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.