A summary of recent news headlines including an X rated underwater show. Plus a sketch about food and a conversation with humor writer Mike Sacks.
To find out more about Mike Sacks and get his books check out his website mikesacks.com
Mariam: Spring is underway and that means nicer weather for those of us who prefer warmer temperatures, hopefully no surprise, snow storms, more sun, a nice breeze, birds chirping. The typical storybook atmosphere, April showers bring may flowers. Isn't it. Well, we shall see with climate change, we may have to switch up some of these sayings.
April pain might bring may rain no, too soon. And on that note, let's get this show started.
Voices: Welcome to session three
Mariam: it's time for a little news roundup US president Joe Biden is allegedly going to "punish China. If it gives military aid to Russia, that's according to the New York times, the paper reports, secretary of state Antony, Blinken says the us would punish China. If president Xi Jinping chose to give military aid to Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Okay. Let's think about this for a second punish "I'm a bad boy" . How do you punish leaders of other nations let alone corrupt leaders in your own country? The fact is we're here and they're not, it seems like a slap on the wrist is the maximum damage. While entire populations are the ones that ultimately suffer whatever consequences there are sanctions anyone?
Yeah, citizens can't get basic supplies, but leaders are still living a life of luxury. Makes perfect sense.
the next COVID surge is expected as the U S looks to what is happening in Europe, but as the guardian report, Experts say the U S has not yet reached the endemic phase. So basically we are reliving 20, 20 over and over and over again, real life Groundhog day. If we haven't learned anything, can we at least agree that we need to accept the fact that there is no back to normal ever again?
I'm keeping my mask collection don't throw yours out just yet because someone is definitely going to sell them on eBay used or not at high prices. When the next surge hits. I wonder though, is that even a thing? Do people buy used masks? Ok I'm thinking way too much about this. Maybe it's because my body clock is all over the place.
Daylight savings time should instead be called zombie apocalypse time. It's when we lose an hour of sleep and can't seem to get back on schedule. There have been dozens of articles, warning about the dangers of daylight savings time with research that shows it has serious health effects, Reuters reports, the us Senate just passed the sunshine protection act, which would make daylight savings time.
Permanent. No changing clocks ever again, but if it ever makes it to president Biden's desk, the law won't go into effect until the fall of 2023 after input from airlines and broadcasters. Australia's X-rated underwater. That was the headline screaming out at me from BBC news. And to think the article was about cuttlefish mating was a little disappointing. Let me clarify. I've never watched anything with that rating, but I mean, I was expecting that some scandalous incident happened to get on camera and perhaps turn sea life into reality stars overnight. And that's the news Roundup. Just ahead. A conversation with humor writer, Mike Sacks, but first, why do people spend money on food that doesn't even taste good.
Welcome to this posh brunch place seating for two right this way.
Holly: OMG hello. My followers and fans take a look at this brunch place. Aren't the plates gorgeous. You have to come down here, such a hot location.
Nadia: Uh, Holly, I hate to interrupt your little recording, but this place is expensive and the food tastes like cardboard
Holly: Nadia. It's the aesthetic. Don't be a party pooper. I don't even bother tasting the food.
Nadia: But you're telling people to come here.
Holly: Yeah, because it's Instagram worthy. People are always looking for the next best place to take a pick or be seen online everyone knows you don't come for the food.
Nadia: So you're basically spending tons of money just to take pictures and promote a place that you won't even eat at.
Holly: stop trying to make sense of everything. This is a lifestyle. Oh, look, I got a DM from the restaurant. They're going to send us some free appetizers. Yay. More photos for the gram.
Nadia: refresh your dm's I just sent you a rolling eyes, emoji.
Mariam: Mike Sacks is a prolific writer whose work has appeared in nearly every publication you can think of from Vanity Fair to The New York Times. He's also an accomplished author with several humor books, including one that he recently released, which we'll talk about in a moment, but first, welcome to news with a bite.
Mike: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
Mariam: Mike, let's get started sort of your, your background a bit. How did you find your niche when it comes to the kind of writing that you do.
Mike: Well, I wanted to write for TV. That was my first dream to write for SNL or Letterman or sitcoms. And I didn't know anyone. I grew up in Virginia and Maryland, and I thought the best way to go about that, to be discovered would be to write for print. Cause that was really all I was able to do. I didn't have any contacts and I thought I would be called up, you know, like to the major leagues, uh, after I was discovered. So I started writing for print, whether it was mad magazine or cracked the earlier version or McSweeney's, and I just stuck with it and I'd never really wrote, I'd never have written for television. I've written for audio. So.
