Focal Point
Conversations with artists across all industries, taking a deep dive into the nuances, techniques, and philosophies of society's talent.
Focal Point
Comedy Meets Cinema #43 w/ ARTIST Eric Boso
Eric's path to stand-up comedy began unexpectedly following a medical crisis that left him physically injured. Rather than hide from the attention his appearance would draw, he embraced the spotlight, transforming vulnerability into art. "I'm a big guy with a cane and cast – people are going to stare anyway"
His short film "Maps" exemplifies this philosophy, exploring grief through two sisters who represent different facets of Basso's own personality – the solitary artist versus the social connector. The film's emotional impact stems from its personal traegdy, drawing from real experiences with loss.
but yeah, eric, welcome to the podcast. I appreciate you coming on of course.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:This will be fun yeah, well, I mean, if it's not fun, then there, unfortunately, there's no refunds, you know but I do appreciate.
Speaker 2:I do appreciate the effort of course, yeah, yeah, it's always yeah, like any uh zoom meeting the effort of making sure the mic and this and that all is working.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can fix everything going up, but you know, if the Internet decides to just go down, I am at the mercy of the you know the electricity gods on this one.
Speaker 2:Right, so no worries, it's our efforts will be rewarded, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:Well, to start, I was first introduced to you because it was actually my first time attending Wooder Film because a number of people that I've had on the podcast, you know, had some things in there that they also had in the festival and they ended up, you know, putting it into. And then you had two actresses who have actually been on my podcast, you know. I've talked to them and I've had some experience with them in the past. It was Brandy Potkin and Ashley Lawhorn for Maps, Am I correct? Yeah, and that was a very touching movie in its own way. And then I saw those two other short films that you sent me and I can see this common theme of almost like a the same way like Pixar types likes to tell stories and they associate metaphors with particular characters, right, well, but before I get into that, just tell me about you.
Speaker 1:Know yourself how you got started and you know, just introduce yourself first to the audience.
Speaker 2:Well, I am Eric Basso, and that is how it's pronounced. If you've only ever seen it written down, it's not Bozo.
Speaker 1:Correct correct, you're not a Bozo.
Speaker 2:Can you imagine me a clown? Awfully big shoes to fill. I am a filmmaker but I started out wanting to just be a writer and then that turned into screenwriter and then that turned into just. I fell into acting in my pursuit of doing that type of thing and uh had a bunch of medical stuff that I'm sure we'll get into later, but then pivoted into comedy and whatnot. So I'm in and photography, so I've got all these, all these different um hyphens, but mostly I'm a comedian and filmmaker out of uh columbus and I make all sorts of different stuff. But uh, these past few years, uh, this festival down in cincinnati I've I've kind of fallen into a pattern of making some some pretty heavy art house drama type things.
Speaker 2:So that's me like adult pixar youly, yeah, yeah, there's one. That's what if a mechanical pencil had a voice and yeah.
Speaker 1:Being able to give something a voice, not just like a character, but you start to have these meta conversations inside of your head about what particular philosophies end up coming around as a result of that. But tell me, because you do a couple things. And so that was the trick of like I'm thinking how am I going to, what am I going to interview this guy about? Because you're a comedian, you're a writer, you've done some acting.
Speaker 2:you've done some directing what?
Speaker 1:am I going to interview this guy about? Because you're a comedian, you're a writer, you've done some acting, you've done some directing. Tell me about the dichotomy first, about all of your different interests, because you have a lot of things that interest you.
Speaker 2:Right, right, I mean, I think it all comes. If you're sensitive to things sounding pretentious, tune out now, because I'm going to be that. But all these disparate things kind of do revolve around the axis of being an artist. You know, like with the stand-up thing, you know, a lot of the image of the mainstream comic is somebody that's up there trying to be funny and cool and interesting and like smoke a cigarette and like a character and all that stuff. And I'm trying to be an artist about it. Like same thing with filmmakers. You know, some people are trying to be craftsmen and entertainers. Some people want to make, just want to be known as a oh, that's the guy that does the horror movies that are like this, you know, but uh, uh, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:Everything comes from a sort of, uh, artistic pathologies I can't control, but um, uh, but yeah, I mean all, the, all, the, the, the, the artist brain stuff, the, the, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Eventually you have to learn the tech and the cameras and filmmaking and like writing film, which was my initial interest. But that that pool, that storytelling tool, can be used as a comedic, you know, tool for that art or whatever that's. Uh, that's my, my, general, um, explanation of how I can manage all those things and and why I continue to do it, is that they're completely different types of artistic outlet, like when we write a movie or something and we build it and we know what it is and we want it to be, and then it's done. And then it's like audience ownership and it's like you made that thing and it's released and you get the feedback and whatnot and it's done and it's over. But with comedy, like uh, there is the audience ownership when I tell the jokes and they have part of that experience. But I'm still there and I can like read the room and like make a micro adjustment, like this mad life feedback.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like my example is like this maps movie like uh has a lot to do with uh, like organ donation and whatnot. And so if I were making that movie and then suddenly the administration illegalizes organ donation for whatever reason, like that's something I can't control, you know, that's something that like puts it uh kind of cements it in itself and and and and whatever, but like uh cements it in itself and in in time or whatever. But like uh the doing uh comedy and film, like specifically, those are the two uh the polar opposites of this world.
Speaker 1:I'm in well, you strike me as a, as a creative whose creativity is best, it thrives best in solitude. And am I misreading you?
Speaker 2:um, it's definitely preferential, yeah, for sure. It's definitely, uh, helped it and inspired it. I mean, I think, um, I think, uh, I mean this most recent maps movie movie. I think that that movie has a story with events that happen, but it's more about the theme for me, which is, you know, these two sisters represent. You know, ashley is the alone artist that gets it all out of her system and, uh, and I don't know if I expressed it enough, uh, visually, but she's kind of she, she wishes she was more like her sister who could be interpersonal and have friends and be social and whatnot.
