Nothing But Anarchy
"Nothing But Anarchy" hosted by Chad Sanders explores and subverts sports, media, Hollywood, and culture. Chad's vulnerable and raw commentary creates a fresh podcast experience you don't want to miss. Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET on Youtube Live.
Subscribe to the "Nothing But Anarchy" Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Game analysis, social commentary, and music.
Instagram: @chadsand
Executive Producer: Chad Sanders
Producer: Morgan Williams
Music: Marcus Williams
Nothing But Anarchy
Eps. #60 Navigating Social Situations, Matthew Perry's Legacy, Determining How You're Remembered, and Playing Your Role
Ever wondered how one navigates through the maze of the entertainment industry? Join me as I share my recent whirlwind of experiences, from work shenanigans, party escapades, to deep career reflections. Let's get real about legacy and mortality as we remember "Friends" star Matthew Perry. We also dive into the sports world as we examine the legacy of Chris Paul, one of the greatest point guards of all time and his new role on the Golden State Warriors.
Whether you're finding your footing in the entertainment industry or intrigued by in-depth discussions on pop culture, personal growth, and the ever-evolving media landscape, this episode is your perfect companion. So, tune in, absorb, and join the conversation!
11:23 Work, Parties, and Career Reflections
20:26 Social Media for Fame Pursuit
25:42 Matt Perry and the Legacy of "Friends"
40:50 Chris Paul's Role as Sixth Man
50:58 Brittney Spears Memoir Excerpt: Justin Timberlake & Ginuwine
54:30 Breaking Into TV Industry, Cuffing Season Impact
Tune in Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12PM ET to watch the show live on Youtube. Follow @chadsand on Instagram and subscribe to the Nothing But Anarchy Youtube channel for full interviews and more anarchy!
Executive Produced by: Chad Sanders
Produced by: Morgan Williams
This is Nothing by Anarchy the show that explores and subverts sports, entertainment, media, hollywood, a bunch of other stuff. Whatever you think is interesting, let me do it here. Welcome to Nothing by Anarchy. All right, this is Nothing by Anarchy. This is Nothing by Anarchy. This is the show that explores and subverts entertainment media, hollywood, music, headlines, sports, all of those things. This is an emergency show because I am traveling tomorrow. I had some urgent travel placed on my calendar because I am going to Los Angeles this week for the first time in.
Speaker 1:I want to say it's been so long like a year and a half going to Los Angeles to go and record with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on their Armchair Expert platform for reasons that I will be announcing in the near future that I am very excited about. But I didn't want to skip any episodes because I think, among the few principles that are most important to me around building platforms, making stuff and owning your own economics, I believe consistency is key. Every time I turn on ESPN, there's something there. Every time I look at HBO Max, there's something that, at least, is pretending to be new on the platform. And if I want to play with the big kids one day, I got to meet them where they're at or above there, anyway, whatever. Alright, so this is episode number 60.
Speaker 1:Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our future shows, which actually, beginning this week, on Friday of this week, we're going to have our first YouTube live show. So subscribe to our YouTube channel. Nothing but anarchy, let's get into it. So I'm recording from my home office because I, like I said, am going out to Hollywood tomorrow to do something very exciting, something I've been waiting to do for like two years now, and I can't wait to tell you all more about what that is. But I think it's going to offer, if you all like what we do here, I think it's going to offer you another dimension, sort of of this world that we're building, like another the same storytelling that I do in other areas. If you like my book, if you like direct deposit, if you like this, I think you're going to probably connect to this new thing that I'm going to be announcing and I think it has a shot to really be a big platform builder for us. So if you're here now listening, that means that you are like, you get to be the person who found the band first before it blew up. You got to. You got to find it when it was really cool, so that's cool. Um, I went to a Halloween party over the weekend. I went to a couple Halloween parties over the weekend and life, as I've told you, has become quite chaotic. I feel like I've been sprinting for the last, really for the last two weeks, but especially these last few days, since I found out I was going to LA this week.
Speaker 1:Because, um, if you don't follow the podcasting industry closely as I, as I wouldn't expect most people to, I think most people you know you. You like music, so you listen to new music, but you don't follow every deal and every you know label blow up and every transaction. But, um, dax Seppard's armchair expert platform that he's built with Monica Padman is like it's like the, it's like Madison Square Garden for pad for podcasters. That's like what Madison Square Garden is to musicians, that is what armchair expert is to podcasters. Um, their episodes get millions of downloads. Their fan base is enormous and ravenous. They had a huge deal on with Spotify that I believe is still ongoing. That was, um, that I only you know it's publicly available information, so you can go look up whatever you want to learn about that Cause I don't I don't know anything specific or confidential about it, but I'm saying all that to say and that's also not to say there's is the biggest platform of all.
Speaker 1:Like you, like, madison Square Garden isn't the biggest arena on earth, but it is. In my opinion, it is the most. Um, it's like where you want to go as a podcaster, to really show or as a voice of any kind, like as someone who has, who writes, who talks, who, who communicates ideas and explores, you know, life and the universe. Like that's the platform you go on to um, really like share with an audience that cares about those things, what you know, what you see, what you see when you close your eyes. So I'm excited to go there.
Speaker 1:But I say that to say we're also rolling out our merchandise this week, um, which is fortuitous timing because it means that more eyeballs will get a chance to see the merch. But it also is just like wow, another thing on top of everything else going on. I just turned my book in over the weekend. Um, I'm also just like in a life transition right now, a very significant life transition. I got a wedding in Jamaica coming up. Like there's a lot going on, but on top of that, it was my favorite. It was my favorite holiday over the weekend, and favorite holidays, such as they are, are like, um, they're like best friends and a couple other things where, once you have labeled one as yours, there's almost like this, uh, this Stockholm syndrome, where you have to stick with it because you've taken it on as a part of your identity. Like somebody asked me on Instagram um, who's your favorite artist? And I the thing about naming a favorite artist is, once you do it, that person or that thing then represents you in a way that you cannot control and that, for instance, I don't know if Kanye is my favorite artist, but he's certainly up there. He has made music that.
