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And it was a breakthrough.
A breakthrough that let him eventually stop doing stand-up and start making movies.
Because, as he puts it, hes over expressing myself through myself.
Listen to the episode and read a short excerpt of the discussion below.
Tune in toGood Oneevery Monday onApple Podcasts,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
How were you feeling about stand-up?
You know, just tunnel vision.
I didnt know what was happening.
That just started to happen incrementally and I felt like I couldnt do stand-up anymore.
At what point are you seeing Kanye …I have always been a fan of him.
He has an incredible approach to the theatricality of live performance and arena performance.
It is a really economic use of monochromatic lighting.
Its all just really, really incredible.
Idirected Chris Rocks last specialand it really is just ripping off the Saint Pablo tour monochromatic, incandescent lighting.
It was just over and over again talking about how Michael Jordan shouldnt have played for the Wizards.
And thats in a lot of the things I do.
You are using the vocabulary of it to also then do the thing that it can do.Exactly.
Thats the whole form of the show.
The show ends with you saying I hope youre happy.
How did that line reading change each night?Thats the thing.
Like, There it is.
Again, Im being dramatic.
Im connecting with young people that are overdramatic people.
[Someone in audience cheers]
Yeah, exactly!
I think I am.
Im the All-Time Low of comedians.
It was part of one breath.
I was so tired of my head, truly.
I didnt like expressing myself through myself anymore.
I knew Ugh, if I do another stand-up show Im just gonna attempt to do this again.
I have nothing more to say right now than what that show did.
The real story of the internet is what my show is about a little bit.
Its not backstage at the Beacon Theater, but its the same thing.
That was the point.
I just wanted to drop the irony, drop the satire, drop the cynicism.
Drop the Ah, man, isnt this moment so bullshit?
Isnt it so fucking stupid?And go Nah.Really Im scared.
My tummy hurts because of whats going on.
Because to satirize the internet is, at the end of the day, toothless.
You know who satirized the internet?
Geico, Old Spice.
Theres a Donald Trump cartoon right now on Showtime.
Like youre making a cartoon of him?
What kind of angle is that?
So, I wanted to do something smaller, more granular, more emotional.
The internet makes 13-year-olds of us all.
We all act like, I think, 13-year-olds.
And kids really feel the internet in their bones.
So I watched hundreds of videos of kids talking about themselves online.
The movie about a boy would just be like 90 minutes ofFortnitereferences.
I felt understood by them before I presumed to understand them.
You hold the camera on Kayla even in moments where she doesnt want anyone to look at her.
Can you talk about that decision?
The anxiety of the movie is almost like, The movie of my life sucks.
If anyone were to be watching me right now, they would think I was really lame.
She wants to sound like all the young girls in movies that are perfectly articulate about their experience.
She would love to edit her way through her life.
She would love the tools of moviemaking to get away from herself.
I think thats true.
You came up doing theater, you did stand-up, you made a TV show.
What is it about film?
Thats a huge part of it.
Youre just domineering over these stupid fucking people on your phone.
Like, of course.
Look at this little bullshit.
Look at my stupid friends.
On television, its great, but its also just like it was embedded in your living room.
To be smaller than a screen, to be subjected before an image is very, very powerful.
Its not life-size, right?
No, she should be 30 feet tall.
What is the likelihood of you doing stand-up again?I dont know.
Ive been performing a little bit here and there, like five minutes in L.A.
I have a couple songs.
But I dont know what theyd become.
Lets say you dont do stand-up again or you do it here and there or it takes ten years.
I feel good about that.
I feel like its a good one.
It leads absolutely nowhere.
I dont care about my body of work.
I dont care about having some oeuvre.
Really, I dont care about having a consistent body of work.
The only thing that gives me enjoyment is the current pursuit of whatever Im doing.
The sort of careerist floating over myself, Im never gonna be happy with that.
I dont think anyone would be happy with that.
I dont think that leads to anything good.
So, like, whatever.
