Julia Sweeney

I like catastrophic calamity.

I loved things where there's a small thing going wrong and then you're going to watch it get worse and worse and worse as the plot goes on.

And, um, and of course my family was always a big font of material.

You went on to attend the University of Washington where you served as student body vice president, continuing the overachievement.

You studied economics while taking history and film classes.

And is it true you were studying economics in response to your mother's very practical question about what a history degree would end up leading to?

Yes.

Well, my mom likes business, not because she likes business, but because she likes... She came from a family, her brother at least, and her... Where they just, like... They were very Reagan-y before Reagan.

You know, like, get out there and make a lot of money.

And...

Neither of those people made any money.

They had no idea how to make any money.

But they had this idea that business was like a club.

You just had to learn a few rules.

So my mom always had these ideas.

She was going to have a sing-along bar.

And then if you asked her any practical questions about it, she wouldn't have—you know, sad, really.

She just had no idea.

And then her brother would get into crazy business things.

He ended up at Lompoc Prison for many years for—