Speaker 1:I think I was 15 when college dropout came out. You know I was like just starting to engage the world, um, outside of the purview of my parents. So I was like a, you know, teenage black boy riding around in cars with girls and trying to, you know, figure out who I was and how I related to this suburban backdrop behind me or beside me, um, and Kanye was a voice that came in and gave me something to connect to, like, to a rhythm, to like step to, to believe in about, about what the world was around us as black people, and he made great music for like 20 years, um, and. But now that he's this, whatever this even is, I don't even know how to label or how to how to speak to what he is now. Um, it feels disingenuous to say he's not my favorite artist. Still, but throwing his name out there makes me look like a weenie, because, you know, because, obviously, now to bring it back to the point Halloween, I like Halloween as a holiday that represents me, because I think it is fun.
Speaker 1:I think people who, um, rebuke Halloween are just taking it all a little bit too seriously, just like I think there's a good chance that if they rebuke Halloween, there's a good chance that they are repressed in some other areas of their lives. I'll leave it at that, but I like Halloween, I like dress up, I like an opportunity to do my hair funny and, um, throw on something that is flamboyant and ridiculous and you know, be, it's not really that you're being someone else that night, you're just being another version of exactly who you are. In some ways, I would say when people have on a costume, you actually can see them more clearly because they are not so guarded by um does the way that I look also match my spirit, and so their spirit can just be what it is, because they already know that the casing is off center.
Speaker 1:I went to a Halloween party for a woman, uh, for a woman, a woman named Amanda Calper, who's a good friend, such a sweetie pie. Um, I really mean that like a like a sweet hearted person, the type of person who, among other things, she's like she is a, she's a very um important producer at late night, the late night show with Seth Meyers. She is, I would call her like an ascending uh power in the producer world at 30 Rock. She is the kind of person who knows everybody, who connects everybody, who loves everybody that she loves. She loves them very hard. She like gives them love all the time and she's always trying to help them like elevate and find things, and for that reason, people also do a lot. I see that people also go out of their way for her, like people want to help her, they want to show up for her.
Speaker 1:Um, she was my uh co-creator and and and another executive producer on direct deposit. She is a producer on um, the project that I am yet to announce, and as Halloween approached, I had been invited to three Halloween parties being thrown by um. You know this is this is what I do, so I'll be specific, like three different white ladies in my life, uh, amanda being one of them, amanda and her, her, her um, fiance Zade, who's a very cool guy, and and then two others, um, one by another friend of mine, which was on the other side of town, and so I had to make a tough choice. And then, and then the third uh, which was somewhere that, um, I will be very opaque in describing because I don't want to, I don't want to say anything like harmful or offensive, but I do know that I went, I walked into that party, I was there, for let me start here I went to Amanda's party and this was cool for me, I will and I had made.
Speaker 1:I actually discussed before going out with Tim and Delisa and John. We were at Tim and Delisa's house, we were sitting there playing cards and I was like, I specifically asked Delisa, because Delisa is a social person, she has a robust social life, she's everywhere, she's. What's the thing? Everywhere, everything all at once. I'm like that, um, and I knew she would have a prioritizing framework for how I should decide which of these parties to go to, and because, ambitiously, I was going to try to make it to all three, but that's, that's impossible on Halloween for a for a few different reasons. One is like on Halloween you, you imbibe, like you drink stuff, and on Halloween you, if you're me, you have a complicated costume. I was, I was a genie and I literally did not take one picture. I'm sorry, but you have a complicated costume. On there's jewelry and like the pockets aren't great and it's just like you're just carrying a lot of self everywhere that you try to go. And I knew I wasn't going to make it to all three parties. That was the ambition, but I knew it wasn't going to happen. So I was like, how do I choose which of these parties to go to? But Amanda's was always the one that I had a feeling I was going to go to first, because one um, amanda is I'm the closest with Amanda out of the three people who had invited me.
Speaker 1:Amanda and I have not had a real moment to just like hang out, be at a party and be friends and just talk shit for like literally in years, because work has been so crazy and and that's when your work friends are also your friends, like when you have real work friends those moments are important because, like work gets stressful and things move fast and feelings get hurt and like there's there's successes, there's disappointments, there's all these, there's all these emotions and like blame has to be taken in certain areas and then like credit has to be taken in other early years areas and it enters all these dynamics that don't really get. They're very hard to sort through in work, in work environments. So you need these like easy light, sort of you know laid back moments with strangers hanging around, that where you can like sort, sort through the shit without talking about it. You just sort through it by just reminding each other like I care about you, I see you, I value you, you're great, you're a good person, you're great at what you do, and sometimes it's a lot more effective to just do that by just hanging out Then to go sit down and like try to, you know, hash it out as if you're in like couples therapy, saying all this to say that I went to Amanda's party first and I and there's a lot of white folks there, very white, very white party, and that's.
Speaker 1:You know, I sort of knew I was stepping into that, but I walked in there and I am in a habit of going to parties by myself and so when I walk in, I it was funny because when I walked in, you know, first I was greeted by Amanda Amanda was awesome, saw Zade Zade is also very, very warm and, like welcoming Ran into two ladies in the hallway who I did not know and they started to, you know, say some funny things about my costume and like doing like party banter. You know what I mean. Like, oh like. Are you, you know, are you granting wishes, like because I had a magic wand or whatever?
Speaker 1:I am like one of my nephews in this way, which is that when I first enter a new environment, I have to like stare, I have to like, I literally have to like stare around the whole room. I have to like I and I'm not exactly looking at, I'm not exactly looking so much as I am like feeling what is around me in that room. Okay, is there a pocket of energy over there where people seem like they're chill, awake, you know, talking, having a good time? Is there a pocket of energy over there where people are like they might have had a little bit too much of the Halloween candy, if you know what I mean. Like is there a pocket of people over there who are doing like a networking thing and the energy is like pretending to be chill, but it's actually like a little bit too uptight. So I have to like feel it out, because I got to like place. I got to place myself where I go. You know what I mean. I got to go if I'm a, you know if I'm a, I don't know bumblebee, I got to go with the other bees, like I got to go find the beehive. So I'm doing that.