Speaker 1:And I think it was more emotionally disconnected than the other right, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:And I do think, um, with those, uh, two types of people that that is, that is the, the two people inside of me that love each other and are jealous of each other and whatnot. You know, it's kind of. I remember when I I this was the first pretentious idea I came to on myself was when I was a kid. I was like watching Friends and I'm like man, I see a little bit of all of these. Wait a second, is that just what a good ensemble is? It's just, you know all, all the aspect. Everybody's a little bit of rachel, everybody's a little bit, you know, joey and whatnot. So I think everybody's got their little alchemy of percentage of. You know, with the maps thing, it's in terms of, um, you know, interpersonal versus, uh, artistic. You know, for MAPS it was explicitly grief, but I mean, I think people do that to cope with just normal life, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, it struck me like it wasn't just about grief. It was also about um. There's a word that summarizes getting over grief.
Speaker 2:It's like it's slipping my mind.
Speaker 1:It was also about like, about not reconciliating. It's just moving on. It's just the process of actually just moving on. The only way to move on is to go through it.
Speaker 2:That is a part of grief. I feel like whenever death or loss is in a movie, it's just like the tragedy is the viewer losing the character. It is everybody else like in shock and whatnot, but like, unless it's like a movie about grief or whatever, like it's, it's, it's not really. Uh, uh, there's a lot of a lot of things to loss.
Speaker 1:That uh, yeah, um what were the things that you said to Ashley and Brandy in order to be able to um? Give them grounds to uh um. Give any motive performance.
Speaker 2:Uh well, I have to confess I haven't watched uh their episodes of your show here and I don't know how much of their own uh well of your show here and I don't know how much of their own tragic past story.
Speaker 1:We're going to stop the podcast right now, and then you're going to go back and watch three hours, because not only were they on, but I also noticed in doing some research on you that you also know Jules, who is in the comedy scene up there. She was among my first ten guests. We're going to pause right now and then you're going to go and do your homework.
Speaker 2:Wardrobe change. Yeah, I mean I don't know where they've talked about it or not in respect to privacy, but obviously it's a general draw from your own loss, whether it's literal or not, in life. But that was even. I don't even think I explicitly had to say that.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think the strength is in the writing. You feel like you just can't get it properly on the page.
Speaker 2:I won't call it uh strength, but uh power.
Speaker 2:There's such thing as bad power, you know I mean, we're here to be pretentious, man, I don't know, I don't know about you, but like we're just, you know, just go ahead like, uh, like, uh, if you read some of the stuff I write on on papers, like, oh man, that is, that is too much, you know, like, how can you make that work? Like, but it's, yeah, it was definitely in the writing and in a very literal sense there is a, you know, in the movie, the big emotional highlight. Everybody says, you know that Brandy reads this note from the organ donation company telling them about how their father's corneas have been harvested for donation. And it's literally just her reading that letter which I got you know in real life. And it was man, they are both just so professional. It was, it was literally okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, I remember one, the one direction I did. I think we had to. Um, we knew we were gonna get at least two angles of that big crying reading the letter scene and so we did have time to to reset in between for one and um, uh, yeah, I just, I just told her she was reading a letter. That was my direction to everybody that just read a letter in in that movie is like you, don't? You know, don't be, be sad about it, don't this? That the other is like you. You are reading this out loud and yeah, it is, yes, it is a character moment, but it is functional to you know, the story and I think, if anything, I don't know, every moment, every, every line of dialogue has to serve characterization, the plot, or some form of, you know, engagement, like entertainment, and it, ideally, that would also, you know, be one of the other two things.
Speaker 1:So how did you, why did you particularly decide to, um, uh, approach the topic in in the way that you did when it came to just the nuances of, you know, filmmaking, when it comes to each department, you know being able to portray a particular, you know um aspect of the film, because all those those things, all those layers, have to congeal together properly in order to actually deliver visually the emotion that, you know, the actresses were trying to convey right.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's definitely easier when it's a small, past three. It's uh. All my movies have a a low, uh, low scope, but huge scale, or maybe it's the other way around, I don't know. It's uh, you know it's uh, but um, being, uh, being in, you know those, those, that living room and that van and there not being much motion, it's kind of like seeing a play or just being trapped in a shoebox with them. It's just a very objective. There's not much distractions and it's kind of forcing you to, and it's kind of forcing you to, you know, listen to these letters and the information that these people are receiving and, you know, with the context that you have, which is their dad is dead, you can kind of anybody with a reasonable amount of emotional intelligence can like kind of know that something is going on, and I think the challenging part of it is letting yourself imagine something that is worse than what you're going through now.
Speaker 2:They call some video game. Journalists call video games the empathy machines because it's forcing to. I mean that Last of Us stuff. I don't know if you're into the conversation around that stuff.
Speaker 1:I've watched. I'm like behind on my episodes for Last of Us. I'm like season two, like three, episode four or something like that, I forget where I'm at. I've heard mixed reviews.
Speaker 2:Honestly, Right, right, well, even just the moral relativism. You know the. You understand why somebody does something. It has that. Oh, and in terms of the empathy machine, like you, you had a whole first season to understand what joel was thinking and feeling and then when he makes that terrible decision at the end, you know exactly why. Like, and it's interesting, like in a movie, like you'll see it and you'll understand. And like there is. You know, they say you're complicit as a viewer, but like when it's a video game, it's like, oh, ok, well, I'm this guy and in this situation I do this. And like that, like, even though it's like killing dudes and left trigger, right trigger, it's like that is that is empathy. That is like, oh, this person wants this and feels this and that's a, that's a healthy muscle to kind of flex. So if I make people more sad than they are comfortable being and I don't win the vote for popular best movie, then that's fine, I think.
