Episode 75

Louise Palanker (00:00:03):

Welcome to Media Path. I'm Louise Palanker.

Fritz Coleman  (00:00:06):

And I'm Fritz Coleman.

Louise Palanker (00:00:07):

Have you ever wondered what comedians think you should be watching? I will give you a moment to begin wondering so that you can feel better rewarded by what is about to happen. Yes. Two of my favorite comedians are joining us here in the studio. They are the fully vaxxed and relaxed and boosted and goed. Eric Schwartz and Cynthia Levin. We will get to their impressive resumes in a moment. But first, Fritz, what have you been enjoying this week?

Fritz Coleman  (00:00:31):

All right, I'm doing your West Side story. I couldn't, I couldn't avoid it. For the two and a half people who don't know West Side stories, the retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Tony spots Maria at a high school dance circa 1957, and its love at first sight and their romance sparks a fire between the sharks and the Jets. Two rival gangs buying through control of the neighborhood. It's, uh, the Crips in the Bloods, but better dancers, more Rican against American class, against class. And were off to the races directed by Steven Spielberg. The book is gently tweaked from its original by Tony Kushner, who wrote screenplay for Spielberg's Lincoln, and of course wrote Angels in America. It stars Ansel El Go as Tony Ariana Debos as Maria. And Rita Moreno, who was in the original movie, comes back as Valentina. She's sort of the, uh, singing matriarch of this movie.

(00:01:26):

The original movie took a lot of heat because of the appropriation of the Puerto Rican culture. Natalie Wood played Maria and she had her skin darkened for the role. The movie was very Anglo size. The original one, Spielberg said on 2020, it's important that the representation be authentic to return to the integrity I think it deserves. And we felt, all of us together felt that we need this to be a Latinx project. And I think it was a success. The acting, the scene, the Dancing spectacular is grittier and more real to the streets than the original. The actor's effortlessly bounced back and forth between Spanish and English dialogue without subtitles, but you miss nothing cuz the emotions in the meaning are all right there. They added the original version of Liberian Kenya, which became the official anthem of the territory of Puerto Rico. And although the film opened Friday with sort of tepid starts at the box office, I don't care about that the person I was with and I both decided it was even better than the original. If this story is to be remembered for years to come better, that this new version is the one that gets passed down and remembered by each new generation because it is authentic. I loved it. I thought it was spectacular. Wow.

Louise Palanker (00:02:45):

More snapping or less

Fritz Coleman  (00:02:46):

Incidentally? No, there's a lot of snapping, but it's, uh, digitally enhanced. So the, I mean, incidentally, the soundtrack orchestration was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. So people in LA know he's the conductor of the La Phil Harmonic Harmonic, and he's like a god in this town. So it was really good.

Louise Palanker (00:03:01):

That's so great. All right. Thank you for that review. Fritz cannot wait to see it. I have been listening to the American Radical Podcast from MSNBC in Amon Moha. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Roseanne Boylan was a 34 year old Georgia woman with no interest in politics. On January 6th, her family received the devastating news that she had died at the Capitol. MSNBC's A Amen. Moja went to school with Roseanne's brother-in-law, and together their attempt to figure out what happened to Roseanne leads them down shadowy Internet rabbit holes into the heart of Qan on, and its dangerously addictive pull on vulnerable citizens. What we learned, for example, is that Roseanne lived with her parents in recovery. Her life's work was staying sober. She was responsible for going to meetings. So that was the extent of her purpose. And it's posited here that qan on targeted these meetings for recruits because here you had folks with addiction issues who are just aching for meaning in their lives. You tell them they can search the internet for secret clues that will rid the planet of baby blood drinking, demonn, pedophiles. And they are in, it's like a video game. Only you are actually saving the world. American Radical is a five-part series with new episodes every Thursday and Sunday through December 19th. And it is riveting.

Fritz Coleman  (00:04:17):

Yeah, I love him. You know, he's, uh, like the new star host on MSNBC and, um, I, he's so smart and a great interviewer, and I can imagine the podcast is great.

Louise Palanker (00:04:28):

Yeah. It's a level of understanding that a lot of folks in the center like you and I don't really can't grasp. Like, why is this even happening? How are these people so siloed? And so this gives, gives us some explanation. How

Fritz Coleman  (00:04:41):

Many episodes?

Louise Palanker (00:04:42):

I think it's six, five or six, but they're rolling 'em out twice a week, so there's a lot online right now.

Fritz Coleman  (00:04:47):

He's great. I, I'm hoping it does well

Louise Palanker (00:04:49):

For him. What else? You got friends?

Fritz Coleman  (00:04:50):

I'm gonna do a book called The Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. I loved the Underground Railroad, which is a fantastic series on Netflix, but I also read the book, which is slightly different than the series, but I love both of them. Harlem Shuffle is the Follow Up to Nickel Boys, which is said to be his best work. I did not read it, and it got him a second Pulitzer Prize. It's a crime fiction. It's a family saga. It takes place in Harlem between 1959 and 1964. It's broken up into three sections, three separate capers, and it culminates in the Harlem riots of 1964. Ray Carney lives in Harlem with his wife, who's expecting their second child. Ray comes from a criminal family. His father was a thief, and a grifter Ray rises above the criminal underworld slightly by being a furniture salesman at hundred 25th Street.

(00:05:43):

He keeps one tow in the underworld though because he occasionally fences stolen items just to make a little as a side hustle, uh, out of his furniture store. Ray's cousin Freddy is knee deep in crime. Freddy organizes the heist at the Hotel Teresa and recommends that his cousin Ray Fe the goods while the heist goes south. And I'll leave it there. This all forces Ray to a personal struggle between legal and illegal aspects of his life. It's a great read. If you are familiar with Harlem or New York, it's geography well-written, but I think even more fun if you're like me and you don't know anything about Harlem, but are fascinated by the gritty shady life, the descriptions of Harlem life, the more than real characters. It's different than Underground Railroad, which was more surrealistic. You had to suspend your disbelief. But Harlem Shuffle is down and dirty Realism. I loved it. It's a great book in a fast read.

Louise Palanker (00:06:38):

Wow. Thank you for that, Chris. Mm. Definitely diving in. I've got another podcast for us. Ready? Yeah.

(00:06:43):

So I've been enjoying, uh, a podcast series called Mixtape. It's from Radiolab. Radiolab host Simon Adler contends that cassette tapes dramatically altered the course of humanity. He's out to prove his thesis with a five part series called Mixtape. Now, when I was a little kid, I had a transistor radio with an earplug for that personalized walking around, private listening experience. But I was listening to a radio station, which was still a shared experience. And, you know, it was just the one ear that was feeling the tunes. There come the cassette tapes. Now we've got a recordable Rewriteable Spliceable Mobile. And with a Walkman, you no longer need to exclude one of your ears for the first time. You could move through your surroundings with your own completely curated personal programming. In five episodes from around the world, mixtape explores the impact of the cassette. For example, episode one, cassette tapes trashed as scrap heap brought western rock music to China and created a cultural remixed on the greatest possible scale. Two Bing Crosby and some stolen Nazi technology won his audience back and changed media forever. Three, many nights during the Vietnam War. If you listen to closely, you'd swear you heard a ghost. Now learn the story of that ghost and how it still haunts us today. Four. How the cassette tape created the internet. And five, three stories of cassette tapes as peculiar assistance carrying self-help a village's history and lost love.

Fritz Coleman  (00:08:06):

Wow. That's cool. I've seen that. I just breezed by it. Cuz I thought it was like a hip hop story or

Louise Palanker (00:08:11):

Something. It is not. It is not. It's Have you caught a bad case of the covid? She's taking

Fritz Coleman  (00:08:15):

On her enthusiasm for this topic.

Cynthia Levin (00:08:17):

She's, I burped up my

Louise Palanker (00:08:19):

Tea. No, no, no. You're about to test positive. It's all going on right here on Media Path.

Eric Schwartz (00:08:25):

I got the best seat <laugh>. I'll get it the quickest.

Louise Palanker (00:08:29):

So, and I have one more pick before we introduce our guests. You can step out of the room if you need to. Cynthia,

Cynthia Levin (00:08:33):

Somebody smack me on the back.

Louise Palanker (00:08:35):

We can do that. It's harder than that.

Eric Schwartz (00:08:37):

Oh, I didn't wanna hurt you. Please

Cynthia Levin (00:08:38):

Hurt me. <laugh>, you have to cough at the same time. Oh, is that how it works? Yeah. I don't have children. There you go. <laugh>.

Louise Palanker (00:08:45):

I didn't know the rules.

Eric Schwartz (00:08:46):

Am I burping a grown woman? Is that what's going on right now? <laugh>, you are. How'd this happen?

Louise Palanker (00:08:53):

All right, so I've been watching, watching coming out Colton on Netflix when Bachelorette contestant Colton Underwood became the Bachelor. He inspired the Bachelor franchise to exhaust an entire season helping him find love among 30 attractive and available females. While all the while Colton was not really romantically interested in any of them because since he was a young boy, he has known that he is gay. So ABC is like not here for the right reasons and Netflix is all give us six seasons, their new reality show coming out. Colton features bachelor, football stars, small town Christian Colton underwear awkwardly embracing his true self. And I am invested, first

Fritz Coleman  (00:09:28):

Of all. Yeah, it's misrepresentation of the part of abc. Second, they didn't know, does he ever find a, a successful romance like a gay guy on the crew or something?

Louise Palanker (00:09:37):

No, no, no. So he dates all these women. He, he picks, what was the name of the girl he picked? He picked a girl named Cassie or something like that. And, uh, he would, he had convinced himself that since he found her attractive that she was his last hope of being straight. So when they broke up, he started stalking her. He got really desperate. I mean, if you're like, deeply rooted in your lie, and let's just call it a lie. Let's just call pretending to be straight a lie. If you're gay, which is, it sounds like a harsh word, but the, we're asking little kids to lie by not accepting all different sexualities, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that's what society is enforcing upon them, is to, in order to survive, especially as a small town football hero that he had, you know, with all the homophobia and the jokes in the locker room, that, that coaches are toxic masculinity. Toxic, yeah. And, you know, and everybody's on board

Fritz Coleman  (00:10:27):

Takes the

Louise Palanker (00:10:28):

Password <laugh> and everyone <laugh>, and it's all, you know, and adults and teachers hear it and no one stops it. They just further it. So you just stuff that down further. So now he winds up on, on the Bachelorette, and then everybody likes him so much that they offer him, you know, do you wanna become the Bachelor? And he's the Virgin Bachelor, which, okay, that's fine. But the thing, he was a virgin because he wasn't ready to

Fritz Coleman  (00:10:50):

Have sex. He sure takes the sexual attention out of the show.

Louise Palanker (00:10:52):

Well, no one knew. See Fritz was, you have to understand. Yeah, maybe you have to understand he was the Virgin Bachelor, but everyone just assumed the default position was straight. Everyone just assumed that he wanted, where

Fritz Coleman  (00:11:04):

Did they have to make out and go through

Louise Palanker (00:11:05):

All this? He did all that. He made out with girls. He did, he did all that. But it was easy for him not to go all the way because he didn't really wanna go all the way. Like, he's not even ready to go all the way with the guy. Like, he's now, now on this show. He's, oh, he's really a virgin. No, but he, he's been suppressing it for so long that while, while he's allowing it to come forward, it all feels strange and not like the real him. He's, and so the series kind of shows him gently coming out to people and talking to other gay guys, especially in the, in the ath athletic world about what that was like for them growing up and how they embraced that. And how as much as a lot of show business society is like, oh, you're gay, you're straight, you like, guys, girls, whatever. It's not like that in sports yet. It is not like that in sports. It's

Fritz Coleman  (00:11:47):

Starting to be NFL players are coming out, which,

Louise Palanker (00:11:49):

But it hasn't been. And the locker room is like the most, as Eric said, toxic masculine place. Because Colt, as Colton explained in the episode that I watched last night, it's a combination of like homoerotic and

Eric Schwartz (00:12:02):

Oh wow. I'm, I'm supposed to come up with the term saying homophobic. Thank you. Homophobic.

Louise Palanker (00:12:04):

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you Dina. Yeah. <laugh>. Yeah. He said it's this weird hybrid, you know, they're smacking each other on the butt and calling each other, you know, the f word. It's, it's all of this combined, it's their fear of being perceived as being soft mixed with, they're all naked together. And some of them are gay, so let's be, or some of them are on some sort of spectrum where, you know, that's hot and they, they just can't say that out loud.