Speaker 1:These two ladies come up and start jousting and throwing like little jokes at me. I can't actually respond to them cleverly because I am too distracted by having to, you know, heat map the party and figure out where I want to be in it and I'll cut to sort of the important part of this, which is I got comfortable fast. I ran into a producer at A24 named Mary Beth. This is like this is like all New York sort of TV and film scene. Name dropy, what I'm doing here throwing in like it like if you're here and you're in your 30s, like you want to be, if you're in these industries like you want to, like you know you want your friends to have grown up and grown into these roles, because it's important that your friends have done that for your own career. So Mary Beth is a is a fancy producer at A24. A24 is the fanciest studio, I would say in Hollywood right now. Honestly, like if you go look at A24's credits, they have the most kind of like cool shit. You know what I mean like they have the most stuff that's like sleek and sexy and earthy and gritty and weird.
Speaker 1:And eventually I fell into a conversation. I was I'm gonna just say something that's real which is five years ago. None of these people would have ever heard of me, none of these people would would you know. I'm sure they would be nice people and want to have a conversation, but they wouldn't be like, they wouldn't be like interested to like engage me, the way that I felt in that party and this was an interesting I like I said, I haven't been at a party party with Amanda besides my own party in years, and so this was an interesting checkpoint to see these people who appear on like big late-night shows, who write on big shows, who, like you know, are a few years older than me and have been in this for over a decade.
Speaker 1:A lot of them, like it was cool to see them, sort of, like you know, cup their ear, to be like how are you, how are you doing what you're doing? I'm just being real, I hate talking like this sometimes, but it's this is honesty to just be like how are you doing what you're doing? Like how is your thing moving so fast? How is? And I'll tell you, like, in the middle of what is an extremely chaotic point in time for me, where I again I've said this over and over like I'm spending more money than I'm making, like trying and I'm should say I'm investing it, I'm building, like I am pouring a lot into this to watch it grow. It's nice to have a little checkpoint where people are like we see what you're doing, it's, it's something's working, we're taking a, we're taking stock of it, we're taking notice of you and of which what's building here. So I get in this conversation with a writer and I won't say his name, but I'm not gonna say anything disparaging, I just don't want to out anybody for a conversation, but like he, he is, he.
Speaker 1:He was a former neuroscientist. He transitioned and became a cartoonist and eventually became a writer. He's a couple years older than me and he has been a writer on Seth Meyers show for 10 years 10 over 10 years and he engages me in really what became like an hour-long conversation where he's saying I'm gonna paraphrase an hour of conversation he's saying I really want to have my big shot where my rocket takes off. I thought it was gonna, I thought it was happening over a decade ago. I love what I do, you know. I love being able to write for an important show that actually people know when I bring it up and they see, they get to hear my jokes and they get to see, you know, see my work in fruition. But it's someone else's show and I want to have my, my own big shot, you know. And he said, like you know, my philosophy is I'm just gonna keep my head down, keep cranking, keep grinding, state, stay the course. Brian Cranston didn't get pranking bad until he was 50. That's what he, that's literally what he said to me.
Speaker 1:And and then he transitioned the conversation a little and I'm mostly just listening and asking questions because I, I truly am curious what other writers are going through as their careers enter. This phase of you know I am, I have achieved the dream of being a Hollywood writer. I am that I make a lot of money, but I'm an artist and, in my opinion, like artists want to be seen, that doesn't necessarily mean the person wants to be seen, but like they want their work to represent them and they want people to see it. And so he's telling me he's having, he's going through something right now where he's like I do recognize that he mentions a couple other people in a similar spot like he mentions an actor. There's an actor guy I can't remember this dude's name, but he was the other the other white guy you know what young white guy on Lady Bird, that's not Timothy Chalamet and he's telling me, like you know that guy too, he's seeing how other people that do the same job as him, who have bigger social followings, are getting different opportunities and he's seeing them really leverage those followings to build you know, build the ship the way he wants it. And he's just there's a moral hang-up that that this guy talking to me has with social media and he's like I just feel like I can't be myself there, like if I'm, if I'm giving the people that are following me what they want to continue to grow my audience. That's not authentic. I want I don't want to get my shot like that. I and he almost said it verbatim this way I want somebody else to pick me. I want somebody to. I want a gatekeeper, a Lorne Michaels type. I want somebody to sit. Is that his name, lorne Michaels? Whatever there. I want somebody else to grab me and put me in position and say this is the person you all need to watch. He's funny, he's clever, he's creative, he's smart.
Speaker 1:And we went back and forth on it. It was. It was in no ways like an argument. You know, I was not. I was at a party, I was not in the mood to argue and, frankly, like he was being, he was showing deference in a lot of way, he was just like. It seemed like it seems like you really know how to pitch yourself. It seems like you really know how to like play the social media game and talk to your audience. And it's funny and weird because I had all these exact same hang-ups with social media and and, honestly, just with like putting myself out there all the time. I had these exact same hang-ups, probably like no longer than two years ago. It's a very new phenomenon in my life that I am quite comfortable, in fact, like enthusiastic, about talking directly to an audience. The platforms like this Instagram starting to get into tick-tock. Twitter is never is like Twitter's never been so much my thing. I actually am like kind of happy that Twitter is falling apart, but, like I know it's very important to some of y'all and I and I wanted to stay intact for that reason, because some of you all need it for your businesses.
Speaker 1:But I I'm saying this to say like I you know, sometimes I get phone brain where I'm just like turn, like you've been, oh you been, staring at a screen, your, your eyes hurt, your brain hurts. Stop it, turn, turn the fucking. This is what we do truly in modern society. Turn your, put your phone upside down and just watch TV. Come on, it'll make you feel better. Just stare at a screen that's 20 feet away or 10 feet away, instead of the screen that's in your hand. That's like how we get a break now from screens.