Speaker 1:If I'm, if I'm letting people get some emotions out or making people stronger, well, that's kind of the role of the filmmaker, though, or really just the storytellers, to be able to push the audience out of their comfort zone in multiple dimensions of their personality, have to you almost have to violate their unconscious in some way in order to step back into that area of their psychology that is vulnerable, that causes them to connect with what's happening.
Speaker 1:you know because, everyone has a little bit of a wall going up, and you have to be able to make something that either slips through the cracks or just breaks it down entirely.
Speaker 2:And that's sort of the.
Speaker 1:That's the real art of storytelling. You know, no matter what medium you're in, you know whether it be writing a book. You know music or even movies and shows and that sort of thing. It's. It's that, it's that art of being able to get people to connect. That, ultimately, is what storytelling is To you, what makes an idea worth pursuing and committing your time to.
Speaker 1:Like what possesses you and says I need to do this, you know, because creativity is just endless amounts of curiosity, but when you're going to pursue an idea generally, there's something that just that it almost feels like it possesses you, that you have to get it done.
Speaker 2:It almost feels like it possesses you that you have to get it done. Right, right, right. It's more like a. I'm not going everywhere telling people dude, I have to breathe, I love breathing, man, it's that's, it's that, it's that well, it makes one of us I.
Speaker 2:I prefer people to know everything, every little thing I mean I, I, I only love it when I, when I, when I can't you know otherwise. Like I, I am able to focus and not be giddy on set and, like you know, hashtag actor's life uh, look at us like hey everybody, look at me, I'm a cloud. Yeah, because, like I, I it's, uh, it is, it is a compulsion, it is a need, it is not a um, I don't know. I think what was the question again?
Speaker 1:Well, it's just what makes an idea worth pursuing, because we have endless amounts of ideas and ultimately, if we're going to pick one, we're going to sacrifice the time to all these other ideas that we think also might be worth our time, but there's always that one that sticks out, and so I'm really asking about the filtering process that you personally go through as a creative like not just necessarily filmmaking, but also you know what kind of joke you actually want to go for what style?
Speaker 1:you know it's more about just the nature of creativity itself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean. I mean the comedy is the, the, the biggest net. You know all of my ideas or whatever. If there's, if there's something worth the gleaming on to like, I will, I will. I will do it in that first. And if I'm making jokes about how lonely I am, you know I went to the pet store to buy a parrot but none of them really spoke to me when they were all sold out, they just flew off the shelves.
Speaker 1:That's funny.
Speaker 2:If I find myself keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that, well shit, maybe I do have to make a movie about this stuff, but in of when to make a movie I'm, that is that's. That's. That's partially a art meeting commerce. You know, unfortunate reality of life is to say it's fucking expensive and hard and like, uh, I'm not a good at interpersonal stuff and it's hard for me to convince people to help me do these things without first making something amazing to show them and say, see, I'm not crazy and it's, it's just been a, a struggle to do that. But, um, honestly, there there is a part of it that I can't control, that uh, I don't that I should like. I I've only done things for contests, I've only done winter films and 48s and like, uh, horror film festivals and like like a music video, like competition type thing. I've never, like I've done a documentary, a couple documentary things like for myself and like on on my own time.
Speaker 2:But in terms of like making, making a movie, I'm like it's, like it's almost um, uh, if I start doing that, whatever, and I know I'll like, uh, burn myself out on a on a practical level. So if I, if I have uh, there's two or three. There is columbus 48 usually do some kind of comedy type thing. There's this winter film in cincinnati where I fell into this dramatic hole and, um, there's usually something going on in the horror months and I do act and do photography and BTS for other productions and whatnot.
Speaker 2:But in terms of stuff that I produce and write and direct myself, it really is. It does take a lot out of me. And even this most recent time in February, like for when, when we film the winter film stuff, like I was not looking, I was looking forward to making a comedy, but then you know, my dad died in December and I was like, oh shit, I guess the next movie I'm going to make gonna be in a couple months and it's gonna be a Cincinnati like drama thing and it's like I guess here we go again. I made two super sad drama type things and I thought I got that out of my system.
Speaker 1:One of the aspects of art, though, is that, you know, artists make art in order to create the part that they're missing in themselves, to heal themselves. You know, it's like right you know you got that little hole, but you decide to fill it with something that's creative, you know, like the, that japanese type of um, like pottery work, where they interweave a broken pond with the golden, yeah, the golden and I forget the, the actual, but the purpose of that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's why I don't remember. I don't speak Japanese, but that concept is very reminiscent of what artists use their art to do. Sometimes, comedy is meant to heal in one aspect, but it can't do the thing that other aspects of art or other types of art can also do when it comes to healing the soul.
Speaker 2:Right right.
Speaker 1:We heal ourselves by creating the thing, and if anybody else is sharing that similar feeling, maybe that other piece of art that we created will also do something good for the audience's soul.
Speaker 2:Right, that is true and there is truth to that. Created will also do something you know, good for for the audience's soul, right, that that is true and there is truth to that. And I was mentioning earlier about how, uh, it was a compulsion, a pathology, because I, uh, uh, I I do do it to heal, but I would be doing it anyway. I don't want to make it seem I don't want to be.
Speaker 1:Make something that Trapun dumps, you know.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, and here's me being honest and vulnerable. Here I do. I do think I do have an insecurity, a projection that people see me and my weirdness and eccentricities in my. I'm very depressed and very open about it and fucked up. But I don't want to buy very depressed and very open about it and fucked up and but I don't, I, I don't want to buy into the image of you need to be hurting to, to do stuff like that and like I feel like people that just want to make something, that aren't fundamentally like fucked up, can get frustrated at people like me. Sometimes it's like it's, it's not um, I don't want to make it seem that it it is just from um, you don't feel selfish, a place of pain.
