Top Plug of the Week

This installment of Flop Secrets should be arriving in your mailbox on January 17, just two days before we’re BACK at SAN FRANCISCO SKETCHFEST — Cobb’s Comedy Club, Sunday the 19th at 7 pm — to discuss legendary pirate-themed flop, Cutthroat Island. God willing, Stu and I should already be in San Francisco, climbing those legendary hills and eating that legendary Rice-a-Roni (okay, I learned about SF through game shows) and Elliott should be there very soon. As far as we know at time of press, there are still some tickets available, so if you live in the bay area, we’d love to see you!

Meanwhile on the Other Coast

This last January the 8th, Stu and I got all dolled up for the New York Critics’ Circle Awards dinner — not because our goofy-ass movie podcast is a member (it’s not: this is a CLASSY ORGANIZATION), but because legitimate critic and friend of the show Matt Singer (of Screencrush and Opposable Thumbs) was kind enough to invite us.

It was a fun night, but also somewhat surreal — and not just seeing Claire Danes or Carol Kane brush past our table, inches away. Rather it was surreal because of what hung over it. The Los Angeles fires were raging (I dearly hope that using the past tense will be accurate and the fires will be out by the time this is published, but I’m writing early, due to sketchfest), and most of those presenting or being honored couldn’t help having their heads far away, in the town where they live or work, fixed on the safety of their loved ones.

Which brings us to the second coast, where the third peach — our deeply-beloved friend Elliott — was safe (thank god) with family, but still witnessing the toll all around. I texted him to check in, and apologize for living it up in the midst of everything. Elliott, kind enough to reassure me when I should have been reassuring him, just said he was glad we were able to enjoy something fun.

It’s a very human thing to guilt yourself when your life remains relatively unaffected by a tragedy, but as John Hodgman points out on a recent JJHo, doing so ultimately does nothing to help, and merely decreases the aggregate joy in the world. So take your joy where you can get it, because you’ll need it to handle the bad times.

That doesn’t mean ignoring the bad, beyond your personal scope. And right now, sadly, there’s a lot of bad out there. If you’ve built up some psychic or economic energy, then let’s all kick in and help. Because one thing that definitely INcreases the world’s aggregate joy is helping others. On tomorrow’s episode, Elliott mentions two fundraisers for people and and an institution affected by the fire that are causes particularly close to his heart:

Aid for Denison Family’s Fire Loss

Help Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center Rebuild After the Fire

Of course, if you’d like to give to a more general charity related to the disaster in Los Angeles, here’s a pretty good list of organizations/opportunities.

During the height of the disaster I’d often see some of the… more empathetically-challenged among us… posting online, as if only celebrities of the sort we saw at the awards dinner lived in L.A., and we shouldn’t care because “they’ll be all right,” but — setting aside that I don’t think empathy should work that way — Los Angeles is a tremendously diverse city, and people of all economic levels have been impacted by these terrible fires (and even within the entertainment industry, the great majority folks are job-to-job middle class types, eking out an ever-smaller living as various tech “disruptions” ruin their vocations).

Anyway, we’ve been fortunate on our coast lately. I hope all of us who’ve been fortunate can spread some of it around. In the end, all we have is each other.

Next on the Podcast:

Hear ye on main!

1/18 - Joker: Folie a Deux - That insidious fellow the jokester is up to his old tricks again! He’s so TWISTED that his next victim is THE AUDIENCE!

1/25 - Elliott’s mini asks “what would your New Year’s resolutions be for various franchises?

Boys on the Side

You’ve seen Folie a Deux’s take on Dr. Harleen Quinzel — now check out Elliott’s run on HARLEY QUINN.

Most Fridays you can find Stuart painting models on Twitch.

The most recent installment of my personal newsletter, Dan McCoy’s Special Interests talks about Hellraiser’s Cenobites. What’s their deal?

Extra Credit

Elliott guested on the delightful and hilarious Hey Riddle Riddle podcast recently, shocking the hosts with his devotion to Tom Brokaw’s Dune-headedness. They’re gonna be at Sketchfest too, if you wanna check them out the day before our show!

You Made it to the End!

Here’s a shot of Stu, Dan, and Matt Singer, dolled up and on the town.