Speaker 1:But I was having this moment of feeling like as I listened to him and I and I'm curious to know what some of y'all think on this. However, you can communicate it to me, like what I heard him saying is I want my big shot. I recognize that in modern society, how people get their big shot is by building their own following, through talking directly to audience, using these tools that we all have. But I want to be chosen. I want someone else to tell me you're the guy and pick and pick me and put me in that position. He's saying things that are in conflict, like he's saying I want it, but he's also saying I only want it how I want it, and I think that's where many of us get like snagged in pursuit of something that we care about is I want this thing, but I'm not willing to sacrifice something that feels a little uncomfortable or is foreign to me to get it. And I left that party.
Speaker 1:Reflecting on the conversation, you know we didn't reach like any kind of conclusion. There was no like oh, you know what, you're right, because this and this and this like. Neither one of us said that thing. But we did reach a place of understanding, which is just he finds the practice of social media to be authentic. I'm gonna be real with y'all, and somebody call me out If you see me acting like somebody different on Instagram than who I am in real life, or vice versa. Tell me, tell me what you see there and we can sort of. I would just be curious to know. I find that the more real you are on those platforms, the more people want to follow, the more people want to engage, the more people want to know damn, what else do you see? My sister says, nope, same, I love it. Well, that's my sister. So now the rest of y'all don't have to tell me shit, but more than you can.
Speaker 1:I think that it's weird. It's like if someone else puts a camera on us, we feel like that is a validating, affirming experience that gives us permission to be exactly who we are, or exactly who we think someone wants us to be, in a way that builds our platform. But if we're holding the camera up on ourselves and this, I think, is a thing that my generation, specifically, is still struggling with we're the tweener generation between analog and digital. We're the ones who still want to believe that we want a world where we don't hold the camera on ourselves. We're the generation that wants to believe we're not doing our own surveillance, but we are, and the generation behind us is like I don't even think they're giving a fuck, I don't even think they're thinking about it. Let me not be hyperbolic. I do think they care and I do think they think about it and I do think they have their own ways of separating themselves from the screen when they want to, but I don't think they have the same moral hangups that we have about what media has become.
Speaker 1:And let's actually take out for a moment the rest of people who do not work specifically in the media industries. You can't complain and I'm not saying this guy was complaining, because he really wasn't. It sounded like what he was saying. It was more of a vent than anything but you cannot complain that you're not, that you don't have the following or the eyeballs on you, that you want the platform that you want for your art if you are not willing to be creative about how to amass that platform. Actually, you can do that and most people do do that, but I just think it's full-serened. All right, that guy was cool.
Speaker 1:I don't want to over talk this. I'm moving on, but when I come back, this is going to be a white people episode, because I hung out with some white people. Honestly, he had a great time. It's a cool party, and I've just been thinking about white people. So when we come back, we're going to talk about Justin Timberlake, who is profoundly white. So let's continue with white people. It's probably going to be the nicest that we talk about white people on this show Maybe not necessarily I'm. You know what. I think I'm taking a turn for the nicer. Honestly, I'm going to say no more and better, but I do think I'm getting a little nicer. Okay, rest in Peace. Matthew Perry.
Speaker 1:He died at 54, found in his hot tub at his LA home. Everybody has said this. I'm sure there's reckless speculation going on about how and why he died, which got to be honest, don't think is very fair. I don't like that. We do that. I don't like that. We do this thing where it's like oh well, I know that guy had a drinking problem, so he must have been passed out in his hot tub. I don't think that's cool. I think that is reckless speculation. But he separate from however he died. He did in fact have some addiction problems that were well chronicled and that he would, you know, he talked about openly on his own.
Speaker 1:He was a part First. This was, you know, this was. Besides what's obviously tragic, which is that somebody passed, this made me think about mortality in this specific way. The first member of friends has passed like that. This was the death, the first death of a member of the cast, member of the show friends, which is that's meaningful If you're a millennial you know what I mean. It's like I don't. I never watched an episode of Cheers ever in my whole life.
Speaker 1:I don't know who's alive from Cheers, who's gone, but like, at some point the first member of Cheers passed and I'm sure that a generation was this defining piece of culture, whether you connected to it or not. And I can talk about where I feel connected and where I feel disconnected from friends. But like, whether or not you connect to it, friends goes in the time capsule as like an important part of the nineties and I think early 2000s experience. And look, nobody needs to tell me specifically whether nineties are like let some things some things are unimportant to a story Just let them happen, just let them float right by, doesn't matter. That's not a key element of what I'm saying right here. So what I'm saying is that's like.
Speaker 1:I mean in a very different way, because he was in his fifties, like losing Kobe was kind of eerie like that. It was like, wait, what you know and I've said the thing about Kobe on this show, so I'm not about to do anything like I'm not about to be fake sweet about it, but it was just like what? It felt like a glitch, it felt like an accident, you know, an accident by the universe, not by, not by man, and you know there are no such things. But I'm saying this to say that Matt Perry, what he left behind, was a specific wish from last, from a podcast interview last year on how he wanted people to remember him, and so I think it's worthwhile to read what that was, because I think that you, you know that's nice, that if somebody was able to actually articulate that, that that we can give it a platform. So when I die is what he says.
Speaker 1:When I die, I know people will talk about friends, friends, friends, and I'm glad of that, happy. I've done some solid work as an actor, dot dot dot. But when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people. I know it won't happen, but it would be nice. That's from a podcast interview on two with Tom Power from 2022. And this brought to mind a couple of things. Not what I didn't share in this quote was that he also listed out a couple of the things that he wanted to be remembered as accomplishments. One was like building a I think he built like a safe space for other men dealing with, I think, specifically alcohol abuse issues. So he mentioned a play, a play that he wrote, and this brought to mind a couple of things. One is I have had to face and realize recently that I am really really hyper focused and consumed by what I do while I'm alive, like what can happen, what I can create, how I can affect people and things and myself while I'm alive, and what happens when I'm gone.