Speaker 1:You're right, right, right, um yeah yeah, well, I mean, sometimes I would be doing it but maybe it it is.
Speaker 2:It is, but just not on a good scale. You know, if I'm, I'm happy and whatever, and then there's no fundamental like thing that I'm going through, I'll still take pictures of whatever. Maybe it's because my knee hurts and I don't know it. Maybe I'm hungry. Uh-oh, I lost your camera. Okay, there you go, see the internet gods are trying to fuck with things.
Speaker 2:So maybe it is the same uh type of thing and and maybe like, if you before, if you really want to make something that is vulnerable and and honest and not just you know, an entertainment piece of content type thing, like maybe consider more about, uh, how you are hurting or or what you want, even if it isn't something obvious, as as obvious as being depressed or not having any friends or dad dead or this or that or the other. You know, and I think I, I think, I, I, I see a lot of people in the community that get depressed because they're not as good artists as they want to be, and I think Sometimes the worst like go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think sometimes that can come from a place of assuming that you had to be some eccentric whatever, some kind of fundamentally broken or flawed thing.
Speaker 1:But I think one of the the biggest, the biggest pitfall I think some artists actually fall into is not the comparison to others.
Speaker 2:Actually, it's actually the comparison to the person that they the art type of artists they know they could be and so now it it's just an intern or want to be, and they're internally wrestling with both reality as well as their potential.
Speaker 1:You know, and so they're disappointed where you know. You're not where you could be.
Speaker 2:But you're disappointed. Who you are and what's expected of you. It's very mad men.
Speaker 1:It's what you expect of yourself, though, too. It's also about what you expect of yourself, though, too. It's the expectations you place on yourself, that sometimes an artist might misattribute to others because they're projecting it onto them, but then there's other aspects that I think, more often than not, ends up being an in-house debate for the person. Right know right. But yeah, um, tell me, because you do, you do comedy, you're done acting um, which art form to you personally, uh, is the most creatively rewarding.
Speaker 2:Creatively rewarding, um, um, I mean, I think, uh, on a literal level, it probably would be. You know, if I'm divorced from all my other hyphens and I'm only doing one, one thing, I think, rewarding lines it screenwriting, because you have the idea and and a lot of people ideally uh, have a billion more ideas in service of that idea to make it even better and visible and audible and shareable, and I, I would consider that a reward for creativity. Um, and but uh, I mean people, a lot of people laughing at a joke you made that when you're on stage it feels as good as as you think it is, and like, especially when I'm I do this thing, it's. You know, somebody asked me when I'm on stage, is that a character? Is that an extension of your personality? I don't know, depends on the day.
Speaker 2:My friend dropped an album so I picked it up and I handed it back to him. He's that guy. I don't know how to explain it outside of just doing my comedy, but it's, how do you like to structure your jokes? I definitely am like a classic, like one liner guy. It is usually, you know, a misdirect type thing and I usually like I just did sometimes will deliver puns without holding your hands as to whether it is a pun. My friend dropped an album, so I picked it up, so I handed it back to him.
Speaker 1:Type thing Kind of like a Jimmy Carr type of comedy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, carr type, uh type of comedy. Yeah, I mean I, it's, it's, uh, it's. It's Emo Phillips and Mitch Hedberg and Stephen Wright, it's um, the one-liners are funny on paper, but uh, the character and uh, the delivery, that really uh, and it's not all like clean, you, you know. So there's, there's, there's 30, like I'll do a. They're basically dad jokes with. Sometimes they're dirty, sometimes they're political, sometimes they're not, and you never know whether what kind of laugh you're you're going to get out of it. And then sometimes it'll be. Yeah, I don't know, just surprise, surprises.
Speaker 1:Jeffrey Epstein wasn't well hung that are storytellers and they'll, they'll, keep leading you on, like is the next sentence, the punch line, and, and you're trying to track with them and and you're not sure when, when the punch line's coming, and so there's this build-up of anticipation when it comes to being a storyteller type of comedian and then suddenly, once they feel like, okay, it's never coming, then you drop the one liner on them and then that's what it's funny, but the you know the strength is the weakness, the surprise.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, I can, I, and I've been, I've been dancing around my, my best example is my closer and I guess I'll just say it um, and it is movie related, so it's, it's good, but in terms of um, uh, set up, not as a joke, set up but set up for, uh, subversion, you know, expectation, it's uh. Have you ever noticed there, one alien in the movie alien, uh, multiple aliens in the movie aliens, one predator in the movie predator and multiple predators in the Catholic church, and that that, that that is is kind of the, the in terms of written, I've got, I've got other ones, but I mean that's a good, the prime example of something that is a one-liner. It is based off of, you know, it is funny on paper, but it's the misdirect and the expectation and the little bit of dirtiness of it. The dad, you know, the, the, the perception of a dad joke is, you know, funny is funny is shit, you know.
Speaker 2:But I'm I'm trying to to challenge that, challenge that and also the idea of somebody going on stage with the intent of saying something funny and then that thing not being as funny as they expect. That is inherently funny, yeah and like that energy. But that's why I'm okay with them not getting the dad jokes at first, because I will, I will, I will say you know something and like expectantly, look to audience, to you, get it funny right and like that. That is what they they at is the energy of Do you like play the awkward comedian?
Speaker 1:And then sometimes the yin and yang is the there's the dad joke and then there's the character that you're playing. Reaction to the audience.
Speaker 2:It is the character thinks these dad jokes are funny and is just so patient with you and really waiting for you to to catch along. And it's that uh obliviousness that uh some people uh it's. It's hard to um accept that as being intentional on my part because, uh, I act like a big dumb idiot in real life and people assume that I'm doing the same thing on stage. But it's all on purpose.
