Pour Me A Story, Vol. 20
feat. Mike Mulloy, some more good writing, and other odds and ends
hey pals! welcome back to the only weekly dispatch where the author foreshadows something in the subject line then realizes that he never wrote about it, two minutes before scheduling it to send. to that end, next week I’ll have something about “an action movie that never aged,” and you’ll just have to wait in suspense until then. a reminder that this newsletter is free and you certainly get what you pay for.
last week’s edition was a tough one to write because I wanted to get on paper the excitement I felt about running 13 miles, but I was grinding out every word through the filter of carrying an injury. see, I didn’t do nearly enough stretching after that Friday night run, and then when I hit the road Tuesday for a gentle recovery run, I yanked a hamstring, then did the same thing Thursday afternoon.
to be perfectly frank, I was pretty crushed. my mental state plummeted under the weight of the assumption that I wouldn’t be able to race next weekend after putting in more than 120 miles of training this year. but I got a massage, stretched well and managed to grind out a short run this week that made me feel much better about it. it’s cool, I’m good now. never fear!
Anyway, We Have Company
this week we’re joined by Mike Mulloy, a Boston transplant in Los Angeles and a confirmed Very Funny Guy. he has a terrific story about former Providence College standout basketball player God Shamgodd, whom I just learned shares a birthday with the baby. in any case I forgot to ask him to re-tell it, because I’m an idiot and a bad interviewer. meanwhile Mike is a good dude so I’ll let him take it away.
AC: what's up Mike? how's things in presumably sunny California?
MM: Can’t complain, bout 50 at the moment, not that I can do much without aside from sit in my yard but not too shabby.
AC: you've been out there in LA for a few years now. is there anything in particular about Boston/the northeast that you miss?
MM: No. It’s cold, it’s small, it’s expensive and not fun. There’s certain foods or bars or people and places I miss but I’ve never once ever considered moving back. Kind of shocked I lived like that as long as I did but it was the only thing I knew for so long.
AC: It's definitely easy to get bogged down in "what you know" in so many facets of life. that's probably why I can never leave this godforsaken website, but I digress. you really pulled the plug on the 9-5 grind and chased the comedy dream, which kicks ass. tell me more about Faded, is that your brainchild?
MM: Ya, I picked a great time to believe in myself. October 2019 I thought “well I’m gonna be on tour all spring/summer, I’ve got enough to sustain me with gigs and producing shows. I can’t keep going in a working towards someone else’s dreams, especially ones I do not care about”.
Faded’s a stand up comedy show that we started in October of 2018, myself, David Gborie, Sean Jordan and Zak Toscani, then we added Bri Pruett to the mix. There’s a lotta other people who make this show great behind the scenes, Adam, Ed, Amanda, someone I’m probably forgetting and will get yelled at about. We’re all buddies and we were hanging together every Friday anyway and just wanted to come up with a show that most closely resembled hanging out with us.
It’s very DIY, chaotic, a lotta sharp edges, but we were always just trying to create a show we’d want to go to. And one people would wanna come back to. And it worked. A lotta people who came out came every week.
When we started it, my goal was to create a clubhouse for comedians and for our audience to have a community and “their piece of LA”. My friends coming to town? Great, you’re coming to MY comedy show that I go to. MY little LA secret. I’ve got no plans on a Friday? Well, I might as well spend $10, bring a 6 pack and know I’m getting a good time from the guys whoever given me one than try something new and expensive and potentially dumb.
When the pandemic hit we were doing a weekly livestream with guests but we all got super burned out with it and every time we did it it was just a reminder that it wasn’t the live show. The only good thing to come out of the pandemic for me has been Faded Happy Hour. A big part of Faded was the after party. Faded after parties were usually more attended than the shows. But it was a big part of the vibe.