Fritz Coleman  (00:12:25):

They could have paved the whole thing off by bringing on Mike Pence to do some conversion therapy. <laugh>. Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (00:12:31):

Right.

Louise Palanker (00:12:32):

I don't know. I wouldn't put Mike Pence in a room full of naked guys. That

Cynthia Levin (00:12:36):

Means

Louise Palanker (00:12:37):

Mother wouldn't approve <laugh>. So, yeah. So I, I'm finding it very interesting because it's in, to me, it's interesting how far behind sports is. Like I just, I hadn't realized sports is dragging up the rear on acceptance of, hey, people being withy,

Fritz Coleman  (00:12:51):

Excuse me.

Eric Schwartz (00:12:52):

Expression. Uh, yeah, well, I mean, maybe I think it's because, uh, they, a lot of people think that it, it's like all masculinity that needs to go into sports. And if there's anything else, then it'll make us softer. Oh. But they don't realize that gay men can also be, uh, warriors.

Fritz Coleman  (00:13:10):

I predict that in the next five years, they're gonna see a transgender place kicker.

Eric Schwartz (00:13:15):

Sure.

Fritz Coleman  (00:13:15):

Because that's the only one where you won't get your clock cleaned every time you get hit.

Eric Schwartz (00:13:19):

Right? Yeah. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:13:21):

I, I can see a transgender, I can't

Fritz Coleman  (00:13:22):

Quarterback these

Louise Palanker (00:13:23):

People. I can see a transgender quarterback. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:13:25):

Plays offense.

Louise Palanker (00:13:26):

That's what someone who plays for both teams. I, I don't see why not. Anyway, that's coming out, Colton. I find it fascinating. He's got a great smile and it's fun to watch. Who'd like to hear about our guests? Cuz they're sitting here and they're very cute, they're so attractive and everyone wants to know who they are and why they are. All right. So let me start with you. Let's see. Please welcome the multidimensional Eric Schwartz, a man who engagingly combined standup parody and filmmaking to entertain audiences the world round. And Cynthia Levin, whose mother once explained to her over soup and half a sandwich, you've always been the truth teller in the family. But you know what, honey? Nobody wants to hear it.

Cynthia Levin (00:14:02):

<laugh>. <laugh>.

Louise Palanker (00:14:04):

And rather than listening to me delve further into your meaty bios, let's each of you imagine that you are MCing your own act. How would you bring yourself to the stage? Begin with Eric.

Eric Schwartz (00:14:15):

Hey, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your favorite, uh, bald, the spectacle lactose intolerant Corte Mexican Jewish comedian Eric Schwartz. Yay. Yay.

Louise Palanker (00:14:26):

I was hoping he'd be here. <laugh> and Cynthia.

Cynthia Levin (00:14:30):

Um, I guess I'll just introduce myself the way I have been introduced with, uh, she's a Jew and that's pretty much it. That's, uh, Cynthia Levin. She's a Jew. Ladies and gentlemen, she's a Jew. <laugh>.

Eric Schwartz (00:14:40):

They really only had to say Cynthia Levin. Yeah,

Cynthia Levin (00:14:42):

Exactly. But, but they needed to throw that in.

Louise Palanker (00:14:45):

But, but so it's pronounced Levin. Yeah, it is. Okay. Apologies for whatever I have been saying previously. I will correct my

Cynthia Levin (00:14:50):

Belief. Behavior worked out. Now a lot of people, when you're at a party, imagine that once again we can attend a party and you're there and some, and you say, what do you do? And then some you say, I'm a comedian. Oh, would I know your work? What, how do you answer that question? Um, would you know my work? Uh, probably not. Unless you go out to the clubs, um, or you, you're always on the internet looking up comedy.

Fritz Coleman  (00:15:13):

Yeah. Don't undersell yourself. If, if they find your website.

Cynthia Levin (00:15:16):

I mean, I have a website. Oh, you just, do you want that? Cynthia liven uh, productions.com. Oh, wonderful. Yeah. So I have a website mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, and there's stuff on there for real, very, very fun stuff.

Fritz Coleman  (00:15:26):

Eric's

Cynthia Levin (00:15:27):

Too. But, uh, yeah, I mean, uh, uh, I always, I will always undersell myself, um, cuz I'm, I feel like I'm living my life under a shelf and, um, even right now, no, no, you're on top. This is under a shelf, the surface and you're on top of it. <laugh>, uh, and Eric, what, when, when you're at a party

Eric Schwartz (00:15:44):

And Well, I kind of felt like when my friends introduce me as, Hey, he's a famous comedian, and then people are like, really? And I'm like, well, obviously not <laugh>. If you don't know me, I, you know, I kind of gotta take my ego out of the whole thing and just be grateful for the people that I am reaching, like the people that listen to this show.

Cynthia Levin (00:16:03):

All right. So what does the Eric Schwartz super fan look like? How old is she? How often does she write?

Eric Schwartz (00:16:09):

I mean, have you ever looked in the mirror? Louise <laugh>.

Cynthia Levin (00:16:14):

Oh my God, I'm turning red.

Eric Schwartz (00:16:15):

Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (00:16:16):

Um, you are

Eric Schwartz (00:16:17):

<laugh>. No, I mean, I, if I were gonna, if I were gonna put out an ad on Facebook to reach one person, I would say, I mean, honestly, I probably would be a, uh, it would be a, um, Latina woman in her thirties to fifties. I guess. Let,

Fritz Coleman  (00:16:35):

Let me talk. I have a lot of those fans. It's really hard for people to self-assess. So let me talk about both of them. Yeah. First of all, Eric, I feel like he's a member of our family because he worked with us when he was an intern and didn't have an act. True. And now he's one of the best comedy headliners in the United States. I worked with him the other night, and I will tell you that he has this magic thing of being able to appeal to all age groups. I mean, that auto-tune thing is designed for current teenagers, but his jokes about being Mexican and Jewish appeal to people my age, which is another century completely. And he has a broad scope of fans. And I watched them react. And this lady Uhhuh <affirmative>, uh, I mean, and I'll tell you what these, thank you, Fred, I'll tell you what both these people have in common and that I have so much respect for. They are so comfortable performing on stage and sees control of the stage. If you watch Cynthia's, um, videos on the internet on her website or wherever, she immediately establishes control. And I'm not gonna say how, but she has guts. <laugh>. No, I don't, you know, it's not my Did you have to do that? But, but so both of these people have such great command of the stage and, um, Cynthia appeals to slightly, you know, older people because she's a little more adult.

Louise Palanker (00:18:00):

Oh my God. Awful. What time is it? I think

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:03):

No, no, I don't mean,

Louise Palanker (00:18:05):

See. No, I'm

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:06):

Kidding. You are beyond funny. I, but it's just, if I compare you to him, he, he, he appeals to 1518,

Louise Palanker (00:18:12):

He means adult-like in bookstore. Oh, of course. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You mean where they have glory holes and things like that? Oh yeah. Is that what we're talking about? Yeah. It's easy. Yeah. <laugh>,

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:21):

I, I I love 'em both cuz they both look so comfortable on stage and you cannot not watch them with,

Louise Palanker (00:18:28):

It's the word pro stage time. 10,000 hours.

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:32):

Yeah. But, but also, but not everybody has that. Not everybody looks like they're so at home on stage. Some people are painfully uncomfortable, <laugh> and, uh, you know, they're, they're up here. You

Louise Palanker (00:18:42):

Say that you look directly at me.

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:43):

<laugh>. No, I'm not looking at you.

Eric Schwartz (00:18:44):

That's why I looked this way at Fritz

Louise Palanker (00:18:47):

Reflect.

Fritz Coleman  (00:18:51):

But I, I'm, you know, I'm up there to do the words and these guys are like all around performers. Oh yeah. Cynthia's a great actor. Come on. Eric's a great actor.

Eric Schwartz (00:18:59):

Well, no, hey, even hear that for, I consider you two mentors because when I, Cynthia, you don't know this, but I literally was their intern for a show. And I would pick up sandwiches before the show and I would like fill out note cards and like keep the show going. And, um, they had a, a show that they were making. And to hear that from your mentor years later, that is like, wow, you know, I

Fritz Coleman  (00:19:22):

F I had to follow you last week at in Flappers. And it was freaking impossible.

Eric Schwartz (00:19:26):

You know what though? That was a, a rare

Fritz Coleman  (00:19:29):

It was. And, and I want you to tell the story. This is crazy. This is really, and you've had I know, I know. And you probably would dig your way out of it as well as anybody performing. But he talk the talk about the blind guy. Oh no, please.

Eric Schwartz (00:19:44):

Okay. So I'm, I'm performing. And it couldn't have been going better. Like you feel like, oh yeah, everything's hitting. I'm at a 10 right now. And then I, I saw this dude in the front row. He had long black hair. Uh, he had a scraggly beard and round glasses that were tinted blue. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I, before I went on stage, I'm like, that guy looks like a vampire. I'm gonna say he looks like a vampire. So I go, <laugh>, I go, yes,

Fritz Coleman  (00:20:12):

We're coming down the

Louise Palanker (00:20:13):

Streets.

Eric Schwartz (00:20:13):

<laugh>. I go, I go, what do you think Mr. Vampire? And the crowd loses it. They go to an 11. I'm like, no, I'm really killing. And then he goes, he's laughing and he goes, I'm blind

Louise Palanker (00:20:25):

<laugh>.

Eric Schwartz (00:20:26):

And we go to a 12. Now I'm embarrassed and I'm red and I'm like, I'm, I know I'm turning red. And I go, oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed. I'm turning red. You can't see it. Let me have your hand put it on my forehead. Feel how hot I am. And I just kept riffing on it.

Fritz Coleman  (00:20:42):

Oh no. It was your, it was wor the way you worked your way out of it was pro man. It was,

Eric Schwartz (00:20:46):

I don't even know. It was one of those out-of-body experiences where I just found another thing and another thing. And I'm like, by the way, why are you sitting in the front? You're blind. A different question. Yeah. <laugh>, right? <laugh>. Why are you

Cynthia Levin (00:20:58):

Sitting in the front? I was waiting for that one.

Eric Schwartz (00:21:00):

<laugh> taking up, you know, and meanwhile I'm like, don't get too, too far forward into the lights. You'll burn up. Cuz he's a vampire. Because

Louise Palanker (00:21:08):

He's a vampire. Back to that. Yeah. Full

Eric Schwartz (00:21:10):

Circle. But I'm like, if you, you know, you look like a vampire. Maybe

Louise Palanker (00:21:14):

He doesn't.

Eric Schwartz (00:21:15):

But he, he then I found out after the

Fritz Coleman  (00:21:18):

Show, and maybe he wasn't really blind. Maybe he was riffing on you.

Eric Schwartz (00:21:20):

I found out after the show he could still see. So he was going blind, but he could still see pretty well. Aw,

Louise Palanker (00:21:26):

What a

Eric Schwartz (00:21:26):

Cheater. I mean, like, I'm pretty then if I you're blind, then I'm blind if I have 20 minus 400.

Fritz Coleman  (00:21:32):

Anyway, he totally, uh, owned the audience. And then I had to go with my lame ass white old guy.

Eric Schwartz (00:21:37):

No, but did

Cynthia Levin (00:21:38):

You, did you try, did you try the uh, so you a vampire

Louise Palanker (00:21:42):

<laugh>, you know, if you had called someone else a vampire that would've killed Yeah. Like some lady, are you a vampire?

Fritz Coleman  (00:21:49):

But that was fun for you. Watch, see, watch you just destroy as a real pro.

Eric Schwartz (00:21:52):

But so Well thanks Fritz and Fritz. I mean, every time I watch you, it's like the command of the language that you have and the intelligence. I'm like, it'll never compare.

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:02):

Okay.

Eric Schwartz (00:22:03):

No.

Louise Palanker (00:22:04):

Everyone has their strength and Yeah. And that's the beauty of standup.

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:07):

Yes. And, and Cynthia, you gotta watch her videos. Honest to God, I was crying last night. It was bizarre because she just walks up on stage. Yeah. And you, you do this thing that I think gives you power immediately. You just go balls out on some really edgy things right away to say, I'm in charge of this and don't fuck with me <laugh>. And it's, and it, it's great though. It really, it, it immediately establishes who's in charge here.

Cynthia Levin (00:22:34):

Yeah. It's, it's rage. Um, <laugh> just, just come back. No,

Louise Palanker (00:22:37):

I'm kidding. This is healthy then.

Cynthia Levin (00:22:38):

Yeah. No, it's good. It's good.

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:40):

But you, you improvise really well. I mean, you get that piece from the I'm sorry.