Speaker 1:Right? Do you find yourself feeling more like an actor on stage when you're doing comedy, as opposed to a comedian Kind of, kind of almost more.
Speaker 2:I feel more like a. It's easier for me to get in character during comedy than than acting, I think do you feel like you're playing a version of yourself that you can?
Speaker 1:it's more easier to sift into well, see, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's the uh, you know, when they ask, is it an extension of your personality or character, I say I don't know because I don't know. I just that's how, like I I know it's a mood oh okay, here's perfect. Um, you're white, you know severance, right. So, um, I've been approaching it now as it's an in the outie thing, like when you're on stage, all your immediate traumas and bolt shit and baggage like leave and it's just your core, fundamental, like person, and like if you are broken at that level, that's still there, but like all the other shit, kind of like goes away and like if you're doing it right, they people see like your true self, as it were.
Speaker 1:So tell me about your first show because the first show is always the most nerve-wracking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I had already been a filmmaker and screenwriter and already done comedies. I know I can write funny things and I can get laughs conversationally. But after some medical things I had, at one I had at one point I had a. So I was at the dialysis clinic and getting dialysis and I was getting off and they're like, yeah, something left. Then I'm like I couldn't say anything.
Speaker 2:They're like, oh, you might be about to have a stroke or seizure. So they like, my dad take me to the ER. And we're like, yeah, you're definitely throwing signs of about to be having a stroke or seizure, so let's put you in this brain scanning machine. So they take me to the brain scanning machine. So, uh, they take me to the braining scanning machine, they drop me on the ground on the brain scan machine and they pick me back up and they put me on into this uh um, brain scan machine because you know they're concerned that I'm about to have a, a seizure. So I'm in this machine and I have the seizure and I'm fucking flipping around and shit. So anyway, um, I've got a.
Speaker 1:For me, it would just be claustrophobia. It would just be claustrophobia I've got this broken shoulder.
Speaker 2:I've got my when they drop me my leg bent like hyper, extended the wrong way, so I'm like walking with the cane. I've got my sling on like I and I'm a big, big, huge guy, I always stick out and whatnot, and like I'm I'm just chilling in my cast and cane and whatnot. And I see on Facebook that somebody says, hey, there's an open mic tonight. And I'm like man, I've always've always, always fantasized and then dreamed and then inspired and then, like it's always became more and more realistic and ambition. I'm like, dude, I've got all this shit on me. I look ridiculous. People are going to be staring anyway. Might as well just have my first set. Be. It's the guy with the cane.
Speaker 2:You know all my um one-liners on little index cards. I was still um convinced. You know if it's funny on paper, I don't really have to do anything beyond that before I discovered my stage persona, character, whatever, um, but yeah, it was. Uh, I had a couple friends, it was, it was good it, it worked. You know, I was in in bands and in the orchestra and stuff in high school, so it wasn't my first time like being on stage in front of people and uh, yeah, it was, it was a fun time and I, um, I kept at it. That was a good.
Speaker 1:How long ago was that?
Speaker 2:That was March of 2021. So over four years now at this point.
Speaker 1:Do you think anything should be off-limits in comedy, or do you think it should just be the wild wild west?
Speaker 2:I think people should be when people say the shit that they say. I mean it's the classic freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, that's true.
Speaker 2:Like if, if the fucking kill Tony crowd wants to pander to whoever the fuck and say racist, transphobic shit, then like the people that hate that will hate that and unfortunately, the people that eat that up will eat that up and like, uh, it it is a. I mean specifically with the, the kill tony, joe rogan, like all that stuff it is. You know, I tell an uber driver I'm a comedian. They say, oh, so like that. You know it is the touchstone. You know people, people think comedy is that and like it sucks. It fucking sucks because you can make. You can make a joke about everything. I mean it is. I do like uh, uh, remember the when the the train derailed in east pal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, in Ohio, yeah that huge plume of smoke up in the air. It was really bad for the environment. The EPA came. It was a poll, I don't know if you remember, and I was like I was kind of.
Speaker 1:I got kind of pushed under the rug. I never heard anything about that again. But I guess some people are like testing the water right now and it's not looking good and I don't know, I don't know I feel like I'm being kept in the dark on that, honestly I went on to twitter and I said see, this is why I hate trains people.
Speaker 2:And then jk rowling followed me and I said no, jk rowling, I said this is why I hate trains people. Now that is a joke about trans people, but but that's making fun of JK Rowling. We don't want to divide your community, but think of how much support for palestine you've seen online versus how much you've seen in person like it's there's.
Speaker 2:There's stuff that uh, uh, people need to sort their shit out in terms of what is is real and and what isn't, and this whole uh uh I I know why you asked that question. Should comedy be off limits and this and that and the other? And like people should be able to have the freedom to find where the line is. Some people say that comedy is the act of finding where the line is. If you aim for the other side of the line, of course you're gonna hit your mark, of course it's gonna be fucking too much. You could say, I think people this color or this, this, this, and it's like it will be objectively too much, but it's like if there's a little, you know if I do happen to make an accurate observation about a community that I'm not a part of, but it truly is accurate, you know, and like that's, that is, that is, that is good, but the pursuit of something like that people uh want to make it seem like they're braver, uh, than they are by. Well, the the question also comes from, um.
Speaker 1:Uh, I attended a local. It was actually my first live comedy show and it was. It was put on, I think, by uh four, by three, um down here in cincinnati and they, you know they you know, started doing comedy, I think around covet or something like that.
Speaker 1:Um, but there was one comedian in particular who stood out to me. Uh and uh, he was quite a wiry guy. Um, seemed like a very nice guy but I noticed, all like a lot of the comedians before him, they were, they were really very willing to to, to test where the line was, you know, in terms of offenses or something like that. And and uh, it was really interesting watching the comedians actually calibrate off the audience of like where where that was, and that's just from a psychology standpoint.