My plan was to write for TV, but I sort of just fell into the, uh, you know, writing humor for the written page and then later for audio. And it's something that I actually now I'm happy. I fell into that because I can really write whatever I want. And I have a lot of friends who write for TV and there's, there's a.
Frustration on their part. Oftentimes it's a very, very tough business, both television and movies. And oftentimes you can't really get your sensibility, your style, comedic voice, tone, across when you're writing for a show. Even if you're writing say for a late night show. So it was just something that I sort of fell into because I had no other choice and I just sort of fell in love with it.
And here I am 20 years later doing basically the same thing I did when I started just with more opportunity to reach more people.
Mariam: That's really interesting that you went in thinking you wanted to do one thing and ended up doing another and actually happy with what you're doing versus like still, maybe trying to beat down those doors and get into television.
Mike: No, I think you're absolutely right. And that's what I try to tell people that sometimes you end up where you didn't set out for a lot of people have dreams about doing something and they end up doing something else, which I think is perfectly fine. You know, I know a lot of people who. Started off wanting to do say a career in comedy and ended up writing about gardening or about book reviews.
You just sort of find your niche. And I think there's nothing wrong with it. You don't have to write for TV if you're a comedy writer, uh, you don't have to write movies. You can really now do anything you want, whether it's a graphic novel, or if it's a book or it's an audio product. There's really opportunity now to really get out your voice.
Like there's never been in a history of writing. So I think there's a tremendous amount of freedom, but I also think, especially with younger writers, you shouldn't feel guilty or you shouldn't be tough on yourself. If you're not in the New Yorker or you're not getting your screenplays accepted, you know, there are other outlets and not everyone has to do what you were taught that one has to do when you were young.
And I think the most important thing is just to put out what you want, how you want to do it. And it doesn't really matter what the medium is, as long as you're happy with the product. And as long as readers or listeners are happy with it, I think that's the healthy way to go.
Mariam: I appreciate that because I think I'm sort of in that phase of my life now where it's like, I kinda knew years ago that maybe the path wasn't going the way I wanted it to, but was still stubborn.
And now I feel more like, you know, what, similar to, maybe to, to your story. I wanted to do comedy. I wanted to do standup. I wanted to do all these kinds of things and I actually find it more interesting to create than to be on stage all the time, um, to be behind the scenes more.
Mike: Well, absolutely. And I think the earlier one learns that everyone wants to do something else.
You know, if you write, you want to perform sometimes when you perform, you want to write, if you direct, you want to produce, if you produce, you want to write humor. I think it's important to know that everyone out there is not completely content with who they are. They're always trying to achieve more.
And I think it's healthy to want to do more and to sort of understand that this ideal goal might not exist. There's very few jobs out there. In comedy that are ideal and as long as you can continue to create and keep moving down the path, I think one should really try to be less harsh on themselves and just try to enjoy the ride because.
You know, I grew up wanting to write for historical writing rooms, be it your show of shows or SNL in the seventies or Letterman in the eighties or Conan in the nineties. And those are very few and far between and even writing for those dream jobs. Isn't always a dream job. You know, a lot of those jobs were very difficult.
And if you are happy, if you find your niche and you are happy every day, getting up and looking forward to what you can create, just feel blessed really, because at the very least, um, you may not have the quote unquote dream job, but it's going to be more interesting than if you had stuck around your hometown and worked as a temp off of I270 in an office park like I very well could have ended up. So, you know, it's a long ride. The highs are high, the lows are low, but. You know, writing it'll at least at the very least be interesting or not even just writing, but performing and creating. I think it's just a great world to be in. And as long as you're patient with yourself, and I see a lot of young writers who aren't, they want to make it and they want to make it now, but that's not really what it's about.
And, uh, it took me a while to learn that. But I think that's a healthy way to go about it.
Mariam: Yeah. It's definitely hard when you feel like everybody's competing. And then, um, now with, with all the technological advancements, the FOMO Israel, which makes me wonder, did the internet and smartphones ruin comedy in some sort of way, because it feels like there's just this state of anxiety with comedy now, online things can be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
I've experienced that myself and it can be demoralizing as, as an artist or creator to keep creating when. There's just so many people that can reach you from so many different avenues that, that weren't there in the past.
Mike: Right. But look at the, um, alternative, which I grew up with, you know, when I was a kid, there was no internet, so it was fanzines and it was, you know, sending off submissions to New York or a Playboy that were never read, you know, the power one can have now as a creator is just has never existed before.
The problem is that you're, there's a lot of competition, but I do think it's good for comedy in the end to have as many voices as possible because for many, many years, it really was a Harvard Lampoon men's white club. And I don't think that was good for comedy. It was very stagnant. And what you find now is a tremendous amount of voices out there.