Louise Palanker (00:22:45):

No, she needs to get

Cynthia Levin (00:22:46):

Closer.

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:47):

Yeah. The, the thing you did from, is it Davenport's? Uh,

Cynthia Levin (00:22:50):

Oh, I was, I did a piano bar in Chicago,

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:53):

Davenport. And the first time you'd

Cynthia Levin (00:22:54):

Ever worked in piano. Yeah. I'd never, right. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:22:56):

And she improvised with a piano player. It was hysterical. And I thought, boom, these guys are both wonderful pose. Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (00:23:03):

Well, thank you very much.

Eric Schwartz (00:23:04):

I could, I could expect some, um, what do they call, what's that word? What's the password for you? Is acerbic, is that a word? That is, am I describe you?

Cynthia Levin (00:23:12):

Uh, possibly

Eric Schwartz (00:23:14):

Acerbic wit Don't see that.

Cynthia Levin (00:23:16):

Know, maybe. Yeah. Get it closer. I like it. I like it. <laugh>. Yeah. You see what I do? That's why it's a desperate woman. That's why she's

Louise Palanker (00:23:22):

Doing that. You can buy these for home use <laugh>. You

Fritz Coleman  (00:23:25):

Know, I don't know if it, you've been doing her for 30 years and Eric's been doing it for, you know, 15 or 20. And I don't know if that's just something that comes over time, but when you walk up there and insist on being paid attention to <laugh>, I think that's 50% of the battle right there.

Louise Palanker (00:23:39):

<laugh>. Especially if you deserve the attention. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:23:42):

And she does. Oh, then you gotta bring it. Yeah. I, I, that, that goes without saying.

Louise Palanker (00:23:46):

Yeah, absolutely. But Eric was, when I booked Eric to come today, he said, would you like me to stop for Armenian Deli? And I, I thought, Hmm. But this was a callback to That's what he used to bring. Yeah. When we were doing the couch once a week, me and Fritz and Henry Winkler and James Arnold, Taylor and Rob is Iceman Eisenberg, Allen Waki. And the funniest people I know in my, my deepest closest brothers of the heart would come and we rehearse the hell out of this, this show that we were gonna be pitching. And Eric would, Eric was the best intern in the world. He did, he did everything. He brought us Armenian Deli sandwiches, which are

Cynthia Levin (00:24:22):

The, the best What, what's an Armenian Deli

Louise Palanker (00:24:23):

Sandwich? Um, it's, it's rolled in Petita. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it's Armenian. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. That makes it good. Is

Cynthia Levin (00:24:28):

It, does it have a Armenian last name to it? Like, what is it?

Louise Palanker (00:24:31):

It's, it's a sandwich in, it's called <laugh>. And it has string cheese. Oh my God. Cynthia String cheese. It's a Turkey sandwich in in Turkey. Yeah. With avocado in. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:24:42):

But Cynthia in her videos introduces maybe the greatest concept in comedy called Kosher Bacon. That's all you have to know. Ooh.

L

ouise Palanker (00:24:49):

Oh, that's, that's Ko Kosher bacon. Me

Cynthia Levin (00:24:51):

More Me had that. I grew up with kosher bacon. Tell me more. It's actually, it's in the pro promo from, or I should say the, the title sequence for my TV series that I've been writing Unprepared for Life. And, um, my mother's at the Stove, it's all animated. It's a giant, it's a giant mother bird. And she's cooking and she's on the phone.

Mother Bird (00:25:07):

No, I know, I know. All right. Now,

Cynthia Levin (00:25:10):

And meanwhile, I'm behind her being born in a, an egg and it's cracking. But she can care less cuz. And then right next to it, you see the kosher bacon package, you know, and,

Mother Bird (00:25:20):

And Oh no. All right, I'll hang on a second. You

Cynthia Levin (00:25:22):

Missed,

Louise Palanker (00:25:23):

Missed that visual. I was so obsessed with the little chicken. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you fall and then I fall over, she's like, oh wow,

Cynthia Levin (00:25:30):

What is a nest? And then she goes,

Louise Palanker (00:25:31):

Oh wow. And then you crack and

Cynthia Levin (00:25:33):

Now Exactly. And she yells, so is that

Mother Bird (00:25:34):

I'm let anyone

Cynthia Levin (00:25:35):

And she's pretty much over it. And then she goes back to her phone call. So that's pretty much my life.

Fritz Coleman  (00:25:39):

That is that, was that a pilot for a series

Cynthia Levin (00:25:41):

Or? Yeah, it's a pilot for a TV series. And that's sort of like the animation I had done, um, for So

Louise Palanker (00:25:46):

Did you feel that way? Did that feel like you as a child? Oh yeah. So talk about, tell me, tell us about your childhood. What happened? Why weren't you raised?

Cynthia Levin (00:25:53):

Um, well, um, I blamed no one. And uh, but uh, I was basically, I was, uh, had six, uh, well, five brothers and sisters, but I was the second youngest. And, um, I think, uh, I don't know, it's

Louise Palanker (00:26:07):

Really, it's,

Cynthia Levin (00:26:08):

It's too dark and too deep. So all I'll say is there was a little bit of neglect going on and um, and I had to turn it into comedy. So, um, my show's called Unprepared for Life because I've never been prepared for anything cuz I was never told, you need to, you know, I was never spoken to. They forgot I was a, I was there. So I basically would go to school and just beat people up and then cheat on all the tests and then cause trouble and make people laugh and then go chase people home and, you know what I mean? That was like my life. But I was living it without a family. So <laugh>, it's like

Fritz Coleman  (00:26:37):

You are fearless on stage, but you can tell that deep in there there's anger coming <laugh>. And I'm glad I on any given moment, I'm not the recipient of that.

Cynthia Levin (00:26:47):

Well, you know, what's healthy

Fritz Coleman  (00:26:48):

Better to disperse it over an audience? Thank

Cynthia Levin (00:26:50):

You Fred. Exactly. Speckle it around. But I, no, because the thing is, is that I actually address my emotions on a daily basis where I know people who think they're the healthiest alcoholics in the world, <laugh>. And, um, and they will lose, you know, lose it on me or other people because, you know, they're just, they have rage, you know, they, they think, oh, I feel, but I feel better now that I got it out. Doesn't it? Aren't, aren't you glad I got it out? I'm like, no, get it out before you see me. Right. Get it out. Deal with it. You, you know what I'm saying? I'm not the recipient of this. It doesn't belong to me. So like, I actually, when I, there's real rage I don't take That's not, that's never real. And, and cuz that's not funny. So it's Yeah. So

Fritz Coleman  (00:27:25):

Onstage, no, bring the energy level way up. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of, it's comedic

Cynthia Levin (00:27:28):

Rhythm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I wanna choke everybody, don't get me wrong. Uh, but uh,

Fritz Coleman  (00:27:31):

Lemme ask you a question about that, cuz that was a question that popped up while I was watching it, especially when you first started doing it. How did the audience react to that? Did, did it, did it make men be cautious and pull back? I mean that that's, it's it's a real power stance on your part

Cynthia Levin (00:27:49):

When you do that. Yeah. I mean, uh, it you, it doesn't, I think that they actually respond to it. They think it's funny. Um, yeah. So I mean, I know that, I mean, no, I mean, uh, no they don't, I don't think that it throws them because if it's coming from just comedic space, meaning if it's real anger, then they're gonna be like, you know, go screw yourself. Do you know what I mean? But it, because it's not real. It's just me actually flirting in a really aggressive way, you know what I mean? And it's really actual flirt flirtation. That's what it is. And so, um, and it's just, and so that's, that's how it comes off. I forget, I forgot what I was gonna say. No,

Fritz Coleman  (00:28:19):

It's very funny. And it's, and you, and you're self-deprecating why you do it. Oh yeah. Which endears you to the audience. I just wondered if, you know, some men are, so I, I remember, I, I think I talked about this with Lene Boosler, when, when, when female standups were just getting started and men had to figure out the power transference. The woman with the microphone is the one with the power mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And am I gonna give her the power? Am I gonna let her seize the power of the room? And so I just wondered if men reacted

Cynthia Levin (00:28:44):

Public. Oh, that's an interesting thing. When I was living on the East Coast and then I'll shut up, but when I was living on the East coast, I was, I would do, you know, gigs all over the place. And the women were the ones who were just like, the men were fine with me. They were like, ah, you know, they loved it. They, you know, they were into it and the women were like, um, they were just like, look at their, their significant other. They didn't, they were not comfortable with me, but I had never thought I was attractive. So may, uh, maybe that they thought, oh, here's this woman who's single and now she's, you know, now she's trying to sleep with my husband or my boyfriend. The reality, you know what I'm saying? Like, but I always saw myself as just some, you know,

Fritz Coleman  (00:29:18):

Well maybe you had the guts, the

Cynthia Levin (00:29:20):

Old hole empty hole. Sorry, that's too much. But what <laugh>

Fritz Coleman  (00:29:24):

Maybe you had the guts they wish they had,

Cynthia Levin (00:29:27):

I don't know. But they were really sometimes depend on where you go, right. Because there were some people that are really ignorant, usually Long Island or something like that. Anyway. Um, you know, I call it ignorant arrogance. They're pretty amazing at that. Um, but, um, yeah, I mean they were the ones ones that would get threatened in other places. They wouldn't care, they couldn't care less. So it just depends on, I think it's where you are, you know, and, um, just like how they're, what they're used to. Yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:29:49):

The, the psychology behind female standup comedian is rich and deep. There's a lot going on when a woman stands on stage, holds a microphone and talks and everyone in the audience is looking at her. So some of the dynamics, and I'm not gonna be able to cover all of it, but some of the dynamics are, you know, if a guy laughs too loud, does his girlfriend think he's hot

Cynthia Levin (00:30:12):

For a hundred percent?

Louise Palanker (00:30:13):

Can't a man look at a woman on a stage for more than 30 seconds without imagining her naked or him on top of her? Or, oh, I never thought about that. Is the, is the woman. Think

Fritz Coleman  (00:30:23):

About that.

Louise Palanker (00:30:23):

Every time. Is the woman thinking I'm supposed to now be this confident, I'm supposed to now be this funny? Uh, it's, it's just, it's hard to get people past their own business mm-hmm. <affirmative> to simply listen to your words and laugh.

Cynthia Levin (00:30:34):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's why I would go to self-deprecating right away. But that's who really who I am. It's not just to enter, you know, for your benefit. It's just, cuz that's the truth of me. And I think that brings people towards you. But I think that if, if you're real

Louise Palanker (00:30:46):

Cocky,

Fritz Coleman  (00:30:47):

It's very endearing, then I suppose it's hard and, and it's brave. I think both of you're

Louise Palanker (00:30:51):

Really brave. And when I, when I had conversations with other comedians when I was doing comedy and, you know, it was kind of debated, why do some men think that women aren't funny? Like Jerry Lewis, you know, was famous famously saying he doesn't find women funny. And so we would have these conversations with, uh, you know, other comedians talking about it. And, and I had a friend of mine actually say, we don't think women are funny because you guys are already telling us all your feelings all day. And you, we have to listen to it. Why would I wanna go to a club and listen to you do it on a stage? Right. Whereas when men talk about what they're feeling, it's interesting cuz they usually don't. Right.

Cynthia Levin (00:31:29):

It's also the men and he hates his mother to the

Louise Palanker (00:31:31):

Lady on the street.

Eric Schwartz (00:31:32):

You, I mean, it all has to do

Cynthia Levin (00:31:33):

With, what'd you just say? What?

Fritz Coleman  (00:31:34):

Because they have to relinquish power to the lady on the stage. And men aren't ready to do that.

Louise Palanker (00:31:38):

At least they, and I think there's a lot of that for

Cynthia Levin (00:31:40):

It is, and it's all about the mother. I mean, it's like they, it's true. If you have like issues with your own mother, you hate all women. Cuz again, most people don't deal with their shit. They just don't, they don't go to therapy. And so we are, we are constantly the recipients of your mess, you know? Mm-hmm. But um, also, uh, the, the thing about they want us to be men in general, and even, and women, they want you to be the, the mother because they want you to be the nice, you know, they don't want your mother. They wanna see their mother up there screaming and you know, and swearing or talking about sex or they wanna keep you in your place. And so they, that's why people do not like women comics for that reason specifically. It's

Louise Palanker (00:32:16):

Threatened.