Speaker 1:That was a fascinating thing to watch, but there was one comedian who seemed very.
Speaker 1:None of his jokes ever seemed to test that line and he was trying to play it very safe and it seemed like he was very like. He didn't like he was so afraid of offending people that he couldn't find the comedy. And that's a little bit of the dynamic. Where that question originates from is because in order to find the comedy and the irony in something, you have to be willing to point something out that you subjectively think is true but somebody else might find that you know offensive. And so you've got to. It's kind of like it's not necessarily the Wild Wild West, because you know the a lot of territory has been explored when it comes to you know what group gets more you know, gets more attention you know than the others um when it comes to either being picked on or something like that.
Speaker 1:But um, if you're not willing to, he bombed I remember him, but he bombed because he was seemed very. All of his jokes were structured around, you know, finding there was. He was trying to find a sweet spot but his seemed like his range of territory willing to explore had a very narrow bandwidth.
Speaker 2:Was he talking about his life, his self personally, in a way that was not relatable?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's where Some people there's a fine line between you know I did this, I did this, and isn't that so me, versus I did this. Isn't that so human of me, I think? Did you ever see? Everybody Wants Some? It was the spiritual sequel. So human of me, I think. Did you ever see God? Everybody Wants Some? It was the spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused. No, I haven't seen that.
Speaker 2:It's set in the 80s and it's about this guy who joins a college baseball team and he starts dating a theater nerd and they go to a country bar. And they go to a country bar and they're all listening to disco and I'm not into any of that. But because it was so specific and personal, it was universal. It was universal like the way that they interacted with and consumed and loved the things that they loved. Even though it wasn't the same as me, it was in the same way and I think that people have a sense of that kind of thing, that people know that when they hear somebody talk about themselves and they hear themselves in it, that that is a thing you can do, and I think sometimes people can aim for that, but it just ends up being a diary entry.
Speaker 1:You know how much of your time do you spend writing for comedy versus writing for? You?
Speaker 2:know the screen and writing for comedy versus writing for. You know, the screen, me, the process of me writing for comedy is because it's usually like a wordplay thing. It is me just being an idiot and misunderstanding things.
Speaker 2:My friend, literally Kind of like Modern Family, where everything's a misunderstanding I guessi, yeah, I mean that's fundamental, like, but um, I think I literally had a friend say that he just dropped an album and I, I in my mind when he said that I thought he meant that he dropped it on the ground and that's where that joke came from and like it's. It's usually a thing like that, where you take the metaphor, where, where I, where I hear somebody say something and I don't understand because I'm different, you know, and I just uh, I, I I'm constantly, either through dissecting other people or dissecting myself, trying to find exactly what that difference is and exploit it, uh, through grammar and homonyms and shit, for the sake of, uh, humor and art and love.
Speaker 1:When, uh when, you're making a film, what is the process once you feel that the script is completed enough to try to get it off the ground? Who are you contacting and how do you like to source your cast and crew?
Speaker 2:Well, usually when it's these competition things that the filmmaking community knows about, I'll ask you know people beforehand. I've got my usual crew just about set, I've got my roster of actors and every time I release something, a new big, successful popular person will say hey man, I really want to work with you, kind of like leapfrogs like that.
Speaker 2:But um, yeah I mean I I usually am I'm writing something for somebody like I don't, I don't, I don't really cast as a verb much I write for, so um and and same. You know, with these time-based competitions and one of the only things you're allowed to do ahead of time is location scout. So like if I'm, if I do that and like I know it's going to be, like I have a restaurant or whatever, then I know to to write for a restaurant. So when the script is done, you know, uh, a lot of the, the pre-pro, as it were, is already uh in the can.
Speaker 2:Um, I like to uh read um, uh through uh the whole thing and then uh with uh every like block of dialogue, like a conversation. I'd like to break that out into chunks of um you know, right from this question, all the way through this question and answer. We're gonna film it with this coverage and then I'll draw a line and say, okay, then this is where they walk over to here and the camera will change. It really is kind of a I don't explicitly storyboard that much, but it really is just drawing on the script to know for myself, more than anybody, what the order of operations for shooting it will be, but um, yeah, yeah, it's um and and like, like with the we're saying with maps, I mean, the talent usually usually gets what I'm going for when it's all on the page thematically and um, because I am producing, writing, directing and whatnot, I, I do format my, my scripts, uh, format wise normally, but I, I do allow myself to be more flowery in the direction of like the.
Speaker 1:You know the scene and uh, character you're saying you like to overwrite your scripts a little bit just because it's for personal satisfaction and you can actually remember the vision you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean both, both, both for me and then. And then kind of it's pre-direction for actors, I think. Um, traditionally, you know, it's like a, it's a real like Hollywood type. Like uh got one of my scripts Like this is there's way too much direction in this, this is you know there's no room for the director.
Speaker 1:I can definitely relate yeah, this is.
Speaker 1:You know, there's no room for the director. I can definitely relate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my, my, my type of writing, uh, which I'm very aware of this, and I try to avoid it. But so I don't necessarily avoid it entirely, but I try to keep it to a minimum because, you know, I do like to think that. You know, each rather writer has their strength and, you know, sometimes a writer's strength is, if it's not dialogue, it might be being flowery with the action or the direction, you know, just to be able to clearly see exactly what they are thinking about, that reminds them of how it's going to sound, how it's going to be edited, you know, and just being able to remember all the details that your vision is reminding you of on the page. Even though it might not technically be the best way to write a screenplay, you know, if you're self, you know, directing your screenplay, it's arguably the best way, in my opinion, to break the rules, because there is an advantage to it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it is definitely in many, many, many ways harder being a um auteur type, but, um, there are things that, uh, you know, when I am writing, I am considering director Eric and editor Eric, you know, and, like, when I am directing, I am also being considerate of of, uh, the editor myself. So it's like I am, I am doing things, uh, a little bit more selfishly, but the uh, the, the people that uh are impacted by by selfishness are myself. So I am curbing, you know, a little bit, but it is kind of like it checks and balances. I am the rock, the paper and the scissors so I can adjust the levels between those things. Alchemy-wise, I like the word alchemy.