Going to a bar after was the standard and we had so many great bar staff and waiters and waitresses that we were worried about and wanted to find a way to keep them busy and make them money. It’s been fun learning about different cocktails and the history and science behind certain drinks but mostly just knowing that the bartenders are making some dough for an hour or twos worth of work from the comfort of their home is good. Others have donated their tips and we’ve helped raise a lotta money for a lotta cool things which I think absolves me of any bad thing I’ve ever done.
AC: that absolutely rules. I know (not from first-hand experience of course) that comedy is a tough world to crack into and make it your full-time livelihood, so to be able to come up and get your own show off the ground too is incredible. speaking of work for a good cause, I loved your chili cooking scheme for those in need a few months ago. how'd that all pan out?
MM: It went well, it wasn’t something I was very organized with but I’d make chili every Sunday to help my brain feel better and my fiancée was getting mad at me for not eating at the pace I was cooking so I was ordered to give some away. Lotta friends in LA came by and grabbed some and I waved over the fence to them and then Teej came by and brought a bunch down to Skid Row to hand out.
AC: I mean Liz could've helped eat the previous week's batch, but the end result is better for the world at large. how are you guys holding up coming into the 12th month of being stuck inside?
MM: Don’t get me started on that. She says “I don’t like beans” I make it with no beans, she doesn’t eat it. I can’t win. She’s a nice lady, chili related things aside.
Not great? I mean I’m fine, this all just fucking sucks and I’m tired of pretending for even a second it doesn’t suck ass. We shut our shit down March 11, we said we’re not doing shit until it’s safe. Not everyone did that and it’s how we’re here. (Not specially comedy shows, I mean the fact the government wasn’t like ‘hey, no business until this is sorted’) I look at comics doing shows where it’s safe to and I get mad. I look at comics doing shows where’s it’s not safe to and I get mad. I’m mad we’re arguing over the same $2000 or $1400 since November. I’m mad at feeling powerless cuz it’s the first time I’ve felt it at this scale for this long.
I guess I’m just looking forward to the day I’ll have a little more control over my own happiness cuz I don’t feel like I do at the moment. I never even went a week without doing stand up and it’s been a year now. I haven’t written shit cuz there’s no fucking way I want to create anything about this time. I’m not the guy. You want a nuanced, thought out, Ted talk of a stand up set, I’m not your fucking guy. I just want to go back to being a big dumb idiot.
AC: I think the feeling of powerlessness pretty much sums it up for me too, and I don't know whether I'd thought about it that way until you said it. I'm a big planner in general and I've been entirely unable to even entertain the idea of "doing something in the future" because who knows what the future looks like. remind me to tell my therapist that in an hour. alright man two more then I'll stop making you pause your video game. what's the best cocktail to have come out of the Faded happy hour?
MM: Oh man, I’d have an easier time naming the ones I didn’t like. We’ve been doing this show nearly a year and there have been probably 2 drinks I haven’t liked. I hated Campari until I discovered grapefruit bitters so probably only 1 drink I’d hate now and I can’t even remember it.
I’ve definitely warmed up to gin in a way I never thought I would have. But as far as an everyday drink, Paloma probably takes the crown. It’s just a perfect tasting drink.
AC: underrated compared to the more common breakfast staple the Greyhound, I think. alright last one then I’ll get out of your hair: this is the part where you get to plug something important or meaningful to you or whatever. sky’s the limit!
MM: Obviously check out Faded Happy Hour. Check out Faded stand up when we’re back. Once it’s safe to, we’ll have the LA show and we already have our sights set on shows in other cities. We have some sweet merch in the time being if you wanna grab some of that. And this Friday we’re having the first Faded Drunk Spelling Bee. The young boy Danny, my happy hour co-host, will be hosting and we’ve got a bunch of amazing guests. A few surprise guests we can’t announce cuz their bosses would probably get mad so tune in for that and all other Faded shows on http://fadedcomedy.com.
AC: I'm looking forward to the spelling bee, I'm gonna have to get in on the second edition. thanks for spending some of your time bullshitting with me today man, I appreciate it. and let's hope those weirdos who think Link is a dude in Legend of Zelda find peace sometime soon.