Eric Schwartz (00:32:17):

They're very uncomfortable. It all has everything to do with our societal roles of, of women. Yeah. And less to do with comedy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Cynthia Levin (00:32:24):

You know, a hundred percent. So there's a

Fritz Coleman  (00:32:25):

Lot, you're, and, and Cynthia is right too. I think you bring your baggage to the performance and perceive it differently than the person.

Louise Palanker (00:32:31):

Right. Well there's just what I'm saying is there's a lot of dynamics already in place Yeah. Before you step foot on the stage and, and she's able, able to rise above all that, cut across all of it and just be freaking funny.

Fritz Coleman  (00:32:42):

And I think that comes from the power she immediately asserts when she goes on stage, which is hysterical. Yeah. That's very impressive. And Eric, I I, I love you cuz uh, you, she's not a cla she's not a, a standard that you can pigeonhole. You're like a great cabaret performer. You, you're, you're like a lane strich if she will

Louise Palanker (00:33:02):

<laugh>. I know. I would love, I mean, I wanna do that song. I'm

Cynthia Levin (00:33:06):

Still here, <laugh>, I'm still here.

Fritz Coleman  (00:33:09):

I wanna, you know, the way you improvise with the piano player is hysterical. And really, uh, and what I love that Eric brings to it is you're kind of a multimedia comedian. You're not a straight immunologist and you bring video presentations and you bring music and you do the autotune and all that. So it's a full on like 21st century VO Vivian performance.

Eric Schwartz (00:33:31):

Thanks. That's what I set out to do. Kind of something like that. So glad it's, uh, glad you saw it that way. And

Louise Palanker (00:33:36):

I like how both of you take all of your talents and mold them into your act. And, and I think so many comedians are, are really, really good at that. If they're also musical or if they're also, you know, good sketch performers are also good actors that, you know, and to bundle that into, into a package and say, let me ha let me take what I have and, and bring

Eric Schwartz (00:33:55):

It. I was just like, I know this business is really hard, so I have to take every resource I have <laugh> but it out.

Louise Palanker (00:34:01):

But you have honestly, but you've got like a really rich palette and you, and you're good. You're, you're a great musician, you're a great vocalist. You can, you, you're a great impressionist and you're fearless. You're like the male Lucy. You don't care how many wigs you wear or how many, how many people you trip over into, you know, you're just, you just throw yourself. Yeah. You commit. Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (00:34:21):

Yeah. You gotta commit. Uh, but yeah, no, that's, uh, thanks. Uh, I, I felt like honestly like, you know, everyone has their superpower. Right. And that's, uh, you know, I started as a DJ and that was like, you know what,

Fritz Coleman  (00:34:36):

Yeah. You have all that digital stuff work.

Eric Schwartz (00:34:38):

Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So

Fritz Coleman  (00:34:39):

Plus these are great little bites they can find on YouTube that sell you, you know, little chunks of

Eric Schwartz (00:34:43):

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:34:44):

And tell us a little bit about your childhood, because you, you have a suburban childhood, but you're a one quarter step Mexican,

Eric Schwartz (00:34:50):

Right? So Yeah, I'm not, I'm not Mexican by blood. I am my stepfather's Mexican, so I say that I'm step Mexican. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I was raised with some of the culture. Uh, and so, and, and, and actually I, I was raised missing a lot of it cuz I spent time between my mom and dad. So a lot of stuff now is like me discovering the culture and how fascinated I am with it. And I talk about [inaudible] which is culture in Spanish. Yeah.

(00:35:15):

Speak Spanish.

Fritz Coleman  (00:35:17):

Yeah. He, he does all that. The audience loves that.

Eric Schwartz (00:35:21):

But like, so it's, it's so crazy how, um, the, how, you know, Mexican people in, in specifically because that's, you know, my stepdad's Mexican have responded to it. Like they're so open armed about it. And that's great. I mean, especially what's what's going on right now. And actually in 2016, that was when I started saying like, Hey, I gotta really incorporate that part of me out there because I didn't want to, I wanted to show rather than tell what I thought because I thought telling it would just turn people off. I the do you know what I'm, do you know what I'm alluding to? Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:35:58):

Plus you're very smart. You're playing the Los Angeles audiences on any given night, 30 to 40% could be Mexican or a

Louise Palanker (00:36:04):

Latinamerican. Well, they wanna be included. They, they, they, they wanna be included. And when I worked for Rick Ds, he would sometimes call himself Ricardo Diaz and I'd meet people and they'd say, you know, his real name is Ricardo Diaz. And I'd be like, Hmm, no, he's from North Carolina. His name is Rigdon Osmond DS iii. But, but you know, they wanna be embraced, they wanna be included. They, they were here before we were. Yeah. So that's all they, everyone wants to be seen. Well,

Eric Schwartz (00:36:31):

Because I kept hearing all the, what they say, rhetoric, uh, that was anti, anti-Mexican. And I was like, what, wait a minute. We gotta, we gotta have, we gotta have, you know, people from different races and different, you know, celebrating cultures, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's kind of what I, why I set out to do that. I I was talking about that before all the 2016 stuff, but it made me like really wanna represent that part of my family, my upbringing a lot more.

Louise Palanker (00:37:01):

Yeah. And I don't think they see it as appropriation because you're being honest about how you come, how you come by it. And

Eric Schwartz (00:37:07):

I call it cultural appreciation. Yeah. That's

Louise Palanker (00:37:09):

What I call it. Nice. I like that. I don't know. Yeah. That's

Eric Schwartz (00:37:11):

Awesome. And uh, like appropriation is when you, when you um, I looked it up, that's when you, when you um, when

Louise Palanker (00:37:19):

I think it, it's vanilla ice. Okay.

Eric Schwartz (00:37:21):

Yeah. Yeah. When you pass it off as something that as your own, oh. When you try to pass it off as your own. And I mean, just look at me. I didn't invent this stuff. All right. So <laugh> just appreciating,

Louise Palanker (00:37:31):

I mean, I think a lot of appropriation just comes because people don't know where it came from. Like let's say if, if what's driving culture forward is, is the L G B T community, like, you know, all of our slang and whatever was on the internet and you know, being used by them like seven years ago and then finally filters down to us. It's like, oh, oh, that's cool to say yes. Oh yes. And so we, some people don't do it on purpose. Yes. They just, because it is it ya queen, is that what you're after Lou?

Eric Schwartz (00:37:56):

Yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:37:57):

He's hilarious. It's very kind of like, by the time it, my mom is saying it, she doesn't know she's a friend <laugh>

Eric Schwartz (00:38:02):

Right. Becomes mainstream <laugh>. Right? Yeah.

(00:38:06):

Yeah. I mean, you know, so if I, if I'm allowed to say I, I, I saw somebody say something I, I made a comment on, um, somebody was eating a bagel or, uh, who was, they were eating locks and the debate was whether it was good or not, okay. And I'm Jewish and this person was not Jewish. And I said something like, um, you know, I'll bet I, I'll put my, I go, I think this stuff is nasty. I'll put my bar mitzvah on that <laugh>, you know, and then somebody goes, somebody, somebody goes, look, he's trying to, everyone else was like, there's this one idiot who goes, look, he's trying to sound like he's down. And I'm like, what

Cynthia Levin (00:38:46):

Down is a

Eric Schwartz (00:38:47):

J Jew? But no, by saying, I'll put my bar mitzvah on that. Yeah. Like, put something on that is like down is supposed, I'm trying to show that I'm down. And I looked at the guy's profile. He was a white guy with dreadlocks. So my dude literally, uh,

Cynthia Levin (00:39:04):

He's a little conscious of that

Eric Schwartz (00:39:05):

Whole thing, calling the kettle black, I guess is what you,

Louise Palanker (00:39:08):

You're doing. So people, people are just sort of stumbling clueless through life. I think for

Eric Schwartz (00:39:12):

The most part. It's like people just wanna, people just wanna Yeah. Be right or be righteous mm-hmm. <affirmative> kind of thing. You know,

Louise Palanker (00:39:19):

It's, it's hard though now because in politics there's so much hypocrisy that it's become, it's become kind of normalized

Eric Schwartz (00:39:26):

<laugh>, you know, and that's what I, it made me realize like cancel culture, quote unquote is a perfection level that nobody will ever meet. You know what I mean? Like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, there's so many little nuances to everything that you're never gonna, it's perfection is what you're going for and you can never be perfect.

Fritz Coleman  (00:39:42):

Let's talk about, uh, politics. Neither of you do, I don't think you do politics in your Iraq. Not really. No. What's your opinion about that?

Cynthia Levin (00:39:50):

About not doing politics in my act?

Fritz Coleman  (00:39:52):

You, you do current events material.

Cynthia Levin (00:39:53):

Um, personally I don't think I'm sharp enough. I think that there's people who really focus on it, who can, who talk about it. And I'm not gonna, to me, I always, you know, cause I teach standup as well because I have to make 7 cents a dollar by the hour anyway. There you go. Please God help me. But anyway, so, um, but uh, I always say, you know, when you're talking about something that everybody has an opinion about, you really need to flip it over and flip it over and flip it over, you know, before you talk about it. Because otherwise you're gonna have people going, that's not true. I just, you know, there's gonna be, so, so you really have to know your topic. And so if it's not something you're really into and that you're willing to spend a lot of time investigating, then um, I, you know, then I, I just don't recommend you talk about it like politics or religion or, you know, things like

Fritz Coleman  (00:40:38):

That. Like everybody and everything is so radioactive now. Yeah. I I mean I've, I've had friends of mine in the clubs that will do a joke about Trump mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but as soon as they mention his name before they get to the bush line, they can boo right off the stage where you can't even bring stuff up.

Eric Schwartz (00:40:56):

People don't even want to talk about that. I mean, even no matter what side you're on,

Fritz Coleman  (00:41:01):

No. Even if it's creative and fun, just listen and see if the joke makes you laugh and then judge it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. You can't even get to the punchline.

Cynthia Levin (00:41:07):

This is what I'm talking about. Triggered, people are literally triggered because they're not addressing their own shit. So anything you say is a trigger to them, and they're gonna go off on you because all of a sudden you're the source of all their problems.

Louise Palanker (00:41:18):

So by triggered you mean e everything's a threat. It's almost like you've accused them of being something and now they're on the defensive.

Cynthia Levin (00:41:25):

Uh, pretty much. And a trigger basically means when you have a really strong emotional reaction to something that's you're being triggered. And so, you know, if it's, if you don't have a strong emotional reaction, you're not triggered. But if you are have a strong emotional reaction, that's a trigger. And you're gonna, and, and if, and of course if you're gonna react and you're gonna take it out on who's ever in front of you, who's ever causing it. But the emotional reaction there could be, could be guilt, for example. Like, like I'll just tell you a little anecdote. At the beginning of this whole, this whole Trump regime, uh, my, I was having dinner with my sister and a friend of hers, and the friend said something that the, the other three of us just went, wait, what? And then the other, the other person said to the friend, is that something you saw on Fox?

(00:42:10):

To which she got up and walked away. Yeah, of course. And watch Fox News. So that means the answer to the question was Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But it was a trigger because she wants to continue believing that the things that she hears on Fox are true. That's right. And not to be challenged. Right. And she, yeah. And of course, and ev and like you were just saying is that everybody wants to be right. And that's the ego. The ego is the thing that is, that's the thing that's get, that gets triggered as well. So you, if the ego just wants to be right, and if somebody threatens your rightness, you know what I mean, then they're gonna lose you. Do you understand what I'm saying? Being right. They absolutely lose it. But not just being, right now, I feel Cynthia, that it's their worldview. Like, do not collapse my worldview.

(00:42:54):

It's the only thing keeping me afloat. Well, it is the ego. It literally is like I've, I've done tons of research on the ego. So that's one thing I do know about. Okay. And it's your protector. Okay. And if somebody threatens you, they're threatening your ego. Ego. It's not, oh, I'm the greatest person in the world. Your ego is your protector. So it's there to save you. And if somebody pokes at, you know, a belief you have, um, something or something that you feel safe with, it's, then they, then they're, they're gonna, their ego jumps up and it's gonna attack. And the ego has no emotions. It only is only one speed, which is rage. Have you, I call him the screaming egos. Have you ever seen any, you know, I mean, Trump, he's got, you're

Fritz Coleman  (00:43:29):

So right.