Speaker 1:Honestly, some people would say this is so you, this is so you, trying to not have to be responsible for somebody else's job. But truly, what happens when I'm gone is that is somebody else's deal, that's someone else's thing, that's someone else's contract with life. You're alive. You're not responsible for what happens when you're alive, but, like, how people remember you, how people even think of you, is so very much out of your control and I do a lot of work. That is me trying to say and signal to people. This is like what, this is who I actually am. This is the complex web of things that actually defines a person. This is how I feel, because I'm feeling at odds. I'm trying to cut through all the bullshit and misdirections and house of mirrors that is telling people I or someone is something else other than that, or I'm trying to cut through the projection of whatever it is that they are throwing on to me, like I want them to know, like I'm actually.
Speaker 1:This a writer does that job. A writer, whether writing about themselves or something else, any other subject. They're saying, like you think that it's this, but this is what I see. Regardless, you don't get to choose. You don't get to choose how the like. You don't get to choose how people know you. You don't get to choose what they think of you or what they'll say about you when you're gone. Especially when you're gone, there's no rebuttal, and I like it's a complicated thing, man, with big platforms, big accomplishments, big, and what I mean by that is ones that are noteworthy, ones that people are aware of. Right, when you sign on the dotted line to work on something especially.
Speaker 1:I can imagine something as consuming and self-defining as friends. He might not have known it in the beginning. He probably came to realize it a couple years in. You are deciding. We've talked about this before. This is how people will know me. You are signing that contract every day. The thing is way too big for you to undo the way that it contextualizes you.
Speaker 1:Here's where I'm really going with this. Some people will feel a way about this. Friends is cool. Tried to rewatch it recently. It doesn't really hold up, but it's cool. It's cool. It's white as fuck. We all know that it looks like it takes place on another planet. There's something there. They capture the dynamic of how we attach to our communities, because we need comfort and we need trust and we need to bounce back the experience of life on other people who we actually like Chosen family, if you will. People say that all the time. I think that the show is so still and it's almost so quiet that the laugh track is so disruptive to the experience because it's so clearly a laugh track that I don't think it totally holds up All together.
Speaker 1:If you are an artist and the thing that defines you is something like friends, I bet you're not satisfied Financially. It's a come up, of course. But if you are truly an artist, if you are truly about, I am curious and I want to explore what's inside the thing, inside the thing, inside the thing, and then give that to people. I have to imagine that when you walk off the set of friends for the last time, you don't turn around and look back and say like I think we did that, I think you're still looking for it, I think you leave and you keep looking for it and you keep looking for it, hopefully until you find it or until you make peace, that you're never going to find it. I don't think you feel like that when you've done friends. I don't think you feel like that when you've done 95% of greatly accepted pieces of art, like widely mass produced and mass audience pieces of art. That's not how mass production works.
Speaker 1:If you were a chef, a master chef, and the last place that you ever, the most important work you ever did that anybody ever knew you by, was working at Olive Garden, no, that's not fair. Let me find a better match up here Ruth's Chris, closer somewhere in between. I would say that's what friends is to TV. It's a place where everybody knows you're going to get good food at Ruth's Chris. You're going to enjoy the meal, but it's a chain. It's for everybody to like it. It's not singular in any way. There's no steak on the Ruth's Chris menu that is widely known as the most blank steak. That's what friends is.
Speaker 1:If you, I imagine if you're somebody who really wanted to leave on this earth something that is distinctly and definingly yours, that says this has the outline of me and this is how I see the world, you don't do that with friends. I think that's why Jennifer Aniston is still seeking that in other venues. I think that's what she's seeking and honestly getting closer to. With what I have had many criticisms of, which is the morning show, that feels a lot closer to life than friends. In my opinion, that feels a lot closer to how people relate to each other and the things that happen, that are complex about the universe, than friends to me. I got to imagine she is feeling more filled up by the fact that she's doing that show possibly than she ever did working on Friends.
Speaker 1:Friends made her very popular, but the popular kids at the high school are not happy. We all know that. We're looking, I'm looking at. I'm looking at a statement that says Matthew Perry did it. 54 found in his hot tub at LA home. That signals back to me what I knew in high school, which was that the popular kids weren't happy, which is why I always was torn between the push that is the ambition to try to be one of them. That, I think, is a call that many of us feel, and feel signaled by the push to like take it fucking easy, who cares? Just go hang out with the kids that are having a good time. Anyway, rip. Matt Perry feels there's a feeling, there's a thudding feeling of this thing and I'm going to get off in a second to get back to something a little more enjoyable, a little more fun, which is this is rinse repeat of what we know is the Hollywood churn.
Speaker 1:When somebody is saying to me at a party I don't want to build my own following, I don't want to have my own connection to audience. I want someone else to pick me and tell me I'm worthwhile to have that. That is what's broken in, like self-esteem for people that work in this industry. That is what's broke Like for someone else to have to tell you you deserve to have an audience. If you want an audience like let me say it differently Something that is an impulse. There are people.
Speaker 1:In the beginning of time there were storytellers. They wanted to tell the village a story. Not the beginning time when people came, they wanted to tell the village a story. They wanted to watch the sparkle in their eyes as people became changed, as something washed over them, as they learned something about themselves by hearing about someone else. I truly believe there's something genetic about the makeup of such a person. It's who you are. It's an impulse. If you want that and you can have it by literally doing the work to build it for yourself, but you would rather somebody else choose it for you, you would rather have to wait on some other fucking schmuck to say I think you're funny, you deserve to be heard.
