seems to have a pretty strong hand in, and, and I think, and I don't, when I look at his movies, I'm not thinking about the, the pervert. Uh, I'm thinking about the director and what I'm seeing on the screen and his problems and his later films for me, it more his, uh, style over substance. He's a very stylish director.  They don't work so well now because they're more obvious and more over the top. And, uh, his characters are pushed by style more than emotion. Not, not always. And he has, he's done some wonderful films and even in the bad films, they're wonderful moments. And he's also done some that I think are brilliant. Uh, so in the end with movies, isn't it style over substance in the end? Like the Godfather, for example, which I've seen so many times, I can no longer watch it in the end. Isn't it you, you watch it over and over again for the style, not the story? Well, if it didn't have the story, it never would have stuck. You'd have people, they're almost comic figures coming out and doing a series of routines and they are, which would be wonderful in YouTube clips. But those movies were great because two or three of them were great because they had great performances and a great story. It's, it's really about the story. And that's when I say substance. I mean that the, the character parts of it are style and you may return to it and return to those lines because that's what, that's what you remember, but you wouldn't even be thinking about it. If it didn't have all the rest of it. Yeah. I do think sometimes a movie can be just a series of great moments with, you know, a light story. Anyway, I can't, I mean, if you just thinking to the Godfather, think of Pacino's Scarface, you know, that was not a great movie and it had just a few of those moments, but you know, they're sort of iconic. Right. And you still watch it or you still watch those sections of it because of, of those moments or training day, training day. Right. You know, you, I remember watching that movie and thinking, this is an amazing performance from Denzel Washington. The story is kind of not really, but I would see this over and over again, just for his performance. I also think that the Godfather, the actual story of both one and two is so complicated and nuanced that it's not the story that moves the Godfather because I think if you sit people down and ask them, what is the motivation here? Why are they doing this? They couldn't tell you. I think it's a very complicated story that, that presupposes you read Mario Puzo's book. Yeah, I don't have the same feeling about it. I think that the story, I agree that it's complicated, but I think it's very accessible and it's the, the narrative drive that keeps you and you want to be kept because the characters are so interesting. But if they were just coming out and doing sketches, you wouldn't stay with them that long. You stay with them that long because you're involved in the story. And you want to see how it is. Yeah. You know what I saw? This is, I went to see Zemeckis's new movie, Allies. Have you seen this? I have not. It's a, it's a getting bad reviews and it's not fair. It's a really interesting movie. It's just, it's, it's great escapism. And I went back to see it again just because it was so lean and so well made. I really, there isn't a gesture or a moment that doesn't move the story along. I was surprised and I read the reviews and people are poking holes and then I'm going, what, why? It's very, it's that, that will be a movie that will come on television and people will watch it over and over again. I think you're right. You need to be careful of reviews. If, if there's a filmmaker that you like or a writer that you like, an actor that you like, go see it. Give it a shot. What is the movie that comes on and you watch it over and over again besides the Godfather? Catholic high school girls in trouble and pretty much any of the Russian, Russ Meyer Vixen series. I wasn't prepared for that question. I studied for this, but I wasn't prepared for that question. Is there a movie that you can watch over and over again? And you, it's, you say to yourself, why am I watching this? What does this say? I'll say, you know what I watch over and over again and I, I can defend it. There's a, a BBC series called Edward and Mrs. Simpson, the story of the king who, who quit his job for the woman he loved, Wallace Simpson. And it stars Edward Fox. I guess it came out in 1977 and it's seven episodes and I watch it over and over again. I just think, and it's not about the story. It's about the costumes, the lighting, the sets, and, and the music is so beautiful. I actually bought the album. It's about the gayest thing I've ever heard anybody say. Uh, I know the gayest thing I've ever heard anybody say is I'd like you to take your fist, grease it up and let me sit on it while I, we have a young person here. But believe me, that, that is a much, it's, it's, uh, Edward and Mrs. Simpson is, is very big among lonely guys who fall in love with people named Wallace. I think, uh, one of the movies that, that I watched over and over again, uh, is mean streets, which was an early Scorsese with, uh, De Niro and Kytel and just brilliant on every level, uh, the first two thirds of an, first two acts of animal house. Really? Yes. Uh, really? Yes. Okay. Now I have to go watch that now. I haven't seen it since it first came out. Is that Doug Kenny? Yes. Yeah. The first, why? It's, um, uh, it's kind of, it's a slacker movie, but I think early on in those movies and, and the writing is wonderful. The performances are terrific. Uh, Belushi is, is in it. The, every scene, it's, as a series of sketches, it would work, but there's also kind of a weak story, but, but very funny. I think they're very funny on every level. Robert Smigel, uh, who, by the way, keeps talking about the Carvel roast, how great it was, uh, says the first two acts of the producers, the first, are the funniest, well, was 62 minutes in film history. That's what he says to keep watching over and over again. I have to, I have to go back and look at that, but, uh, Mel Brooks is, is brilliant and, and especially, I mean, it's the third act.  Right. Now, why did they went, maybe they just should have walked away from it before they got here. That's why I went to see Blazing Saddles at Radio City Music Hall about three months ago. Now, I had not seen Blazing Saddles since my pot smoking years. So I don't remember Blazing Saddles. I remember not thinking it was that funny, but I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. I know that sounds really stupid to say that, but I think it would, I think that's a movie that would do better if you were stoned because I don't think it holds up and people have memories of that movie that it was, that it was brilliant. And, uh, it's really a series of sketches. There's no particular story. When's the last time you saw it? Um, I tried to get through it probably sometime in the last year or so. Really? Cause I saw, I saw it, it blew me away. It was, oh my God, it's one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life. It was like I was seeing it for the first time because I was sober. I hadn't seen it in, you know, 30 years. Uh, it's amazing. It is absolute. And you couldn't get away with any of those jokes. Right. But, you know, I thought those jokes were, when you couldn't get away with them, one, a little bit because of the subject matter or, or the language, but, but also you couldn't get away with them because they're, they're, they weren't by today's standards. They're not great jokes. They're kind of, they're obvious. They're kind of over the top, uh, that works on some levels.  