And as a creator, you can get it out there. Which I think is great. The tough part is getting heard or getting read. It's just a tremendous amount of competition. I think that goes back to you. Can't be too hard on yourself because, you know, you'll see on social media, people bragging about being on this chart or, uh, winning this award, but it's all kind of BS and everyone is sort of yearning.
And I don't really necessarily think one has to be in the bookstore of an airport as an author, uh, to be successful. My books are. In airport bookstores, they're never in Oprah book clubs, but as long as you have a number of readers who really like what you put out and look forward to what you're going to put out, I think, uh, you should be, uh, I am, I can't speak for others happy with that because it very easily could not have happened.
I could very easily still be working in retail like I did for 10 years back in Maryland.
Mariam: You have a new book out, speaking of books, uh, passing on the right, the Skippy Bateson story. And I'll be honest for a small second. I was like, wait, did Mike interview a right-wing conservative and write a book about him or is this Mike's true thoughts?
Um, took me a second.
Mike: Well, it takes everyone a second. That's part of the problem. It's just confusing to everyone. It's not an elevator pitch. It's not a simple premise,
Mariam: but it was reminded me just like. Just how quick We are like now with all the information that comes so quickly, how we can instantly be like, oh, this is a book about that, but it's, it's a satire. And I was curious, you know, what inspired you to write this?
Mike: I mean, that's actually a very good point because I've had people who are say more on the left who have attacked me for thinking I'm condoning this and people on the right who have come out and congratulated me on, you know, creating a character that they can agree with, but really what it is is it is a satire on a certain type of person in this country.
Two types of people. One is the right wing comedian and comedy person, which I've been noticing has sort of been blossoming, which I'd never really noticed in the past, whether it's Jim Brewer or Dennis Miller, Joe Rogan, uh, and then combined with the Brett Kavanaugh type of character, which is what I grew up with in Maryland. I mean, he's older than I am, but, uh, I knew people like that and that sense of entitlement and. That sense that the life is, has worked out for them even before they leave high school. So it's sort of a combination of those two elements, creating a very, very mediocre American, uh, with a very tremendous ego who believes that he is entitled to everything he gets.
I mean, it really is. He's an ignorant character, it's the ignorance that I see now. And I grew up in DC around politics, but I've never seen it as bad as this.
Mariam: Do you think people have a hard time understanding satire in general? Or is it getting worse with time and the way things are, I guess, playing out in the political field and in society in general.
Mike: I completely believe that people's satire IQ has dropped. I mean, when you look at National Lampoon in the early seventies, when they were making fun of the Vietnam war slash and burn type comedy, black comedy it was called Michael, O'Donoghue created a Vietnamese first baby's book. And it was very, very, very dark satire. I mean, one of the jokes was that instead of having, um, footprints of both feet, the baby had one footprint because the other one was blown off in a mine.
So that is something that you can't get away with nowadays, you can very easily be confused with what you're trying to satirize. And that has been the case, um, where I have been confused with things that I have been going after. But to me there are different ways to satirize something and to come right out and say, Hey, this guy's an idiot and this guy is an entitled ass. It's not as to me as interesting as coming at it from a different angle and getting in his head and sort of being a character actor where I can play the role of this author and put it out there, making it clear. I hope that he's a jerk, but not saying, uh, on the cover this guy is a jerk.
Mariam: I love that kind of humor where it's like, it takes you a minute to kind of process it and there's I don't know, it's more intellectual maybe in a way. Um, and, and I think maybe. It's just hard for some folks these days, as you mentioned, you know, that there's just so much that's going on. And I think about some of the, my own work that I've put out where like, yeah, people just get upset and you're like, but that was, it was a parody. It was a satire.
Mike: Yeah. It's really easily. And I can understand when, where people would get upset because there really is a lot to get upset about now. But I do think that oftentimes we're going after the wrong people and. We're on your side, you know, we're just attacking it in a different way. I prefer this type of humor. You, I mean, you mentioned intellectual. I don't know what I would even call it, but it's not, you know, cat versus dog, or it's not the type of humor you would necessarily find in a Barnes and Noble it's maybe a little more, it's deeper. It resonates deeper. I think it means more once you come to it. But I definitely have found that people have been confused and I mean, even my family they don't know what the hell is going on, which is a problem because I can't really talk about the book that easily to people. They're just confused by it. Whether it takes longer to come to it or whether they never do. I don't know, but, uh, this is a problem. I find, I find myself in what I most like to write isn't necessarily what people most like to read.