Speaker 1:That is a conflict of. That's a breakage in your self-esteem, like I'm telling you because I have felt that I've been that person, I've really been in there. That's a breakage of self-esteem. When I see Matt Perry, dead at 54, found a hot tub at LA Home, I'm like, of course this is the rinse repeat of the Hollywood system, not because Hollywood specifically is constructed in a way that turns people into that, but it finds people that are like that. It finds people that are broken, like that, who it can capitalize on and get value from, without giving value back to, by just giving them the opportunity to be the popular kids. That shit is unsustainable. All right, that was pretty good. I'm doing this for my home office.
Speaker 1:I'm going to come back and going to talk about roles, because Matthew Perry, all these people and friends, all the lead, the cast of six who were the leads on that show, they're all stars, but even yet, even as a star, you can sometimes have a role that is a misfit for you if you indeed want to be someone singular. We're going to talk about roles some more when I come back. All right, here's how this relates to basketball, because sports, remember, no-transcript. So Chris Paul is on the Warriors. We've talked about this. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time redefining the Chris Paul situation.
Speaker 1:Chris Paul, when I was a teenager, my dad took me to the Capital Classic, which was like a big, the best high school players playing that game as seniors, like the best in the country, the best in the world really, and he took me there to go see Chris Paul, who's a couple years older than me. I was like a high school freshman or sophomore. The game is played in DC. So we just drove down to the Verizon Center and he showed me Chris Paul in the court and he was like you see that guy right there this is before the game even started. He was like you see that guy right there, watch that guy the whole time.
Speaker 1:That is what a point guard is how he plays, how he carries himself, how he talks that person in play and also in personality. That person is the boss of this whole arena. He controls not just what happens on the court but also what happens on the sidelines. In a timeout, he controls the show, the experience that everybody in that arena is going to get during the course of this game. And I watched him and he was incredible. He had a feel and timing that was very special and his handle was obviously incredible His mid-range jump shot, which is a very important. It's a very important skill for a point guard to have, because point guards are, by and large, are short and you can't always get all the way to the basket and you also sometimes are being trapped at the three-point line, so you've got to be able to split the trap, get to the free throw line, hit a mid-range jumper or a floater. He had all that shit. He went to the NBA and he continued to have all of that for his entire career.
Speaker 1:Chris Paul is. I don't have his bonafides up in front of me, but he's probably made 13, 14 all-star games, maybe more than that, I've got to imagine. He's got 10 to 12 all-MBAs. He's got all defensive appearances. He's led the league and assists before it's a league in steals, before he can get you 30 and 10. He can win you a playoff game or two Like he's. He's Chris Paul. Like he's going to go down as one of the best three to five point guards ever.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately for Chris Paul, the position evolved. While he was probably the most archetypical prototype for the position of all time, steph Curry came along and Steph Curry decided I have all that other point guard shit and I'm the best shooter of all time, and that truly stretched the point guard position to something we've never seen before. It was never allowed except for one two-year exception by Isaiah Thomas. It was never allowed that the best guy on a championship team could be under six-foot-six. Like. That was not. That was not part of the game. That was not part of basketball until Steph Curry came and changed the dimensions of it and in doing so, he had some moments where he didn't just. Both these guys are also from North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Steph Curry used to go to Chris Paul's camp. He was Chris Paul, was big bro, and then Steph Curry came in the league and just completely took the crown. Also, meanwhile there were guys like Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook who were more athletically devastating than Chris Paul, who also stretched the position in a different dimension but, like Steph Curry, is the one who really you know for what it is like. He embarrassed Chris Paul in some playoff games. There are some moments etched into our memories where he made Chris Paul dance, made him touch the ground in important playoff games. He, he deaded the Steph Curry deaded the entire, like Lobb City, la Clippers thing. They never even made it to a finals. I don't even know if they made it to a Western Conference finals. Um, I can't remember.
Speaker 1:All of that said, chris Paul has now decided to go and be a warrior and try to win his first championship as Steph Curry's backup. He just came off the bench for the first time in his entire 19 year career. Last night in the Warriors, one of six 95 went over the Houston Rockets. And why he came off the bench is because Draymond Green, who had missed the previous two games to open the season, was healthy and played. And Draymond Green, despite anything people might have said before the season, is not the kind of guy who is going to willingly accept Chris Paul, who he has said he did not like before Chris Paul became a warrior, and I don't think he's yet said that he'd like, like, likes him now. Um, he's not the kind of guy who's just going to happily go, move to the bench. So that Chris Paul, who is another sort of um, another one of these guys who seems like if you had to be around him for more than a couple months he would get on your last nerve. And he's like trying to tell you how to live, trying to tell you how to eat, trying to tell you what music to listen to, like Draymond's that kind of guy and Draymond who famously, you know, knocked his teammate out, uh, last year before the season like he's not going to just go for Chris Paul taking his position in the starting lineup.
Speaker 1:The point is this here's where I'm going with this, what, what. Like, chris Paul said after the game last night that, um, that by and large I'm paraphrasing he was comfortable with this role. He was comfortable. This is about you know the team. He loves how this team moves the ball, the flow, et cetera. Um, he said all the right things that you say after you've come off the bench for the first time. He did say that it was different, it was something different, but that once you get out there and you're hooping is just basketball and I don't think that is going to hold up. Um, I don't think that if we check in three months from now, chris Paul, that's one game coming off the bench. Um, I have co-hosted a show before and no matter how much, no matter how much I recognize the importance of playing that position for my career and for my platform, and the money and the exposure to a new audience and all this other stuff, at a certain point you're just a person there doing the job, regardless of all the context.
Speaker 1:Like you are a human being with feelings and a body that knows how you feel. And the first seven times you're talking and someone jumps in and steps on your point, or the first 10 times that you got to wait for somebody to finish a long spiel before you can jump in and say what you think is relevant to the point. Or the first time somebody takes the conversation in a direction that is diametrically opposed to what you think is the right place to take the conversation it does. It stings you, but you can. You know we are human beings capable of repressing many feelings. Right, you can live with that and lay down on that for months to an extent, but it builds up and then, like your head starts to hurt or your neck starts to ache or your shoulders get weird, or like you feel like you're having a harder time getting out of bed some days because you're not excited for the day, because you know that what's ahead is you got to go do that thing. That doesn't feel good and whether or not you're even thinking about it or conscious about it or paying attention to it, like you know it's in front of you, you know it's in your day. So it's not, maybe it's not until two o'clock PM, but you're like, why am I having a hard time getting through this thing? I do every single day at 10am. It's because your body knows that 2pm thing is coming For Chris Paul, that 2pm thing that's coming is a 730pm thing that's coming, which is he is riding sixth man.