I like where you're going with this. I think I just hit a wall. No, no, I like, I like this, I like this.  And it's not because you're afraid of language or, or sensitivities. You don't do jokes like that because they're, they're not great jokes. Well, not today. You haven't seen me recently before you go, and this has been great. You'll come back. Uh, sure. Okay. We went, yeah, we went a long time with that. I've come with Lovitz. Is Lovitz a town? No, I'm kidding. Oh. Before you go, we've had a national tragedy. Yes. And I have not mentioned the name. I have not brought up the Cleveland Indians not winning the World Series. Is comedy going to change now? Well, here's an experience I had. It was, this was about, um, I think three months ago, maybe it was a couple of months before the election anyway. And I went to see Lewis Black's new show on, on Broadway. And this is a community. And what, what date? Um, it was a couple of months before the election. Okay. So, I mean, may not have it exactly right, but he did a series of Mondays, I think it was in, uh, in the, uh, September, October. So sometime in, in there. So maybe it was August, September, but anyway, before the election, and that's a, he's a comedian that I revere, I think. And a sweet guy. He's a lovely guy. And, and he's not black, by the way. Oh, no, he's not black. Oh, that's why it started on time.  Yeah. So it's okay. So he, so he was, and I was looking forward to it. Cause I've, I've see all his shows and I really think he's funny and that angry character that he plays is, is kind of brilliant. And it just wasn't really his best stuff. And I think it was because what was happening in the real political world is so far out. And so stuff that you would make jokes about, but now it's real and I think it's hard. So people that depend on, on who are mostly political, it's going to be really difficult. It doesn't mean you can't write jokes about the people that are, that are in politics now and leading us now or will be leading us and you can't make references. But for someone that is, that is, that's their, that's their whole thing. Right. And it's going to be, that's going to be really tough. It was, I admired how well he did, but I could see, I could see him sweat. Right. It's interesting. There are trends. We're such a fragmented society. I remember after 9-11, and, you know, after my back healed, because you know, I was dancing on the roof with those Muslims that Donald Trump witnessed in New Jersey. Boy, I pulled a bit. Some of those dance moves, you've got to be careful. Well, you're a little older now. Yeah, yeah. But after 9-11. Maybe you should try it without shooting your AR-15. After 9-11, they said, you know, is irony dead? Is satire dead? We were not a fragmented culture back then. We had the internet was only really five years old sort of kind of. Now we're a completely fragmented culture. Everybody can find whatever they want. I sit on YouTube now and I watch Lunar Missions. They have the flight recorders of Apollo 11. And I just watched Alan Shepard's flight. It's an 18-minute flight. The first man in space. You can actually watch the entire flight on YouTube. You're so much lonelier than I thought. Yeah. So we're a much more fragmented culture. And when I ask a question like, well, can what's going to happen to comedy now that Trump is president, nothing's going to happen. It's some people are going to have trouble. Some people will have to. But I think your audience and my audience, our audiences will be the same. Nothing's going to change. Well, no, I think things will change and we all have our alternative universes now. Right. And there's there's a big difference between 9 11 and this current one and 9 11. It seemed like it was an attack from outside of us. This seems like it's an attack from within us. It's we're eating our own. It's not people that we've offended or were angry at us for whatever reason felt that they had reason to attack us and did that. And because we felt we were attacked from without, people kind of banded together and and got strength from that.  Those are people and there are people that you can see and walking down the street. They did it. Right.  And it's in what will happen to comedy is as our rights to perform comedy are we might be restricted. There's talk about that already and there's certainly a mood to do that among the Trump and his and his followers and his leaders. So it might get more difficult, but we'll still do it. I mean, those of us who do comedy aren't really qualified to do anything else. If we were, we would. Right. I didn't want to talk about Trump and I brought it brought him up because we've been doing we've only been doing shows about Trump and I need to talk about other things. But I one of the things that I've been wondering to soothe myself because somebody said to me, you have John Fugel saying was on the show. He says, you know, you have to do other you have to talk about other things besides Trump. It's you can't it's boring to just focus on that stuff. And there's more to life than Donald Trump. And there is one of the questions I asked myself is I've been wrong about Trump every step of the way. What if he's not Hitler? We've been wrong about him every step of the way. I know my listeners don't want to hear this. They don't want to hear me say what if he's not Hitler?  What if there are a couple of possibilities here? If we take a terrorist attack off the table, because I think then we're screwed. And I do think the problem is that people like Rudy Giuliani, all these people he surrounds themselves with are incompetent bullies. And when it comes to going into that situation room with Homeland Security, I don't think they grasp how complicated it is to prevent a terrorist attack. I don't think they understand that people like Bill Clinton and Obama were really good at their jobs and really good at flying drones and killing innocent killing innocent people who had nothing to I'm making a bad taste joke and I'm rambling.  He gets lucky. Well, first of all, and what that says is, you know what? You know what? The people in charge really have no bearing on our future. The people who we think are in charge in Washington, D.C. really don't shape climate change and the economy. Well, let me be a little less philosophical about this. The first of all, you probably weren't wrong about Trump every step of the way. You might have been wrong about what he would accomplish as a candidate first for the nomination and then for the election. But you don't not necessarily doesn't mean you were wrong about who he is and where he is. Great point.  Great point. And so so you've come to this, you've made mistakes about what you what you thought was going to happen, but he's still that guy. And then if he if it's a good four years and and we don't have a cataclysmic climate disaster or we don't have an attack or or some other enormous tragedy, we still will be making decisions. The government will be making decisions that will affect the next four years and the four years after that. If we don't do something about climate change in these four years, we may dodge bullets for those four years, but it just makes it a lot worse for the future. We don't plant the seeds of peace and understanding and cooperation and collaboration among nations then that may boil over in the next poor fucks administration. So no matter how no matter how lucky we get the next four years, it's still, I think, a tragedy for the country. If every indication is that this will be a tragedy for the country and the world. Right. I've been obviously we've all been wrestling with this and a couple of things that I've been thinking about are I remember there was a guy named Arthur Schlesinger who wrote a book called The Cycles of American History or came out right around the time Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan. I remember reading this book. I don't it's like the site. He has that had this there. Arthur Schlesinger is one of Kennedy's speechwriters and one of his historians and Schlesinger. His father was a big historian and Schlesinger wrote this book talking about how American politics is cyclical. It just or it's a pendulum that swings to the left and swings to the right. And one of the things that I'm learning is he was wrong. That I read that book and I remember saying, no, Jimmy Carter is going to get elected reelected. Reagan's going to lose because we're because Arthur Schlesinger says the pendulum is moving to the left. We just got over Nixon and I've come to realize that it's not a pendulum. It's a wrecking ball that history in America is a wrecking ball. We wreck things and it swings left or right backwards and forward in no direction as long as it's destroying something. And that seems to be our history that there is no there's nothing cyclical. There are no patterns to American history. We just wreck what came before us. And there's almost something if we if we accept that, then maybe things will be okay that that that Trump is a wrecking ball. I'm just trying to look for a reason to go on here. You know, I'm saying I think you might be on the wrong path. Whether it's a wrecking ball or a pendulum, there's still our swings and they may not be definable cycles. But it's the because of the problems, the international problems with the environment and politics, we can't afford the luxury of waiting for the next cycle or pendulum swing or wrecking ball. So what's going to happen under all indications are that what's going to happen under the administration that's about to take power in the U.S. is that there will be decisions that will cause irrevocable problems. I agree with you. What I'm saying, I listen, I listeners to this show. And by the way, I'm sorry for that you have to listen to this show. This is a good show, but in general, I feel sorry for my listeners. The I they know that I'm terrified about Trump. The the the the little optimism that I'm kind of getting from this is the wrecking ball idea that everything we thought, not everything as you've pointed at, but a lot of things that we took for granted were wrong. And Trump has just wrecked everything. And maybe those are things that you took for granted. But I'm saying is that even that that we can even our side, we should have gone with Bernie. He was a wrecking ball. And we played it safe with Hillary. This country likes wrecking balls. We'd like to reinvent ourselves over and over. We embrace creative destruction.  So maybe the lesson that we can take from Trump is, OK, that's the Republican wrecking ball. There's going to be the Million Mom March when he gets inaugurated. Million Woman March. Oh, OK. And some of them are barren. Haven't really done their part. But they still identify with that gender. Yeah.  You know, if the Republicans are tearing down buildings to build new ones the way Trump has done, maybe it's time we started. We have our own wrecking balls. Maybe that's the solution. I hope not. You know, I hope that's not the solution. It's the and I don't know. I don't have a plan for what the solution is. You know, those of us who don't like what's going on have to or should work to change it, to influence it, whatever we can. And maybe through comedy and maybe through other kinds of activism, but should do that. And the emphasis shouldn't be on on wrecking. The emphasis should be on pointing us in a direction that will will counteract maybe to some extent the wrecking that will be done in our names. Here we've had this conversation about writing and screenplays. You write a first draft.  That's that's what I don't know. Maybe this is maybe I'm just trying to tie it up into a neat little bow.  I think we can come up with something better than that. And I don't think if we tie everything up in a neat little bow, then you and I will be out of work. So maybe we should just let the chaos rain and do what we can to to make more sense of it. I think how is that for wrapping it up? I'm going to wrap it up Apollo 13. OK, I'm I'm obsessed with. Spaceflight, but the very specific, the we chose to go out of the moon. We chose to go to the moon not because it's easy, but because it's difficult, but kind of stuff that that that from like 62 to 69 from beef and broccoli to General Sam's chicken 62 to 69. Those are the years that I'm interested in terms of the space program. And one of my favorite lines from Apollo 13, the movie is, I believe this will be our finest hour. That this crisis, you know, Apollo 13, the the Aquarius was dying in outer space. They had to bring these three guys back and it went from being a crisis to our finest hour. You know, we we always talk about Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. But after that, what do we remember bringing Jim Lovell and those guys home? They didn't go they didn't get to the moon, but we brought them home and they lived. And that's also considered our finest hour. I think we're going to look back four years from now in our post apocalyptic hellscape and say this was our finest hour. You know, God, Jesus, they were. John was right about the book of revelations and the kingdom of God is now on the planet Earth. And Trump was the anti Christ and you and I as Jews will convert to Catholicism and and enjoy the rapture and this will be our finest hour. This is all going to be cut from the broadcast. No, what I'm saying is that the Armageddon is upon us and and it's going to be great. We're going to see our dead cats in heaven. Well, you know, I if when we look back to our finest hours, I hope we find better ones than than bringing the Apollo 13 crew back. That was solving a math problem and going to the moon. That was a nice accomplishment. But I think they were just looking for new neighborhoods that were restricted. So I think we need to do something better as a nation to come up with finest hours. Louis Friedman is a brilliant comedy writer. His latest movie is The Comedian with Robert DeNiro Daniel DeVito, Leslie Mann, Harvey Keitel. Who am I leaving out? Eddie Falco. Wow. Charles Groton. Wow. Patty Lapone. Wow. Billy Crystal. Really? Jerry Lewis. No, he no, he's not in it.  Oh, OK. Is Billy Crystal it Billy Crystal does a cameo on it? Yes. Does he play Mr. Saturday Night? No, he doesn't. This is he plays Billy Crystal, which is a lot like distressingly like Mr. Saturday Night. I like that movie, Mr. Saturday Night. I do. I'm a defender of that movie. Good. To me, it has a happy ending. That's nice. Well, the woman I was with gave me a handjob. Well, there you go. There I go. Thank you. Should have had that during the Woody Allen movie. She would have been younger and more Asian. Thank you, Louis.


Good morning everybody. It is Tuesday morning Yesterday, I didn't record anything because I was in the dark room And I really don't like the way that footage comes out because well I say in that room to use the light box and so and sort of listen to stuff on the iMac Quite a busy car day outside. So sorry about that But basically guys I'm really excited because I have got all my final pages penciled out. Yeah I'm really excited because yesterday. I was just like I'm gonna sit down and just do it get on with it It's more, but I don't want to show you and yeah, I did them and It took all day which actually I was quite surprised because I thought it would take me longer Then that I was like, okay I was gonna take me the week to do all the line work, but yesterday. I just sat down personal why? Yesterday, I just sat down and I decided I'm gonna do it and I think what really helped was a change of Art materials, so I used this soft series black pencil instead of This one which was really slowing me down But what I'm gonna do is go back over the lines as I color it and basically before I started I think the pencil was probably about this size yesterday So yeah, it's getting there I was really worried that I was gonna run out pencil and I would have to use yet another black pencil But I got to the end and with a little time to spare guys I think there's like obviously imperfections on pages, but what I'm gonna do is I go along coloring it I'm gonna be able to just fix those or go over them with the black pencil and maybe just Once I scan them in into Photoshop as well I can there's little things that I need to fix on each page So that editing process is gonna take a little bit of time as well, but yeah, it's getting there and I'm really excited I don't know what to say like it's just I've come such a long way and I think The final push of doing those pages really helped me to believe in myself I was like just do it because I know in my head that I can do it, but I was just Like stopping myself because I think I was scared of messing it up, but I didn't mess it up It happened and it's pretty cool Guess we're coming near the end of these kind of vlogs. I think because Once I start editing on the computer, they will the blog will be a little bit different I'll show some of that process, but once that's I guess that will be it Then I'll launch the Kickstarter or whatever it is that I'm planning on doing I might do an Indie go-go Which is less prestigious and doesn't really have the same audience But I think because I'm in Gibraltar. I had issues with Kickstarter last time Trying to put my address down connected with my bank because my bank is in the UK in England no in Wales and I live in Gibraltar, so it's a bit of an issue tax-wise, which I guess Is understandable like they can't just change the system because one person is living in Gibraltar and wants to Under Kickstarter or I might do just pre-orders. I'm not sure yet I think pre-orders might be the way to go and then just send it out to people who want it It might be a bit more exciting. I don't know Kickstarter is pretty exciting But I don't know a bit scared of doing Kickstarter. Yeah, I keep saying Kickstarter But I mean Indie go-go or something if I get 10 people then that will probably be enough to print it because I think it's gonna be Just trying to I need to figure out all the costs really and think of it in a business perspective Not just an artistic way of I want to print it. You know what was really helpful to me actually This weekend because people keep asking me How do I stay motivated and stuff and this weekend? I think I really said to myself I'm not gonna do any work I'm just gonna take the weekend off and I'm gonna relax and we went to my parents house So if I'm away from my house, it kind of helps because if I'm sitting here trying to relax I keep thinking well, I'll just draw whilst I do this or I'll just do that Whereas I went to my parents and I only took like my sketchbook and stuff and I was like no not gonna work And it was really good because Monday I felt really pumped to like get on with it and obviously it paid off because I finished all the line work Which which is craziness to me. I can't believe I finished it and now just the coloring to go And that is super super exciting Oh, I want to show you guys one panel that I think you'll like but I don't want to spoil But I know that we discussed going a little bit abstract tea. So there's one point where We've editing where it goes a bit wonky and I really like that.  We're not confused by that Another thing I need to do is figure out the typeface now Which is something that's really bothering me because I want to get the the words onto the paper because I think that's what's going to tie it all together Right now we have this final page, but It doesn't work because there's no words Um, you need the words I think it just brings it all into a little nice neat ball And yeah, obviously I've like written stuff here So I don't know if I'm going to go with that type of Typography and I think so I think I want to do a hand written because I think it would fit with the vibe and the style But I also I haven't really explored doing anything digital Just having like digital fonts, which would probably be easier in a sense But wouldn't look as good. I don't know it's all come into a head and it's really exciting and I'm really happy The way it has kind of been lifted a little bit on The fact that I've done the line work I know that the goal is in sight kind of thing because I've always been like, oh it's such it's so far away Or it would it was just going to take a long time Then I had originally thought but now it's it's happening and I'm really excited So it's going to be 19 pages and then I'm going to do a Pattern cover to sort of go here before it the story begins And yeah, then need to do the cover which is something that I'm terrified of as well because I have no idea what I'm going to put on the cover It might have to be the lighthouse or something like that Which would be quite interesting The title is Emily is burning So I did just stay with Emily but just because it Has a certain ring to it and maybe it is a nod to Emily Carroll Slightly because I I Subconsciously came up with that name even because of her name was next to me her book I think like Emily is burning is is a cool cool name I actually thought of the title before I thought of anything any of the story I just liked the way that sounded and I thought like I want to do a horror comic And I did like a fake cover back then and I realized Yeah, I really want to do this and it's something I've thought about doing for a while because Last year for my slice of life comic. I thought like Halloween week I drew a comic every day or like spooky stories that people have told me that not necessarily happened to me But happened to other people and I really liked Doing that. So I thought, you know what why not continue doing what you like Right follow that joy as I keep suggesting. I guess I can't really do a conclusion Conclusion all that's another word