Mariam: It's interesting. I'm thinking just like, you know, is there a conspiracy that somehow you, you work for some right wing, um, organization and you're putting this book out and trying to make it humor, but it's real.
Mike: Yeah, because it's a found object. I mean, it's, um, there's my name isn't anywhere in the book. I mean, all the books I put out are fake they're fake found objects, whether they're novelizations to non-existent movies from the seventies or eighties, whether they're a memoir, I supposedly bought at a garage sale in Maryland, whether it's this memoir put out by a supposedly real comedian. That to me is interesting.
I mean, it's sort of like I always wanted to be the Andy Kaufman of the written page where you wouldn't even know whether it was real or not. The problem these days is there's so much competition, not just with other books to read, but audio podcasts, TV shows, movies, and to put out a book that's 450 pages that could be one thing or could be another thing it takes them, a reader, a while to discern what it is. Isn't necessarily the best way to market a book. I mean, I shouldn't be saying this. I'm trying to market the book on your show. It's just the, I mean, the confusion I found, I'm just being honest here.
Even with my own marketing person, it's like, what is this? You know, who is this guy? And why should we read about him? He's awful. He's horrible. And I kept saying, well, that's the point? And then the marketing guy was saying, but why would anyone want to spend 450 pages reading about an awful person? And the guy has a point, why would you want to do that?
I don't know. Um, maybe you don't, but I just, it's my way of. Attacking what I see out there as just being awful. And, uh, it makes me angry to see what's been going on in this country for the past few years. And this is my way of sort of attacking it.
Mariam: Yeah. I like the idea of getting into somebody's head that that thinks differently. And even if it's a satire just kind of learning more about that, that side of, of our country. And what's the motivations behind people like that.
Mike: Oh, completely. I mean, I don't agree with any of these people, but they do have motivations and you know, some people have asked me, was it hard to get in his head?
It wasn't hard at all. I mean, he's an asshole. It's, it's easy to be an asshole. It's not easy to be nice and a mench it's easy to be a jerk. And it was easy to write this book because all I've seen over the past year or so, it was just this hatred and this ignorance. And the stupidity and, uh, it's fun to, to mock that this is what I'm doing.
I'm just mocking it. And it's clear to me as day that this guy's an asshole, whether readers can see that or not, or even are even interested in seeing that is, um, beyond me, but I just don't have any interest in putting out more mainstream type of comedy, which I have been recommended to do, whether it's cats versus dogs or whether it's historical tweets or whether it's, you know, if, if Trump were a Shakespearian character, you know, whatever it is. That comedy doesn't interest me to read or to write whether there is an audience for this type of comedy is beyond my control, but I just don't know what else. I don't enjoy writing anything else as much as this sort of.
Mariam: So you have this book, uh, passing on the right, the Skippy Bateson story. Are there any other projects that you're working on this year?
Mike: Yeah, there's a few coming out. One is a rerelease of two books. One is a novelization to a 1977 non-existent trucking and CB movie called Stinker Lets Loose. And that was actually made into an audio project where John Hamm played stinker and Ray Seahorn from better call Saul played his girlfriend. The other book that's being rereleased is called Randy and is supposedly a memoir. I found in a Maryland garage sale written by a guy who lived with Randy, whose job it was to make him look good.
And in return, he got a free place to stay and food. But after reading it, even though it's written in very flowery prose, you can tell this guy can't stand this character. So that's called Randy. And then the third book is a college catalog parody, which is a. College catalog that high school seniors would receive.
Mariam: What is it that compels you to keep going despite the world falling apart around us or whatever? Um, you know, especially now with talk that Trump might get reelected in 2024. Um, is that just more material for comedians?
Mike: I guess, I don't think it's moved the dial at all. I mean, I feel sorry for late night writers, I don't think any of the millions of jokes they've written about Trump has done anything and.
Understand how they haven't just gone mad. I mean, it's just, I think totally useless. I'm not doing this to change one mind. It's just me expressing outrage at what I'm seeing, why I do it. I have no idea. I mean, it's sort of like the artisans who make little lucite unicorns at the crafts fairs, um, and sell.
That's just what they want to do. And. I don't know what else to do. I mean, there's only a few things that I can do that takes my mind off depression, anxiety, and the fact I'm going to die. And this is one of them.
Mariam: And that was humor writer, Mike sacks. You can find links to his work in the description section of the podcast, or head to MikeSacks.com. News with a bite is written and hosted by me, Mariam Sobh.
It's produced by Todd Manley of EarSight studios. If you'd like to catch all episodes, make sure to add this show to your list, wherever you get your podcasts.