Speaker 1:He's riding passenger on somebody else's wagon. He's watching somebody start in that game also Dreymont Green and possibly, at this point, clay Thompson. He's watching some guys start and play like quote unquote starring roles who he knows he's better than. Like you can't. We are not machines. We are like army soldiers. We are not that. We do not have the thing all of us where you just push down whatever it is that you actually think and feel to get through the mission. Like that shit goes somewhere, it goes into your feet, it goes into your stomach, goes into your sweat, it's in your body. You can't just get rid of it. So, like Chris Paul is willing to play the role now, as I imagine, like Matthew Perry was, as I imagine, like whoever else wasn't Jennifer Aniston or Ross, whatever that guy's name is they were willing to play the role then. But then it's like, excuse me, if Chris Paul does win a championship on this team as a six man, and then Chris Paul, who was one of the one of the five greatest point guards of all time, becomes known as the six man for the Warriors when they won their last championship.
Speaker 1:Instead of Chris Paul 15 time all NBA air. Those feelings are going to come up every single time he has to have this conversation about that championship over and, over and, over and over again, and I know people say it gets easier. I need somebody older than me to tell me, like, do those things really go away? Do you actually make peace with that time where you ate shit, where you sacrificed for something greater? Like I think about, like literally, I didn't even play college basketball. Y'all played high school basketball and I still think about all the time the fact that I played on a really, really, really great high school team, like a exceptional high school team, but that I was not a major contributor on our best team. I think about all the time if I would have just been happier and had a better time going to Blair starting averaging 15 points a game, like being the guy being the point guard doing the thing, like maybe that would have just been just fine. You know what I mean. Maybe then I would have like basketball placed in a healthier part of my life story and how I think about the world and shit. Like I don't know, I don't think it's going to work out for Chris Paul. I think that eventually, unless they start juggling or shuffling around the lineup or somebody gets hurt and now he gets to step back into the starting line, lineup, I think eventually it's going to hit a wall where it's like this is not a good use for him and it's going to affect his play.
Speaker 1:Tis, my thought I forgot a docket item, so I'm going to address it quickly. It is this, this Britney Spears book. There's an anecdote that has been floating around, which is one in which she says that she and Justin Timberlake were walking down the street when they were together years ago as, I guess, teenagers, early 20s. They ran into Genuine, who shouts to Genuine, who's from close to where I'm from. They ran into Genuine, I guess. He was walking down the street and he looked like Genuine, which is probably cool and very good looking. Justin Timberlake started doing the white boy thing to him, changing his affect and tone and trying to show him I'm a cool white boy. And the quote in the book is oh yeah, for shiz, for shiz, genuine, what's up, homie? That's my version of it. Michelle Williams, who reads the memoir, says it differently, also hilariously.
Speaker 1:I was reminded and I forgot to bring this up when I was talking about being around white people over the weekend. Also, I left Amanda's party, went to another party and ran into some guys like that sort of fratties trying to be cool at the other party and I stayed for 10 minutes and I slid out the back door, didn't even say bye. I'm sorry to the host, I know I didn't say bye, I just was like I just needed to go back to Amanda's party. So Amanda and Zade, thanks for having me back. I was also last to leave Amanda's party. We did a party recap at the end and laid around and talked on their couch till four in the morning.
Speaker 1:But the cool white boy man I'll be just really specific because I can really hit this one on the head my friend Justin asked me if we went to college with any white boys, like I mean sorry, high school with any guys like Travis Kelsey and we were referencing kind of his cool factor, like he's got a fade haircut. He kind of like you know he can do the dances I've mentioned before. He kind of affects like a black guy sometimes when he wants to, whatever that means to him. Quincy is someone who's always been ahead on this, on the on this point of view, like we give, we give extra points to white people, extra cool points, just for like, just for literally Not being assholes to us like we live. And then and then, even when they are being ridiculous like Justin Timberlake, even when they are being culture vultures, we still give cool points, just for how well they're able to pull it off, even when we know it's not real like, even when we know it's authentic.
Speaker 1:And I just think we should be more judicious about how we allocate our cool points. I just think we should be a little bit less thoughty about throwing our cool points around so Salatiously. I'm not, I'm not cool points, slut shaming, but have some, fucking, have some self-respect, man, when white people just alright, just be like. When someone asks you about like, we always do this. Like you meet, you meet somebody's white, white homie and they're like. They always set it up with this content. It's like yo, but he's cool, he's cool, not like he's not, he's cool, he's cool, and it's like Sometimes it's just palatable. You know what I'm saying? Okay, lastly, here we go, q&a and then we're out of here. We're out of here, y'all. I'm sorry, I gotta go soon. Q&a. These are from Instagram. Plowing through, I got five minutes. We're gonna do this.