A conclusion to this because I haven't finished it But I think once I have I'm going to say things that I've learned from the process and really talk in depth about What helped me to create this Um, but I think something that has been major that I can't ignore is the fact that I have you guys Spurring me on a little bit and um telling me that you like it and watching these vlogs and Saying what you like about the pieces saying what you don't like giving me Advice and inspiration telling me that I'm inspiring you your work That has really Help me push through some moments where I've had a lot of self-doubt So thanks really you guys are amazing and thanks so much for your help really as I'm trying to be sincere here There's somebody scraping something out there out on their balcony. So thanks for that I'm trying to be an open person to my audience here and I have to make a joke as well I can't just be like, yeah, you thank you guys. I have to make a joke. I have to laugh it off sigh Morning, everybody. It is Wednesday morning the morning of this vlog And I just have a couple things to show you from yesterday that I didn't show you So this is just a scan and then I was working out some typography Just to see how like stuff would look and I hated that So here's another one and I just did a different kind of styles of type And I don't know I just wanted to see how it looked with the imagery basically And I really like the way that this one sort of looked Very tight and very like kind of longer and more rough It definitely had to be handwritten because I just think that looks Better with this style of comic because it's so obviously hand drawn and Rough and textured that it had to be handwritten It just didn't mean you can get types that look handwritten But I think it just I just I feel like I've created everything in this with my hands I wanted to do the typography as well and yesterday I was also working on the cover You can see I've done some alphabet studies and then just like some different things that I did some thumbnails of what the cover might look like And I did like a bigger study. I was thinking I was going to do it in watercolors and I think this is kind of the Concept I want is obviously very rough and the watercolors got very muddy but I I'm not sure if I want to do it in watercolors But I think it would be cool to have it slightly different style than it is in the book So that might be fun I need to make the colors more like this though than this murkiness Obviously bring out what is actually in the book into the cover Even though it is watercolors So this is sort of where I got The handwritten stuff. I quite like the way it looks but in photoshop I'm going to have to just edit the way that it sits in Each bubble. So this needs to come down a little bit and this needs to come down a little bit This one's fine Over here We've got like a lot more speech So like this I need to sort out the spacing between the sentences and stuff But I quite like the way it looks and obviously it's going to look nice or once I fiddle with it in photoshop So the pages are coming along nicely Some sneak peeks for you guys. I've got 10 more pages to color And then once I've done that that's it But then we'll color it and I just need to do all the typography scan the more in And it's ready to go and I'm so excited And I think I'm going to start working on the Kickstarter this week And if you guys don't know dina norland has started her Kickstarter, which is a children's book called gray legs And it looks amazing. So you guys should definitely go check that out She's trying to reach her goal of 10k Which I think is really doable for her So if you guys like her style and her book then I really suggest buying it because then you can help her out to create more books And it's going to be really exciting for her. But yeah, this is where I'm at I think it's looking really cool. Don't you? I I hope you do This is the coloring that we worked on on the stream. So if you want to see this being colored in That's on my last stream It's really nice to see all the pages Coming together like this. I'm really excited to be honest with you I'm sorry that this vlog is a bit short this week just because Obviously, I haven't really got that much to show you now because these final pages are obviously going to spoil it Well, I don't really want to spoil it. So I'm not sure how many more vlogs this we've got left Um, I'll obviously show you okay. There was a heligotter, but I'll obviously show you the final processes and hopefully Printing the book and the Kickstarter doing like a walkie through that. I hope to do that anyway It might be quite fun But yeah, this is all coming together and I think I might make a mock booklet of this once it's done So I'll definitely show you guys that so stick around and um, I'm gonna sign off. Thanks for watching guys Please like and subscribe for more and I will see you next time I just want to give a shout out to my top tier patrons for supporting me Those guys are Cecile, James, Lee and Steph, Megan, Tom and Tim These guys are the real Mbps And if you want to shout out at the end of my videos, then go check out my picture. Bye


I'm looking at the home ranges of wild male orangutans in Spangal, Pete Swamp Forest here in Calimantan. I'm looking at how far they're moving, what they're feeding on, when they're going to different parts of the forest, and also looking at dispersal, whether they're moving away from the area where they're born into different parts of the forest and at what stage in their life they do that, whether it's when they're young or when they're unflanged males. So they're adults but they haven't got their secondary sexual characteristics of the flange male face or whether they go actually when they're flanged and they've got a better chance of being dominant in a different place. So my research, I go and we find the orangutans, we listen for long calls. That's the easiest way to find them. But the flange males are the only ones that do the long call. I try and find them like that. When I find them we follow them up for a period up to 10 days. So far I've done it for 8 days but the forest gets quite difficult after that. And then I'm collecting fecal samples and I'm going to different research sites as well, different sites around, so 5 kilometres from camp, 10 kilometres from camp, 7 kilometres and the areas between to try and find orangutans that may have found in a different place, collect a sample, try and take the photograph as well. And then once I've got all that data and done the genetic analysis I'll be able to see whether we've got males in one area, which is the same male that I found in one area is in another place. We know what the home ranges of females are because they're quite limited. So within our grid we've got 7 females and we've pretty much mapped out the areas that their home ranges are, but the males is a much larger area and we don't know how large that area is, which for conservation purposes that's very important because you need to know the area that a male orangutan