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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2014)
street roots 9 June 6, 2014 HARDWICK, from page 8 war? you kick a person when they’re down? hut still, when you are used to seeing I think there is a lot of mean-spirited someone on a giant screen, there is humor and I think a lot of people like i t I something about your brain that can’t ... think (they like it) more for the shock value: The hiost insane experience I ever had “Oh can you believe I said that?” I think our meeting a famous person was when we did show, and certainly our podcast, shows you : stuff with Muppets. When you see a Muppet can be edgy without being mean. We, as an come to life in front of you for the first time, internet culture we all do these ridiculous you can’t handle it. things. C.H.: Well, it’s not really a hashtag war the way that we would do a hashtag war. That is a serious social issue. The fun thing about designing our show was that we were on after “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”. And those are both shows that are very funny, but they’re also shows that are S.Z.: Speaking o f Tom Cruise, what are S.Z.: You created The Nerdist Podcast in tackling very serious issues and so we 2010. What a fantastic idea. Can you give our * your thoughts on Scientology? decided, we’re on at midnight, people are | readers a thumbnail version o f nerdist.com? 3 about to fall asleep, let’s let our show be like C.H.: I don’t personally understand the information that you don’t need, but I Scientology, but there are a lot of religions C.H.: It has sort of turned into a “can I want. It’s sorbet for the brain at the end of trick people that I want to meet into; talking' that I don’t understand either. I was raised S the day. You know when you’ve had to to me for an hour?” I’ve teen able to do Catholic. Were you? B process the world and all of the things that th at are happening, and our show is just a little In the beginning the podcast was a \ ? . ; S.Z.: I was raised Catholic. escape: you don’t have to think too hard. response to the fact that. It's entertainment, The spirit of the show-is satirical and snarky H you get kicked in the face a lot. There are C.H.: Do you still consider yourself a and upbeat. a lot of reasons why you may or may not get Catholic? Ba job, but you’re not, really in control of any S.Z.: Can anything be made funny? of .it and so it’s very similar to stand-up. S.Z.: No. I thought I’m going to make a thing that C.H.: WeH, in the grand theory of ¡is just mine that no one can tell me what or C.H.: Me neither. I’m not a religious comedy, anythihg is funny if the audience how to do. I will have full ownership over it thinks it’s funny. It’s a really interesting person, but I have a lot of friends who are. and I will make it what I want. I’m going to question and one that I’ve been dealing with do it because it’s fun, it’s with my friends, j j Religions in general, I just don’t understand, now because my dad died last year. He died | and we’ll have guests on and we’ll have but I'also I think because of nerd culture, I in November, very suddenly. I was very feel like I’m less inclined to judge people conversations. I always like the dynamic of close to him ... comics hanging out backstage at a show. It’s , unless they directly do something that is riffy and it’s fun and it dips into serious harmful to someone. I try to be open- S.Z.: I ’m so sorry. stuff, but then it goes back to screwing minded because so much of the time, when around - everyone is kind of one upping | I Was growing up, I didn’t really have that. I C.H.: Oh no, that’s QK! You didn’t kill: each other with jokes. I just always liked felt like I was judged a lot. People constantly him! What if. you were, like, “ I did actually. that vibe and so, that’s ultimately what we •tell me things online about myself that This is all a fake interview ...” tried to create and then it started to get to aren’t true but they assume are true. Why this place where I started wondering if we do we. do that? You don’t know what S.Z.: The reason I called you today is could get (bigger names on the show). someone else’s life is like. because I need to get I remember the first time we ever did a It’s funny, I find that a lot of the people something off my real musical podcast it was with Ben Folds a ohline who claim to be open-minded are chest... couple of years ago, I thought, maybe we should do a show C.H.: I hope you feel better. I appreciate that you came forward. He just very suddenly had a heart attack and died and it was really sad. The way that I was dealing with it was to talk about it on stage. I went on stage two days after my dad’s funeral. It was able to talk about it on stage and take this really horrible thing, and find out how can I process this - not a therapy session - but how do I find the human element of this thing and make it sharable with people so that they understand and talk about death and dealing with death in a way that is relatable and funny in the sense that it’s something that we all have to deal with at one point or another? Is there a way to do that? I’m finding that I think that there is. We had Mel Brooks on the podcast and he had a really great idea of what is funny to an audience. Or what is acceptable to joke about and what’s not acceptable to joke about. His idea was that comedy ultimately should be subverting the people who are in power. If you’re subverting people who are in power, that’s funny, you know? But if you’re subverting people who are not in power, why would you do that? Why would th at I was m oderating a hi® panel at Comic Con and Tom Cruise was there and we started singing 80s songs. But th at a ctually happened." ■ because you can do a podcast from wherever you want — maybe ?we should do this in a recording studio and ,^e^ ^ J^»wilLplay, the p.iano. So. we asked and h e ’said, OK. We were in the studio, we were doing the interview and he sat down a t the piano and we started requesting songs and it was just me and the two other guys in., the podcast and our girlfriends. I really expected him to stop playing the piano and turn around and go, “You tricked me into giving you private concert!” Which is ultimately what we did - we just shared it with everyone. We’ve had some great podcasts, Morgan Freeman just did one and Tom Cruise is doing it next week. S.Z.: You sang a duet with Tom Cruise at Comic Con last year. Random. C .H : I did. I would be lying if I said we have actually hung out since then, we haven’t. Everyone I’ve had on the podcast who has worked with him is like, “He’s the most amazing person. You just can’t get over the guy’s energy, it’s.unbelievable.”, I met him and they’re right. He knew that we both played the same character - 1 was , in a play, years ago and he did the same character in a movie version, but I didn’t expect him to know that. He did know that and started singing at me, during the panel. It was the most surreal... it was one of those weird moments: I had this crazy dream that I was moderating a big panel at Comic Con and Topi Cruise was there and we started singing '80s songs. But that - actually happened. I don’t put celebrity on this big pedestal. I know he’s just a person, actually really kind of judgey. They’re like, “I’m open-minded — not like those jerks over there!” Well you just called those p eople jerks! S.Z.: You said that you love Portland. What is one o f your ‘must do’ Portland kind o f things? C.H.: There’s H lo t I always have to go to Ground Kontrol. I love going over to Mississippi Avenue.. There’s a place over . j there, Gravy, fantastic. What’s the Asian restaurant that is so good? You have such good food in Portland. S.Z.: PokPok? C.H.: Pok Pok. There you go. There is so much good food in Portland, so many good donuts in Portland. I do like VooDoo, but I also like Blue Star - it’s a good doughnut place. S.Z.: A doughnut connoisseur. Have you ever had a cronut? C.H.: Yes. We actually had the original cronuts in New York. It’s a good idea. Why didn’t anyone think of it sooner? You know, croissants are great, but they’re not sugary. How can we accomplish that? S.Z.: We’re Americans. We can do it. C.H.: (laughs) We can make anything less healthy.
