Ep 183 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND with music publicist Daniel Gill

We deep dive into Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary (2021) on AppleTV. Haynes talks to the surviving members of the band and a lot of New York art world and the Warhol Factory scene about this legendary group that blended drone, multimedia, and doo-wop. The first-person accounts are great and you get steeped in the heady New York days of yore.

Our guest is music publicist and Velvets fan Daniel Gill, who runs Force Field PR. George makes an argument for the TCCU (Tony Conrad Cinematic Universe) and Daniel plays a very thorough Cast This Doc. No Jonathan Richman impressions were maimed.

Daniel Gill runs the PR and management firm Force Field out of the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Force Field is best known for launching the careers of many of your present day brunch playlist favorites, such as Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, Beach House, Toro Y Moi, Real Estate, Neon Indian, Tennis, Lord Huron, Panda Bear, Woods, Kevin Morby, and many more. They’ve also handled PR for a slew of music documentaries including Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, ZAPPA, Once Were Brothers, Crock of Gold, Danny Says, Other Music, etc. Gill is also serving as the producer on the newly launched music podcast Discograffiti.

Dan also put together a curated list of everything Velvets referenced in this doc, also a great primer!

Ep 182 FOR MADMEN ONLY with director Heather Ross and actor James Urbaniak

Paco and George talk to the director of For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close Heather Ross, and actor James Urbaniak. This documentary is currently streaming on Amazon, Google Play and AppleTV and premieres on Hulu later this fall. For Madmen Only is an intimate look at the tremendously influential comedy and improv guru Del Close and is an eye-opener for anyone unfamiliar with this improv family tree that includes: Jon Glaser, Rachel Dratch, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Tina Fey, Vince Vaughn, Bob Odenkirk, Adam McKay, Amy Poehler, Elaine May, and Bill Murray. It’s crazy how many comedy stars were his students! Check out a partial list here.

This is a great conversation that moves from comedy, mental illness, improv, drugs, seekers vs oracles, comic books, music and much more!

Guests:

Heather Ross is an Emmy winning director & producer. She directed the documentaries For Madmen Only and Girls on the Wall as well as directing and producing for HBO, NBC, Fox, Discovery, A&E and more.

James Urbaniak has starred in a series of films by Hal Hartley starting with Henry Fool, plays Dr. Venture on The Venture Brothers, was a regular on Difficult People and Review. He also hosts the podcast Getting On With James Urbaniak.

Follow the film on:

Twitter: @madmenonlymovie

Follow Heather on:

Twitter: @sincerelyhr

Follow James on:

Twitter: @JamesUrbaniak

Follow us on:

Twitter: @supdocpodcast

Instagram: @supdocpodcast

Facebook: @supdocpodcast

And you can show your support to Sup Doc by donating on Patreon.

Ep 181 FANTASTIC FUNGI with comedian Jessica Sele

We’re discussing Fantastic Fungi (2019), directed by Louie Schwartzberg. We look at all the forms of fungi, the roles they play in recycling matter, communicating with the trees, and even their role in human evolution. You may never look at mold the same way again. Our guest for this episode is comedian Jessica Sele.

Fantastic Fungi is a consciousness-shifting film about the mycelium network that takes us on an immersive journey through time and scale into the magical earth beneath our feet, an underground network that can heal and save our planet. Through the eyes of renowned scientists and mycologists like Paul Stamets, best-selling authors like Michael Pollan, Eugenia Bone, Andrew Weil and others, we become aware of the beauty, intelligence and solutions that fungi kingdom offers in response to some of our most pressing medical, therapeutic, and environmental challenges.

Jessica Sele is a Los Angeles-based comedian whose teeth were cut sharply in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her material ranges from sexuality to substance abuse to living in the end times. Her performances leave audiences to feel that demons have just left their bodies to take the night off. She hosts the West LA comedy night at Giant Robot, as well as the podcast, “Hot Topic: Jessica Sele talks about climate change for some reason.” Jessica has performed on Viceland, is a regular feature at her home club the San Francisco Punch Line, and has performed at fancy comedy festivals, colleges, clubs, and alt shows across the nation.