Speaker 1:I mean, it makes you sound like a wizard, but also like a scientist at the same time because alchemy, historically, is one of those areas where there's a blend between the two. You really didn't know what was what Isaac Newton loved alchemy.
Speaker 2:Did you hear? They actually did it. They used the Hadron Collider to turn lead into gold.
Speaker 1:I heard that they manipulated some type of particle to be able to change its properties, but I'm not exactly sure exactly what that entailed.
Speaker 2:I got that nerdy bit.
Speaker 1:I like to try to keep up with that. That and the James Webb Space Telescope that's an amazing piece of equipment. I honestly don't know why humanity isn't hailing that as the technological feat that it is. We also spend an insane amount of money on it. It's like what a billion-dollar telescope that started 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:I'm sure once we can apply some of the data gathered, people will care much more gathered people will care much more when.
Speaker 1:Well, that's and I I've said this on the show before is that a great artist also has a scientific bent to them, because it satisfies a different aspect of curiosity about the, the world and the universe that they live in, that they're also making art and commentating on. You know isaac newton was also a painter. You know he was into alchemy as well, with uh. You know his original um. He studied alchemy as well as you know the aspects of science that led him to his particular.
Speaker 1:You know discoveries about how physics works and whatnot um and so I think, honest, some artists would benefit from doing a little bit less art and maybe just going into those types of spaces and satisfying or cultivating even a particular sense of curiosity about the world, even if it's just not something that they're necessarily familiar with vice versa too.
Speaker 2:Some of the there's I can I need two hands to count how many uh, there's up here at the osu campus there's a buckeye stand-up club and some of these young, uh, prodigy type guys that are, you know, in college and still pursuing comedy enough to to do it good, like half of them are like fucking like computer engineer, science type. You know, know it goes the other way, totally Like a left brain type. People like need to need to get out the science types, need to get out their art as well. You know they're like.
Speaker 1:I totally agree.
Speaker 2:And it's like a you think paint was invented by some artsy fartsy, weed smoking whatever. No, man, it was some lab, lab rat, you know. It's like uh, it's, it's all.
Speaker 1:We need all things to get to all things, so everything is as worth is there a particular non-artistic um point of interest that you think, uh, that you're interested in, that also affects your art? I think, Because for me it's like it's also reading ancient history as well. As you know science Like I really like to, I've been lately studying the way light bends through particular objects and you know the visual imagery that comes to my mind is just like okay, how can I get?
Speaker 1:that on screen Like? What would that look like on camera? Because you start to wonder like oh, how can I manipulate this thing that's never been manipulated before in the way that I'm seeing it in my head, you know, so there's, you know the curiosity is like one of those things that are like they avalanche into other things.
Speaker 2:I remember telling a girl on a date applying that direct thing. For me the perfect example is in either version of the office, when they're outside of the boss's office and he's got the blinds down, but parallel to the ground, where you can, you know, you focus in and you rack and the light bends around the blinds and you can see through. You can see the image clearly through the window even though there are blinds. You know what I mean. You'll have to throw up a little visual reference for the, for the watches there. So there is a, there is an applied applying sciences. Like that I totally get you. I will say my, my first instinct.
Speaker 2:And when you say non-artistic, I think the ratio of art versus entertainment is a lot different in video games. You know, and I'm absolutely not saying that video games aren't art type thing, like Last of Us, like might be my favorite story like cumulatively, like one and two, like cumulatively like one and two, um, but like I do, I play a lot of video games that are purely mechanically and entertaining, like pieces of entertainment, and uh and uh, I, I, I am a gamer, you know, and I and I do, and I can tell, I think, when directors are gamers too, and like some camera motions and like uh, yeah, I, I feel like, um, I feel like the visual language of uh, of video games and some the the nature of the, the empathy machine, um, uh, does really um, uh speak a lot to the stuff that I make?
Speaker 2:even though video games is one of the few things that I don't make myself.
Speaker 1:If you had a proper budget, what type of story would you want to tell?
Speaker 2:For like a feature film.
Speaker 1:Yeah for filmmaking.
Speaker 2:A murder mystery set during the blizzard of 1978?. Very specific Copyright copyright, copyright copyright.
Speaker 2:Like it's a great idea, but it would be. That is. That is the error. Like, that requires budget, because there was an alien planet during that blizzard of 78 and I think that would just be a cool. I might want to hitch the coen brothers. That should be your last movie, man, um, but yeah, that's. That's been a a dream project.
Speaker 2:Um, I've had a couple um short film versions of variations of uh, I would really do want to make a story about employees of a movie theater, whether it just be like a regular dramedy type thing or like a like a horror comedy, whatever, like um, you, you know that this, that, for whatever reason, the instincts to do your first feature is like, oh, we'll do horror, we'll do things that require special effects, and yeah, everybody is obsessed with that and like, I kind of understand why, because even a bad horror movie is a good horror movie. There's some truth to that. Why would you not start with something that is cheaper to make and more approachable? Because, yes, a lot of people will launch whatever horror just because, but some people won't because they don't like it. Um, uh, but yeah, I, I think like a um adventure lands but at a movie theater, type thing has been floating in my head around a lot.
Speaker 2:I think, um, uh, especially if, if it were more, uh, comedic, I think, um, you know, people give a Family Guy a lot of shit for making too many pop culture references, which is a valid criticism, but I think that employees at a movie theater would. I believe that they would be making movie references all day. So I think that it would feel more natural, a little less Kevin Smith-y, if people are having conversations like that in a setting conducive to folks like that. I mean, there's a little Western set built out somewhere. I think it would be cool to do something post-Western. I'm a huge Deadwood guy and Red Dead for sure. I think it's been so temperamental with popularity, the Western genre coming back and disappearing and coming back, that there's something there.
Speaker 1:Well, the Wild West was not too long ago.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It was not very long ago. It's not like we're, it's barely older than World War II, than World War I. You know Right, it's like, you know, people when they were making Westerns, during that time there was a lot closer to home. That's like because before, when they were making Westerns, it was primarily that was something that was taking place like 50, 60 years ago.
Speaker 2:you know, people had grandpas who were cowboys that were like oh yeah yeah, stuff like that kind of happened, you know it's like uh, samurai were around we're still around when the typewriter was invented. I like to. It's weird to think about. But um, uh, yeah, um, oh, shit, um, oh, if you're into that, uh, recency of the western, did you play that first red dead redemption?
Speaker 1:no, I haven't it's set.
Speaker 2:It's set in 1911. Um, and I I have a feeling it's set in 1911 just so they can have the gun. The 1911, you know the first, you know, but I mean it's. But even thematically it's not a revolver, you know it's, it's a gun. It is, it's emblematic of that. First Red Dead Redemption is about like the death of the West or whatever, and like it really is like the latest, a classical Western type. I think you'd be in bed if you're a gamer at all.
Speaker 1:I do Well. The games that I play tend to be more strategic, or whatever you know like um um, you know I I have risk on my phone, but I like uh, I'm a classic MMORPG guy myself. Sometimes I'll hop on and I'll play Elder Scrolls online but lately, my drug of choice has been Magic the Gathering, so it's not even a video game.
Speaker 2:Right right, they have an MTG. Wasn't there a PlayStation version?
Speaker 1:Actually, now that you say that there is a PC version, If you're a, Actually now that you say that there is a PC version of it.
Speaker 2:If you're a numbers-go-up guy, are you hip to this Bellatro thing? You know Bellatro? No, I don't Enlighten me. Oh man, it's basically solitaire, but poker. You're given all your cards and you put down a poker hand and you'll get a certain amount of points. But then you get these little varietals where it's like, hey, uh, hearts and diamonds are the same suite, so they're suit, so it's easier to make a flesh. Or like, hey, you get double points if, uh, you don't use any face cards. And it's like you get all these weird. It's an augmented card game, yeah, and it is the most addictive and it's on every platform ever. If you're an iPhone, it's on the Apple Arcade thing for free, it's everywhere, and people who know about it I'm sure there's going to be. If you usually get only one or two YouTube comments, I'm sure that one person might go. Bellatro mentioned it.
Speaker 1:If they don't, I'm going to have to rely on you to leave something there just to make sure that we have all bases that are covered.
Speaker 2:Self-fulfilling processes.
Speaker 1:Well, do you have any final thoughts you want to leave with the audience concerning just creativity and the arts? Do more drugs. Do less drugs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean weed's legal now and it's for a reason, and I don't know. I don't feel like I have to advocate for that anymore. I'm sure even all the cool moms have their little edibles and whatnot. But if, for whatever reason and I know we're joking but if, for whatever reason, people are anti-weed, stop doing that. But yeah, man, you can. At Eric underscore Basso underscore is my Instagram and my venmo oh, okay, well um just free tips.
Speaker 1:I mean, if I send you, if I send you on venmo, are you going to give me like a good quality feedback? You know, I would expect you know that would be.
Speaker 2:That's, you know. Only fans has been uh, experimenting, trying to reach out into the comedy world. So maybe I'll get a sponsorship with them at some point. Oh, um, they just announced the lineup for the Columbus comedy festival in September.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And I believe, um, uh, yeah, I've gotten a late night live with Eric boss, so, um, I'm a fifth or sixth or something, um, but yeah, uh, the festival's gonna be uh dope, it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:Polyshore is gonna be there, it's gonna be a whole bunch of people from you know, regional and yeah, I might get my head up there because, like I've you know, I uh, when I had jules on you know she was telling me about the uh, the comedy scene up in columbus which seems to be popping off kind of lately it seems to be pretty active now.
Speaker 2:Had she started? How recent was this interview?
Speaker 1:Because she did this was like three, like a couple months ago.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, Did she tell you about our project that we did her first acting gig?
Speaker 1:I think I actually might have saw it, was it the short film that you yeah, the finger food, yeah, finger food yeah, yeah, yeah um wearing this shirt well, um she, I was introduced to her through ashley, actually um yeah yeah, so met at the screening.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I specifically remember that. Yeah, nobody. Yeah, ashley hung out with us at the 48 screening, I think Dwayne and who else was on the team yeah, nobody else on that team showed up to the screening, so she had to be there and accept an award for somebody, but she hung out with me and Katie Jules at that screening. There I was on time, I think. Yeah, I think that might have been where I said, hey, you should, let's do the winter film thing. That might have been where we made that connection. So very cool, but yeah, that was that's very cool. You know, I, as much as I love working with professionals like Brandy and Ashley, like I, I love working with non-actors and like comedians they're willing to try a lot of different things, because they also partly they don't know what they don't know.
Speaker 1:They don't know any better.
Speaker 2:And like people that are obsessed with the image of being an actor and doing all the BTS and this and that and the other, and like all the people that are in it for selfish reasons or whatever. It's harder to crack those facades when I'm, when I'm trying to direct it, uh, something like that. But but, uh, yeah, she killed it and and she got. You know, she got the. She won best actress for her first acting role and that was a very, very cool moment. I'm very happy to play a small role in her getting all the flowers she deserves, and she pivoted to acting after that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, very cool well, eric, thanks for coming on absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you for doing this, man.