May 2023 Minor Obsessions

Eight (ish?) years ago, actor/comedian/Emmy winner Jeff Hiller was a guest on this podcast to discuss reading celebrity memoirs. Today he returns to discuss what it was like to WRITE one! We were so excited to talk to Jeff we did the unprecedented/confusing thing of doing another episode of this podcast which for real is not happening anymore! Okay, back to Jeff! After the success of playing Joel on the terrific HBO show Somebody, Somewhere Jeff wrote a memoir "Actress Of A Certain Age." It tells stories of growing up in Texas, working for non profits in Denver and Africa, pursuing acting in NYC, doing improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, moving to LA and then back to NYC and lots more.  We were thrilled to talk to Jeff about his book and his life! Thank you Jeff! For minor obsessions, Anthony talked about trying to switch from reading social media to getting daily email newsletters and Will discussed the maddening video game Baby Steps.  Thanks to Susannah Beckett for suggesting that we do this! John Flynn (who wrote his own terrific memoir Baked) also suggested it! I thanked John in the podcast and forgot to thank Susannah! Conspiracy? Who knows? Also Connor Ratliff suggested it. Look, we have a lot of smart friends and we're grateful for them all!  

Hosts Anthony King and Will Hines return after two(ish) years to discuss the recent(ish) HBO documentary on Billy Joel "And So It Goes." Anthony and Will are both big Billy Joel fans and have a lot of thought on this very good doc! And the Minor Obsessions return! Anthony is into SuDuko to a troubling degree and Will talks vaguely about the art of a franchise returning after a long hiatus (a la the recent Spinal Tap sequel, not about the temporary return of this podcast). See you all in 2-3 years, maybe?

We're back! For no reason! Well, maybe because there's a writer's strike and Anthony has time. And maybe because Will figured out that if he just sent Anthony a scheduled zoom link with no warning, Anthony would accept it! But whatever the reason is, your hosts are back with another "minor obsessions" only episode. We go over apps, books, games, other podcasts and waking up early. Please enjoy this "for no reason" bonus epsiode!

Anthony and Will resurrect the podcast for one episode because... well, just kinda because! No guests! They each describe three minor obsessions. Oddly, their first ones are almost identical. They get into: music, liquor, video games, statistics, social media, Broadway, the pandemic, 9-11 and wondering how they will let anyone know that this episode exists!  Thanks to Connor Ratliff for encouraging us to do this!

Final episode! After almost three years, we are ending the podcast! "Why?" you ask, you DEMAND, to know? Well, we just wanted to. We've loved it every step of the way but now we can sense it becoming more of a chore than a labor of love so we're ending it before that happens. In this final episode, we talk about the reasons we started the podcast, the things we tried in our real lives, the nature of adult friendships, Seinfeld, Facebook algorithms, learning new music, Anthony's run of being artistic director of UCB, Will's method of remembering things from the media he absorbs and... that's it! Thank you to everyone who has been on our show, who has listened to it, who's supported it! Seeeee yaaaaaaaaaa!

Hayes Davenport is a co-host of the very funny podcast Hollywood Handbook, as well as being a writer for many great television comedies. We don't talk to him about any of that. We get into his obsession with CITY PLANNING. Why are cities set up the way they are? What are the issues with making them better? What's going with Los Angeles? Who made NYC have all those bike lanes? We love this episode and so will you. Also, Will discusses the cat petting/hair-pulling tool The Furminator and Anthony talks about the online service BookBub.

We break our "not about what you do" rule yet AGAIN to talk to television writer/former UCB Artistic Director Neil Campbell about SKETCH COMEDY. We get nerdy early and often as we go back to Neil's days at the University of Iowa, his thoughts on the early days of the UCB sketch scene, how he adjusts strategies when writing for television and way more! No minor obsessions because why follow ANY RULES?

We talk to Jackie Johnson, comedian actor and host of the hit podcast Natch Beaut, about her jaw-droopingly long obsessing with the SIMS. You know, the virtual family game where you set up a little community and they age and do stuff? Jackie has done this for like 15 years. Holy jeebs. Also, Will talks about the sketch comedy podcast from Austin called Victrola, and Anthony talks about Croation singing sensation Jacques Houdek.

We talk to comedian Beth Appel about ODYSSEY OF THE MIND, the middle-and-high-school competition designed to encourage creative problem solving. What got Beth so obsessed? How is it not like a quiz bowl or a math team or other nerdy competitive things? What's with all the building things out of wood? We get into all that and MORE! Plus Will is into a teahouse he visited in Beijing and Anthony likes Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History.

We talk to comedian Will McLaughlin (TBS' show "Wrecked") about the JFK ASSASSINATION. Seeing the Oliver Stone movie JFK set Will on a path of researching President Kennedy's murder to see what parts of the official story really DON'T hold up. Will has three main issues with the official story, and if you listen to the episode you will hear WHAT THOSE ARE. Also, Will (Hines) talks about the Alessi Brothers' song "Seabird" and Anthony, after trying water skiing for the first time in years, ponders about how certain learned skills remain available years after you last use them.