Book Review: Nate Bargatze tries to bring his comedy from screen to page with 'Big Dumb Eyes'
It's a rite of passage for all comedians: Work like crazy on the stand-up circuit, hit it big, record live specials for a streaming platform, and then write a book that can never quite measure up to your live act.
Consider 'Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind' by Nate Bargatze. I laughed so hard I cried during parts of his Netflix special 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.' But I can count on two hands the laugh-out-loud moments I experienced as I read 'Big Dumb Eyes.' That's not because Mr. Bargatze isn't funny. Books just aren't the funniest mediums for stand-up comics. Bargatze's live act flows from his droll, self-deprecating delivery. And while he tries right there in the book's subtitle — 'Stories from a Simpler Mind' — the humor just doesn't have the same impact on the page as it does the screen.
Bargatze seems to realize this, writing in his introduction that he is 'very on the record about not liking to read books.' Alas, the publisher, and good ol' fashioned capitalism, apparently convinced him that he should write one.
All that said, for super fans or anyone who would rather read funny stories than watch Bargatze tell them on TV, 'Big Dumb Eyes' is a quick read. There are even grainy, black and white photos of Bargatze through the years with his family. If you haven't already watched his specials, you'll learn a lot about his upbringing — from the sense of humor and theatrical nature he inherited from his father, the greatest clown and magician to ever work in Old Hickory, Tennessee, to the role his decade-younger sister, Abigail, played in keeping him from being completely self-centered growing up.
My favorite chapter, the one with the most LOL moments, is called 'My Sister the Alien' and recounts the time when Nate, his brother Derrick and their dad forgot to bring Abigail home from church one Wednesday night. They all realize when they get home that Abigail isn't with them and dad's first words are 'Do not tell your mother.' When they drive back to the church, Abigail is with a couple, who found her in the church cemetery 'passing from tombstone to tombstone communing with the dead like the devil's phantasm.'
Bargatze tells quite a few stories about his wife, Laura, as well, and near the end Laura even chimes in via footnotes, as if she's reading the book along with you. 'Obviously I knew about this, too. Now that I think about it, go ahead and tell Nate. I can't wait to see the look on his face,' reads one after Nate shares how he had to ask his parents to pay for her engagement ring.
At the end, in a two-page 'Conclusion,' Nate offers his congrats to readers who make it that far, scolding anyone who got through all 222 pages in one sitting. 'You should probably move around some more. Or sprinkle in some other healthier activities, like watching TV,' he writes. It's good advice. I suggest 'Your Friend, Nate Bargatze.'
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Animal skins, clothes-swapping, and those terrifying masks: How ‘Yellowjackets' costume designer works with Liv Hewson and cast
Talk about a fashion emergency. It's not easy dressing teenage girls under the best of circumstances — add in a plane crash in the wilderness, brutal winters, a devastating fire, and some mild cannibalism, and you've got to do some pretty creative costume work. More from GoldDerby Liam Payne confirmed as judge for Netflix singing competition, 'Superman' hits hard, and today's other top stories Carrie Preston on fencing with Matthew Broderick and the heart, humor, and growth of 'Elsbeth': 'She's more than just quirky' Brian Wilson, Beach Boys co-founder, dead at 82 Such is the challenge faced by Yellowjackets costume designer Marie Schley, an Emmy winner for her work on Transparent. Even in its third season, Schley says her job has actually gotten easier, as she's able to collaborate with the actors who've come to fully embody their characters — that is, the ones who've survived. Here, she talks with Liv Hewson, who plays teen Van (and who uses they/them pronouns), about their favorite costumes, the one look that defined their character, and what they took from the set. SEE'I was terrified — she has an Oscar for "Million Dollar Baby"': Melanie Lynskey on her epic 'Yellowjackets' fight with Hilary Swank Gold Derby: How do you work together in creating your character's look? Marie Schley: In terms of this season, it was a different process, because for the pilot, you put together a concept for your director and your showrunners, and then you do your fitting. But the characters evolve — certainly, Liv's character has. And so for this season, we are piggybacking on what's been established before, but also bringing in new ideas, more input, from the actors, because they're really living these characters. Liv Hewson: One of my favorite things about the process of figuring out the clothes on this show is how collaborative it is working with Marie. The restriction of Yellowjackets costume-wise is fun in that there literally is a finite amount of clothes that all of these characters are working with. The actor nerd in me really gets a kick out of tracking who would be wearing what, and what would they be using the clothes for. Something that is always really important to me is that Van is a butch lesbian, so what does her clothing say about her and communicate about her within the restriction of where they are? And how does her style evolve out in the wilderness? So it's about coming up with little nods, like her cutting the sleeves off of things, and masculinizing the clothes that they're all sharing. That was something that was really important to me. So it has been this beautiful process of discovery of these characters over the course of the experience they're having, while having to work within the framework of what they packed in the suitcases they have with them. Schley: I remember in our first fitting this season, there's this concept that they're sharing clothes amongst them. And Liv was, like, it really should be either Javi or Travis's clothes that she wears. So you'll see that Co-Ed Naked soccer T-shirt go between those two because they have a more similar aesthetic. In the first episode, we did a lot of different costumes for the summer solstice ritual and Van has this amazing storytelling monologue, which you did so beautifully. So there was this Ren Faire kind of poncho with shredded things on it that we fit in our first fitting. And Liv was definitely like, no flowers, let's minimalize this. It's really important to have that give and take to make sure it feels really authentic to that character. I think that it turned out really well. It turned out to be one of my favorite costumes, actually, Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with Showtime Hewson: I love it. I remember saying this very much in the world of what the others would be wearing. But with Van, it's Peter Pan, rather than like witch coven. With her gender expression plays a bigger part in her clothes. It felt really good to be wearing a garment like that. How does your process work? Do you sit together down together at the start of the season with the scripts saying, "OK, here's where we're going, so here's what the looks are going to be?" Schley: I wish we had that much time! You guys don't even get the scripts. I get them more ahead of you all do. So I'll give you kind of an idea. Sometimes I show you pictures, if I have them. It's a surprise in that first fitting I think, and I try to have enough there that we can cover ourselves. Hewson: We had a really cool opportunity to have more back and forth this season about what Van is wearing, and the scenes that she has with herself. That was a unique costume opportunity. So that was an instance in which the two of us were emailing back and forth, and I remember sending you a couple of reference images, and we were talking about what would be on the T-shirt. That was a fun new opportunity to get into the nitty gritty of who the character is with clothes. Schley: That was an important scene, because that is the bookend to Van's journey. So it was really important I know for Liv that it had a heroic element to it which it should have, because Van is a hero, by the way, and finding the right thing that felt right to you so you could perform that scene in the way it should be. There is an outline in the writer's mind of what is happening on the show, but it does change, as each season comes to fruition and it's put out in the world. So many times we're working backwards, like we establish certain things in the pilot for your characters, and then we're not really sure what is going to happen leading up to those scenes. It's an interesting puzzle that we're piecing in backwards. And I think that's true in this scenario too, where it's Van's demise — we don't really know what happens between season three and the future. Kailey Schwerman/Paramount+ with Showtime Hewson: Exactly. That outfit on the plane is beautifully out of time at the moment, but we don't know if we'll see it again. We don't know if that's a version of Van that we might get to be reintroduced to later. It's something that I really admire about the work that Marie and the costume team does on this show, that there's all these threads that you establish, and then, because of the parallel timeline nature of the show structurally, there are these images that you need to keep returning to, and things become imbued with significance because of what happens later. You don't necessarily know that pair of shoes is going to be one of the most important things that everybody's staring at for three years. But as you're doing it, you have to keep track of the symbols that we've established and what matters when, and what to draw the audience's attention to. So it's incredibly resourceful what Marie and the team do, and it's impressive. SEE'I was terrified — she has an Oscar for "Million Dollar Baby"': Melanie Lynskey on her epic 'Yellowjackets' fight with Hilary Swank How do you track all of that? Is it situation on your office walls? Schley: It is! In the pilot, it was in the script that the camera pans up to a pair of shoes at the edge of the pit. So we knew those shoes were going to tell a lot. And then, of course, because they were focused on they became very much a symbol. But we never knew who was going to be wearing them. That's why we also came up with the idea that people were going to be sharing. It wasn't just because it makes sense story-wise, but also for us, we had to move the shoes around, because we just didn't know where they were going to end up. Hewson: There were a couple of moments you had flagged things that needed to be seen on certain people just before we got to the end of this season, like this sweater. I remember you saying to me, we need to see you in this at least once, because it becomes the mask that Van is wearing in the hunt from the pilot. Schley: It's also what gives birth to a lot of ideas. For instance, that sweater, it was a mask. So we actually made the mask before we ever made the sweater, and then we made multiples of that sweater so that the audience would see it evolve. Ben wears a baseball cap, and then we made that into a mask for Shauna. When you have those limitations, it springs new ideas. In our first fitting, we were using blankets that had survived the fire. And I was like, we can use these as clothing. I gave them to Liv, and Liv draped them in a very particular way around their body. And I was like, Oh, that looks very cool. And you were like, that seems like how Van would do it. It was across the body with the belt. And then that became what all the Yellowjackets wore in the trial, it kind of distinguished those who were the lawyers. Hewson: And that's a fun game, too, as an actor, to have these fabrics that your character has snuck out of a burning building, and then looking at them and being like, well, what would I do with this? SEE Liv, how rare is that for you as a performer to be able to get that opportunity to inject yourself into your character and your character's wardrobe? Hewson: I definitely count myself very lucky to be having that experience on this show. I'm very passionate about the work that I do and I see the work that I do as a part of a larger puzzle. And I know that clothing, especially for a show like this, where clothing is so loaded and significant is a big part of that. Schley: My question for you, Liv, is where there's a specific piece of clothing in that first fitting, whether it's a motorcycle boot or a dangling earring, all of a sudden, there's a turning point where the actor's like, "Oh, OK, this is my character. Now I'm vibing with it. I'm feeling it, it's coming to life." Was there any kind of thing like that for you? Hewson: I think there always is. I hear so many actors describe a version of that with characters that they play, and I think that's really part of the alchemy of the magic of costuming, is being able to watch a person come together in the work that you do. I know with Van a big part of clicking it in was the slouchy, '90s, androgynous, masculine, leaning silhouettes. The other things that come into play when I'm thinking about a character and clothes are things like class and bodily comfort and background, how this person might be presenting themselves to others, versus how they might see themselves. Is this an anxious person who is going to be using fabric to hide and shrink into or is this someone who's really out? Clothing in that way can inform how you stand, it can inform how you face the world or shrink away from the world, and sometimes, as an actor, you're not conscious of those things until you get dressed completely. I think with Van, it ended up really being the shoes, because she's in this one pair of shoes the whole time, until you see her in the pink Converse a couple of times before the final hunt. Because in real life, people have their comfort objects or their pieces of clothing that make them feel like themselves. And characters have that, too. How do you balance that all with Van's look in present day for Lauren Ambrose? Hewson: How she appears is informative for my journey with this character going forward. As we see these characters age and dress differently, there's a real point A and point B aesthetically as well as within the story. It's like, OK, now we've got to build me towards that. Schley: Adult Van really does have a lot of '90s references in their clothing. But it's such a different context for the adult storyline, because different things are happening. They're not stuck in the woods. Van is living with Taissa with a limited amount of clothing, and also Taissa's maybe buying some things for them. But it's always been an interesting challenge trying to link the two different actors who are totally different people without being really heavy-handed. We were going for classic American kind of thing for both versions, iconic silhouettes during that moment, because it's a surreal scene about dying. Anything you can tease about what's to come come for next season? Hewson: There's definitely a lot of ground to cover in between the point in time that our versions of these characters are at versus where they are in the present. I have always been really curious about that kind of unknown, blank window of time. And I think, like all of us, are excited at the possibility of wearing clean things one day. Schley: That'll be a whole new show. Is there one piece of clothing you're going to take from the set when all is done? Hewson: I do have a couple of pieces, actually, because, for the outfit that I end up wearing in the scene between Lauren and I on the plane, I actually went shopping for some jewelry for Van, a silver chain and a couple of delightfully gay rings, because I was, like, because Lauren wears so many rings as Van, I need to have a little nod to that. Schley: You're going to be so sick of all those clothes you're going to want to burn them! 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‘St. Denis Medical' creators Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer discuss navigating the ‘peaks and valleys of comedy'
'It would feel stupid to walk away and do something that's less joyful,' expresses Eric Ledgin about why he has built his career around television comedy. The writer, who is one of the two creators of the NBC mockumentary series St. Denis Medical alongside Justin Spitzer, initially wanted to 'make movies that are important,' but got 'pushed into comedy by a friend.' He now revels in the format because 'half hour gives you limitless opportunities to do whatever you want.' The creative duo recently sat down with Gold Derby to discuss the origins of the hospital-set series, their favorite episodes from the first season, and more. St. Denis Medical boasts a unique tone. It is a comedic mockumentary about the doctors, nurses, and administrative staff at a regional hospital in Oregon, but it also often includes moments of true stakes and dramatic heft. 'It's a comedy and it's comedy forward, but there's a lot of attention paid to character and conflict and realism,' explains Spitzer, who notes, 'It's not a drama, but we're not just a joke machine either.' Ledgin echoes the sentiment, adding, 'The thesis is that hospitals are funny places, and I think if you talk to healthcare workers, almost all of them would agree. Because it's a mockumentary, it would feel false if there weren't real moments of people being moved.' 'You have the peaks and valleys of comedy and serious, happy and sad,' adds Spitzer. 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Ledgin appreciates having a large ensemble because 'having more options helps, especially when you're on episode 50 and you're trying to come up with something fresh.' The characters he gravitated toward when he and Spitzer were breaking the pilot were surgeon Bruce, played by Lawson, and Alex, portrayed by Tolman, especially because they are so 'opposite' and therefore 'opposing forces.' In addition to the premiere episode, which laid the foundation for the tricky balance of broad comedy and emotional stakes of the show, Ledgin and Spitzer co-wrote the tenth installment, 'People Just Say Stuff Online.' In the episode, Dr. Ron, played by Grier, gets a negative Yelp review from a patient who felt the advice he received from the doctor was disparaging. The idea for the episode was inspired by a real interaction Ledgin heard from a healthcare provider. 'This doctor, who was a cocky ortho guy, was telling me he had this patient who was overweight and had a knee issue and he said the person got really offended. I thought the story was going to be, 'Can you f—ing believe this guy?,' but instead he said, 'I need to be more sensitive.' It was this very touching story about this jock-seeming guy and that seemed surprising in a way that felt like an interesting launch pad.' Spitzer says the episode works because 'this is one of those complicated areas. You don't want to make people feel ashamed, you need to meet them halfway, but some things are worse for your health than other things.' SEE 'I know this dude!': David Alan Grier explains why he leapt at the chance to play a 'burned-out' doctor on 'St. Denis Medical' The episode also features an excellent push-and-pull between Ron and McLendon-Covey's Joyce, the hospital administrator concerned with maintaining St. Denis' four-star rating online. The dynamic between the two had been developing all season. Ledgin describes, 'They have this history and a respect, even when they argue, and that definitely informed a lot of what we did even in Season 1. We're having a little more fun in Season 2 exploring questions like, how long have they worked together, and how well do they know each other?' Spitzer observes that in comedy series like St. Denis Medical, 'The characters become very quickly a family or a group of people that generally like each other. ... You have conflict, you keep that, but underneath it, people really don't want to watch people who truly hate each other.' In Gold Derby's recent interviews with Grier and McLendon-Covey, both actors expressed interest in doing a flashback episode to when Ron and Joyce were residents together at St. Denis three decades ago. Asked about the possibility, Spitzer confesses, 'It's hard with a mockumentary,' because who would have been filming in the hospital back then? Ledgin agrees, saying, 'I have a little trouble with the math of that.' WATCH our video interview with Allison Tolman, 'St. Denis Medical' Ledgin also wrote the season finale, 'This Place Is Our Everything,' which features a payoff to the season-long question about a potential romance between nurses Serena (Kim) and Matt (Leeper). Ledgin says of how he approached the arc and its first-season conclusion, 'I think the primary thing was just not forcing anything and making sure that it never felt paint by numbers. … If there's something that we did that was smart, it was not going in with a specific objective of what's going to happen with them. I could see it. I could also see it blowing up.' Out of the 18 episodes from St. Denis Medical's first season, Ledgin and Spitzer single out a few as especially memorable. Spitzer cites the third episode, 'Weird Stuff You Can't Explain,' sharing, 'I love watching Val (Kauahi) drag the cross. It makes me laugh a lot. If I rewatch it, it still makes me laugh.' Ledgin mentions episode 14, 'Listen to Your Ladybugs,' because it features a subplot with Ron that he says 'happened to me in the middle of the season, and it was very cathartic and fun to see.' He also spotlights the penultimate episode, 'Bruce-ic and the Mus-ic,' which features Bruce competing in a dance contest at the hospital gala, and 'People Just Say Stuff Online,' which finds Bruce confronting his high school bully. Speaking of Lawson's performance, the creator says, 'I thought he executed that so well in such a maniacal way.' SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby TV Hall of Fame: Top 50 best choices who should be inducted next Carrie Preston on fencing with Matthew Broderick and the heart, humor, and growth of 'Elsbeth': 'She's more than just quirky' 'RuPaul's Drag Race': Onya Nurve and Jewels Sparkles dish their 'ride of a lifetime,' stolen jokes, and turning drag 'inside out' Click here to read the full article.
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Emmy experts analyze Limited Series race: Why ‘Adolescence' is ‘the one to beat' as voting begins
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