should be living in for a viable population and their size for a viable population. So I'm also looking at the overlap of the males as well. So how many males can live in one area at the same time? There's a lot of parts of the Peat Swamp Forest which is outside the National Park and a lot of that has been sold to dog and concessions or to palm oil companies. Some of the companies are trying to work with conservationists to say okay we're going to be making this into a plantation but if we leave an area then how large that area needs to be. So my hope is that the research that I can do here will show okay if you're going to leave a forest it has to be this large to actually have a population size that is viable and this area for them to all survive with the amount of fruit that they have in the forest. They're not territorial, no. So there's a lot of overlap because of the ranges that they have and the forest because they're not a group living species like a gorilla where you can have a male who can protect his mates and he'll be the strongest male in that area. If another male comes along he'll come and take the females or there'll be a chest beating and such like. With the orangutans there's no way that they can do that because they're semi-solitary so most of the time they're live, they're by themselves. You do get associations with females and males but they'll be for three days, three or four days with several matings and then they'll move off again so you can't have any kind of territoriality in that respect. Within Sabangal, 7,000 orangutans in about five and a half thousand kilometres squared so with the males because we'll have males on the board we've been doing this research since 2004 and the males will take pictures with doing ID cards and you'll see them for a year, then they'll disappear and then they'll come back again, you'll see them two years later or you never see them again and they're not all dying but you don't know when they're coming back. So where are they going? That's the question really. Because there's a good research site here already and I should be able to move through the areas I looked at the different sites and I can get access to quite a lot of these different places either by boat or walking out into some of these places in the dry season especially, in the wet season to try and walk 12 kilometres it's crazy. It sounds very strange but it'll take you to do two kilometres and this forest will take you an hour to walk that, two kilometres whereas in the UK or wherever you are then it's much quicker to move around so it's quite difficult. There are these aspects which took a lot of logistical tinkering to get it sorted out. So when do you expect to finish there? I finished my field work in October this year and then go back to Cambridge to do the write-up and I send my samples off to Zurich to get the DNA analysis then the genetic analysis.


e under CEQA for their mitigation and such because you need to calculate the amount that you're going to be taken down even though you're going to have that that's what I was getting at a while ago even though you're going to have the form that's similar it doesn't mean if you're taking out a lot of walls and the roofs are going so does this end up being a demo permit instead of sort of rehabilitation but I think it's great I think you have a little ways to go and I'd love to see more happening on that street and I think Mark has one more comment but I really appreciate the detail because as an architectural historian working with architects all the time I was like okay I need the detail so it's really helpful, I appreciate that Thank you chair just a couple of final comments and things to think about a little bit signage you're going to be a hotel and I suspect you're going to probably want to let people know where you are we're going to want to see what you have in mind for your signage likewise the discussion about the angled entry had me thinking a little bit more and think about maybe elaborating that entry or contrasting that entry a little bit more and making that stand out right now it this is the entry into your building you know let people know it so anyway thank you very much thank you very much thank you for your time thank you for the opportunity to present we are trying to build off of what we've already done in the neighborhood Laura to your point I don't expect to do anything that is contrary to what we've already done Casey to your point about sort of availability and openness fundamental to what I'm trying to do is build things I always use the word democratic not political but available to as many people as possible and so we very much hope that we can respond with some design moves that make it feel more democratic in my sense of the word so thank you for that comment and finally John 1 I love that John 1 you'll be pleased to know that the just today my colleague Aidan here was finalizing the package to submit for the counter corner of the Naked Pig former Greyhound site where we are repurposing that gas station service station as a food facility slash beer garden and we are maintaining the facade of the building it'll look exactly like a gas station you just have a kitchen inside of it as opposed to a lift for your car and I think you'll be pleased with the working title which is the service station and also the final result and you've seen the foundation in Martha, Texas yes of course one last thing I want to say outside of our purview but I know from studies that neighbors hate rooftop decks that look down on them so if you could restrict some of your square footage so they don't have that alienating experience you don't have a screen then we'll I don't think anything to do I think actually that's one of the three reasons for the screens I got it the screens are always on the backside causing the guests to face in Andrew I have a quick question for you and just a comment if you felt you needed to and not to make my board come back more and more but if you felt you needed a second concept review that's something we could do correct do what I'm sorry if you felt that you wanted to go through a second one this is not our normal time to meet so this is an added date for us and I think our board had agreed that you guys would be up to at least two a month if that was true Mark says no do I have a quorum who would go for two a month if we needed to as things are hopping anyway I think they had agreed to too but anyway if you needed to come back before you wanted to get everything done I think you could give that a try is that okay it's an important question so I would be I would want as much input as possible so anyway thank you so much appreciate you all being here thank you folks appreciate all your time and input thank you board business we have minutes somewhere in here should we do minutes before since it's not listed okay did you all have a chance to review the we have two sets of minutes okay John both sets we have them online so if you want to take a look at I think it's October 2017 and December I mean 2018 and December 2018 minutes so Margie's not here but yeah Mark you can I can't open mine but I thought we had some very specific conditions about that house maybe Mark you can recall I agree that we had put some conditions on that I wasn't here Karen do you is there something you could check on that and then maybe we can hold this for was that appropriate could you clarify which agenda you're referring to October 2018 so maybe bring can you bring that one back and just check the details I don't think you need a motion for that but I think I think that's good yeah I don't know just leave okay so on to December 2018 so Laura you weren't here and then Anne wasn't okay I'll make a motion to approve the minutes in December 5th I'd like to see a current motion I'd like to see a correction on it if I can find it again here quickly under item 6.1 I think the minutes are fine but the spelling of Mark Perry's name is incorrect we ought to get that corrected before it's made permanent I move we approve the minutes as amended oh we have two two on the table would you like to do a friendly amendment John yes all right we've got the one amendment so do we need approval or it's just approved yeah we don't need that it's just approved okay all right that's it for the minutes with tabling the October 2018 bringing that back next time board member reports I know it's been a long time and then Casey I don't know if you're aware but we had previously sort of assigned each board member preservation district and then you sort of check that district out or see what's going on or if you have any news about something that's happening that you just want to advise then you bring that to information sort of like you know when we had the last time John number one I should have let them know it wasn't in any favoritism I was talking to John number two John number two I don't believe we were ever assigned a district yeah so I think the last time it was before Kristine before you were here but we had talked about you know getting together and giving each other districts again and did we want to keep our districts and which district were you of course St. Rose and I have a railroad square nobody had West End which I thought was really bad so would you like to take on West End I live on the East End alright I'll take West End as well what would you like to have what do you call it McDonald's district is available okay Terry district is really good would you like that one okay and then we have I took two would you like the West End okay I think that's actually all of them right because they're four okay we got the West End usually what I recommend you do is go on to the neighborhood associations and sort of check them out yeah they do do we have Burbank and Cherry we have Burbank we have Cherry I have railroad square okay and you're fancy and you're St. Rose yeah how about Ridgeway and all of Margie has Ridgeway but I don't know about all of Ridgeway and all of we need to check with Margie so there's nothing going on in rail square I'll just start I mean there's things going on but there's nothing in particular in regards to historic preservation or changes I know that some of the items that we had already gone through I think are potentially starting to happen so isn't that it's on the parking lot and rail square isn't that approved to go forward you know that yeah so otherwise I don't think anything's happening out at the old cannery which I wish something would happen so keep your eyes on that hopefully someone will hear us do something there somebody can you think of anything that you want to talk about I have nothing to talk about okay nothing come on people I've got a couple first of all I really really really want my map back did you give it to Margie for the mapping project I don't know there was the staff to make a reproduction of that's what I thought I remember I don't ever remember I mean I've been here that day this is a last call you can re-watch it re-watch the video maybe because we've been in this chamber probably since then second item was there's been a really good project that's been done in the city that made use of historic property and I would like the board to consider bringing it up for future agendizing possibly doing an adaptive re-use award from the board and the project I have in mind is the veterans the facility was just finished on North Street they did an exceptional job on maintaining an old fire station and a compatible residential building next to it and it would be great for them to get some recognition from us on their efforts particularly they've maintained the windows that's a great idea Kristen, can you that's not something we've done since I've been here but Mark in the past as a board member you have done that before, correct? not formally we've actually had a physical plaque or anything we've done but we have sent a a nice certificate Kristen, can you check on that and maybe bring it back to the board and see if we can do some sort of recognition you could time that as most people do with preservation months there you go that'd be perfect yeah bring it back before me though so we'll know and my final item was just to bring to the board's attention that there was just a Supreme Court I believe decision yesterday that strengthened the importance to preserve view sheds for historic sites that was pretty much a landmark ruling where they were putting some towers that were going to interfere with the view from a historic site back east and that's been increasing in momentum lately in the profession and this one is one that's gone all the way now so something we need to bear in mind on our projects as well and it strengthens the original view this board had where it wasn't only the properties that are in the historic district that were part of our purview the ones that were across the street from a district also were part of our purview so that's it that's good information thank you we are done with our staff you ready for yours the only thing I have is to recognize Karen, Aran's role with the being the secretary for the CHB for how long about two years so keeping us on task organizing the agendas maintaining correspondence keeping us organized Karen has played a huge role I think we're going to be able to do that. I think we're going to be able to run as smoothly as possible, so I just want to acknowledge her role as the CHP secretary. Thank you, Karen. As of the next meeting, it will be Patty Pacheco-Gregg taking over. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Karen. Thank you all. Where's the cake? I'm going to go ahead and talk about the downtown revision plan. I can check with Patrick Streeter, who's the project manager, to see what the next milestone is for that project. It's a very aggressive schedule. Yes, I believe their goal is to have everything finished by fall. Yeah. Okay, well, I don't think we have anything more to complete. Thank you all today. Appreciate everyone's input, and so I think we should motion to adjourn. I move. All right, we're done. Yep, we can't. Oh, wait, I could do that. Done. Thank you.


Welcome to ToffeeTV, it is the Everton News Daily, Duncan Ferguson has spoken to the press today about tomorrow's game, him returning as caretaker manager but before we get into that Fahad Mishiri has also spoken today to the fans, he put out a statement through Everton's website through the proper channels rather than going to a national radio station. He revealed that he was very much still energized by Everton, still at the helm, he revealed that he'd converted £100 million worth of debt into shares, taking his holdings in the club up to 94%, effectively now he can buy out all the shares if he wants to. It also means that it's the end of ADMs, simply again the Everton shareholders have no say now on ADMs, they can not call for ADMs because of the shares Fahad Mishiri holds but he said that instead of ADMs they will have regular events where fans and shareholders can speak to him on the board about things going on in the club but that has not been revealed how that's going to happen or when that's going to happen. On the manager situation he said it is vital we appoint a manager who fits the structure we are putting in place and so whilst we're keen to make an appointment as quickly as possible we will work together to ensure it is the right candidate to deliver the success we all crave. He also said that he had a fantastic board and Grantingles was the best person in the world at doing his job and all these things which yeah a lot of people may disagree with but there you have it, he has spoken to the fans which is good but I'm not completely satisfied by what he said or the fact that he has used that £100 million worth of debt off the box or something that we should all be really excited about. Yes it is fantastic that we have £100 million worth less debt at the club but he has converted into shares so he is benefiting from it ultimately and when he comes to sell the club those shares will be a way for a lot more money than he got them for. So we're waiting to see what he does the proof will be in the pudding and at the moment this club is a bit of a mess so just by coming out and making a couple of statements isn't going to make it any better but let's see what happens in the four coming days and weeks on that front. Duncan Faggs and now spoke about tomorrow's game he has asked obviously a lot of questions about whether he wants the job or not he said it is dream he said maybe one day he was very coy on the situation he said maybe one day it is a dream to become the ever manager but he said they're looking for the best man which it sort of suggests that he's ruled himself out but I don't think he has I think he was just concentrating on the game tomorrow against Aston Villa. He said that Carlo Ancelotti had called him he called Carlo Ancelotti a great man a great manager he said he'd rung, Carlo Ancelotti rung Duncan Faggs and to wish him his best and probably pass on a little advice to him. He was asked about what it meant being him in charge and he said it was a it's a different voice and he said he pushed them as hard as he possibly could. He said he spoke to Faggs and had Mishaeli a couple of times but not too much because he's mad busy. He said on Villa he said it's going to be a difficult game Aston Villa are a good team and Steven Gerrard's done well and obviously the Gerrard's connections to Liverpool would add a little bit more to it and also on the line for tomorrow we said I think it's going to I think if you're going on a losing run like we've been you've got to make some changes it's not been working and he said we're here to study the shape and we've got a connection to the fans so at the moment it's in time it's good it's a good option I think down the line they'll pick the best manager they can find. He said on being the caretaker for a second time he said the last time came along very quickly for me I think it was a day or two before the game this time I've had a lot more thinking time and it was going to come so I'm a bit more relaxed about it. He said on the problems this season he said I don't really want to go back too much on it you'd have to speak to the previous manager I want to leave that in the past and look to the future. On Wayne Rooney possibly being the manager he said Wayne certainly Wayne has done very well at Derby he's never told me the fans love him and he's proved himself as Derby is a very good manager. On the sacking of Benitez he said I don't think even Raphael would be too surprised because the results weren't there we were on a bad run and the results speak for themselves. On the owner he said obviously the owners put a lot of credible amount of money in a lot of backing for the club we've got a new manager coming new stadium coming up so he is he showed total commitment to the football club when we're lucky to have him. His message to the fans is they're the blood of the club they have they're here for we're here for them we need them with us and I know they'll be with us I'm asking them to stick with the team for 90 minutes and I'm sure they'll respond. On which type of manager ever need he said we need a winning manager that's it we need a manager you can come to a club win game build something and get us back up the league it's all about winning isn't it? It is it is all about it is all about winning and then he was asked do the players know what it means to play for Evan Duncan Fakes and said they do now put it that way which I thought was just an absolutely fantastic line so there you go I mean you know he's he was relaxed and he was very careful in what he said he chose his words very very well and obviously last time he took the job it was you know in his own words he was it was a day or two so he's a lot more excited think now he's had a little bit more time to think about it go through it and he seems a lot more relaxed about the situation so yeah he said the players look upbeat as well and there's been plenty of intensity so he's backing himself he's asking the fans to back him and he's asking the fans to get behind the team so you know that starts tomorrow when we you know obviously when we kick off so it's gonna be interesting on the injury front he said that there's no Fabian Delph who does look like he's got a bit of a bad injury and could be out for the rest of the season which means he may have played his last game for Evan and Tom Davis has been his mission as well Alan hasn't trained all week but he hasn't ruled them out so apart from now he's got a pretty pretty full team as well so it's you know he did say there's gonna be changes or possibly changes because because there needs to be changes Dominic Alvin speaking about Duncan Figgs and being in charge as well he said I've got no doubt Goddison is gonna be rocking and the fans will be the 12th man of Goddison I can't wait to play and I'm looking forward to the atmosphere for sure it will give the lads a lift there you go obviously Dominic Alvin has been a real cheerleader for for Duncan Figgs and for what he's done for Dom's career so it's obviously hard to all kick off tomorrow's gun it's a huge game and obviously with the with Duncan Figgs and speaking today I'm far with Michelle I think everyone will go into the game with a bit of it with a bit of a boost and hoping that we can get those three points ahead of the international break and obviously coming back in the FA Cup we need those three points so let's hope the players go out there and show us the commitment that Duncan Figgs and wants from them and I know and obviously the fans the fans got to deliver tomorrow as well and and drive the drive the team through the game because it's not going to be an easy game it's going to be it's going to be a bit of a grudge match and Villar will know that as well they'll know all the pressures on us as well so looking forward to it now I think a lot of people are looking forward to it and that's the real difference isn't it going to go to some park tomorrow is that people are really optimistic and are looking forward to the game and they're going to get behind the team I'm going to get behind the manager there you go so thank you for watching as well make sure to check out my start on 11 show make sure to check out the match preview if you haven't already give this video a like and subscribe join patreon for like for daily live videos as well thanks for watching see you later