Ep 180 TOO SOON: COMEDY AFTER 9/11

On Ep 180 of Sup Doc, we review the documentary Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11 which you can catch on Vice TV on Sept. 8th, just a few days before the 20th anniversary of the 2001 attacks. The documentary features interviews with comedians including David Cross, Gilbert Godfried, Janeane Garofolo, and Marc Maron about the struggle to re-establish humor’s place in the aftermath of the attacks that day. The film explores how stand-up comedians, Broadway performers, late-night hosts, and “Saturday Night Live” helped audiences laugh even in the darkest of days. Our guest today is Julie Seabaugh the director, executive producer, and story editor of Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11.

NOTE: (VICE TV is available via all major satellite and cable providers and the VICE TV app via iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.)

Julie Seabaugh grew up on a farm in rural Missouri and discovered stand-up when Dave Attell performed during her senior year of college. Way back in 2003, she founded and edited the criminally ahead of its time print and online comedy magazine Two Drink Minimum. Now the only full-time freelance comedy journalist in the United States, she’s contributed to The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, GQ, Variety, The A.V. Club, The Village Voice, The Huffington Post, Spin, Playboy, Vulture, Paste, Time Out New York, Time Out Chicago, and numerous other alt-weeklies.

Seabaugh’s coverage of modern roasting culminated in the 2018 book Ringside at Roast Battle: The First Five Years of L.A.’s Fight Club for Comedians, and her love of Mitch Hedberg led to producing/hosting 2020’s Hope on Top: A Mitch Hedberg Oral History for SiriusXM’s Comedy Central Channel (available to stream via the SiriusXM app). With Emmy-nominated director and editor Nick Scown, she is currently producing the documentary Too Soon: The Comedy of 9/11. Participants include David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, Gilbert Gottfried, Lewis Black, Darrell Hammond, Doug Stanhope, and Marc Maron; the film’s 2021 release will mark the twentieth anniversary of the attacks.

Among her career highlights, simultaneous Bridget Everett Village Voice and Roast Battle L.A. Weekly cover stories ran on both sides of the country the week of September 8, 2014. Interviewees over the years include Carl Reiner, Christopher Guest, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Joan Rivers, George Carlin, Don Rickles, Eddie Izzard, Drew Carey, Howie Mandel, Jimmy Kimmel, Key & Peele, Judd Apatow, Lily Tomlin, Mitch Hedberg, Seth Meyers, Wanda Sykes, and Zach Galifianakis.

Having previously served as A&E staff writer at Las Vegas Weekly, Seabaugh won a 2015 Nevada Press Association Award for a cover profile tracing the downward health spiral of The Amazing Johnathan. “It’s obvious the author is a wordsmith,” judges wrote. “Every sentence is well thought out. It’s full of lively adjectives and truly paints a picture of what the Amazing Johnathan looks like, what he’s experiencing and how he got to his current state. I felt like he was sitting next to me, boisterously telling his story.”

We review the controversial Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage (directed by Garrett Price) out now on HBOMax.

Boomer nostalgia meets nu metal in a fight where no one wins. The ceremonies took place in Rome, New York in 1999, three decades after the initial Woodstock festival. Seemingly small logistics issues roll into a massive (and literal) shitshow, sprinkled with arson, sexual assaults, and at least one fatality.

Do Bill Simmons’ and HBO lay the blame where it belongs, or are they re-exploiting these events for a quick payday two decades later?

*Netflix is now reported to have its own version of events in the works

Chaki is a funky alien wizard from Outer Space. With his unique take on electro funk, he has brought his weird ass stage show to festivals like Noise Pop and The Offbeat Fest. Chaki has shared the stage with like minded weirdos Peelander Z, El Vez, Bob Log III, Metalachi, Captured By Robots and The Oingo Boingo Dance Party. Rolling Stone said he is like Prince except not sexy and much fatter.

Adam Papagan is a native of Los Angeles who has always been media and pop-culture obsessed. He’s had a lot of projects- music, public access television, art- but makes a living in the tourism industry, guiding guests through his own O.J. Simpson Tour. He’s running for Governor of California during the Sept 14th recall election.