MM: It’s likely to become a monthly show and a live show once were allowed to. I’m excited for Danny to host and hopefully have something of his own, he’s excited about it.
I don’t think the link you mentioned came through, I don’t see anything to click, but in regards to Zelda ya he fucking rules.
AC: must be a glitch, no idea what link I meant to send. definitely meant Zelda.
Taking Care Of People Who Need It
a couple weeks ago, I was working in the living room while Alex and the baby each took well-deserved naps. down on the street outside our building, a woman started yelling. this isn’t strange, given we live right on the edge of downtown Denver, and at any given moment there’s somebody shouting at someone else.
this time though, it went on long enough that I got up to look and see whether there was something bigger happening. when I looked out the window, I could see the woman in the middle of the four-lane street. she was shouting at the sidewalk but there was nobody else in sight, and she was clearly distressed, swinging her arms at no one.
I wanted to make sure she was okay, and the preprogrammed first instinct so many of us have is to call the police. but having been acutely aware of the news all over this country for the past seven years, I’m also acutely aware that bringing the police into a situation where someone in mental distress needs help can be a death sentence. not quite knowing what to do, I sent my friend Kourtney a text, since she’s much smarter than I am. she responded to tell me about the Denver STAR pilot program, but the woman on the street had since wandered off.
the STAR program’s goal was to send mental health professionals to nonviolent and low-level police calls rather than law enforcement officers. I thought about this again today when I saw this tweet.
those numbers are incredible, right? and at its very essence, this is part of what the concept of “defunding the police” is about. perhaps you heard that expression over the summer. what I’m getting at here is, imagine if the money earmarked for troop carriers and body armor and assault weapons and all of the other military-grade shit that cities buy for police departments was spent on sending mental health professionals to callouts that don’t require armed officers to attend? less escalation, fewer arrests, less folks who need mental health services being stuffed into already overcrowded city jails during a pandemic. how could anyone argue with that?
Worthy Consumables
a couple issues ago, I mentioned in this space that I’d commissioned a series of educational pieces for the work blog this month, revolving around significant moments in Black history.
as February comes to a close (!!), so does Black History Month, and this week I was able to publish the remaining two pieces, and I’m really thrilled about how they came to life. firstly, my good friend Mike Taddow relayed his uncle’s telling of the story of Onesimus, an enslaved African who brought the practice of inoculation to Western medicine in Boston in the 1700s.
the final piece of the series saw Branden J. Peters, a writer with a list of bylines as long as my arm, looking at the life and legacy of Don Barksdale, a groundbreaking NBA player whose history-making career should have made him a household name. I’d encourage you to read both pieces, because again they’re well worth your time.
and to take a quick left turn here, a consumable of a different kind. I’ve been eyeing off handheld massage guns for about as long as I’ve been hitting the road for long runs on Saturday mornings, and this week (after selling a pair of shoes I was psyched to get but which didn’t fit at all) I finally pulled the trigger, no pun intended. I haven’t used it for any prolonged period of time yet, but initial results are very good. it’s this one, in case you’re so inclined.
Parting Note
have you caught the New York Times-produced documentary on Britney Spears that everyone’s talking about yet? we watched it earlier this week and whew, it’s a trip down memory lane but an eye-opener at the same time. it focuses on her meteoric rise in the late 90s and how her father ended up controlling a conservatorship over her career and finances by the late 2000s. it’s difficult to watch at parts, but it shined new light (for me at least) on what happened behind the scenes of some very public tabloid shit.
anyway I’ve had Toxic stuck in my head ever since, so now you guys have to as well.
thanks as always for sharing your time with me pals, I hope you’ve found something in this edition that vindicates your decision to open it. see you next week and we’ll do it all over again.
— adrian ✌🏻
Great interview! Mikes one of those real person-turned Internet personality who’s definitely kept it real and remains authentic.
Looking forward to traveling to LA to pelt him with a jar of Ragu.