Cynthia Levin (00:43:29):

It's just all, it's all rage

Fritz Coleman  (00:43:31):

By this, uh, it was the lady that wrote the whole Tiger mom thing. Amy something or other, and she's a professor at Princeton. Yeah. A professor at Princeton University. And she wrote a book called Political Tribes and she said exactly what you said. And the more your ego and your side is attacked, you're not winning people over to your side. You're causing the chasm to be even larger. Yes. So these people, like the, the, the Trumpsters and the Fox news of aficionados, as soon as you attack them, you're not wanting them over to your mm-hmm. <affirmative> there, there's no negotiation. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they're just becoming more metastasized and solidified. And their thought

Cynthia Levin (00:44:08):

Was Yeah. And your friend was anticipating this conversation. Yeah. So that's why she was ready to leave. No, she, she, she got up and left <laugh>. So, but the thing was like, I think the other friend was simply wanting to understand where that information had come from, cuz it didn't make sense to the rest of us. And it wasn't, it wasn't a challenge, it was simply an inquiry because we understand that there's a propaganda problem in America mm-hmm. <affirmative> right now mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And

Louise Palanker (00:44:30):

That's, that's, that's the, that's the deep root of what's going on, is that Yeah. People are being permitted to disseminate falsehoods with reckless abandon and it's fracturing us from within. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So to simply say, I'm not sure, I believe what you've just said we're what's your, you know, like on the internet, it's like source. Yeah. You know? Well, so does source even mean anything anymore? Like, cuz the sources are tainted, so what are we to

Cynthia Levin (00:44:55):

Do? Yeah. Well everybody's source is their family. So

Louise Palanker (00:44:57):

Do

Eric Schwartz (00:44:58):

The research. Weezy do the

Louise Palanker (00:45:00):

Research.

Cynthia Levin (00:45:00):

<laugh>. Exactly. But nobody wants their parents to be wrong. They, it's the protecting the parent. Okay. They kids do that from the time we're born, we protect the parent. Right. You know, we just do it unconsciously. We don't even know we're doing it. And so now you're saying if you're, you know, then we don't grow, which is when you become an adult. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> is like mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Louise Palanker (00:45:17):

You know,

Cynthia Levin (00:45:17):

But that, that's how you find out who you are and what you believe as opposed to this is what my parents taught me and they're right. And I'm right. And anybody who tries to question that is, you know, is sick and they need to get away. You know,

Louise Palanker (00:45:31):

Whatever it is. And it's a self-preservation mechanism. A hundred percent. Because if your parents aren't the most brilliant people in the world, what is to become of me? That's

Cynthia Levin (00:45:38):

Exactly it. And so, and what, you know, if that would make you question everything, you know? Yeah. And so people do this unconsciously. Nobody is out there intentionally being mean or aggressive or they're literally protecting the parent. And that's why we always have to like, address like, how does this make me feel? How does this make me feel? And if it doesn't make you feel good, it may not be the, the right thought or the right thing to do. Do

Louise Palanker (00:46:01):

You know what I mean? You said,

Fritz Coleman  (00:46:02):

I'm going to write a book called Fox News killed my mom.

Cynthia Levin (00:46:05):

You did?

Louise Palanker (00:46:06):

Yes. I think you still

Fritz Coleman  (00:46:07):

Should because A and she will tell you, as soon as that became a dominant media force, it completely fractured our family. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I couldn't have a discussion with my mom who has always been Republican, but my, both of my parents were centrist Republicans. My father was a fiscal Republican mm-hmm. <affirmative> where he just cared about taxes cuz he was a businessman. But my mom had this, you know, this social and moral, you know, kind of racist <inaudible>. And, and as soon as they came on, I couldn't have a discussion with her about anything because she would do the Fox news thing, which is to connect it to some conspiracy theory. Yeah. And I couldn't have a discussion with this woman and my whole family was

Cynthia Levin (00:46:46):

Like that. Right. And lemme just say one more thing and the reason why she's doing that is to protect you. She thinks she's protecting you. Yeah.

Louise Palanker (00:46:53):

You are a pretty conservative lady kid. The

Eric Schwartz (00:46:55):

Doctor is in

Louise Palanker (00:46:56):

<laugh>. You know, how could a guy who looks like my son Fritz become a liberal? No. How could I have let that happen? And look at him. Look at his bill knife face

Cynthia Levin (00:47:06):

Over here. Oh my God. This poor thing. I'm gonna help you.

Louise Palanker (00:47:08):

He's a scholar.

Cynthia Levin (00:47:09):

Oh, he's a mess. My

Fritz Coleman  (00:47:10):

Whole family lives in Florida. Florida is, sorry. Uh, retired people in crackers. Yeah. And I have family that is both.

Eric Schwartz (00:47:17):

Yeah. I was just there. I say it's, I say it's grandparents in golf courses, but Yeah, it was just in Naples.

Cynthia Levin (00:47:24):

It's not crackers on golf courses g

Louise Palanker (00:47:25):

And g Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (00:47:26):

But it is, it's all that, it's

Louise Palanker (00:47:27):

All that g g cocktail.

Eric Schwartz (00:47:28):

Yeah. It's all that, but Yeah. Um,

Fritz Coleman  (00:47:30):

I love my family, but Fox News fractured the

Cynthia Levin (00:47:33):

Family. Yeah. And I know people like Johnny

Louise Palanker (00:47:34):

Cat. What was your mother's thing like? Like to Cynthia's point was your mother's thing. Like, where have I gone wrong? My fritzie my baby. How is he? No. Okay.

Fritz Coleman  (00:47:42):

My mother was a bit of a narcissist, so it wasn't matter. It didn't matter where I felt, it's what she felt. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. She, it was important for her to tell you how she felt. Right. Uhhuh,

Louise Palanker (00:47:50):

That stuff. And then she, and then she would you, you would tell me that she would like, kind of like passive aggressively crank up Limbaugh. Oh, no. Know.

Fritz Coleman  (00:47:56):

Well, that, that was a true story. I would go down there and the Bill O'Reilly show would come on at nine o'clock and my mother was deaf, so she would turn the television up as if it was, she's doing this mind control thing on it. And I look up and say, I'm gonna take a walk around the assisted living complex and I'll be back in an hour

Cynthia Levin (00:48:13):

<laugh>.

Fritz Coleman  (00:48:13):

And, and I would, I would go out and walk around and come back an hour later when it was over, and she would turn the TV back. It's true. She knew my mom, so.

Cynthia Levin (00:48:19):

Yeah. Yeah. And again, though, that is about her being right.

Fritz Coleman  (00:48:23):

Oh.

Cynthia Levin (00:48:24):

I mean, it's just about being Right. And so very, very controlling person. Yeah. Very. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (00:48:28):

And, uh, and it, it, it, it fit her pattern so beautifully. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And they played into it. Then you add that, the fear that the Fox News Network propagates and it was all, it was downhill. I thank Jesus, and I don't know him personally. Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (00:48:45):

He seems nice. Yeah. He was very nice.

Fritz Coleman  (00:48:48):

I thank him that my mother didn't make it through the Trump administration. Cuz I wouldn't have had a, I wouldn't have spoken to the woman or she wouldn't have spoken

Eric Schwartz (00:48:55):

To me. But do you think, and this is, this is the, what I, what I think is true is that anyone, like I'm a cnn, I'm a CNN guy. Oh yeah. But anyone on that side would think that I'm doing the exact same thing and Oh yeah. Knowing that I think is what we need to know about each other. That we are believing a totally different set of facts and we believe in it a hundred percent,

Fritz Coleman  (00:49:17):

But not really a different set of facts. Here's what I find, and that's how I stick up for myself listening to MSNBC and cnn. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Fox enter into our discussion mm-hmm. <affirmative> on Fox News, there's a total, as Wey said, there's a total misrepresentation of truth over there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and that's their brand. They're lying their asses off over there. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. And, and so if you just take the politics of it and just say what's true and what's not true, and the fact that the President lied 13,000 times when he was in office, according to New York Times, it, it's facts and not facts. It's not right and left. It's not Republican and Democrat. It's lies and falsehoods.

Louise Palanker (00:49:54):

And here's where else it goes. Fritz, I just saw a report today, and I don't have the details, I haven't memorized the specifics, but you can look this up. A reporter, um, was, was researching the emails that you get sent if you're, if you've contributed on the Republican side and if you've contributed, like I, I dunno about you guys, but, uh, Elizabeth Warren is a stalker. <laugh>. Exactly. She writes to me a lot. Okay. But, you know, you, you understand the point of getting, I, you know, I get a lot of mail from Eric Swalwell. Okay, honey, I love you, but you know, I need my space. Yeah. They

Cynthia Levin (00:50:25):

Stop Just,

Louise Palanker (00:50:25):

But, but the research

Cynthia Levin (00:50:26):

Was that if you get Republican email and if you get Democratic email, it, uh, the Democratic email is 2% lies. And the Republican email is like 70% lies. And there's nothing in the F FCC that says, did I get the mm-hmm. <affirmative>, my acronym that says, you can't lie to people over email <laugh>. So a lot of the lies that they're getting are coming right into their inbox. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative> fascinating. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

Fritz Coleman  (00:50:51):

No. And, and it goes back to what we were talking about. I I, you know, I I I have friends on both sides of the equation, but if you're, if you're making a truthful analysis about a situation, you can convince me that you're right about something. Whether it's being conservative with money and paying down the national debt and all these things. I'll listen to your argument if you know of what you speak, but when you start telling me falsehoods the question, this the, the discussion's over. I, I mean,

Eric Schwartz (00:51:15):

But they will break, they will back it up like it's a fact though. Oh yeah. That's,

Fritz Coleman  (00:51:18):

That's alternate facts. Which was a genius lady that used to

Cynthia Levin (00:51:22):

Represent Trump. Yeah. Yep. Uh, no, they have, they do have the arsenal and they're, and they're being fed this all day long. So they, you don't wanna get into an argument with somebody cuz you're not gonna convince them. Right. Uh, like you said, this is their whole infrastructure. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's, it's what they, it's what keeps them safe and alive. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's,

Fritz Coleman  (00:51:41):

And they only go to news sources to feed their pre-existing bias, for instance, not only Fox News, but all these dark, deep state websites. Right. And it feeds their

Cynthia Levin (00:51:51):

Stuff. It does. And I think the, the big thing is, and it sort of reminds me you were, what you guys were talking about at the top of the show, I can't remember what you were talking about exactly, but maybe it'll be reminded, but that it's a distraction. Um, you were Oh, that show the, um, the documentary show that you were talking about how, um, about Q Andon the American radical. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, they took these people from where they were in rehabs or what would Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so these are vulnerable people. Right. But, and the whole thing is, is that it's a distraction from what's your true, like what's going on with you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, you're in personal pain, you've got personal, you've got your own stuff going on, and it's of wonderful distraction. And, and so, and, and so it's perfect.

(00:52:30):

Nobody wants to deal with their issues. Nobody wants to deal with their, with their, with their personal stuff. And so, and so that's all this is. And that's, and that's what, so when, when CNN and MSNBC and all these other shows, these, you know, f uh, left wing shows that I, you know, I watch a little bit of everything here and there, but as soon as it feels like it's just people telling on people, I just stop. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> because then it's just, then it's just, uh, gossip. So I got the information now it's, now we're onto gossip. Is is this helping me? Can I help somebody else with this information?

Fritz Coleman  (00:53:01):

I, I, I want, I, I just want facts and I'll make up my own way. And you, you were so right about the way you put it, the way people don't even, it's subconscious, the way they analyze, the way they don't analyze what they're doing. But also Trump had the, the evil genius that is Trump. He had the ability to make people think it's okay to blame somebody else for your issues. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> like you're saying, that's, they read these websites mm-hmm. <affirmative> <affirmative>. And it, it, it's a distraction from what their real issues are. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Well, if people are trying to deal with their real issues, it's really cool if somebody can tell me, I can blame somebody else for that. Oh,

Eric Schwartz (00:53:35):

That's what it's a species are. That's what the conspiracies are. Like. Have you guys ever heard of the Illuminati? Yeah. Worst kept secret society ever. Can we just say that everyone knows them. They failed the first rule of secret societies. Keep it a secret. <laugh> other secret societies, they look at 'em like these idiots.

Louise Palanker (00:53:53):

But it's forms of propaganda that have, that have worked for centuries. Yep. So there's nothing that new other than the dissemination process is so much more rapid.

Cynthia Levin (00:54:01):

Yeah. And

Louise Palanker (00:54:02):

So you don't need to like, you know, drop leaflets cuz people can get their leaflets.