Sup Doc – The Premier Podcast About Documentaries

George and Sam Mickens dive into David Gregory’s 2014’s chronicle of the disastrous attempt to remake The Island of Dr. Moreau in the 1990s. Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau is not only a preposition-heavy title, it’s an underdog story with a few twists.

Horror director Richard Stanley wanted to do an update of H.G. Wells’ novel with James Woods and Bruce Willis, and New Line Cinema was on board until they weren’t. Even before shooting, tales of erratic behavior and bad juju followed this production. Stanley is replaced with a workmanlike John Frankenheimer who has just as much trouble wrangling the intractable Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer. If you think this is the last you’ll see of Richard Stanley, you’ve got another think coming.

Our guest to discuss this film is Sam Mickens, a musician, artist, and programmer at Another World Is Possible. The new streaming service and news channel is launching in September 2021.

Ep 177 WATCH OR NOT DOCS

On episode 177 hosts Paco Romane and George Chen sit down to review and recommend some recent documentaries: The Sparks Brothers, The Donut King, Summer of Soul (and the not-so-recent The Cockettes). We are also looking forward to the Val Kilmer doc!

The Sparks Brothers (Edgar Wright, 2021) In Theaters / Purchase– Filmmaker Edgar Wright explores how one rock band can be successful, underrated, hugely influential and criminally overlooked — all at the same time. A musical odyssey exploring five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron and Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks — your favorite band’s favorite band. Features commentary from celebrity fans Flea, Jane Wiedlin, Beck, Jack Antonoff, Jason Schwartzman, Neil Gaiman and more.

The Donut King (Alice Gu, 2020) Hulu – Cambodian refugee Ted Ngoy builds a multi-million dollar empire by baking America’s favorite pastry — the doughnut.

Summer of Soul (Questlove, 2021) Hulu – Over the course of six weeks during the summer of 1969, thousands of people attend the Harlem Cultural Festival to celebrate Black history, culture, music and fashion. Controversy around Summer of Soul footage >

The Cockettes (Bill Weber & David Weissman, 2002) Documentary Plus – In the gay San Francisco of the ’70s, a flamboyant ensemble of hippies decked themselves out in gender-bending drag and tons of glitter for a series of legendary midnight shows at the Palace Theater. In their 2 1/2 year existence, The Cockettes created 20 shows and were featured in 4 films. They created a unique burst of cultural experimentation and artistic outrageousness that continues to influence the worlds of theater, music, fashion, gay politics and spirituality, and urban club life.

Ep 176 THIS IS POP with comedian Eric Schwartz

July 5, 2021
Tagged as: Auto-Tune, Cher, comedian, comedy, Eric Schwartz, Kanye West, music, netflix, podcast, Showtime, T-Pain, The Tonight Show, Wendy Williams

Ep 176 THIS IS POP with comedian Eric Schwartz

On episode 176 Sup Doc we are talking about This Is Pop the music documentary series currently streaming on Netflix. This is Pop uncover’s the real stories behind your favorite pop songs and charts the impact of the festival scene, Auto-Tune, boy bands and more. Our guest is Eric Scwartz who is almost featured prominently — in Episode 2 — simply named Auto-Tune. In this episode the producers examine how Auto-Tune is embraced and mocked, and shifts the pitch of the pop charts and changed the game for artists such as Cher, T-Pain and Kanye West.

Eric Schwartz combines stand-up, music and visual elements. He has appeared on Showtime, The Tonight Show, Comics Unleashed, and BET. His special, “Surrender to the Blender,” on Hulu and his standup clips music, videos, and sketches have over 100 million views.

He is the host and creator of Podcast: The Musical.

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Sup Doc Episodes

Ep 183 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND with Daniel Gill

Ep 183 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND with music publicist Daniel Gill

Ep 182 FOR MADMEN ONLY with director Heather Ross and James Urbaniak

Ep 182 FOR MADMEN ONLY with director Heather Ross and actor James Urbaniak

Guests: