Chapter 1: Who is Michael Ian Black and why is he significant in comedy?
On this episode of the Commercial Break.
I once dated a guy who looked like our next guest. But he didn't have the fame, intelligence, money, or awesome hair. So I dumped him and got a pit bull and a house. Anyway, Michael Ian Black is the next person to grace this birthday bash. Michael is a familiar face to anyone who knows comedy. With hundreds of books, TV, and movie credits to his name, he's a multi-talented artist.
Unlike one podcaster we know. Looking straight at you, Brian. Pointing my finger directly in your face. Yeah. However, if Wet Hot American Summer isn't at the top of your Why I Like Michael list, I don't even want to know you. You can read his articles on The Daily Beast, watch him on Have I Got News For You, or go back and watch Wet Hot American Summer again and again. Sorry.
Links in show notes. He joins us next as TCB's Endless Day rolls on. That episode starts now.
The next episode of The Commercial Break starts now. And our Endless Day rolls on. Michael Ian Black joining us now from Las Vegas, baby.
Are you a good poker player? Are you a good poker player? A good poker player? Could you win money? I'm an enthusiastic poker player. There you go.
That's the difference. That's what it takes. Yes. Do you have my general rule when I go to Las Vegas? I have two rules when I go to Las Vegas. Number one, never stay more than two days. That way you don't need a hotel room. Number two is that you have that money. There it is. Once it's gone... It's gone and that's it. And that way you don't get yourself into all kind of trouble.
Do you have rules like that?
My rules are similar. I never stay longer than several days past when I should have left. Fair enough. And the money in my pocket. Any money that I bring to Las Vegas, that is my budget. Once that's gone, I have to figure out how to get more money without my wife finding out.
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Chapter 2: What are Michael Ian Black's poker strategies and experiences?
And if I, if I pony up and get serious with the big boys, I feel like I'm instant. They're going to know who I am. Right. They're going to, I'm a mark.
And I know it's all about the cards, but I would suggest to you, let's, let's go back to your original statement, which was, I know how to play poker. Yes. I would suggest to you, you do not.
Fair enough. There you go. I think you're right about that. I don't think I know how to play poker.
I think I'm scared. I think you do.
I do. But I don't know how to play because anytime I've played with any people who actually know what the fuck they're doing, I get chewed up. I get chewed alive because I don't have a good poker face. I tend not to put my cards face down.
I put them face up.
That's a big boner move.
Wouldn't you rather have an attractive face than a good poker face?
Yes. While the boys were playing poker, I was stealing their girlfriends. And it worked. So in that way, I do have a poker face. Right, right. Yes, there you go. So, Michael, you... We've known you for a long time, known you through the screen for a long time. You started in our hearts and in our heads. I think the... Is the state your first breakthrough? Hey, this is it.
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Chapter 3: How did Michael Ian Black's career in comedy begin?
Fair enough. So I understand why people might think that. And what's weird is nobody else in the state gets mistaken for being in kids in the hall. I'm the only one. It's so crazy.
I love it.
That is so crazy that we had the same interaction happen with someone we were talking to. And they were pretty sure that you weren't Kids in the Hall. And I said, no.
And it's gotten to the point where I believe I was in Kids in the Hall. Yeah, yeah. They come up to me and they say, they love me in Kids in the Hall. I say, thank you so much. Yeah, I would too.
Thank you so much. Call Netflix and ask for that, you know, Kids in the Hall reunion check. Oh, gosh. Was it Netflix that they were on? I think that Kids in the Hall. Yeah, Amazon.
By the way, in the years since, we've all become very good friends. Well, I wouldn't say very good friends, but friendly with the Kids in the Hall. Lovely guys.
Then why wouldn't there be like a Kids in the Hall state mashup, like a mix-up?
Oh, really? We've talked about doing a Kids in the Hall, like a monsters of sketch tour. Yeah. Oh my God, that would be great. It would be great.
That would be amazing.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Michael Ian Black share about his experiences on MTV?
I get it. Exactly.
It's a family. For me, and I think for a lot of the, a lot of us who did the tour, we felt like this is a chance to kind of right some wrongs, you know, sort of reconnect as adults and behave like adults. Yeah. Be emotionally mature and just slightly sweeten the taste of that experience in our mouths. Not that it was ever bad, but that it felt like a resolution.
That's what was important to me about it. Yeah.
Was it cathartic? Are you the only one allowed to talk on this podcast? Yes, I am.
I'm the emotional support.
She's the emotional support.
I just want to understand.
If we had a dollar for every time someone said this.
I don't want to interrupt. Do you have a question, Chrissy?
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Chapter 5: How did 'Wet Hot American Summer' become a cult classic?
Oh, I didn't know that was legal. You can do that? Geez. I'm going to have to look into that. I'm actually not sure that's legal. Her husband is progressive. He might be breaking laws. I don't like that. Okay. And so women started gaining autonomy and independence. And then concurrent with that, technology started changing.
So we have moved out of the industrial revolution when men were sort of manning factories and sort of doing this hard, dirty work. And we've moved into this sort of information age. Where the jobs that are now online and that people are really – that are making money and are prestigious tend to be collaborative jobs, creative jobs. They tend to be jobs that require teamwork.
These are jobs that would traditionally have lived in a more feminine sphere and feminine space. And women are excelling in them. Women are excelling in school. And boys are falling further and further behind. And there are all kinds of complicated sociological reasons for why this is happening, but we have to look at sort of the root of it.
And if we want to have a society that's thriving, we actually need to implement these changes for men. We need to give them a permission structure to say, hey, I'm really struggling here. We need to have them not be afraid to walk into the gas station and say, hey, I'm lost. Can you help me? Right. We need all of that. for very practical reasons.
The economy now runs on those kinds of jobs, runs on cooperation, creativity, collaboration. If you want to have just a functioning society, men need to step up and figure out how to be their full selves. It just has to happen. The problem is That has been cast among reactionary voices as feminizing the culture.
And what do you – the worst thing you could say to a man or a young man who was caught in this kind of moment of indecision and not knowing who he is, is to say, oh, yeah, you're being a girl, you know. Yeah. That's going to shut him off entirely.
Now you have these legions of young, angry white men listening to Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan and all these other dude bros who are telling them, no, all you got to do is take ivermectin and work out three times a day and chicks are going to love you. It's this bizarre caveman mentality, but what it does is it offers a promise to men. Yeah. And it's an easy promise to men. Do these things.
Eat red meat. Work out. Listen to Andrew Tate, you know? Get a cool haircut and all your problems will be solved. Yes. And it's superficial and it's dangerous.
I totally agree with you. Superficial is dangerous. Instead of expanding the way that we think about masculinity, they are narrowing the definition. They're constricting it because it makes it easy. It makes it so easy. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's like, you know, It's like, you know, no knock on any particular religion, but it's like promising nine virgins, right?
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