Fritz Coleman  (00:54:07):

Right. Now, I, I'd love to talk to people, uh, you know, I did the Leon Lason, I did a documentary, uh, uh, about the man who was the youngest member of Schindler's List. And, uh, he, he, he was like 12 years old and worked in two or three of Oscar Schindler's, uh, factories. One in Crackow and the other in Germany. And, and, uh, his family said something that made the hair in the back of my neck stand up with a recent conversation. He said, all of this media landscape that we're feeling right now, people's disagreement with one another and being locked off in their opinion and unswayed by the other side is exactly what Germany was like in like 1933 before Hitler worked his way into power. Our, our, our, uh, our divisions, our, our right and left. All of it is so hauntingly familiar to anybody that survived that time period. That's what freaks me out.

Cynthia Levin (00:55:01):

Yeah. I, you know, I just wanna say one thing about that which, because um, you know, like I also teach acting, so anyway, um, but like <laugh>, I just need to teach people something.

Louise Palanker (00:55:11):

You are multitasking

Cynthia Levin (00:55:12):

It. No, I'm just need a dollar, but No, I'm just kidding. But, um, uh, you know, cause I won't do anything for my own career. I just wanna help other people. But, um, cuz that's too scary. But, um, but what were you just talking about? Um, please remind me now. Silo

Louise Palanker (00:55:24):

Of Nazi, oh,

Cynthia Levin (00:55:25):

This is a whole thing. Is that what happens is, is that we, we make everybody else the other mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so you become the other mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So until you get in touch with who you really are, which is the fact that we are all, everybody, like, we all have the same traits. We're all born with the same traits, the same emotions, but based on our childhood, certain things will happen to us that will cause us to kind of go, oh, I'm never gonna be like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Right. You know, you don't even remember yourself say, saying that you could be zero your days old. Yeah. And go, you know what, I'm never gonna be like that. And then you go to the total opposite direction and you spend your entire life living just like that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the more bad things that happen to you, the more you say, I'm not gonna be like that.

(00:56:01):

I'm not gonna be like that. And so then you see those people in the world, right. And you've been efforting and the total opposite direction. Wow. Okay. Your whole life to not be like that effort, which is bad because then you're not, you're acting like that's not a part of you that is a part of you. And the part you're avoiding is also you we're, this is all you, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So you're spending your life efforting and efforting, and then you run into somebody who, who is that you, that that part of you that you hate or you know, that you'll say, I'm never gonna be like that. And then you immediately, now you've, you, you keep finding stories and more people to justify why we're Right. Right. So that's why we have the same stories over and over and over again. Right. Oh yeah, yeah. I know I'm right because that person did it and that person did it. And that person, you're looking for it. I'm

Louise Palanker (00:56:41):

Looking for like a laziness. You're, you know, you're looking for like, I worked really hard not to be this, and you just went and, and are this and you didn't even try. And so you're mad because you put so much effort into something and they

Cynthia Levin (00:56:53):

Haven't Exactly. Even things that are positive, like I used to have, my resistance was towards people who were successful. <laugh> hate them.

Eric Schwartz (00:57:00):

I know what you mean. My God.

Cynthia Levin (00:57:01):

Do you know what I mean? Like, you know, it was just like, oh, you, um, you know, this person, you know, like, uh, like will, uh, Smith, you know, I mean, could he be, he's like, you know, unbelievable, right? He's, he's amazing. He's perfect. He's done everything. His kids are beautiful, blah, you know, whatever. Right. <laugh>. So, um, and you know, and so I should hate him, right? Because, uh, he's successful. And, and, and so I'm never gonna be like that because that's gross. Right? And so you avoid that and then you go in the other direction. And yet that's sort of what I want. But, you know, but I'm gonna make sure I don't do that cuz I don't wanna be like that. Okay. So we always pick the most extreme situation too, to avoid as well, right? So meanwhile you're not even living in the middle, you know what I mean? You're just

Louise Palanker (00:57:37):

Yeah. Because extremes are easy. You

Eric Schwartz (00:57:39):

Have psychology service as well, Cynthia. It's really, yeah. This is dissecting my brain right now.

Cynthia Levin (00:57:45):

<laugh>.

Louise Palanker (00:57:45):

Yeah. No, it's really cuz the extremes are more visible. So we spot them, you know, from a distance. Yeah. And we're like, aha,

Cynthia Levin (00:57:51):

E Exactly. And again, we just wanna be right. So we're just gonna keep finding, okay,

Fritz Coleman  (00:57:56):

So what's the third act of this thing? Are we ever gonna heal this?

Cynthia Levin (00:57:59):

Well, this is how you heal is, is literally by getting in touch with who you are, your feelings, your, your question, your beliefs question, your opinions. If you have a strong reaction to somebody or something, it you, that's a trigger. That means that, um, you know, it's like, like if I see, I used to be like, if I'd see a girl, like, you know, like, uh, no bra, I'd be like, get dressed. What's wrong with you? You know what I mean? Like, <laugh>, oh my God, you're gonna get attack your, you know, I'm like, I'm, you know, in a nice way, nice whore, you know, but like, you know what I mean? I would have like a freak out because that was my ego jumping up trying to protect her. Just like if you go to a movie theater, right? You see a scary movie. You know how people always scream at the screen, you know, like, you know, you know, some, it's always some dumb woman, you know, there's never a man who's also blind and naked. You know what I mean? It's always a woman blind and naked and uh, you know, and we're like, you know, idiot, there's somebody in the house, you know, like, you know, um, get dressed, you know? And, um, and we're screaming and it's more, it's not, we're not mad at her. I mean, we're getting mad because we're, we're afraid for her. It's the ego jumping up to protect her.

Louise Palanker (00:59:00):

We want her to be dressed when she gets murder.

Cynthia Levin (00:59:02):

Right? It's, we, we want Exactly. Just, you know what I mean? You know,

Louise Palanker (00:59:05):

Be presentable.

Cynthia Levin (00:59:06):

Uh, Stacy, it's

Louise Palanker (00:59:07):

Some shame.

Eric Schwartz (00:59:08):

The whole thing is way is way simpler than we're all making. It is like basically face your fear, right? So the person or the people that you're afraid of or that you resist, you gotta to kind of make friends with them in a way you

Cynthia Levin (00:59:23):

First have to do. You, you do. So you have to say like, what is the feeling that comes up? Or the feeling is, uh, anger. Let's be feeling behind anger, uh, sickening, you know, whatever it is. Gum. You know, it could be anything, but it's like get in touch with the feeling. And then when you do that and you say, this is the other thing you can ask yourself is like, who are people who don't wear brass? Like, let's just use that for example. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like, you know, well, they're stupid. Uh, they're, you know what I mean? They're, they're, uh, unconscious. They're, you know, whatever. It's, and then what happens to people?

Louise Palanker (00:59:50):

I think they're called men

Cynthia Levin (00:59:52):

<laugh>, stupid and unconscious who don't wear brass. That's pretty much right. That's right. You nailed it, <laugh>. Um, but you know what I mean? And then, and then what happens to people like that? And then you take it down the line and you get in touch with your child's biggest fear about what happens to people who are women who don't wear bras and are stupid and unconscious and are gonna get hurt. They're gonna get hurt and blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean? You understand. But you're asking

Louise Palanker (01:00:15):

People to be introspection, introspective, and

Fritz Coleman  (01:00:19):

Some people outta my mouth, I think. I think you're a hundred percent right. Yeah. I think 0.005% of the American public have the, uh, self-awareness to do the

Louise Palanker (01:00:28):

Work you're at. But if you're listening to this podcast, trick him into it. My, my love. You do. And so the first thing that you feel, what Cynthia's telling us is not a primary emotion. Well done. She's telling you it's not a primary emotion. Ask yourself why you were triggered and go deeper and say like, maybe what was the underlying emotion that triggered this reaction before you start screaming, get off my lawn. You hippie

Cynthia Levin (01:00:51):

A hundred percent. What's the feeling behind that? That's why I say like, go address your stuff. Like I, you know, I have, I write every morning to address feeling to see what's going on with me. Cuz we don't really know. We get up, we hear the news, we start to do this, you know, whatever. We make our coffee and we're not really, we don't know what the hell's going on with us. Sure. We don't know what we're afraid of, what we're sad about, um, what we're wor you know, worried about. Uh, you know, because we get things poke us throughout our life, you know? Yeah. Something could happen. We could see something, a movie, uh, the weather. It could be anything that will remind you of something, but you don't even know cuz you're not addressing it and you keep moving forward. The next thing you know, you get into an argument with somebody while you're in your car and then you kill them. You know? It's no big deal. But you know what

Louise Palanker (01:01:28):

I mean? It doesn't happen every day. Cynthia. Cynthia.

Cynthia Levin (01:01:30):

Exactly. <laugh>,

Louise Palanker (01:01:31):

I, let's get to recommendations cause we're gonna run out of time here and I know you guys have curated for me and I'm gonna start with Ricky.

Eric Schwartz (01:01:38):

Oh, I've been listening to this podcast called Media Path. Yeah. Where this woman, Cynthia Levin, she gives me a, she dissects my brain maps it and she does the artist's way every morning. I can tell. Are you feeling triggered? Is that your, your morning pages? The three

Cynthia Levin (01:01:51):

Page? No, no. It's just me writing and then anything I can

Louise Palanker (01:01:53):

Find. So Ricky, you've been watching Now you you on your

Eric Schwartz (01:01:56):

List. You're only person that calls me Ricky and I appreciate that. I know. I own, that's our own, it's our thing. Yes. I love that you say that. It's

Louise Palanker (01:02:03):

Cute. So you have, uh, I'm going to tell you what's on your list. Okay? Yeah. Yeah. You had true story. Kevin Hart scripted series on Netflix. You had Ted Lasso, which I have watched Apple tv. Yeah. The Harder they Netflix. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, Narcos, Mexico, Netflix, Wutang Saga, Hulu and Creative Pep Talk Pop podcast. Which of those has anyone else kind of explored so that, that we can have a I have watched Ted Lasso and I have some theories about Ted Lasso and why we love it.

Eric Schwartz (01:02:30):

Yeah. I love Ted Lasso because he made me feel good. Right. <laugh>, you know, and it was, and after all the stuff that we've been through, that's what we, I felt like, um, I made a song called Feel Good Again, and it was not a comedy song. Okay. And I was just like, this is just how I'm feeling. I'm just going to take a risk and do an actual song that's not funny. And, um, how

Louise Palanker (01:02:51):

Mirai of

Eric Schwartz (01:02:52):

You. Yeah. It was very Mirai <laugh>.

Cynthia Levin (01:02:54):

That's another inside joke. Well,

Louise Palanker (01:02:56):

<laugh>

Eric Schwartz (01:02:56):

Yeah. Jason Rez, um, is a longtime friend and we've collaborated on stuff and we've talked, I guess we've talked about that and cool. But he, he has a lot of feel good songs as well.

Louise Palanker (01:03:05):

Oh yeah. He's

Eric Schwartz (01:03:06):

The best. So, uh, yeah. So, and so I've liked Ted Lasso because he was a real, he's a real character. He's got both sides, the dark and the light. But he always tries to make it all, make it a light situation. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he tries to bring out the good.

Louise Palanker (01:03:24):

Yeah. He brings light. He's harm optimist. Yes. Yeah. He brings light and kindness. Kindness in situations. And, and it was during the pandemic. Mm-hmm. And I just thought it was healing for a lot of people to watch someone being kind. Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (01:03:36):

I watched The America's Greatest Bake Off or British Bakeoff. Oh, okay. I wa I mean, I'm just saying that made me feel good. I've, I've watched now 70,000 episodes of it. There's nothing left for me anymore. <laugh>,

Louise Palanker (01:03:47):

You can start at the beginning.

Cynthia Levin (01:03:48):

There's nothing for me to feel good about anymore. Now that's

Louise Palanker (01:03:50):

Over. No, no, no. They'll start baking again.

Cynthia Levin (01:03:51):

Don't worry. I I'm finding them to be boring at this point. Now they're doing a Christmas special. I'm like, oh God, everybody come on. Can we talk about something else? But I mean, anyway, moving forward.

Louise Palanker (01:04:00):

All right, well maybe it's time for some survivor. There's very little food

Eric Schwartz (01:04:03):

On that drink off. They should do it with, with

Cynthia Levin (01:04:04):

Alcohol. Now <laugh>, that's actually sounds festive. Yeah. I, um, I, but I, instead it's, I say yes to the dress. I've watched 20, 20 seasons.

Louise Palanker (01:04:13):

Does anyone ever say no?

Cynthia Levin (01:04:15):

Uh, some people do. They say, I'll come back tomorrow. And then they say yes. But, um, that's

Eric Schwartz (01:04:19):

The, that's the, uh, the male version of it for the groom. It's, uh, say no to the bow. Say

Louise Palanker (01:04:24):

No to the bow.