Speaker 1:Number one three tips for breaking into the TV industry. Um, Okay, that's an interesting one. I don't know where that one came from. I think maybe Morgan made it up. But I will say this I've said it in many ways, but you, there's another way to get in, which is Go to film school or go to NYU. Build a network. You know, put your oh, it came from Instagram. Thanks, morgan. Put your number in the hat. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Make your pilot and keep submitting it to different script contests or try to get it to a producer. Or, you know, play. You're basically playing mousetrap. You're basically playing like Russian. You're playing roulette. Just keep on punching lottery tickets, lottery tickets forever and see where it goes. I've honestly seen that work for a lot of people in regard meaning. I've seen my friends find their way into, you know, frequent writing jobs as TV writers. You know, if you have, if you have the baseline level of talent, if you have a Network that you cultivate and grow, you can Possibly keep on dropping lottery balls and eventually your numbers will turn up. Maybe, maybe, maybe not. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:What I think is more effective is To, to, to attack from multiple angles. I I got my first, my first experience in a writer's room came because a friend who knew that I could write, who I had shown a pilot to or who had shown a project I was working on to, she got invited to come work, to come work on grown-ish and she was like I need somebody to do this with me. So can you, can you come help me? And my second opportunity came because I wrote a book. You know my, my staff writing experience on rap shit came because I I wrote a book and I Started to amass a following and I was loud about. I was and continue to be loud about what I have going on.
Speaker 1:That's to me, that's the way that gives you a little bit more control over what you're doing. When you say breaking to the TV industry, like, be specific about what you're saying. If you want a staff writing job, litman, I don't recommend it, but you can. You can do it. That through that other vessel you can. It can might take you ten years but you'll get one. But if you want to be in the TV industry, make a pilot, shoot something. You have an iPhone. This is this is becoming like age-old advice, but you have the tools already to build something and share it with the world. Do that. Then do it again and stop. You know, just don't be so fussy about like your friends making fun of you when they see your art because they're there. When you get to where I'm at, they're gonna do it. When you get past where I'm at, they're gonna still do it, but they're gonna do it in their little group chat. Who cares? You're not even gonna see it. All right.
Speaker 1:Second, during your lows, what keeps you going? Um, somebody asked this and I really didn't know what to say. I mean, I have People that I love, who I talk to every day. I have a beautiful 85 pound German shepherd that's three years old that, um Really love spending time with me. No matter what else I have going on, I I'm in the gym all the time. I play basketball. I I just keep going. You know, I like that's.
Speaker 1:It's a difficult question for me because I Think some of it has to do with nature. You know what? What is a person's nature? I also do. Let me be a little bit more woo-woo for y'all, because I think that's what someone's asking for, which is like I do believe that there's something happening for me, you know, and I think I can't. Really there's some parts of it I can't get around to get where it's going. As an example, there's a part of it that is like Chad you got to now spend your own fucking money on this thing. If you want to have ownership over it, I can't get around that part. There's some part about the relationships in my life where I I wanted so bad to try to be there for people who wanted me to be there for them over the last few years and I've just have had to let go because I can't, I can't, I cannot straddle Ten different boats as they're all at sea in ten different directions.
Speaker 1:So like that's been a hard pill to swallow, but the belief and the and like seeing it play out, like seeing that my own ship is going somewhere and watching oh my god, this is gonna be so horribly. This is gonna be so horribly sentimental and I'm gonna not say it in a sentimental voice, but I'm gonna say the truth of it like I get to talk to people like Morgan every single day, morgan who is like bouncing off the walls with creative energy and curiosity about life and joy, and like passion for what she does with her, with her life, and like who really live, who really live on purpose. You know what I mean. Like I get to talk to people like that every single day. It's really hard to be in a rut for too long. When you pick up the phone and Morgan's like you know what I mean it's and she's like it's, it's hard, so it's on some level, I think it has to do with surrounding yourself, surrounding myself with other people and things that are like that are also going. I can't not go if all these things I'm attached to are all moving forward in the same direction. Singularity helps like like saying, like Saying emphatically yes to the shit that is exciting. To me, it's helpful to have something exciting coming up that gets you out of bed, even if the thing coming up is two weeks from now. It's like it's in your head, it's in your mind. So I don't know. I just I try to just like trick the mouse into. I try to trick the mouse with cheese. That's, that's what I do. I'm the mouse, clearly.
Speaker 1:Do you think cuffing season is a tough, is a toxic concept? What I'll say about cuffing season is um, I Live in New York City y'all. It's very difficult to live here and it gets cold. It gets cold guys and like I used to live in California years ago, I remembered being like, oh, people here are not that thirsty to couple up because it's never uncomfortable, like it's never warmer to have another person in bed with you. It's like it's the same, it doesn't fucking matter, like you, just these people, they don't care, they just like, oh, another person, just float it out of my life, goodbye. You know they don't. It seems like they don't even notice Half the time in New York.
Speaker 1:You so much need the people who are in your life and you have to be really disciplined about not coupling inertly, like not coupling just because it's cold and you can, you can, you know, you can enjoy being around somebody and you just don't want to be like alone in that cold, dark apartment, like it's. Is it toxic? I just think it's human. I just think it's like it's a human response. The same way I don't do this, but like the same way some people. No, I'm not even gonna say that it's a human response to the stimulus around us. It gets cold, it gets dark, early.
Speaker 1:You want to watch a Netflix movie and taught and have somebody to talk to it about. You want to be able to, like, share a meal with somebody. You want to have sex. You want to like, you want to feel closeness and I've said it before, I said it before I ever had this show like the way that single people in New York City need each other is so pronounced. The way that people need all these like little 30% relationships that they have their life filled out with is so pronounced, and I also believe that you do not really get if you are looking for a single monogamous relationship is very difficult to cultivate one when you have Multiple little half relationships happening in your life at a time. I almost feel like you have to clear out the space so that somebody else can walk into it. But it's hard. I am just now, as a 35 year old, learning how to be, how to enjoy being with myself and Anybody else that's going through that. I don't think they're toxic, I just think it's just hard. It's just hard to figure out.
Speaker 1:All right, this has been nothing but anarchy. This has been a show for my office. Tomorrow I'm in LA, thursday I'm in LA, so our next show is gonna be Friday on YouTube live. Please go follow us on nothing but anarchy right now on YouTube live so that you are reminded when the show is coming, so that YouTube can do what it does, and let you know that you're supposed to be watching and talking and chatting with us. We are going to. We are going to be Continuing to release all episodes on podcasting platform Spotify, apple podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for being here with me today. I will see y'all on Friday. Goodbye.