Cynthia Levin (01:04:25):

<laugh> is that

Eric Schwartz (01:04:26):

<laugh> bow tie.

Louise Palanker (01:04:28):

So there's a delayed gratification. Like, oh, she didn't say yes maybe tomorrow. You know? Yeah. So then she

Cynthia Levin (01:04:33):

Finally does. Yeah. I mean, uh, it's addicting. And, and it's funny, my entire life, which is long, uh, I have not been interested in watching or getting, I've never even thought of myself in a wedding dress. I've this Yeah. I said this thing has been empty for most of my life. Yeah.

Louise Palanker (01:04:46):

No, I, I was never that girl. Yeah. Never pictured any, any kind of like bridal anything, you know? Yeah. Didn't pick up one bridal magazine. Don't care. No, I almost like, I, my thing with my family was like, do I have to come to my wedding? You know, <laugh> because

Eric Schwartz (01:05:02):

I mean, I, you guys just go,

Louise Palanker (01:05:03):

I could, you know, I could just rsvp, you know, not available and send a

Cynthia Levin (01:05:06):

Gift <laugh> Xavier sandwich.

Louise Palanker (01:05:08):

Right. And, you know, and they're like, yeah, no, you have to, you, you need to. But so I hear you. I I feel that. Yeah. But, um, yeah, feel good shows. I think during the Pandemic, there probably were shows that maybe people didn't realize were gonna be that big of a hit. Right. But people just needed them in that moment. Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (01:05:24):

It, it just was, I, I, I felt good about watching. I felt good about myself watching cuz I'm like, I'm not the only one who wants to be kind right now.

Louise Palanker (01:05:32):

Now what about Narcos? Some Mexico? I don't feel

Eric Schwartz (01:05:34):

Anything. Yeah. Some dirty stuff. Yeah. Let's kill people. <laugh>.

Louise Palanker (01:05:37):

Yeah. So

Eric Schwartz (01:05:37):

What happens? That's the anti lasso. Uh, so Narcos is a long-standing series on Netflix. It's been on, there's, they did it first in, uh, Colombia where it's talks about cocaine and, um, the harvesting, selling distribution, and organized crime around cocaine. Whoa. And I find it fascinating cuz I'm totally not that person, <laugh>. And it gets me, uh, an escape to a life that I'll never lead.

Louise Palanker (01:06:00):

But is that ano, like, would Cynthia say that's another part of the human condition? That Yeah, that's

Fritz Coleman  (01:06:04):

A very interesting point though. Yeah. I think that maybe that's one of the elements that draws people to darker stuff, whether it's drugs or murder or whatever. They, it, it's so not them that they get to flirt with something else, but

Cynthia Levin (01:06:17):

Yeah. It's, it is in you, right? No, but it is in you. But you haven't necessarily tapped into that because there's a part of you, you've gone in the whole other direction. I'll never be like that. You, you learned that a long time ago, but now you're sort of like, oh, that's interesting. As opposed to That is sickening. I don't even wanna look at it. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (01:06:34):

I guess I do have that both sides, I guess. Maybe, but I would never, I've never done any

Cynthia Levin (01:06:40):

Drugs if you want. No, I think you're pure

Eric Schwartz (01:06:42):

Filth. I'm pure filth. Yeah. Absolutely. I just suppressed that part of myself. <laugh>

Cynthia Levin (01:06:46):

Joking. Everybody relax, everybody.

Louise Palanker (01:06:48):

All right. We're gonna go to a, uh, Cynthia pic and I'll be back to you, Ricky. All right. Being the Ricardo's. Oh yeah. And you've already seen it. Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (01:06:54):

Um, who else has seen it? You've seen it, you've not seen it. I saw it last year. Yeah. You just saw it. Yeah. Um, I loved it. Um, I, uh, Aaron Sorkin, uh, writer and I believe I, I He's good. He's pretty good. Yeah. He's pretty good with words. Um, but, you know, he didn't, you know, he's, I think he's, you know, he's excellent in what he does. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, I don't think there's a wasted moment in this movie. Wow. And I also think that, um, uh, Lucille, uh, well, I mean, uh, I mean, first of all, Nicole Kidman plays Lucille Ball. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And nobody want, I didn't wanna see her. You know, I, I was mad at it, you know, but then, then I thought about it like, who are you gonna get? Just somebody who looks like her. You know, you want somebody who's funny.

(01:07:35):

But it turns out this film is not about necessarily her funny side. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, this focuses on, uh, the time when she was, they said that she was a communist, and it takes place during like, basically one week. It's all happening in one week. And it's very interesting. And it's also about her relationship with, with, uh, Ricky. Ricky. Um, so, uh, it's, uh, it's really, I just think it was so beautifully, so beautifully done. And, um, I loved the behind the scenes of what was going on, um, as they shoot the show. Right. Because we don't, I mean, I, of course have lived a sickening, pathetic life. So I haven't really been on set for five days in a row. I'm sorry. I'll tell you what. Unprepared for life

Fritz Coleman  (01:08:17):

And, and, and what I found, one of the most interesting things about it was you're a, you, you do great physical comedy when you're on stage. And I love the fact that she was driving the physical comedy, and she, as a matter of fact, uh, overanalyzed and over legislated all the physical gags

Cynthia Levin (01:08:34):

On the hundred percent,

Fritz Coleman  (01:08:35):

Three o'clock in the morning, she decided to do a dinner scene different and get everybody down there

Cynthia Levin (01:08:38):

To rehears. Right. And, and I totally get that by the way. I related to how she operated on set and how she directed all those things, I, I, I'd said to my friend Greg, I go, uh, that would be me. I would do it exactly like that. And he goes, you would. And I do. Like, that's how I am with, you know, when I direct other things, you know? Yeah. And, and so, and that's why I'm excited about Mel Brooks as well, because I, you know, comedy is, it's like, it's so critical, like how you do it. And, uh, it's just, and, and so anyway, she had that kind of brain. She was really intelligent. And, and I just think that this was beautifully focused on this short period of time where we got to find out so, so much and so much behind the scenes. And again, the acting was, was amazing. Um, Javier Bardem, uh, played, her husband and I bought it a hundred percent. And his singing was, I mean, I was getting a little turned on, I'm not gonna lie, <laugh>. Um, I found him to be delicious. Wow. I knew. Yeah. You know, um, and, and, and Nicole Kidman did a, she did a great job.

Fritz Coleman  (01:09:36):

Once you get past the fact that it's not gonna be a cartoon, you're not gonna nitpick about every aspect of Lucy's physical self that she doesn't, she's not duplicating it. It's the situation. And the, what I loved about it was, I didn't know one thing about that aspect of her life. I didn't know she was accused of being a communist. I was, when I went home, I tried to find out if the scene with Jay Edgar Hoover was true. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Cause I thought that was brilliant. Yeah. And, uh, and I was, I have so much more respect for her now when I realized that she was the brains behind a lot of the physical comedy on that show.

Cynthia Levin (01:10:08):

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. That was, it was new information for me. And I loved how they treated the writers. I just loved, like, they just, I mean, the writers were

Fritz Coleman  (01:10:16):

Really think the writer, she was crackling. She, and then, and come on Erin Sar cir dialogue. There's nobody here. Write

Cynthia Levin (01:10:22):

Dialogue. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. So, so when do you think it's coming to streaming? Cuz I'm not ready to go into a movie theater. It's only, oh, listen, let me tell you something. I went and saw it at The Grove here in Los Angeles. And, uh, there was, there was like 11 people in there. Okay. And I walked out of the theater and there was 7 billion people in the Gro. So nobody's going in the theater. Get in there, everybody's outside. Go inside <laugh>.

Eric Schwartz (01:10:44):

You know, it's a safe place.

Cynthia Levin (01:10:45):

It is. It's safer inside.

Fritz Coleman  (01:10:47):

I loved it. I love, I felt a hundred percent the way you did about

Eric Schwartz (01:10:50):

It. I guess I could go to a movie. I, I feel the same way about movie theaters, but you know what? And meanwhile I'm taking flights. So You are, I guess, yeah. I guess the movie theater is, how's

Fritz Coleman  (01:10:58):

The Rope business for you guys? Is it picking up?

Eric Schwartz (01:11:01):

Is it for me? I've been doing it a lot. Yeah. How

Cynthia Levin (01:11:03):

About you? I couldn't talk, I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. I've been, I've been in InTown producing my own shows and just doing that. Not, I mean, doing other shows too. But yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (01:11:13):

It seems like people are ready. Like the other night when we work together, people are bursting at the seams to come out and be taken out of their heads and Yeah. When they get there, they have a great time.

Cynthia Levin (01:11:21):

That's true.

Eric Schwartz (01:11:22):

Yeah. Yeah. I'm like that because I'm doing the comedy shows, but then I'm noticing now I'm going to restaurants. I'm like, I just gotta, I'm not even hungry. I just want to be out and social. I just wanna be eat. Yeah. Like get out of the house and, and do do something.

Cynthia Levin (01:11:37):

Yeah. I've been doing it the whole time. Yeah. I've been going to restaurants, the whole pandemic, but I've been sitting outside. Yeah. I just, I have to, I have to do that. I have no life, so I have to be, that's my social thing is eating right. That's right. You know,

Louise Palanker (01:11:47):

I sit outside, I haven't been on a plane, and I'm just a little bit nervous with the omicron or whatever we're calling this guy. Oh. And so, I'm just still being careful. But it's, I would love some movie theater popcorn. If someone, if the next time you guys go to the movies, if you wanna just swing by with some movie theater popcorn for me, I think

Cynthia Levin (01:12:06):

You should check Amazon. I've go in, it's

Fritz Coleman  (01:12:08):

So much. That's 40%. It was great movie, movie

Louise Palanker (01:12:10):

For me. Yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (01:12:11):

I could eat an entire Thanksgiving meal and be sated. And the minute I walk in the movie theater smell

Cynthia Levin (01:12:18):

Popcorn, I'm like, oh my God, I haven't

Louise Palanker (01:12:19):

Eaten in months. What is that? Gimme gimme extra

Eric Schwartz (01:12:21):

Large. And the popcorn would be more calories for sure.

Louise Palanker (01:12:23):

All right. So Cynthia, you wanted to talk about James Patterson and, uh, let's see. Oh, and Mel Brooks. Let's see. What do you wanna talk about the most you get to pick? Well,

Cynthia Levin (01:12:30):

I'll just tell you this real quick. Um, mostly more about Mel Brooks. I, I'm reading his book, um, all About Me. Mm. And, um, I'm not done with it yet mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But there was a point I wanted to make about it, which was so great and made me feel so happy. Um, which is, is that, um, in the beginning of the book, he talks about, um, you know, his, his mom and the way she, uh, she dealt with him. And so he had this like, big fear, you know, of, uh, you know, he'd watched some zombie movie with a friend of his, and then he, then he, and he was like five years old and he didn't wanna go to bed, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And he's like, and he tells his mom, he's like, mom, you know, they're gonna come and they're gonna get, you know, they're gonna come to Brooklyn, you know, and they're gonna, you know, and that's gonna be the end of it, and we're gonna die. So I, I'm not gonna sleep. And yeah,

Louise Palanker (01:13:12):

She's

Cynthia Levin (01:13:12):

Like, all right, let's talk about this <laugh>. She's like, all right, so these dobe right now, they're in like Transylvania or something like that, whatever. It's, you know, so they're like overseas making travel plans, right? Yeah. They're, they're overseas, you know, so it's gonna take 'em a little time to, you know, to get over here. So they're probably gonna have to take a boat. I mean, it's gonna take a boat, you know, <laugh>. So, so the boat takes a bit of a while and they're gonna, you know, whatever. And then they get over here finally, you know, and takes, you know, and they're gonna be hungry, so they're gonna have to eat, you know what I mean? Cuz you gotta eat, you know, after a while you gotta eat. They're gonna be hungry. Sure. So they're gonna eat, you know, and then they're gonna probably, um, then they have to come, come over the, come over to Brooklyn.

(01:13:40):

Right. They gotta, you know, so, and you know, so they finally get, you know, they get to Brooklyn and then they find their house, you know, and, uh, what floor are we on? He's like, uh, we're at the third floor. Exactly. So <laugh>, so they're gonna go to the first floor and the second floor of the gold scenes and the Gold Farms, you know, and they'll, you know, they'll get them first, you know, and we're, by that time we're gonna hear everything, you know, so, you know, you're fine. He goes, yeah, you're right. You know, and he goes to sleep. So anyway, like the beauty of this is, is that this is a parent who like really encouraged imagination and logic and his per and logic and also like who you, who he was, you know? So he got to blossom, you know, and his imagination got to grow from this,

Louise Palanker (01:14:18):

Even within his fear.

Cynthia Levin (01:14:19):

Yeah, exactly. You know? Yeah. And

Louise Palanker (01:14:21):

Then I was, yeah. She never said, there's no such thing as zombies.

Cynthia Levin (01:14:23):

Exactly. I mean, nothing, you know, I mean, it was just, and

Louise Palanker (01:14:25):

This is how you're supposed to talk to Alzheimer's, PE people. You just sort of agree with

Cynthia Levin (01:14:29):

That. Well, why not? What again, you wanna be right. Or you wanted 'em to have a fu good five minutes before they die <laugh>, you know? I mean, good lord. You know, I love that. It's like, again, ego, get the ego out of it. Sure. It's not about you, you know? And so the mother was able to do that. And the reason why I wanted to talk about that, and it, cuz it made me happy, but also that, um, I was watching, um, if I can now I have to remember her name. I was, you know, I've been watching these, those master classes, which most of 'em are not good

Louise Palanker (01:14:54):

By the way. Steve Martin and James,

Cynthia Levin (01:14:56):

Judy, pat and Judy Blue. I watched, I haven't watched the whole thing. Oh, I love her. But, you know, I love her books. Um, but she was talking about her childhood and her and her mom. Um, she had a lot of fears herself. Like she was afraid, you know, she was always cold all the time. And she was afraid of this and afraid of that. And then her mother would just like, allow her to have her fear of, you know, oh really? Like, tell me about, like, she would let her talk about it and, you know, just like literally, and, and use her imagination and Right. And so this is like allowing somebody to be who they are. You meet them where they are. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's like the best way to be in a relationship. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> meet somebody where, as opposed to trying to make them who you want them to be, you know. And so here she had this really creative, so both of them had similar childhoods with similar mothers, you know, in terms of like how they were dealt with. And then they got to be creative. Yeah. And, and then, and not judged and criticized for who they were. So anyway, I wanted to just bring that up cause I thought that was really great.

Louise Palanker (01:15:48):

It really is. Wow. Great

Fritz Coleman  (01:15:50):

Analysis of parents' relationship with children

Louise Palanker (01:15:53):

And Yeah. But talk a little bit about how masterclass works. You sign up, I see the ads on Facebook, but what happens? You sign up and it's like a seminar.

Cynthia Levin (01:16:02):

It's, there's a million people who they get to teach a class. Right? Okay. And there's probably maybe like, maybe there's 10 episodes and they're all just a few minutes long. Um, and, um, and most people don't teach that. Well, most people are not that good at teachers, you know what I mean? But I wanted to say Steve Martins is hilarious. Yeah. And wonderful. And the thing is, is that because he is a humble person and he doesn't, he's not going in there thinking I know everything. He's going, you know what, I don't, I had never saw myself as somebody who could teach this, but let me look it up myself. So he literally, and you can tell by way he's teaching, is that he looked into it himself. Mm. And he broke stuff down. And then he talks to people like, you're his friend and he believes in you.

(01:16:40):

Like that's how he treats you. And every single episode is adorable and funny. And then you also get to see clips of him. And he's brilliant. And one thing he did say, and we were talking about comedy and how you were saying that both, uh, Eric and I bring ourselves to our work is that he, that's what he talks about. It's like, you know, don't just, I don't, don't just be a sentence teller, you know what I mean? Like, if you, I bring emotion, like of course, you know, it's, I'm emotional, you know? Yeah. So that's what it brings. And then with emotion comes physicality, you know? So, but he talks about that and he's like, just use all of you. And, and I just thought he just has really great advice coming from somebody who's totally humble. And, um, so it's a, it's a fun one to watch. But

Fritz Coleman  (01:17:20):

Again, I did the one, I did the David Mammot one. Yeah. And, which was really good. Was it? And he tells little anecdotes about writing problems that he had to him and that, and that was kind of fun too. Great.

Cynthia Levin (01:17:30):

I'll watch that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And some of 'em are horribly boring, you know? Unbelievable.

Eric Schwartz (01:17:35):

Are there enough that are good that, to make it worth it? Oh

Fritz Coleman  (01:17:37):

Yeah. Yeah.

Cynthia Levin (01:17:38):

I think so. At first I didn't because I was broke. So, you know, you're mad at every dollar, you know what I mean? But it's like $197 or something like that

Eric Schwartz (01:17:46):

For a year,

Cynthia Levin (01:17:47):

For I

Fritz Coleman  (01:17:49):

Sign it up and do as many as you want.

Cynthia Levin (01:17:51):

Hmm. Do do, do you get to keep it forever?

Fritz Coleman  (01:17:53):

I think so. So

Cynthia Levin (01:17:54):

It's like a

Louise Palanker (01:17:54):

Buffet. Once you buy it, you get to eat all the chickpeas you need. And

Cynthia Levin (01:17:58):

I'd say it's worth it. Okay. I would say it's worth it. If you have the time to watch it, it's worth it.

Louise Palanker (01:18:02):

Yeah. Okay. Cool. So Eric, before we close Yeah. You have a couple more things here that I wanna hear about. What is Wutang Saga?

Eric Schwartz (01:18:08):

Okay. So nobody's talked about this on your podcast?

Louise Palanker (01:18:10):

No. Wow.

Eric Schwartz (01:18:11):

Really? I

Fritz Coleman  (01:18:12):

Haven't even heard of it. As a matter of fact. Is this true Eric?

Louise Palanker (01:18:14):

I'm, I'm, oh, it's about Wutang POS

Eric Schwartz (01:18:16):

Clan. Yeah, the Wutang Clan.

Louise Palanker (01:18:17):

Oh Clan. Oh,

Eric Schwartz (01:18:18):

Sorry. I called him. You saw, you heard Clan

Cynthia Levin (01:18:19):

Posse.

Louise Palanker (01:18:20):

<laugh>. Sorry, I called him a posse.

Fritz Coleman  (01:18:22):

Sorry. Album. They only made one copy of it and sold it for like a million dollars. What?

Eric Schwartz (01:18:26):

I think so, yeah.

Fritz Coleman  (01:18:27):

They, some Rich guy bought it. They said, we're just gonna have one copy of this album. The rest you can find online. Obviously they music really one copy of the album and some guy

Eric Schwartz (01:18:37):

Paid like, it's like the first nft, I guess

Louise Palanker (01:18:39):

That's how you, that you create scarcity. Yeah. And then there's

Eric Schwartz (01:18:42):

Demand. That's like what NFT is now. But, uh, so

Louise Palanker (01:18:44):

Okay. Wutang. So

Eric Schwartz (01:18:45):

Wutang is a seminal hip hop group out of, uh, long Island. Okay. AKA a, I mean, sorry, uh, Staten Island. Staten Island.

Louise Palanker (01:18:55):

It's as bad as calling them a posse

Eric Schwartz (01:18:56):

Because you said Long Island earlier. <laugh>,

Louise Palanker (01:18:58):

They're not a posse and they're not from

Eric Schwartz (01:19:00):

Staten Island, which they call Chalin because they're very heavily influenced by, uh, martial arts movies. So I'm a huge hip hop fan, as you may know, but I would, I never really got that into Wutang. Okay. I knew the surface stuff. Um, and so Wutang is like an institution Yeah. In hiphop. Like I felt, I felt

Louise Palanker (01:19:19):

Like I feel right now Imposter. Yeah.

Eric Schwartz (01:19:21):

I felt like an imposter saying that I'm a hip hop fan, not knowing that much about Wutang. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so this series is, it's brilliant. It's actually, um, produced and created, I believe by uh, Rizza Rza who is the leader of the Wutang Land. Okay. So it's like his story, it's like, according to him, this is what happened. And according to the other, the members, this is, this is pretty close. Maybe it's, it's it's, um, exaggerated in some parts. But, um, they were just guys out of the projects who were actually in different projects that had, um, problems with each other. Okay. So they were, two of the members, um, were like trying to kill each other. Ooh. Yeah. <laugh>. And so they squashed the beef and they became friends. Really? Yeah. They became band me band members. And now we

Louise Palanker (01:20:09):

Could all

Eric Schwartz (01:20:09):

Learn so much. This is, this is, this is the, uh, problem. Our propaganda problem can be solved by W Wutang. I think that's what I'm trying to say. I

Louise Palanker (01:20:17):

Think so, yeah. Is

Dina (01:20:18):

There anything about like Rizzo's work outside of

Louise Palanker (01:20:20):

Wutang? You have to repeat her question cuz she's not

Eric Schwartz (01:20:23):

On my Okay. She, uh, you asked it. Is there any, um, about anything about Rizzo's work outside of Wutang? Yeah, it's, it, this is the beginnings of Wutang, so, okay. This is, um, you know, they, they're this two seasons so far and they've gotten to this story where they're just breaking big. So they're their first album's just coming out and yeah. So you've heard of Method Man. Have you heard of Method Man? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So he's from Wutang Lane. Oh, old Dirty Bastard. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. He's from Wutang. Big. Oh, db. Hey Fritz knows

Louise Palanker (01:20:53):

Fritz is street. Are you kidding

Eric Schwartz (01:20:55):

Me? Yeah. Fritz knows everything. <laugh> raaf.

Louise Palanker (01:20:58):

Farian

Eric Schwartz (01:20:59):

<laugh>. What's that? I'm a

Louise Palanker (01:21:00):

Raaf.

Eric Schwartz (01:21:00):

Farian. Oh, that's raaf. Farian

Louise Palanker (01:21:02):

<laugh>. Okay. You know what we're gonna do right now? Now we're gonna wrap this thing up because it's really pretty outside. I get wrap it up and we're gonna Oh, I get it. Yeah. Gonna

Eric Schwartz (01:21:10):

Wrap it

Louise Palanker (01:21:11):

Up. <laugh> r a p it up. And we're gonna go take some pictures outside of us cuz the sky after the rain is just gorgeous. And Fritz is gonna tell folks how they can do us a solid.

Fritz Coleman  (01:21:22):

Listen, if you would enjoy this episode of the media pattern, we Know You Did. It would help us to be more discoverable by potential new listeners. If you leave us a quick review on Apple Podcast and if you're new here and this is your first time with us, please check out our back catalog. There's binge worthy stuff. I'll give you an example. Lee Slar, who we interviewed, may be one of the five nicest human beings on the planet. He's done over 2000 recording sessions. He's got the record for the number of recording sessions. He was part of Carol King's original band and he played on her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in a couple of weeks ago. He's got a long white beard. He looks like the guy from Oak Ridge's Boys. And is

Cynthia Levin (01:21:57):

He single?

Fritz Coleman  (01:21:58):

He <laugh>. Oh, let me look into that. <laugh> also writers' room stories about the folks that were showrunners on. Cheers. We have episode with Marion Ross, who is the legendary Mr. Senior Happy Day. There's tons of great stuff you can search if you go to our website. Thank you for spending an hour with us and we will be overjoyed if you took a moment to share your thoughts with us or recommend us to a

Louise Palanker (01:22:18):

Friend. And we would love for you to join us online on Instagram and Twitter where we are at Media Path Pod and on Facebook where we are. Media Path Podcast. You can find full episodes with all kinds of bonus visual content on our YouTube channel Media Path podcast. I've just started TikTok at Louise Lanker. We would love to know what media you've been enjoying. You can contact us at our social media or email us at media path podcast gmail.com. Do you TikTok

Eric Schwartz (01:22:43):

Eric? I've just started. I wouldn't, I wouldn't direct people there just yet.

Louise Palanker (01:22:48):

Just yet. Yeah. But where can people find you online?

Eric Schwartz (01:22:51):

Uh, I would go to my website Eric Schwartz live.com.

Louise Palanker (01:22:54):

And how about you, Cynthia?

Cynthia Levin (01:22:55):

Uh, Facebook and, uh, and, uh, Instagram, Cynthia Levin seven. And, um, she seems nice on Twitter and cynthia levin productions.com

Louise Palanker (01:23:04):

I love that. And then my apartment number is 5 45. If you're Leela or an Oakridge Boy. <laugh>. We wanna thank our guests, Cynthia Levin and Eish Schwarz. Our team includes Dean of Friedman, Francesco Desmond, John Maddox, Sharon Beo, bill Fiac, Thomas Hubble, Mason Brown, and you. Our theme music is by me and John Maddox. Yeah, I am Louise Lanker here with Fritz Coleman. And we will see you along the media path.